28th Month Update

It's been a VERY busy and crazy month with moving, Christmas and my trip to NYC so I have not been as diligent about tracking all of the fun and cute things Avery is up to. But below are a few :)

• Avery has been obsessed with the movie Frozen. She likes to tell us the story all the time and most days Avery is Anna, I am Elsa, Hung is Sven and G is Christoph. I'll hear in the morning saying "Anna is awake" and when you walk in she says "I'm Anna". And she likes to sing the "Do you want to build a snow man" and "Don't shut me out" songs while walking around closing doors and "shutting us out". And whenever we open the garage doors she dances and cheers "the gates to the castle are OPEN!"
•  She continues to have the biggest imagination! There are lots of pretend friends and imagination going on all the time. Typically she is either Anna from Frozen or Ice Man.
• Avery loves to wear dresses - She likes to pick out what she wears and it's usually a frilly dress that she can twirl in. Loves to spin around in them - She demanded on wearing a red Christmas dress to Chuck E Cheese the other night. She was for sure the fanciest one there!
• Avery has adjusted amazingly to her new room. The first night she woke up a little disoriented and climbed into bed with Hung and me. But since then she's been back to her good sleeping habits! Phew! I did have to go in there the other night and when I put her back down she said "If I need anything, I'll call for you mama."
• She likes to give you an idea and then say "How does that sound?" or "How about that idea?". Even if it's a terrible idea it's hard to say no. And if you ask her "How does that sound?" she'll say "That would be good!"
• Avery was playing with her new doll from Frozen and said "That doll has boobs. Mom - you have boobs". So I asked her if she did and she said "No I just have moles".
• Avery is very jealous if I ever hold another baby. I was holding a friend's baby the other day and Avery cried and told me to "Hold her forever and NEVER hold another baby." If she ever gets a sibling we will be in trouble.
• She is so chatty and incredibly sweet and funny. A couple videos are below to try and capture her personality (she picked her outfit in the dancing one!).

For her photo shoot she is watching "Frozen", wearing a pink, frilly skirt over her clothes, eating smarties, sitting on her blue stool that she calls "Stuffy" from Doc McStuffins (and gives "check ups" to) and hugging her new Spider-man. Lots of her favorite things captured! 

Enjoying the New Play Set

We were finally able to go outside and explore the new swing set. We bundled up and Avery loved swinging in a "big girl" swing, playing in the "pirate ship", and testing out the slide. It will be so fun to spend tons of time out there this spring and summer!

Of course Avery was in a fancy dress and tights since that is all she'll wear these days.....

 

Merry Christmas 2013

We had a wonderful Christmas in our new home. On Christmas Eve we went to my mom's for dinner. She made us Chicken Noodle Soup and some awesome salads. When we got home, Avery put out soup and milk for Santa. She was afraid he might be sick and wanted to make sure he didn't get too cold. We weren't sure she was totally getting the concept - earlier in the day she told me she didn't want Santa to come and didn't want any presents. And then later she was begging for Santa to come and wanted to see him. We finally got her to bed (SUPER late - we are all WAY off schedule on vacation). The nice part about her late bedtime is that she slept until after 9 on Christmas morning which was a present to Hung and me!

G slept over and went in to get her from her room - she insisted on getting dressed in her favorite yellow summer dress that is a hand me down from one of Grandma T's friends (Avery is obsessed with that yellow dress and it's hard to get her to wear anything else!). We all went downstairs together - When Avery saw all the presents (which were ALL for her) she was very excited!! And was also really happy that the soup and milk were gone that she left for Santa. She tore into presents and really seemed to like everything that she got. After presents Papa came over and made all of us breakfast.

We spent the day playing with all of her new toys. Hung spent about 2+ hours putting together a motorcycle from Uncle Du (which Avery already managed to break after using it for about 3 minutes). She also loved playing with her Frozen dolls, her new kitty and puppy from G and Papa, her Minnie tent from Grandma and YeYe and her new books. And of course she downed all the M&M's she got - Avery was one happy girl!

After nap, we headed over to G and Papa's for dinner. She got a few more gifts (a new Dr. Kit which we were in DIRE need of since her current one has been so well loved) and we all enjoyed the amazing dinner that G made for us. After dessert and some more playing it turned into another late night (so hoping for another late morning!) but we all had a great day. It was so fun to see the Christmas concepts sinking in and I think next year she'll be even more into all the festivities (plus I'll have more time to do Christmas-y things with her like making my Grandmas cookies and frosting them and decorating the house - it was a bit bare bones this year given the move!).

We have a lot to be thankful for this holiday season. Feeling blessed as we close out 2013. 

Merry Christmas!

Soup and Milk for Santa

 The tree all ready for Avery

 Tearing into gifts in her yellow dress

 Poor Hung and the motorcycle

 Appetizers with Grammy - She was obsessed with Pickles!

 Giving G a check up with her new and improved Dr. Kit

 Some family shots by the tree

 Grammy showing off her decorated holiday walker

 Buche De Noel that Chuck got special for me!

Daddy/Daughter Weekend

I went to NYC for 4 days with my mom to see Nate in his show "What's It All About". We had an amazing trip - Went to the Today Show, saw Nate's show 3 times, did some sight seeing and shopping and had lots of yummy meals. On Friday Nate didn't have a matinee so we got to spend a ton of quality time with him which was awesome. 

Hung and Avery had a fun weekend together while I was gone. They went to Barnes and Noble after school and had treats (Avery picked the M&M's out of her cookie) and read books, saw Frozen, built a snowman and tore the house up playing. Avery spent a lot of time in her Sophia costume while they were home. It was a great daddy/daughter weekend but I think Hung was exhausted and glad to have me home by Sunday.

Pajama and Cookie Party

Avery and I took a break from all the unpacking and went to a Pajama Party at Candice and Addison's house. Avery wore her pink PJ's (which is pretty much the ONLY thing she'll wear to bed!) and the kids "decorated" cookies by basically dumping sprinkles and chocolate chips on them and then eating the toppings. We also had a grab bag gift exchange for the kids - Avery got a Disney Memory Game which is right up her ally since she LOVES Disney and they've been working on matching at school.

Addison has the best basement so the kids had a blast playing around downstairs which gave us moms a chance to talk and catch up. So very grateful to have met this group of mama's!

It was the perfect end to a very stressful and crazy week of moving.