School's Out for the Summer

Ahhhh, how I love summer. Not so much the terrible heat and humidity, but I love the laid back relaxig part, for sure!

What have we done this summer? Swim. That's about it. What have we not done? Rushed around, doing a thousand things a day. Sigh... Love it!

This week we got to see Julie ad her kids. Yippee! We went to the jumping place where we had Avery's birthday party. Fun, fun. Then we ate lunch at a yummy new place in town. After that was the splash pad, but it got rained out, well more like lightninged out.

I took the kids to Barnes and Noble in Murfreesboro. Sam gets a free book each summer for participating in a reading program at school. After that we had appointments to get the boys'hair cut. We picked books and then I looked outside. it was super, super dark and I knew we needed to hurry before it started pouring rain. We ran up to the front to pay, and a lady stopped us and said, "We aren't checking out right now." I was like, "What?" She said we needed to go tothe back of the store. I told her we needed to go. She said we were in a tornado warning and everyone had to go to the back of the store. We went back and waited. No tornado came. We finally got to leave and we made t to the appointment just in time.

We went grocery shopping, and the kids were actually good. Thank goodness. going once a month is great, and saves a lot of money, but it takes a long time, and bringing kids is not ideal. Sam said, "Mommy, I don't know how you do this by yourself!" Sam helped a lot. It was nice. :)

Yesterday we went ot our favorite place in the summer. It's a wading pool that has sprayers and stuff. it's about 30 minutes away. AJ asked why we were going there when we have a pool in our backyard, and don't have to drive anywhere. I told him it didn't have cool sprayers and mushrooms. ;) We got there at 10:00 and stayed until 3:00. The kids loved every minute of it and never asked to go. Avery was splashing around like a frog. he is so comfortable in the water now. Yippee. We had some trouble with some of the other kids, who's parents were not watching them at all, but it was lots of fun. I probably had to yell at 3 kids, none of which were my own. Sometimes I really just don't understand some parents.

While we were there, Lindsay watched my kids while I went to the car for a phone call. It was my final interview for school. Yes, I finally decided to go back to school so I can become a real teacher with my own classroom. I am excited, but nervous. I researched a ton, and found a school that I think will be a great fit. It's more based on experience and competency than it is on classwork and stuff. I learn the things I need to, and then take a test, and I am done with that class. I can go as fast as I want, and don't have to wait for the semester to be over. I can just take the test and go on to the next course. All of my subbing experience goes in to play, so I am hoping I can test out of a lot of things quickly. In fact I am hoping to be all done in 18 months to 2 years. I like to just go in and get things done, so I won't be wasting my time, which is nice. So unless something happens with financial aid, I am a student, and start July 1st!

I also have a new job at church. I teach the girls ages 14 and 15. This week will be my first week teaching. I have never worked with the teenagers before, so this will be different. I hope they are nice to me. ;)

Oh, did I mention that Avery learned how to swim by himself a few days ago. He is doing great. No floats needed. He can swim both above and below water, float, and swim on his back. It's pretty cool. He looks so tiny in there swimming around like a fish. Thank goodness for shots! That was all the help he needed. He couldn't wear his water wings for several days after his shots, so he finally just learned to swim. Yippee!

Anyway, I guess that's it for now. Here are some pics for your viewing pleasure.


The boys in the mushroom

Cute Avery

Avery in his goofy goggles

Swimming Sam

Shark Sam chasing the 3 litle kids

The Kids

So, I thought I would make an all about kids post.

Today we had to get up EARLY (in the summer!) and take both boys to the doctor. Sam to see a dermatology specialist and Avery for his Kindergarten check up.

Let's start with Avery.

He's a tiny little boy, only 10th percentile for his age group. Everything is normal and he is right on track. He is doing everything he should and is doing great. He is sooooo ready for Kindergarten. We have been playing word games and he can totally spell and sound out most words. Now to put them all together and read. He LOVES learning and wants to really read soooo bad. He ASKS to practice everyday. it's cute. The other day I asked him to tell me some nursery rhymes. He probably told me 15 of them!!! I had no idea he knew and could remember perfectly that many. Wow! He was excited to go for his check up this morning because he knows that's one step closer to Kindergarten. He was even excited to get his shots! He didn't stay excited though! He had to get 5 shots in his arms today. The first one he was fine, didn't even flinch. The 2nd one he cried a little and wanted to be done. Then we turned him around to do the next 3. Those were the bad ones. He was really crying for them and the last one was apparently the most painful (she said that's why they save it for last) and he was yelling at that point. It was sad. Poor kid. He didn't move his arms after that for more than an hour. He did really good and was brave, but it really hurt him. She said the last one would probably cause swelling, be painful, and cause a fever for a couple days. Lovely. We promised him donuts afterwards if he was brave for his shot. So we went to Krispy kreme where the boys actually got donut sundes! Disgusting. It grossed me out. I couldn't believe they could eat that. YUCK! You should have seen Avery trying to eat it. He wouldn't move his arms so he was pretty much licking the ice cream like a dog. Finally by the end he managed to figure out how to use only his lower arm to get the spoon to his mouth. Pretty funny. This was a cool Krisy Kreme where it's all glass so you can see them making the donuts. They sat there and watched them make a whole batch. Anyway, by the time we got home he was moving his arms again and semed fine until the Motrin wore off. Hopefully tomorrow won't be bad. He is a cute, wild child. He is sooo smart and i love how willing he is to learn. Oh, here is a weird thing about him though. I go to the Y several times a week to do Zumba. He can't STAND the nursery there. He really hates going. He hasn't gone very much this year because I usually went while they were in school. Getting out of the habit was not a good thing for him. He has hated the last couple of weeks, and complains and complains. He cant even really tell me why he hates it so much. I think it is just too overwhelming for him. There are a MILLION kids in there, really, way too many, and the teachers aren't very nice at all, and one in particular has a really gruff voice, is loud, and seems mean, even though she isn't. He is not good with that type of person. I guess he is used to his quiet, soft-spoken mommy. Awww. Anyway, I tried taking him in there yesterday. He started crying before we even left the house!!! He's not done that since he was 3! We were walking in and he actually stopped dead in the doorway and would not enter the building. I don't understand why he hates it so much, but I felt bad for him. They were playing outside, Kinley was in there waiting for him, but he just did not want to go. I wasn't going to miss my class either. I ended up just taking him in my class with me. He sat in the corner with nothing to do, and just watched the whole time. I was SURE that would make him see that going to his class was a better idea. it didn't work! He MUCH prefered sitting there bored than going in his class. So I guess until he can move up to the next class that will be our plan for now, since neither of us are budging on our Y terms. :) I really don't mind. He didn't bother anyone at all, and if he wants to be bored than fine. I would rather him choose to be bored than force him to go somewhere he really can't stand, especially when it isn't hurting anything. It's weird though! he's quirky!

On to Sam. Sam's rash, including the butt part that I previusly mentioed came back last week. It went from bad to worse really quickly, and within 2 days he had the rash over his entire body, even his face again. I took him back to the ped. She just said it was his eczema and that maybe that would be how it manifested itself from now on. Ummmm, no. He can't go around every month with a butt he can barely sit on that bleeds and pusses! They had scheduled a dermatologist appt for him, but they couldn't get him in until July. Ummm, no. AJ pulled some strings, he has connections ya know :), and got him into another specialty dermatologist. We took him this morning. Apparenlty he still has staph, and it IS eczema, but it is infected eczema. So she gave him more antibiotics, another prescription cream, special bath soap, and some special lotion. We go back in a month and she will figure out a good course of treatment, I guess for the rest of his life. Sigh... I am still not quite sure about that diagnosis. I don't understand the rash all over his body thing, or the butt rash being eczema, but we will see, I suppose. He has had eczema his whole life and it is just now manifesting like THIS? Hmmm. ANyway, he also had to get a steroid shot. Those things HURT so I was worried, but he did just fine. Didn't even flinch. I guess getting allergy shots every week for the last 6 years really numbs you to shot pain.

Let's see, what else. Sam has so gotten an attitude lately. Argh! He is the biggest arguer. i wonder where he got that from? **roll yes here** Me, of course. I guess I deserve it. He also has really been antagonizing Avery, which anooys both Avery AND me. What's funny is that I always was amazed at how good their relationship was. They rarely fought at all. I thought it was the age difference, and the sweetness of my boys, but that has apparently ended. Sigh... I knew it would happen eventually, but why in the summer?!! I did talk to him about it today and hopefully we have worked out an arrangement to get this fixed and fast. he's always been so sweet and nice, so this is sort of surprising. i guess it had to happen at some point, that's what siblings do. Darn it. Anyway, he is loving summer. We swim just about every day which is his very favorite thing to do. He also tries hard to do nice things for me, and is constantly trying to help me out or do things to make my life easier. Sweet boy. I hope he stays that way. ;)

We really have great kids, and we are lucky to have them. Even though they bring us our challenges, especially with Sam's medical mysteries, we couldn't ask for better kids. Even Avery, who we consider our wild child, is calm and sweet compared to most other kids. We are just used to laid back, go with the flow Sam, so Avery is crazy compared to that! LOL. At church the other day Avery's teacher came in to the room we were in and she said, "Avery's not here today!" I was like, "Um, yeah, he should be!" Then she said, "He's just so GOOD and quiet, we never have to worry about him at all. I guess I just missed him." Which is srt of good and sort of bad. :) He is also the helpful one and is the one doing the right hing when asked, etc. Good, good boys. I love them.

Anyway, enough gushing about their sweetness. I am sure we all feel that way about our own kids, I just think mine are particularly sweet, for the most part, well except for Sam's attitude lately. ;)-

Here are some pics of them enjoying Krisy Kreme. Disclaimer*** Taken with my camera phone***.





P.S. Sorry for any typos. Something weird is happening and when I try and backspace and type soething else, it erases the letters in front of it, causing letters to be missing, etc. I am sure there are a lot of mistakes. Sorry!

Summer Beginnings

So the summer so far has been pretty lazy. Yea for lazy! It's so nice to just get to relax and go with the flow after the busiest month of May.

Basically we have been swimming every day, with a few things thrown in here and there. We totally love having a pool in our backyard. I have gone to the Y to do Zumba a few times, but I hurt my knee with all that twisting my first morning, so I have had to take it easy. Darn it. yesterday I felt dumb because I had to do everything low impact. I even had to stop early because it hurt so much. Darn knee!

Tuesday we were supposed to go see one of the cheap summer movies (our theater has kids movies for $2 and some other theaters in teh area have free movies). Anyway, we got all up and ready to go , and then I just happened to check which theater it was at, and I had it wrong! I thought it was the one here in town, which is 2 minutes away, but it was the one 35 minutes away. At that point we wouldn't have made it in time, so we went store hopping instead. I really need a new swimsuit, but I can't find a cute one, cheap enough anywhere. We spent the rest of the day in the pool.

Yesterday we went and played in the fountains at our Hospital. The kids loved it. After we left there, we had lunch, and then came home and jumped in our pool for 3 hours, until it started raining. We are definitely water dogs around here.

Today I had to take Sam to the doctor again. His rashy problem, yes the same one from a month ago, is back and hurting him. We are going to see a specialist on Tuesday. Thankfully it is cooler and rainy today, so they aren't missing the pool.

I have also been working hard trying to get Corporate sponsors for our Annual Golf Tournament. It is international this year, which is expensive, so we are trying to raise as much money as we can. I am definitely doing my part to help. I have contacted over 20 businesses this week.

A little while ago, I told the kids that I didn't feel like making dinner, and one of them needed to. :) Avery said, "I will!" he ran right into the kitchen and started pulling things out of the fridge! I said, "Avery, we are having chicken burritos". He said, "No we're not! We are having what I am making!" I asked him what we were having and he said pancakes and curly chips (Sun Chips). He had gotten the forzen pancakes out and was totally going to make dinner! It was too cute. i told him that I needed to make it tonight since I already had the chicken out, but maybe next time I will let him make what he wants. :) He doesn't really like the burrito so I will let him make himself a pancake to go along with the rice and beans. Weird, I know, but he will like it. Cute kid!

Ok, back to my dinner making, and back to my sponsorship forms to fill out. Happy summer!

The End Has Come

Another year gone by. Can you believe it? Avery graduated Pre-K today and Sam is going in to 4th grade! Geez! This year sped by, even more so than normal. It seems like school was just starting and I was helping Sam's teacher get her classroom set up. Now I am there taking everything down and packing her up. Crazy!

Avery is SOOOO excited to be a Kindergartener. He doesn't even care that preschool is over. He has already moved ahead to Kindergarten. He has visited his new Kindergarten teacher that past few weeks and talks to her like she is his best friend! It is WEIRD! :) He pretends to be shy around people, but he is not the least bit shy with her. He tells her all kinds of stories. It's funny. This morning he said, now I am in Kindergarten. Can I go tomorrow? He's not to happy about waiting all summer. She has been teasing him, telling him that he is going to know so much about the class and where everything is, that he will be the one showing everyone when school starts. I will be subbing for our favorite teacher while she has a baby at the beginning of the year, so Avery gets to go stay at our friend's house for a week before Kindergarten actually starts (they go later than the rest of the grades). He can't wait for that either.

For graduation today they "took a trip to Kindergarten Island". They sang lots of songs about getting to the island, etc. Singing, especially with actions, is not his thing. He looked so bored up there, in fact, he yawned several times. What's funny is that besides me, he is the biggest singer in the house. Here are some graduation pics for ya.





Sam is so gonna miss 3rd grade and will especially miss his teacher. He LOVED her. She is so nice and a great teacher. We will all definitely miss her. Avery will definitely be getting her in 3rd grade. :) None of us can believe he is already to 4th grade. How did he get so big? I remember well my time in 4th grade. I guess I better be a really good mom now cuz he will remember it! ;) I am already stressing bout him going to middle school in two years. He's gonna go from a great school where he has had the best teachers and his mom working there all the time, to middle school where everything changes, his teachers aren't hand-picked, and parents aren't really invited in. Big shock I am sure. i am going to start easing out the next couple of years. I can't believe I will have 2 boys in real school. I already still go back and hlp all of Sam's old teachers, and now I will be adding two more. Not sure how that's going to work! Here are some pics of Sam with some of his best friends.



Pretty much we have been super busy at school teh last few weeks. Today we didn't get home until 5ish. Tomorrow we are going back, even though there is no school for students, just teachers. Friday they go back to get their report cards and then they are done.

For Memorial Day we cleaned and did yard work most of the day, and then Linds and Fam came over and we swam and ate, etc. Here are some pics of that.







We really don't have anything planned for the summer. Mostly just relaxing and lounging around. We will probably just stay around here, swim, and do the fun stuff in the area. Ta Ta for Now!

Spring Fling

This past week was pretty laid back. I didn't work at all, and just caught up on things around here, and did some things to get ready for the end of school. I missed my class though, so I ended up going to see them on Thursday for their Mother's Day Program.

Friday was Spring Fling. It's our yearly carnival type thing that is always on a Friday night. The kids love it! I have a few pictures and that's about all I have to offer to Blogland this week. The next few weeks will just be busy doing all of the end of the school year stuff, and that's about it. It takes all my energy! So enjoy the pictures! :)

Nevermind, for some reason it won't let me add pics right now. I will try again later. Argh!

OK, I got it.


Avery's Favorite thing to do at the Spring Fling.




In the firetruck


Sam loves to go to the "emergency" tent and get all hurt. Avery made up this whole big story on what happened to Sam. LOL!


This was Mother's Day at AJ's grandmother's house. Sam made a sign (the thing he is holding) that says "The Best!" and it had an arrow pointing to me. Awwww! We couldn't get it in the picture though. :(

By the way, I had to take all of these with my camera phone, so that's why they don't look very good.

Pictures of my Quartet

If you want to see pictures of my quartet at our competition, I now have a link.

Go Here if you want to see! :)

Rashy

My poor kid can never catch a break. Sighhhhh.

This is sensitive, TMI info, so you may want to not read.

A little over a week ago, Sam told me that his butt has been hurting, and it had been for a long time. He didn't tell me because it is embarrassing. Well, I looked at it, and I couldn't believe what I was seeing!!! I had never seen anything look that bad. It was like terrible, terrible diaper rash, except he is 8 years old. We started out by putting Desitin on it. A little weird, but what else could we do??? Anyway, after a few days, that wasn't helping. I went and got Preparation H stuff to see if that would help. It didn't. In fact, it was getting worse and worse, and was hurting him terribly. So we decided to take him to the doctor. Our pediatrician couldn't get him in that day, so we took him to a good walk-in clinic.

The doctor thought it looked like Strep! Can you believe that?! Apparently you can get that type of infection in other areas. She had to do a culture, and prescribed a cream to put on it. That was a Thursday.

By Saturday, he had a faint rash all over his body. His butt hurt so bad it was bleeding, and he couldn't go to the bathroom or sit down very well. We called the pediatrician and explained what had been going on, but we still didn't have the culture results. He said to check in with him the next day.

Sunday comes and the rash is a lot worse. He was screaming (real, terrible screams) when he tried to go to the bathroom. It was awful. We called the doctor back, and he came to the office on a Sunday just to see Sam. He couldn't believe how terrible his butt looked. It was the worst he had ever seen. He took another culture. It was so bad, he didn't think it was Strep because he had never seen it look like that before. Also, the rash confused him. He wasn't sure if it was because of the other rash, if it was something new, or what. He was pretty confident it wasn't contagious though. He knew it had to be some sort of bacterial infection, so he prescribed and antibiotic that works well on skin infections.

The antibiotic did help his butt some, but not the rash. Yesterday, I checked on him at lunch time and the rash was even worse. It was everywhere, even under his hair. At dinner time, I checked him again and the rash was terrible. This time it was bright red and itchy. Before it was itchy, but it was mostly clearish. We called the doctor again. This time we got our regular pediatrician. She said with strep like that it is very common to get a rash, and even for it to get worse. The antibiotic just hadn't gotten to the rash part yet, but was working on the worst spot first.

Today, the rash is terrible. It is starting to hurt him, and it looks awful. They finally called and left a message with the results of the culture. It is strep. I am fairly positive he has Scarlet Fever, which is the result of Strep not being treated properly. That's what happens when a kid doesn't tell you something is going on for too long. Thankfully he isn't contagious, and apparently never was, but I feel so bad for him. He is embarrassed about the butt part, embarrassed about the rash everywhere, and it is pretty scary for him. He thinks something terrible is happening to him. Imagine how embarrassed he would be to know I blogged about it. Muahaha. I am a mean Mommy. ;)

Anyway, remind your kids to tell you if there is a problem, even if it is embarrassing!

Here are some pictures. They don't even do the rash justice. Also, there is a picture Avery has been dying for me to take. They just planted a new garden in front of our school and Avery thinks it is the perfect picture spot. He asks me every day if I have my camera, so I brought it today. :)

Tornados, Birthdays, and More

Yes, I know I am slow. I have been trying to blog all week, but it hasn't happened. Sheesh, this week has been a whirlwind!

Last Friday we just happened to be out of school for Good Friday. That was a very good thing! We had had bad storms all night the night before and all throughout the morning. About noon, it started getting really bad. A friend texted me and asked if we were all ok, because it looked like the storm was right over us. I turned on my tv to the news, to hear them say, "Let's turn over to the traffic camera on I-24 in Murfreesboro." I watched as they did that. At the same time, a man had called in and was frantic, sounded scared to death, and said he had just seen a tornado. As I watched the traffic camera, all of a sudden, you saw a tornado form, then get bigger, and bigger, and bigger. The news people were freaking out. I couldn't believe what I was seeing! It just so happens that my back yard is pretty much I-24 and we live less than 10 minutes from Murfreesboro. Then the news people said it was coming right towards us. I told the kids to get in the bathroom, I threw in some blankets and pillows then I ran to my back door to see if I could see the tornado. I was sure I would be able to, that thing was huge! I also tried calling Lindsay to tell her, since she also lives right here. She didn't answer of course. I kept watching, and calling. The kids stayed in the bathroom for quite a while. I kept watching outside and watching the news. It ended up that the tornado went to the right of us, and took a lot of Murfreesboro with it. Over 150 homes were destroyed, and a mother and baby were killed. :( I never get freaked out by storms, and don't worry about tornadoes at all, but seeing it form right in front of your eyes, and to have it be right down the street from you, is a little different. We saw some of the damage the next day. It is bad. Poor, poor people. That was a crazy day.

The next day was Avery's Birthday party. The kids were so excited. They drove me crazy all day. AJ went in the morning to pick up Avery's new bunk bed. Then after that we went mattress shopping. It was hard for them to wait all day for the party, but they were so excited about the new bed. Avery loves it, but at the same time is having trouble sleeping, and tells us it is because he is too high up. We keep offering to take it back and get him a normal bed, but he doesn't want to do that either. I told him that he would get used to it quickly and to keep giving it a try. He went from not going to sleep until 9:30 or later to 8:30 on Wednesday, and finally last night was normal. I praised him a lot today, so hopefully it goes better from now on. Here are pictures of his "new" room.





After all that, it was finally party time! We had his party at a new bouncy place in our city. It was very nice and lots of fun. The kids loved it. We call Avery our little monkey boy, and he definitely showed it. He won a little monkey head from one of those, put in a quarter and drop the claw to pick out a toy games, and he ran around holding that in front of his face the whole afternoon. Thankfully it still looks like him. ;)


During the opening presents part, Avery got all weird and un-Averylike. He seemed to get all shy and quiet. He wouldn't even smile. WEIRD! I think he was overwhelmed with sitting in the big chair and having everyone watch him. I don't know. It was kinda funny though! Oh, guess what his favorite present was?! Pajamas and underwear! Weirdo! Here are some pics from the festivities.







The next day was Easter. The Easter Bunny just happened to bring the Lego Batman Video Game. Now that is an extravagant Easter Bunny! He does NOT normally bring things like that, but he must have taken pity on our "deprived" children. Or maybe it was just a long story, consisting of two kids that have been dying for that game since before Christmas, and the 5 year old Birthday boy trying to spend all of his bday money on that one thing. Like I said, long story. They did get that game as a together gift and only candy to go along with it, so he must not be as nice as I originally thought. ;)





Busy Weekend!

The week was even busier!

Tis week was crazy at school. We had standardized testing this week. My class had testing for 2 days. Sam's class and the upper grades had testing for 4 days. Our schedules were all messed up, the days were crazy, and the kids were insane. All the teachers were ready for this week to be over! It was also report card week to top it all off. I never knew filling out report cards could be such hard work! Not only were our days busy, but we have had something going on every night this week, so I haven't even gotten home until 9:00ish or later each night. It's weird not seeing my house for that many hours! Good news though, I sold my old kitchen table. Now I can buy chairs for my new kitchen table, and I won't have a table sitting in the middle of my photography room. :)

Well, I know this was an incredibly long post with lots of pictures, so you can be done reading now. If you want to continue on, I have a few more birthday pictures to show you. :) See ya next week!

I Now Have a 5 Year Old!

Geez, time sure flew by! How can Avery be 5 already?!

Yesterday was Avery's birthday. When he woke up, he came to me and whispered, "Mommy, am I 5 now?!" It was so cute. As soon as I told him that he was, his whole face lit up with the hugest smile. Such a cute boy!


AJ is in California this week for some conference or something, so we are having his birthday party next weekend. Avery was a little confused by that, but we made yesterday extra special to make up for it.

Every year for his birthday we go to the zoo. Lindsay and her crew came along, and we enjoyed several hours there. It was the PERFECT day for it. It was about 70 degrees, the sun was bright and shiny. It was great.






After the zoo, we went to eat dinner at Red Robin. Avery got a free birthday meal. They sang to him, gave him his own sundae, and a balloon. He loved it.

We then went to a couple stores to get some supplements for their spring wardrobe. I let Avery get a shirt that I hate (I can't stand character shirts)so he was very happy. It was a long day, but fun. He loved it, he told me.

His party will be next Saturday at a new inflatable place here in Smyrna. Should be fun. He is excited for that. He is not, however, excited for the shots he has to get this year for Kindergarten. He did tell me last night that he didn't feel any bigger. I told him that even though his body wasn't bigger yet, his brain was. Now he is going around telling me all these "smart" things. :)

Avery is such a cute boy. He is totally his own little person. He is wild and wacky, which we love. He makes all of us laugh constantly. He makes up the funniest things and even entertains himself. He prefers playing by himself and making up things with his imagination. I have had several people ask me what he wants for his birthday and I have a hard time even telling them anything, because he doesn't play with much, he just makes things up. He is super smart. He is trying sooo hard to teach himself to read, and he doesn't want help. He is doing a pretty good job, too. He can't wait for Kindergarten. Sam is his very best friend and they play well most of the time. He wants a puppy so bad, and talks about it frequently. Too bad Sam is so allergic, and too bad Mommy definitely doesn't want a dog anyway. He loves Ben 10, if he plays with anything, it is usually those action figures. He also is fascinated with Smurfs all of a sudden. :) He is big on doing everything himself and learning new things all the time. He does whatever he can to figure something out. He has been watchcing the Leapfrog videos frequently, just so he can read. He sounds out all the letters and is able to spell or almost spell most easy things. He still has a really hard time reading something and sounding it out. He can't quite figure out how to make all the sounds go together. He loves the computer and can pretty much do anything on it.

He learned to ride a regular bike this year (with training wheels). He started trying to swim on his own (he will take swim lessons soon to help with that). He learned how to take a shower and wash his own hair. He stopped being afraid of the dark and sleeps with his door closed now. He wants to play baseball really bad. I just need to find a program that doesn't require 5 year olds to be there 3 or more days a week! He loves to sing, and knows words to songs better than me or Sam. He loves pouring his own drinks and opening his own packages. He is finally doing better about eating and at least trying things. I hope he keeps that up.

He is very compassionate and worries about things. He loves using his manners (after a fun Family Home Evening Lesson). He hates to get in trouble, it makes him so sad. He has started to get a little temper, but its not too bad. Mostly just funny. He is pretty good at listening to what you tell him and following directions, and usually does it the first time. He hates making mistakes and always wants to try again.

He is the bright, happy spot in our lives. No one can resist his laugh, and everyone loves how he talks and loves his little voice. People I don't even know, come up and tell me they know Avery and love him. He pretends to be shy, but really isn't. He hates hugs and kisses and does what he can to get away from them. I told him that hurt my feelings so he is better about taking it, but he makes sure to immediately wipe off any kisses. :) He is our silly, monkey boy.

Happy Birthday, Big Boy! We Love you Lots!!!