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!!!