Random Smiles

These are some random pictures over the past couple of weeks that I didn't use in the blog because they may have been out of focus, poor lighting, etc.  However, they have great smiles in them (like most pictures of Avery) that every time I flip by them I laugh thinking about what she was smiling about.

Here a couple extra ones from playing in the leaves.  This was about an hour or more after she should have gone down for her nap.  The fact that she doesn't melt down before naptime amazes me.

In these pictures she was playing on the couch, laughing at Mommy in the kitchen.  For whatever reason, she would yell out "Mama" or "Dada" and laugh uncontrollably.

Thanksgiving

So we had Thanksgiving at our house this year.  Only my parents were able to make it on Thanksgiving day, but they brought plenty of food to spoil us with.

On Thanksgiving day, the weather was nice enough to head uptown and watch the Charlotte parade.  We got there just in time as it was starting off.  Avery had a great time cheering on the bands and pointing out all the horses.  After each band would come by she would turn her head and follow it as far as she could see it.  Once it was out of sight, she would turn to me and say "More...more"

She ended up with a pretty good view on daddy's shoulders.

 A big smile for either a horse or a marching band.

 After the parade we went back to the house and made a shrimp boil.  While I was cooking outside, my parents raked leaves into a pile for Avery to play in.  Each handfull of leaves was accompanied with a smile and "more".

 Mommy even showed Avery how to run through a big pile of leaves and kick them.  If you notice her "Sheriff's deputy" sticker on her jacket from the parade.

Drummer Girl

"Give a kid a drum, annoy her parents forever."

We have a special box of toys that we bring out on tough days, rainy days, etc.  We learned this trick from daycare.  They have a special closet of new toys that have been hidden for a while when the kids are especially wound up or they can't go outside because it is raining.  We keep ours in a closed toy box that is hard for Avery to open.  Most of her toys with batteries and loud noises are in there.  As is the drum.  As you can see in the video, she isn't that bad at it.  Hopefully there is some musical talent in there somewhere from watching so many music videos.

Marching and playing at the same time!

Single Parenting

These pictures are a couple weeks old from when Laura was off visiting Colorado.  She left me to take care of Avery by myself and we had a ton of fun without her.  But we did miss her.

I did get her dressed completely for school and was even able to hold her down long enough to get a hair bow on her.

 We also went shopping for a cold weather hat.  If you haven't been shopping with Avery it is a lot of fun when she is in the right mood.  This is at Old Navy, her sprinting up and down the aisles laughing at the top of her lungs.

 This was her playing with one of the mannequins.  She thought it was super funny to point at the different body parts and name them.  "Foot"

 "Knee"

 "Hand"

 We also went out to dinner one night.  It is odd how she will chow down sometimes when we go out to dinner and not eat the same stuff at home.

Airplanes

This past weekend after a devastating loss in Raleigh, we decided to pick up our spirits by taking Avery to the Monroe Air show.  Her nap timed up perfectly so that we could go see planes fly real low and real fast right beside where we were sitting.  As you might imagine she was in awe the entire time we were there.

A picture of a plane.

 Avery pointing at where the airplane is.

Having mommy hold her up so she could see better.

 She didn't smile a ton, because she was too busy concentrating on where the airplanes were going and coming from, but here is one.

 Listening to daddy explain how airplanes work.

Halloween

Sorry it took a while to post pictures of Avery's Halloween costume, but sometimes they expect me to come into work and do actual work.  Not often, but often enough that it gets in the way of blogging.  Someday the 10 people that read this regularly will turn into 10 million and I won't have to go to work anymore.  Or one of you 10 will give me 10 million dollars.  Either way works for me.

Anyways...Halloween was a mixed bag for Avery, in the fact that we enjoyed it a lot more than she did.  However, she was pretty stinkin cute in her bear costume.  We only went to visit a few neighbors and hang out with some friends because Avery wasn't too keen on hanging out with other kids dressed up in weird outfits.  For some reason she was pretty shy about all the other kids and meeting people at their doorways.  For anyone that has hung out with Avery, she is pretty social and loves being a part of the party, even if there isn't a party going on.

Ready to get some candy!

 Getting her first candy bar.  Later on she managed to get to eat some of it.

 I was squatting down to take a picture, so of course she does what daddy does.

Fun at the Park

I took these pictures sometime last week when Laura was working late.  Me and Avery decided that we should go to a park to play after work since the weather was nice.  We found a park nearby that had a ton of slide selections for Avery.  While most of them required my help to get her up to the top, she tried her best to climb the ladders and steps to get to the top.

There was also a big purple dinosaur on a spring.  As you can tell from the picture she had a good time rocking it back and forth.  She wasn't big enough or strong enough to get it rocking too much so I had to help push some.  She kept on running back up to it and pointing at its mouth and teeth saying "mouth" or "teeth"

 I don't think she could be any happier to be on a dinosaur.

 She also had no problem running from slide to slide to try and get on whatever slide captured her attention at that moment.  Fun to watch, but since most of the playgrounds were not toddler safe, I had to be sprinting behind her to make sure she didn't try to follow a big kid and jump off something big.

The Fair

So last weekend we went to the SC State fair.  We were pretty excited about letting Avery see some animals, eat some junk food, and ride some dangerous rides.  She had a pretty good time, but it is certainly not anywhere near as good as the NC State fair.

She enjoyed looking at the goats and making goat sounds.

Pointing out different animals for daddy.

 We could only keep her in the stroller for so long before she needed to get out and strut her stuff.

 So the rides...  It was tough to find rides where both a parent and a small child could ride.  It was either the kid only could ride (we were afraid of this mostly for the chance of Avery freaking out that we are strapping her to something and walking away) or that only adults could ride.  So we went through the tortuous process of asking her if she wanted to go on a particular ride, getting a reply of "yeah", and walking up to it only to be  told no by the operator despite the signage.  This of course was followed by Avery getting upset.  Rinse, repeat.  

This is what a disappointed toddler looks like when she is told she can't ride something.  She refused to get in the stroller to go find another ride until she watched the other kids go around a few times.

Riding on the train with mommy.

 She seemed pretty happy with the whole train experience.

 Big smiles while riding.  Of course the moment the train stopped, Avery said "more."  Then proceeded to get upset as we drug her kicking and screaming off the ride.  It didn't last long, but it was still pretty funny/sad.

 She was also pretty happy go on the bumblebee with mommy.  Afterwords...upset.

 On the merri-go-round with Daddy.

Babies

This past weekend we went up to Sara's house to have dinner with the families.  Sara and Mark had a party to tell us what the sex of their upcoming baby was going to be.  There was also a balloon festival going on flying balloons directly over their house.  It was tough to say which was better, the enjoyment Avery got out of the balloons or watching Sara's dog freak out about the balloons.  

Avery and Laura posing in front of a car.

 Avery had a blast watching the baloons fly over Sara and Mark's house.

 Avery even showed Mark's sister how to play cornhole.

Oh yeah, Sara and Mark are going to have a girl.  So look forward to a similar blog as this one in a few months with familiar clothing and toys as featured here, but on a 24 month delay.  Actually it may be on less of a delay than that, because I am guessing that they will have a much taller baby than Laura.