At the hop

Hair: freshly cut and spiked up. White t-shirt with the sleeves rolled up. Jeans: a bit on the short side. Jacket: also denim. The look we're going for: a 1950's "greaser" or greaser wannabe (hey, I just listened to "The Outsiders" on CD). I don't know whether or not we succeeded, but Avery looked cute for sure! Some of Carolyn's RAs threw a wholesome "sock hop" at the gym tonight. Part of the "wholesomeness" aspect was the fact that it was early, starting at 7:30. So we tried to dress up Avery for the occasion, put him in his wagon, and walked over to the fitness center, stopping along the way at the Early Education Center's small playground. Avery was shy at first, but then warmed up and danced a lot! He made friends especially with a couple of girls who enticed him with hula hoops. He got a lot of compliments (as always) on his moves, and also on his spiked hair:









Heading to the Hop:

Avery LOVED dancing with this girl:


Hangin' with Mr. Hooper:



how's my 'do ?

Can you spot the toddler among the college students?

Handsome Spring Outfits

The warmer weather is bringing out some new clothes (but just wait for the Easter pictures -- that outfit is truly the piece de resistance!):


Is anything cuter than a sweater vest? Perhaps a sweater vest over a polo shirt? We noticed that these jeans are too short (they are only a 2T, and Avery is pretty much wearing exclusively a 3T (even a 4T for some things like pajamas). So we decided to pull them aside for one more wear -- the sock hop (which will be the next blog post).

Avery never just sits in a chair while he watches TV -- he tends to drape himself in between a big chair and an ottoman, or else sit on the floor to play with toys. When he sits like this, we think he looks like a teenager. This shirt was a gift from Aunt Sarah - thanks!


Pink cupcakes from Danielle's birthday = soooo good! And the perfect accessory to a Sesame Place tee-shirt (the shirt is from a consignment sale; we have not yet gone to Sesame Place but we are definitely going to make it there this year!).


Some new vocabulary words to add to the list:
"leche" and "agua" (both finally clearly said this week)
"Ding Dong"
"What's that?"
and he is trying so hard to say "cat" but for some reason he's having a hard time with the "k" sound.

Peas Please!

Notice that Avery wasn't so interested in the peas on his plate -- he only wanted the ones from the serving bowl.






We recently noticed that Avery sometimes sticks his tongue out a little when he is concentrating on something -- like on blocks -- just like his Mom:



Sometimes Avery really likes to "help" to organize things. For example, he decided that his juice boxes needed to be moved from the big table in the kitchen, to his little Wizard of Oz table, to inside his potty, and back again to the big table. This occupied him for probably an hour:






Our pediatrician suggested we keep a list of words that Avery says to see where his vocabulary is at for when he comes in for his 2nd birthday appointment in June.
Avery still just babbles a lot, but he is definitely saying words and some phrases including:
"Where is he?" (when he is playing peek-a-boo or is hiding)
"What is it?"
"It's stuck!"
"Oh wow!"
"Oh shit" :(
"apple"
"Mama"
"nana" (banana)
"No"
"Eah" (Yeah without the "y" sound)
"Ball"
"Duck"
"Yay!"

So many babies!

We had a busy weekend full of babies a couple of weeks ago.

On Friday, Avery and I met up with Avery's friend Sammy (1 year old) and her mom. It was a gorgeous warm day outside, so we spent it at the Bronx zoo. The kids loved seeing the sea lions, giraffes, a surprisingly active polar bear, camels, monkeys, and the fish and turtles swimming in front of them:




Then on Sunday, we went to New Jersey to meet some other friends' 5 month old triplets! The triplets are 2 boys and one girl, and they are VERY cute. Other friends came also, with their 9 month old twin girls. Avery was the oldest and the only singleton. There was one baby for every adult there. It was very fun to see the itty bitty babies:

Avery's questionable taste

Avery has picked out his own outfit twice now. Both times, he has chosen outfits for their comfort value, not their stylishness. He looks like a little baby in a big toddler body!:






His current favorite book is, of all things, a Cheerio's promotional book for Halloween. You are supposed to read it with cheerios to fill in the pictures with, but we just read it. For some reason he LOVES it and wants to read it over and over again. It's the strangest thing. I'm not even sure why we own this book, but it is his favorite right now:

Indoor Activities

We're working on the potty training. He's still young, but he has been sitting on his Elmo potty like a big boy, and even peed in it once! We have potty books and we ordered a bunch of potty DVDs from Amazon.com (including one featuring Elmo, so that is sure to be a big hit). After his one success, Avery strutted around very proud of himself.

This morning, when Carolyn got up, she peeked into Avery's room and found him reading books in bed. He had thrown his blankets and pillows and stuffed animals out of the crib, and pulled books off the bookcase to read. When Carolyn came in, she asked him if he wanted to get out of his crib but he said no and asked for a book that had fallen to the ground (well, he pointed and grunted at it).





Uh oh, we discovered the Sesame Street website. Avery LOVES Sesame Street and knows all the characters. He especially loves Grover, Elmo, and Cookie Monster! We are figuring out a weekend to take a trip to Sesame Place in New Jersey this summer. Avery (and we) will LOVE it!