It's a MYSTERY!!

THE CRIME:

It was a dark and stormy night (it REALLY was!). I walked into the kitchen to get the dessert I had labored over the phone to prepare when I felt my stomach sink......or maybe it just grumbled in ruined anticipation. Somebody had eaten all the chocolate sauce that came with the Chocolate Dunkers from Pizza Hut!! I could not let anybody get away with such a dastardly deed in my house!






THE SUSPECTS:
CONNER
Age:10
Aliases: Conner Bonner, Little Man
Motive: He's the oldest and tired of having to share everything with younger siblings. If he acted quickly, he wouldn't have to share the precious chocolate!!






JUDE
Age: 7
Aliases: Jubby, Bubby, Jub-Jub, Jubbers, The Dude
Motive: He has been in a slightly grumpy mood all day. Would there be a more perfectly wicked way to spread the grumpiness than depriving the family of chocolaty happiness?






ASHER
Age: 5
Aliases: Asher Basher, Asher-Bob Pajama Pants
Motive: Everybody else gets to enjoy all sorts of yummy desserts. Sadly, there are so many that he cannot. But....he can and will enjoy chocolate sauce!! Let the masses leave his beloved chocolate alone and go eat all of their fancy ice creams and puddings!





AVERY
Age: 2
Aliases: Mavis, Averykins, Baby
Motive: Chocolaty goodness is "Mummy, mummy!!!" (in Avery-speak that means (Yummy, yummy")







THE CLUES:
BARBARA MANATEE
Significance: This is Avery's favorite toy at the moment. Barbara does everything that Avery does - she sleeps when Avery sleeps, eats what Avery eats, gets hugs and kisses when Avery does, gets her diaper changed laying down beside Avery, etc. I found a soaking wet Barbara smeared with chocolate thrown haphazardly into the washing machine. Did Avery try to clean her beloved Barbara, or did one of her brothers plant this evidence to try to pin their crime on the cute little sister that won't get in as much trouble anyway?


CHOCOLATE HAND PRINT
Significance: This was found in the bathtub. Based on it's size, it clearly belongs to either Avery or Asher, through which was hard to tell because it was a little smeared. Did it come from Avery trying to wash Barbara, or from Asher trying to clean off his hands and plant Barbara before he got caught?






THE SMOKING GUN:

SURVEILLANCE VIDEO
Mystery solved!! Little Miss Avery was caught in the act on film. Notice the chocolate covered hand and Barbara Manatee in the lower right corner. To add salt to our wounds.....I see NO remorse whatsoever on that cherubic face!! I guess the time has come for me to sit down with Avery and have the talk about desire, cravings, and the need for chocolate. *sigh* They grow up so fast!





THE SENTENCE:
A THOROUGH BATH
Perhaps that was what she was after all along - we will never truly know her motivations, but at least I can sleep easy tonight.

That's my girl!

Phew! A disaster of incomprehensible proportions was narrowly avoided this afternoon. After a long, frantic search, Asher and I finally found Avery's Hello Kitty plush toy so she could finally lay down for her nap, sniffling from the recent trauma of not knowing where her beloved toy was, but with a content smile. So, where was elusive hiding spot? Well, perhaps I should explain.....

Avery seems to be ALL girl all the way through. So why did I bother searching under the couch, in the toy car bin, in the garbage cans? All I really needed to do was sit and think about it for a minute. What could possibly tear Avery's attention from Hello Kitty? There is only one possible answer: shoes!!!! Sure enough, there it was, laid aside on the floor beside the shoe rack. This little girl loves shoes - she claps when we walk into a shoe store, brings me shoes at any time of the day to put on her, and of course loves to try all my shoes on, too. While perhaps I should be slightly disconcerted by how early she has fallen into this stereotype, I can't help but wonder if it wasn't passed down in her genes. Curse you, Chris! :P

Park Pride Day, 2009

Last weekend we went with our ward to a couple of local parks to help clean-up and beautify as part of the annual "Park Pride Day" extravaganza. The park district provided all the materials, but the man power was all from local citizens. It's a great way to get invested in the community and build unity in neighborhoods. Here is a run down of the kids' activities:

Conner and his friends Matthew tried a little of everything: planting flowers, weeding, mulching, picking up trash, and the never to be under-rated "air raking."

Jude stayed busy with the mulch, either spreading it or climbing the huge piles put out at each park. However, the most notable way he spent his time was by shamelessly flirting with the teenage girls there helping. They ate him up and he said "I made lots of new big girl friends." Good for you, little Romeo!

Asher spent his time throwing away trash, climbing the mulch, and (the most time consuming activity of all) trying to avoid getting his picture taken. Haha, though. My friend got one! Avery did what Avery does best: charm everyone with her smiles and waves while taking off her shoes and socks.

Happy First Birthday, Avery!!

I can't believe our baby has already turned one! It really does go by so quickly. Watching her grow has been so fun, but I'll always miss those infant times, too.

We had a pretty low key birthday with just our family. We made cupcakes and of course opened her presents, which she thoroughly enjoyed. Asher chose pink cake, pink frosting, and princess themed decorations - I didn't realize that he associated those things with girls. It's kinda sad that the gender stereotypes develop so early even when you try to avoid them. However, it was also great to see a three-year-old step out of himself and think about what his baby sister would like, not just assuming that she would like whatever he thought was cool.

Avery got lots of clothes; a giant, blow-up penguin; a crazy chicken car that ALL the kids love; and a toy that has lots of little places to hide and find balls shaped like cute bugs. She must have remembered the whole unwrapping presents concept from Christmas because she dove right in when she saw all the presents in front of her.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, AVERY!!

Reaction to Tagless Baby Clothing

Since Avery was born, she has had fairly severe skin reactions on her upper back. The skin gets scaly and red and then the skin ruptures and oozes some icky brownish-yellow goo. It was obviously a reaction to the tagless labels printed inside many baby clothes since a few times her clothes would stick to her back only where the tags were, and we would have to peel them off, along with some of her skin. It was pretty disturbing as a parent and heartbreaking to see our newborn with what looked like a very painful, irritating wound. Here are some pictures I found of another child with the same problem: http://thoughtsluiza.blogspot.com/2008/08/carters-tagless-stamp-allergic-reaction.html. Avery's wounds look exactly the same, except the redness is a little more localized. The solution is pretty simple: avoid tagless clothes or iron on a soft flannel patch over the printing. The tricky part is that almost all baby sleepwear, onsies, etc. have the tagless labels and every manufacturer uses a different formula. Avery is allergic to some, and some seem fine. We thought it was most likely a latex allergy.

A couple of days ago I was surfing the web looking at products for children without BPA when I came across a report by Z Recommends. Apparently this is not an uncommon reaction. Its not really a rash so much as a chemical burn. Some tags contain phthalates while others have formaldehyde. While we are glad that this means she is probably not allergic to latex, it is extremely frustrating that companies use chemicals known to cause reactions with some children in their products. Carter's brand (especially the Fall 2007 & Spring 2008 lines) gets the brunt of the blame (it does cause the worst reaction we've had), but Avery and other children are also having reactions to Circo; Gerber; Just One Year and Child of Mine (divisions of Carter's, but with different tags); and to a lesser degree BabyGap, Old Navy, and Vitamins.

To be fair, Carter's does refund all their clothing if your child has had a reaction. They have also reformulated their tags for the Fall 2008 line. We have some of the new line, but I'm not sure I want to experiment with my child. At the same time, I want to help other children avoid similar problems. I think I'll try them out, but watch like a hawk and remove the clothes at the first sign of any problem. Keep your fingers crossed . . .

The blue shirt in the middle is one of Carter's old tags (meaning burn on Avery's back within half an hour). The green one up top is the new, redesigned tag (wish us luck!).

Avery's First Tooth

It happened. Avery's first tooth has officially broken through. We could tell that it was coming for the last two weeks or so, but now the painful part is over. There is one more that should break through soon, but there's no sign of the top teeth yet. Good work, Avery!

It's hard to see, but trust me - it's there. She's bitten me a couple of times while nursing. Ouch!

The Rogers Tradition Continues! (Unfortunately)

A few days ago the missionaries came over for dinner. The whole thing was pretty much a nightmare. Firstly the lasagna I made didn't cook right, so the top layer of noodles were rather chewy. Yum! Next, the apple crisp that usually cooks in about 45 minutes took an hour and a half, so we were all stalling the dinner conversation - rather awkward. Then Jude decided to remain true to his Rogers blood.

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For all of you are are not aware, us Rogers kids did not vomit often, but we seemed to choose particularly inopportune times to do so. For example when guests were over, at restaurants, in the middle of a live play, etc. Is it a coincidence that the only one of our children that has the Rogers' physique is also the one to continue this tradition?

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So, up came Jude's dinner at our brand new dining room table (yes, this was the first time we used it!). Luckily, we had put a towel down over his upholstered seat, so all was OK. To top off the night, Avery started to fuss a little, so I picked her up from her seat to cuddle with her, not realizing that she had had one of those huge, blowout diaper incidents. Needless to say, her white jammies were no longer white, and the front of my shirt and arms were also covered. Thankfully, Chris then saw them to the door and the clean-up/recovery began.

I did not sign up for another dinner appointment on Sunday when the list was passed around. Apparently the recovery continues.

Avery's First Solid Food (If Rice Cereal Can Be Called Food)

Since Avery is essentially six months old now, and she has also taken to staring at us while we are eating while smacking her lips the whole time, I have finally broken down and fed Avery her first solid food: watery rice cereal. Yum! Of course most of it either got on her face or made into her mouth and was promptly pushed right back out with her tongue, but a few spoonfuls actually made it down. I can't believe she's so big already!

Avery's Yoga

Just thought I would throw up a couple of cute pictures of Avery doing her latest yoga positions. She's still obsessed with her feet, even though she found them a few months ago.

Chris had to go to girl's camp last week for one evening and one of the leaders from another ward had brought his 3 year old daughter with him. When he introduced his daughter as Avery, Chris snapped his head around and said, "What!?!" Apparently everyone around noticed and teased him about it all night. I was also looking through the Company Kids catalog the other day and one of the little girl's rooms they had decorated had Avery spelled out in wooden letters on the wall. So, Avery, sorry! If you end up with three other Avery's in your class at school we are really sorry! We didn't know it was going to become so popular! (Even if we did, we probably would have named you that anyway - it just fit when we saw you!)

(By the way, her hair naturally sticks up sometimes in the back - kinda cute!)