New Friends

Avery loves to drag her dolls and stuffed animals around and take kitchen towels and tuck them in for naps, whether morning, noon or night.  She has recently added 2 new critters into this mix, Bunny and Pinky.  If one gets relocated, they all do.  It is quite a chore as the party grows to include Baby, Doll, Elmo, Bunny AND Pinky.  

5 word sentence of truth

Last weekend Avery and Jon met our friends John and Maddie at the beach.  They had lots of fun and Jon was kind enough to send me phone pix to my work email so I could see pictures while I worked.  Avery has talked about Maddie and the water and John and the ocean every day since.  The other morning when I woke her up for school she was talking about the beach and told me a story I had never heard.  She said, "Maddie fall in the water."  I said, "Oh Maddie fell in the ocean?", and she said, "yes."  So I asked Jon if that was true and he said he had almost forgotten but indeed Maddie had fallen in the water and her daddy had rescued her.  That was the first 5 word sentence I ever noticed and it was a story we hadn't talked about over and over.  I am enjoying that she can tell us things about her days when we are away from her. 

Our Weekend - 23 months

We enjoyed another visit to the Aquarium of the Pacific. Early Saturday morning Jon and I were talking about what to do that day and I said, maybe we could go to the aquarium. Avery immediately got so excited and started talking about fishies. We proceeded to go for a run at the beach, the whole time she kept asking to see the fish, very upset that we had to go back home first before leaving for the aquarium.

We drove to the aquarium in mommy's new 2007 Highlander Hybrid, super fun. When we got there we went straight to the 3 story high aquarium. It happened that a diver was in there, giving a little talk to the kids, which just finished as we walked up. Avery weaved her way through all the visitors, up to the glass. Several other young kids were standing there already with their hands on the glass and the diver started touching their hands with his through the glass. Avery placed her hand on the glass and he touched her hand too, which scared her and she started backing away. The diver started making silly gestures at her to be less scary. He was very sweet and even played peek-a-boo with her. I stood with her and encouraged her and she stood and watched him but she wouldn't go up to the glass again until he was long gone. Now she talks often of the diver.

Then we got to see sea lions and seals give a great show. There is a glass tunnel kind of thing and they swim all around there. It is my favorite part of the aquarium. We also waited forever to pet the star fish and sea anemones. We spent a couple of minutes there and as we finished she kept saying more, more. We decided not to wait in the line again as she had cried most of the wait the first time around. All-in-all it was a great visit and I am so glad we are members so we can go for just an hour every now and again.

Then we went to Wahoo's and Avery chowed down on a quesadilla and black beans. She seems to be going through a growth spurt as evidenced by how tight her 2T swimsuit is in this picture. Sunday we met friends at the beach with our kids and dogs. It was fun, but we all agreed, next time no dogs, so the kids can go play in the water.

The Skirball and Noah's Ark

Avery recently enjoyed a visit to the Skirball museum to see the Noah's Ark exhibit. I had heard about it for years, ever since our friends started having kids.  Everyone spoke so highly of this place.  I have never seen such a kid friendly, pleasant, educational and enjoyable exhibit in any museum I have ever been to.  Charlotte and Ella came along and all 3 girls had a great time.  I highly recommend this to any LA natives or to anyone visiting LA.  It is unlike anything else. Here Avery is turning the wheel to make the sound of rain.

This section of the museum was for kids 4 and older, but Daddy went ahead and took her up into the rope rafters for some climbing fun.
There is a little section for cleaning up little brown plastic pieces.  Jon said they were poop but I said surely they were coal or dirt.  Then one of the ladies working there asked if the kids wanted to help her clean up the poop.  I guess all the animals on the ark must have pooped at one time or another.  
Noah's Ark was fun!