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!  

Little Fishy

We recently took another trip to Florida.  We learned more each day that our little girl is quite a water baby.  We were able to visit the beach and pool each day. We flew a fun little fish kite.  We were able to spend time with GG, Poppy, Daynie, Grandpa Michael, and Great Grandmas Jenny and June.  Jon and I enjoyed a rare date night.  We enjoyed 4 flights where Avery behaved quite well, thanks to many distractions that we brought along, including Avery's first portable DVD experience. Thank you Sesame Street. We have tons of video that we have yet to sort through but hopefully we'll get some up soon.  

Our Swim Baby

By the last day at the pool, Avery was calling herself a "swim baby" and Jon and I were standing 4-5 feet apart, throwing Avery back and forth between us, her head going under water. Every time she came up from under the water, she was smiling and turning around in our arms as fast as possible to go back to the other parent. This went on for quite some time. You can also see in almost every picture that the best pool toy is a pair of orange Crocs. They float great.

Jon credits her early swimming classes when she was 8-18 mos old with this comfort in the water. I think it also helped going to the pool every day for a week. She also was able to start "jumping" in from the side. "Humpty Dumpty sat on a wall, Humpty Dumpty had a great Faaaaaallllll," said Mommy or Daddy. Avery would lean toward us, we'd catch her and swim her across to the other side. "More Humpy, More Humpy," said Avery. So the moral of this story is in June we are signing back up for swim lessons at the Y. Since returning home Avery has asked every day for the pool.

Family Time

Kisses with GG

Healing Garden time with GG

Avery and Great Grandma June

Great-great Uncle Irving and his wife Ricki

We didn't successfully capture on film all the family we saw.  That is one thing I am so bad at, keeping the camera snapping.  But these are a few pictures of Avery with some family.

First Beach Fun

The first night we went to the beach, we didn't come prepared to go in the ocean but Avery was so excited to put her feet in and then to sit down in the water.  We didn't make that mistake again, but it was so fun regardless of the preparedness.  The evening was warm and the water was perfect.  We found a shallow little area in which to play and play.  This was the beginning of Avery's love affair with the ocean.

Florida Doesn't Slide

Thanks to the beating sun, the slide at the local playground doesn't really slide, it scoots.  This makes for many great slide pictures. 

Grandpa and NanaLin

We recently enjoyed a visit from Grandpa and NanaLin from Kentucky.  We went to the park and enjoyed time at home.  We even went out to dinner and left Avery home with a babysitter/ monitor while she slept (wow!).  I got to get out and go to a yoga class and do some shopping while Avery spent time with "Nee-en" and "Papa". We enjoyed a couple of yummy meals at home, thanks to my new favorite cookbook How to Eat Supper.  A great tomato soup and a fusilli with white beans, yum yum.  I even got Avery to try a couple of sips of soup.  Thanks for coming to visit us, as always it was a pleasure. They left Wed and when I came home from work, as soon as I walked in Avery said "Nee-en?", "Papa?".  We had to explain again that they had gone home to Kentucky.  She misses her NanaLin and Papa.

Grancy Time

It is so windy today!  Weather.com says it's 55 degrees but I don't believe them, it is so cold.  I know for those of you who live in cold places you think I am crazy, but seriously it's cold today. So for Avery's outing to the park with Grancy we got her all bundled up. They had fun playing outside while I stayed home to clean up this place!  Thanks Grancy, we love you.

Story Time

Avery now likes to have us read her any book and then say "Avery read it" and she sits and reads through the book herself.  I have also been encouraging her to read to Baby.  Today she sat and read to Baby, Doll, Elmo and her Farm Animals.  Granted I helped Doll sit up, but otherwise this moment was created by Miss Avery Mae.

Lunching with Friends

Avery and Annelise entranced by the water show

Audrey, Annelise, Rebecca and Avery

Lunching with our friends

Mmmmm, spaghetti!

Today we were so lucky to get together with some great friends for lunch.  Two of my old NNP colleagues (old meaning former, not OLD) JoAnna with her girls Audrey and Annelise & Colleen with her youngest daughter Rebecca and Carolyn, a nurse with whom I currently work all gathered for a morning of fun.  We drove from JoAnna's house to the Americana in Glendale, which is so cool if you live in that neck of the woods you should check it out.  Jon offers a perk to Katsuya there too.  They have a big fountain in the middle that puts on quite a show.  There is also a playground with a big slide.  Then there are a number of neat shops and restaurants.  We ate at Cheesecake Factory.  Rebecca, 16 and Audrey, 6 were able to join us as it is their spring break.  The girls were all very well behaved (thank you Rebecca for entertaining Avery). Avery ate spaghetti with marinara sauce and really, really enjoyed it. We really enjoyed the time with our friends and hope we'll do it again soon.   

Egg Hunt and Horsies

Today we joined our dear friends to have an easter egg hunt. There were lots of eggs to be found and the easter bunny even came and dropped off easter baskets for Avery and her friend. It was such fun. I had extra fun because I got to dress up Avery like a little doll! Later we changed into sweats and walked to see the horses. We tried to see Batman again but he was busy. Above are a few pictures from the day. Happy Passover and Easter to all.

Very Merry - Go - Round

Avery found her dream toy today. She immensely enjoyed going round and round. This was a gift given to our friend K's family when she was just 6 months old back in the 70's. Fortunately her parents held onto it for their grandchildren (and their friends) to enjoy. Thanks for a great day!

Good Friend

Oskar comes over to play many an evening with Avery. They are recently interacting more and more rather than playing side-by-side. It's fun to see them play and make each other laugh. Oskar is leaving soon for the summer and likely for good so we are trying to enjoy each time (and take more pictures).

Florida

Avery is so happy to see her Auntie Daynie

So happy

Playing dress-up at GG's house

Lethargic on the floor at home hours after landing at LAX with a fever of 104

Avery and Jon left me last week to go visit Jon's family in Florida.  They were gone for 6 nights, the first of which was my first ever away from Avery.  I was sad to see them go but glad that they got to visit with Auntie Daynie, GG and Poppy.  It felt a little like a part of me was missing but it was also a little freeing.  I was able to go to yoga, out to dinner with friends and to the dogbeach with Quincy to meet friends (1 person friend and 1 dog friend). But I worked most every day so that kept me busy and distracted.  Never mind taking over Quincy duties that Jon usually tends to.  He's a lot of work!  We had to recruit plenty of people to help, including Oskar's parents, our old dogwalker and my work friends who let me come in late so I could wait for the sun to rise before walking him one morning.  Oh, and let's not talk about me taking over Great Work Perks ticket center, I don't know how Jon keeps up with all those orders! Avery had a good time with everyone but did pick up a nasty bug along the way.  She has had a fever (up to 104.3!) and cough since returning.  But I am sure if she could say, she would say that it was well worth it.  She has a new thing where she freaks out whenever a camera is even turned on, so getting good pix has become a bit of a nightmare.  We hope you feel better real soon, Daynie, we love you!