Toddler Tales

"That bus is far away.  We need cycles.  We need helmets, pedals, and wheels.  I need a big helmet, mommy needs a small one, and daddy needs a medium." - Avery, poor judge of head size

"It is very windy.  We need a kite.  We need to get sticks, leaves and grass.  Daddy can build us a kite, daddy can build anything." - Avery, inflation manager of her father's ego.

Chilling in a box of pullups.

 At the farm a couple weeks ago, Avery got a hold of the hose and had a good time trying to spray papa.

Weekend Update

"I see the moon! It is very far away.  We need a telescope." - Avery Jean, resident astrologist

"I want to go up in the sky, but we need to get in an airplane first." - Avery Jean, future aeronautical engineer

I will try my best to include something funny (and always random) in future blog posts.  It seems like every day she says something that makes us laugh and wonder where she picked it up from.

This past week, I got to watch Avery for 3 days by myself while Laura was in California.  Then Laura decided to go on a "girls stand outside in a line for seven hours Asheville trip" with Sara, Gigi, and Anna Kate on Saturday, so I got Avery to myself again.  We decided the best thing to do was go to the airport, since we had been talking so much about it while Laura was in California.

Happy to see planes with her newest plane.

 Cheesing waiting on planes to land and take off.

 Plane spotting is better with pretzels.

 On an unrelated note, while stalling from doing something she was supposed to be doing, Avery decided that she wanted to use the potty.  She will decide to use it at school or at Gigi's, but not at our house.  She managed the mechanics of the operation, but not the execution.  Maybe next time...

Toddler Tales

So Laura left this week for a couple days to head to LA to see the stars, eat In-N-Out Burger and allow me to have some quality with my toddler.  We had been warning Avery over the weekend that Laura was going to get on an airplane and go to California.  Monday morning when it was time for Laura to leave, Avery was pretty upset.

When I picked her up from school she asked about mommy and I said she was on an airplane going to California.  Avery then started crying saying, "I wanna go to the airpork and watch mommy ride airplanes." I said we can go, but we need to stop at the house and get milk and dinner.  She replied, "I don't want to go home.  I want to get milk at the airpork and see the airplanes."  

These below pictures were of Avery last week after getting back from Vass.  She said she was needed to cuddle with her babies (Anna Kate on the left and Tips on the right).  She carries Tips around with her quite a bit recently.  She keeps talking about how Tips's mommy left her and she (Tips) is sad, but it is funny/sad to hear Avery talk like that.  We tell Avery that she is Tips's mommy now and she needs to take good care of her.

 Big grins for the camera.

 Watching TV with her babies.

Farm Girl

This past weekend we went to Vass to commute from to go Raleigh for the State game.  Avery was pretty excited to play with the horses and run around the farm.

This is her walking down to the field calling for Bucky to come over to play.

 First step before riding is to clean the horse.

 A huge grin for the first few steps.  This grin didn't really go anywhere as long as she was riding.

 Aunt Stephanie helping her ride.

 After the ride, it was time to talk to Vega.  Here she is yelling at Vega to come closer to talk.

 Feeding Vega some treats.

 Keeping an eye on her bucky while Stephanie put the saddle up.

 Even Charger had fun at the farm.

Weekend at the Lake

This past weekend we headed up to the lake on our way to the opening football game.  It was a long ride all the way to the lake, but until Avery can drop the nap (more on that later) we need someone to watch her while we go to football games.

Matt, Missy, Morgan, and Macey joined us on Sunday after the game to have some family vacation time.

Avery with a big smile, probably laughing at one of the dogs doing something silly.

 Avery had in her mind that she was going to swim across the lake.  We did it as kids, but maybe when we were 14.  Avery is about the most un-daredevil kid we have seen.  She requires hands to be held going down stairs, will yell at other kids on the playground to "BE CAREFUL", pauses at all street crossings, etc.  But when it comes to swimming, the entire weekend she said she was going to "Swim to the big trees!"  You can see in this picture she is a 100 yards or so off the dock swimming away.  My parents were right behind her in the paddle boards and I was right beside her with a life jacket, but she kept on swimming.  Granted she isn't going to win the 100 yard free style next week in the Olympics but we were pretty impressed with her determination.

 We tried to get Morgan and Avery to chicken fight.

 She really loves Gigi's cooking.  And my mom loves to cook for us and we love to eat it.  I don't think there is a better way to cheat on my salad diet than spending a couple days eating my mom's cooking.  Thanks Mom!

 Hanging with the quiet Sawyer daughter.

 So we left the lake around 1:30.  We thought she would be asleep as soon as we hit the road.  She got pretty close, but we decided to stop and get gas.  For whatever reason, she decided to talk the rest of the way home except for the last 15 mins when she finally fell asleep.  Sunday she didn't take a nap either.  Saturday's nap was only an hour or so.  It didn't seem to affect her attitude during the day much, but it caused her to not sleep through the night, which most definitely sucks for Mommy.