Pretending to be a big kid. . . and a dog!

In my last post I wrote about us spending the weekend with 2 of our nieces while their parents were on a cruise. They love to play board games, and Avery loved to do anything they did, so she "played" board games too! She sat down on her own exactly where the 4th player should sit and moved her little game markers on the board. She thinks she's so big! She is doing a lot of big-girl things now like telling me when she wants milk- "mil", water- "waba", a snack- "na" or her paci- "baba" (no idea where that one came from). She is saying so many words now and imitates new ones every day. The speech pathologist in me is of course very proud. She has also started trying to feed herself using a spoon. I have to scoop the food on there, but she can usually hold it and get it to her mouth.

Today we went to the park for a little bit and we always let Josie out of her kennel 1st thing when we get home. Avery decided to climb right in and see what it's like to be a dog for a little while. It was probably more because she had just been crawling in tunnels and going down tunnel-slides at the park and the kennel just seemed like another tunnel to her. I had to coax Josie to stay in there a while so I could get some pictures-- I just couldn't pass up the photo-op.

On the business front, Scott met with the interior designer yesterday and made his final choices on stained cement, carpeting, cabinetry, counters and woodwork. We have started shopping for waiting room furniture and are thumbing through catalogs of furniture for Scott's personal office. Today some of the digital x-ray stuff came along with Scott's new laptop for the office-- which means we now have a home laptop- yea! Now I have computer access during the day! Scott went up to Durant today to pick up some dental chairs from a friend of his that we are going to have re-covered for the office. Things are moving fast and furious and we are just hoping that it all gets accomplished and falls into place in time for a June 19th opening!

The longest blog ever!

I sat down to blog tonight and of course the camera battery needed to be charged for me to download pics, so this will be a picture-less blog tonight. Moving on. . . I sometimes wonder what other people's day to day lives really consist of. Call me nosey or curious, but i just think it would be interesting to see what people do with their time. Our life is a little weird right now since Scott is waiting for the practice to be finished. He's very busy getting things ready to open in June, but niether of us has a workplace or work hours, so we don't have the usual structure or routine. This past weekend we stayed with our nieces - ages 10 and 9-in Coppell while my brother-in-law and his wife were on a Mediterranean cruise. So here's a little run-down of what the Bedicheks have done the past couple of days, just in case you're the curious sort like me: (If details bore you, please forgive me and don't waste your time reading because believe me when I say "I know you've got better things to do")

Friday- 3:00 Arrived at Doug and Sheila's so we could be there when Braden got home from school
5:30 Took Braden to her softball game; My mom came to the softball field to see Avery, Scott picked up Bailey from her party at school and came back to the field
7:15 Picked up dinner at Dairy Queen, back to the house to eat, play with girls etc

Saturday 10:00 Avery and I picked up my Mom for belated Mother's Day shopping and lunch at La Madeline; Scott stayed with Baliey and Braden
1:00 Avery fell asleep in the car so i let her nap at my parents' house and Scott took the girls to Braden's softball game
5:45 Bailey was picked up for slumber party; we took Braden to her favorite place to eat- Dickey's BBQ
9:00 I played hairstylist and straightened Braden's hair for church sunday

Sunday 10:15 Managed to make it to church on time with all 3 girls!
11:30 Picked up lunch at Sonic/ Subway and back to the house to eat/nap/play
1:30 Scott came back over to Ft worth to mow our yard and put out the trash;
my Mom came over to Doug and Sheila's to visit Avery and I since my Dad
was out of town
5:00 Dropped Avery off at my parents' house, assigned Bailey and Braden chores to do while I was gone
5:30 Took Bailey and Braden to eat at the mall food court and then to see Shrek 3
8:30 Picked up Avery, then back to the house to help Bailey and Braden pack for the next 2 nights and get ready for school Monday

Monday 6:45 Got Bailey up for school; Avery woke up early
7:00 got Braden up
helped them get ready for school, eat breakfast and get out the door at 7:30
11:30 Left Doug and Sheila's
12:15 Got home, ate lunch
3:00 Went to see the office, which has walls now- and to Staples to fax stuff and look at furniture
6:00 Met Scott's sister and her husband for dinner at Pizza Hut , they came over to the house and left at 8:00
9:00-11:00 Scott and I had "financial night"- worked on budget changes, paying bills, etc

Tuesday
8:00 Slept in a little!
10:30 Took the cars to get state inspection-- Honda failed because of a battery problem!
11:30 Honda wouldn't start when we tried to leave Zippy Lube-- they tried to jump it unsucessfully
12:15 Dropped off battery at O'Reilly's to be charged and went to eat at Taco Bell- Wow- we have eaten so much junk food the past few days! ugh!
12:45 Picked up battery, went back to Zippy Lube and installed it; Avery and I went home for her nap and Scott finished up with the car, I made phone calls and cleaned house
3:00 Avery got up from nap, Scott left to meet the new front desk girl he hired and show her the office
6:00 Scott went to Fort worth dental society dinner that cost $35 a person at some country club to meet dentists and try to drum up referrals; Avery and I ate dinner
7:00 went for a walk, gave Avery a bath and a breathing treatment since she has chest congestion/wheezing and put her to bed at 8:45
9:45 Scott came home and I'm still on the computer!

Bath?

Well, it's that time of year now for swimming and with weather in the mid-high 80's in Ft. Worth, Avery has had the chance to try it out a few times lately. Whenever we fill the little pool up with water she always asks me, "Bath?"-- only it comes out more like "Thath" since she sticks her tongue out to say it. Which I guess the bath and pool are basically the same, just cold water instead of warm. She loves playing with her toys and splashing around. She never has minded water in her face, she just laughs. One of these days I'm going to take her down to the neighborhood pool and we'll swim for real, but the backyard pool is just so easy.


The next picture kind of makes me look like a bad mother, but it's funny so I have to include it. Yesterday after we "swam" I put Avery in her highchair to watch a Baby Einstein video while I showered. When I got out and came into the living room, she was fast asleep! She loves Baby Einstein and this is the one time of day that she gets to watch TV, so I can't believe that she actually fell asleep. We are in an awkward time right now with the naps. She gets tired around 11:00 or 11:30, which is really too late for a morning nap and makes an afternoon nap difficult. So she either takes a little snooze in the car if we're out and about, or we have a little rough spot right before lunch if I keep her awake. I guess yesterday she was just so tired from playing in the pool that when she got still watching the movie, she just nodded right off. I guess it's true that kids will sleep anywhere if they're tired enough!

It's Official

Scott is finally finished with school!! Yea! Last Friday night we attended his graduation dinner at The Ranch steakhouse in OKC and he was awarded his certificate of completion for his periodontics residency. The staff and faculty had many complimentary things to say about Scott and he also received an award for graduating with a 3.8 GPA. Way to go hubby! We are beginning a new chapter of our lives which is exciting and scary all at once. As one of the Grad. Perio faculty members said, "You are in your future!" We have been in the new house almost 2 weeks and we're mostly settled-- minus decorating, putting things in the attic, etc. We really like our neighborhood and the area, but the traffic does take some getting used to. Construction on the office is really moving along now. They have poured the concrete slab and are working on putting up walls now. The projected opening date for the practice is June 19th. so now we just have to hope that everything goes as planned.

One year portraits

OK, so I know I put a ton of pictures on here, but it was hard to choose. Plus, I know one of my favorite parts about reading blogs is seeing the pictures-- so for anyone who feels the same way-- here you go. We tried Portrait Innovations for Avery's 1st birthday portraits and we really liked it. They did as good of job as anybody (if not better) and we got a ton of pictures for the price. I would definitely recommend it. We went to the one in DFW, which is in Colleyville, since we were down there this weekend doing the walk-through on our house. The appliances and 2" blinds were in, but they still have to paint the garage, install the garage door opener and keypad and install ceiling fans in the bedrooms. There were a few minor things to fix and paint touch-ups, etc. to do, but all in all it looked good. We will close Monday the 23rd and then load up that Friday and move on Saturday the 28th. I can't believe it's almost here. We have been praying and planning for this for such a long time now that it's a little hard to believe it's actually happening. Just in time for the move, we have an exciting update on the practice! Construction is beginning on Monday- finally! It will be really neat to watch it go from an empty shell to a fully outfitted periodontal office. Busy and exciting times ahead!

Life Learning Skills

"Watch me go!"

"I'm big stuff!" (ignore the spill down my shirt- I tried to drink from Mommy's water bottle)

stirring brownies

I asked Scott what to title this blog entry, and he suggested "Life Learning Skills." If you went to ACU then you probably understand why, but for those non-ACU goers, I will try to explain. There was a very popular class at ACU called "Life Learning Skills". It was really more about relationships and emotional and spiritual development than motor skills and cooking, but I thought it made a good title anyway. I actually never took the class, but wished I had after hearing so many people talk about it. The man who taught it, Willard Tate, was a preacher at this country church just outside of Abilene and he did a lot of public speaking and wrote some books which he used in the class. He was kind of famous at ACU for being so inspirational.

Back to the pictures. . .
On Sunday afternoon I decided to take a few pictures of Avery toddling around the house. She still usually takes only 5 or 6 steps before she falls, but occasionally it's more. She 's also figured out how to climb up the steps in the garage and on the back porch all by herself this week. I guess I should've taken a little 30 second movie with our camera of her walking and posted that, but oh well. There's always another day. I thought she looked so proud of herself in these pictures. Last night we made brownies when we got in from our walk. I sat her at the table thinking she would like to watch, but then I decided that she might actually be able to help a little. She poured in the water and oil with just a little help and then took several tries at stirring. She also likes to help me unload the spoons from the dishwasher these days. She hands them to me one by one and I put them in the drawer. It's never too early to start those chores!

New House!

Our future home!
2140 Charmion Ln, Ft. Worth, TX 76131

Looking into dining room and kitchen from living room

Dining or breakfast room- this bay window is one of my favorite things

Kitchen- minus the stainless steel appliances we negotiated

I mentioned at some point that we would be house-hunting over spring break. We did find a home, brand-new as you can see, in North Fort Worth (off I-35W and Western Center Blvd for anyone who's familiar with the area). It is about 10-12 minutes from Scott's practice and is in an area that is rapidly growing. We got a really good deal with lots of costs paid, upgrades, and extras added in. Really, it turned out to be too good to pass up even though the house was a little smaller and further from the practice than some of the other homes we were considering. The builder wanted us to close within 30 days, so it will be mid-late April when we do that. We are getting more excited now that we have a house and a moving date, but it will be difficult to leave when the time comes. We have been here for 7 years now and have made great friends and earned degrees and had our first child-- a lot has changed for the Bedicheks since April 2000 when we moved from Abilene to OKC. What I'm realizing now more than anything is how much STUFF we have accumulated! I have already packed about 10 boxes and it looks like I haven't even made a dent in it! Scary! I'm stressing a little because this is my last weekend to be here before we move, so my packing time is drastically cut. This weekend Avery and I are going to Dallas, and then going from there with my parents to Brownwood, TX to see my grandparents (that's a mouthful!) Then I think the next weekend we will have to go to Dallas to do the final walk-through on the house before we close the weekend after that. And then it will be moving day!

The Big One

Avery's 1st Birthday cake, "smash" cake that
she definitely didn't smash, and ice-cream pinata

"You want me to do what with this thing?"

Although she didn't care for the cake, she did eat
LOTS of ice cream

Enjoying all the party "loot"

So, the pictures kind of tell the story, but we had Avery's 1st Birthday party a week early at my parents' house in Dallas so all the family could come. It was a "polka dot party". I was a little disappointed, but not too surprised, that she poked one finger in her cake and she was done. As you can see in the pics, we even took her dress off in preparation for the mess. She did, however, eat lots and lots of ice cream. We should have just plopped a few scoops on her tray and watched her make a mess with that. But almost all of our family members were able to come, and that was what really mattered. They bought her way too many presents, but she is really enjoying them all and I guess you only have one 1st birthday!

She is beginning to hit all the traditional one-year milestones, which is a lot of fun. She can say several words now-- dog, ball, duck, uh-oh, whoa or wow, ba-ba (bottle), dada, mama, and makes a variety of animal noises including boo (moo), ah-ah or oof-oof (dog barking- depending on size of dog she hears) and ah-ah-ah (rooster crowing). She is also beginning to copy things we do like patting things night-night and panting like a dog (don't ask). This past Tuesday she started walking-- sort-of. The most consecutive steps she has taken so far is about 10, but she is getting braver and more confident every day. As the saying goes, one is fun!

House and Hippo

This past weekend Scott had a conference in San Antonio so Avery and I went to Dallas for the weekend. My Dad was nice enough to arrange some business in the area so he could come get us and take us to Dallas so we didn't have to make the trip alone. Unfortunately we hit a little snag on our trip down Thursday. We're driving down I-35 just coming into Norman and my Dad's van starts having electrical problems and dies. One guy was nice enough to stop and give us a jump and then he led us to a garage he knew of up at the next intersection. My Dad had to get his alternator replaced but luckily it didn't take too long and there was a La Baguette bakery/restaurant right across the street. So by the time we ate some lunch and relaxed a little while the van was done and we were back on the road. I think it took us about 6 hrs to make the 3 hr trip, but at least it wasn't my car that died and I wasn't alone.

We had a good weekend though. We did a little a shopping (as always), Avery played a lot, and Saturday my sister came over for a visit. My parents got Avery the "house" in the pictures above at a consignment sale and she absolutely loved it. She hardly played with anything else-- inside at least. She is really into going outside right now, and since the weather was so warm, we spent quite a bit of time outdoors. She liked sitting on her hippo and watching the dogs and also swinging in the porch swing. We are all headed back down to Dallas tomorrow to spend a week house-hunting, delivering goodies to general dentists, and then to have Avery's birthday party on Saturday the 24th. In some ways it's hard to believe that she's almost 1!! But when you consider that she says a few words now and is getting ready to walk (she takes one step and then lunges for you), I guess it's time! I'm sure we'll have plenty of pics to post of the birthday party when we get back.

Visit from Memaw and Dedaw

The first weekend in March Scott's parents, aka Memaw and Dedaw, came for a little visit. Unfortunatley, the night they got here Avery had started throwing up. Luckily, she was over the worst part by the next morning but she still was not back to her usual self for a while. As always, Jan brought a quilt to work on. Avery had a great time playing with the quilting squares, mostly hading them back and forth to her Memaw. She also got plenty of time with her Memaw in the rocking chair. I would've taken a picture of them napping together in the rocker, but i didn't want to disturb them! Even though she was sick Avery showed off her latest "skills" to impress her grandparents. Then after they left she decided to make her loving parents and grandfather suffer by getting us all sick the following week-- yuck! Luckily it was a fairly short little stomach virus-- at least for Scott and I.

Ski Trip

OK- so i decided I had to post the 2 (yes only 2) pictures we took on our ski trip in Red River. I guess since Avery was not there, we just weren't in picture-taking mode. My parents came in town last Thursday night and kept Avery Friday through Monday while Scott and I went skiing in Red River with a group from church. I was a little uneasy about leaving Avery overnight for the first time, but i was also really excited to ski since it had been several years. Luckily it was just like Scott said-- skiing came back like riding a bike. The weather in Red River was great and we had good company- both of which made up for the man made snow and lack of fresh powder. Avery did great here with her Mimi and Poppi. I'm sure she enjoyed being here with them vs. riding in the car for 9 hours. I can't imagine! It was pretty strange though not to have her around and not having to take care of her. I was definitely ready to see her on Monday after hearing her little voice in my head all weekend.

Spring fever

Getting up-close with the animals on Martha Stuart

Taking a "drive' and watching the neighbors' dogs


Scott and I came home from our ski trip in Red River to beautiful spring-like weather here in Edmond. It has been in the 70's the past few days and Avery and I have been eating it up-- taking walks, sitting outside, leaving the back door open and enjoying the birds and the breeze. Today Avery got to enjoy riding her little car outside for the first time since she got it. She can even push herself a little bit on it. She is really into animals lately-- ever since we watched the Baby Eintstein farm video over and over while doing breathing treatments when she was sick. There were some live animals on Martha Stuart today and Avery was just glued to the TV. She kept crawling up to the TV and touching the animals on the screen. She also really likes turning the TV on and off, on and off, on and off. Her other favorite thing right now is playing ball. She gets up on her knees and kind of throws it to you. Her sports-loving Daddy is very proud. She is standing alone more and more now and even tries to dance without holding on to anything. No steps yet, but she is getting really good at walking behind things. I can't believe only one more month until her birthday-- our little Aves is growing up!

One sick baby!

Unfortunately, it has been an eventful week in the Bedichek household. Avery started getting sick last Sunday afternoon and had to go to the doctor by Tuesday. Turns out she had RSV and fluid in both ears. There for a few days she was one sick little girl. She was sleeping all the time and not hardly eating, both of which are VERY rare for her. Until this point in time I have not ever seen her leave milk in her bottle, besides when she was a newborn and would fall asleep eating. And she could only stay awake for about an hour or hour and a half at a time. Thank goodness she is dong better now. She is still recovering, but is almost back to her old self. We have had to do breathing treatments every 4-6 hours, which were brutal at first because she screamed the whole time. But once she got used to it and we started playing Baby Einstein videos during the treatments she does really well. We're now down to just 3 a day and hopefully we'll be able to taper them off even more this coming week. This past week has made me so thankful to have a relatively healthy child. I can't imagine having a child with a chronic or life-threatening illness and having to give medicine and do treatments and Dr. visits all the time. I was just so happy once Avery felt well enough to be smiling and playing again. The poor babies who are continually to sick to just be kids and enjoy life! Count your blessings for healthy children!

Mobile Baby; Immobile Doggy

Tonight we had two contrasting events happening in the Bedichek household. Avery finally decided to walk across the entire room with her push toy, and our dog Josie is lying around immobile (for all practical purposes) because she just had knee surgery yesterday. First the update on Avery. Up until now, she has only taken 2-3 steps behind push toys and then gets down to crawl. Tonight when we got home from dinner at Moe's I said, "Let's work on your walking!" I put her down behind the toy expecting the usual 2-3 steps and instead she pushed it across the whole living room. Not quite as exciting as walking by herself, but it's a "step" in the right direction! She has also been standing by herself for 10-15 seconds at a time the past week or two. I can't believe how big she is getting. She can do so many things by herself now that she couldn't do just a month ago. Some are good- like feeding herself finger foods, drinking from a sippy cup and a straw, signing "more" -- and some are questionable--like taking her bows out, opening and closing doors, reaching the kitchen trash. But overall it is so fun to see her learn new things and grow into a "big" girl!
Now for the update on Josie. A little over a year ago she hurt her leg-- jumping the fence we think. It seemed fine for awhile except for when she ran really hard, but since this fall it has gotten progressively worse. We finally decided to bite the bullet and pay for doggie surgery since she is still a young dog and was our first "baby". So yesterday she had surgery to repair a partially-torn ACL, and she got to come home this afternoon. She is doing fine all things considered, but it will take 8 weeks for her to recover. She should be able to put a little pressure on it and go for slow walks in 10-14 days. Right now she just hops on one back leg and is doped up on Doggie Codeine. Poor Josie!

Excitement in the suburbs

If you were watching the 6 o'clock news tonight on channel 4 or 5 in OKC you might have seen a little story about someone shooting out car windows with a pellet gun this past weekend. Well, unfortunately, our Honda was parked out in the street last Friday night and was one of the cars hit. Around midnight our neighbor's daughter rang the doorbell saying that her friend's window was shot out and they noticed that ours had been shot at too. The police had already taken a report from them, but when they noticed our car they called the cops back. Scott filed a report with the cops and then Saturday we got it fixed and we didn't really think too much about it. Where's the exciting part you might be asking? Well, this afternoon Lance West from News Channel 4 shows up on our doorstep asking about car because he had our address on a police report along with 39 others in Edmond whose windows were shot out over the weekend. They didn't interview me on camera and didn't film the car sine it had already been fixed, but still, it was a little exciting. For those who don't know, Lance West is the main news guy at 5:00 and 6:00 on channel 4. Then , I get back from running an errand later this afternoon and a Channel 5 van is sitting outside our house. So then I talked to Mark Opgrande, one of their reporters about the whole deal. I wonder what the neighbors were thinking? Hopefully we won't be the source of any nasty neighborhood rumors!

Avery's 1st Christmas

We spent Avery's 1st Christmas with my family down in Dallas, but Avery got to see most of her relatives on Scott's side as well. She really liked all of her toys-- which there were way too many of. (Yes, an ex-English teacher just ended a sentence with a preposition!) She even got into the whole thing of tearing the wrapping paper-- although she kept looking at me like, "Are you sure this is OK?" We had a really good time with family and even made some progress on the business too. Scott decided on which dental supply company to go with, so now they'll start working on the final drawings and then we can interview contractors and get bids once that is done. We did some preliminary house-hunting, but we'll probably wait until March to look more seriously. I've included a picture of the office for those who might be interested in seeing where Scott is going to "cut people" as he likes to call it. (For anyone who doesn't know, periodontists perform a lot of surgeries like gum grafts, placing dental implants, sinus lifts, etc.)

Santa baby

Last week I took Avery over to Kerri's house (a friend from church) for a holiday photo shoot. Kerri has a really great camera that is awesome for taking pictures of kids. She literally took hundreds of pictures of Avery, which sadly, is sometimes necessary just to get a few good ones. But we got lots of great pictures to help us remember Avery's 1st Christmas. We are trying to finish our last-minute shopping before we head down to Dallas next Wednesday to spend Christmas with my family. Scott also has some business meetings planned to work on the practice while we are in the area. At this point, we are still deciding on a contractor and on which dental supply company to go with. But once that is done, hopefully by January, we will begin moving forward with the finish-out of the lease space. Moving time will be here before we know it!