From the Mouths of (Our) Babes

I made a snap impulse purchase the other night on Ebay I bought a vintage pom pom tree for the holidays. It wasn't REALLY such an impulse purchase. Walker was patiently bidding on another perfectly great looking tree, and then I just searched and found this one, with one minute left in the bidding, and we bought it. I am so bad at ebay that I immediately regretted it afterwards. It's like speed shopping, and that can never be pleasant. But it arrived already, which was really fast, and Avery helped put it up. It's so sparkley and fun, and really holidays up our warm little house. And Avery seems to really love it.

Soooo, Avery has this addiction to diaper cream. When we change him, he always wants to suck on the diaper cream tube, and always calls it "Beem!" Usually, he doesn't actually get cream into his mouth, so it's ok. I thought it was a little unusual, sort of like baby pica (that strange thing that pregnant women get when they crave dirt or ice), but nothing to worry about. Then, Avery was having lunch today and eating cream cheese. He starting saying, "Beem! Beem!" And hey, that's what he uses to describe diaper cream. And hey, you know what? I realized that he probably thinks that diaper cream and cream cheese are the same, which is not entirely random or arbitrary. They are both white. They are both creamy. They are both in his little world. What I find sort of humorous is that this means we were putting cream cheese on his diaper area this whole time. I mean, what does he know? It's funny the true connections you begin to see in the world...

Here's Avery in his new puffy jacket. He always seems sort of stuffed into it. Poor little guy. And then we need to strap him into his car seat with about five different straps that extend five different ways. At least wearing the jacket is like wearing a full body pillow.

Avery saw Walker drinking a cup of coffee this evening, and begged & pleaded for a cup. "Coffee! Coffee! Coffee!" We asked, "What about juice?" He shook his head. No, definitely, he wanted coffee. So we set up two mugs, and we showed him. This one is daddy's coffee, and this one is Avery's coffee: Even to the discerning eye, it's hard to tell the difference if you don't know about the accompanying coffee thermos: Soooo, Avery had some coffee-juice: And all was well again in the Avery SG household.

Here is Avery, yesterday, with his new Rocket Car: Here is Uncle Eric, circa 1975, in HIS new car. Not much changes over the years!

..a direct quote from Avery this morning. The coffee spilled, and Avery went right to the kitchen and got the (yucky) pink sponge, and mopped it up.

Avery got Nan and Sashee to join him jumping for joy Thanksgiving Eve. We'll have to see if we can post video, as it's not really captured in stills...but you can imagine.

This face comes courtesy of Mr. Bunny at the Academy of Natural Sciences. Avery visits him from time to time, and started making this face about a week ago. He will do this on cue, if you say, "Avery, show me the bunny!" He also tries to hop (but still doesn't get off the ground), and occasionally breaks into the chicken dance after that, or says, "Gobble Gobble."

...not so much. We got this great big bag of wonderful clothes from Walker's co-workers. The hand-me-downs we get are a collection of clothing passed through four different boys...two sets of brothers. By the time we get things, they are not as well worn as you'd think because kids wear clothing for such short periods. Sooooo, we got a bag a few days ago, and thought Avery would love this fleece Elmo sweatshirt. He loves Elmo, or at least chants, "Elmo! Elmo! Elmo!" every chance he gets. I do like that he responds to Elmo without our having to get any annoying videos or music by Elmo, just the little pictures and stickers and dolls are fine with me. When I saw the sweatshirt, I thought--soft, warm, and has Elmo plastered across the front. Perfect for a Fall day! Avery did not agree, and quickly responded with his "You're torturing me." face.

Avery pantomimed a whole, full, request tonight. We were reading his favorite book, "My First Word Book". The book has pages full of photographs, with corresponding words for things like "pets" and "things that move". Avery LOVES this book, and will sit for long periods of time just pointing out pictures, and I provide the word. Tonight, we got to the page on "food", and he pointed out the spaghetti. He looked at me and made a slurping sound. Then, he started nodding his head ferociously. He slurped again. He nodded. Slurped. Nodded nodded nodded. This went on. Then, he started making a sort of "hhhhhmmmmmm" pleading sound and pointing at the door. He was clearly trying to tell me something. I tried to decipher and said, "Avery, you can't have spaghetti, it's bedtime." He slurped, and nodded and said, "Yes." (slurp) "Car-a." (nod) "Daddy." I really think he was trying to tel...

We started buying holiday presents, and are trying hard NOT to overdo it. Avery's still at an age where he probably won't get it, but he does seem to understand the joy of getting new things. Ok, that might be projection... Avery loves all things related to trains. He loves the little cars, he loves the sound, he loves the track, and even the little tables for trains. Today, he found a creative use for a shelf we bought for organizing (I might point out here that it was just sitting around the house unused, so at least someone found a use for it.) With this in mind, we were at Bed, Bath and Beyond yesterday while A was napping, which I must say is like an Infomercial store. They have all those things that you could previously "only buy on tv." It's sort of fun and alarming at the same time. While there, we came across, and convinced ourselves to buy an "Activity Train Table." The table claims claims to be six toys in one. It's a train ta...

...ok, so she's really not Conan O'Brien's baby. This is Caroline, and Avery spent some time with her and her big sis, Kate, this morning for bagels. He really seems to sense when a child is younger than he is. He kept calling Caroline, "baby" and touching her and pointing at her. Her older sis, Kate, was totally not impressed. After visiting Kate, Caroline, and of course, their lovely mama, Moira, we dropped Avery off while he napped at nan and popi's and we shopped. Yay! Then, later, nan sneezed (and you wonder why I am writing this, but...) and Avery responded, "Bwess You." He said bless you! He used to say "Achoo" when people sneezed, but now he's learned to say bless you. too cute.

We had to dress Avery in a fuzzy suit with a pom pom hat tonight, of course. This was, of course, because it was COLD outside, and not just because it's so cute. Then, I tried to get a picture of him while wearing said suit. This was what I caught. First, a good picture of his bottom stuffed into the suit... then, there was his little hand (can't see much else!) ... a cheek... Finally, we got him into his stroller and he sort of complied... We're all really sleepy because we're trying to get Avery to sleep through and NOT just deliver a bottle in the middle of the night. It's hard now, but it will be better for everyone later, I am sure. Our new house, with Avery sleeping in his own room, makes things much easier. Other Avery-isms of the last few days: 1. He now says, "Come in!" when he hears someone at the door, or knows he's going to be going outside. 2. Lately, he likes to hide in the back of the closet, behind my hanging clothes, where al...

Two more little Avery-isms today: 1. Avery is now walking around saying "Peeka". We call him "Boo Boo" or "Boo", so he thinks that the game was "Peeka, Boo!" 2. We were going over a bridge this evening on the way home and Avery said, "Bye, Tom. Bye Tom. Bye bye, Tom." We realized that Grandpa Tom always rides a bike, so he figured that was Tom who went by the car on a bike. Then he launched into a whole "Tom. Tom. Sashee. Shesha. Sasheee." He says Gramma Sally in many different ways.

Two funny things today: 1. Avery went to the Franklin Institute with Hopie this afternoon. When he was "telling" me about his day, he called it the "toot toot". 2. Avery covered his ears and said, "Peekaboo!" this evening. He gets the IDEA of the game, but might still need some work on his technique.

We did a little winding (upside) down tonight before bed.

Avery's been busting out looks that appear like they will follow us into the future. First, this morning, he climbed his way into a chair and was clearly too busy for picture taking, eating his yogurt and cereal bar. I think we might want to get him a little lounge chair...but that might be a little much. Then, later, a look of scorn for daddy, who was clearly not letting him table dance like he wanted to. Finally, going out into the cold, Avery stuffed a bunch of crackers into his mouth at the same time and was intent on chewing the whole lot. The funny thing is, sometimes I am not really sure if he has a lot of food stuffed in there, or if the protrusion is just part of his chubby little cheeks.

We decided that, although totally fitting with the vibe of our new house, the zebra rug in the living room had to be relocated. While Avery is 1 1/2 and eating raisins and stain-y juice and other smushy foods, that rug was not a living room accessory. Avery and Walker had fun playing zebra while we wrapped it up to put it away, or possibly move it to our bedroom. Then, to celebrate, we went to the Academy of Natural Sciences with Uncle Justin. We saw live butterflies, turtles and bunnies, and also stuffed zebras. Avery missed Auntie Aimee, and said "Aimee" a few times on the way to the museum. We hope to see her soon, too!

Hopie has been teaching Avery to cover his ears whenever he hears sirens. She's just concerned that the loud noise will damage his hearing. It's very cute, because even if he hears sirens in a distance, he'll cover up his ears. Today, we were walking back from the playground and heard some sirens. Instead of covering up his own ears, Avery covered Walker's ears. He does sweet and caring things like this all time. It just seems to be such a nice, empathetic sort of quality.

Avery helped Walker make a Fall Stew last night, and then enjoyed a little "shoup" afterwards.

Avery is now forming very short sentences. These are clearly his thoughts, jumbled together, that he's been trying to get out for a while. As an example, the other morning, Walker was in the bathroom, and there were some bathroom sounds. Avery turned to me and said, "Daddy? Beep Beep!" So what if his first sentences are about sounds coming from the bathroom!? They totally count.

We all had a couple of rough nights there, as Avery adjusted to Daylight Savings Time. I know we cannot claim that it was a traumatic experience, of course. I mean, it's only Daylight Savings Time. When the switch happened, however, and we tried to put Avery to bed a little later/on time according to our Fall hours, he first got incredibly punchy and couldn't stop laughing. Then, he acted like he was being tortured. This went on for a few days. Tonight, however, in the Shore-Gilmore household, all's quiet and well.

One of Avery's favorite games is Pillow Diving. In our old house, after bathtime, I used to bring Avery to our bed to get changed into Pjs and ready to go to sleep. He'd always have fun diving and playing in the sheets. This is actually one of the reasons for his first real injury. Now that our bedroom is on a whole different level, and Avery has a whole floor to himself, there are not really many opportunities for pillow diving----except at Nan and Popi's. At Nan and Popi's, when he's not stealing sharp objects from Popi's desk, or opening childproof vitamin jars, this is one of Avery's past times. You might even catch him saying, "Peeelo" now, too.