Squishy's Pretty Feet

We have been trying to work with Avery on saying her name and Spencer's name (instead of calling him baby). So we got her to finally say Baby Spencie one night this week and then asked her what her name was and she said "squishy"! Yes, that's right, my daughter thinks her name is squishy. Even though we call her Avery multiple times a day and are with her every day, she chooses to think her name is squishy, which has been my sister's nickname for her since she was born. Of course we laughed and made a call to Aunt Cimmy so Avery could tell her what her name was! It's just so funny how she picked that up, which she doesn't hear very often, compared to her actual name that she hears all the time!! Avery simply amazes us every day. She is picking up new words every day, and putting many sentences together. We can practically have a conversation with her now and it's the most incredible thing to see happen:) Spencer's still doing well, he's eating like crazy so hopefully he gets to be put on normal formula next week when he has his check up with his surgeon!

Artie has this next week off, so we are planning to really buckle down and spend some time working on potty training. We're not sure at all what we're doing. However, Avery is showing so many signs of being ready, so we're going to give it a shot...stay tuned!!

I finally found some new slippers for Avery that I like! It's summer, so it's been a bit of a challenge to find new slippers for her since she out grew her Tigger ones a very long time ago. We like to keep our house pretty cool, so her bare feet get pretty cold. These are great because they have velcro to keep them on and they have great rubber soles-she loves them and showed them off to mommy and the camera during breakfast!

Another end of the summer purchase...some new sandals for the princess. We got these on clearance at Babies R Us and she absolutely loves them. She hasn't really had any 'girly' sandals like these-only her sporty Nike ones. So we're in Babies R Us and I take her shoe off to try these on and after I finish and discover she's gone up a size (yes, my little big foot is in a size 7!), I start taking the sandal off to put her shoe back on. However, Avery starts screaming her head off. Artie and I look at each other and wonder if it's because I took off the sandal. So, we try explaining to Avery that we have to purchase the shoes first and then we can put them on when we get out to the car. Tantrum continues and Spencer is starting to fuss in his car seat in the back of the cart-and mommies of 2, you know what I mean when you don't want 2 kids screaming at the same time-so, we broke down and told Avery that just this once she could wear them before we paid. So, yep, we were those parents that let our kid have something before we even paid for it! But, I'll tell you, she just loves these sandals-we're not sure what it is and out of it, she's been saying the color green-so a great $5 purchase for us:) Avery loves her new sandals so much that the next day she insisted mommy put them on her baby and her baby wore them all day (I wish I had a pic!).

This is one of Avery's new things when it comes to helping with her brother. She thinks it's very great of her to put Spencer's pacifier in his mouth (sometimes even if he doesn't want it or isn't fussing!). Once he has it in his mouth, she proudly turns and puts her hands in the air in victory and announces "I did it!".

My brother, Jake, came by this week for a little visit and Spencer found himself very content hanging with Uncle Jake!

Spencer, meet your Great Aunt, Beverly:) My aunt, Beverly, came by for a visit this week and we had such a great time and can't wait for her to come for more visits:)

Okay, so this week I was going through some really old pictures of Avery and stumbled upon something that we haven't realized-Spencer looks like Avery when she was his age!! We had totally forgotten, apparently, what our daughter looked like 20 months ago, but no doubt, they are brother and sister:)

Here's Spencer, not long after we brought him home, and...

Avery when she was about a few months old!! They even have the same facial expression! I love it-I love that my kids looked the same!! I honestly can barely remember when Avery was this small...glad I have the pics to prove it:)

And finally, we want to congratulate this cutie on becoming a big sister this week to her little brother, Jacob!! Congrats to our dear friends, Christine, Matt and Elizabeth on expanding their family of three to four:)