Friends

Avery's friend Elise recently became a big sister.  During the birth of baby Nolan, Elise spent several days with us, as well as during a period afterward when Nolan had to be hospitalized (he's just dandy now, so no worries!)  We actually managed to snap a few pictures between diaper changes and meals and toddler mediation efforts.  These are those shots.

They don't look happy, but they held hands without an adult prompting them!

Orange Period

Picasso had his Blue Period. Avery has her Orange Period. Or maybe I just took more photos that day?  I prefer the comparison of my daughter to Picasso than the one of me to a lazy picture-taker, so Orange Period it is!

I love how she seems to be pefecting some sort of modeling pose in the first two pictures.  The coy looking up look.

 

  

  

  

  

  

 

The last picture is of Avery looking at a plane.  She loves, loves, loves planes.  And helicopters.  Many of our dog walks consist of the following conversation after our first plane sighting of the walk:

Avery: "More pane?"
Me: "Mommy has no control of the planes.  They just fly when they fly."

... 30 seconds later ...

Avery: "More pane, peas?"
Me: "Thank you for saying please, but Mommy has no ..."

... 30 seconds later ...

Avery: "More pane, peas?"
Me: ...

You get the idea. 

Playroom

A few months ago, I decided Avery's room was bursting with toys.  I swore I would not be the mother who had a child with so.many.toys.  Toys spoil, I don't want to spoil, kids learn better without a bunch of stuff around them, blah, blah, blah.  Yeah, let's chalk that one up to GPP (Grand Parenting Plan) #101 thrown out the window.  Let's just say my child has some toys and leave it at that - parenting is all about eating humble pie, right?

Anyway, we had a basement room not in use and it had a bed in it.  What else could a playroom need, I ask?  So I set about converting it to a playroom.  In my world, this does not mean I decorated it or anything like that.  It means I took the bed off the frame to make it more kid friendly and pushed it into the corner, then filled the room with toys and declared it a playroom.  Here are some long overdue pictures of said playroom.  Now that I see the pictures, we should really get some art work on that wall, but I digress and simply present the demise of GPP #101:

Note toddler height of bed; also useful for mommy naps whilst playing

 

In-progress kitchen play area - it really needs a pot filler*

  

*(ha! RHG that one's for you)

Another view of the kitchen

  

Yet another kitchen view ... really milking the kitchen shots here

  

Toy armoire  

(the unopened box on the left is a rocking horse that D insisted we not open after I came home with a plethora of toys one day)

Tent, pillows, toy bin

(Note: Avery's favorite toy, a huge stuffed dog given to her by BM Nikki is located in her room so she can play with it everyday)

 

Bin o' balls, learning cube, old phone

 

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.