childcare stories

There are 6 children at Avery's "school," 3 boys (including Avery) and 3 girls, all the rest 1 1/2 - 2 years old or so. One day when Carolyn was picking Avery up, the girls were introducing themselves to her, and they pointed to the youngest boy (who's 1 1/2) and explained, "That's Jonathan, he's the baby." And Carolyn pointed to Avery and asked, "Well if Jonathan is the baby then what is Avery? The little itty bitty baby?" and the girls said, "NO!" I guess because he's so big!

Another day, after we had picked up Avery, the other boy (I forget his name) kept saying to Annette and Tanya, "I want to play with bakery! I want to play with bakery!" And they were trying to figure out what he wanted ("Do you want to go get a bagel? Are you hungry?") and finally they realized that he meant "I want to play with Avery!" but he got the name wrong.

One morning, Jonathan ("the baby") came in with a lollipop. One of the girls, Adina, saw him with the lollipop and said she wanted one too. Annette told her that she couldn't have it, but that they would be having muffins for a snack later on. Adina sighed dramatically and said, "I know, but it's just not the same!"

No pictures today, simply because we're out of AA batteries and our camera is dead. We might buy a camcorder this weekend so we can start recording Avery's adorableness. Last night he was especially cute; he played the "hello game" with me for a while (Carolyn or I hold him, we look into each other's eyes, and repeat back and forth "hello" "(noise that sounds like hello)" "hello" ("noise that sounds like hello") for a few minutes. Avery always smiles and you can tell he is trying to talk. The variation of the "hello game" is the "ah-goo" sound where we repeat "ah-goo" back and forth.

The other cute thing was he tried out his rainforest jumperoo again and had about 20 minutes of fun bouncing around. It looked like he was dancing a jig! And he was having a ball. Carolyn and I were just enjoying watching him. So we'll try to get a camcorder to start recording these great moments.

Avery likes to paaaarrrrtay!

despite this expression, Avery had a blast at his friend Olivia's b-day party.






babies and mamas.



The 3-month old boy with the 1-year old girl.

beautiful quilt!

Wow! Avery received a gorgeous quilt with butterflies and insects all over it in bright colors from his great-grandmother ("Great Granny!") and his great-great aunt (? is that right?) Millie. He loves it :)

Avery and a Jumperoo

Carolyn's colleague Darleny gave Avery this great Jumperoo. He's not quite ready for it yet, but we tried it out tonight.




Avery and his Mom having fun before bedtime. These are his "movie star" pajamas, called that because they came from the set of a TV show featuring twin boys (I forget the name, oops!) . . . friends of ours (Dad was working on the set of the show) got one set and we got the other set!

Avery Days

Avery has started childcare. He seems to really like it! When I dropped him off the other morning, some of the "big kids" came running around the corner to the entrance and said "the baby's here! The baby's here!" And Avery only wants to nap when the big kids nap (at first, the plan was to have the big kids' naptime be special baby time for Avery (with special baby activities like baby aerobics). But he only wants to sleep when they all sleep. So he participates in their activities too. When they have music time, they sit in a circle. Annette said that the other day they were singing "ABCs" and Avery started going "Ahh Ahh Ahh" like he was trying to sing along.

We think he might be starting to teethe. It seems pretty early but all weekend he was drooling, sucking and chewing on everything he could, and he was majorly cranky. We gave him a little baby tylenol which seemed to help. We're seeing our pediatrician this week, so we can consult with her about what's going on. We are also excited to find out exactly how big our giant boy is! He seems to get bigger and bigger every day.

He also likes to "talk" to us sometimes (or to anyone who smiles at him) by smiling and repeating noises and coos like "Ah goo" and "oooh" and I swear today he was repeating "Hello" back and forth with Carolyn and me!



Adorable pajamas with lion feet. Doesn't he look like a big boy?


This is such a great picture of him. Could he be any cuter?



Carolyn played a game with him where she was tickling his face with his stuffed dog and he laughed and laughed (well, he smiled very big -- he doesn't quite laugh yet but he sort of chuckles)




Everyone comments on his cheeks. They are mighty impressive.

Bathtime for our boy

Hats 'n' Overalls

Happy Boy

Avery is a happy boy playing on his mat. Thank you Bubbe for the windchimes! They make a beautiful sound and Avery likes kicking them!

Sunday afternoon in Central Park

It was so nice out today that we decided to walk over to Central Park for a bit . . . we usually just go to Riverside Park because it is only 1 block away, but the top of Central Park isn't much farther away . . . and it is so pretty there!

new stuff! and it was all FREE!

Carolyn was looking for baby stuff on Craig's List and found someone who was giving away a bunch of great things for FREE not far from where we live!!!! She was able to contact them and for only the cost of an $8 cab ride home, we now own:





a Bumbo chair,







an Excersaucer,




a fancy swing that goes from side to side as well as from front to back,




a great new worm toy (Avery loves his worms!),



a new mat great for Tummy Time (even Ruby seems interested!),

plus a crib bumper, some other toys, another toy mat with overhanging toys similar to what Avery already has (we can bring it over to his childcare for him to use there), and a bunch of really nice picture frames and photo albums that they probably received as gifts but never used.

Did I mention this was all FREE?!?!? We love a bargain.