So part of our regular routine is to hang out outside after school or after dinner depending on the weather and Avery's mood. She loves to look at the cows, do easter egg hunts, and run around with us. Recently she has been working on her jumping and walking backwards skills, which is something you don't really think about having to learn.
She was jumping off this rock the other day so we grabbed the camera and tried to capture the moment. We really wanted to see if her feet got off the ground, because she jumps really quickly.
Climbing the rock. (Not seen, Laura holding her hand so that she could climb up the 2 inch high rock)
So 15 out of the last 30 days, I have been a single dad due to Laura's world travels. It has been an awesomely exhausting and exhaustingly incredible experience. This is what I have learned:
1. Two out of these three things can go on a walk when it is just me. Avery, Charger, and her wagon. When we let Avery walk Charger, we always let her hold one leash and we hold another one for real control of Charger. This seems to work pretty well until she gets tired or falls down. Last evening I ended up holding Avery, who was holding Charger's leash, who was tied to the wagon, which I was pulling.
2. 5:45 is the beginning of the "Danger Zone." If you are out on the town or walking to the mailbox and there is not milk and/or crackers within reach then there is the potential for a full meltdown. See Item 1 as a corresponding result of entering the danger zone.
3. Dinner can consist of a Ritz Cracker and a Strawberry. For both of us. Surprisingly this was one of the nights that she slept through the night. The next day I asked the teacher what I should bring in for their bag lunch picnic today and she asked "What does she like to eat?" I laughed and said, "I don't know, that's why we send her to school, so she will eat." As long as she goes to school then I know she is getting fed, because she is not getting fed at home.
4. 2am is a far better time for her to wake up than 4~5am. At 4~5am she wants to watch cartoons after her milk and stay up the rest of the morning. This is not a great result for someone that has to go to work the next day and do thinking.
5. I love working from home. I may not get to interact with adults other than on the phone or ordering my lunch, but I am a much happier person not spending 1.5 hours a day in a car to sit in a cubicle to talk to people on the phone.
6. Toddler clothes are impossible to fold. The great thing about it is I am not going to worry about a wrinkle on her shirt since I can't do her hair and she will probably come home covered in dirt/food stains. If you are peaking into her classroom, my kid is the blond kid that looks homeless, but with a huge smile.
7. She is smarter than refusal to eat food would make her appear. After reading 1000 books to her over these last few days, she has "Goodnight Moon", "Not the Hippopotamus", and "Brown Bear, Brown Bear" memorized to the point where she will read them out loud to me.
8. Going to Harris Teeter is a great adventure for Avery because there is always a cookie and/or cheese on a stick and they have racecar buggies. However going to Wal-Mart and Lowes is a great disappointment due to the lack of free cookie/cheese samples. Usually we would travel with a diaper bag full of snacks to offset this disappointment, but that diaper bag is in the back of a Honda Pilot in a parking lot in front of Charlotte Douglas Airport. See item 2 for potential complications.
9. I am better at coming up with a concept for a blog post than I am at executing it. This seemed like a great idea at 4:45 this morning when I started.
10. Hanging out with this smiling person is well worth it. It is amazing how much she smiles and how much I enjoy having her around as my buddy.
Before I left for Sweden, Avery and I went to down to Vass for a quick visit so I could attend a baby shower brunch for my sweet friend Ashley (she went to NC State with us and is married to Robert's good friend Drew).
Friday morning Avery woke up early with a fever so she did not go to school and I was a bit worried the trip would be very unfun. We drove during her normal nap time, but since she had a lazy morning at home, she just stared out the window for half the trip. She perked up a little when we arrived and she saw the horses and Stephanie's crazy poodle, Harpo. We walked down to the barn to feed them dinner and "grass" (that's what Avery calls hay). My mom asked Avery if was a farm girl and she said "no" and then she asked if she was a city girl and she said "yes."
She adjusted pretty quickly to the farm girl life. After a few minutes outside, it was time for a bath. The pollen down in pine tree country was CRAZY. After we de-yellowed, it was time to snuggle up at watch Little Einsteins.
Avery hasn't rode a horse yet, but she does enjoy riding the gator. This time she insisted on driving it, but she's not strong enough to turn the wheel alone. She doesn't want your help either, so the experience can be frustrating. Papa always finds a way to make it fun by going too fast over too big of bumps :)
A few shots from the brunch on Saturday. L-R: Missy, Kristie, Ashley, me, Sheryl. We were all in college at the same time. Missy and Ashley went to NC State and Kristie and Sheryl went to that baby blue place across town, but had enough sense to marry men from NC State.
This weekend Laura took Avery to Vass (no pictures apparently) before she headed off to Sweden on Sunday afternoon. So I get Avery all to myself for the week. Since it was such a nice day, Avery decided that we should spend the afternoon outside working on her egg hunting skills. She will carry the bucket around, throw eggs, then go back and pick them up. Again and again. She is going to dominate Easter egg hunting next year.
There is one egg that she keeps a couple chinese coins that Laura had brought home. She is excited when she finds the egg with "her money."
So this past weekend everyone was home and the weather was awesome. Since the weather has been nice, we have been walking around the neighborhood as a family every evening. Avery wants to either walk Charger or pull her wagon. Both of which are tough jobs for a toddler. So one night she fell down and scratched her finger pretty good. She cried, but then sucked it up and kept walking. 5 minutes later she fell again on the same finger and ended up ripping off her fingernail. At that point she gave up.
This is her falling asleep on the couch watching Atlanta Braves baseball on Friday night, just like her great-grandfather Tarlton.
You can see her holding her hand gingerly.
The weekend wasn't a total disaster as Avery has really gotten behind the hiding and finding eggs thing. I guess we should have practiced it before we went to the neighborhood Egg hunt. Lesson learned...
Laura brought the vacuum cleaner upstairs to vacuum and Avery said, "Bump Head" because Laura bumped her head with it one time vacuuming a couple weeks ago. Laura said, "yeah" and Avery said, "It's ok. I love vacuum cleaner." Laura said, "Do you love me?" Avery replied, "No, I love vacuum cleaner."
Yesterday we were at Target walking around and passed the greeting cards area. Avery said, "Look at all the doggies, mommy! Awwww! Sooooo Cuuute!" We of were dying laughing at that time. She got a couple outfits from her grammy the same day and would hold them up and go "Soooo Preeeety!"
So Laura was in China for 9 days. 4 of those days Avery was sick. I got Avery all to myself for that time other than when she was at daycare. We had an absolute blast, but we were both happy to have mommy come home. The night Laura came home, Avery woke up in the middle of the night and Laura suprised her. She woke up again that night and was saying, "Mommy, not daddy." This was after a week of waking up every morning and saying "Daddy, where are you?"
We went to the airport to watch planes land and take off.
We went out for lunch a couple of times and had a blast.
Saying "CHEESE" for mommy.
We had some goofy bath pictures for mommy.
We read lots and lots of books. Sometimes like in this picture, by herself. Other times, she would bring me an endless supply of books to read to her.
We had a good time dragging her wagon around the neighborhood.
Sorry for no blogs for the last few days. While Laura was in China, Avery got sick on Thursday and ran a fever for Thursday, Friday, and Saturday morning. Then it proceeded into a sore throat, which means she didn't want to eat anything, that led to only drinking milk, that led to not sleeping through the night and a throwup from only having milk and medicine, and finally an ear infection. So she is off school today for the 5th consecutive day. Even though she was cleared by the doctor and feels fine.
So on Saturday afternoon, our neighborhood had an Easter Egg Hunt for all the kids. Since we moved in 2.5 years ago, quite a few kids have either moved in or been had. There were at least 6 other kids Avery's age that live in the neighborhood plus 3 or 4 more grandkids. Avery's fever was gone so we thought we would get out of the house and enjoy the nice weather. Keep in mind that it was just me.
So as soon as we got down there, this is the reaction that I got. She did not want to get out of the stroller and certainly didn't want to play with the other kids.
After the other kids went screaming out into the little park after the eggs, I finally pryed Avery off of my leg and coached her into picking up the eggs. In this picture you can see the extreme trepidation of picking up the eggs as if she was stealing them.
Finally warming up to the idea and walking on her own to get them.
Here she is finally "playing" with her friends. And by "playing", I mean being within 10 yards of them. The little girl with the bunny ears is Lilly. Lilly came and picked an egg out of a basket. I fully expected Avery to freak out, but she played it cool. Lilly's parents put the egg back in Avery's basket and told her that they weren't lilly's eggs, but Avery's. For the rest of the weekend, whenever Avery saw her eggs, she would say "Avery's eggs, not Lilly's."
This is the face that she made when she figured out that there was candy inside of them.
