A Few New Words

Avery's vocabulary is expanding at a fast pace these days. She's learning foods, body parts, and even colors. The word of the day in the photo above was "mess."

Avery asks to sit in her "chair" where she will play with puzzles or color. This table has been through three generations of my family. It was once my mom's, then mine. It took a detour to spend a few years with my mom's cousin, and was saved, refinished and reunited with us. Avery loves it!

By far, Avery's favorite new word is "chalk." She askes to play "chalk" every day and just loves carrying her chalk bucket outside to make marks on the front walk (and herself) and learn her colors. She is even very good about packing her chalk back up when she is done playing!

Avery loves chalk so much that Sunday morning, she wanted to play before she got dressed. I told her she couldn't play in her pjs, which she set to resolve by removing them without any help. She disappeared into her room and came out like this, which was beyond hilarious to me. And yes, instead of coming to her aid, I took her picture. One day, I just know she will thank me for sneaking this image into the photo montage at her rehearsal dinner!

There's a new puppy in our house

In a moment of pure weakness, I allowed Greg to convince me that we needed a new puppy. In particular, he convinced me that Avery needed a new puppy. A new liver and white Brittany puppy to be more specific. And then, before I knew it, 9-week old Willow arrived on the scene before I could change my mind. So, Avery helped us pick out her name - it was the one she could say the best from our list. And so far, she seems to like "Wiwo," as long as she stays far away from Avery's highchair (odd), toys, books and stuffed animals.

Willow definitely reminds us of a certain liver and white Brittany we used to have, Winnie. She even lays like Winnie used to on the floor - legs all sprawled to the sides on her tummy.

Here Willow is sleeping. Don't be fooled though, she doesn't seem to do this too ofen!

I really tried to get some photos of Avery and Willow together, but a busy toddler and a curious little puppy just don't cooperate for posed photo. Check back with me in 5 years when they both might actually sit still for a few minutes!

Our Little Patriot

Though Avery is still a bit too wee for fireworks, she did catch the Fourth of July spirt this year, and had a grand time celebrating America's birthday. The festivities began early last week at school, where the lessons centered on learning about America. Apparently that involves eating ice cream sundaes, which reportedly, she really enjoyed. Friday, all the kids wore t-shirts they created. Cute, huh?

Saturday, we headed to downtown Woodstock to catch the Freedom Fest Parade. Avery seemed to enjoy her first parade, especially when she saw horses and a float blowing bubbles, or "bobules."

She scored these sweet patriotic beads thanks to a nice lady in front of us. They were a huge hit and she played with them all day until Mommy hid them (it makes me a little uncomfortable for her to put things around her neck).

Thanks to Auntie Heather for the red, white and blue dress. Avery sure loved celebrating Fourth of July 2010 in it!