What's your name?

Avery has now learned how to say her name. Her full given name. I taught her last weekend while daddy was at his 20th high school reunion. I asked her what her name was and she promptly responded "Avery". To which I stated, "Actually, your full name is Avery Jane Waters". She got a kick out of this and kept repeating throughout the night "Avery Jane Waters".

The next morning, on our way to church, I decided it was time for Avery to show off her newly acquired skill to daddy.
Me: "Avery, what's your name?" (Then softly reminding her, Avery Jane Waters, so she could proudly tell daddy)
Avery in her proudest voice: "Avery Jane Waters"
"Avery Jane Waters"
"Avery Jane Agua!"
Chip and I couldn't help but laugh hysterically. Is having your child say Aguas instead of Waters the drawback for teaching her Spanish? If it is, we'll take it. And boy if it isn't funny when she says it. By the way, about 40 percent of the time when you ask her what her name is now you will get the response "Avery Jane Aguas."

ABC's

Big day around here... Avery sang the ABC's from beginning to end without mistake tonight! She even sang "Now I know my ABC's, next time won't you sing with me" at the end. Quite an accomplishment for her 22 month birthday!!
As a side note she is also learning the fine art of delay tactics. Last night I told her she got one more book to read before she had to go to bed. She then went to grab a book off of the shelf. And what did she choose... The BIBLE!! Way to pick the biggest book on the shelf Avery. Boy is she clever, and not even two years old yet.

Catch up

Just in case you were wondering why I am so delayed in writing these posts, we have moved twice in the last 4 months. So life has been more than a little busy, and now it is time for catch up. I will try to complete posts to fill in the last few months, and will do my best to be more prompt in future postings so Avery hasn't completely changed by the time I finally get around to getting the pictures downloaded. All it takes is a little bit of time.......

Family Fun

We got to spend some time in early May with cousins Ezekiel and Eli. Avery loved hanging with the boys.

They spent some time with sidewalk chalk.

Tried to get a picture of the three.... this is the best I got. They were not too interested in picture taking and it was impossible to get them all to look in the same direction. Notice the bubble wand flying through the air in front of Eli?

Adorable Eli

Avery loves her time with Papa

And there is nothing better to finish a Sunday evening with than popcorn and movies. A wonderful family tradition.

Choo Choo

At the end of February we took Avery to Tilden park to ride the steam train. Instantly she was enthralled and with no fear. She wanted to stand while riding, loved taking in the scenery on the ride, and when it came time to leave she didn't want to go.

Here is a video of her on one of our rides. You can also vaguely hear her say "Kawaiiah" or "Gowaiiah". It is a word that Avery has been saying for months. We cannot figure out exactly what it means. She usually says it for something for which she is excited, or even if you raise your hand. Her own expression: funny and brings a smile to our face every time we hear it.

And in this clip if you listen closely you can hear her saying choo choo.

Three times the Easter fun

Avery got to do her first egg on hunt on Easter, and she was an old pro from the first moment! She already knew that candy was in the brightly colored plastic eggs from getting an Easter basket filled with tons of goodies from Millie, her daycare provider, two days earlier. She got one glimpse of the plastic eggs about the house and took off running.
This is the face of a girl on a mission
The first egg she opened up had a peep inside and she promptly bit his head off and started looking for another egg. She spent the entire hunting time with either a peep part hanging out of her mouth, or had her mouth stuffed full of jellybeans!

Taking a peep break

But I guess a couple of times a year a breakfast of pure sugar is ok..... If only it weren't followed by the inevitable sugar crash.

Sometimes getting the egg requires extreme physical work. Check out how Avery laid out to get this one.

After a Easter egg hunt at our house we went to a brunch at a friends house where their was more egg hunting. Avery showed off her early superiority in egg hunting in that while all of the other (and mostly older) children headed out the door to the back yard and went to the left, Avery headed right. She had that entire side of the yard to herself until the other kids ran out of eggs on their side and finally began exploring other areas that they had missed. And she probably would have come home with many more than she did if whe wasn't such a girly girl that didn't want to climb on her knees under the shrubs to get and egg. She would spot the egg and then point to it for us to get it for her so she wouldn't have to crawl! Here she is pointing out such an egg.

Avery saw the egg in here and would NOT put her hand in to retrieve it.

Checking out the loot with Daddy.

All of the kids that were there that day, minus two infants that were sleeping.

And the family...

After all of this fun we made our way to Mimi and Papa's house for Easter egg hunt #3 for the day. Unfortunately for this hunt, winter had once again reared its ugly head. It was freezing and raining outside, but the hunt went on. And again Avery proved her hunting prowess but going the opposite direction of all the other egg hunters.

Who hides egg in a car's wheel? I was not pleased with this hiding spot. Nothing like brake dust on a white jacket.... And did they stop with one car, no. Lucky Avery found them in two car wheels!!

Whew! Three Easter egg hunts in one day, more candy than any toddler should rightly have possession of, and a fun time of celebration had by all.

New neighborhood, new neighbors

Avery likes the new neighbors.

There are some kitty cats that stay in the same house as this little dog. However, they are a little more camera shy. Actually they are toddler shy. They run at the first sight of Avery running towards them. Can't say as I blame them. Although Avery is happy staring at them through the window and shouting "kitty". I can just imagine her delight if she ever was able to catch up to one of them.