Handy Manny and Chuck E. Cheese

We went to Chuck E Cheese a few weeks back and brought home this balloon. Avery has been fascinated with it and will talk and coo to it for the longest time. They have become great friends.






Noah has developed a close attachment to this Handy Manny doll that he got for Christmas. He brings it with him everywhere. Handy Manny goes with us to Walmart, out to eat and Jazzercise. He has his own chair at the dinner table, and his own spot in Noah's bed at night. For a while Noah took real good care of Manny, by feeding him a bottle and burping him whenever I would feed Avery. Now he just flings him around and the Jazzercise babysitter told Noah that he should be called Flying Handy Manny because he flies all over the place. He plays on Noah's slide in the back yard and is getting quite dirty, but he doesn't like to leave him inside when he is playing so I just spot clean him when I get a chance.



Fireman Noah singing a song with Manny. These days its the Hokie Pokie and sometimes Manny dances.

I just love watching his imagination grow. It makes me proud, happy and sad to see him getting so big but he is so much fun right now that I would love to just freeze him at this age.

Food Glorious Food

Well, you think I would learn. I keep getting surprised at how different Avery and Noah are. When we fed Noah cereal for the first time, he loved it from day one. He never was and still is not a picky eater. Avery on the other hand...


Started off OK. She seemed to tolerate it. Not love it, but not hate it either.


Oops, I was wrong. She hated it. I just chalked it up to her being cranky and tired. We'll try again tomorrow.

Ooh,she must have been tired. Look, I was right she is excited about eating. This will go much more smoothly than yesterday.

Oops again. Maybe she doesn't like it.

Oh, definitely doesn't like rice cereal. I didn't give up though, I tried again for about 3 more days then decided to just try oatmeal.

Much better. She seemed to really like her oatmeal. She still spit it all out, but she didn't cry and pitch a fit.

Yum, that was good. Can I have more tomorrow?

Now we are up to two tablespoons and she is moving it to the back of her throat much better. She doesn't look this messy when she is done anymore. She is opening her mouth to take another bite and gets excited with little kicks in between bites. So maybe she'll be a little more picky, but I am still optimistic that she will be a good eater. We shall see in a couple of days when we start veggies.

Noah on the other hand, though still not picky, has developed a love of PB&J. As you can see, he thoroughly enjoys it.

Bathtime

For a baby who hated bathtime the first couple months of her life, Avery sure loves it now. Around 6:30 or 7:00 is her fussy time and is when we usually head toward the bathroom. As soon as we enter the bathroom and turn on the heater or water she calms down. In fact, this is the time of day when we get the most smiles out of her. Eric lays her on the counter and talks to her and tickles her and she just giggles and smiles.

In effort to save time, we usually bath the two of them together and then Eric takes one kid and I take the other. We try to switch off every other night. Noah gets dressed and goes to his room to read books and be put to bed, so he doesn't disturb Avery who is in the den getting a bottle and calming down before she goes to bed.


All smiles in the tub now.

Noah helping to rinse Avery's belly with his "teapot."

Giggle and smiles for her Daddy.

Spring is Springing

Spring is not officially here yet, but it has been beautiful and warm the past couple weeks that we have enjoyed a lot of time outside. Just this week we went to a couple different parks around town with our friends Devin and Dylan. Their mom, Ms. Kristen, joked that park hopping days have replaced our carefree days of bar hopping. I think she might be right, but watching my kids (or just Noah for now) play is just as much fun.






This was taken on our back patio. When we go to the park she usually stays in her stroller or I will front pack her and carry her in her Baby Bjorn knockoff.

Yay for being outside!

What a doll, I am?

Exersaucering with Avery

Now that Avery is 4 months old, we thought we would try her in her exercauser and she likes it. She doesn't do much in it yet, but she likes to sit in there especially when her brother plays with her while she is in it. He will push the music button and dance around her and she gets the biggest kick out of it.

Future Psychiatrist

Here's the scene:

Avery is in her swing crying a bit in between dozing off. Noah comes in and asks "Whats the matter with Avery?" I told him she is just tired and about to go to sleep, and then I told him to go talk to her and tell her it was Ok and to just go to sleep.

He then walked over to her swing, and said "Its OK Avery, you have pwoblems (problems)."

I guess he tells it like it is.

Charlie Brown

It is funny how kids can be obsessed with something one day and the next day completely obsessed with something else. So far Noah has gone through obsessions with Handy Manny, Super Why and now its Charlie Brown. It all started with a Charlie Brown Christmas book. He would make us read it to him every night and then we got to where he could quote the entire thing and carry it around with him everywhere. So then when "Happy New Year" Charlie Brown came on TV, I recorded it for him. For the entire month of January we would watch it every day when he woke up from his nap. Finally I couldn't take it anymore and bought him a couple more DVD's. Now we watch those everyday. The kid even walks around the house quoting the movies or the book. We will be playing something and all of a sudden he will fall down and say "Good Grief" or "I can't stand it." I think it is quite funny because Charlie Brown is really not little kid entertainment or humor, but he loves it, so who am I to say he shouldn't.

Such Sweetness

The other day Eric had just gotten home from work, I was cooking dinner and Noah was playing on the kitchen floor. He looks up at Eric and says in the sweetest voice ever, "Daddy, are you crazy about Momma?"


This morning, Eric was feeding Avery, and Noah was playing. He walked up to her, put his head on her and said, "I Love my sister."

I just love this kid, he makes my heart happy. They both do.

Here We Are

Here are just a few pics of our lives the past few weeks.


Smiles.

Noah enjoying a cupcake at Molly Kate's "Pinkalicious" party.

Really enjoying a cupcake...

...with his friend Devin.

Daddy, what have you done to me?

Holla!!!

Happy Valentine's Day

The same photographer who took Noah's two year old pics, Kelly Covington, was offering a Valentine's Day special for little girls. I decided to get Avery's picture taken since it was close to 3 months for her, I could knock it out all in one swoop. They came out great. She took beautiful pictures, of course I am a little bias.

Yikes!!!

She was just cooing away. You can look at the picture and almost hear it.