The 1/2 Birthday Party

Avery turned 4 1/2 this week and Taylor turned 1/2. And Avery was obsessed with 1/2 birthdays - She wanted to have a huge Scooby Doo party and invite all of her friends. So we settled on a small party at home with G, Papa, Grammy, KJ and Uncle Cullen. Avery spent all afternoon decorating and setting up. She created a "Pin the Ponytail on Avery" game along with lots of other games. Some were board/card games and others were things like "put the rubber snake in a basket and twirl it around". G and Avery drew pictures to hang up and Avery made name tags for everyone. Once people arrived Avery said it was "chat time". Then we played some games and one game was standing in a circle around yellow Bunchems and pretending they were the sun and we had to meditate and sing a song about the sun. I made chicken noodle soup and we all ate and then had cake and ice cream. I had the cake decorated so 1/2 was for Avery and 1/2 was for Taylor. After dessert, we had a short dance party and then everyone headed out. Avery was just SO excited and into it that it was a blast celebrating with her!!

Playing Pin the Ponytail on Avery

Decorations!

KJ Made the cutest Card!!

Cake with 4 1/2 candles

Serious Taylor with Peas on his Face :)

Tay Loves Carrots!

Show Saturday

On Saturday, we went to two children's theater performances. In the morning we saw Junie B Jones with Lila and Alicia. It was such a cute production and the girls loved it. I brought Taylor since Hung was picking up our new car and he actually loved it, too. It should have been nap time so I thought he would nurse and pass out but he was captivated the whole. Just wanted to bounce and be in on the action. After the girls get autographs we all went out to lunch.

After some downtime, G, Avery and I picked up Nyla for a Cat in the Hat performance. Again, such a cute show and the girls were giggling throughout. After more autographs and pictures, we took the girls out for dinner and ice cream. Avery and Nyla could not have been sweeter together - they got along great and ended the night dancing to Shake it Off in the Restaurant. When we dropped Nyla off we had to drag Avery back to the car - she would have slept over if we let her. It was a fun (and busy!) day!

Junie B Jones

Cat in the Hat

Avery's Learning To Read

Avery has really expressed interest in learning how to read and her teachers have been working with her on Sound Baskets and building 3 letter words. On Friday she came home with a Gold Star for completing her first Bob Book. Mrs. Kalen helped her read her first book and she was SO proud of herself. We were very proud of her, too!!

Avery-isms at 4 1/2

Happy 4 1/2  Birthday to my Sweet Avery J!

Wanted to capture some of Avery's phrases:

• "Frank" phone calls instead of Prank phone calls
• Guacamole is what she calls Guatemala
• Nutologist for Dermatologist
• Turquoise is something like Truquois
• "I'm Starvation" when she is really hungry
• "I need an Appetize" - when she wants a snack before dinner

And she just says everything so confidently and straight faced that we don't have the heart to correct her. I love how funny and sweet this age is - She has a sense of humor and is silly but also asks such interesting questions and is very curious about the world. Whenever we are chatting, like in the car, she always interjects to have us explain things and make sure she gets what we are talking about. And her memory is insane - she calls us out on things from forever ago!

In school she is working on reading and spelling short 3 letter words and her handwriting is improving all the time. She draws awesome pictures - My favorite is how she adds long fingers and toes to all of her people and always add a chandelier when she draws a house. She is also doing lots of geography at school - the other day she showed me all the Central and South American countries on a map.

At home she still loves to play pretend. Many times I look and she is just "off in Avery Land" doing her thing. We have started reading chapter books together which is fun at bedtime - right now we are reading BoxCar Children and she saw the movie first so she points out every difference. She loves finding new shows and movies - Hung and Avery are always rearranging the files on her iPad. She loves to do floor puzzles and bake with Ashley after school. And since we have had a mild winter she likes to get outside and run around. She is also still doing awesome with her swimming lessons - She is working on backstroke and dolphin kick (her favorite) at the moment. She is great at free style and treading water.

Avery is the sweetest sister Taylor could ask for - She is so kind to him and always trying to calm him. Sometimes her singing is the only thing that will make him stop crying when he gets fussy in the car. And she'll repeat what we call him "Tay Tay" or "This little man" or "Little Stinky Monk". And she likes to be silly and make him laugh. She DOES NOT like when he takes her stuff because it goes right in his mouth and grosses her out.

Avery is just a happy and funny girl. I couldn't love her more or feel luckier to be her mom. And she has been SO excited about turning 4 1/2 -literally counting the days!! So Happy 1/2 birthday Avery :) 

Taylor's 6 Month Update

Taylor is 6 months old and doing great! Here are some highlights:

• Taylor is STILL bouncing away on the Jumparoo! He is totally obsessed with bouncing and standing. 
• We've seen him roll both ways but it's just not his thing like it was with Avery. He can do it but he'll take it or leave it. What he always tries to do is just sit up when laying on his back - looks like he is doing stomach crunches :)
• He is wearing 9-12 month clothing. Will post his stats after we go to the doctor for his check up.
• Taylor really enjoys toys now - loves to chew on everything and actually play with his baby toys. And loves to look at books and put the pages in his mouth.
• He is a happy and smiley guy and gives great giggles when you get him going.
• Tay is very chatty and makes different sounds - dada and OOOHH and tons of others.
• The carrier and bouncing on the exercise ball are great ways to calm him.
• He still loves to nurse but sometimes gets distracted - He'll want to see the TV or my phone or look at someone in the room. So it can be challenging to feed him when he's not tired because other things are more interesting.
• Tay is loving his food!! And Spoons. We have to give him his own spoon to play with while we feed him or he grabs at the one with the food and makes a mess. So far he has eaten peas, green beans, carrots, and avocado. Avocado seems to be the favorite - he ate a whole one yesterday!! We have stopped cereal and oatmeal since it did not agree with his digestive tract. And he still hates bottles but will take milk from a sippy cup. We are about to give up on bottles completely.
• Still has just the bottom 2 teeth and I am sure more are on the way soon!
• He goes down to bed between 8 and 9 - sometimes takes some fussing. And he typically ends up snuggling in with me around 2 or 3 am which he and I both love :) When we got back from our Denver trip he ONLY wanted to sleep with me since that is what we did there. So I would take him in his room to nurse and put him to bed and he would arch his back and go psycho and the second I brought him into my bed he would nurse and snuggle and go right to sleep. TOTAL manipulator!!
• Bath time is still a fave. 
• He is good at prop sitting with his hands in front of him and should be balancing on his own in the coming months.
• Tay is just a happy and sweet guy. He gives tons of big smiles and is always so happy to see you! Love him to pieces and can't wait to see what the next 6 months bring.

Hung's Mini Photo Shoot

There was some great light in Hung's office a couple weeks ago and he took some great pics of the kids. This was right before Taylor had a major diaper explosion so am glad he caught him in this cute outfit before it was ruined :)