"There was a little duck (and a chicken) in New York City"

Happy Halloween! Avery had a great first Halloween.

He went to childcare dressed as a duck ( hence the title of this post. Our favorite song to sing to him is "A Duck in New York City" - in fact, when I was pregnant, we sang that song to my belly every night before we went to sleep. His 4 childcare friends were princesses, Superman, and a pirate. (Cute daycare story: I took him this morning about 10:00 and the other kids were already there. Annette greeted us and then I took him around the corner to see the kids who were all playing blocks with Tanya. As soon as the kids saw me with Avery, they said "Avery's here! Avery's here!" and the two girls ran up to us and each gently held one of his hands (they have obviously been well-trained on not being rough with him. Then I held Avery so that his feet touched the ground, and the three of them were holding hands in a circle. It was SO cute, and Avery was smiling and smiling at everyone. He LOVES watching the kids play (and he especially seems to love Tanya and always gives her huge smiles). Annette said that if we bring a disposable camera, they will take pictures of cute moments like that for us)).



We spent Halloween evening at "Creepy Pete's and Mad Marlene's" place. Very fun. They had I think over 1,500 trick or treaters (!) and Avery wore a chicken costume.

movin' around

Avery has been moving a lot, ie. kicking his legs like crazy and TRYING to roll over. It'll happen soon. These were taken tonight before he went to bed. We did a little tummy time and then he lay on his back and played with the dangling toys, kicked at them very fast, and then sort of rolled from side to side, definitely trying to get all the way over. He wants to GO! In the car or in a cab, he often cries at every red light because he hates stopping. Apparently this is common, but it's sort of funny. We have to tell him "it's okay, the light will change soon, look we're almost going, it's okay! we're going!" and as soon as the light turns green and we go, he stops and is happy again.

our lil' punkin getting ready for Halloween

I HAVE to add a cute story here. We went to Ikea today (oh god how we love having a car) and had a suburban shopping day. For some reason there was an Elmo (a person dressed up like Elmo, duh) walking around and talking to all of the children (and by the way, the Paramus, NJ IKEA seems to be the hot-spot for gay and lesbian couples and their kids!). Now, Avery does not know who Elmo is, but Elmo came up to us and started rubbing Avery's cheeks with his red furry hands and saying "Hello! how old is this little guy? Oh my goodness look at those cheeks! He is SO adorable, he should be on TV!" and Avery just smiled and smiled his gummy smile back at Elmo. It was adorable and I was so disappointed we didn't have our camera with us because it was just so cute -- Avery grinning up at this giant, red fuzzy thing who says Avery should be on TV! It was neat.

playing with Holly and Christy.

Visitors are always fun! And this was quite a week for Avery. Suddenly he is a huge chatterbox. He's been waking up in the morning and babbling to himself in his crib instead of fussing. It's really interesting to hear the different inflections in his voice and to wonder what on earth he is saying. He has also learned to hold his bottle by himself. And he is kicking his legs a lot more, doing that "swimming" motion that is an indicator (I think) that he will soon be ready to turn over on his own.

a couple of cutie pictures

Pumpking picking with James

Fall fun

It's been a busy week . . . our most exciting news is that we finally bought a car! It's a grey 2004 Pontiac Vibe. It feels very liberating to know that we can leave the city whenever we want . . . not to mention my 2 hour commutes each way to and from Bayside, Queens will be much shorter and more pleasant!

Here's our happy son playing on his mat. We *think* we has laughed out loud a couple of times. It's strange because Avery has a little tiny quiet baby voice when he coos and talks, but his laugh is this deep gutteral sound . . . it's kind of like the stereotypical Frenchman's laugh you see on cartoons and things. Each time it's happened, Carolyn and I look at each other and say "What was that?!?! Is he laughing?!?!" It's a weird noise but we LOVE it when he is so happy and having fun!






it's gotten chilly . . . Avery's warming up with a new Fall outfit from Bubbe and a nice hot cup of coffee (just kidding, that would be Rebecca's empty coffee cup!):




Mama and Avery playing together:

Then and Now

At one week old:


At 15 weeks old:

Lamaze reunion #1

Today was a big day for Avery! We had our Lamaze class reunion brunch at the Central Park Boathouse, so first Avery had to get a bath to get all nice and clean and handsome. Of course, we took a couple of naked picture shots to embarass him with when he's older :)




The Boathouse is very nice, we had a great view from our table which was right on the lake. It was fun to see the other couples and all the babies, all of whom were born within a few weeks of each other. Avery was, of course, the biggest.





The Boathouse is a short walk away from the Central Park zoo, where Carolyn and I had never been before. We saw penguins (and I swear Avery said "hello" to them as they swam in front of him), polar bears, sea lions, monkeys, birds, and more! And we went to the children's zoo which has fun animals like potbellied pigs, a big cow, llamas, and goats.