Our family visited Silver Dollar City in Branson, MO this weekend and enjoyed the trip. It was Avery's first experience riding any sort of amusement park ride. The first ride he rode was a small roller coaster. We weren't sure how he was going to react to it, but we thought we might as well give it a try. To our surprise, Avery loved it and wasn't afraid at all! In fact, he practically lead us around the park and was excited to try a variety of rides! The hardest part for him was just waiting in line.
The week after the big wedding was filled with a variety of adjustments as well. Instead of slowly adjusting back to our old routine, we began to realign with some new ones. Clint’s last day of school was this week, and he will soon have a new schedule of teaching a class at the community college and taking a night class two days a week. We reviewed our summer goals/plans and set times to meet those. In addition, we began potty training Avery. Our schedule looks very different from only a week ago. However, that just seems to be typical of life. We are constantly adjusting and making the best of our situations.
There are big things to adjust too as well as many small things, almost every day. Such an example is shown here with Avery eating an ear of corn by himself. There are little freedoms we get excited about in our parenting as Avery learns how to do tasks on his own.
Our son definitely fits the stereotype of an active, lovable little boy.He is very attached to his “mama” but loves to imitate his “dada”.Besides being perpetually active, Avery often shows his love by touching and being rough and playful.We can hardly sit on the couch to watch a TV program together as husband and wife without our bundle of energy climbing over us, trying to tickle our ribs, darting down the hallway to his room and bringing us back mountains of toys, tugging at and stretching our clothes, insisting that we respond to his jabber immediately, etc...It’s almost as if he thinks he is starved for our attention, when in fact he is given a lot of our attention throughout the day.In one such instance, Avery was being very playful and it was to the point where we were quietly getting very annoyed.Just at that time, Avery slowed down, plopped himself on my lap and exclaimed “I love you mama!”.Any building frustration was quickly melted after that.He reminded us he is just a little boy who gets the greatest pleasure out of just being loved.Perhaps he receives love the most by the way he demonstrates it - physically playing and cuddling.
Here is a photo of his new toy that helps Avery expend some of his energy.His dad is pretty excited he shows such an active interest in anything sports-related.His mom is just glad that we are making strides in discovering what his interests are and have ways to channel his incredible energy in positive outlets.
Last weekend our family made the trek to IL to celebrate Leah and Jon’s wedding.Despite the rain and cooler temperatures, the wedding went wonderfully and it seemed to be very memorable occasion for the bride and groom.Avery enjoyed being around so many people and eating a lot of good food and seeing his extended family - especially his grandma and grandpa.Grandpa had yummy sweet ice tea to sip on, plastic school bus toys to hide in couch cushions and Avery knows Grandpa is always good about getting down on Avery’s eye level and playing with him.Meanwhile, Grandma had a cat to scare and chase around the house, fun books to read and red velvet cake which Avery exclaimed was “It’s delicious!That’s amazing!”.
Avery is involved in our school district's Parents As Teachers Program. He has a representative that periodically visits our home and observes if his physical and mental development is on track. She brings toys to test his skills and offers us parents advice and encouragement on how we can continue to help Avery progress. Avery always enjoys Amanda's visits
Occasionally, the PAT program holds fun events for families to attend together. One such event was held recently at the Bolivar Primary School. The school had a playground just Avery's size to play on surrounded by other kids his age, food, games, etc... The most popular attraction was the firetruck. Since Avery is very interested in vehicles right now (trucks, dumptrucks, police cars, firetrucks, mail trucks, etc...), he was thrilled to be able to climb on the engine and explore.
Our family visited Silver Dollar City in Branson, MO this weekend and enjoyed the trip. It was Avery's first experience riding any sort of amusement park ride. The first ride he rode was a small roller coaster. We weren't sure how he was going to react to it, but we thought we might as well give it a try. To our surprise, Avery loved it and wasn't afraid at all! In fact, he practically lead us around the park and was excited to try a variety of rides! The hardest part for him was just waiting in line.
