Pole sana!

Last night as Avery was getting ready for bed her and Babe were talking about the day. Babe mentioned something and in very typical Kenyan fashion Avery responded saying "pole sana", which means very sorry. We both cracked up at how 1. she knew to say it and 2. she had perfect timing! Hey at least soon she can start teaching us more Swahili and even more important when it is appropriate to say what.

Future golfer...

Making her daddy proud!

Springtime!!!

It has slowly been warming up and we had a wonderful treat of really "warm" Kenyan weather the last two days. Here are some pics of Avery enjoy the warmer weather and wearing shorts! She had the cutest little dance walk when we first got outside and she was getting use to her shorts!
Disclaimer: The pic of Baba and Avery was a staged shot, she did not go on the piki piki with him. :)

Safari Avery!

After many attempts of trying to get a good shot of Avery in the adorable safari hat Nana gave her I had about given up. Then one evening she comes into the kitchen after putting the hat on herself!

Jolly Roger!

We had some friends who live in Sudan come out to Kenya to give birth to their second child. Their first, Samuel, is about Avery's age so we enjoy getting together and letting the kids play. We were able to spend a wonderful and warmer than usual Saturday at a place called the Jolly Roger. It was a great find! This place had a pool, bounce houses, even a bouncy water slide, tons of toys for the kids to play with, face painting, you name it! Here are some pics of Avery enjoying the bouncy houses!

Peek a boo...

Avery loves to play peek a boo with the camera. It is adorable but it makes it hard to capture her doing something else because when she sees the camera it usually ends up with shots like these. :)

Games, games and more games...

Avery has really enjoyed the green space to run around in here at the SIM Kenya compound. There have been more kids than normal these last few months which has been wonderful too. It has been fun to see her learn new games and have her imagination sparked all because of finally having little friends to play with right outside her door. Right now she is running around me and roaring saying that she is a dinosaur. It makes me smile when she and other little kids play hide and go seek with their own rules. The counter usually keeps their eyes open and the hiders usually come out of hiding and announce where they are. Ring around the rosie is another popular game and I personally enjoy having others to play it endlessly with Avery since I get pretty dizzy after a few turns. Simon says and duck, duck, goose are other hilarious games to watch them play!

Overdue update

Since our little camera broke I got out of the habit of taking pics of Avery all the time. Now that we have a new one and I am slowly remembering to capture some fun pics I will hopefully be better about updating. Some recent fun Aveyr facts are that she loves playing with the kids on the compound right now. She has playmates to play endless rounds of ring a round the rosie. Yesterday she played with her imaginary baby for about an hour. She changed the baby's diaper, took the baby to the potty, feed the baby, put the baby down for multiple naps and walked pretending to hold the baby's hand as they walked. It was cute because she sometimes held the baby in one hand and then other times it seemed the baby was almost as big as her. It is so fun to see her grow up and grown into her imagination!

So, how was your weekend?

I can't wait until our trip to the U.S. so family can see and hear Avery live and in person! She is just exploding with words lately. After playing with the older kids on our compound she started to really jabber away. I don't understand a lot but it is still cute. She also has been picking up some Swahili and random English phrases. My favorite right now is how she will randomly ask me, "How was your weekend?"! I guess she hears this a lot and is trying to find the proper time and place to say it. I have to say again how she is just he most adorable thing ever.

Could it be....

Avery has gotten sooo much better about using the potty. This week I had a bunch of meetings so Miss Maria watched Avery a few mornings. This was the first time Avery was around someone besides me who worked with her and using the potty...and it went so well! She started to tell Miss Maria when she needed to go! I could never get her to tell me when she needed to go. I have been asking her or setting her on her potty every so often to avoid oppsies but suddenly with Miss Maria she knew to tell her!
She even has been going poo-poo on her potty as well. Yea for Avery!!!! She also has been in big girl pants during her naps and staying dry. When have gone out a few times with big girl pants and tend to have accidents but that is probably due to her being so excited to play with other kids and forgetting about using the potty. I can see the light at the end of the diaper tunnel!!!

Rainbow

We have been getting a good bit of rain lately. Tonight we had a beautiful rainbow. Taylor showed Avery the rainbow. Once she finally saw it she then said, "Noah, boat!" I guess the good brainwashing has begun! :) It also helps that every other Sunday, or so it seems, the lesson in her Sunday school class is about Noah.

Butterfly!

Yesterday Avery suddenly stopped playing and ran to me saying "butterfly, butterfly!" I couldn't for the life of me figure out what she was meaning. She then took me back to her room and opened up a closet door to point out her angel dress with wings attached to it! So here she is showing off her wings!

Go RVA!

Last weekend we went to a rugby tournament and had a fun family day. Since we were going in support of RVA ( a near by AIM boarding school that a lot of JBUers went to) I dressed Avery up in her awesome JBU shirt and matching yellow bows! Thanks to Aunt Allison for the shirt and Grandmum for the bows! Once there we kept on seeing people we knew. Avery ran into one of her friends that let her "borrow" her coat when she got a bit cold. :)

uh oh...

So, I admit to taking a few pics of Avery...here she is giving me a little bit of attitude after one too many pics :) I have a feeling we are in for it for her teen years.

Little ballerina

Some of you have seen these photos but had to share them on her blog since they are just too cute!

Catch up time....

Avery has been a busy little gal. I have barely found time to write down all her new accomplishment, so I better do it now before I forget!
She has for a month or so been doing what she calls "roll", a summer salt- is that how you spell it? She is so proud of herself it is cute!
She has started to add -ed to the end of words to put them in past tense! :) Such a little smarty! I only realized it when she put it on a word that one shouldn't and though of how far her language skills have come.
She is loosing more of her baby way of saying words which is wonderful yet sad thing for this mama. She still says "assuss me" for excuse me when she wants to get by you or around something she needs help to move.
She is picking up random phrases left and right. For example, if we are tickling her she will either laugh, say no, that is my tummy, or i don't like that.
She loves being helpful which is a bonus for me. Sometimes I will ask her to go get something in the other room and she will start to run off to get it, stop, turn around and say "i'll be right back" then start running again.
That is all I can think of for now and it sounds like nap time is over. Will try to get some pics up soon.

Awh, she is just so cute

One day Avery got up from her nap but then decided she needed a bit more sleep and settled down on the couch with her blankie (thanks Granny Martyn!) for another hour! Hard to pass up taking pictures of our big little girl

Stairs, stairs and more stairs

Avery has gotten really good at climbing stairs but usually needs some help to make it all the way up or down. Lately though she wants to do it her self and takes quite a few breaks along the way. Here are some recent pics on our time in the stairwell.

Rose Avenue

Here are a few pics from my birthday picnic! We got some java house to do and ended up picnicing at Rose Avenue. This is the SIM Kenya compound where we will be living come july/august! It has a great open space and even a sandpit for Avery to play in!

Playground time!

As you know green space if few and far between here. Most places for kids to play, besides our parking lot ;), cost a bit of money. Avery and I found a little restaurant on the side of a gas station that has some green space and a decent playground. All for the cost of a juice or samosa, which works out well for snack time! She loves the see-saw though doesn't understand that it really is supposed to be for two kids one on each side. Not just for one kid on one side with a parent pushing on the other side :)

doing big girl things....

...like going to the dentist! We made a trip up to Kijabe to their amazing hospital to visit with the great dentist up there. We all got check ups. Avery did pretty well considering she hates teeth brushing right now.

Thanks Nana and Pops!

Avery loves her tiara, awesome cell phone and Hello Kitty doll. She loves talking to family members on her phone and it is so cute to listen in on her conversations. She really loves her kitty and it has gone with us almost wherever we go since she received it :)

Finger paints African style!

Finally found some finger paints!!! Also found a painting bib but they wanted almost $20 for it so I decided to just have her paint freestyle :)

tu-tu-rific!

We also had fun going downtown one day to the material shops and making a tutu for Avery and her bear!

Pretzel time

I have fond memories of cooking with my mom and loved making pretzels with her and my brother. One day while Taylor was away we did just that!

Book time with Baba

Avery really has enjoyed Baba being back home and wants him to do most things, like read books and play with him verses Mama right now :)

Picture me.

Avery has been saying "picture me" and posing for a picture. I am thinking that might be a sign we take a few pictures of her :)



Sent from my iPhone

Happy 26 months!

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And it begins...

We have officially started potty training. I thought I would just secretly do this while Taylor was away but after two very long and sometimes messy days I have decided to take it slower and wait for his help. I am sure he is so excited to help out with this :)