two years + eight months

Here we are, one month closer to THREE WHOLE YEARS and I still feel like she is changing so much each day.  I thought of making an addendum to last month's update the day after I posted because I left out so many things and I'm sure now with the passing of another month I'll forget most of them as I type!  Whether she's snuggled up in bed reading or running naked trying to escape a bath, she makes life better every single day.

At 32 months Avery loves Dora, Diego, babies, family, reading, M&Ms, going to Target, PLAYING!, helping (or hindering...all in how you look at it) fold clothes/cook/sweep, and PLAYING!  She dislikes not getting her way, as always.  She is also completely weaned.  I'm sure she'll love me later for putting that out there, but for the record, I completely support extended breastfeeding!

When asked she said her favorite color is pink, though I'd have to say I think it's purple.  She's been choosing purple everything lately.  In the car she only wants to listen to Sugarland or a silly songs CD.  She has an Elmo potty songs book and one of the songs is to the melody of "Boom, Boom, Ain't It Great To Be Crazy."  I thought to myself that I didn't even know that song, but then!  Then I remembered our CD and then it was stuck in my head the whole day because that silly songs CD?!  It will drive a momma crazy! 

Avery loves to play all day long.  She is really into puzzles, baby dolls, and being a doctor.  Though last night she helped me floss my teeth because she's a dentist - who knew?!  She's mostly into jigsaw puzzles and we put at least one together every day.  She is still aaaallll about playing with her dolls and it's something I love to stand back and watch.  Avery truly has a fantastic imagination, I wish I could better describe how she plays.  Even with the puzzles, she'll pick something to be from the picture and then something for us to be and we play as if we're ballerinas dancing on the stage or animals in the jungle or whatever the puzzle may be.  She can stay in character for quite some time!  She usually pretends to be Alecia and refers to me as Diego before we rush off to the rainforests or China to save the baby panda bear (she pronounces it bear-uh, so cute!).  She is either doctoring us and her dolls or is wanting one of us to doctor the dolls.  Deran was only slightly bummed to find that all the band aids had been used when he needed one the other night.  That's the problem with putting things in drawers she can reach. :)

Avery still has lots of imaginary friends, Lulu is of course the main troublemaker.  Last week if I could have seen Lulu I would have punched him square in the face...or at least sent him home.  In fact, one day I asked where is mother was and if she ever tells him to behave.  Avery said she was with her and that "it's okay, he's being sweet right now."  REALLY?!  Because I'm pretty sure he'd just dumped a whole glass of water on the chair!!  Brother and Sister still come to play a lot but they're well behaved, sometimes Brother causes Avery to sigh in exasperation but mostly he's good.  Speaking of those sighs, she's very dramatic but it is sooo cute to hear.

She is still giving me the run around on love.  I mean, she says she loves me all the time but when I say I love her she'll tell me she loves Daddy or Nana or anybody but me.  So one night she was in my lap and I said I loved her so much and she jumped down and ran to Deran and said she loved him.  Then I pretended to cry and made a dramatic exit.  When I sat back down a minute later she said, "I have an idea, I can love you both!"  What a wonderful idea! :)

We never know just what she's going to say or repeat.  I heard her say, "Oh trap (crap)" the other day and I haven't said that in a couple of months since I slipped the last time.  Her vocabulary is really starting to lose some of the babyish pronunciations and it makes me both happy and sad.  She always said "ooze" for "use" but just a couple of days ago she said it correctly and WAH!  The W is still used for many words that start with F or S.  Like, Daddy's birthday is May "with" (5th), or wometimes (sometimes) or one, two, three, wour, wive or worry (sorry).  She also always says "mam" for "am."  And seriously, when that stops I may really cry because it is so dadgum cute!  She's on a big WHY? kick in response to EVERYTHING and sometimes my answer is as simple as, "Well, you know how Harper is...she'll bite." or whatever but it starts out with the same, "you know..." so she's really picked up on that.  One day I was asking her why she'd done something, I can't even remember other than it was a mess, and she walked off and said, "Well you know I mam."  Indeed.  One day was particularly exhausting for me with cleaning up after many accidents with the dogs AND Avery.  After an early bath she apologized for tinkling on her bedroom floor, which of course made me feel like an ogre.  I explained that it was an accident and I wasn't mad, etc.  She then apologized for Oscar peeing on the floor.  I told her that his was NOT an accident and that he was bad and it makes me grumpy.  She said, "Well you know how we pugs are.  But wometimes they're sweet and they love me soooo much."  Those pugs are lucky because it's hard to stay grumpy with a defense like that.

Dora, Diego, & Wonder Pets are still very much her favorite shows.  We also have several books with those characters that get read often.  And I have to say that Dora has really helped her pick up on Spanish.  One day Deran was reading her a book and she counted out the steps in Spanish. Since then we've added a few colors and more numbers.  It's funny to listen to her go in and out when counting, sometimes around three she'll switch to Spanish for a couple of numbers and then go back to English.  I think our high school Spanish will run out soon and we'll have to think of a better way to teach her!

Avery loves helping around the house and for the most part we love it too.  It does drive me a little bonkers when she removes all the clothes from her drawers, but again, now that she can reach most drawers there's not much to be done.  I was searching for a pair of pajamas one night and her drawer was completely empty.  I grabbed something else after her bath and figured I'd search for pajamas later.  I found them all in a big suitcase in my room where she'd apparently been packing for a trip to Nana's house.  She's really loving to help cook and always wants to help with whatever we're doing.  She's an excellent waffle maker!

Avery still very much dislikes not getting her way.  I drug her out of the mall recently with all eyes on us because she was SCREAMING.  I honestly don't even know what it was about, we walked out of the food court and suddenly she was hysterical.  Like, throw herself on the ground hysterical.  You have to pick your battles in life and we really try to work things out before any kind of drama is necessary.  I've left more than one store with her in tears because we didn't get a new toy but the fact that she has rooms full of toys and doesn't need a new one every time we go out is starting to click.  We recently left a store and she said she didn't get anything because she has lots of toys at home.  I didn't even have to say anything!  Of course I'd be lying if I said she didn't get new things regularly, because she totally does.  But you guys, she's our only baby and she's soooo cute!!!

So life with Avery at 32 months is like every other month, really really good.  We LOVE each day with our favorite girl!!  She managed to find her recorder last night and was jamming out in the living room while we were cooking dinner.  Deran was like, "Can you even imagine two of those running around?!"  And I can't, I really can't.  But then sometimes I think, TWO Averys?!  Life would be super sweet...or maybe just really loud.  

Happy 32 month birthday sweet girl, we love you lots!