Preschool

Cambria goes to the seminary nursery school three mornings a week. This past Monday Cambria moved up to the preschool class at her school. She loves being in such a "big girl" class, especially since they do a lot of activities with the pre-K class (4 year olds). Her teacher, Karen, is an organized person and sent us several pictures of her. My favorite is the one of her writing. Cambria loves to write. She is constantly making lists -- grocery lists, packing lists, etc. It's very sweet.

Writing -- I bet she's making a list. :-)

Sliding on the playground. 

Learning to cut shapes. 

A future painter? 

Avery is walking!

I'm a terrible mom because Avery has been walking for about 12 days. With Cambria I never would have let the news sit for so many days but, alas, these are the trials of the second child. The weekend of Labor Day we were in Annapolis, MD for Jeff's sister's baby shower. Sunday morning, 5 days before her 10 month bday, Avery took her first "alone" steps. Of course, once we pulled out the video camera she was done walking for us. She also discovered that weekend that she could climb the steep stairs at Aunt Heather & Uncle Will's house. Oh yea, that was a lot of fun! :-)

The crazy thing about Avery's walk date is that Cambria also walked 5 days before her 10 month bday. It must be in the genes. Of course, Grandma Jacks has made sure to let us know that neither girl walked as quickly as their mom -- I walked at 9 months. Oh well, I'm not complaining.

Well, I better get back to chasing Avery...

"I can walk!" Avery can now take up to 12 steps at a time. 

Thoughts of a potty training mom.

I recently sent the following email out to a few friends who have been through my potty training woes. I hope this is helpful to other moms:

"At Cambria's 3 year visit with Dr. Halvorsen in July, I bemoaned the fact that we were backsliding in the potty training department. Dr. H's advice to me was to lay off potty training for 6 weeks. She told me to not say a word to Cambria about anything to do with the potty unless Cambria first initiated it. Well, Dr. H. was right. Shortly after our trip to VA in early August, Cambria decided to start wearing underwear again and going tinkle on the potty. Then, last weekend at Jeff's sister's house, Cambria started pooping on the potty. Lastly, she's been more rational about using public potties, even ones with automatic flushing...however, if she does throw a fit about a public potty, I put a pull-up on her and don't say another word.

So, now armed with my new potty training wisdom (aka Dr. Halvorsen's advice), I will advise new potty training mom's to let their kids potty train in their own time. :-)

I just thought you might appreciate my mommy growing moment."

Not walking yet..

Well, Avery isn't walking yet, but she's doing everything else. She stands well, bends down and picks up toys without holding on, and stands herself up without holding to anything. We keep placing her in the middle of the room and calling for her to walk, but she just laughs and ends up crawling to us. She has taken a very small side step, but I don't count it as an official first step.

Avery likes to blab loudly about who knows what most of the time, but she is saying a few words clearly: dada, bye-bye (while waving), mama, ya-ya (Cambria), and da (dog).

Cambria is still obsessed with CandyLand and tries to get us to play without shuffling the cards (that usually means that the ice cream is on top). :-) She is also into dancing around the house in her fairy outfit (she likes to pretend that she is June from Little Einsteins).

The other day Cambria asked me why we named her sister Avery. I said the reason was that Jeff & I liked the name. She proceeded to tell me that she wished Avery were called Piper like her friend Evie's sister. Since then she frequently calls Avery by the name Piper. Guess we chose the wrong name. :-)

See a few new pictures below.
Laurie

Avery loves the talking kitchen.

Twirling.

Bending to get something.