Ode to Alanis

I've got one hand in my pocket and the other one is giving the peace sign.....kinda sorta :)

Outside on the Farm

Most everyone knows how much Avery loves to be outside so this past weekend was right up her alley.  Aside from hanging by the pool Saturday, she got to play with the "ho-hoes" - that how Avery says "horses".  She helped Popa (my Dad) feed the horses breakfast and then watched them eat.

My Dad had a branch from a Rosemary bush (not sure where it came from) that Avery enjoyed smelling.  She would take a big sniff and then offer for us to smell it.

Avery took Mimi outside to look at the horses some more.  Charger and Harpo enjoyed the sunshine too.

My Baby

Recently, Avery has started to pay attention to her babies.  She has a glow worm that my friend Sabrina gave her for her birthday that she sometimes likes to sleep with.  However, lately her stuffed puppy has been in the crib.  She also has a baby doll that makes baby babble noises..... repeatedly.... thanks Uncle Richard and Aunt Terry, no really, we love it.  She will carry the baby around or have it sit on the couch with her.  It is cute to see her hug and love on Baby - that's her name right now - "Baby".

Avery's cousin (my cousin's daughter), Wren (age 2 and a half), brought her babies to the pool party.  They shared the dolls for the most part and Avery really enjoyed pushing the dolls around in the little stroller.  But Wren started to worry that Avery was going to take her babies away forever and at one point there was a pretty intense stare down.  It was pretty entertaining :)

Let them eat cake!

Saturday was the annual Gentry Pool Party at my Uncle William's house in Lumberton.  The weather was perfect and it was so nice to see family and friends.  Of course Avery wanted in the pool as soon as we got there and I guess all the swimming worked up her appetite..... for chocolate cake!

Happy Avery

Happiest baby ever. Shopping with mommy enjoying free cake samples. Hopefully they bought a cake or the ingredients to make me a cake when I get home from Portland. 

Slide Video

This was the video from Monkey Joes last weekend.

Ducks

So Sunday afternoon after we talked Avery out of her life jacket, we went to the park towards downtown Charlotte to walk around.  It was a little too cool for the pool so we figured we could find some people for Avery to wave to and a slide for her to go down.  Turns out, we found some ducks for Avery to talk to and hang out with.

She was hesitant at first to get near them.

However, a couple of the ducks figured out that she had some cheerios so they came up to be her friend.

This is her saying she loves the ducks.

 The ducks were hesitant to return Avery's desire for a hug.

 Eventually Avery got enough courage to feed the ducks by hand.

And of course we had to hit up the playground.  She refuses to swing anymore.  Only wants to go up and down the slide.  You can see her on the daycare camera going down the slide, walk around, then back down the slide.  Over and over and over.  Even though the slide at daycare is probably only a 15 degree angle.

Monkey Joes

Since we were at home for an entire weekend, Laura wanted to take Avery to Monkey Joes to play on the various inflatable objects and slides.  I wanted to go because 40 screaming kids running around will test to see if I need blood pressure medication.  Here is a handful of pictures from the hour and a half that we were there.  I have a video that I will put up in a separate post.

Luckily parents were allowed to "assist smaller children" on the rides.

 Climbing the big slide.  She knew there was fun at the top of this.  It was crazy to watch how she threw aside her typical fear and went right at going down the slides by herself.

I think mommy enjoyed the slide almost as much as Avery.

 Less than thrilled about the Merry-go-round.  It was funny as soon as we put the tokens into the ride, 4 other kids came sprinting over to ride on the 2 other spots on this merry go round....for maybe 60 seconds of riding.  I had to pull one kid off because he was just trying to hold on to the pole.

So this was the toddler area.  She didn't need any help climbing the slide stairs and going down the slide herself.  She probably went up and down it 40 times in a row.  

It is hard work playing this hard.  This was in between slide number 27 and 28.  She walked around and caught her breath before climbing the ladder again for another dozen or so times down the slide.

Grease Monkey

Saturday morning, I "got" to wash the cars for the first time in way too long before we get back on the road for football season.  Of course someone wanted to help out.

 She likes doing hood rat stuff with her friends...

 She really wasn't very good.  There were spots all over the car.

 She did have a fun time playing in the bucket though...

Weekend

This weekend we were able to stay home the entire weekend, so we did some family style stuff and took a lot of pictures.  This story was too hilarious to save for later.

When we woke up this morning, Avery found her life jacket beside her pile of crap.  She brought it to me and wanted to put it on so that she could go to the wa-wa.  She got upset anytime we asked her if she wanted to take it off.  So she walked around the house for 2 hours this morning with a life jacket on and sunglasses for part of that time.  So thanks to my parents for spoiling her last weekend with a trip to the lake.

 It can be pretty uncomfortable to sit and read books in a life jacket, but it isn't nearly as much fun.

Shoes

Many of you know about how Avery feels about shoes.  For those that don't....

If you are around Avery you should be wearing shoes.  If you aren't she will find your shoes and bring them to you as well as expect you to put them on.  How she figures out whose shoes are whose, I guess she is super smart and observant.

She also doesn't like for shoes to be laying around the house.  They should either be on someone's feet or in the closet out of her sight.  The other day I asked her where Charger's shoes were and I thought her head was going to explode trying to figure out why he doesn't wear shoes and where they might be.

In this picture, we were packing for the beach so I had a second pair of sandals laid out.  She of course wanted me to wear them, so she brought them to me.  I was wearing another pair of shoes (as required by Avery's Law) so I told her she should wear them.  So she did....

Where have we been?

There haven't been any blog posts for a while for a good reason.  Laura and I decided to take a trip to the Dominican Repbulic for a few days of relaxing away from jobs, life, and getting up at dawn to feed a toddler.  We had a blast doing nothing but missed our little girl so we decided to come back.

I got to take a sailboat out.

 The view from the sailboat back to our resort.

 Our everyday view from the beach chairs.  Sit in the shade, read books, have a few drinks, and nap the day away.  It was incredibly relaxing.

 The beautiful wife standing in front of the crystal blue water (and some seaweed).

 The view from the balcony of our resort.

Reading

As many of you know reading is Avery's second favorite thing (after Dogs, before Blueberries).  She has started memorizing some of the books and will read out the first couple of words in some of the books that we read to her.

However, this is a video of her reading out loud a kids meal book from Chick-fil-a on how Louie Pasteur discovered germs to help sick people.  While she will read other books out loud, it is more looking at pictures than talking.  When she talks in the other books it is always in short sentences and word groupings.  This book instead of being 99% pictures is about 50-50 words and pictures, so obviously it has to be read in a different way.

More dogs

On the way back from Taylorsville, we stopped by Sara and Marks so Avery could see her other dog best friends.

She desperately wanted Emma to take the ball from her.  Avery hasn't figured out the fetch thing yet and will chase the dogs around with their toys.  When they take the toy from her, she will step back and start clapping.

 Petting Bailey..

Next up Emma...

 Back to Bailey...

Playing ball with Uncle Mark