Snow day and trip to Massachusetts

Last Wednesday was a Snow Day! No work, no daycare! We took Avery outside to walk around and play in the snow. Avery enjoyed kicking his green ball around and he tried to make a snow angel after Carolyn showed him how, but he forgot to move his arms and legs. Then we went back inside to warm up. We brought all our bedding and pillows into the living room and rented "Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs" on TV. We made Avery hot cocoa, but he was not at all interested, so he drank juice instead.













Avery enjoying his new Thomas book (a gift from Bubbe and Opa):



We headed up to Massachusetts to visit our friends and go to their daughter Parker's birthday party. She and Avery are close in age but on completely opposite ends of the size spectrum but played pretty well together and were very cute!
(Avery slept in the car on the way there):


Parker has three baby siblings (triplets!). She and Avery tried to play in the babies' bouncy seats. Parker fit okay, but Avery was really too big:

Decorating a Birthday Cake

Tomorrow is"Turkey Mom's" birthday but we decided to have some cake and presents tonight. I just made chocolate cake from a mix. When Avery saw the box, he recognized the photo of the finished cake on it and said "Cake! Cake!" and we had to explain and show him that the cake has to be mixed up and baked. Then when it was cool, we made frosting and decorated it. Avery wore an apron and LOVED putting on the frosting (well, eating it) and shaking on the sprinkles! Then we (I) sang "Happy Birthday!" and Avery clapped and then helped to blow out the candles. Happy Birthday Mom!















This is what the apron says. We got it when we won a gift certificate here during the R Family Cruise.

Winter cuteness

Long time no update! Avery is speaking more and enjoying some new games, like playing basketball in the bathtub with a mini basketball hoop. His favorite books currently are "Everyone Poops" and "No More Diapers for Ducky" (notice a theme?). His favorite foods right now are waffles with peanut butter ("Fafa with pee-yoo bee-yoo"), sliced jarred peaches, roasted asparagus, and "red-reds" (Tootsie Roll pops -- he refers to them by whichever color he wants, repeated twice). He still loves yogurt, oatmeal with raisins, broccoli, and "peasies" but has also discovered Doritos and often asks for "mas cheeps?"

Enjoying "Mas Cheeps" in the student lounge downstairs. We love these new monkey pajamas which we saw at Old Navy and could not resist. He always gets many compliments on his penguin slippers:




Avery STILL loves elephants and Thomas:




His new sleeping habit: sleeping in his Bob the Builder sleeping bag in his big boy bed. The sleeping bag used to be pulled out only on sick days, but now he LOVES Bob and requests him every night.


Avery was very proud to wear his new overalls!

Play days at home

Avery and I ("Mama") have this week to ourselves at home while Carolyn ("Turkey Mama") is at work because I don't start teaching until next week. Avery promptly got a cold when we returned from St. Louis, but he has been enjoying playing at home. The weather outside is awful, so we've just been taking it easy inside. Here are some of his favorite activities so far:

We were going to save this for a surprise later on once the weather is warmer, but since our building is almost completely empty, I thought it would be fun to ride it in the hallway. What impressed me was that Avery instantly put on the helmet, without me even telling him to do so. I'm sure it's from daycare (they have scooters there)




Avery has NEVER before shown interest in this toy; it's a cow bowling ball that "Mooos" when you roll it toward the pins, which are bottles of milk. But maybe because he watched some Wii bowling over Christmas, he understood what to do and really enjoyed it:




Avery pulled off all the cushions of our "new" couch and made this fort-like thing. Normally we are strict about this couch (it's in really good condition so we're trying to prevent its inevitable destruction), but he had so much fun!




Avery takes his little trains with him EVERYWHERE which is funny but sometimes annoying. We refer to his trains as his "entourage."