New Games

The fun of raising a toddler is exploring their imagination.  These are a couple of pictures from a new game that Avery played for a week, first thing when she got home from school.  She would grab her laptop and her xylophone and go sit in the closet with the door shut.  Every once in a while, she would pop her head out and yell "DADA!" at the top of her lungs, laugh hysterically, close the door, and go back to playing.

Have you ever been this happy about anything ever in your life?  This is how happy Avery is about seemingly everything but getting her teeth brushed and eating her vegetables.

 "DADA!!!"

ABC's

So we read a lot of books.  I mean a lot of books.  She must have 10 gallons of books.  (That is how you measure quantity of books....right?)  So recently in addition to pointing out the animals and colors, she has been pointing out the letters.  So far when we show her a page with the alphabet she usually hits all but 2.  For whatever reason Q and one other random letter will trip her up.

The note on her summary sheet from yesterday as to what she did outside was "Listened to and read books on the playground!"

Anyways, her she is singing the ABC song.  She must have sang it a half dozen times or so.  Now it has been a bath time ritual for the past week.

Random Pictures for Laura

Since Laura is literally halfway around the world, I promised to write a few extra blog posts and upload some pictures.  Even though I am pretty sure China blocks blogger.  

I took this picture at the hospital when Anna Kate was being born.  Avery had a blast running up and down the halls with Uncle David playing peek a boo behind the corners.  David would jump out from a door and yell boo, and Avery would double over laughing.

 I think this was the day after Anna Kate was born.  The weather was nice so we headed to the local park.  Avery is giving the camera her best cheese face.

Extra Birthday Pictures

Here are a few extra birthday pictures from the party last Saturday.

Why buy presents when you can buy a balloon?  If Harris Teeter ever kept their free kids balloon rack filled with balloons, Avery would be triple happy to go to the grocery store.  (She loves the cookie and mostly the cheese samples)

 Pretty excited about the Rocket cake.  She didn't quite get why she needed to blow out the candle, but was very happy to have everyone's attention focused on her.

 Our Happy Family, all looking at different cameras.

Like a boss

Drinkin milk like a boss.

Anna Kate

So the day after Avery's birthday we went up to Troutman, NC.  Feel free to google where it is.  Laura is headed off to China tomorrow, so we needed to hang out with Anna Kate before she left.  Avery has named one of her babies "Baby Anna."  She was talking about her the entire week and seemed pretty excited about going to see Baby Anna.  Not Aunt Sara, not Uncle Mark, but Baby Anna.

Laura is asking a question in this picture with her face.  No Laura, you cannot take her home with you.

 Miss Anna Kate

 I got to talk to her.  She wasn't quite the conversationalist that I expected based on her mother.  I guess she takes after Mark in that regard.

 Avery getting her cheese face on sitting with her new cousin.

 Gently touching the Anna's hair.

 Tickling Anna's little baby toes.

Happy Rocket Birthday!!!

So this past Saturday, we celebrated Avery Jean's second birthday.  We had the grandparents and Stephanie over for some food, cake, and to spoil a special little toddler.

Just in case you are new to the blog (Welcome to our blog strange newcomer!), Avery's favorite cartoon is the Little Einsteins.  It drives her life.  She has a plush rocket that is one of her favorite toys.  

So while Avery was taking her nap on Saturday, we hung up balloons, put cutouts of the characters and Rocket on the walls, and picked up her cake.  The look on her face was worth it all.

We got the cake from Edible Art and they did an awesome job of making her a rocket cake.

 Avery and her Rocket cake.  There was a bit of trepidation when we cut the cake, but Avery handled it well.  She didn't eat a bite of it and was happy to play with the paper cutouts.

Quite a bit of difference in this little princess since last year.  This picture just strikes me as her looking quite a bit older than how I picture her in my mind...  I guess she is just getting older...  Rocking her new sunglasses on top of her head like mommy, carrying her Einsteins DVD from Gigi and Ru.

 She got a xylophone from Mimi and Papa.

 This was what we got her.  When I was putting it together she came up to me and said "Rocket?"  We didn't really think of this when we picked it out but we went with it...  I said, "I have to fix rocket and put him together.  You can ride it tomorrow on your birthday."  Laura took her for a bath and she came downstairs and was concerned about where Rocket was and if I had fixed him.  Needless to say, she had a great time getting pulled around the neighborhood pretending to be in Rocket.

Happy Birthday Avery Jean

Happy 2nd Birthday to my little Boogie Bear!  It is amazing what a little person Avery has turned into and how she has changed our lives.  She is the smartest, funniest, happiest, and cutest person I know.  Every day she finds a way to make us laugh with something she does or says.

 Just trying to get a smile out of daddy...

Reading up on the Wolfpack!

Let me see those chompers!

Avery had her first visit to the Dentist yesterday.  It's a Pediatric Dentist and the doc's name is Dr. Bird, so it was very kid friendly.  The lobby TV was on Disney Jr and as soon as we walked in Avery yelled out "Mickey Mouse!"  I think she did very well overall, considering a stranger was poking around in her mouth.  I didn't get any pictures of her in the chair because she was sitting in my lap and I was holding both of her arms down.  The good news is this place is used to it and they are quick.  The doc said everything looked good.  Avery just has some staining on a few teeth that they buffed away.  She has four more teeth (2 yr molars) that will poke through some time this year so we have that to look forward to.  Meanwhile, we will continue the brushing battle each night.  I was hoping the new green toothbrush would help, but no luck last night.
They gave Avery a big sticker that said she was "cavity free" and she liked it.  She would point to it and say "circle!"

Anna Kate Rotman

Yesterday my little sister gave birth to Miss Anna Kate Rotman at 3:25 in the afternoon.  She weighed in at 8 lbs and 2 oz and 19 inches long.  Both mother and child are doing great.  

Sara called me Friday morning at about 6am and said "Guess who is going to have a baby today?"  I should have said, "Probably not you..."  Sara powered through 33 hours of labor like a champ though with a smile on her face.  She even held Anna in so that Laura could get home from Colorado.  Then she even held her in so that Avery could finish her nap and we could drive up from our house.  Unfortunately Avery hasn't gotten the chance to meet her due to silly hospital rules, but she is pretty excited about it.  And it is "Sara's baby, not Mark's."

Reading

As you might know after watching the Little Einsteins, reading is one of her favorite things in the world.

Avery always gets to pick out her pajamas.  Her favorite pajamas are "purple doggies."  Tied for second way behind purple doggies is her "colors."  She asked for her colors that night and her "I love dada" shirt.   She then proceeded to pull out a pillow and lay down on her rug with a good book.  And read to herself...

 Of course when daddy comes with the camera, she is all smiles...

Daycare

There are 2 children highlighted in this picture of Avery's daycare.  The top arrow points to Avery, who has a book on her lap reading quietly.  The other one highlights a boy that has been walking in small circles for 3~5 minutes.  Avery is going to be that kid's boss some day...  Also another reason I am happy we had a girl.  Someone should remind me of this post about 12 years from now or whenever they start to like boys.

Little Einsteins

For those that don't know, Avery's favorite show is Disney's Little Einsteins.  It is about a ragtag bunch of kids flying around in a Rocket learning about music and painting.  It is way better than most of the toddler cartoons, but no where as good as Spongebob Squarepants or anything that we can stand to watch with her.  She consumes it via the TV, tablet, daddy's laptop, and computer.  And she is peculiar about which method of consumption is the right one at the right time...

So one of the kids name is Quincy.  He is the kid that always plays the instruments to solve whatever crisis the kids face that day.  We have a card game that Avery likes to play where she sorts all the cards by colors after saying the color and the object on the card.  This one card she always tries to give to Quincy rather than placing it in the correct stack because A- It is a xylophone and B - Quincy is brown, just like the card.

Avery deeply concentrating on Little Einsteins before bed.

Lunch Out

This past weekend we went out for lunch!  Hooray!! Awesome!!! Yay!!  I know...exciting stuff...

There was a bit of a wait so we were pushing our luck with a hungry toddler.  After she had eaten her food and we were finishing ours, she asked for a jelly packet.  Laura without thinking twice handed it to her.  2 seconds later she had it open and Laura was daring her to eat it.

Smelling it to see if really was food.

 Dipping her biscuit into it.

 She decided that she wanted to spoon it onto her biscuit.  Amazingly she didn't make a huge mess.

Conversations with Avery

Last night we read "Yummy, Yucky"  Basically a book about things you should eat and things you shouldn't eat.  Later on at bath time, she said "Soap is Yucky."  Bascially a line from the book.  Laura said, "That's right, it isn't for eating."  Avery replied, "For hands, not for mouth".

Today she was talking and said, "Princess Sophia...girl." (This is a cartoon...terrible cartoon.)  I asked her if she was a girl, "No."  Then I asked if she was a boy, "No."  I asked what she was and she replied, "Avery Jean, a boogie bear!"  (Boogie bear is what we call her other than her name).

Fixing Rice Krispie treats with mommy.