AVERY!!! The biggest reason yet! I have been putting off this post because I know I won't give it justice. Avery is so fun, cute, and tiring that I know there is no way that I can put our last summer together into a post. But here is a try. Dear heavens, this is a long post.
In our first month here we went to the fair with some friends. I swear I took more pictures but this is all I have from it. Avery loved the turkeys especially when they gobbled.
This is my favorite thing to do with Ave. It just isn't very often when she'll sit calmly and lovingly sit on my lap. She usually is trying to pull up my shirt to look at my belly button or pull my earrings or pat my cheeks. You know how it is.
This was our first time to the beach when we moved here. Avery loved the sand. LOVED it. This picture is actually two steps into the sand. She was so excited she couldn't wait to walk to the water before playing in the sand. Oh and why a white shirt you might ask? I didn't know Cali sand stained just as bad as Bama red mud! Naive mom.
At the beginning of the summer I couldn't take a picture of Avery. She would run, hide, cry, you name it. But then one day she loved getting her picture taken (somewhat) and would even say cheese and pose! What?! So now all the pictures I have of her look identical to this one: a big cheesy face. She is eating one of her favorite foods, strawberries. She also loves and asks for continually: milk, peaches, oranges, bananas, and cheese.
Avery loves doing things like her mom. Most of the time it is cute, but sometimes tiring (what's not to a pregnant person). Avery wanted me to put a towel on her head like mine. She will also put her leg up on her little potty like I do on the normal one to put lotion on her legs. She will clean and put dishes in the dishwasher like mom. She LOVES to find trash (or make it, really) and throw away in the trash can. She is definitely a little mommy's girl.
Potty training. Ugh. Where to begin? I bought a potty and we talked about it and sat on it and I tried to get her used to it because I was determined to have her potty trained by the time baby 2 comes. We went a whole week where I didn't change one poopy diaper (she's a daily pooper too). Pee was a different story. I should have pushed hard for it but I got scared and only put her on it when she mentioned it or I thought she might need to go. Public bathrooms, newborn baby, and toddler hands were just too much. I can't imagine watching her little hands touch bathroom stalls or worse toilets or those little stall trashes. So potty training took a back seat for a while. Then this happened:
Avery got her potty and put it on like a hat. I was in a rush to get ready for something so I just let her do it so that I could get my stuff done. Well a hat soon became a necklace. She giggled for a bit but then wanted it "off Mommy". So I went to pull it off and it wouldn't budge above the forehead. We called for Daddy to try. We put lotion on her forehead and tried again. I felt like a terrible mother because she was screaming and crying and terrified, but I seriously couldn't help but laugh. Every time she would settle down I would burst out. Bad mom. Michael finally got some intense scissors from his tools and cut the side. I was seriously thinking we were going to have to go to the emergency room for a stuck toilet on our babies head. THank heavens it came off with just one cut and Avery was rescued.
Avery has only gone to the bathroom once since this incident and I don't really blame her. We went to Target a week or so later and saw a little potty on the bottom shelf and Avery pointed to the potty and pulled it down and tried to unbutton her pants and sit down on it. So I decided to buy it and Avery sits on it and likes it but has yet to pee or poo on it. Oh well right? We'll try again later. How bad can two babies in diapers be? (I am crying inside).
Avery LOVEs going to the park and swinging. Can't you tell?
Another being mommy moment. She loves to wear "gasses" when mom does.
This is Avery walking home from the park talking to "Nunu" and Chase on the phone. I think they actually had hung up a little bit before but that didn't stop Avery from chatting away.
Black eye #2 (well green). The first was at 14 months when she got stitches. This one happened while I was being visit taught. She was trying to stand up but lost balance and hit the corner of the chest. It had a insta-bump and quickly turned into a black-purple-green-yellow eye. Good news is that it didn't seem to really bother her after an hour of it happening. If I asked her about her owie she would show me the scratch on her knee- so much more traumatizing.
Here is Avery in a nutshel. A crazy mess sitting on her puppy with only one slipper with a cheesy grin because she knows she's cute.
Avery has been really loving babies and anything and everything can be a baby. She sings "rock-a-rock-a" to them (rock-a-bye-baby), she cuddles them, pats them, gives them babas, puts them in blankies, gives them her pacis, makes them cry and sleep, and puts them to bed. Hopefully the makings for a good big sister....
We went to a birthday party and AVery got her face painted for the first time. When we washed if off at the end of the day we had a MAJOR meltdown. We did get over it, surprisingly enough. Avery can be quite a dramatic little miss. Lately she has been putting her chin on her chest so her chub cheeks stick out and she looks at you from the frow of her brow. She does this when she is trying to tell us something seriously but we usually all end up giggling.
Apparently when we pose for pictures we don't say cheese, but "teethes" so now Avery poses for pictures and points to her teeth. I try and take them before she gets her fingers up there.
What is cuter than a little girl with even a littler pony tail. It is my favorite way to do her hair. It makes her look like an actual little girl and not a toddler. CUTE! Or as Avery would say "toot!"
Avery loves to wear sunglasses on her head, like the big girls. Little side note: I repurposed one of my old t-shirts and made her this dress. It looks really comfy and I love it on her.
I have been so afraid that Avery is going to have Mike's weird phobia of things between the toes. I have been putting things between her toes since she first came out. But I went and bought her flip flops and when I put them on her she told me "uck, cucky mommy" (yuck). So I was afraid that I would have to worry about another person not being able to wear flip flops- a huge convenience. But this past week Avery keeps putting on my flip flops and walks around. Maybe there is some hope!
Another flip flop picture where she is showing us how big she is.
Other Avery tidbits:
She thinks a lot of things are "scawy mommy": trucks (the biggest one), moving cars (valid point), all things halloween- should be interesting, right?
She loves playing monster. Michael and I will sit on the couch and she will cover us with pillows then peek through and growl at us. When I come down the stairs she runs into the downstairs bathroom and shuts the door and growls until I find her. She will also get behind our curtains and growl. She loves to get under our sheets and have daddy be a monster. Anything with hiding and growling makes Avery happy.
Avery loves the color "peent". Pink shoes win out no matter what. When we look at books blue is Daddy and pink is Avery. No questions. Avery also labels things that are big as Daddy and small are Avery. When I ask what about mommy, she shrugs her shoulders. This has to do with bunches of berries, sticks, balls, pieces of food, you name it, she already calls it either Daddy or Weywee (AVery).
We have been working really hard on asking for help instead of throwing a fit. It has worked out pretty well, but she now asks for "hep" for things she doesn't really need, like eating. But it still has been GREAT.
I now can get Avery to eat something even if she doesn't want to. This might sound lame but if I can get a bite of spinach in her it's almost like her eating a Avery-sized salad. She also gets a little more of a variety. Woohoo!
When we look at books Avery likes to look at faces and say if they are happy, sad, or mad and then will make the face. My favorite are her mad faces (chin on the chest looking out from under a creased brow).
Well like I said this is just little things about Avery and I wish I would have posted more regularly to give that sweet little girl some justice, but hopefully this will do. Hope you enjoyed!
We went on a hike about two weeks ago and it was through a neighborhood but it was aa dirt path and there weren't always houses around. Look at this view! I found a cute Alabama house with a front porch and it had somewhat Utah views. It is my California dreamhouse... only 2 million dollars to go.
Here is a picture of AVe and Mike on the hike. Avery loves to go on walks and is so quite the whole time. We started on the hike and it went quite a ways and we finally got off the path and cut up a road and made it back to our car before it was too dark. It was a fun hike that we will probably do again (when we are trying to get this baby out).
