A brother's love....

A birthday present for his sister. He chose the outfit and the name. Meet Polly.

Sunday Funday

Bring out the gates...

Up until now, Avery has never bothered with the stairs. She was very cute tonight, though, trying to figure out how to lift up her legs to attempt the climb. The funniest part is that each step is knee-high to her. She seems so tiny compared to what Logan was at this age - but that's probably because he was all we knew, whereas she is constantly beside her brother who is that much bigger.

Busy day. And ahhhhh I love the water :)

Today we had our annual family reunion/pool party.  On our way out of town, we stopped so that TJ could complete his 100th Geocache.

Wind farm on our way there...

Logan has been saying for a week that all he was going to do was sit on these steps and splash his feet in the water.  He was on his mark the second we arrived.

He had a very bad experience a couple of years ago where he fell into the pool.  This very pool.  He was being very good and careful (as per his usual), but stuff happens...even with a bunch of adults within arms reach, he managed to fall in.  He still remembers it very vividly and tells everyone about it.  Despite the fact that he seemed just fine after it happened, he is now very fearful of the water.  So, I'm VERY proud of my little guy that he spent most of the afternoon in this inflatable raft, and even spent a good portion in the water with me.  (and I'll have proof of his adventure when you can see the bruising around my neck from him holding on so tight!).  He was IN, and he swam.  He did a tiny bit of floating, a little bit of kicking.  And he was IN!

Avery's first time ever in a pool! She was fantastic - and such a daredevil!  She kept trying to launch herself over the side of the floatie ring and was dunking her own face in. 

Water baby!

Brave man!

Storm that scared everyone home.

Sunset on the way home.

New Setup

I got sick and tired of pushing Avery's high chair out of the way 30x an hour.  It's a GREAT highchair, and I love it...but we just don't have the space for it when you factor in 2 adults, 2 kids, and 2 dogs. So we bought a booster seat and she is now sitting at the table beside her big brother...and loving it, I might add.  She has discovered that the dogs will be her friend if she drops bits over the side, and that her brother is always willing to play along with her if it gets him out of eating.

Soccer night, as usual

It was the coach's birthday, so they brought cupcakes! Yummy little treat after running around on the field in this heat & humidity.

Avery is not so content these days.  All she wants to do is go, go, go...and when she can't, she must be fed or all Hell breaks loose!  Here she is trying to escape the stroller.

11 Months

She's on the move and not so happy to be asked to lay still while I took her picture with Piggy! I can't believe that the next entry like this will be the big one...ONE YEAR!!!

Right now, Avery has 5 teeth (2 top centre, 2 bottomcentre, and one top to the right of centre), crawls like a maniac, and is eating table foods (and throwing them across the room) like a pro.

How could you not love this face?

(notice the 4 toofies, too?)

Avery's been eating more table foods than purees lately.  She lives for multi grain cheerios, actually, and will holler at you if she sees you pass over the box in the pantry.  Tonight, we had pasta and mixed veggies with pears for dessert.  I cannot believe how much she can pack away!  (Mind you, some does make it onto the seat of the highchair).  It didn't occur to me to take a before picture of her plate, but there's a part-way pic and an after. Of course, I'm biased, but she's so cute!  Every single bite she takes is followed by an enthusiastic "Mmmm, Ohhh, Mmmm".  If you're in really good standing, she'll even offer to share a few bites ;)

During:  initially, half of the plate was covered in a layer of mixed veggies. Baby pasta is in the bowl on the left and pears on the left side of the plate.

After:  These were only left because they didn't cook very well and were kind of hard & dry.

Hideout

The latest discovery

So once she mastered climbing over things while she crawled, she decided to try out this form of transportation...

I'm guessing she'll be bi-pedal in a week or so?

I was outnumbered...

5 kids, one adult.  Luckily it was quiet...even though it didn't work out as I planned with the 3 youngest ones asleep.  They all woke up in a chain reaction of hysterical screaming.  A little snack all around solved everything we ended up with everyone playing very nicely in a confined space. 

Milestones

Avery has been crawling around like crazy for a while now.  She can be really quick when she wants to be!  Like this morning, when I put her down on the floor after she woke up, went to get her bottle, and she scrambled over to the couch, stood up, and then started cruising along the couch all one-handed & stuff!  This was the craze of the day :)

Happy Canada Day!!!

Cool again

But of course, that doesn't stop the kids from enjoying a freezie at halftime!

Look who's standing....

We are in sooo much trouble!!  I'm sure she'll be cruising by the weekend and walking on her own well before her birthday.  Brand new experience for us...but wow, I'm worn out!