Long Time

Ahhhh!  I didn't realize it had been so long since I'd done a post.  Time is flying by and we're so much busier in the summer months.  The good news is that Avery is having a great time with our busy schedule.  We're going on frequent walks and meeting friends at the park.  Last week consisted of the park, blueberry picking, a long walk, another park outing, a hike, and finally another long walk - all with various toddler friends.

For the hike, Avery and I met up with her friend Henry (his mom came along, too, because she doesn't let him drive just yet).  Avery walked the entire 1.5 mile / 2-hour walk!  I kept asking her if she wanted me to put her in the backpack, but she simply said no each time.  She has the cutest little no in the world.  I guess because she's still not at the stage where she screams, "Nooooooooo!" at me.

Almost a month ago, we had a visit with Nikki, Mike, Garrett, Grandma J, and Grandpa Paul.  It was an awesome visit!  We hung out in the backyard and chatted while Avery and Garrett played.  Grandpa Paul grilled some burgers.  I want to put together a video of Avery and Garrett, but I just haven't had the time.  In the meantime, here are a few pictures.  It's really hard to get a good picture of two toddlers at the same time!

Birth parents Mike & Nikki with Avery and her brother Garrett

Garrett pops his head into the shot at the last minute ... so cute!

Nikki watches as Avery enjoys her first popcicle

Avery and Garrett playing together - the both LOVE cars - just like Mike!

Avery and Garrett hug

I've lost the battery charger to my camera, so I haven't taken many pictures lately.  I'll be replacing it soon, but that explains the lack of pictures for a while. Here are two taken fairly recently.

Avery loves balls, the garage, and umbrellas, so she's a happy camper here

Our friend Christie took this awesome shot of Avery at Little Gym

Mexico II

We're back safely from Mexico.  Avery had a great time.  By the end of the trip, she knew exactly where the beach was and exactly where the pool was.  She also knew that she liked going to both ... very, very much.  Often she would just stand there saying, "beach, beach, ..." or, "pool, pool, ..." over and over again.

The travel back was exhausting, but Avery was quite a trooper.  I added up her time awake during our travel day back: 17 hours.  I would have thought she'd be super cranky on the flight home - and she was slightly more cranky than usual - but she did so very well.  She also did a little jaunt down an area of LAX where it was like she thought she was on the red carpet and those roped off people were her adoring fans.  She had everyone looking and smiling at her as she walked by all flirtatious.

One picture from our trip that I like

Also, let it be known that almost 18-months after Avery's arrival in our home, we have finally put up some toddler artwork on the wall!  I am not a decorator.  It just doesn't interest me. I appreciate when someone does it for me, but rarely find the motivation to do it myself.  I was at a store liquidation sale recently and found these three ladybug paintings on sale.  I can't say I would have bought them full price, but for what I paid, I love them.  Plus, Avery loves ladybugs. 

Before

After

Letters on wall (these took us almost exactly 1 year to put up after we purchased them)

The final piece of art isn't exactly toddler art, but we figure we're expanding her interests ... that's our story, at least. :)

Finally, we have a picture of Avery and her best friend, Elise.  Yes, they're dressed the same.  The shirts are both Avery's and they have the same hat because they didn't have the color that Elise's mom preferred for the hat.  Avery can now say "eee-eeesse" for Elise's name.  She asked for her several times while we were in Mexico.  Today, I told her we were going to see Elise and she must have signed friend and said Elise 10 times on the relatively short drive to Elise's house.

Animal Planet, TV and all things Avery

Avery and I watched about 30 minutes of the Animal Planet together this afternoon.  I've slowly been easing my strict no-TV rule.  Not for any particular reason other than I've been loosening my grip on things in general.  I had forgotten until today that Avery's doc said TV was OK (in small amounts, of course) as long as you watch it with the kids.  I don't think I got why at the time, but two things have made me realize why this is so.  First, I saw the article online that said babies who watch a lot of TV tend to develop language skills more slowly.  In that article, it noted that it was likely less about TV and more about the fact that when the TV is on, there is often less conversation between adult and child.  This makes logical sense to me.  Second, as we were watching Animal Planet together, Avery was identifying the various animals she saw, or identifying what they were doing.  If the lion was eating, she'd do the eat sign and I'd confirm that the lion was indeed eating.  Or she'd say "cat" and do the sign for cat.  Interestingly, she always thought the female lion is a dog, despite me saying, "No, it's not a dog, it's a cat.  A big cat called a lion," about 50 times in the span of 15 minutes.  However, she always recognized the male lion as a lion.  The mane clearly makes a big difference for her.  When I explained that cubs are baby lions and she would sign baby and then roar like a lion. 

I also learned something I wouldn't have learned in Portland (oh sweet TiVo God, I thank thee!): Avery does not like commercials.  Everytime the break would start, she would say, "No, no."  I would explain it was a commercial and we'd have to wait for the show to resume.  Eventually I found that muting the commercials and then identifing what we were watching (e.g. "That's a man. That's a man and a woman." etc), she was more tolerant of the commercial time. 

Also, she has watched bits of Finding Nemo (back home - we didn't bring any DVDs for her) maybe 4-5 times.  Anywhere from 5-20 minutes per viewing.  After the first viewing,  she would say "mo, mo?" for Nemo.  It's possible she's saying remote knowing I use the remote to turn on Nemo, but either way the point is she remembered immediately. 

In language development, she's regularly stringing two words together - at least for phrases we use commonly.  The main one that comes to mind is when she wants up.  She knows her best shot at a positive response is to say please, so she comes over and says, "Peeeaass?"  I'd say, "You want up?  Are you sure?" and she'd answer, "Ye-ah."  Anyway, the end result is that she now comes and says, "Peeeeaas.  Y-eh-ssss."  It's a very exaggerated yes since I've been emphasizing the s in an effort to convert yeah to yes.  She also is quite efficient in answering my are-you-sure question before I ask it. 

Oh, the other word she picked up immediately is cookie.  I've offered her bites of cookies and things before, but she has mostly turned up her nose at them.  We bought these chocolate cookies down here and she loves them.  She runs over to the cabinet in which we keep them and says, "Cookie, cookie!"  We have also let her have some potato chips.  She totally loves those, too.  If she spies the bag, there's no stopping her insistence at getting some chips.

Happily, she now accurately identifies whether she needs a diaper change due to pee or poo.  She comes up immediately after she's pooed (this is new because she's never really minded having poo in her diaper), asks to be changed using the sign, we ask, "Did you pee or poo?" and she'll answer.  So far, she's been correct everytime I've asked the question (see footnote 1, then footnote 2 for an update on this fascinating story).  She also runs up to the toilet and says, "Peeeeeee!"  She doesn't want to go on the potty - though she's not scared to sit on it for a bit.  I think she's just letting me know she associates the toilet and pee. 

Finally, during the time we've been down here, she has learned how to take off her diaper.  This can't be good.

Footnote 1 - dang it, she's just back with her first incorrect response - ah well, can't win 'em all
Footnote 2 - wait! she came to me about 2 minutes after D changed her diaper and did change again and indicated poo and she pooed! could she have been letting us know she was going to go? Oh man, that is just too awesome to think about

Mexico

Ugh.  I've been awful about updating this blog - sorry!  I've also been awful about taking pictures.  I've lost my picture-taking-mojo.  Since we're in Mexico right now, we have managed to take a few pictures of the cutest toddler on Earth*.

Avery eating noodles at the dining room table

Enjoying a cracker break after some serious playing at the beach

Avery managed to get Mommy's skirt on all by herself, but it wouldn't stay up.  Bib clip to the rescue!

Hanging onto Mommy's legs at the pool - Avery LOVES the water

Mommy and Avery's sitting in the water

Avery is saying a lot of words now.  We particularly love to hear her say mommy and daddy.  She also says please and thank you with impressive (to me) consistency. 

* I may be a little bit biased in that assessment.

Walking & Talking

Avery is walking like a champ and talking like a toddler.  She'll now attempt to repeat what we ask her to, which is cool.  Sometimes, if she knows the sign, but can't yet say the word, she does the sign.  But if it's a word for which she doesn't know the sign, she gives it a whirl.  A lot of "words" sound the same, but she tries it out with different inflections. 

Today on the dog walk, I asked Avery to repeat various words that I've heard her say.  For reference purposes, here's a list of her current vocabulary:

• daddy
• mama
• baby
• ball
• bubble
• milk
• down
• up
• out
• no
• please
• more
• shoes
• bath
• book
• yak (you know, because we see so many yaks)
• hi
• bye
  

Those are all I can think of now.  She used to say Eddie, but she's stopped for whatever reason.  She has said many more words on a one-off basis (including a perfect, adult sounding "water"!), but these words listed above are solid.

When I ask her what sound a cow, lion, or cat makes, she will usually get the noise right.  Less consistently, she'll do a snort sound for hippo.  The lion cracks me up, "Rooooaaar!"


Her comprehension also astonishes me.  More specifically, the comprehension of most toddlers her age astonishes me.  I can tell her to take something to Daddy and she will.  I can tell her to take something to her room and she will.  I can even say if you do this, then you can do that, and she seems to truly understand. 

The other day, Avery and I visited the zoo with her friend Elise and her mom.  This picture was taken on that visit.  This is the hat she wears when we go on our dog walks.  I love it, as does Avery.  

I have other pictures to upload, but I seem to have exceeded the space limit on Picasa for pictures, so I've had to buy more space.  It takes up to 24 hours to make this change, so I'll just post this one for now.

Carrot

The absolute coolest thing happened with Avery today.  Damian and I decided Avery needed some new toys, so off we went off to the toy store.  We came home with a set of wooden fruit and vegetables.  Each piece of fruit/veg consists of two pieces connected together with Velcro.  Kids can "cut" them apart using a wooden knife, or pull them apart.  Avery went about playing with the carrot while I put together another toy we bought her.  I heard "uh oh, uh oh, uh oh" several times from the other room, but knew it wasn't serious (she doesn't uh oh for serious matters).  I finished putting together the toy, then went about finding all the various bits of wooden fruit so we wouldn't step on them later.  I searched and searched, but couldn't find the other half of the carrot.  Finally, out of desperation, but not really thinking it would work, I held the half carrot up and asked her where the other half of the carrot was.  She looked up at me and pointed to my office.  I asked her to show me, at which point she left her toy in the kitchen, toddled all the way into my office, around my desk, then proceeded to point down behind the leg of my desk.  This is why she was uh oh-ing: the carrot had gotten stuck behind the desk leg and she couldn't get to it.  So she not only understood that I was asking her to show me where the other half of the carrot was, but remembered after about 30 minutes where it was located!  I was so impressed.

Avery actually understands quite a lot now.  She understands most of my basic instructions.  Whether she actually performs the request is another story.  Recently she started to say "go!" and "out!"  I suspect she actually picked those up from playing so much with Elise, who often commands these things of the dogs around her.

She's growing up so fast!

Spring Break in Colorado

Avery and I arrived in Colorado to visit my mom (Avery's Nain) for a week. Overall, the trip has gone very well. This was the first time Avery flew in her own seat on the plane. She seemed to enjoy it, though didn't sleep a wink on the plane despite getting up at 5:00 AM that morning.

Now that she's walking, getting through the airport took a tad bit more time. She insisted on walking by herself - no hand holding, thank you very much! - from the concourse to the terminal when we landed in Denver. Needless to say, our luggage beat us there as did every other person on the flight. However, Avery had a grand time stretching her legs before the ride to Nain's house.

When we reached the town where my mom lives, we immediately got changed and headed over to Mom's school to see all the teachers who have heard so much about Avery. Most of Avery's time was spent roaming up and down the halls. At one point, she heard music in the gym and picked up her pace to head straight in to dance.

While here, we've had a chance to hang out with Uncle Collin and Aunt Denise, as well as cousin Dylan, who is 6-months younger than Avery. Watching them play together is pretty cool. Six months at this age is a pretty big gap, but in a few years, they'll be looked at as the same age.

A video montage will be coming, but for now, some pictures from our trip (in no particular order).

Avery takes a bath

Avery in the wagon in Nain's yard

Nain's dog Barkley is a big guy, but he loves Avery ... and she loves him!

Avery with Nain and Uncle Collin and cousin Dylan

Dylan checking out Avery's new shoe; Avery cuddles her baby

Mommy with Dylan and Avery

Just a happy girl

Avery now consistently gives kisses upon request. They're still a bit slobbery.

Avery plays with a slinky on make shift stairs constructed by the talented Nain.

Smiling after the slinky successfully reaches the floor

Down the slide!

Dylan reaches out for his cousin