Appreciating the Little Things...

Aileen

Here daddy’s new nickname for her is his little “sugar puddin”.

She smiles and looks wide eyed at her brother when we pick him up from preschool as if she is so glad to see him.

When Avery is sent to the time out corner, Aileen crawls over to him to keep him company.

If Avery is crying, Aileen shows empathy and cries with him.

She enjoys laughing at her brother when he jumps around swinging to play tennis on the Wii.

Averyisms

“Are pears succulents?”

(While jumping over Aileen’s baby toys he has strewn across the carpet) “Hey, watch THIS!  You may be impressed!”

(Avery said this on his birthday) “Today should I get taught how to use the vacuum since I am five?  A REAL vaccum?”

Avery bit his graham cracker in the shape of what he called a “dinosaur tooth”.

Noticing that he had holes in the heels of both socks he was wearing, Avery laughed and said, “When you buy me socks, you just waste money, right?!”  He knows that he wears out his socks quickly.

“Super-Tic-Tac-Toe” – A game invented by Avery with several lines going horizontally and vertically, and in which he gets to decide how many X’s or O’s one has to get in a row to win based on how well his turn is going.  Guess who wins?

Avery - “Hey, Mom!  We both have earplugs!”

Mom – “Mmm?”

Avery – “We both have earplugs.  See?” (Avery folds his earlobe into his ear and then starts chanting loud shouts to see if his “earplug works”.)

Avery - “Mommy, can you give me a license?”  (He wants to be able to drive himself places that he wants to go instead of where he is forced to come.)

“Mommy, I put GermX all over the floor that way there would be no bad germs on the floor.”

Avery grabbed a feather out of his craft box and proceeded to “write like a pirate”.

Avery (while in the van on the way to school) - "What does Jesus look like?"
Mom - "I don't know, honey.  I've never seen his real face.  However, I do know that I have Jesus in my heart."
Avery - "Can my heart print out a copy?  I want to know what He looks like."

Stories

We often will pray with Avery in the van before heading off to his preschool.  One morning, we were asking God to help Avery to be a leader that makes good choices.  Avery interjected in the prayer “Yeah, like not playing the bad guy/good guy game at school cause we can’t use guns at school…..(pause, and then said in a whisper) *I’ll just use missiles.*”

Clint performed a magic show for Avery and his friends at Avery’s 5^th birthday party.  The kids listened and interacted really well.  They volunteered to help with tricks, laughed at Clint’s jokes and even said “Abracadabra” in unison.  Their little faces were cute when they were amazed by the tricks and called out “How did you do that?!” as if they truly believed in magic.  Afterwards, Avery and his friends enjoyed cupcakes with M&Ms on top.  They even tried to say “Abracadabra” to make their M&Ms disappear (and were disappointed that their “magic” words didn’t work).

Sometimes Avery is so excited about what he has created at preschool, that as soon as he gets into the van to go home he pulls out his papers and projects to show me.  In fact, he is so proud of his work at times that he asks if he can hold his papers/projects in his hands on the way home (instead of putting them back in his backpack).

It is a treat for Avery to get to attend his friend’s birthday parties.  At the last one he was invited to, his mom told me that he fell off a bunk bed and bit his tongue.  Then, she laughed and said that he told her “My body miraculously heals itself”, reassuring her he would be OK to keep on playing.  When I asked him about it later, he said that other kids were climbing up the ladder when they weren’t supposed to, and he told the grown ups to give the kids a “time out, but the grown ups didn’t listen”.

Productive Play

1.) constructing a robot from tubes and a box his teacher let him take home for fun
2.) painting pinch pots and plaster molds
3.) learning how salt makes ice melt faster, dripping colored water down the tunnels that the salt made melting the ice at a faster rate
4.) shaving cream Super-Tic-Tac-Toe
5.) tissue tube & straw tinker toys (this is a Star Wars Ship with light sabers)

Imagination at Work

1.) "paper ball race" (crossing the midline exercise for coordination practice) - Avery got to race mom!
2.) playing pick up monkeys in his house fort
3.) designing a secret Hotwheels hideout, complete with beds and a super computer
4.) marshmallow and toothpick construction
5.) working with papier mache (homemade flour, water & glue paste) - Avery didn't enjoy getting his hands messy.
6.) painting a papier mache bowl

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.