The next step

Watch out September 24th, 2012!

Baby Friends

So Avery has yet to meet a stranger.

She'll typically spy some poor unsuspecting child and sidle right up next to him.

That's where the leaning in and fabalicious drool begins. And with one thing or another...

 

she'll plow that bloke over!

Fortunately, 8 and 10 month olds are pretty forgiving.

Can you believe this picture?! With a combined age of a 1 1/2 year old, these two posed this shot without any intervention from me. Talk about working the camera!

Days go by

To be honest, I feel like my creativity/wit have been dwindling over the last few months on this blog. My life is still good, I just have a hard time capturing and then releasing it into words.

So to those of you who follow this blog to keep tabs on us, thanks for enduring through this dry spell. Maybe I'll get my spark back! :)

So here is what is happening lately.

Avery is still little miss petite and meets with a new pediatrician tomorrow to see how her weight gain has gone this month. In a nutshell, Avery has transcended the need for food that all us mere mortals require.

And, yet, without taking in much more than cheerios and cheese, she still has so. much. energy. Maybe she's solar powered?



Books are simply something she looks at for about .265 seconds before moving on to the next thing. I think I've made it a 1/4 of the way through Goodnight Moon before she's off my lap and scampering off to something else.

She still loves her thumb, but pretty much only sucks it when she is tired.

Avery LOVES going to the grocery store and getting loved on by all the fellow customers.

And this was one of Avery's first experiences with grass. She was trying with all her might not to let any of her skin touch it. Pretty sure Jillian Michaels has nothing on Avery's abdominal strength.

Oh, and here's some new news! Kyle and I are training for a half marathon at the end of May. I run with Avery three times a week while Kyle wakes up at 6:30 in the morning to run before school (pretty impressive dedication for a guy who had never ran 4 miles before last Saturday.) On Saturdays, we do our longer runs and Kyle gets to push Avery in the stroller. As tiny as that little girl is, I'm amazed at how much faster I can run if I can use both my arms! 

And that, my friends, is a wrap.

This and that

Peek-a-

boo!

These blinds are awesome! They guarentee a good 10 minutes of fun multiple times a day.

Which is great because Avery can get to them all on her own. She really is a little Miss Independent.

She is constantly pushing and pulling her way up to standing which is also very cool.

But, unfortunately, the fight against gravity hasn't been too kind to her. Not that it deters her from trying hundreds of times a day.

 She also can crawl up one stair and has mastered "clicking" her tongue.

And I'm pretty sure she gets this face

from this face.

Side note: What's with guys grabbing cameras and snapping random pictures of themselves? Kyle will intently be taking pictures of something, and suddenly gets overwhelmed with a need to snap a picture of himself, and then merrily returns to taking photos of the original object. I have a good 40 more of these collected over the past few years. Anyone else ever notice this with the men in their lives?

FaMiLy!

Most of the time when we spend time with family, it's usually on their home turf.

But not this time! We were lucky to get 2 separate visits during February (shh...I know it's already March).

My parents and Kelsey and Ben came down to celebrate my Dad's birthday!

Look at that (homemade) cheesecake glow!

Birthdays, apparently, get smokier the older you get.

Avery even did one of her favorite tricks for the birthday celebration. Being upside down.

And although I don't have any more photo documentation of that visit, let it be known, it was wonderful!

2 weeks later my older sister Jesica and her family came down and celebrated Kimberly's birthday. Avery and her became fast friends.

Not that you have much of a choice when Avery crawls up to you and sits on your lap.

Scott and Andrew utilized our Wii.

And dominated it!

Now, I don't know about all of you, but I feel like there has been some serious lacking off zoo pictures lately on this blog. What's that? You have missed the Indianapolis animals as well? Well boy oh boy, do I have a treat for you!

What better way to celebrate your 6th birthday than at the zoo? Here are pictures by our favorite animals.

One of Scott's favorites was the jellyfish.

Andrew enjoyed the penguins.

Kimberly had lots of favorites, including the seahorses.

Avery enjoyed...

the baby elephant that is almost her same age.

I, as always, love the rhinoceroseseses.

Kyle has a soft spot for merekats.

Tom was the only one who looked at the wild dogs, so that will serve the purpose as being his favorite.

And Jesica appreciated the lioness.

Complete with roaring action!

The aquarium is usually our first stop when we enter the zoo.
 

And touching a dog shark was a big hit with our guests.

We then journeyed over to the desert section.

Where the animals pretty much roam free within a toasty greenhouse.

Scotty was alarmed/amazed by how wide snake mouths can open.

 A little further down, there's a huge glass wall that allows you to get right next to some tigers.

 Which thrilled Avery,

but kind of gave me the willies to see this beast pacing/stalking my daughter.

Basically there was just lots of walking,

 

looking, 

 

and taking pictures.

And we finished it off with the dolphin show!

It was a wonderful day,

with wonderful people,



and wonderful presents,

and wonderful rainbow cupcakes!

Nothing beats having family around!