Avery is Awesome at 22 months!

Avery turned 22 months old on St. Patrick's Day and he is just so awesome!  I was trying to think of another word but I can't come up with the right one.  I love spending time with him because he is so smart and funny and curious and sweet.  So here's a post about Avery and what we've been up to lately.
Avery:

• speaks in "sentences" of three or more words (ie, "Mommy do it"
• can name all his body parts
• knows several colours, numbers, and letters (although W is still his favourite)
• can do puzzles
• can kick and throw a ball (not with any real aim though!)
• understands opposites (ie, big and little)
• can draw more accurately - enjoys drawing circles (happy faces)
• can use a spoon and a fork; is starting to drink from an open cup
• prefers to walk now instead of riding in his stroller
• can tell us when he wants something or agrees ("okay" he says) or doesn't want something ("no!")
• plays well independently
• enjoys playing with other people

 

I don't have a camera right now, just my smartphone, so I don't have very many good photos.  But my mom takes good photos of him so here are a few from the last couple months:

This is Avery and I on Valentine's Day.  He made that card for me (with Grandma's help).

 

Sunday nights Avery and I go out for dinner together. (I couldn't get him to smile here because he was busy looking out the window at the cars and trucks going down the street.)  I really enjoy this time together.  

Avery insisted on standing in my boots.  So cute!  There was no way he could walk in them!

Nice and clean, right out of the bath!  (Trucks are clean too, because they had to go in with him.)

Looking at himself in the mirror.  

Riding the Rocking Horse he was given for Christmas.

St. Patrick's Day hat

Handsome, but not a very cooperative photo subject

There's my smiley boy!

We have moved and are now in a house we are renting.  My parents live in the basement so that  they can help out.  I feel kinda weird about living with my parents at my age but they pointed out that, technically, they are living with me.  True, I guess, but they are more of a help to me than I am to them!  Oh well.  My Dad comes up for awhile in the mornings to help me get out the door on time. My Mom makes dinner several nights a week.  Both my parents look after Avery on Thursday and Friday so he doesn't have to go to daycare as much.  He really enjoys his time with them - they go to the library and the YMCA.  I am lucky that they decided to stay with us and not go to Texas.  

I really like our new house.  It is starting to feel like home.  We took a trip to Ikea over March Break and that was lots of fun.  I still have a ton of unpacking to do (that garage you see there is still mostly full of boxes) but we've got the necessities unpacked, and the majority of Avery's things.  The new house is only a 10 minute walk to the beach so I'm really looking forward to going there all the time in the spring and summer.  Avery is going to love it!  We've been there a few times already and he gets excited and yells "beach!".  He also likes listening and looking for airplanes in the sky.  

That reminds me - another new favourite of Avery's is garbage/recycling trucks.  Last week we showed him the trucks when they came to get our garbage and recycling.  He already has a large blue recycling truck.  Now he wants us to "read" him the garbage and recycling calendar put out by the city!  (just because it has pictures of the trucks in there.)

"New" house.   Friends of mine (a teacher from work) live on the right side on us.  The left side is an empty lot.

The view of the backyard from the deck.  The yard is quite large.  We are going to get a swing set for Avery.  When you are down in the yard you can't see the houses behind us.  

The empty lot next door.  It's nice not having neighbours.  There's lots of bunnies in there.