1st trip to the Houston Zoo

Avery had her first trip to the zoo this month.  It took about an hour for her to realize that there were very large animals in front of her.  She was too busy taking her hat off and trying to walk.  I say trying because every time she came to a break in the concrete she needed someone's assistance to walk over the spaces that separated the sidewalk.  She would literally stop, put up her arm and wait for one of us to take her hand and help her walk over it.  Its was pretty funny.  When she finally became aware of all the animals she would wave to them and tell them "Hi!".

....Easter pictures to follow.

Radford Family visits

Mimi, Pop Pop, and Aunt Anne all recently came to Houston. (Same trip as the one below where Mimi and Pop Pop took over the daycare center.) We had a wonderful time doing various things such as going to the zoo and going to Divino's, but some of the most fun was had just hanging around the house with Avery. Grandma Nola was even able to come join in the fun on Saturday afternoon. Zoo pictures and video will come later, but for now, here are some great around the house pics.







for those of you not familiar with baby sign language, Avery is making the sign for "more" as in "give me more BBQ Pop-pop!!"

Last week Avery got to show her grandparents her school and the class was finally able to take their school pictures. It was a Rodeo theme as you can see and she of course she is the cutest cowgirl. Her Mimi and PopPop got to spend some time with her there and of course they loved every minute of it. And if you're wondering what it is she's holding onto in almost every picture, it's her lovey, Black Dog. He doesn't have a name, just Black Dog. Note to future parents: if you give your baby a stuffed animal/toy to cuddle make sure its machine washable!!

Keeping Pace

It's been pointed out that I've already broken the resolution to put up a new post each week. For this, I can only say that it's not my fault. As you can see, Avery has been hogging the computer. I think she's addicted to facebook.

Eating Miranda's Ice Cream

These video's were taken a few weeks ago when Nicole, Miranda and Avery were all heading back to Houston from Baton Rouge.

The 1st video shows Avery's introduction to ice cream. No one should be surprised that she took a liking to it. Dairy Queen is delicious.


The 2nd video shows what happens when you introduce Avery to something she likes and then try to take it away. It never goes well, but it's still entertaining. Overall, the gist of both videos is Avery having fun and making a mess with ice cream.

School Pictures...(Sort Of)

Last Thursday was supposed to be school picture day for the "Sweet Pea" daycare class.  Unfortunately, the picture was canceled.  (I think the reason was the main teacher was out of town.)  It's a little dissapointing because Nicole had managed to find a nice outfit for Avery to sport for her 1st picture, but she will have out grown it by the time the picture day is rescheduled (the shirt was borderline too small.)  Since we didn't find out about the cancellation until we got to school, we still managed to take plenty of pictures of Avery "getting ready."

She was not a big fan of the bug-stompers.  (These were her 1st pair of hard-soled shoes.)

Making faces with Mom

Still not too sure about walking around in the shoes.

Much better

Looking preppy with Dad

When the official picture does happen, we'll make sure to get it posted.

1st Days at Daycare

This past week, by something just short of a miracle, we managed to land a spot in the St. Andrews day care program. Avery is going twice a week, Tuesday and Thursday, from 9am - 2pm while Mom goes to class.

The daycare is right around the corner from where I work which makes the dropoff in the morning very easy, (except for the fact that I'm the bad guy dropping her off and Mom is the good guy saving her at the end of the day.)

We hung around for about 30 minutes the 1st day just to see what she'd be doing. As you can see below, she immediately jumped right in as if it was no big deal. See ball, play with ball. See toys, plays with toys. See other kids, play with other kids.



For instance, she has just as much fun making a mess while eating at day care as she does at home. The class has 8 kids with 2 teachers, on top of the rest of the staff of the church that stops through to see kids while they're still in the "brutally cute" stage.


They take walks to and from the gym, and, when it's nice out, around the neighborhood.

We're told that Avery has no problem taking her naps, but likes to say hello every time the teachers come in to the nursery to put one of her classmates to sleep next to her. If you haven't seen her in awhile, I'm happy to report that she says "Hey" to basically everyone she sees or hears coming. Her teachers call her a "social butterfly." Great. That should be fun as she gets older.

We've never played with edible paint at home, (and I'm not sure we ever will,) but Avery loves it.



She has her black dog with her at day care, and it seems that no matter how strange a setting she might find herself in, as long as she has that little guy, things are all right. Her classmates are all about her same age, and they look to be a great group that gets along very well.





All of these pictures were taken by the teachers and are part of a web album that they have online for the parents to enjoy. We are thrilled to have found a place that lets Avery branch out to newer experiences that she doesn't normally have at home, (playing with bubbles, paint, etc...) while also meeting new friends along the way. Having the teachers take pictures of everything while it happens is a great bonus.














Her 1st "school" picture is next week. Nicole gets to figure out what she's going to wear. If it were up to me, I'd put her in the "Vote for Pedro" shirt. (We're in an election year, right?) Luckily, this kind of thing isn't up to me.

- James

Meanwhile, while the parents were busy...

...Abram and Avery had a nice time enjoying the surroundings of the hospital, (see post below for the happy reason why they were there.)

Here they are sharing a dance....playing on the furniture, (and with cell phones).
...taking a nice ride in the hospital's version of a Radio Flyer.
...either A) Enjoying the ride immensely, or B) Really wanting the ride to end.
...and finally, Avery found some alone time.

Newest Member of the Family

We're happy to share that Avery has a new cousin. Congrats to Tonya and Jason on the newest member of their clan, Ethan Cornelius Dickens, born the morning of December 31st, 2007. Happy New Year to the proud parents!

Avery Likes to Eat!

The one new year's resolution I hope to keep is this:

I promise at least 1 post per week in 2008. We were terrible towards the end of last year, but this year will be different!! I can't promise perfect chronological order of what we post (not that we've been on point with that anyway,) but I can promise video and pictures.

Here is the 1st of at least 52, barring a relapse. Watching Avery eat usually results in something funny happening, but when she attacked this chicken, I was very happy to catch it on film. Christmas in ATL and NYE pics and video to follow:

Hats!

Avery loves modeling her new hats!