18 months

Lots of new things are going on for Miss 18 month old Avery.  She started really running over the past week or so.  This has resulted in a couple of skinned knees but she squeals in delight as she moves quickly about.  She loves to talk and talk and talk.  She lies in her crib each morning and has this string of consciousness that goes something like this morning's: "blahblahblahlblah... daddy bath, mommy bath, avery bath, avery bath, quincy bath, RALLY bath, RALLY bath, Oskar bath, Avery bath, RALLY, RALLY, RALLY.  No moon, no moon.  Moon."   

We said goodbye to bottles yesterday.  There were 3 experiences over the past week that led to this decision.  The first was her pediatrician asking how the transition to sippy cups was going.  "It's going."  Secondly was finding out that kids in the Toddler room at daycare that she is transitioning into do not drink from bottles, just sippy cups or dixie cups.  "Dixie cups?  Seriously, my baby is going to be able to drink from a dixie cup in no time??".  Lastly was while watching a 3 year-old on SuperNanny SCREAMING "BABABABABA!!" as the mother cried at having to take away his bottle and throw them out in the trash.  That was the straw that broke this camel's back.  No more baba's.  She has done great, of course.  It always ends up being my issue, not hers.

She is excited about our upcoming trip on the "AP" to Florida next week to visit Jon's family. She weighed 22 lb 12 oz at the pediatrician last week.  Unlike her lucky cousins who don't have to go to their pediatrician until they are 24 months, Avery had to get 4 shots which we had postponed over the past few months.  As we waited for the nurse to come back after the doctor was finished with us, Avery knew we were up to no good and kept desperately saying "byebye? byebye? byebye?"  Poor girl, she was a trooper though.

This week Jon has moved the headquarters of GWP to an actual office space, freeing our living room up to no longer be an at-home office.  This is a very exciting change for us.  It has become more and more difficult for Jon to get any work done when Avery and I are around, so we are very happy for him to have a great new space in which to work. Avery misses him when he's away.  Once we get the Lexmark office printer moved out of our living room corner and into the new office, I am thinking we'll have a "my living room is no longer an office" party.  Cheers!

An Historic Day

"... This is the meaning of our liberty and our creed - why men and women and children of every race and every faith can join in celebration across this magnificent mall, and why a man whose father less than sixty years ago might not have been served at a local restaurant can now stand before you to take a most sacred oath ..."  Barack Obama 1/20/09

I had the great pleasure of working on inauguration day and Avery did her very best in trying to transition to the next room "toddler 2".  On our way home we listened to NPR and were fortunate enough to be driving home as they replayed President Obama's inaugural speech.  The above line had stood out to me this morning when I watched the speech at work in a hallway with many others crowded to watch one of few available televisions.  It stood out to me in the car because as the crowds' applause rang through, the tiny little 18 month old hands in my backseat could be heard clapping with the crowd.   What a day!  

For another amazing image, please visit my sister's blog.  Absolutely precious.

My First Sand Castle & AA meeting!

Of course we didn't have a camera with us this morning, so this is only a representation of Avery's first sand castle that she built with her own loving hands. To really imagine exactly what it looked like, picture it without the animal figurines, mermaids, moats, ornate spires, and exact scale replicas of 17th century historical buildings and then STOMP all over it. This will give you an idea of what it looked like. She had so much fun building it.

We then got to walk (slowly) by an AA meeting that was being held on the beach. Venice is such a great place for kids!

Books

So we have rearranged Avery's toys to occupy the bottom 9 boxes of an Ikea piece of furniture that used to house all kinds of non-kid stuff.  It has now been taken over by Avery's things.  She loves to pull ALL the books off.  As today is nearing it's end I was placing the books back on the shelf after looking at them skewed all over the floor all day long and Avery immediately came over and started pulling them off the shelf.  I playfully said, "Why, why do you pull all the books off the shelf?" and I heard her say (as only a mother could), "Because I love books".  An outsider probably would have heard something along the lines of "a foo la boox", but I laughed because it sounded so much like "because I love books".  Happy stories to you all.

PS I have a new macbook pro (yeah!!) and no longer have to share Jon's work computer so I hope to keep up with this blogging a bit better now :)

True Hollywood Story - Batman Saves Quincy!!!

Quincy and his beloved half-brother, Ernie

Where do I begin on this one? I (Jon) took Avery and Quincy over to our friends parents' house. Quincy was going to play with his half brother Ernie the yellow lab and Avery was going to get to see the horses. Their house is in the most unique & cool part of Los Angeles. One minute you are in the middle of the hustle and bustle of LA and when you take a turn down this hidden road marked private it brings you into a rustic canyon community that looks and feels like a "Country Time" lemonade commercial crossed with a Norman Rockwell painting. There are horses, open streams, horse back riding trails, no sound of traffic & picturesque mountains in the background.

Their parents have lived there for a long time and over the years the neighbors have changed. Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous have taken over their neighborhood. So as we were walking and Avery was petting $100k horses (seriously), our friend was telling me that Christian Bale, aka Batman from Batman Begins & Dark Knight just spent millions of $ on the property at the end of the street. He hadn't moved in yet and never visits it because he is going to rebuild the house, but he built this amazing swing set. Our plan was to sneak the kids onto this really cool swing set and let it get the use it deserved. When we approached the house we saw people sitting in the yard having a picnic in the yard. I was keeping my eye on Avery, when I looked again I saw a yellow lab run across the yard and boundlessly leap into Christian Bale's swimming pool. I said out loud "Oh look, they also have a yellow lab." I then saw the yellow lab try to get out of the pool, but he didn't know where the steps were. Just then, this man comes running over and grabs the yellow lab by the collar and lifts him out of the pool. My friend and I look at each other and say that's not their yellow lab, it's QUINCY!!!! We go running over there and who of all people was it that pulled Quincy from the pool... Batman. Quincy's pool-hopping plans for the afternoon were foiled by Batman! Needless to say, Christian Bale wasn't that happy about having his pool hopped by Quincy. We shared some small-talk words with him and he was pleasant, but you could tell a little annoyed. While walking back we were all sure he would have a massive fence and gate built by next week.... Only in LA.

Lions, Tigers & Bears - WOWWW!!!!

We have been trying to get the LA Zoo for the last three months. Every time we have tried to go, everything from sickness to natural disaster (LA Fires) has come up. We were determined to make it there this Friday and nothing would stop us. Of course it turned out to be the coldest day of the year in Los Angeles and many of the animals hid in the back of their enclosures under their heat lamps or were too cold to move and looked like stuffed trophies. Avery was the only smart one in the family because she chose to wear a full winter jacket and hat,while mommy and daddy unwisely chose light jackets.

Avery did have an amazing close encounter with a gorilla. The gorilla came right up to the glass and pressed her eyes and mouth against it while Avery's face was up against the glass. The two of them made eye contact and definitely shared a "moment". When the gorilla then walked away Avery began to cry because she didn't want their moment to end. She also loved many of the other animals she saw. You could tell this by her gleeful exclamation of "WOWWWWW!" The animals that got good responses were Zebras, Giraffes, Bears, Hippos, Monkeys, Seals and Parrots. One funny thing was Avery was walking around the zoo asking to see "Elmo" (she got an Elmo Live for Chrismakah). We will definitely be going back when it warms up so that she can really see all the animals in action.