bigbrotherintraining

Annabelle showing Avery what having a baby sister is like.

Avery is opening Mady's hand to put a toy in it, very gently.

Mady already showing an interest in older men (this one's for you, Scott I.)

Giving Mady a BIG smooch and I didn't even ask him to! (I love that she's leaning towards him)

It's too bad they don't like each other. More on personal space later.

My friends have done an excellent job helping these last few weeks of pregnancy go by with lots of evening play dates. I am VERY appreciative because sometimes 5-8pm is the longest stretch of time especially after a long day of work/contractions. We were graced by the Iten ladies this Wednesday and Avery got a great lesson about baby sisters from Annabelle when they weren't running around like crazy people.

Avery was just too sweet with baby Mady and it makes me so excited to see how he is with his own Sister. I feel confident that he's going to be a GREAT big brother and show his "difficulty" with the transition into a family of 4 in other ways, like being clingy around bedtime and waking up more frequently at night (these two things have already started to happen as I think he senses the momentous change that is about to occur in this house.)

In addition to a few lessons about babies (no, she can't grab the toy you're offering her, but you can gently open her fist and put your finger in there for her to hold), Avery and I also had a discussion about personal space. Annabelle enters the house and suddenly my reserved, calm child (he is currently playing puzzles on the floor) turns into a crazed lunatic. I guess he just loves her that much. He gets relatively aggressive in his desire to chase, hug, kiss or just be in contact with Annabelle, most of which she tolerates like a champ. Occasionally she has to tell him to back off, thus a conversation about personal space. I think that at this age it's pretty funny that I'm teaching my 2 year old to restrain himself when it comes to loving a friend rather than stopping him from hitting or other such typical toddler behavior.

Yes, I am ready for the team to be complete and to have all of the little siblings out and about in the world. So, Sister, when you're ready, there is an entire village waiting and a big brother who is going to love you as much as we do.

37weeks

Scott using the doppler to find Sister's heartbeat.

So, here we are. 37 weeks. Full term. I started having Braxton Hicks contractions at 36 weeks, which is something I did not experience with Avery and has made me wonder if this gal is going to wait until 40 weeks to join us. Yes, I know that she still could be a few weeks away, but it's really hard not to get excited when my body is actively preparing for her arrival. Almost every evening I have a series of pretty strong practice contractions and on Friday, the contractions were different and I thought that it was maybe time. Guess not.

In addition to the contractions, Avery was acting extra clinging especially around nap and bed time. When I was laying with him to get him to go so sleep, he said, "Sister. Sister. Sister," as he was drifting off to sleep. He might as well said, I see dead people, because it was pretty spooky, and I thought that maybe he knows something I don't. Guess not.

So, on we go with our lives and are taking Avery to see Toy Story 3 tonight. I was really hoping to give Scott a GREAT Father's Day gift and to get out of work for the next two weeks, but it looks like it still might be at least another couple of days, if not weeks.

I will tell you this, if we get to July 7, that girl is getting an invitation out with a round of acupuncture. Hey, it worked with Avery and then Sarah can have her most wished for birthday present!

recentlysaid

I packed up a few things for the hospital yesterday and explained to Avery that I would be going to the hospital to have sister and that he would come and visit me. Well, about an hour later he was rehashing the plan:
Mama, I come to the hospital to see you and touch Sister's teeeennnnyy tiiiiiinnnnnyyy (imagine a VERY high pitched squeal here) fingers and toesies very gently.

I knew Avery said something about 'cock' (yes, you read that correctly) this morning so I emailed Scott to get the full story and this is what he sent me:

He came in and said something like, Daddy, I go take my cock out. I said excuse me and he said again, I go take my cock out. That is when you said that you thought he was saying walk out but we asked him to repeat it again and he said cock out. It was just so weird and funny. It was as if he was combining two words in his mind but they don’t actually go together

To Scott's friend Brad who is quite tall:
Hey, big buddy!
Brad, come sit down and let's talk together.
Brad then asks him what he wants to talk about.
Let's talk about how mommy put on my jammies.

Mommy: Avery, can I snuggle with you?
Avery: Oh, sure!

Avery consistently refers to Scott and I as 'guys' as in, "Hey, guys! What you doing?"

His go to names when we ask him what something is called are: Fox (sister), Foggy, Pocky (Pocky even has a whole song to the tune of ABC made up for him/her).

Two Down

Two down...

One to go...

Soccer School

His first official uniform (sniffle, sniffle)

Almost a goal.

He is a much better kicker than thrower because this ball is at least going forward.

Check out that form!

Jazzercise, anyone?

Getting a little help with balance from Daddy

Scott's dream has come true...Avery started soccer school on Saturday. I can already tell that this is going to be SO very good for him in terms of learning new skills, improving his balance and coordination, and following multi-step directions. Plus, I'm hoping he'll eventually learn to use his left leg because even though he's not running around around in circles, that leg seems to be pretty useless at this point. I know, he's only 2!

It was terribly difficult for both Scott and I to keep our mouths shut and let the teachers lead the class. This is something that will take some practice.

Avery had a great time and I will try and get a video of the craziness that is a bunch of 2 year olds running around a soccer field where most of them are just playing their own game.

City Park Fair

A great idea to host an ice cream social/family fair at City Park since ALL of the kids will love it, right? Almost. Avery had fun playing with a few of the games, but when asked:

Do you want some ice cream?

Do you want this cake you won in the cake walk?

Do you want to get your face painted?

How about a carriage ride?

The answer was consistently, "No." Huh? What kid says no to ice cream? I was and still am baffled. Since the carriage rides were being offered at a remarkable discount and we have been scoping horses downtown for over a year now, and I was not leaving until we had a ride around the park. It took a good 20 minutes of convincing Avery who has suddenly developed a resistance to any and all bribes to get in the damn carriage. He ended up having a great time and still talks about the black horse and its poop. Kids, I tell ya.

More Pics From Yesterday

Here are a few more shots from our photo shoot yesterday aka game entitled "Climb Up and Take a Picture." These were before I made him take his shirt off.

2 1/2

Avery, you are 2 1/2 and I don't know if I want to start this post with how amazingly smart you are or how we are neck deep in the "terrible twos." These two qualities are not mutually exclusive as our strategies to get you to listen have to constantly evolve because you are nearly impossible to trick. You remember just about everything we have ever said and use this knowledge to find holes in our reasoning in order to get your way.

Since, I love you so very much, I'll start with the smart thing. Almost every day, you do something that makes daddy and I stand there with our mouths open, amazed that whatever you said just came out of your mouth. You don't just know facts, like green means go or that many cars are called traffic, but you have started to be able to take multiple facts and put them together to form new ideas and ways of understanding the world. Like, green means go, but if there is a lot of traffic, we cannot zoom fast. Maybe this is common for folk your age, but it is new to us and it is amazing. Plus, that's probably not even the best example.

Your imagination has taken off and listening to you narrate your playing is intensely funny and entertaining. All of your characters are exceedingly polite, "Excuse me, Buddy, I'm going to the water (on the train table)" or "Let's go find our other Buddies!" Clearly, everyone is also friends.

As for the terrible two part, well, it can be terrible and exhausting. You are not very prone to temper tantrums but the whining and stubbornness are at an all time high. You have very distinct ideas about what, where, when, why and how you want to do things and if you're in iffy mood..watch out! It's hard for me to write this right now because you are being exceedingly charming as you watch Word World - your reward for a day of zero accidents. This is by far, your favorite show.

Let's see...other things I want to remember about this time with you:

* You are obsessed with wearing jammies. Getting you dressed usually takes a lot of time and negotiating. And yes, there have been times where we have let you out of the house in jammies, my favorite being the quick run to Qdoba. You wore your heavy, fleece monkey feetie jammies with tennis shoes in 80 degree weather. Lots of people laughed along with me. The second you return home, you want to put on your jammies and your current favorites are the ones with the one monkey with a ban-an-ah on it.
* In addition, you are a houseplant. You would stay at home in your jammies all day. This, for better or worse, definitely something you got from me. Have your met your dad? No grass grows under his feet. Ever.
* You love to sing and your favorite songs are Hey, Soul Sister and anything by Lady Gaga. You were having a meltdown after leaving Hannah's house a few weeks ago and when I turned on the car, Lady Gaga was on. Thus endeth the meltdown, "Hey, it's Lady Gaga!"
* Your top toys are board games, train table (with or without the track), circular racetrack and books.
* God forbid the server brings your french fries without ranch dressing, because you cannot have one without the other. This is your favorite food. You also enjoy ice cream.
* You know all of your letter sounds and we think that it's only a matter of time before you start reading. You know that letters makes sounds and that letters make words. You can recognize several sight words.
* You LOVE letters and now numbers. It's much easier for us to answer "What number is this?" when you string together a bunch of numbers rather than "What does this spell?" when you do the same thing with letters.
* Oh, how could I forget all of the QUESTIONS. It's like living with the Riddler! "What's this do (doing-doing)? What this is? Where's that fill-in-the-blank going? What you doing?" Endless. Questioning. Always. This is a very good quality but can sometimes be challenging to continually come up with creative answers.
* You sleep 95% of the time on the floor in your "camping bed." I wonder how long the novelty of this will last? (I will try and get a picture).
* You talk incessantly at home, but god forbid you say to hello to a stranger.
* I will save the potty training for a separate post, but you generally have only a couple of accidents per week but it's because you're being stubborn.
* You are obsessed with directions and names of streets. Colfax is your favorite, but you can easily get to Annabelle's house by naming the directions (and we're not just talking left/right/straight, we're talking about north, south, east, west) and names of all the streets we take.
* You DO NOT consistently wipe off daddy's kisses (I asked him what he wants to remember about this time and he specifically brought this up).

Clearly, we are madly in love with you.