Watch out world, here comes Avery!

So I realized that I have not yet blogged about Avery walking, which is big news! She's been doing it for aobut two weeks now, and I think she may be ready for the Olympics or something - she is refining her skill very rapidly. Here is how her learning process has gone:

Day 1: Walk along furniture
Day 2: Take five steps unassisted
Day 3: Take ten steps unassisted
Day 4: Walk all the way across the room
Day 5: Navigate uneven terrain

It is so cute to watch her, because she looks so little to be walking around, and also because she does this aerobics thing with her arms when she is walking. It looks like she should be holding some little weights or something because she pumps her arms out, then in, etc. She also dances now that she walks, which is really cool too.

One other thing that makes me think she is ready for the Olympics is that she picks up things that are larger than her and carries them around. The fuller her arms and hands, the happier she is. She gets so proud of herself.

I'll let you know when she starts pole-jumping!

Happy Birthday Ollie!

As most of you know, Oliver hit the big 4 this week! He was so excited - he has been checking his calendar very regularly for the last month or so. He is sure that he is bigger and faster now that he is 4. We celebrated on Wednesday with a day full of playing with new toys. I asked him if he wanted to go anywhere special to have lunch or play, but he just wanted to stay at home. He was mesmerized by his new hotwheels track. He requested a dinner with "special birthday food," so we ended up having pasta with breadsticks shaped like the number 4. He had several visitors that night to help him play to his heart's content. On Thursday, he got to be king at preschool. This means he wears a crown, gets to do everything at preschool, such as the calendar, the weather, leading the pledge of allegiance, and passing out the snack. The king's mom also gets to go and talk about the king as well as share a goodie. It was really fun to go and see Oliver in a kid environment, as well as see him feel so special with his king duties. Wendy watched Ave for me while I attended the king day, and she had the worst cold too. Thanks so much to Wendy for watching my very sick baby, and kudos to Avery for not crying for the entire time. You may think the celebrating would stop there, but Friday we had our party at the Clearfield aquatic center with all of Ollie's little friends. We had a Mickey Mouse cake, complete with an edible mickey mouse clubhouse (as requested by Oliver), hot diggity dogs, and fun swimming. On the way there, Oliver asked me if this party was really going to be fun. I told him I thought it would be, and then he said, "if you say so." I am pretty sure it surpassed his expectations, as it did mine. Thanks to everyone who was a part of Ollie's celebrations - he loved every minute of it.

Happy Haunting

Happy Haunting

So I have not been the best at blogging this month, so there are several things related to Halloween to post about. First, Oliver's costume: we started at the beginning of the month with the idea that he could be a bear (a REALLY scary bear, as Oliver said) because I just happened to have a bear costume in his size from my days of working at the Gap when I bought things that were good deals, but did not necessarily have a use for at the current time. There is a pic of Oliver in this costume on the blog from earlier in the month. Anyway, he decided the bear was not scary enough, and then thought he would be spiderman, and it would be twice as cool since it was his cousin Kade's costume. Well, the idea of Spiderman went out the window when Oliver saw there was a mask that went with the costume. He does NOT like masks. So for a few days, we were back to the bear costume and he was happy and content to be a bear. In fact, we were going to be a family of 3 bears and 1 monkey. That fills you in on Avery's costume, which held much more constant for the month! I thought the 3 bears and goldilocks would have been cute, but I was vetoed by Oliver. Even though we planned on not buying any costumes this year since we already had plenty to use, we ended up buying not one, but two other Halloween costumes for Oliver: Batman and Hulk - neither of which had masks, but probably because they came from the D.I. and the masks were long since lost. It turned out to be a selling point for us! (By the way - did anyone else go to the grand opening of the D.I. in Layton? It was crazy - people buying cartloads of merchandise, the parking lot was packed! It was awesome!) So Oliver tried on both of these constumes when we got home, and it turns out they actually make you faster and stronger, as he demonstrated for us. Who knew? He finally decided that the Hulk was the strongest costume as it had the built in muscles, so he chose it for his costume for Halloween night. Oh, this is the point where it was decided that Jed and I would also be Hulks, so we ended up being a family of 3 Hulks and a monkey! We found out Halloween night that Oliver also does NOT like face paint. I put a little green paint on his cheek to complete the Hulkish look,a dn he immediately washed it off. I then put the green paint on my face so I could look a little hulkish, and Avery got scared and started crying. Needless to say I washed mine off right away too. Jed and I were pretty shabby hulks as our comstumes were not quite as elaborate as Oliver's - and when I say they weren't elaborate I mean they consisted of green sweatshirts stuffed with batting to make muscles (it sort of, kind of looked like muscles!). This did not ruin the fun of the night though, as Oliver is finally old enough to keep up with teh big boys when trick-or-treating, but still young enough that all the neighbors think he is adorable and give him extra candy because of it! One house was handing out orange soda, and Oliver exlaimed, "They sell soda at this house!" (A little confused about what "selling" actually entails!) We rounded out the night by going to the Harry Potter house, which was very cool, but is probably extremely cool to someone who has read at least one of the books or seen at least one of the movies!By the end of the night, we were all tired, so we went home and Oliver let Avery man-handle all of his loot. He is such a good big brother! Other Halloween celebrations of note: we also attended the Dinosaur Park's party, which Oliver loved! He used his Batman costume for this night since he could put it on and still fit in his carseat! He had lots of questions about the dinosaurs, like "Which ones are real?", and "Which ones are alive?", and "Why aren't there any dinosaurs now?" After a lot of explaining on my part, Oliver got a quivering lip, choked back the tears, and said, "That is so sad all the dinosaurs are dead. Do you think they'll ever come back?" I LOVE THIS AGE!! We also went to Gardner Village with Carrera, Wendy, and Sharma. Lots of fun decorations, all the witches were so creatively posed. Oliver was Carrera's little buddy that day, and I am pretty sure she ended up buying a witch decoration she would have otherwise not purchased purely because Oliver wanted to be "same-ee's." It was a great October. Avery went with the flow for the most part during all these activities, loving the lights that were hung everywhere.

Can we build it? Yes we can!

Our house is coming right along - I think we are on the home stretch now! Our exterior is going on now, as well as the sheetrock inside. It is so exciting to watch it all come together. Jed has been getting his hands into the projects lately, putting in wiring (not high voltage, but all the fun stuff like speakers and cable and internet), with some much appreciated help from Ry. Oliver is also his biggest helper! It is so cute to see him at the house. He always finds little things to play with, and loves the dirt pile out back. It is his "mountain."