Love and Play-Doh

It's my 30th birthday and it's been a wonderful day! I got done teaching and was able to pick up Avery a bit early from daycare (around 3:45) so we could go home and play for a little while before Carolyn and I left to go out to dinner (at my favorite place, The Taphouse, which is a "gastropub" -- I'm not exactly sure what that means but it is fantastic food and drinks and upscale without being pretentious or uncomfortable; I LOVE it!). One of Carolyn's students is our regular babysitter, so Avery knows her and likes her. Before she came over, we went ahead and gave Avery a bath and got him into some warm pajamas. He was very snuggly after his bath:






Avery "wrote" a birthday card me (with help from Mom) that says among other things "Yo Mama: I love you so much fo' yo' itsy-bitsy spidability!" (sometimes he "talks" like that).

Right now, Avery loves doing "itsy bitsy spider" (he tries so hard to get the hand movements on his own, but it's very hard), "ABCs," "head and shoulders knees and toes" and whenever we sing one of these to him, he claps his hands and says "YAY!" afterwards. He loves his book "The Wheels on the Bus" which is a cool pop-up book that shows all the motions of the bus ("the wipers on the bus go swish swish swish" for example). He LOVES taking bubble baths and splashing. And he loves play doh! Right now it is kind of hard with the weather so cold and snow on the ground. We can't go to the playground or even just for a walk outside. We are stuck inside. So we have been going to Leaping Lizards a lot so he can run around and play (oh who am I trying to kid, I always have fun too!) and the bigger challenge is trying to keep us from getting too bored with his toys (I mean Carolyn and me -- Avery is perfectly happy playing with the same few toys every day). On a whim, I went to Toys-r-us (conveniently located 1 block away from our apartment building -- it's nice for when we have a toy emergency!) last Friday to buy Play-doh. He is a bit young for it, but I was kind of desperate for a new project/toy. He actually LOVES it, and once we made it clear that he is NOT allowed to eat it, it has been a very fun activity:










Another new toy is this doctor's kit; I think my sisters and I had the exact same one when we were little. Avery LOVES it when we listen to his heart and say "buh-boom! buh-boom! buh-boom!"




(here he is checking his blood pressure):


Other random cuteness from tonight: Carolyn thought it would be cute to put her pink winter hat on Avery. And she was right: he looks like an itty-bitty baby with the hat on his head! Adding to the baby-ness, he is eating Gerber puffs (we haven't bought those for him in months, but lately when he leaves daycare he insists on Belen giving him a snack for the road (ie. the 5-minute drive home), and he has been wanting those fruit puffs). Our giant baby is too adorable!