Playing Catch Up

I can't believe it's been so long since I've blogged. I have a list of things to write about, which I started because I knew I'd forget them before I had a chance to blog. With two little ones running around I rarely get a chance to sit down at the computer. And so this is like a months worth of anecdotes. So grab that coffee. That is if anyone is actually reading this. It's more of a reminder to myself when I'm reading over this blog 10 years from now and feeling all sentimental. . .

Four weeks or so ago the ladies and I went out for a walk. Ava begged to bring her baby doll in her stroller and I let her so it was a very leisurely stroll. But Ava kept lagging behind and after stopping a few times to tell her to "C'mon" I realized what was happening. About every 5 feet Ava would stop, pretend to pull out a camera from her pocket, hold it up to her eyes, say "click", pause and then return her "camera" to her pocket. And she wasn't just randomly taking shots, she was walking along looking around and stopped to take pictures of trees, bushes, cars and anything else that caught her fancy. I nearly died. I had to call Tony at work and tell him what his daughter was doing. He was so proud. And now Madelyn and I will never be able to walk anywhere with the two of them without it taking FOREVER.



One morning I told Ava that she needed to drink more juice because her kidney's needed the juice to be healthy. Later that afternoon she got thirsty and yelled, "I need juice for my kidneys!"

A couple weeks ago we were feeling a little under the weather and I kept asking Ava if she felt sick and she would always reply, "my toes feel sick". Not sure why she said this, but I thought it was funny!

And on a sad note, on February 24th Hi-You passed on. That morning I referred to her as "Hi-You" and she said, "My name not Hi-You. It's Ava Rizzo." I asked if I could still call her Hi-You sometimes and she did say yes, but she only rarely calls herself Hi-You now and if she does she catches it and says "Ava" instead. Sad. I was just getting over being embarrassed when I accidentally called her Hi-You in the store in front of strangers who thought I actually chose that name for her myself. I was not ready for Hi-You to leave us just yet. . .

But luckily I have a few sweet references to Hi-You to remember her by. My two favorite are Ava on her knees in front of Madelyn, holding a toy out to her, and saying "Crawl to Hi-You! Crawl to Hi-You!" and her running around after her bath with her hooded towel on her head like a cape and yelling "Super Hi-You!!!"

But Ava is really into all our names lately anyhow. She's learned my first name and Tony's and is always asking us what our names are. And yesterday at dinner she called me Teressa instead of mommy. Oh yeah, she's also gone this week from calling us "Mama" and "Dada" to "Mommy" and "Daddy" and has even called my just plain "Mom". Wow.

Madelyn is just on the verge of crawling. She gets up on her hands and knees and rocks back and forth and will push herself forward but she just can't quite get the forward motion thing going. But any day now I'm sure she will. She is such a sweet baby. She loves her Mama, Dada and Ava more than anything right now. So much in fact that for the past couple months she gets a bit hysterical if we try and leave her any where. She's happiest when she's being held loves being cuddled, which makes it hard for me to lay her down especially at night if she's still awake. She gets the saddest little face and big fat tears roll down her cheeks and if I even will just put my hand into the crib with her she's grab it and cup my hand on her cheek and close her eyes and be perfectly happy. But the moment I move my hand her eyes pop open and she starts crying again. It's hard to say no to that, but then again it's hard to stand there for 20 minutes of the precious two kid free hours I have with my husband at night.

Madelyn started talking "baby talk" on January 21st. Using consonants and even saying some "dadadada" and "mamamama". I think when Ava started doing that we counted that as her first words. But we held out for Madelyn to get a little more distinct. I think we can safely say though that she said her first word last Saturday March 5th, because we were eating dinner and Madelyn looked across the table at Tony and said, "Dada" and Ava looked up at me and said, "Madelyn said 'Dada'". If Ava can recognize it as a word, surely it is. I think I've heard Madelyn say "Ava" a few times too actually but I'll have to confirm that before we officially document that.

She learned to clap on February 8th and hasn't stopped since. She loves to laugh and clap! And her bottom two teeth finally came in the first one on February 20th and the second one on the 23rd.

And now here's some pics . . .

Ava taking pictures with her Little Tykes camera

Madelyn's first meal of rice cereal 1/8/11

I think Ava put the spoon a little too far in . . .

Teressa's Surprise Birthday Party

We had a fun little party for Teressa tonight. Her birthday is on Friday and I knew that if I wanted any chance on surprising her, it would need to be before and not too close to the actual day. She is pretty good on picking up on stuff when something weird is going on.

We made it all the way til the front door. Teressa noticed a camera in my hand and was wondering what was up. I made up some lame excuse and then we went inside. Teressa had thought that we were just having dinner at a friends house and when we had stood there for a minute or two and nothing happened, she figured it really must be just dinner.

Surprise! I'm so glad our friends helped put this together and it was definitely a good time hanging out tonight. Chicken Alfredo. Garlic bread. French cake. Ice Cream. Coffee. Well, at least I know that I had fun...

Ava walked right up to Uncle David and handed him a book. He quickly drew a crowd. I think he has a "Mr. Rogers" gift that he never knew about.

What does a Daddy's Birthday look like?

It was my birthday on the 10th and my family surprised me with the most delicious ice cream cake. (Fun Fact - when I was growing up, ice cream cake was all that I would eat. If someone had a normal cake, I just thought it was too dry and wouldn't want any. My mom is so sweet, she would always run to Carvel to grab an ice cream cake for my birthday and special occasions.)

Teressa and Ava both made this one. Teressa put some cookies in a bag and let Ava stomp on them. Ava was actually so excited about the cake that as soon as I returned home from the airport on the 9th, I walked through the door and Ava yelled "Dada eat your cake!"

Ava helped me blow out the candles. It took us a few tries but we had a lot of fun doing it. She even sang happy birthday to me. What can melt a Dad's heart quicker than his 2 year old singing "happy birthday dear dadda"

Alright... the layers:
chocolate chip cookie crust
hot fudge
chocolate chip cookie dough ice cream
caramel
bananas
butter pecan ice cream
chocolate
whip cream
crumbled chocolate chip cookies
caramel and hot fudge drizzle

Madelyn didn't get any cake this year. But she celebrated nonetheless!

Thank you family for an awesome birthday!

Skis. Colorado. Family. Tree Wells.

Some of you know that I (Tony) had the opportunity to go to Winter Park, Colorado for a few days of skiing last week. My Dad and step-mom were headed there with a ski club and I joined them, along with my cousin John. So much fun!

Here is a random assortment of snapshots from my camera phone and Teressa's Canon SD780IS that she so graciously let me borrow. (FANTASTIC little camera by the way for those of you looking for a nice small point and shoot camera for around $200. It's smaller than a credit card so you can always have it on you. It takes great video and has actually gone up in price since I bought it for her. The photos below were all shot with it or my phone)

They had already gotten over 200 inches of snow this year, by the time we arrived. Then they must have gotten another foot or two while we were there. Tons and tons of powdery, beautiful snow. This is a view from the top of a diamond that I skied with John. I say "skied" loosely. The hill kind of owned us on this one. We didn't fall, but we were far from "perfect form." :-)

What does every guy really want to ask but is too ashamed to really say?
Do these ski pants make me look fat?

John throwing up his ski pole gang signs.
People were kinda afraid of us.
Ok.
They were very afraid.

I borrowed this from Ansel Adam's collection.

Love the face.

Above. If you look closely.
You will see the half pipe. It's a lot bigger than it looks.
My Dad, John and I looked like the funniest 3 dorks playing around on that.

We had lots of fun in this hot tub while the snow came down. We all even took turns laying in the snow for a few seconds. The highlight really came when John and I decided to head back to the room and we took Dad/Beth's clothes, shoes, towels, room key, etc... with us. ha ha

We also took a pair of my Dad's... for proper etiquette, we'll say "Hanes."
We put them on the railing one night when it was going to drop to -20 that night.
The next morning, he went out on the porch to discover his clothing that had become an ice sculpture. I have to hand it to him. My Dad knows how to take a joke very very well. But for reasons of my own, and for fear of retribution, I decided not to post any photos of the incident.

We have been hearing about lots of skiers and snowboarders getting trapped in tree wells, so we decided to stage our own incident. It was hilarious and lots of fun. What a bunch of goofballs.

I could not pull John out.
I told him to not eat so much breakfast.
He sank like a rock.

The three of us.
Long gone.

Dad and Beth.
Beth did an amazing job skiing those challenging slopes by the way!

A few of the mountain from my Dad's goggles.

If you see these people on the mountain.
Think long and hard before you get on the chair lift.
Just kidding.
They are harmless.

The gang.
So much fun!
Thank you Dad and Beth!!

You talkin to me.
You talkin to me.

Skiing all morning can sure make someone goofy by lunchtime.

As I said...

When the snow would stop, the brightest blue skies would pop out.
Breathtaking.
I only wished I had some lenses and polarizing filters on me.

That's Dad and John ahead of me.

Crouching Snowflake, Hidden Snowball.
(being released in India 2014)

Photography while Snowed In

Brrr... it is cold here in Texas! While I write this, it is 19 degrees. Which is great, seeing as to how it was 9 degrees earlier. The office has been closed because of the roads being covered in ice and snow. It looks like everything may be shut down again tomorrow as well.

Ava and I were looking for something to do yesterday since it was too cold to really play outside. We spent about a half hour in the backyard, but since the wind chill brought it down to -2, we quickly ran out of fun things to do. We warmed up with some hot chocolate and have done lots of fun stuff inside since then. From puzzles, books, an animated movie, building a blanket fort and even doing some photography.

Ava helped me find interesting things around the house to photograph and we had lots of fun doing it. Her favorite was the train. After a brief break of running around the house yelling "chu chu" she helped me set it up and photograph it. Teressa has been happy to have some extra help around the house too, so it's a win win. Enjoy the photos and let me know what you think!

We grabbed this apple off the counter and sprayed some water on it. These are the best apples I have had in years, by the way. We got them from Costco. There are a few different kinds there though so you'll have to ask Teressa which ones these are.

Don't you love the way that an iPod photographs? We are going to be selling 2 or these by the way, if anyone is interested in a gently used one. I have an 8gb and 16gb iPod touch. 3rd generation I believe. I think we got them last year, but don't really use them very much.

This is a pill box that Teressa picked up when travelling in Scotland. I didn't even know what it was, but Ava thought it was cool so in front of the camera it went!

Teressa got this train while on a trip with her Dad. She was like 10 or 13 (don't ask me, i'm not sure what happened to 11 and 12. that's just what she told me) and she took a train ride with her Dad for her birthday. I think that is so cool though to have this from that special time with her Father.

iPod