The Latest Photos

How is that for a morning face?! Craig and I have come to really enjoy the really large bags under her eyes in the morning.
So life is a bit chaotic right now. Poor Craig is slaving away on the kitchen trying to get everything done before the cabinets get installed a week from Tuesday. I am busy carrying dishes up and down the stairs to the laundry room to wash and trying to keep Avery from getting into the construction zone. She has been a bit of a handful lately - very busy and into everything. I have learned a few things about her in the last week.
1) do not lie on the bed and talk on the phone while Avery is playing on the bed with you. She is probably closer to the edge than you think and you might miss her leg when she falls off the edge and she will probably fall on her head.
2) if you are in the basement playing with Avery and she is not located near the stairs it is not a good idea to run upstairs to answer the phone (the downstairs phone was not working because Avery had pulled out the power to it - this was realized later) and only talk for about a minute because Avery might take the opportunity to go all the way up the stairs on her own.
3) It is not a good idea to try to take a shower when Avery is in the bathroom with you. It doesn't matter how many toys you bring in the room to distract her, they are no match for the shower and shower curtain. Avery is now strong and determined enough to pull the interior shower curtain outside the tub and thinks is it fun to get wet and play in the puddles.
4) Using the toy box to try to pen Avery in within the couches in the basement is not going to last for very long because when she sees something she wants outside her pen she has discovered how to climb into and then out of the toy box. (please see photo below)

Hopefully these tips will come in handy if you are taking care of Avery one day. We are looking for people who want to spend some quality time with her on the weekend so Craig and I can paint and finish the kitchen. No resumes are required and you can visit with her at your house or ours. Just call to let us know if you are interested!!



 

Callum and Avery together again

A few more photos for you. Avery and I spent the weekend at Brianna's with Meghan and Mom while the boys were in London renovating our kitchen. They had a great weekend together, of course, they are definitely 'kissing cousins' if you know what I mean.
The first photo is Avery right before she started coughing and sputtering on the apple wedge that she stole from me. The second photo is Meghan trying to get Avery in a diaper and sleeper after a bath. I think Avery is winning that confrontation but I think my favourite part of the photo is Callum strutting around in the bathrobe from his Uncle Seamus. The last photo was taken on Sunday morning when we decided to have some bonding time with the morning bottles in Bri and Graham's bed.


 

Now that's a Wedgie

I hope I am not the one paying for Avery's therapy bills when she grows up and finds out that her evil mother posted her really great wedgie online for everyone to see.
I am sure you will all enjoy.
I am also about to load up some videos too so make sure you check out the latest.

 

More clamebake photos

Here are a few more photos from the Clambake. As you can see Clare was a big help with Avery. She played with her and helped to feed and bathe her too.


 

My First Cleveland Clambake

Avery had a great time at the clambake in Cleveland over the Thanksgiving weekend. There was lots of free space for her to crawl around and lots of bigger kids running around for her to watch. She even help June and Shark with thire gardening by ripping out some leaves in preparation for winter and mulching some of their grass. The only bad part of the weekend was that the Browns lost to Carolina.
I hope you enjoy the fashions that she was wearing over the weekend. They were very football related! Meghan as promised she wore the sweater you made at the Clambake. Maybe she will even fit into it next year too.


 

Frolicing in the Grass

Well Avery is extremely busy these days. She loves the freedom of crawling and if she is picked up she is usually wriggling around so she can get down and get moving. She has fast hands and likes to grab anything in site. Usually the stuff you don't want her to have. She is starting to be a bit of a ham as well. She is smiling, flirting, laughing and started giving kisses today.
She has also discovered that getting chased is great fun so if you are paying attention to her she will madly crawl away from you and start laughing if you chase her.
All in all she is very entertaining!


 

Finally More Videos!

I keep forgetting to tell everyone that I have posted a couple of new videos and they are hilarious. Just click on the Avery on Video link on the left side of the blog and it will take you to the videos.
Enjoy! 

I'm Avery the Sailor Man

So here are some shots of Avery having a grand ole time at Grandma & Grandpa Adkins' boat. She had so many visitors on Saturday (Great Grandma June, Great Aunt Cathy, Aunt Meghan and Uncle Mark) that she didn't even have time to go out on the boat. That means she has something to look forward to next year. Grandma and Grandpa assure me that she was so good she is invited back next year whenever she wants!


 

Avery and Justin meet Again

As you can see from these 2 photos, Justin is doing a great job of catching up to Avery. He is doing really well and it won't be long before he is running around with Avery. Craig had Avery to himself for the weekend while I was at the film festival so he took her visiting to Oshawa and then up to Bobcaygeon for the weekend. He did all the packing (and list making) himself. He now considers himself Superdad. They had a great time together and Avery was a star as usual.

 

That's all for now

The first photo captures how Avery now spends a good chunk of her day. Standing at her toy box.
The second photo shows how relaxed Uncle Mark has become with all this baby exposure.
Craig has the babies at attention because he is feeding them something. This photo also demonstrates the ongoing discrepancy in head circumference between Callum and Avery. (sorry Bri but it had been awhile)
Lastly, Avery and Seamus bond over their love of computers. Seamus had to lock out the keyboard so that Avery did not blow up Mom's computer with all her fancy keyboarding skills.


 

Quality family time

Here is Avery spending time with members of the family first Meghan, then Grandma and Callum and then Brianna. In the last photo we are demonstrating how Avery woke up after sleeping in the new pajamas that Auntie Meghan got her. I am not sure it is the most flattering look.


 

Oh My God She's Crawling!!

It is official, the Peanut figured out how to crawl and now there is no stopping her. With practice she can now go for some serious distances and almost build up some speed. So now she is into everything. Actually her favourite thing to do is to pull up to standing she does more of that than crawling. She sustained her first head injury this past Tuesday when she lost her balance during a sit to stand transition and hit her forehead on the leg of the coffeetable. It only left a red mark and a small goose-egg. Most of her wipe outs have had safer landings. We spent the past week up at the cottage with the McGuire clan. Seamus is over from England, Brianna, Graham and Callum had the week off and Meghan, Mark and Carl are still in a period of transition so they were there too. Mom was there the entire time and Craig and Dad made it up for the long weekend. The weather was a bit cool but it was good times. Avery is now the aggressor with Callum and he is on defense. So was Carl (the dog) because Avery thought he was great.
She is now using sign language to let us know some of what she wants. As of today she is using 3 baby signs - more, eat and all done. We are still convinced that she is gifted.
So I will post some more photos to tide you over because we are away for another week for the Toronto Film Festival. After that we are (mostly)staying home until November so I will be able to update the blog a bit more regularily for those of you that are addicted and I will be much more diligent about posting video so you can see and hear her in action!
P.S. I still love reading comments so I know that people actually read all the exciting info I post so don't be afraid to tell me what you think. You can do it anonomously