Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas everyone!

Santa Claus is Coming to Town!

Avery loves Santa Claus. As I mentioned in my last post anytime she sees Santa she tells him that she wants "Baby Sara". Well, the last couple of days she has been patting her legs and saying, "Santa lap". So on Wednesday we took her over to the University Mall to see Santa. I was so surprised because there was no line, we walked right up to him. Of course as soon as we got up to him Avery got nervous and just wanted to stand by me.



We talked with Santa for a minute and Avery warmed up to him a little bit. She wouldn't sit on his lap, but she did tell him that she wants baby Sara and that she has been a good girl. It was really cute. Santa let me sit next to him with Avery on my lap for a picture and then he gave her a succer. She had so much fun, she has not stopped talking about it!

 

Thanksgiving!

We had Thanksgiving dinner at my mom's house this year. We went over early to help with the preparations. When we go there my family was busy decorating their Christmas Tree. Avery loves anything that has to do with Christmas so of course she wanted to help! She sat down and started pulling out all of the decorations she could find. Then her Uncle Tyler helped her put them on the tree. She had a blast!


My mom has a train that she puts around her Christmas tree in her living room every year. The train has Santa on it and he waves as he goes round and round. Avery found this very amusing she would stand there and watch Santa go around. Each time he would pass by her she would bend down and tell Santa, "I want baby Sara!" (All babies to her are "Baby Sara", so she was telling him that she wants a baby for Christmas!) Every time she sees Santa she tells him what she wants for Christmas, it is so cute! I just hope that when we actually take her to see him that she will sit on his lap and tell him. We'll see.


After eating dinner we went to the ampitheater by the Mount Timpanogos Temple and Skyler took family pictures for my mom for Christmas cards, They turned out really cute! (I will post them later). Skyler is a great photographer, he definitely has the eye for it. If you want to check out some of the pictures that he has taken for people in the past you can go to CallStudios.us.



On Friday we went to Temple Square to see the lights. It is a tradition every year we go for my birthday. Avery loved it! We decided to take Trax up there so we didn't have to mess with parking. Avery sat on the sidewalk by the tracks and watched for the train, it was so cute! We went to California Pizza Kitchen for dinner, my favorite. After that we headed over to Temple Square. Avery would point at the lights and say, "Christmas lights, Christmas lights!" She can say it so clearly it is adorable! We had a great Thanksgiving break!

So Big!

Avery is 18 months old today! She is getting so big! We went to see Doctor Liddle this morning. Avery weighs 21 pounds (with all of her clothes on) and is 33 inches tall. She is in the 10th percentile for her weight, but she is gaining weight at the same rate as the average baby on the growth chart. She is in the 90th percentile for her height, which is where she has always been, she is growing along with the curve for height as well on the growth chart. She is a happy, healthy baby!


Avery had her first flu shot today. I held her hands as the nurse gave her the shot. Avery looked up at me and said, "Owie!' and whimpered a little bit and then she was just fine. She has been such a good girl today!


My little girl is growing up so fast. I remember the day she was born and holding her in my arms for the first time. It seems like it was yesterday and now she is 18 months old. I am so thankful that I am her mother. She has brought so much joy to my life, I don't know what I would do without her. I love you Avery!

Pumpkin Carving

Skyler and I took Avery to a pumpkin patch to let her pick out her very first pumpkin. She was so excited! She sat in the wagon and pointed at all of the pumpkins. She has learned how to say pumpkin so she was shouting it over and over again. Skyler got her out of the wagon and they searched for the perfect pumpkin.



Tonight we went over to my mom's house to carve our pumpkins. My sister and I scooped out all the seeds and passed them on to my mom to be cooked. When we were through cleaning out the pumpkins Skyler sat Avery on his lap and helped her carve her the face on her pumpkin. She was very proud of herself.



Come by Lori Call's house to see our three pumpkins in person!

Sorry...

Sorry everyone! I am terrible at this blogging stuff. I have been really busy with work and Avery, she is in a stage where she constantly wants my attention. No more excuses, I will try my hardest to do better.
Teaching is going really well. I have 19 students in my class. They like to talk a lot so I have been trying several incentives to get them to listen to me. My latest technique is "Call Cash". When they are on task I give them "Call Cash", I have a poster board with pockets for each student to store their money in, and then at the end of the week I let them buy stuff. This has been working really well so far. Except last week the poster board fell off of the board and money was everywhere! I quickly picked it all up and asked each student how much money they had so that I could sort it all back out. Several of the students told me that they had more than they really did because I ended up not having enough money to sort out from the pile I picked up off of the floor. I decided to not make a big deal out of it this time, but to keep better track of how much I am giving to each student this week.
I just gave my first Post Test on Friday. It went really well. It was fun for me to grade them and see how much they had improved from the Pre-Test I had given a few weeks earlier. It was great to see that I actually taught them something. I love teaching! When I go to work each day it doesn't seem like I am going to work, it is just so much fun for me.

"POTTY TRAINING" HERE WE COME!

On her own, Avery started informing us when she has to go "potty". We decided it was a good time to go buy her a little toilet of her own. It went unused for the first couple days. Yesterday, however, as Skyler was getting Avery ready to take a bath she lifted up the lid and let him sit her on it. Moments later I heard Skyler yelling, "Good Job Avery!". I ran down stairs and found that Avery's little toilet now had pee in it! She stood up, pointed inside her toilet, and gleamed with a proud look on her face.

Now don't try to convince me that it was just luck, Avery did it again today. Yay!