Summer Play Time

Now that the weather has warmed up, we have loved hitting up all the parks! Avery has the time of her life while she's there, and it wears her out so she sleeps good at night!

A few weeks ago we went to the park by our old house and met Shannon and her baby, Jaxson. He tried to put the moves on Avery but she was not going for it haha...

Another night we went to Gloria's to eat. Afterwards we were going to let Avery play outside of the restaurant. There is a splash park, but she usually just looks at the water. Because of that she was definitely not dressed to play in the water, but she decided to anyway and had a BLAST!

I also got a video of her:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EbQFEXOYLlQ

So as I mentioned in a previous post, Avery has not been happy at the pool because she wants to swim. Well someone enlightened me to puddle jumper life vests. Wow - best.invention.ever! She can basically "swim" by herself now and we don't have to hold her the whole time - which makes everyone happy.

Her friend, Abigail, came for a swim the other day and they had a BLAST! Here are a few pictures:

Then the next day we went to the splash park with Abigail...

This girl loves the water! Now to just get her to the beach... :)

Miss Independent

If Avery had a theme song right now it would be "Miss Independent." She's still cautious and gets nervous when her mom is not around, but she is done with all the "baby" stuff. She doesn't want to drink out of a sippy cup - she wants a regular one. She doesn't want to sit in a high chair or even a booster. She also tries to put her own clothes on.

Now all of these things are good and things she would eventually have to learn, the problem is, she's not ready yet. When I give her a regular cup, water ends up all over her or the floor. When I sit her in a regular chair, she's not tall enough to reach the table, and she gets easily frustrated when trying to put on her own clothes.

It's also caused a problem with swimming. The two times we've taken her swimming this year, she's been so unhappy the whole time, but I couldn't figure out why. I tried taking her to different spots in the pool, giving her toys and floaties, etc. Nothing worked. Finally Rustin and I figured out she's upset because she wants to swim herself. The problem is - she can't swim! I'm going to get her one of those puddle jumper life vests and hope that helps!

Here is a picture of her swimming the other day at Lolly and Pop's pool. She had to wear goggles because daddy did.

She's starting letting us know when she's not happy with something by hitting. She not only hits me, but also the cat, so we've had to start doing time outs. We have a spare room upstairs with nothing in it, so I've been putting her in there for a minute, then she has to say sorry. When I let her out the other day she went to her room and started reading her Bible... hmmm. 

She has also loved praying. Sometimes Rustin and I will forget to pray before a meal and she will remind us. She always asks to pray when we put her down for naps or bed and says "amen" at the end with us then laughs. It is SO cute!

We Made the News!

Avery and I went for our regular trip to Wichita Falls last week, and had so much fun! We went swimming at Uncle Colby's apartment pool, went to eat at Samurai (of course), and made the Wichita Falls news!

They are tearing down Wichita General Hospital and giving away the bricks. Since I was born there, I thought it would be fun thing to get.

So my mom, Avery and I drove down there. As we passed to u-turn back around I saw some people taking a picture with their brick and the hospital in the background. I thought that would be a cute idea, so we parked to do the same after we got our brick.

As we were getting Avery out of the car, the news crew approached us and asked if we wanted to be interviewed. My mom refused to get in the shot (although her van made it on in the background), but I was all about it. I wanted to hold Avery though so I wasn't awkwardly standing there by myself. Hey she needs air time too, right??

Anyway here is our 3 second claim to fame:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bBX1UFVXXQI

And here is the picture we took: