Books!

I got Avery some new board books today!  I bought an Earl Carle book set and a couple of his other board books as well.  His original books (as well as co-authored books) are very colorful and educational.  I'm really looking forward to seeing how Avery likes them.  :) 

Right now, we have reading time where she'll be interested as long as I'm making completely ridiculous noises.  It's actually interesting to try and make a noise for every single adjective and/or noun.  And, it seems that she likes more volume than not.  So, yeah, it's embarrassing for any self respecting adult to watch.  But, that's okay because as one of my favorite memes go (warning: language) : "It doesn't matter how old or badass you are, if a toddler hands you a toy phone...you answer that shit."  Except in this case it's a book, not a phone...and you're reading the book in such a manner that would make even a crazy monkey on crack look like he/she's more under control. 

Books are actually very fun to get involved in though.  And, we'd love it if she grew up to really appreciate them, specifically Harry Potter.  Like everyone, I spent sleepless nights reading those books until I could no longer keep my eyes open.  And, it was worth every single hour. 

Justin and I both love reading.  Justin hopes that Avery will end up reading under a blanket with a flash light at night and I hope that she'll love writing her own stories.  There's seriously nothing better than a story written by a young child.  Their stories generally involve a large panorama of colorful ideas with magical components and many, many very serious claims and dire consequences while only lasting four or five sentences.  If that's not entertaining, I don't know what is. 

Well, we'll see how it goes.  Until then, she enjoys books when they're read with completely insane noises and movements; we're happy. :)

Nibbler for Halloween..

Halloween is great.  We not only dressed Avery up in her Nibbler costume four or five times this year (for different parties and contests) but we actually got candy for the trick-or-treaters.  We haven't needed to do that since we got married.  And, apparently the first rule of thumb when giving candy to the trick o' treaters is to not leave the bowl outside for the first group to completely annihilate.  We actually got a second group to ring our doorbell and we're pretty sure they were just going to ask where the candy was.  We didn't answer because we suck at this game and were in bed already.  Plus, it would have been a really awkward conversation.  Somewhat like this...

"Trick-or-treat!"

I stick my head out and look at the empty bowl and then at them as they look at me impatiently.

"Uh, sorry.  We don't have any more candy left.  I could give you guys a bag of popcorn?" 

The say okay as politely as they can except they probably were thinking..."This sucks.  Popcorn sucks.".  And, they'd all have to share the popcorn bag.  Hopefully they all lived in the same house because it also needed to be popped in their microwave. 

Anyway, Avery was fun and happy during her Halloween outings.  We went to a carnival where many people shouted (or loudly exclaimed to each other), "That's Nibbler from Futurama!!".  And, for some reason, at all of the other parties we went to there were very few people that knew who she was dressed as.  And then we lost a little faith in humanity.  :(  Watch Futurama, people!

Here we have pictures of Avery.  She's really a very, very cute Nibbler.

Here without her Nibbler hat, but she was smiling AND looking at the camera.

Here she looks like Nibbler itself! :)

So, needless to say our Halloween was very good this year.  And, now we have a $50 costume hat that will last us the next few Halloween's!

We hope you all had a great Halloween as well! 

Carseats and Two Little Teeth

Here is our little Avery, with not only her first two teeth visible in some photos but having fun in her car seat:

She apparently has a "crazy face" face.  :)

Her first two teeth are visible here!

These next photos are of her making humming noises with her mouth.  She loves to try and make raspberry's (or this is what we think she's trying to do anyway).  

Here she's deciding how to get out... which happened to be rolling out gracefully yet very quickly.

Just before she rolled out she gave me one of her silly grins. :P

So, anyway, she's growing up fast as you can see.  She loves climbing stairs now and can climb any flight of stairs you have her climb.. as long as they're carpeted.   She also has been making lots of friends her age and having fun playing with mommy and daddy all day.  Love from the Aikens!