How the time flys!!!

We just realized that we have not updated the blog since May....that seems impossible! Avery is growing almost as fast as the time is racing by. Just tonight she measured right at 36" and when we picked up Zoey from the vet the other day she was 31-1/2lbs on the scale. She is getting bigger every day, and learning so many new words and phrases. There are times when you have to remind yourself that you are still talking to an "almost" 2-1/2 year old because her vocabulary is quite advanced. She uses words like dangerous in a complete sentence. Wonder why? Maybe because she hears her parents explain to her time and time again that she needs to stay off of certain objects because they are dangerous. Avery is very busy and almost never sits still. She loves to be outside collecting rocks and playing hopskotch with her sidewalk chalk. She also likes to run, and she does it "a lot"! Tonight her and Mommy were running up and down the front sidewalk like they were doing sprints for Tough Mudder training or something. She also enjoys looking for airplanes and almost everything to do with nature or animals, I have to admit that makes me smile! When she is inside she likes to play with Legos, read books, watch Caliou (sp?) and other movies, play with her dolls and harrass Zoey. She also loves to act like a lion and roar at you while asking you to be a lion too. Hide and seek is another favorite along with making her Daddy pretend to be a doggy and riding on his back. That one is great fun and really strengthens the knees a lot!

Another new skill is her ability and desire to talk on the phone. She is getting better at it and can now have a short conversation with someone. Here is a picture from her trip with Mommy to Galesburg, IL where she was showing off her phone skills. It won't be long and we will wish we never taught her this! We hope everyone enjoyed catching up on the goings on around here and we wish you all the best!!!

Happy Mother's Day!!! It has been way too long since our last update, and for that we apologize. 2012 has proven to be a whirlwind with family events and work and all the other business that comes along with an almost 2 year old. Yes, Avery will be 2 on June 13th....that's next month already!!! In the spirit of Mother's Day Avery and Daddy tried to let Mommy sleep in this morning but, Avery was insistent on making sure Mommy was up. The two of them went to the library on Friday and rented several books and a few are "Caillou Books". The first thing she did this morning when she got up was yell, "Mommy read Caillou Books!"....so much for Daddy trying to keep the house quiet so Mommy could sleep in. The trip to the library was amusing in itself. She was running down the aisle at the library on Mommy's instruction and picking out 10 books. Avery would grab one, toss it on the floor, and quickly move on to the next one. Erin was frantically trying to keep up with her, collecting the books behind her as she turned the library into a scene from the Tazmanian Devil cartoon. Avery loves books, so much in fact that she wants all of them to herself and sometimes has a hard time deciding which ones she wants to read. We hope her love for books stays this strong as she gets older!

Yesterday we took a trip to the Deanna Rose Children's Farm in Overland Park, KS. Avery loved it and got to feed the goats. She also got a lesson on why you do not charge in on animals or, in this case, birds. There were two geese that we are pretty sure just flew in for a free meal from the outside world. These geese were fairly straight forward in what they wanted, food. As Avery charged in on the female, she stuck her beak out and nipped at Avery's fingers in search of food. Avery, being the fearless little one that she is just stood there while Mommy and Daddy's brains went "ut oh" and we raced over and grabbed her quickly. Anyone who knows anything about geese knows that if you upset them, it can get ugly really quick, especially when you are about the same height as one. Luckily we were able to get to her before that goose decided to turn her inside out in search of food. Avery still has no idea what happened really, and was unaware that the male (the larger goose) was flanking her from the side about to tag team her with the female....crisis averted!!!

Last weekend Avery and Daddy went fishing together for the first time. What a blast....she was so funny when we caught the first fish. Her squeels of excitement could be heard for miles I bet in the still morning air. She caught five blue gills in five casts and was mostly fascinated by the bobber, not the fish. She also was very intrigued by the worms....go figure. I am pretty sure Daddy had the most fun of the two and he cannot wait until she is old enough to do more things together in the outdoors!

Avery is quite the busy little girl and aside from reading books, she absolutely loves to be outside. She enjoys playing with ther plastic golf clubs, soccer ball, collecting rocks, chasing bumble bees, running, riding on her trike, and anything else she can find to do outside. She's always on the go and never tires it seems. She is also learning so much about communication right now. Everyday she picks up a new word or learns how to extend sentences farther out to better explain what she wants to say. Her temper tantrums have lessened likely due to her new ability to tell us pretty much anything that she needs. Her temper; however, has not disappeared as she is not shy about letting you know when she is unhappy. Overall though, she has a great little personality and is very socialable and always telling people "hi" where ever we go. It's awesome being this little girl's parent....we love her so much!!!

Catch Up Time!

I realize this is long overdue...the holidays really got away from us this year. So I will do my best to provide you with all the updates (in the life of Avery) since November.

December 10 Avery got her first haircut! I cannot say the hair dresser took too much off but it really helped with being able to control her curls. Avery did great! She sat very still (relatively speaking) and didn't seem to mind too much. She did not enjoy looking down so she could cut the back, but bless Casey (the hair dresser) for her patience and her skill of working with first timers!

Before



After


We had a GREAT time with family over the holidays! We got to spend time with the Gavins (Deb, Mike, Melissa), Great-Grandpa Huls, Dan (or Dano according to Avery), the Briggs, the Costarellas and family, the Browns, the Havigs, the Rawlings and Grandpa Lee. As expected Avery was a lot of fun this Christmas. We had a tough time getting her to focus. She would get so excited about the gift she had just opened that she would forget about all the others. Thanks to our wonderful families she made out pretty good. She now has a new collection of items to play with - everyday! Her favorites include degos (aka legos), puzzles, a tricycle, "hiddin" (aka a play tent) and some new books. Here are just a few shots of our fun...










Anticipating that winter may be tough for such as active child, Nick and I enrolled Avery in swim lessons/water orientation class. Little did we now we would have 60 degree January days like today when we can run and play outdoor. For six weeks we will attend class and work with her on getting comfortable in the water. We work on getting out of the pool, jumping into the pool, front floats, back floats, kicking, moving our arms, blowing bubbles and going under water. The first week she was out of her element and was rather clingy. This weekend was week three and she was very comfortable as she took Daddy on a tour of the pool running and jumping as she went. She was definitely more comfortable. Not too many pictures of swim lessons yet, but here is one of her at the slide before class.

Trick or Treat

I love Halloween and what is Halloween without trick or treating! OK, you got us, this was really for us and we LOVED it. We got her all dressed up in her watermelon costume and took her to a nearby neighborhood. She was on cloud nine. She got to be outside running and taking in all the other kids in costumes. She ran past more houses than she stopped at but did stop at a few and got some candy.

Fall is upon us...

Fall is finally here and the Johnson household is excited (for different reasons) Hunting season is here! Nick is actually in a tree as we speak and I love the cooler weather, fall colors and craft shows. As always we have been very busy with a big part of that being our non-stop bundle of joy. I know we say this every post but she really is getting so BIG so FAST. I noticed another month has gone by since the last post so I thought I would take some time (while the little monster is sleeping) to get you all caught up. So here goes (post 1 of 3)....

Avery now has 12 teeth, yes I said 12! All eight front teeth graced us with their presence a while ago and the latest 4 molars all popped through in the last couple of weeks. It was touch and go for a while, I thought with all the drool we were regressing! In all reality though she did really well. I hear the "I" teeth are the worst so we are hoping they hold off for another 6 months.

Her biggest fascinations lately seem to be shoes, forts and climbing. If she sees a shoe she will let you know, usually picking up the ones I have left around the house. She also tries, successfully, to wear any shoes she can find. She is also all about hiding in forts. They don't have to be fancy just made with love. I was traveling this last week to CO for work and got this picture. Dad had made her a fort under the kitchen table. According to him, this was build number 1. The next model came with a blanket on the floor so she didn't have to sit on cold tile. He loves his little girl! Then comes the climbing. Uh need I say more. She is getting very strong and pulling herself up onto anything she can. This morning she climbed onto the kitchen chair and then the table - man is she fast! We are both awaiting the morning we wake up to a thump as she figures out how to climb out of her crib.



She is also really learning to communicate and building up her list of words. At last count she was up to 24! For those interestedhey include (in no particular order): football, ball, shoe, mommy, daddy, puppy, hi, bye-bye, no, nigh nigh, thanks, sorry, deer, eat, nose, cheese, sit, go, yes, whoa, uh oh, two, tickle tickle tickle and meow.

With the nicer weather we have also been going to the park more. We found this new park that is vacant most of the time so she has the run of the place. She just jumped right in without fear and climbs all over the place at this points we wouldn't expect anything less.





We really do feel blessed to have her in our lives and in a month when we should give thanks, we just can't give enough.

Pumpkin Time!!!

As part of our fall festivities we visited a local pumpkin farm and later carved a pumpkin for Halloween. Avery loved it all. She had a blast at the pumpkin farm. There she got to feed the goats, play in a tepee, ride a saddled rocking horse, complete a tire obstacle course, take a riding lawn mower powered train, and search through a sea full of pumpkins. Pumpkin carving was a treat. She wasn't shy at all and got right in there to see what Dad was up to. She even tried a little raw pumpkin and seems to be a fan. Just wait till she has some pumpkin pie at Thanksgiving!


Avery feeding the goats, all by herself one small piece of food at a time!


Crawling through part of the obstacle course!


A tepee is like a fort - notice dad's hand coming under the tepee to "get her".


Family photo opportunity


Dad, what's in there?


MMMMmmmm, pumpkin!

Holy Cow!!!

Wow...where has this summer and year for that matter, gone!? We have had so many events and surprises over the past few months that we really have forgotten to update this blog as often as we would like. Thank you Aunt Terri for reminding us that it was time.

Miss Avery is quite the little girl. She is still a mover and a shaker as everyone at the Briggs' wedding found out two weeks ago. She loves to bounce and jump to different songs and beats on the TV or radio, and her inner dancer came out at the wedding for sure! I do not know where she got that ability, must be on her Mother's side.

Her newest skill sets include the ability to communicate to us, in broken and highly fragmented English, what she wants. She can tell us more, and eat, and nite nite and other similar commands. She also points to stuff and makes it clear when she does not like something. Yes, we have officially hit the temper tantrums and let me tell you, these are no fun. They usually start off as humerous but then end as somewhat alarming. I never knew little kids were so strong!!!

Avery does have her cute moments. Recently she has also started to let us know when she is ready for bath and bed. She will come up to you and say Nite Nite and then when we head for the stairs she will grab your finger and walk up every stair like a big girl. She is growing up so fast!!!

Here is a recent picture from when Avery and I made our first batch of homemade cookies together. This tradition runs deep in the Johnson household....Avery caught on very quick!




We hope this blog update finds everyone in good spirits and thank you for taking a few minutes to share in our joy!

Love,
The Johnson's