Aileen's First Birthday

 

1.) Aileen's first birthday cake and candle.

2.) Little Miss grinning at 12 months old.  Happy Birthday!

3.) Someone climbed into the dishwasher when mommy wasn't looking.

4.) Touching snow for the first time...

5.) Our little girl opening up her first birthday card.

6.) Avery reading Aileen a breakfast story, Splat the Cat Sings Flat.

 

Smiles, Teeth, Standing and Sitting - All in Pink

1.) Aileen smiling happily at 11 months
2.) Her first teeth!
3.) Aileen practicing standing with support
4.) sitting on Papa's lap

Birthdays, Valentines, Trophies and Cowboy Pirates

1.) Avery making Valentine's at the preschool class Valentine's Day party
2.) Celebrating Avery's 5th birthday!  He made his own party hat.
3.)  Since his daddy is a coach, Avery sometimes gets to hold the trophies he brings home.  He is very proud of his dad.
4.) Papa and Avery playing cowboy pirates with the Spiderman net.

Jingle Bell Rocker and Hollywood Coat

Avery

We read a story, pray and sing bedtime songs each night with Avery.  When asked what bedtime song he wanted, several nights in a row he requested “Jingle Bell ROCK!” (with a rocker style fist pump).

Avery asked, “How does Santa go around to the houses if the earth is spinning?”

At preschool drop off, Avery was so excited to see his teacher walking into the building.  He ran across the parking lot and approached her with an excited “Hello!”  Then, he held out his hand and escorted her into the school.

Avery seems to enjoy playing with Aileen’s toys almost as much as his own.  His little sister was given a doll that recites a “Play and Learn” lyric tune.  Given the fact that the doll’s voice sounds a bit muffled, Avery mistaken it to say “Play and Nart”, so he calls it her Nart doll.

Since being given a Star Wars play light saber for Christmas, Avery has asked to watch Star Wars movies.  We caught him “fighting” Darth Vader with all his might in front of the TV.

Aileen

She happily coos and ahhs when we put her in her bedtime footie jammies.  She loves wearing them.

Aileen prefers not to wear socks.  She pulls them off, one at a time to chew on the toes each time we try to put them on.

The nursery workers at church comment on how happy Aileen is.  She contently crawls around, and even occasionally stops to look up and giggle at one of the workers.

Aileen is not supposed to be in Avery’s room unsupervised because of the many small toys that could be hazardous.  However, that doesn’t stop Avery from trying to lure her down the hallway back to his lair by beckoning her with the use of her musical toys in his room.

Little Miss was given a winter coat that is white and furry with Dalmatian black spots.  We call it her “Hollywood” coat.

A Look Into Aileen's December

1.) Aileen at 10 months.  She is crawling on her hands and knees, sitting up on her own, raising to her knees and she cut her first two teeth.
2.) Our "Little Miss" is wearing her pink dress to the Christmas Eve candlelight service.  Avery said (with light saber toy in hand) that he was a Jedi and that Aileen looked like a princess and he was going to save her.  Mom and sis spent most of the time there in the cry room since she was having teething pain and it was close to her bedtime.
3.) Little Aileenie right after she yanked off a sock we just put on her.
4.) The small Christmas tree on the coffee table proved to be a good incentive for Aileen to learn to raise to her knees.  She was able to reach it and successfully pull it down.

A Look Into Avery's December

1.) Avery's preschool class Christmas program.  They sang "Away in a Manger" and rang hand bells.
2.) Goofing off at his preschool class Christmas party.
3.) Rolling out dough for gingerbread cookies.  Avery decided he didn't like the taste of molasses used in the old fashioned gingerbread dough.  Avery also made cinnamon/applesauce dough Christmas ornaments.
4.) Creating a healthy "gingerbread" house.  We piped peanut butter through a plastic baggie as the "glue".
5.) Learning basic printmaking - monoprints.  Avery carved a design on styrofoam as his print block, added paint and made a print.  When the print dried, he used it as a decoration for his preschool teacher's Christmas card.
6.) Avery practicing gripping a pencil and writing his alphabet letters.  He is able to write the whole alphabet and numbers.

Merry Christmas!!

Merry Christmas to our friends and family!