Tuesday our baby boy turned 11 months old.... unbelievable. Michael and I keep looking at each other saying this is such a fun age, he is such a fun kid. Avery's crawling has reached mock speed, it is hilarious how he slaps his hands down extra hard and laughs while he crawls as fast as he can to whatever has captured his attention. We are also hearing lots of babbling about who knows what. Avery remains his own favorite playmate, a mirror is too exciting for words. It is also fun to see how his reach and bravery increase daily. Baby tippy toes are awesome. Water babies is one of our favorite times, Avery being the swim genius that he is can go underwater for 4 seconds and has his teacher wrapped around his chubby little finger. Last wee she told him he was so cute he should be the main character in a book, for the readers we are praise just doesn't get higher. We are having so much fun with our 11 month old, but I may need meds to deal with the fact that our boy is almost 1. 
Wednesday we had some Wacky Weather. It was 80 degrees. So, Maddie and Hadley came to visit and we all went walking. It was so much fun. I can't remember the last time I walked 4 miles and actually had fun doing it. Hadley is too cute and was such a sweet girl. Avery had a blast taking it all in, too. 
Because Avery was such a sweet boy during our walk, we had to swing when we got home. I think you can see he enjoyed his reward. After all this I made Avery black beans and rice for his dinner, I thought it would be fun for us to all eat the same meal(only his not so spicy.) Well, independence is increasing at our house and Avery thought he would just eat it all by himself, no spoon or mamma necessary.
Can I say I don't think we have EVER had a mess this big. Of course I didn't think to strip him down when I realized he was going to feed himself for 45 minutes. Of course I didn't think to move him off the rug onto the hardwoods until 30 minutes in to said 45 minutes of feeding. And OF COURSE we did not somehow end up with poop on Michael and tee tee on me while trying to blast the beans and rice off of Avery.... What a night!
Thursday was my Mom's Birthday. HAPPY BIRTHDAY LOU LOU!!! Spidey had big fun celebrating with his LouLou all day. We got to have lunch and dinner with her, it was awesome. Especially when he managed to knock water in his lap and strip down to his spider man outfit in the restaurant at dinner in a rather ritzy neighborhood near where we live... nice!
Luckily Avery and LouLou thought he was looking good and since the weather was still nice his legs weren't too cold.
We even got to come back to the house for cookies and American Idol before Mom and Dad moved on. We are so glad we got to spend so much time with Mom on her special day. She means so much to us!!! WE LOVE LOU LOU!!I don't have pictures from Friday but we got to go to Target which is always fun, see Aunt Linde and have dinner with our BFFs. LIFE IS GOOD!
Here are a few of our favorite things about Pop:
I keep hoping Avery's hair will get curly so he can have cute southern boy curls. So far no luck but I tried to convince Michael that this SERIOUS case of bed head means there is curl potential, he isn't buying it. I would love to know how Avery slept to get his hair this crazy.
I feel certain someday I will get a look along these lines when Avery is old enough to realize I have posted such embarrassing pictures for all the world to see. I can't help it, I think they are funny. 
