Happy Birthday Avery!

Avery turned 3 years old on April 2. Every year I'm so thankful she wasn't born on April Fool's Day, though Luke always laments this fact.

For the past 6 months I've been saying that "this" is my favorite age, whatever that age was, but the older she gets, the more true it is. She is FUNNY. She doesn't understand humor, as in she would just look at you blankly if you told her a joke, but she does things that make us laugh all.the.time. She is highly inquisitive, wanting to know what everything around her is. We don't have too many why questions yet, but she does ask "But why not?" over and over and over and over and.... She talks non-stop, and I mean, there is hardly a breath between one train of thought to the next. It's constant. Almost every statements starts with "Hey", so we get conversations like this:

"Hey, do you see that plane over there? Hey, are we going to see more planes? Hey, is that Baby Eleanor? Hey, are Baby Grayson's eyes open? Hey, is that Nonnie on the phone? Hey, can you read this book to me? Hey, can I have another Dora? Hey, I want macaroni for lunch."

Her imagination is expanding, and she role-plays Dora episodes most of the day. Everything in our lives seems to tie back to Dora...she's like the Kevin Bacon of cartoon characters. She doesn't necessarily mention Dora, but the things she says always mimic Dora's style.

She is the epitome of charming. Avery is friendly, she will hold a conversation with anyone, and she is polite. We've tried to teach manners to her, but a lot of it has just turned out to be her own personality. She is very aware of other people's feelings and how things affect them. If she sees me crying, she'll ask, "Mommy, are you sad? Here, I give you a hug. Now you're not sad anymore!" and then she throws her hands up in the air in triumph. How can anyone be sad after that?!

She loves sprinkles, as evidenced by her cake below. She loves anything sweet, so fruit is always a winner, while vegetables are a fight sometimes. Although she told me loved broccoli the other night. Chocolate is her very favorite, and if you call something a special treat, it better be candy or she'll cry. My sister found that out the hard way. She's still a picky eater, though we're finding success with a bribery system. I refuse to reward eating vegetables with something junky, but if she wants more chicken, she has to eat something she doesn't like to get more of the thing she does like. It's working for now, and I'm hoping she'll expand her eating eventually. Nonnie also taught her how to make holes in her food, which tricked her into eating at meal-times because then it was a fun game. Grandparents are so wonderful!

Everything is "new" to her, though things are rarely new. Example: "This is my new shirt. This is my new table. This is my new book. This is my new friend." All things we've had forever. Not new. People must think I shop a whole lot.

Accessories are still a favorite - she wears bracelets and rings and fancy shoes all the time, as noted in the pictures below. She even took to wearing a princess crown for 3 days straight after going to a princess tea party for her friend's birthday. The crown was left at another friend's house after a playdate, and we haven't had any princess talk since then, which I'm good with.

She loves babies, particularly her babies, and Eleanor and Grayson get a lot of attention throughout the day. She gives kisses and hugs and tickles, and she reads to them and plays with them.

Naptime still exists, though about 2 of out every 7 days it's more quiet time than anything else, though she usually falls asleep late and I have to wake her so she'll go to bed that night. She's grumpy without naps, so I won't be letting those disappear anytime soon.

Potty training was a HUGE success, but I failed to take any photos to document the process. Actually, there wasn't really a process. One day I decided to just put her in panties, she had two accidents right away, and after one success on the potty, we've never looked back. She even pooped on it the first day, to which she decided it wasn't fun to poop on the potty, and she held it for days. We fought that for a week, made her go sit instead of "resting" on the couch, and it took 3 days to clear her system out. After that, we haven't had any issue with it. We were out shopping on day 2 of potty training, at church on day 3, and no accidents in the car or in public as of yet. She's not a fan of public toilets because they tend to be loud when they flush, so sometimes it's an episode of tears during public potty-ing, but we're moving past that too.

We had a small birthday celebration on her actual birthday, complete with tuna casserole (because it's mac and cheese with protein snuck in, and she was not tricked by this...she refused to eat it) and chocolate cake. For weeks she had asked me for chocolate cake with sprinkles. I decided she probably didn't care what the frosting was, as long as there was frosting, so I made a strawberry buttercream. She then decided that she should decorate the cake.

Avery wanted to help put sprinkles on the cake. She poured them on...

...so we went with it, and added more! She of course sampled them before we were finished decorating the cake

tried to blow the candles out

but it was hard work, so Mommy helped

chocolate cake with strawberry buttercream, quite charming

After dinner we did presents, keeping it small because we knew grandparents would send some and she'd get more at her party coming up this weekend.

a t-ball set from Aunt Shell and Uncle Nick and cousin Grayson!

Avery's current smile for the camera

because every lady wears her high heels for baseball

the gift from Mommy and Daddy - a tricycle! She kept saying "pedal, pedal, pedal" in the fashion of Dora

Batter Up!

home run!

Even Mommy took a turn

It was the perfect evening to celebrate the joy that our Avery-girl is. We played outside for about an hour, enjoying the warm weather and devoting our undivided attention to her since Eleanor was in bed. We love this girl so much!