From the Mouths of (Our) Babes

It's Saturday! And it's beautiful outside. Avery had breakfast al fresco and spent some time at the park and the neighborhood sunflower garden. He introduced himself, and told a flower he was one. Avery also tried both his first hot dog AND his first fried mozzarella sticks. We try to be fairly watchful of what he eats, but on occasion, you have to give a kid hot dogs and fried cheese...right? (Please note: the "Hot Dog Series" comes courtesy of dad's cell phone. First hot dog was enjoyed with dad at the park.)

When you ask Avery, "How old are you?" this is what he'll do. We don't think he understands the concept that he is one yet, but he's gotten praised for putting up one finger, so he'll put up a finger like this. We also visited the doctor's this week because we were all exhausted, and under the weather. She told us that yes, maybe Avery and I have a cold, but really it all was about sleep. She said that Avery should not fall asleep drinking a bottle. We put him to sleep the last two nights without a bottle, just a book and bed. And he's slept right through! 7pm until 5am Thursday, and 7pm until 6am today! Sleep! Yay! We're going for 7pm to 7am tonight. It IS the weekend, after all. We should have had this talk with her a LONG time ago.

Avery's been giving us a hard time lately and we're exhausted. We didn't take any pictures today. The shirt he is wearing here was his dad's.

Avery MIGHT be getting to the point where he might have too many shoes. Baby shoes are just SO cute. And, as they should be, relatively inexpensive. Take these Birkenstocks I bought for him today, mainly out of convenience. He needed a new outfit, and we didn't want to go all the way home. So I went into the Gap, the only store open early on Sunday morning, and bought these. And I also couldn't resist getting a few others "essentials" as well. Could they be any cuter?

Avery and Walker woke up early and took a jog down the path by the river. They've been trying to do this lately, getting some exercise and going down the beautiful trail. After the outing, we all met at the pool, where we spent the day either splashing around or, in Avery's case, eating grilled cheese sandwiches and yogurt and playing with rubber ducks. For some reason, he loves eating my chapstick? He even discovered the joys of the noodle!

Our car has a little spedometer problem. We have no idea how fast we are going, ever. We just have to follow the speed of the traffic, which is usually fine. However, we thought we should take it into the shop, so dropped it off on Tuesday night. That meant that today we took the train out to nan and poppi's. We ran to catch the early train, and just made it literally by seconds! Kids under five ride free, which is great to know for the future. Avery seemed nonplussed at first, but he warmed up when he was able to stand on the seat and look out the window at the tracks.

Avery had a great day today. He spent much of it in the park, and does that often. As a result, his baby legs are a little browner than we'd like, despite our best application of SPF 50 Sunscreen. He clearly has his dad's dark skin tone-lucky little guy!

Avery seemed uninterested in eating any hummus yesterday, until I started rubbing it on his face like a face mask. Of course, we left it there until his bath so he could have a hummus facial. When he was finished with his dinner, he just dumped the empty bowl on the floor.

Avery got a new fancy little seat at his grandparent's, Tom and Sally's this weekend. He was delighted to sit in it and have his feet touch the floor! Looking at this picture and post from yesterday, Avery looks like a little MAN. It's all out of scale, really, he's still baby 1 year old size. But doesn't he look like a round little older person, who just happens to be drinking a bottle? Thanks to grandpa Tom for the photograph.

Avery was back on a newborn schedule last night. Little turkey. That meant he was up multiple times, but we were advised by the docs to not go to him when he wakes up. For Walker, this meant soundly sleeping through the night. For me, this meant waking up multiple times and listening to Avery cry. And cry. And he sounded miserable. I know he wasn't sick, not teething, not hungry. He needs to "learn" to sleep through the night. This is a very good quality, an ability to sleep well. Of course, he woke up incredibly chipper and bright-eyed, none the worse for wear. This has to get better for us, however! I am hoping tonight...

Love, Avery

Avery attended his first shabbat dinner at Gary, Alyssa and Gabriel's last night. He loved the challah and raisins, and hanging out with his friend, Gabe. However, he seemed scared when Gabe was showing off his jump-head-first-into-the-bean-bag trick. They say children this age cannot be empathetic, but our theory was that he was afraid Gabe was hurting himself jumping head first into anything. Avery also attempted to do the old 'pull the placemat out from under all the food without dumping it all on the floor' trick in this picture. Luckily, we caught him just in time.

Avery had a HUGE breakfast this morning, which included: 1. part of a waffle 2. a corner of a sunflower butter and strawberry jam sandwich 3. 4 Ritz crackers with chive cream cheese 4. part of a banana chocolate chunk muffin He was having so much fun, he had to wear shades. He also tried Ben & Jerry's chocolate ice cream at Grandma Sally's today and loved it. I am so in awe of his apetite!

Roughhousing with daddy before bed. Check out Avery's stylin' new t' given to him by Auntie Jen!

Avery is beginning to feel restricted in the spaces he's allowed to roam free. He wants out!

If you were to try a new food every three days for about a year, don't you think you'd get to the point where you had to be really creative to find something new? With combinations of ingredients, knowing that you have tried one dish, you would think that you'd exhaust the possibilities. Well, we've been new foods like this for some time now, and every time I go to the grocery or Farmer's Market, I come back with something new for Avery. Ritz crackers were introduced today! Chive cream cheese was on the menu a few days ago. This evening, we combined the two for Ritz cracker and chive cream cheese fiesta. Avery hogged down seven crackers piled high with cream cheese, had a huge piece of extra sharp cheddar, and some berry applesauce. This was all washed down with a huge bottle of organic whole milk, which friend Jeanna says, "tastes like fresh cut grass and ice cream." I am going to try to make a list of Avery's favorite foods : Veggies -sw...

...We love him! Avery's trick of the day is the "milk-shake". If you say "Do the milk-shake" to him while he's drinking a bottle of milk, he'll take it out of his mouth and shake it. It makes us laugh, so he does, too.

Avery helped us order our meal at the market. He then came home, put on a pair of shades, laughed his head off, and fell fast asleep.

We spent the morning in Rittenhouse by the goat. Avery ate bagels with whitefish salad and whipped cream cheese and played by the goat. He took a little tumble while negotiating a step, which is inevitable at this age, but still hurts for everyone. His friend tiny Matilda was quite upset for him! After the Park, we did some shopping around town while dad took a nap. Avery met a little dog who ate his cookies and crackers with him. I think it was especially fun because she was smaller than Avery. He just seemed to like the little furry puppy. We then met Gary and Gabriel at Art for the Cash Poor , where Avery tried his first soft pretzel and I bought a cool t'shirt and necklace. Gabe and Avery played on the grid while the dad's hung out. The little guys traded shoes, ate tomato pie in the sun and drank milk. The big guys did not trade shoes, but did have some tomato pie, and their choice of beverage was beer. The music (?) got loud and obnoxious, so we all decided to...