Avery at Two and a Half

Our two-and-a-half year old is amazing, just simply amazing.  Avery hasn't changed her Jekyll and Hyde ways but she has grown into a silly little girl.  She loves to look at herself in the mirror and make faces and then later she will make those same faces to us at the dinner table.  As we came into the new year Avery bloomed and started talking much more clearer and much more in general.  She can retell stories she has been told or has been read and can tell you the consequences of events.  It's as if all of a sudden she opened up a bottle and all of her words started to flow out.  

Avery loves to read.  One of her favorite stories she likes to have read to her is the story of "The Three Little Pigs".  She loves the part where the big bad wolf huffs and puffs and blows the house down but at the same time the thought of the big bad wolf scares her.  She has woken up in the middle of the night on numerous occasions screaming about the big bad wolf.  I stopped reading it to her but she keeps bringing the same book back to me to read to her.  She also likes listening to the story of "Little Red Riding Hood" and "Goldilocks and the Three Bears".  

Aside from reading Avery has now opened up the world of imaginary play in part because big sister Emily wants her to play with her.  Both of them love to play "mommy and baby" where one pretends to be the mommy and the other the baby.  They do this not only as mommy and baby but also as mommy dog and baby dog or mommy dinosaur and baby dinosaur.  Avery also likes to play doctor and will use the play doctor kit to check up on daddy.

Some of her favorite shows at the moment are Peppa Pig, Max and Ruby, and Bubble Guppies all of which show on Nick Jr. She can't get enough of these shows and will sit in the rocking chair in the living room and just sit and rock and watch her shows.  Avery has taken on a fondness of rocking in the rocking chair and loves to rock fast.  Sometimes we have to yell at her to slow down, but she will sit there and rock herself.  I think its soothing to her.  When mommy sits and rocks with her she tries to throw her body into it to rock faster and she gets a little frustrated that it doesn't move as fast as she would like.

We are in the midst of potty training and we have finally come to the phase that Emily was in before she finally became potty trained.  Currently Avery is wearing panties at school and is doing well with few accidents, but when she comes home she has accidents almost every day.  As much as we take her to the potty she still has an accident, but I am excited because Emily was at this phase right before she understood how to feel for when she needed to go.  We are headed in the right direction!