From the Mouths of (Our) Babes

I heard a sound from the bathroom this morning. Avery had scampered in, shortly after waking up. He called, "Try to find me, mommy." He over-articulated every word, pausing for full (surprise!) effect. I tip toed into the bathroom, humoring him. He usually hides maybe...in front of the counter, but in the corner (sneaky!) or inside the closet, but without actually closing the closet (that would be scary!) However, when I arrived, I couldn't stop laughing.

Avery just said, "Baa Baa Blacksheep, Have you any wool? Yes sir, Yes sir, Three bags full... (what they full of?) ...of clothes!" Seriously. Too funny. He's reciting poetry! Yay school!

Avery woke up a lot the other night complaining of an earache, so yesterday we took him to the doctor. She said he has absolutely no earache, and that it isn't often the case that someone comes in with such a complaint and then finds nothing! He might have just had water in his ear (he's starting to go under in the bath) and didn't know the feeling, she said, and it might have popped when it came out, causing him to get scared. So we went out to Chinese food for dinner to celebrate. Avery ate scallops and proclaimed he liked them, and also had Chinese broccoli and pineapple juice. For whatever reason, this combination, in addition to seeing Charlie when we got home, caused him to get totally crazy. He bit Charlie, ran around yelling, and was just totally wild. Of course, getting him ready to go back to school this morning was not a pretty scene. He finally calmed down when we told him he could bring some of his cars to school. Even though we were gone a very short ti...

...but it was just the humidity in P'town! Imagine that. It was stuck because it was too moist. Another new word in Avery's vocabulary---moist.. So the camera started working about four hours into our drive back, during which Avery was a champ. We would hear laughing in the back seat and turn around to see Avery with Mr. Potato Head (or, as he calls him, Mr. Potato Chip) glasses on, or find that he'd again covered himself with (washable) marker. He read lift the flap books, we sang songs, did a little puppet show, stuck stickers in his hair, and ate strawberry yogurt cereal and peanuts with his TOES. Towards the end, he did get a little cranky. His first request, "AVERY GET DOWN," did not receive his desired response. We told him we were on the highway, so he couldn't get down. He said, "Avery can hold hands with Mommy and get DOWN." I asked him where we would walk, and reminded him that the highway was only for driving, and it wasn...

I love his little hand next to the crab.

A day spent running around in the sun and sand can wear you out! Avery took an unprecedented (here) three hour nap today. Let's just hope he stays asleep a bit later than 5:30 am (which is the time he's woken just about every morning this week) for our trip home tomorrow.

Avery stood in the middle of the room at a cocktail party full of people he didn't know and said, "I want to hug everybody!"

Avery visited the dunes this AM with Pop Tom and Daddy. He found a shell that says LOVE on it, and he'll tell you what it says (it says LOVE!) Daddy lost his phone and Pop Tom lost his key to the bike lock in the dunes. They had to wheel Pop Tom's bike back attached to Avery's stroller, to which Avery remarked, "This is some funny strollering!" Later, we returned to the dunes and said a prayer to St. Anthony. We found both the phone AND the key...in the sand!

Avery's gotten back on his waking at the 5am hour, unfortunately. The past two mornings he's up by 5ish. We're trying to wear him out today with a 6am bike ride, breakfast at 7am, followed by lot of jumping jacks in the sand for about 2 hours. Next up, 10:30am story time. Who is going to be more worn out at the end of this?

He's even wearing his hat the whole time. .... ahhhhh...

Avery is having fun in P'town and we are all getting some rest. Yay!

Leaving Nan and Popi's yesterday, Avery sat down on the sidewalk and declared, "Avery just want to sit awhile right here and eat yogurt." Then, he proclaimed, "Avery have a good day. Have a good day at Nan and Popi's." Tonight, after we read about seven books, as a ploy to stay up just a little bit later, Avery said, "Didn't talk about Avery's day yet! Let's talk about Avery's day!" Then, he told me that he petted a tiny kangaroo at the bunny house. It was "a really tiny kangaroo" and it "crawled all over Avery" and Avery "was supposed to pet it."

Avery has been saying he doesn't like school. He has been having a hard time now being dropped off. Apparently, he's doing great while there. He even joined the dance show on Tuesday, getting up with them and dancing. He stopped at one point and told his teacher, "Nice necklace." And then he continued to dance. But he claims he doesn't like it. And he seems to get his schedule. He knows when he'll have school days. Last night, he woke up screaming, "Mommy Jane!" at 4:30am. And he said, when I arrived, "I said I want Mommy Jane and Mommy Jane came." Aw. Somehow, this is related to school for me, as he was screaming the same the other morning when I dropped him off. Of course, he slept in our bed from that point on, which meant sleep for Avery, no sleep for me. Our friend Anda gave us some good advice regarding school, to have Walker try dropping him off to see if it helps. To be fair, he only cries for about 1-3 minutes. ...

This is Avery's JUMPING. He tried to learn to get some air under him for months, and now he does a lot of jumping every day. He's learned synonymns for jumping, too, including BOINGING. He sometimes will just start jumping down the street, narrating as he goes, "Avery's JUMPING!"

Charlie came over yesterday afternoon to play. Avery and Charlie got on some of Avery's little bikes and rode around. If you know our house, this is funny. There is very little free biking space in our living room, and our garden is about 8 feet X 10 feet (I don't know dimensions, so this could be off, but it's small.) They rode around anyway, and said, "Beep! Beep!" to each other. Then, Avery got off his bike and went over to Charlie. He asked, very clearly, "Charlie, DO YOU want some raisins?" Charlie answered, "No!" And Avery stuffed raisins in his mouth anyway, continuing to ask, "Do you want some raisins?" I think he was trying to be a good host. He shared his toys, entertained his friend---and clearly, you can't leave our house without having a little something to eat. We don't have a picture of the scene, so just posting another from our 4th parade. Here, they were deep in conversation about Charlie...

He wanted cereal right away. When I brought down past our bedroom he said, "Let daddy sleep a little bit." Gee, thanks. At 5am, he asked for and ate: One bowl of cereal with whole milk Half a "Mac and Cheese Dinner" Half of a yogurt One juice box That's about what he had for dinner, too, except he ate the ENTIRE mac and cheese. And he didn't want to go back to sleep after that, so he's out for a bike ride now with his dad. Maybe when he was doing this all the time, we were just more used to it. Or is this REALLY how we always felt? Selective amnesia to propagate the species?

Avery and I were in the park this morning and an older man in a wheel chair (which Avery called 'big stroller') struck up a conversation. Man: Hello, young man, what's your name? Avery: Ave-a-ree. (very clearly! he's just started being really clear with his name.) Man: And what do you do? Do you have a job? Avery: No. No have a job. (looked at me quizzically.) Man: What do you want to be when you grow up? A fireman? policeman? Indian Chief? Avery: I just want to sit on this bench. After that, we departed to have his sushi lunch on the lawn.

I was gone in DC on Monday and Daddy and Avery found the camera! Avery had a good day today. At one point, at Nan and Popi's, he grabbed Popi's MP3 player, stuck the earphones over his ears (correctly) and ran for the door. He announced, "I'm leaving!" He made it out into the hallway before anyone caught up to him. Luckily, he didn't get very far. He did, however, meet a "tiny lady" and try to enter her apartment. "Hi! I'm Avery!" Also, this morning, he was naming us, pointing and saying, "Avery Gilmoh (Gilmore), Daddy Gilmoh, Mommy Gilmoh." I said that I am not Mommy Gilmore, so Avery asked, "What's Mommy's after name?" I love in Avery's language the same sort of thing I love about reading translated books. It's is so fresh and creative, and absolutely clear.