http://money.cnn.com/galleries/2008/fsb/0804/gallery.rice_b_plan_competition_08.fsb/23.html
In an effort to not get completely out of order on my blog, I thought I'd go ahead and post this since I've been meaning to for a while. During the business plan competition Mason and Claudia were photographed for this spread. Way cool.
"Skip Skip Water" is Avery's version of "Skip to My Lou." She's just discovered this skill and is a skipping maniac. Notice how she gets freaked out when the waves come her way but she tries to play it cool.
Have you ever been driving full speed ahead down the highway when this warning suddenly pops up on your dashboard? Did your car thrust and jolt and your baby was in the backseat and you panicked but your dad always told you the worst thing on earth you can do is pull over on the side of a busy highway so you just kept driving? I have. Lots. Way more than my fair share of times. The warning light and the thrusting wasn't the biggest issue. The part I was most disgusted about was that the dealership didn't believe me and my warranty is up in May. Mason and I were really sweating about what to do because we didn't want to buy an extended warranty(though we finally did), didn't want to pay for repairs out of pocket and didn't want to sell my car. I told them no less than 5 times that this warning light is a fairly common occurence. They said they saw no record of it in the car computer and blew me off. After the 3rd time they replaced my battery and told me that it would "definitely" solve the problem. Thank goodness the warning light came on for Mason last week. He blew a fuse, took pictures and stormed down to give the guys a piece his mind. Bingo. I got a brand spanking new transmission courtesy of BMW Midtown. Thanks, punkasses.
Avery and Maggie patiently waited for a cupcake.... 
...and their patience paid off.
Avery found this technique much more effective.
We came home and opened up her presents. She loved her baby dolls (no surprise there) and all of their accessories. Look at how excited she is. She can hardly wait until I get it out of the box.
She loves this one even though it's clearly an obese newborn. The thing must weigh 10 pounds. Mason and I think she may throw her back out playing with this "Baby GG."
The end of a good day. We gathered up all of her charges and let her sleep with everyone. 
On this day last year our little girl was...
Cupcake Breakfast on Her 2nd BirthdayThis year our little girl is about 27 pounds, talking up a storm, testing out her new found jumping skills, bossy as can be and... too crazy to describe in bullets. I want Mason to come add some later but here are a few of my favorite memories during our second year of life with Avery.
She's in love with monkeys. Take her to the zoo and she doesn't need guidance. She'll take you straight to the monkeys. She's got the monkey noise down as well as most of the other everyday animals. Mason even made up a sound for what a camel says that she has mastered and it's hilarious. We've spent countless hours looking at our "100 Animals" book with Avery refusing to look at anything but the four monkeys. That leaves 96 others we ignored. She would show the monkeys to anyone who would look, including Dixie and her babies. Then she moved on to "Goodnight Gorilla" which Mason still says is his favorite.
When we're not at the zoo or reading monkey books, Avery is playing with her babies. Not real ones, but the lower maintenance kind that can be stuffed and tossed and strolled and shoved into seats. Too many adults have been fooled by what at first seems to be a sweet interest in a baby in a car seat. Wrong. What Avery is quick to clarify is that she wants the real baby out of the seat so that she can put her baby in. She's not apologetic either. Just get your baby out, lady. She'll say please - "Baby out, please." and she's pretty good at "Thank you" which has now turned into "Thanks." She loves babies with accessories. She will cover and uncover, take a pacifier out and put it back in, buckle and unbuckle, pat, shush, bounce and sing to her entire brood for hours on end. I can't take her for walks in the stroller anymore. She refuses to get in. The only way she'll go is if she puts her baby in the stroller and pushes it herself. Mason came home from a walk last week that took 45 minutes and they only went a few blocks because Avery was pushing "at 2 miles an hour" the entire time.
She still loves her leopard, hot milk, has learned everyone in the extended family's names and knows where all of the neighbors live as well. She knows that when we're near the "donut store" we're also right around the corner from home. She knows that at the "park" you "swing and slide" and can pretty much tell us what she wants to eat as her vocabulary is extensive enough to cover "ice cream, bread, sandwich, chicken, noodles, orange juice, apple juice (which she is not shy about asking for from waiters) cookies, candy, chocolate, fruit, apples, pineapple, grapes, crackers, cheese, mango." I could go on forever. My point is that she's got the talking thing down. She's starting to understand concepts like "tomorrow, later, in a minute, after, first, etc." which is helpful but we still have our fair share of fits just from her not getting her way and not understanding that we're on our way to do something.
She's still fearless. We took her to Schlitterbahn last summer and she absolutely loved it. We can't wait to go back again because this year she'll be able to do even more stuff herself. We went to the rodeo recently and she didn't hesitate to go down the big slides and she loved the roller coasters.
Avery has a memory like an elephant. She has only been inside Mason's school once and it was about 2 months ago. Today I said, "Where's dada?" "School." she said. "What does he do there?" I asked. Her response was "candy - airplane." I had no clue what she was talking about and I really wasn't even expecting a response. Mason and I figured out after talking about it that the night we took her up there, there was an airplane pinata full of candy during a festival. So, Avery thinks that school is a place where you hit airplanes with a colorful stick and candy falls out. Sounds good to me. We'll let her keep thinking that for a while. I have a million other examples of the same memory things but if I let myself go I'll write forever.
I may have to come back and add later so please excuse me for editing myself. I can't believe how much she's changed since last year and as you can see from the small number of bullets from her first birthday, I can't even remember what she was doing. I'm determined to use the blog as a way to document things for us. I had a friend in college whose dad would write her a letter every year on her birthday. It was a review of everything she'd accomplished and he'd tell her all the reasons he was proud of her. I remember her reading it and bawling. I'm trying to avoid the mush factor for everyone's sake but, Avery, please know that we love you more than anything in the whole wide world and we're so happy to get to play with you every day! You are one hilarious monkey! (There, I did it and I have to go to bed now before I really start crying!)
Here's to a happy, healthy, potty trained 3rd year!
Just wanted to have it on record for Avery's sake that she peed in the potty twice last week and she also , well, you know. I also thought I should have on record that on the same day she peed twice in the potty, she went on the wool rug in her bedroom and the sisal rug in the living room. Baby steps.
Kelly and Perry just had their baby! He's chubby and cute and rumor has it he looks like Kelly. She said he's not at all wrinkly so he looks like he's a few weeks old. We all thought he was going to be blonde so the dark hair is throwing everyone for a loop and now they're stumped on the name. Stay tuned...
BROCOLLI! Just wanted to brag on our monkey a little bit. We were eating lunch on Saturday and she shoved her pudding aside to eat her BROCOLLI! Yep, it's true. Kelly told us about these single sized, cheese covered brocolli things and it turns out they're a hit. I'm sure there's twice as much fat, salt, sugar, and chemicals in that fake cheese as in the pudding but at least we're trying!
Our friend, Dixie, is the sweetest dog in the whole world and about the craziest, most active girl we've ever met. She goes nonstop and greets people with her whole body. (This is a positive post so let's not mention the piercing barking that goes along with the greeting.) She is only about 6 and loves to swim and play fetch a million times a day if we let her. We noticed last year that she wasn't moving quite as fast anymore and that she'd yelp sometimes when she'd go get the ball. We took her to the vet and they said it was just hip displaysia but not severe enough to do anything about. I was heartbroken because this hasn't slowed down her enthusiasm to play and I couldn't explain to her why I wouldn't throw the ball for her anymore. Now things have gotten so bad that she won't even put any weight on her left leg and will hop around on three legs. Even still it doesn't slow her down and she brought me the ball again today. Well, the bad (and good) news is that the problem is actually a knee problem (Avery calls it Dixie's "ouchie knee.") and it's going to require surgery. The vet (where we went for a second opinion) said she's actually torn the ligament in her knee and her bones rub together when she puts weight on it, causing her pain. It requires an 8 to 10 week recovery time which will mean that she's kenneled for that entire time, at home, and taken out to pee on a leash. That's going to be tough for us (just cause we'll be sad) but Mason and I have both agreed that we'll do that for her, of course. The good news is that, the surgery, which requires a metal plate, a few pins in her leg and one night away from home, is 85 -95% effective, so by summer she should be back to her old self! I CAN'T WAIT! I've felt so terrible for her not being able to play and I'm so relieved that there's a solution and an end in sight. We'll keep you posted on the surgery so you can say a little doggie prayer for her.
Maggie skiing (she's only 2 1/2!)
