The past few months have been a whirlwind. We decided at the end of July that we were going to put our little cape up on the market and find a bigger home (still in Goffstown). In the midst of trying to sell our house and buy our new home, we found out I was pregnant and couldn't be more excited. The timing, however, was somewhat crazy. Because not only were we selling our house but also went on our trip to Europe. Thankfully I had no morning sickness. I was so nervous about flying and taking care of Avery on the trip AND having to deal with all the first trimester symptoms. I ended up really lucking out and because of the trip to Europe, wedding in Memphis and moving, my first trimester FLEW by. It was definitely stressful moving with a toddler and trying to keep things somewhat normal in her eyes while also trying to get stuff done on time. We managed with lots of help, including hiring movers. I, of course, was very little help with moving boxes because of being pregnant so having movers was key. It was really hard saying goodbye to our house, especially since it was Avery's first home. But we found our dream home and we are very happy to have more space for our growing family.
Avery has been so much fun to watch grow. She became quite the little traveler this past fall between Europe and Memphis, TN where we enjoyed a close family friend's wedding. She had a blast partying and ended up passing out before the end of the night. We went down to Beale St and had dinner at a BB King's Blues Club where Avery literally got everyone up and dancing to the live music. She was the trendsetter that night for sure and she certainly had some great dance moves. She really enjoyed Halloween as a pilot and continues to have an obsession with chocolate and airplanes. Her main interests lately have been airplanes, moon/stars and outer space, and horses. It is so fun to see her passionate about these things and we try to foster it where we can. On our trip to Memphis Avery was invited to the cockpit by the pilot to look at where he flew the plane. It was a real treat for her! She continues to enjoy her gymnastics class and Chris and I have seen so much growth since she began when she was a year old. She has more confidence, she is cautious but determined, so strong, so proud of herself, great listening skills and a great leader and friend. We are very blessed that she is able to participate in this class and she is really showing some great gymnastics skills. Who knows, it could definitely turn into something permanent for her! She has also been taking more interest in her colors, letters and numbers. She loves to color and draw and lately has been "assigning" people colors. For example: her color is purple, mine is blue and Chris's is red. If she finds things in those colors she will say who they belong to. She often hands me items that are blue and Chris items that are red. She even assigned the baby a color: white😂 She loves looking at letters and numbers as well and seems to enjoy learning all about them. Recently her favorite kind of books have been I Spy books. Chris and I are both so proud of her and her love of learning and wanting to know more. It is a lot of fun to teach her and watch her process it all. Another favorite past time of hers is singing. She can really hold a tune and we love to hear her sing. She loves all the typical little kid songs: ABCs, No More Monkeys, Itsy Bitsy Spider, Ba Ba Black Sheep and Twinkle Twinkle. But she also enjoys a lot of our favorites, like Matt Nathanson, the Wombats and Andrew McMahon. Another favorite of hers recently has been Stay Awake which is from Mary Poppins. I started singing that to her at night when putting her to bed because it was a familiar lullaby song to me. Though she has never seen the movie, she knows all the words to the song and she will typically sing it to herself as she is falling asleep. Melts my heart.
She is excited to be a big sister, not really understanding it too too much, but understands that mommy has a baby in her belly. Christmas day she actually felt the baby move for the first time and kept saying "The baby is moving! He's getting bigger!" She likes looking in the baby's room and talks about helping me once he is here. It's going to be a huge adjustment for us all but we are excited for the challenge. I know Avery is going to be a really good big sister; sweet, loving and protective.
The best time of the year has been the holidays. Avery really got into it this year and it was a BLAST. We got to take her to her first movie in the theater; The Grinch. It was a really cute movie and Avery loved it! She loved listening to the original soundtrack/story as well and danced to all the songs. She likes to call him "Mr. Grinch". The other Christmas movie she really got into this year was The Polar Express. We decorated our house with lights and Avery went nuts for them. Every time we pull in the drive and she sees them lit up she exclaims "Our lights!! Daddy did them for me. Thank you daddy!" Car rides have also been fun because she loves to point out all of the pretty lights and fun decorations in people's yards. Avery visited Santa this year and told him all about her baby brother coming next year. She asked for purple presents and Santa pulled through and wrapped all of her gifts in purple paper. She was so excited. It was fun to watch her open gifts this year too. She was excited about opening them and seeing what she got. She was full of gratitude and kept saying thank you over and over. As she continues to grow into a wonderful little lady, she always surprises us with her manners and reminds us daily of what a sweet soul she has.
