52 week project: week 11: easter basket

usually, my inspiration has been birthed from the rows of pinterest photos; however, this week, i was inspired by my favorite superstore: target.

last tuesday, i stopped after work to pick up an easter basket for ava. after scouring the easter aisles, i found a few cute baskets in pastel shades with fabric accents, but the price was a little earth-shattering. i couldn’t bring myself to paying 20 dollars for what appeared to be something i could make on a sunday afternoon. my real inspiration were the basket charms that they had to adorn and personalize your baskets – monogrammed letters, chicks, and bunnies were placed upon felt and fabric, ready to hang on the side of your basket for a little personal flair.

i promptly left target and jetted over to the dollar tree, where i picked up a 1.00 rainbow-colored basket. this morning, i spray painted it with leftover blue spray paint we used for our deck project last spring:

i snagged some cheery cherry blossom fabric from the 1.00 bin at ac moore a few weeks ago, waiting for the perfect project to use it – and the time had arrived. i hot glued the fabric around the edges and lined the inside of the basket.

i used some circle felt pieces and lace to make a basket charm, attaching it with a bow clip for versatility:

a string of pearls spelled an A for my little ava-girl and hangs from the top of the basket:

and when she awakes from her nap, i’m sure she’ll be excited to see a sweet bunny family living in her new easter basket until the real easter bunny comes to visit in a few weeks.

happy week 11!

recap.

so it’s been awhile. and by “awhile”, i do mean 2 months, which in the blogging world is an eternity. and i totally get that; so my apologies, friends. i could blubber about the woes of working motherhood and complain about a pacifier-less 2 year old who suddenly goes to bed at 9:00 (on a good night – what?) screaming for me, trying to squeeze in some quality report-writing time between the hours of 9 and 11; but….i won’t.

instead, i’ll share some highlights from the past couple of months in a photo recap:

ava and i participated in charlotte’s first 5k stroller roller on a chilly saturday morning back in october. i could have made good time if the following events didn’t happen:
1. i started 4 minutes late
2. pluto dog kept getting chucked out onto the road
3. my stroller mate kept asking for bits of banana, water, bagel, etc.
4. if my legs actually moved faster than a 9.30 mile pace (highly doubtful that will EVER happen in life).
nonetheless, it was super duper fun, and life was tasting especially sweet with the addition of this bright, green balloon:

later that day, we celebrated fall in all it’s glory at our neighborhood’s fall festival, where ava was able to ride her first pony, blackie.

and what’s fall without a trip to the pumpkin patch? we spent the day at hodges farm in harrisburg, nc, where we enjoyed everything from pumpkin pickin’ tractor ridin’, hay bale climbin’, and bounce house bouncin’.

after we secured the best pumpkin in the patch, we devoured its insides, so anton could carve the scariest jack-o-lantern for trick-or-treat night:

trick or treat!

and here’s our little bumblebee, preparing her bag for lots of treats:

and somehow she turned into a witch-bee….it’s the magic of halloween, i suppose.

and after 2.5 years of attending university city united methodist, we FINALLY had/made the time to take membership classes and celebrated our membership; and most importantly, ava’s baptism a couple of weeks ago. it was an especially happy day, with lots of family in town to celebrate the occasion.

she was helping me get the operation christmas child shoe boxes together and was overly obsessed with the jump ropes:

am i done yet, mama?

baptism gifts by way of noah’s ark!

a table set for an italian feast!

thanks for hanging in there with us. my goal for the holiday season is to update more frequently. yay christmas!

very hungry caterpillar birthday

let’s celebrate the following:
1. ava kate’s 2nd birthday (woot woot!)
2. the survival of erin & anton’s two-year parenthood (yeeeeeah)
3. the completion of a “rain-plan” birthday party (whew!)

after brainstorming ideas like a farm barnyard theme, an apple orchard, and pumpkin harvest (which may definitely be this born-in-the-fall girl’s future birthday themes), we settled on one of her favorite books: eric carle’s the very hungry caterpillar.

lucky for me, it appears as though this particular theme was, like, the second popular (right behind elmo) toddler birthday party theme. pinterest oozed with creative ideas from food to decorations to favors to party outfits. even pottery barn kids featured a hungry caterpillar party that sparked a national frenzy of eric carle parties.

i’m not normally a bandwagon type of gal, but i had to jump on this one for one reason: ava loves this book, like, so much. especially the page with the list of all the junk food he eats through and ends up with a stomachache.

and so here is a photo-montage-highlight walk through ava’s 2nd birthday party (originally intended for the park, but was RAINED/MONSOONED out – and the party was moved to my parent’s house, who graciously allowed lots of little ones into their home).

caterpillar kebabs – it was a kid favorite!

we made butterfly cookie favors for the toddlers and caterpillar gumball favors for everyone else who is able to chew gum and not swallow it:

cupcake central: i made pumpkin, vanilla, and double chocolate, swirled with yellow and green cream cheese icing to imitate the colorful caterpillar:

we made the cupcakes into mr. caterpillar himself:

sprinkled throughout the food table were the fruits that the caterpillar ate through, featured in the book:

butterfly crackers & cheese were a kiddo favorite!

and no party is complete without a balloon caterpillar scotch-taped to the wall (sorry for the mean-looking eyebrows – totally accidental).

i splurged an entire 3.99 for an ebay-purchased iron-on transfer shirt, personalized with ava’s name and a big “2″:

my dad is the best. he grilled italian sausages and veggie dogs in the rain. this reminds me of the weiner-roast i so desperately wanted for my 6th birthday and he still made it happen. dads are magic.

when it came time to blow out the candles, she was a little overwhelmed at 25 people singing happy birthday to her!

surprise! someone got a pink radio flyer tricycle for her birthday!

it was a good thing ava had her best friend/cousin there to help her with her gifts – they made a great (and extremely cute) team!

she really loved her new eeyore. welcome to the banks family!

and fast-forwarding two days, we celebrated her birthday at the house, with a small family dinner and a few gifts afterward. happy 2nd birthday to our little caterpillar, miss ava kate!

**wanna see a party recap of her 1st birthday party a year ago? click here!**

toddler room

a couple of weekends ago, we made a few toddler-esque changes with ava’s bedroom. we’re planning a toddler bathroom overhaul, but haven’t had a free weekend to accomplish that whale-of-a-task. stay tuned to see how we swing that one with two full time jobs and a 2 year old!

two years ago, we were anxiously awaiting the arrival of our baby girl and were nesting the nursery. we hung the art prints, put together the crib, and organized her baby belongings.

september 2010:

to update her room a little, we framed the beach photos from last april and attached them with a robin’s egg blue ribbon to the wall, with the bow adding a bit of feminine flair that only a little girl’s room could truly love.

and with the scraps of fabric leftover from her crib skirt and lamp, i cut out a letter “A” from styrofoam and covered it with the fabric, nailing it in between the photos above the bed.

and……
drum roll please…..
the crib is now a toddler bed!
(and yes, she falls out, like, a lot. but we’re working on that.)

when we changed her room, even with these little, minor changes, she was over-the-moon happy. she kept saying, “thank you daddy. mommy, you like ava’s room?” she was dancing in circles around the room and placed her animals on and off the bed, making sure they were comfortable. she’s the sweetest.

how can she be an almost two year old????

zootastic: trip 2

it’s been almost a year to the day from ava’s inaugural visit to the north carolina zoo. i’m excited to watch her experience the zoo each year as she grows older and can actually stay awake long enough to make it through the whole place and may actually be tall enough to see some of the animals.

last year, ava hadn’t yet learned to walk, so she was content to stay within the confines of her stroller and/or ergo. how much difference a year makes!!

ava, 10.5 months:

ava, 22.5 months (she’s, like, so much cooler now):

last year, she found the fake animals more interesting than the real ones.

and, this year? yep, she’s still diggin’ the statues, which is why, i suppose, the zoo people allow kids under 2 in for free, knowing that their interest and stamina is far from the worth of a 12.00 ticket.

but the one new experience this year as an older, more mature baby? the carousel!!!! accompanied by auntie lauren, this was the coolest part about the zoo!

although auntie and i both enjoyed the various species of monkeys the best – the chimps, gorillas, and baboons. they were the only ones playful enough to watch. it’s rather sad that most of the animals seem rather depressed, lying in the sun, with hoards of children stuck to panes of glass, praying that they would move even one inch.

my favorite part was seeing the new-mommy gorilla with her 20-day old baby, cradling it just like a human, with her back perfectly parallel to the crowds of people walking by, so that no one could catch a glimpse of her little one. i guess that “mother lion” term came from the wild, and it applies to humans as well, as mothers have a protective instinct when it comes to their children. fascinating.

and since i’ve been back to work for two weeks, i realize that my weekend time is precious for silly things like laundry and cleaning the house and grocery shopping. which is precisely why i took off and went to the zoo, to make sure i could spend my time with ava, since we’ve been missing each other during the weekdays. laundry can wait. cleaning can definitely wait. but moments like today just can’t.

she’s a fun one!

bow-tiful

my friend, meggan, and i go way back. like, our moms were pregnant at the same time in the same teeny tiny town and she was born 2 months before me, we share the same middle name, and were in school together for 13 years. yeah, that’s way back.

and let me just say that she’s been blessed with the gift of crafting and is one of those people with an eye for putting colors, textures, and tones together.

so when the first box of bows arrived when ava was just a few months old, i couldn’t WAIT for her to sprout some hair long enough to support the beautiful arrangement of ribbon atop her head.

i got tired of waiting for ava’s hair to thicken (i laugh at the irony of that statement now), so i improvised and hooked a miss meggan ribbon to a lace headband just in time for my cousin’s wedding.

and then there was a little tuft of hair just long enough to hold a ribbon for about 64 seconds before it slipped out (and long enough for me to snap a crawling action shot of this little cruiser):

and meggan has since begun making bows for friends and family members who have spied her handiwork atop the heads of little girls.

so naturally, when she surprised me with the message that she was making another round of bows, i was ecstatic! the package arrived today with a resounding THUD upon the front door (i’m glad the bows weren’t made of glass, mr. postman).

(photo by meg via facebook)

here’s another order for a friend – check out the paw-print headband. how cute is that?
(photo by meg via facebook)

how cute would these be in pigtails?

and ava adorned her new royal blue bow in her pony tail, thanks to miss meggan. (my best attempt at snapping a photo while she was still – yep, even in the carseat, she’s a wiggler).

if anyone is interested in purchasing bows from miss meggan, i can give you her contact information. she even does custom orders for your little one’s seasonal wardrobe! (and way cheaper than the shops in the mall or online – i promise!)

when it rains….

is it a full moon? i’m too tired to even open up another tab to check. a full moon may explain the unforgivable toddler, upcoming-two-year-old behavior that has erupted at our house. oh. my. gosh.

now, i may have a pretty good explanation, given the fact that we decided to wean her off of her pacifier last night. after 30 minutes of screaming (not crying; but, sheer, unequivocal decibels of screaming), she finally wore herself out and collapsed onto the bed. i was sure the police were going to show up on my door step.

and so, i have a little note to the dear pacifier.

dear paci:
i remember when ava was 3 weeks old and she was an intensely high-need baby and wanted to suck all of the time for comfort. i literally forced her to take a pacifier. and once she did, it was like magic. thank you for easy bedtimes, middle-of-the-night independent soothings, bearable car trips, successful grocery store outings, and a quiet aura when we all were having a cranky day. and now that we’re approaching the 2-year cut off for pacifier usage, we’ve decided to start the weaning process. and now, i despise the pacifier. i wish we would have never used it. because the past 24 hours have been torture for ava, her parents, and even my dad who volunteered to take her to the park. she has lost her ability to self-soothe and so she’s pretty unsuccessful at finding a replacement. it breaks my heart to see her so anxious when she used to be such a good sleeper. and since her sleep is interrupted, the days are, well, not fun. and so, dear pacifier, i appreciate the last 21 months of assistance, but i could really use a break.

thanks,
erin

so tonight, after 30 minutes of singing every song in my immediate repertoire, including dumbo, little mermaid, sound of music, les miserables, and bible school songs, i laid her down, walked out of the room and heard a thud. yep, the absence of the pacifier gave her spidey skills to scale the crib. only she landed on her elbow, which thankfully, wasn’t hurt badly.

in a fit of desperation, anton lowered the mattress onto the floor and he tried his best to put her down, which worked for about 30 minutes until the screaming ensued and then…blood. she screamed so much that she got a bloody nose. are you serious? so we grabbed the emergency pacifier stash, cut off the tip to try to make it not as “pacifying” and called it a night.

please. moms out there – help! how do we successfully wean pacifier use? she doesn’t need it during the day, but it is her/our saving grace at nap and night time. and how in the world do you transition a kiddo to a toddler bed without them playing with toys, emptying dresser drawers, and giving herself a bath in the middle of the night.

can you tell i need a paci, too?

dancing queen

if you don’t know little ava, there’s one thing you should know about her: the girl loves to dance. she loves a beat, a lyric, a guitar, a drum, a marching band, anything. and she’s not afraid to show off her skills in front of, well, anyone, anywhere – from church to storytime; from the carseat to the toyroom.

and yesterday, during storytime at imaginon, she went a little wild. take a look at this picture. (notice how all of the other children are completely still looking at the teacher and ava is in full motion). yeah, that’s my kid practicing her freedom of expression through movement.

she’s a fun one!

human-powered swing

what do you do when it’s too hot to play at the park and the ozone is too thin to step outside because you’ll be razored with uv rays?

daddy becomes the swing. daddy became the swing, the slide, the monkey bars, and the horsey all in one fail swoop.

happy 21-months, my sweet, fashion-forward girl!

daddy’s home!

as most of you know, anton has been working as a PRN (as needed) radiology tech for the past year. it’s been, um, interesting. granted, the flexibility has been great for allowing him to stay home with ava as much as possible; however, his schedule changed each week, he worked most weekends, and he was plagued with finding hours every single week. so when a full-time position finally posted, he jumped at the opportunity. and after weeks of the interview, application, waiting, HR phone tag process, he got the job!!!!!

now, this isn’t your regular 9-5. it’s third shift. definition for all of you 9-5′ers: it’s a middle-of-the-night-when-95%-of-the-world-is-asleep-except-the-folks-at-the-ER kind of a job. so yeah, most people would be like, “no thanks, i like sleeping at 2:00 in the morning.” but this job is perfect for us right now. reasons?

1. it’s only 3 nights a week – tuesday through thursday. so when he feels like he’s just about to collapse from circadian rhythm disorder, it’s over! and he has 4 entire days off.

2. we will only need a babysitter 3 days a week for about 6 hours a day. it’s a priority to both of us to have in-home daycare for ava and this schedule allows him to be home with her 2 days a week and pick her up by 1:30ish on wednesday through friday from the sitter. awesome.

3. more time to do this:

highlight of the day: summer sun smiles from our girl

parenting secret: toddlers playing in the sun = the EASIEST bedtime ever. are UV rays full of melatonin or what? thanks, mr. sun, for a baby begging to go to bed by 6:45.