Summer concert at the Getty

On stage is Recess Monkey. Three elementary school teachers from Seattle compose the band.  The concert was a lot of fun on the lawn of the Getty.

Avery really loved watching the older kids run around and dance.

We were so lucky to share this fun event with our friends Kelly and Maddie.  Thanks Kelly for making the plans.

This is Avery and Daddy in front of Irises by Van Gogh (obviously).  We were last here on Avery's 1 year birthday.

Avery was so proud after walking down this long flight of stairs by herself, with Baby.

We walked back to the car rather than taking the tram.  Might not do that again anytime soon. But at the end of the walk was a sculpture garden including this big beautiful horse that Avery wanted to ride.  But the sign said "do not touch".  Now when she sees pictures of this horse, she says 'horsie on merry-go-round' and I try to explain that the horse lives in the garden at the Getty, not headed for a merry-go-round at the pier.

First Haircut

Please note the luscious curly-cue in the middle of her head and how it is quite lengthy compared to the other curls.

This is Avery prior to her first haircut.  She was really excited all week when we talked about it, but once we got in the car to go she got very quiet and concerned.  When we got to the salon a little girl was getting her hair braided and Avery kept saying "no haircut, no haircut".  

We talked her off the ledge by pointing out that she could sit in an airplane and watch TV while she got her haircut and we noted how brave the other little girls were as they got their hair done.

Enno was her stylist and he was very sweet to her and tried to engage her and he coped well with every turn of the head, evening up all the different lengths and keeping her curls and her bangs.

She did not shed a single tear.  She held her water and for a while held her lovey, but ended up dropping it before the end and forgetting about it entirely as I shoved it back in the diaper bag.

Here is Avery watching herself in the mirror getting her hair cut.  Note the TV that they have perfectly placed for distraction.

Happy, happy as the adventure nears it's end.

I nearly jumped for joy to see that curly-cue gone and the little curls in the back curl into place.
One last touch, Enno actually got a bobby pin to stay in her hair and threaded 2 little flowers into it.  She was very proud and happy to have survived her first haircut.  She kept the flowers in for quite some time although she was tempted on many occasions to remove them.  So one last note, they saved her hair for us in a little envelope and gave us a little certificate and we totally forgot it and left it at the salon.  Oh well, she will have to take our word for it that on August 15, 2009 just one day shy of 25 months she got her first haircut at First Cut on Montana in Santa Monica.  Then we went to brunch at Blue Plate and saw Alison Hannigan.  We never see famous people.  She was very pretty and was out to breakfast with her baby daughter and husband.  I digress, first haircuts are super fun.  We love the new 'do, Avery Mae.

Summer Fun

As Avery would say "Yum-city!"

Is there anything better than outdoor enjoyment of popsicles during summer with friends?  What a special day! 

Sweet Quincy

Avery loves to lie down next to Quincy and look him in the face and start laughing, talking to him, trying to kiss him, sometimes hitting him on the head (which is strongly discouraged), sometimes petting him sweetly. Quincy is almost always happy to oblige her in whatever she is up to.  He will lie there as pictured letting her throw dishtowels over him and balance toys on his head.  He is also happy to steal Mr. Snuffleupagus and watch her squeal!  He really is a good boy and we are lucky to have him in our lives.

Tidbits

Avery recently had her 2 year appt, she weighs 26 pounds and is 33 inches tall. She had to get just one shot and was pretty brave considering she definitely knows what's coming now. We talked about walking up and down stairs which Avery still would much prefer to crawl up and down the stairs, Dr Woo said it's a confidence thing. So Daddy has successfully been working on Avery's confidence this weekend while I worked. Last night she walked up all the stairs and she just walked down 3 stairs without hands, we are very proud and she is so proud of herself. She has started watching Sesame Street on occasion and learned yesterday about up and down. Now before we know it she'll be up and down no problem.

She also has an interesting way of counting to 4. She every time says "one, two, three, five, eighteen, four!" I try counting the correct sequence and she never ever says it, she always says "one, two, three, five, eighteen, four!". Help!

Every Tuesday this summer at school there have been special events, like Bubble Magic and Parrot Day. It has been so neat to be able to ask her about her day and actually have her tell me things that she learns. On Parrot Day she painted a verbal picture for me of the man wearing a hat who had a lot of birds, including a Macaw, that were green and yellow and orange and the bird was crying because he was tired (ok not so sure about that one) and on and on about what she saw. She for sure did not wake up that Tuesday morning knowing what macaw meant or what one looks like. After 1.5 years of driving home with her and not really knowing what happened during the day, other than "she had a good day", it is so great that she can tell me about her experiences. It makes our twice-weekly nighttime hour-long commute go by much quicker than listening to music or NPR.

She is much better about saying "thank you", still working on the "please" part.

When she says 'no' now, she follows it with an emphatic "not!", like not is an extra emphatic no. It makes me laugh, but usually she is saying it about something that is not funny.  For instance: Mommy: "Avery, eat your carrots!"  Avery: "no! ... not!!!" in a sort of whiney tone.  

She also has a bike reflector that she calls her camera.  Here are a few pix of her taking pix with her 'camera'.   Included in the pictures are her new rocking horse "Carrot" who Avery actually named herself as we were talking about how horses like to eat carrots.  She was so lucky to get 2 rocking horses for her birthday, "carrot" is from Grancy and "rocky" (named by daddy) is from her friends Lawson and Andrew.  Avery rode a rocking horse at Lawson's 3rd birthday party and word got around how much she loved it and hence she ended up with 2, which is good for when Oskar comes over to play so they can both ride a horsie.  What a lucky girl.

Two Bikes, Daddy's Birthday and One Ugly Cake

For Daddy's birthday we got beach cruisers. I am historically not much of a bike rider, but I will say our recent cruises down to the beach and up to the SM pier have been really fun. Avery LOVES to ride the bike with daddy and she's pretty happy when I come riding up beside them too. Thanks Daddy for being born so we can go on bike rides together.

So about 6 months ago, Jon found a recipe for a key lime bundt cake that he wanted me to make for his birthday. It is by far the ugliest cake I have ever made (well, my sister and I have made a couple of heinous looking attempts at our GranHaysel's burnt caramel cake). But it was so very limey (Jon said next time it needs more lime) and delicious. And for sure I will crisco the heck out of my bundt pan, because a little butter did nothing to get that cake out whole. Mmmm, it was tasty though.

Avery helped Daddy blow out the candles.

Happy Birthday, we love you so much.

ford

We recently went to the Ford Amphitheater for their Family Big World Fun series, the weekend we picked was music from Zimbabwe. What a beautiful venue. Interestingly Jon and Avery had seen the same group perform at our local Farmer's market 2 weeks before. Who knew? Anyway, it was really fun and all the kids got to go on stage to play the xylophone looking things, called a marimba. Once we got up there Avery was a little overwhelmed and just wanted Mommy to play the marimba. I was really good at it, haha. Avery enjoyed the music and the dancing very much.

New Best Friend

Since discovering her Sesame Street Gund characters on her birthday that Grandpa Michael sent her, Avery and Abby Cadabby are pretty much inseparable. We have even allowed her to start taking her into the crib with her. She loves Abby, Abby gets to ride in the seat of her baby stroller, while the other 9 characters ride in the back basket of her new stroller. This is a pic of her and Abby cozy asleep.

Cupcake Promise

Avery and I talked for about a week about making cupcakes on her birthday.  Every day she would ask about it.  So after returning from San Diego, we broke out the recipe, ingredients and the ever-feared mixer (sort of like the vacuum).  She learned things like whisking, stirring and pouring.  We had fun together.  The prerequisites of her school was little or no frosting as they would just scrape it off and they would cut the cupcakes in half so the kids don't get too much sugar and go crazy.  So I decided to make mini cupcakes and found little candies "confetti decorettes" to create a little flower on each one with just a dab of icing to make them stick.  I was happy with how they came out.   
I used the remaining batter to make the Joy of Cooking Black Bottom Cupcakes for a barbeque.  So delicious with cream cheese and chocolate chips cooked inside the cupcake.  I gave Avery the choice between a regular sized Black Bottom Cupcake or a mini cupcake with a flower.  She of course picked the flower.  
She blew out both her candles, one at a time without any practice of that ritual.
 She then pretended to share her cupcake with GG via iChat.  It was a happy birthday. 

 Included are also a couple of cute gift enjoyment pictures.

Birthday Dilemma: Home or Hotel?

Avery loved our hotel, props to the SD Grand Hyatt.  

The view from our room included a little red train that would come by all day, with a little "ding, ding" every time.  When it went out of view, she'd say "where'd the train go?".  We'd reassure her it would come back soon.

From the other side of the room was her favorite view, the pool.

We went swimming every day and Avery had a major courage breakthrough jumping off the stair to us and if her head didn't go under she would be disappointed and say "head go under" and try again.  We had lots of fun in the pool.  It was chilly but she didn't mind one bit. 

SeaWorld was the day before her birthday.  On her birthday morning, we ran to a restaurant called The Mission for breakfast, it was delicious, highly recommend it. Avery enjoyed french toast and pancakes and orange juice too.  Jon had a healthy but truly delicious egg white, tofu, brown rice dish.  Don't worry, he shared our pancakes and french toast too.  We then walked back to the hotel through downtown San Diego. We then went swimming one last time before check out, it was her actual birthday after all!  

As we pulled into the garage, mommy saying "home again, home again, jiggity jig!" Avery was crying saying "no home, more hotel, go hack to the hotel."  Ahhhh, home sweet home.

Happy 2nd Birthday!!

Rather than have a birthday party, we decided to take a family trip to San Diego to take Avery to Sea World for the first time.  It started with a very lengthy car ride to Burbank to drop off Quincy at his friend Rally's house, then poor Avery was such a trooper through traffic, missed exits, unknown destination for lunch, more missed turns.  All told she sat in the car for 5 hours but even as we neared our destination she remained in good spirits, undressing baby and playing with her baby's outfit.
SeaWorld has a whole Sesame Street area with rides and water play. Avery and Daddy went on Elmo's ride, then we all went on Abby's ride (very teacup-like, blech!!).  Avery was so happy to see all her favorite Sesame Street characters with their very own rides.  We also went to the 4-D Elmo movie.  I will say, probably not the best first movie for a 2 year old, given the 3-d glasses, the water spraying on your legs and the huge cookie flying at your face.  She ended up turned around facing me, all snuggled in, quite afraid of the whole experience.  But now she remembers it fondly, so that is good.

Here we are waiting for the Shamu Believe! show to begin.  Not an ounce of shade to be found, FYI.  But we grabbed the first show at 11 am so it wasn't too terribly hot yet.  Avery seemed to really like it but she got very sleepy mid-way through and needed some snuggles while she looked over her shoulder at Shamu.  Jon and I really enjoyed the show, so much so that we didn't capture any photos of the beautiful whale.

  

Oh my, look at that polar bear.  Avery really liked looking at the single polar bear we got to see.  So much so that when we exited the area and entered the store (that is present after all rides/exhibits with correlating stuffed animals, key rings, posters, etc.) she started picking up one polar bear, hugging it, setting it down and picking up another one.  We felt she had to have a memento from our day and bought her a little polar bear.  We were determined that she not name it 'Polar Bear' so we gave her a few recommendations, let her think it through and she's settled on 'Whitey', and the name has stuck.  Whitey it is, appropriate for her little white polar bear.  Happy Birthday Avery Mae!  

Lazy Summer Weekends with Daddy

Okay, definitely not lazy.  While I have worked the past 4 weekends, Jon and Avery have come up with a great routine keeping very busy.  They go to the Santa Monica College pool one morning and the beach the other morning.  One morning they even met our friends John and Maddie at the SM pier to ride on the carousel.  Avery is so lucky to have her daddy all to herself.  It is such quality time for them to share, even though I miss being with them terribly.  We are looking forward to the next 2 weekends together, finally! 

Moving Up

Avery has progressed from playing her piano with her tushy to now playing with her feet.  She loves to sit on top of it and make sweet music.  Here is also a good visual of how much more hair she has these days.  We are still holding out on her 1st haircut, although it may be soon.