A Walk in the Park (Literally)

Last Wednesday, after Mother Goose time (which was surprisingly uneventful), I decided to head over to Memorial Park (which is half a block away from the library) to try and take some 15 month pictures of Avery. It was a cold and windy day, so the weather was not ideal for her to play long; I ended up chasing her more than taking pictures. I got a few good ones though, and Avery had a fun time looking at all the flowers and even seeing some goldfish.

This was the main view I had the majority of the time there.

This was about 2 seconds before she fell face first into the marigolds. No tears though!

Our beautiful tree.

Sporting a New 'Do

We did a little experimenting the other night with Avery's hair. We have not taken her to get a haircut yet because we are just wanting to grow her hair out. During this process, her hair has started to look a little mulletish. It seems to be growing faster in the back than the front and sides. Sooo, Mommy decided to take matters into her own hands and get out the comb, spray bottle of water, and some rubber bands. This was the end result:

Yes, this might seem a little drastic, but it seems to have eliminated the mullet issue for now. As an added bonus, all the old men at Walmart now seem to finally understand that this child with a pink shirt, pink shoes, and ruffles and lace is now a GIRL!

Cruisin' in the Coupe

Forget the four-wheeler, and move over Mickey Mouse train; Avery now has her latest favorite toy. She received this for her birthday but hasn't paid too much attention to it until last week. We were downstairs changing a load of laundry when she walked up to it and put her hands on it to push it from behind. Mommy got a little bold and just kind of shoved her inside. We had tears for about 30 seconds...but this was the end result!

From then on, it was all business. Mommy ended up pushing her around in laps for roughly half an hour. Avery was very intent on doing a good job steering.

Here she was a little frustrated with me. "Mommy, put the camera down and push me again!"

Now anytime we go downstairs she heads straight for the coupe, crawls in, shuts the door (as best as she can) and hollers for somebody to get in there to get the car moving. She also likes to stuff as many of her toys in there with her as possible to score a ride. Loving the latest love.

Halloween (a few days later)

Another Halloween, come and gone. This only being Avery's 2nd Halloween, it really wasn't a whole lot different than her first. The major difference was this year we attended the Halloween Carnival downtown with every other child in McPherson there too. Avery was still pretty little last Halloween, so we didn't get her out last year. But this year we thought it would be fun to let her prance around in her costume a bit before actual Halloween night. Plus she had some friends that were going to meet us there too, so we headed out Thursday evening for a bit of spooky fun.

We only ended up staying about an hour. There were plenty of games, but they were all aimed toward older kids, so Avery got a balloon and that was about it. She was really enjoying running all around though, so apparently the lack of entertainment was not apparent to her. Avery got to see her friend Harper, cousin Charlie, and her other new friend, Gavin, who just moved to town a few weeks ago. Gavin's the son of one of my oldest and best friends, Shayna. They just moved back from Manhattan and we are so excited to have them in town. Especially because Avery and Gavin are just 10 months apart. Anyway, here's the four of us at the Community Building:

Yes, that's right. Avery is Supergirl. Everyone thought it was a very fitting costume, especially when they saw her strutting her stuff with her cape flowing behind her. Pretty impressive.

Onto actual Halloween. Avery took a great nap that afternoon, and after she woke up, we got her into her costume (again!) Dad had come through McPherson, so he was able to see her for awhile before we headed out to start collecting candy. We stopped at Mom's, Ron and Pam's, Uncle Scott's, and a few other houses before heading back home. We even made a special stop at Seth and Laurie's to drop off some finger jello for them. (Blue because they found out they are having twin BOYS!)

Avery wasn't too sure about the trick-or-treating at first, but once we stopped at a couple of houses and she saw that she was able to take as much candy as she wanted and put it into her special bag, well, then it was all over. We tried to discreetly give candy back to everyone, as we thought she had taken way more than her fair share, but we still ended up with too much. Here are a few more pictures of the superhero in action:

Pumpkins and Pictures

This past weekend was a another fun and busy one. We had both my brothers in town for a visit; Zach from KC and Sam was here for a few days from Ireland. They got to town Friday and left Sunday, so although it was short, it was great to see them both. We figured out the last time the three of us were in the same place at the same time was the weekend after Avery was born, so we had been going on 15 months without having all three of us together.

Saturday we smoked more ribs for dinner that night (delicious again-thanks Chris!) and we had a pretty laidback day. We went over to Mom's to eat and after dinner headed to the pumpkin patch. What a hoot! Avery had been there last year, but being all of 2 1/2 months, I don't think she remembered too much about it. She took it slow at first, but was soon running up and down the rows of pumpkins. She even climbed a little hill by the smaller pumpkins, but rolled back down accidentally. Mommy wasn't paying very good attention. That one was my fault. She bounced right back up though, as Avery does, and definitely did not want to leave when we were done paying.

Trying to figure out why we are amongst all these orange things in addition to taking pictures of it.

Starting to get a little more interested.

Trying to roll this one, I think.

Now she has that look, like "As soon as you stop watching me, I'm outta here!"

Quite the poser. Though it would appear she picked this pumpkin out, it did not pass Mommy's inspection. I don't think she noticed.

After the pumpkin patch, we headed to Lakeside Park to meet Mom, Dad, Sam, and Zach to try and take some family pictures since we were all together. We ended up with quite a few good ones, and even had someone stop and offer to take one of all 7 of us. Here's a few:

Avery with Uncle Zach

Avery with Uncle Sam (a little blurry-Avery would not stay still!)

Zach, Mom, Me, and Sam

Zach, Dad, Me, and Sam

Chris, Me, Dad, Sam, Avery, Mom, and Zach (courtesy of Sid Johnson)

Mother Goose Time: Take 2

Every Wednesday morning, the public library has a half hour time when children over 12 months, but under 24 months can come and have story time, sing songs, dance, etc. Commonly known as Mother Goose Time. Avery and I went for the first time two weeks ago. (We missed last week because she was running a fever.) I can't believe I haven't posted anything about that experience yet.

Two weeks ago: We were some of the first to arrive. I had Avery in what I thought at the time was a pretty cute outfit. Once we got there, I realized she had a couple of strings hanging off her shorts, and her shirt had a stain on it. Not a big deal. Then I look at the other little girl that was there, Riley. Wearing an adorable dress. Okay, well, her grandma must have gotten her dressed up for a special occasion. Then others begin to arrive. Sweaters, slacks, hair in fancy hairdos; Avery had on a barrette, only one couldn't see it because she had pulled it almost loose. Strike one on first impressions.

We head downstairs for Mother Goose Time to begin. All the other adults sat down around the rug and their little ones perched obediently in their laps. Avery kind of shoved me and ran up to the librarian, wanting to help turn the pages of the first book she read. She came back to me only after I stood up and had to gently guide her back to our designated spot on the rug. I figured she might do that though, so I wasn't too embarrassed about that. Then came shaker time. (Shakers=easter eggs with some kind of beads inside) Avery runs up to get her two shakers, then throws them on the floor and takes the shakers of another little girl. I quickly snatched them out of her hands and gave them back, apologizing. The mother kind of gave me a tight smile. Oops-strike two.

Onto scarves; again, Avery excitedly gets hers, but drops it and tries to take someone else's. This time, the girl whose shakers she stole looked really worried and her mom said, "Don't worry, she's not going to take your scarf." Another tight smile. Dang it! We're not making any friends! Avery does manage to get the scarf of a little boy named Ethan and knock him down at the same time. Remember that name, we're not done with Ethan. By the time scarf time is over, I am so ready for the half hour to have elapsed. But we still have pick out a book time.

"Pick out a book and take it back to your mommy, Avery," I hear the librarian tell Avery as Avery is grabbing about 5 books from the tub. "No, just one Avery. Just one-okay, take a couple." The librarian looks at me, "This happens with them all on their first time." Then it comes; I hear "Avery, gently! Gently!!" Then the librarian looks at me again and says "she must have a thing with hair." Yes, she had done it. Avery pulled little Ethan's hair. Strike 3. Ethan's mom didn't even give me a tight smile; she just avoided looking at us the rest of the time. In Avery's defense, he had kind of been in her way, plus he was still using a pacifier. Doesn't that sound like he was asking for it? I think she was just making her presence known-and it worked.

Fast forward to today. I woke up this morning slightly concerned about showing our faces at the library again, but thought maybe Ethan and stolen shaker girl weren't regulars and we could avoid seeing them again. Well, turns out that they ARE regulars so we DID see them again. Avery didn't pull any hair this time, but did steal a set of shakers. We knew the mom of that girl though, so it didn't seem to be quite as big a deal. Plus that little girl knocked some other little boy down pretty hard, so Avery wasn't quite the villain as she had been previously. Avery had a slight run-in with Ethan, but again, he was kind of in her way, so.... The best part about it all was Avery's little friend Harper was there too. They hadn't seen each other for a few weeks since we ran into them at Walmart, so it was nice to catch up with her mom. Here are a couple of pics I took this morning; Avery likes taking her clothes out of her drawers and trying to get dressed. Even though she is already dressed. Enjoy!

Ready for a nap!

What a ham!

Busy Weekend

Finally, a chance to sit down and try to remember everything that's been going on the last few days. I'm not completely with it today, last night was a short night, to put it mildly. Avery's been getting in a couple of molars, and we are definitely feeling it in the sleep department. She's had a fever the last 3 days, so between the tylenol and orajel that we keep making her open her mouth up for, life has been a little trying for Miss Avery. She seems to be feeling better today-no more fever, but is definitely tired.

Let's see, where to begin? Last Friday and Saturday, we finally had the garage sale that I mentioned about 6 months ago. The one that I said I wanted to have sometime this summer. We finally got our act together, no scratch that. We CHOSE to wait to have the garage sale in October because the weather this past weekend was absolutely beautiful! If (not when, if) we ever decide to have a garage sale again, I'm definitely going to wait until the fall to have it because I didn't mind being outside one bit. Avery was able to run around the entire time, taking off all the carefully placed price tags. I'm still finding little stickers in nooks and crannies of the garage, but at least I can finally pull my car in and open the doors without bumping into something. We had a very nice turnout and sold almost everything we had.

Saturday (yes, the same day as the garage sale) was Chris's birthday. And also Pam's birthday-a special year, though I won't mention which one. And Tuesday was Michael's (Chris's brother) birthday. So we had an Unruh birthday collaborative celebration at our house that evening. Chris smoked some of the best ribs I've ever had, and everyone had a nice time.

Sunday, though his birthday was technically the day before, Avery and I wanted to make sure Chris had a special day. We were able to hang out most of the day at the house, and then made a special trip to Lakeside Park so Avery could feed the ducks-er, canadian geese for the first time. She liked the sounds they made, but never really figured out how to fling the bread out into the water. Here's some pics:

Avery had more fun running away from us than trying to feed the geese!

Captured before she discovered she had a whole park to explore.

Avery and the birthday (+ 1 day) boy!

And with Mommy-it was a little windy!

When we got home, we ate dinner, leftover ribs-Avery did her best to eat them too!

And now it's almost the weekend again! Just 1 1/2 more days and maybe we can relax some more. Keep your fingers crossed that Avery's teeth will stop bothering her, all three of us need to get some sleep!