Hi all. It's been a busy few weeks here, and a couple months since I've written a blog (Cheryl's been doing a great job!), so there's lots of stuff to talk about. This is all out of order, but here are some of the highlights from the last few weeks:
Avery hanging out with her little buddy Keira...
And deciding to have a taste of Keira's head.
Keira's mommy (Cheryl's friend Layla) was nice enough to take some cute pics of Avery for us.
So I've taken at least every Friday off for the past five weeks or so, and have had a lot of three-, four-, and even five-day weekends with Cheryl and little Jaders. It's been so great. She is turning into such a wonderful little girl. I've really enjoyed all the time that we get to spend together as a family, which more often than not involves the three of us hanging out and playing together, with Cheryl and me laughing, smiling, and marveling at all that Avery does.
One of my favorite things is just watching her explore her world. She gets very involved in her toys, manipulating them, turning them in her hands, watching how they move, putting them into her mouth, or listening to the sounds they make when she bangs them together. Here she is making sense of some nesting/stacking cups.
She also loves this blanket from Cheryl's cousin Todd. It has a lot of cute animals on it, and AJ has been doing a great job of methodically pulling out all of the animals' tails, manes, etc. Here she is hard at work on a horse.
Last week was my birthday, and it was a lot of fun. We've had great success lately taking Avery out to restaurants due to her new booster seat. She likes being at the table with us rather than in her stroller, and when the food is served, we just suction cup a toy onto her tray, which buys us a good 20 minutes to enjoy our meals. On my BD, we went to our favorite place in the neighborhood, then had some Junior's cheesecake back at the apartment. As you can see in the pic below, someone was
very excited at the party.
I spent a lot of time during my days off just walking around Brooklyn with Avery. It's really a ton of fun with her. Wherever we go, people end up smiling at her and talking with her. Strangers on the street tell me how cute she is or how chubby her thighs are as we walk by. Sales clerks end up coming out from behind the counter to tickle her feet. It's so much fun, and it makes us glad to live in such a friendly neighborhood where AJ gets to smile back at so many smiling faces.
She especially loves stopping and visiting with the elderly people who spend their days in the park. Sometimes, groups of them will call out to her as we pass by. It's really great.
Last week, I took her for a walk around a big field at a park in the neighborhood. Alongside the edge of the field was a very old woman in a wheelchair who had been brought there by her nurse (I guess to listen to the kids playing and to enjoy the sunny weather). The years had obviously taken quite a toll on her, and she was slumped down in her chair with her head hanging off to the side. I wasn't sure if she was awake, but as we approached, the woman's nurse said that it was fine to say hello to her. I knelt down with Avery right in the woman's line of sight. Her eyes were open, and her face registered the most wonderful look of surprise and happiness when she saw that I was holding the little chubby bubby right in front of her. She couldn't lift her head, but she started smiling and talking to Avery right away. Avery responded with a big smile and a lot of drooly babbles, and the two of them shared some nice moments looking at each other. It was such a nice experience.
We did have one very stressful day last week, when Missy had to spend the day at the vet's office having a full dental treatment, which included the extraction of seven teeth. The anesthesia went in through her arm, which resulted in the following new hairdo.
It's so funny looking. We've been calling her chicken wing (b/c it looks like a half eaten drumstick) or Puss in Boot. The procedure went well, and the recovery is going well so far also.
On Saturday we were in NJ to celebrate cousin Ryan's 1st BD, and also cousin Jacqui's 4th BD. It was a good time. Here are the two little ones hanging out together with what must have been a very tasty toy, as they both had it in their mouths numerous times.
The birthday siblings!
The other cool thing at the birthday party was that Avery got to try some Cheerios. She ate a bunch of them and really liked them a lot.
Anyway, here are a few other random pics of the little girl hanging out at home. Lounging with some food stains on her forehead:
Trying to feed herself, an activity she's been more interested in lately. It's a huge mess.
Fancy dinner attire: bib and a diaper.
That's about it. Avery also has learned how to clap as of a couple days ago, so we've been having lots of fun with that. More pics to come next week. Thanks for reading!
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