Avery is talking a mile-a-minute and getting extremely good at it.  You can understand most of what he says and if he has an audience, he’s a total ham.  He will do ANYthing for a laugh.  He sings songs (Life is a highway, Chain Gang, and Route 66 are his favorites right now). 

Todd and I are trying to buy a house right now as some of you already know.  We had an appointment yesterday with our agent to give him our list of repairs that need to be made after having the inspection last week.  We expect to hear back from them on Wednesday by noon.  So we need everyone to keep their fingers crossed and pray for us…  It’s a nice spacious house.  Two bedrooms and one bath, full basement, finish-able attic and a large deck on the back.  The house has a HUGE yard…I’m talkin’ HUGE.  The lot size is 49.5 by 285!  Huge!!!!  While I can never thank my parents enough for what they have done for us for the past eight months (not to mention the 29 years and 4 months before that), I’m sure they are going to be happy to get there house back.  We are going to miss them terribly, but we will still be less than 2 miles away from them if we get this house.

By the way, Aunt Katie’s cake was my first tiered cake.  I had tons of fun making it for her.  I also think it just screamed Katie!  I will keep everyone updated on the status of our house.  If anyone wants to help us paint if we get it, let me know!

We have been very busy since moving down here and here are a few updates…

Avery’s speech…

As most of you are aware, we were really concerned about Avery’s speaking abilities before we moved, as was our doctor, so he sent us to a speech therapist.  We had our first appointment about four days before we moved.  She evaluated Avery’s speaking (or lack there of) and his hearing.  She determined that his hearing was great and that that was not the root of the problem.  She said that he has what is called developmental speech apraxia…dont’ google that yet…it is no longer a concern.  When we moved, he could say about 5-10 words that nobody could understand and was not really making any attempts to try for any more.  I was searching the Internet the other day to find out how many words should be in his vocabulary by now and was shocked to find that by his 3rd birthday in September, he is supposed to be able to say at least 300 words.  I was making a list a few weeks ago of the words that he could say at this point and get this…I stopped counting at 350!!!  He’s added probably another 100 to that list so I think it is safe to say (ha ha) he is right on track and we should not need speech therapy now!  YIPPIE!!  He talks NON-STOP now, I love it!

Normalcy again…

Today is our first day back to normalcy and he is doing really well.  Todd was off the week of Christmas and for New Year’s Day, Grandma was off for two whole weeks and Grandpa was off the day before and after Christmas and for New Year’s too.  Now we are back to just Avery and I at home during the day.  It’s weird how things like people being off work can throw off a schedule (NOT that I was complaining about having family around…at ALL).  He’s back to his regular nap schedule, eating schedule etc.  The cookie craze is coming to an end too.  He really is cute at dinner, turning his sweet little head towards Mommy and saying “cookie pweese” and Mommy responds with a “not until you eat all your ____ (fill in the proper menu item) first” and he responds by putting said food in his mouth and turning back to me and saying “cooookieee pweeeeeseeee”.   And we start all over again until the food is gone from his plate.  Cuz that’s the rule.  Luckily, we are almost out of cookies.  Though, I must add that the other day, he didn’t eat all of his meal and didn’t even throw a fit with he didn’t get cookies.  Such a good little boy.

 Growth…

I was looking at some pictures of him from when we moved down here and I was struck by just how much he has grown in these 4 months.  At our last appointment, he was 35 in tall (and  I’m sure he’s well above 3 feet by now) and just at 25 lbs (and I’m sure he is much more than that now too).  He really has grown like a weed.  When we started getting the cooler weather down here, we went out and got him all new pants and some shirts.  I was baffled to find out that he was already in a 2T pants and 2 and 3T shirts.  Well, two months later and the pants don’t drag the floor anymore and we are having to let out the waistband a little (thank you to whomever invented the adjustable waist band in pants).  I am sure that he won’t fit into any of his summer clothes when that time comes again.  It really is strange that he stayed in 9 month pants for so long and now all of the sudden he jumped into the 2T.  Same with the shirts.  Funny how that works.

Christmas…

It really was nice not to have to drive 360 miles back to Wisconsin in three feet of snow this year on Christmas day.  Last year, Mom, Dad, Emily, Neil, Ben and Sam made the trek to the frozen tundra for Christmas and we got to actually wake up on Christmas morning in our own house and not have to drive.  This year however, there was no driving involved!!!!  We spent Christmas Eve with Todd’s parents and Christmas day at home – mostly.  We went to Uncle Dan and Aunt Sue’s Christmas day and to Emily and Neil’s, but we didn’t have to pack up and drive to Wisconsin, all of our destinations on Christmas day were within 2 miles of home.

He’s awake now, so here goes the pictures.  I hope everyone found the holidays as happy and blessed as we did!  Good luck in 2009!!!

He made such a cute little dalmation.

Hope that brightens some days!

Todd and Avery and I visited Eckert’s Orchard in Belleville for a fun day of picking apples.  Boy did he have fun.

Little tip…if you wanna see the pictures larger, click on them 

What can I say?  He loves cake.

I had two other pages made, but for some reason the site I make them on is not working correctly, so I will try to add those later.  They were from Halloween and the St. Louis Zoo.

Our little boy is TWO already…he’s crazy funny…I think he may grow up to be a stunt man.  We had his party and tons of fun.  We went to the zoo, water park, botanical gardens and other random places in the beautiful St. Louis area.  IT IS SO NICE TO BE BACK HOME FINALLY!  It’s late so I will simply post a bunch of bazillion pictures to tide you over until a day when my brain will function better…I know, I know, when in the world will that happen??  Who knows…

And yes, the truck cake and mini “car” cakes were home made by Auntie Emily and Myself.  It was fun to make and I think they went over extremely well.  Mom, Dad and I even made some of the car cupcakes for the Applefest at church…yum!

Until then,  thanks to everyone for the well wishes and manual labor!  We will miss everyone up in the frozen tundra, and on the same note, are thrilled to be back with family!  Things turn out kinda funny sometimes don’t they?  Turns out, I moved back home almost five years to the day from moving away.  Funny.  Also, we have officially been here for a week and Mom and Dad haven’t kicked us out on our a**es…yet.

Love to all and goodnight!

Sarah

Would you look at that Emily…I figured it out!!!!!!!!!!!!  Now I just have to work on the header…help?

Okay, so there has been a slight/huge change in plans!  We will not be having Avery’s 2nd Birthday party in Wisconsin, because…WE ARE MOVING HOME!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  We will be having Avery’s party in Illinois!  Yippie.

We found out on Wednesday that Todd got a job transfer to Fenton, Mo!!!  Yeah!  We will be temporarily staying with Mom and Dad (thank you very much again!) and then we will find our own place.  Todd’s last day in Pewaukee is August 9th, his first day in Fenton is the 11th!!  Quick like a bunny!  So anyone available to help us move, let me know, we’re gonna need all the help we can find!  It’s funny that five years (almost to the day) ago, I moved to Wisconsin and now I will be moving back home!  SURPRISE!!!

Avery got his hair cut yesterday, so I wanted to post a quick pic of that, but I have to get back to packing now so here ya go…

No more crazy hair…

Here are some shots from our trip to St. Louis last week…

And two random pics of the goofy boy!

He had breakfast with Bear this morning (feeding him milk and cereal, it was really cute).  The last one is him eating an apple…don’t ask me, I didn’t teach him to eat that way?????

I have to testify in court tonight.  Todd is taking off work early so that I can get there on time.  To spare the details because the case is still on-going…while I was working, I witnessed a “mother” abusing her children in a store.  I began thinking about what matters today.  To me there is nothing important enough to cause a person to hit her children in public or in private.  I personally don’t ever remember being spanked as a child and I’m SURE I was NEVER hit.  My parents are great parents, they figured out (not the hard way) that there are things you do as parents and things you don’t do as parents.  I think we should all take a moment and think about the things in our lives that we sometimes take for granted and that we should treasure.  My list of things that I thank God for on a daily basis are as follows:

1.  The sound of my son waking up in the morning…even if it isstill dark outside.  When he wakes up and starts babbling and giggling for no reason (or at least not one that I can tell).

2.  The joy on his face when he does something funny.

3.  The sound of his laughter.

4.  The smile on his face.

5.  The absolute awe he gets when he finally figures out how to make those pesky little links fit together.

6.  The look on his face when he is about to do something really funny and knows it.

7.  The excitement he gets when he realizes his “desert” is a banana, or some raspberries, or some other form of wonderfulness.

8.  The sad face he gets when I tell him “no”.

9.  The way he throws himself into my arms when the guys outside scare him by starting their lawnmowers for the day.

10.  The way he snuggles when he is not feeling well.

11.  The annoying way he fusses when he can’t get the cars to stick together in a line even though they have not done it the last million and a half times he tried.

12.  The way he is in his room right now, just waking up from his nap and “talking” with the inflection that only a child has…ow ow..ba ba…da da da da…giggle giggle giggle…bounce bounce bounce…jump jump jump…belly laugh belly laugh belly laugh…etc.

13. The patient way he plays in the bathroom while I take a shower.

14.  The way he peaks his head around the shower curtain to grin at me and let me know he’s still there.

15.  The fact that he has out-grown almost all of his challenges that we faced when he was born.

16.  The way his chest swells with pride when he gets through a level of his game learning letters.

17. The sight of him climbing up on the couch to snuggle in and read a book with Daddy.

18.  The way he goes to his book box and grabs book after book after book for me to read with him because he loves reading that much.

19.  The way he smooshes into his crib when I put him down for a nap, hugs his bear, sticks his little tushie up in the air and falls asleep.

20.  The way he pulls a rubber band out of my hair (cuz for some reason he doesn’t like it when my hair is in a ponytail) and gives be a squeezy hug.

21.  When I put him down for a nap or for bed, he throws his arms around my neck and runs his fingers through the back of my hair.

22.  How much he loves to push his cars around the living room.

23.  How when he sits in front of the open window on a breezy day and laughs when the wind hits his face.

24.  How much he loves to play outside.

25.  How he comes up behind me while I’m sitting on the floor, wraps his arms around me, puts his head down and gives me the biggest squeezy hug you could ever ask for…without prompting.

26.  His messy, sloppy kisses.

27.  The fact that he is in my world, making it better and more exciting and more worthwhile everyday!

Now, that is only 27 of the things that I am thankful for every day, I could come up with thousands…but alas, there is not enough room/time.

I thank God each day for the joy that is my son and how his being makes my world worthwhile.  I am disgusted by how we as people get caught up in our everyday lives and forget to appreciate the little intricacies that should make us stop and giggle like our children.

*UPDATE*

It ended up that I didn’t have to testify in court, she pled guilty and will be dealing with Child Protective Services.  But I still think we should take the time to remember the things that are really important.

So to end this all, I will post some pictures of the miracles in my life.

Since it has been SOOO long since I’ve posted I will give you the abbreviated update…

Avery is goofy…duh.  We went down to St. Louis for Memorial Day weekend and had a BLAST!  We got home and everyone got sick, but we are all better now.  And the most impressive thing….

AVERY LEARNED HIS LETTERS!!!!!  He has a laugh and learn laptop that helps him learn his letters and he can pick all of them out!  He’s not even two yet!  I’m so proud!

Also, we are planning on having a 2nd Birthday party for Avery up here in Wisconsin.  So just a fore-warning, we will be having it probably either Labor Day weekend or shortly after.  Make your plans now!