The Gonser Family: My Flower...

Today has been a fantastic day, and I know it will just get better. I love the weekends. Bummer part about the weekends is most of the time Mike has to work at least one of the days, which we all hate. But it also allows Avolyn and I to have some time alone. I am still working in Bloomington so that means during the week I wake Avolyn up at 6 (Mike is already at work) and am out the door by 6:15. I get to our amazing daycare (Bakers Dozen) by 6:30ish and then I head down to Bloomington, work until 5 and get home at 6ish. It makes for a long day and more so recently I have been upset that I have to spend so much time away from Mike and Avolyn. Good part about me not getting home until 6ish is that Mike and Avolyn get from about 3 to 6 to hang out together, which I think is so important.

I am so in love with this girl, and just cannot even wait to allow my heart to open up even more for number 2. I was able to rock Avolyn to sleep today. I know I know, she is over one, there is no reason why I need to rock her...it hardly happens, she would rather fall asleep on her own, but today it happened and I loved every moment of the 15 minutes. Watching her beautiful eyes close and then open as she struggled to stay awake, and finally accepting the sleep.

She is one smart cookie. She is picking up on everything, learning new words, making us laugh. When Mike and I are talking about something and then we start to laugh, she joins in and laughs with us. She so very much wants to know everything that we are doing, and help. My my my, does she like to help. She likes to help with the dishes, she likes to help put her cup in the fridge. She likes to help clean up her toys with us before she goes to bed. She likes to help close the kitchen cabinet doors. She likes to help put her pacifier up after her nap or from the morning. I hope this helping mode continues on throughout her life. I think she is going to be a great big sister.

I haven't talked much about Christmas. It was so wonderful. Lots of friends and family. Yummy food and ToNS of laughter. Christmas Eve is really the only day out of the year that all the Baker kids are together (most years) and it is nice for all of us to be together, Mom and Dad LOVE it. It was great seeing everyone. We have amazing friends and family that made this Christmas something special. We have had some trouble with our renters at the Bloomington house and well, it has made for a very tight budget for the past 4 months. I am overwhelmed by the amount of love that we have been shown from so many people this year to make Avolyns Christmas something spectacular. I think she had a great time...so thank you, thank you thank you. The situation with the renters will hopefully be resolved this Friday...EVICTION DAY! I hate to kick people out, but no pay = no house to live in. Without going into the whole long mess of a story, that chapter will be closed on Friday. Hopefully.

Baby number two is moving and growing. We went 2 weeks ago for and ultrasound, and we are having a BOY! I am measuring right on scale and so is our baby boy. The ultrasound was pretty amazing, I could never get tired of seeing our baby. We have some pretty good pictures and video. He is a thumb sucker already. I guess I probably would be too if I was stuck someplace for 9 months. Now the process of choosing a name. We have not come to the perfect name yet, but we still have a little while. It was so easy with Avolyn. We knew many many years ago that if we had a daughter that her name would be Avolyn, this one, not so easy for me this time.

20 weeks...

But all is well is all the babies in the house. I leave you with a short video of a few words that Avolyn has mastered and pictures from Christmas and on...