Betty Stats

Betty had her 15-month appointment last week.
At 18 lbs 2 oz she is in the -3% for weight. Don't ask me how negative percentiles are possible, I can not wrap my head around it. 

Her length is 29 inches, 14% and her Head is 18.25 inches and a whopping 65%.

What's Betty's secret to staying slim? She drops it like it's hot.

Last dance video, I promise. Unless she does something cuter than this, which is unlikely.

Also, in other news, a boy in Ava's class called her "hot" yesterday, which is disturbing and funny at once. It upset Ava, I suspect because she wasn't sure if it was a good or a bad thing. The teacher asked him what he meant and he said "I don't know, Quentin was saying it first."  Ahh, kindergarten love.

Captain Slow

A few weeks ago Ryan was helping Asher use the potty. If you have been around Asher, you have probably noticed that he moves at a snails pace. Ryan was getting frustrated with his antics, which were turning the task at hand into a lengthy ordeal. Asher, always a charmer, started giggling and hopped off the potty with  a wad of toilet paper stuck in between his cheeks, he said "I'm yike a wabbit!" and started hopping around.

tiny dancers

Betty's first dance. We did not teach her the wave...it's all natural. This is when she was 11 months old but I think she started this one around 9 months.

Betty's next dance.  She just started this one last week. We are impressed with her symmetry.

And an awkward rendition of the chicken dance.

Betty took her first steps today.

my baby book is packed up in a box. the blog will have to do.

Betty's first adorable, cautious steps were towards her dad...her fav person right now. 

ya...she's 14 months and just took her first step.  her besties are younger than her and have been walking for months.

randoms.

Halloween. Ryan, Dinosaur, Ladybug, Dancing Fairy. We went to only 5 houses. It was perfect!

kitchen slowly going gray. Hood is stainless steel under the protective coating.

first pigtails!

What Asher's face looks like when he's dancing. 

overdue

Back in September, Ava had a birthday!! I really should post more often. We invited a gaggle of kids and whoever else they wanted to bring along to the local park where I reserved a shelter. It takes a village to throw a party, as it turns.  I put my parents, my sister and her husband, and my husband to work entertaining kids and setting up and serving pie.  

Ava is a sweet, sentimental girl who cares at least as much about getting a card in the mail as a gift. She loves her family, including cousins and grandparents, fiercely. Last week she ran to her bedroom and wept because she couldn't stand to say goodbye to Grandma D on skype.  Ava has a soft spot in her heart for all things tiny. She tries her hardest to be obedient, especially at kindergarten where she carries a big water bottle to and from school in her backpack so it doesn't make her desk look messy.

Add it to The List

Somehow, in between summer vacation, working, and furniture market, Ryan has managed to check many items off the list. I did some really great work, too, my main contribution being painting our front door a shocking periwinkle. My next project is to repaint the front door darker blue.

Continuing from our original The List

Since June 3rd, we have (Ryan has) :
12. Installed harwoods in the kitchen
13. sanded and stained the the main living area, but not the bedrooms or back hallway
14. made and installed new trim and dustboards in the living room and family room (thanks Dad!)
15. Painted the living room, family room, and part of the kitchen (credit goes to my Dad, Mom, and Sara Jayne for helping us with this!) including the new trim
16. Installed new fan in the family room
17. Removed the soffit above our kitchen cabinets
18. Added trim to the tops of cabinets
19. Added an extra cabinet in a newly created empty spot in the kitchen
20. removed the bridge cabinets and hood that were above the cooktop and replaced it with a new hood
21. Sanded cabinets and started priming and painting them...our kitchen no longer has that 70's orange glow!


Next up: kitchen countertops and backsplash.

Cousin time

We are so lucky. My sister and her kids came to visit. We loved having them and it was a perfect 83 degree day. My very talented and creative neice, Riley, took these pictures,  loaded them onto our computer, and edited them before she left. What a wonderful gift!

timidity.

I wish I could be a fly on the wall in Ava's classroom. She doesn't tell me much about what goes on there. I was asking her about friends at school one day and she told me that a boy named Finn sits next to her at lunch and she had just spoken to him that day. It went a little something like this, as the kids around her attempted to identify the kind of juice that was in a certain capri sun.

Ava: "It's kiwi-strawberry."
Finn, to one of the other kids : "She talked!!"

It was a fluke.

remember 17 minutes ago when I told you how betty slept through the night last night? well, not tonight.

For the record

Betty slept from 7 pm to 5 am last night.

Betty is 1!!

Betty at 1: Our smiliest baby, and to answer the question we get asked all the time: yes, she is always that happy.

Gives the best tight hugs and open-mouth cheek kisses ever.

Doesn't care much for solid foods.

Seeing a dog or a balloon=shrieks of joy.

Likes to try on shoes.

Gets a kick out of sitting by herself in different chairs.

Loves other babies, especially patting them hard on the head.

Takes good care of her dolls and stuffed animals.

Does not enjoy being thrown or turned upside down at all.

Tiny.

Her new trick is zerberts on my neck.

Still waking up at night, but much better as of the last couple of weeks (only 1-2x/night now),

Hates the car, loves to go for walks in the wagon or stroller.

Party people!

She knew just what to do with this cardboard thing that came around the gapkids box

And the chocolate frosting, as well

9th Day of School

I didn't take any 1st day of school pictures. Have I failed as a mother? I'm trying to be better so I took some pics today. Her outfit was cuter today anyway. Unfortunately, it's dark enough outside when we leave that I had to use the flash. Don't know why it's showing up sideways. (also- the swimsuit competition pose is all her.)  By the time she hopped out of the car at school I didn't need flash anymore so I caught her waving at me.

Asher, not to be outdone, wanted some pictures of his letter B's today.  Actually I think he just wanted to make faces at the camera but I almost wept over the cuteness of the B's.

Looks can be deceiving

This is a caterpillar on the edge of the table in our backyard. So cute and fuzzy. You might imagine that giving it a little cuddle would be kind of like snuggling with a tiny kitten or a tuft of Patrick Swayze's hair. Not so. Ryan was cutting up a branch in our yard a couple days ago when he felt a pain in his arm. He looked down to find this little guy crawling on his shirt. He didn't immediately connect the pain with the caterpillar. Lil' Patrick Swayze was just too cute.

Swayze is a puss caterpillar, we now know, and the most poisonous caterpillar on the continent. His soft exterior hides poisonous spindles underneath which can cause pain ranging from a bee-like sting or, commonly, pain so terrible you think you are having a heart attack or dying. Ryan's pain was somewhere in-between, starting with stinging pain at the site and intense pain radiating up his arm and concentrating in the lymph nodes in his armpit.

So today when we saw one of these guys in our yard we did not go near it. Turns out he's harmless, of course. But ew!

Then I found a partially devoured grub, still alive and wiggling while ants were eating it. I'll spare you the picture of that one.

Ahh, nature.

In all my years of NC living I have never seen anything like either of these until this week!!

Dart kids, 11ish months.

Ava and I were looking through some old blog posts yesterday when we saw these pics of Asher. Ava asked if it was Betty. They always look alike but these 2 pics are uncanny. Asher has only his 2 bottom teeth, like Betty. She pulls these same faces, too.

So I went way back in posts to find some pics of Ava also around 11 months, which is the age of Asher in these pics and the age of Betty right now. She has her own look.

Are they cute or what?

Betty and Penn, yesterday

Dart Family Reunion 2011.

Betty and Cousin Penn lounging on a furry rug.

win a trip to paris.

you guys, you can win a trip for 2 to paris. For real. http://ohhappyday.com/2011/06/goes-to-paris

Meanwhile, back at the ranch...

I keep meaning to make a list of all the changes we have made on the house...just for the record. I also keep meaning to post pictures from when Ryan's parents and Riley came to visit in April. Life is just so busy right now. This is what we've been up to ince we moved into our home (and by we, I mean industrious Ryan and his very industrious parents.)

Since Jan 22:

1. -Knocked down 3 walls plus some partial wall


2. -moved the wiring contained in those walls into walls that still exist


3. -Removed one row of overhead cabinets from the kitchen


4. -removed 2 beams from family room ceiling


5. -patched up and sanded all the ceilings and walls where walls and beams used to be.


6. -built a shed, thanks to Ryan M. (still needs doors and windo


7. ws...but at least some tools now reside in the shed instead of on the patio and in the living room)


8. -Dug up 2 extremely overgrown flowerbeds, dug a new shape for one of them, and mulched them


9. -Removed the linoleum from our previous "entryway" and installed hardwood flooring


10. -Ryan's mom put in hours and hours of picking at our nightmarish kitchen wallpaper. 3 layers of wallpaper, one of them was painted on.


11. -She also prepped, primed, and painted Betty's room. Purple!

In the process of:
-removing 3 layers of lineoleum and one layer of wood sheeting (sub-floor? ) from the kitchen, to be replaced with more hardwood flooring. (This is a challenging project because the further ryan gets on it the worse it looks. You thought the current linoleum in our kitchen was bad? You should have seen what was under that! ug. Can't wait until the wood is installed!)
-making new trim and replacing old trim with it.

Next up:
-sand and stain the flooring in the whole house.

Also on the list:
-too much to remember.

Ava

Yesterday I was changing Asher's diaper and Ava said "Asher's legs are chubby." Then she studied me for a minute and said "Your legs are looking kind of chubby too, Mom."

Touche, Asher.

Last night in the bath Asher started throwing water at Ava with a big cup. I scarcely had taken the cup out of his hands and he had the shampoo bottle submerged with the cap open so as to dilute it. I removed all other "ammunition" including cups, shampoo, and soaps. He immediately announced that he peed in the tub.

Asher Quotes

I will never tire of Asher's sweet little voice and speech impediment. Or his sweet little observations ("I see a baby cow and it has black and it has white and he is eating his favorite soup!") . Or made-up words ("Mom! This is where I sitted lasternight!").

So I regularly take videos of him talking. I will miss it when he grows out of all that cuteness. He turned 3 last saturday. And sitting on a bar stool at Grandma's house, eating cupcakes with the family, he said "Look!!! I'm having my party!".

our house...the before video

hey guys, here is our house. They are small rooms, so it was hard to get back far enough so you could actually get a good view of the room. It looks quite different now.

Also- I'm available to narrate your home videos. Or your professional videos. Whatev.

Betty Now

Today's the greatest

shed building day. The cousins came up to visit while the Ryans and Grampy worked on the shed. Said shed did not get much attention with the camera.

Oh and maybe I should mention...we moved. Some day I will get around to posting a picture of our house. It's a fixer-upper so I hesitate to post before pics when we don't have any afters, but it's going to be a long time before we have any after pictures. So far we (and by "we" I mean Ryan) have knocked down a few walls, knocked one row of cabinets down, and built most of a shed.