From the Mouths of (Our) Babes

Avery's little friend Eva was asking me about my rings yesterday evening in the park. She wanted to know about each one. When we got to my wedding ring, she said she wanted a wedding ring. Her teacher asked her who she was going to marry. She replied with enthusiasm, "Avery's mommy!" So Kristy told her that I was already married. She quickly turned, hugged Avery, and said, "I am going to marry Avery!" To this, Avery demanded, "I didn't agree to that!"

Avery saw a picture the other day, and told me, "That's George Washington!" How did he know??? So I asked him, "How do you know that?" He replied, "Because he's Pop Tom's brother!"

...For example, eating butter.

Avery loves to chat. The other day at the pool, for example, he was carrying on a whole conversation, which included a bit of jumping, of course, at the pool. There was also a pizza party in his class last Monday. I got a note from the mom who brought in the pizzas for lunch. She said that Avery's little friend Charlie had three pieces (where does he put them????), but Avery was chatting the whole time with her husband, and so only had a bite. Very funny little chatty Avery.

I really wish we could bottle whatever makes Avery's skin so scrumptious. Honestly. I mean, I know it's a mix of things, but if we ate really fatty yogurt all the time and never went into the sun, would our skin look like that?

Avery created an anatomically correct male figure out of playdoh yesterday. I am unsure if this photo fully captures it.

After getting home from the Littlest Friends Festival at Rittenhouse, Avery requested to use the pot tonight. He was successful, but a little chaos ensued afterwards that we will share only with family, on a need to know basis. That said, we called Nan and Popi to share his victory over the diaper. We're pretty sure this potty training business will all be settled before kindergarten.

While reading a bedtime story, I asked Avery what baby pigs were called. He replied, with enthusiasm, "OINKLETS!"

Avery asked, on the way to school yesterday, "Mom, is it fall yet?" I told him that no, it wasn't fall yet, and that summer was just starting. He replied, "But leaves are falling." Yes, they are... "And it's not hot." No, not so hot lately. "So Sophia is going to come to Trinity soon!" I think it was a very logical conclusion drawn. Unfortunately, it's not quite fall...but Sophia will join Avery in the intermediate class in September! Avery's counting the days. In this picture, Avery and Sophia are examining the crawfish flown in from New Orleans for our Crawfish Boil. The kids had way more fun making homes for them, and weddings (?), than they did eating them.

Avery told me that he wanted me to stay his mommy, and Walker his daddy. I wasn't sure what brought this on, but I told him that, of course, we always will be. Whoever is your mommy and daddy will always be your mommy and daddy. With this, he started to cry. In tears and sobs, he said, "But I want Aimee and Justin to get married!" So, confused, I replied, "They are getting married this weekend, sweetie. Don't worry." Avery said, "No, no, no. When Aimee and Justin get married then they are going to be my mommy and daddy and I am going to go live with them." "No they won't, sweetheart, you are going to stay living with us even after Aimee and Justin get married." "But Sashee told me that they are going to be my new mommy and daddy." By the way, in defense of any misunderstood conversation with Sashee, who clearly did NOT say this, Avery has been doing a lot of this whisper down the lane sort of story telling lately....

Here, he was probably telling a story, or perhaps telling everyone what he wished on earlier---a CAHR. And what could be better than a dump truck? YOU probably wished for a dump truck, right? We went to our dinner club last night and had a lot of fun enjoying local flavors, the theme of the night. Avery went around asking everyone how they liked their water ice, "What flavor is yours, Dan?" When he woke up this morning, and the first thing he said was, "Maybe we can go to Baby Jonah's again soon. I really liked the people I met there." Photo courtesy of Christoph's camera phone. Too funny. Oh, and he picked out those shoes---and the right size---at Target. I couldn't NOT get them.

We were reading a book this morning to start the day. In the book, we came across a picture of a bird. Avery pointed to the bird and said, "See this bird? This bird is NOT a robin." He wagged his finger knowingly in front of my face. Then he said, "It is not a sparrow." He wagged his finger again. " Thi s bird is a Sago . And it has a looooong beak. See it's beak? And it has FOUR wings, see? One, two, three and four. And it has NO tail." He then smiled, coming to the punchline," So because it has no tail, it has to poop out of his mouth." He then laughed hysterically at his own joke. He is now officially a big boy.

Avery got a dinosaur from his friend from school, Gracie. We named the dino Spike Junior. He roars, and walks, and even laughs. On the same day, Hopi got Avery an egg that you put in water and it hatches. It hatched a baby dinosaur! So now, we have a whole little family of dinos growing in our living room.

Taken at Sophia's Third Birthday, courtesy of lovely Laura. I LOVED this face painter and was amazed at Avery's ability to sit still while she painted him. I think she had fun, too. He was so excited about getting to a tiger. I also just showed him this picture and he said, "I think Avery looks like a real tiger in this picture." I think that there's some cupcake there on his chin.

Avery apparently asked Anna on a play date today. She, apparently, was a bit surprised at first. Then, she and he got into and walked around all day telling everyone. They even informed me that they were "going on a (play) date" when I arrived to pick Avery up today. His teacher told me, "Anna doesn't let the boys push her around, and they are both very articulate. They are a good match." Walker just told a story and tried to spell a word we didn't want Avery to hear. It was "H-I-T". Now, Avery is walking around the room saying, "I like that word. H-I-T. Oh, Oh. H-I-T."