REAL Adventures!

We have been up to some serious adventures over the past few months and life has been full of surprises!  Owen has turned into a toddler overnight and the we are already well into August, where did the summer go?  Here are the brief highlights of the excitement we've experienced as well as some pictures from the past few months.

• Two pink lines were quite a shock on an early Monday morning in May!  While my first thought was shock and I barely functioned for a day or two, it quickly turned to excitement at the thought of Baby Avey #2.  The timing is not at all what I would have planned, a Christmas baby and maternity leave during my busiest time at work, but I know everything happens for a reason and it's amazing how things work out.  I was lucky to have another pretty easy 1st trimester and am still feeling great at 19 weeks.  We found out this week we are having a GIRL!  And we couldn't be more excited.  
• We vacationed in North Carolina in June and Owen experienced his first: airplane ride, real vacation, ocean views, seashells, sand castles, full-length movies, girly toys, etc.  It was an amazing trip and he loved hanging out with the Miller girls, Piper and "Packenzie", Mr. Nathan and Kelly.  Emerald Isle, NC is a great place to vacation, I would highly recommend it.
• Owen started summer camp the 2nd week of June and we decided to just go for it with the potty training this summer.  His teachers were very encouraging and the setup at camp makes it an easy transition.  So the 2nd weekend of June we put on some Thomas underwear (obviously) and never looked back!  The first weekend was a nightmare, changing clothes every 5 minutes.  "Ooops I peed!" "Uh oh" "Look Mommy!" was pretty much all we heard.  But after that first week he was nearly "potty" trained and less than 8 weeks later I consider him fully trained.  We have accidents here and there and will be in diapers at night for a while since he's still so young, but it's been amazing and I'm so glad we did it this early.
• Since we just love change lately, we also decided to make the jump to the Big Boy Bed, which was talked about constantly for weeks.  I was going to wait until he jumped out of that crib by himself, but our doctor suggested doing it much sooner so we could all prepare and it would be less of a shock.  And less chance of him breaking a limb.  So we bought a full mattress with the thought that we could keep it around longer and potentially use it as an emergency guest bed since we'll be losing our guest room in the spring.  We pimped it out with Thomas gear from top to bottom and you would not believe the excitement!  "Thomas! Percy! Edward! James! Look at all my trains Mommy!  My pillows! Thomas!" He couldn't come up for air describing everything he saw.  We've had pretty good success, although he loves to come sleep at the gate to his room for some reason, maybe to be closer to us?  Or so that we'll come and get him and tuck him back in?  Either way, bed time has slipped from 7:30 to 8:30 pretty quickly and sometimes the last round of stern good nights takes place around 9.  But, we can't complain because he sleeps great through the night and doesn't get up again until the morning.  
• Smaller excitement has been learning how to ride his tricycle, riding the El downtown, watching the 4th of July parade, swimming at the pool, getting a haircut with Franco, reading books to us, and going to the zoo.  We have a great book called "Zooborns" that has pictures of dozens of baby animals and he has nearly all of them memorized, including mongooses, pottos, aardvarks, echidnas, otters and flamingos.  He also has moved on from playing just the air guitar to now the air trumpet.  We need to get him in a music class this winter.
• He is speaking in full sentences most of the time and the stuff that he says is hilarious!  I'll have to start keeping notes on my phone so I can share the highlights in my next post.

Playing baseball, he definitely swings the bat left-handed.
I struggle to help him do it because it feels so backwards!

The Deerfield 4th of July parade was a big hit, full of fire trucks, ambulances and old cars.

Happy as a clam in his big boy bed, Thomas overload.

15 weeks

Petting the goats at the zoo, sooooo dirty.

His favorite hairstyle.

Hanging out at the train station after school.  His favorite activity is eating snacks on the
bench and watching the trains go by.  We sat here for over an hour.

He loves his monkeys and lately loves laying in our bed with us in the morning.
No complaints here!

This is hard to see because I took it in the dark, but here he is sleeping at the gate
to his room.  He carries all of his blankets, pillows and "friends" over with him.  We can hear
him making multiple trips across his room to get the setup just right.

Here are a few pictures from his recent haircut with Franco, I think this is haircut #3.
Which is crazy since he's nearly 2 1/2 years old!  This is the first time he sat in the chair
by himself and not in Teague's lap, which Teague was thrilled about.

Waiting for the El.  He LOVED riding the train and threw a huge fit every
time we had to get off and switch lines or walk somewhere else.

He loves his tricycle, we now have to ride it every day, rain or shine, and he's getting
really good at it.

Lovely Sunday afternoon nap on the couch.

Like I said, rain or shine.  It was pouring outside in this picture.

Dinner time in NC.  What a life!

1st experience with Pop-its in NC, they were a big hit and a big mess.

Our amazing house in NC that was even better than the pictures and so affordable.
Have I mentioned how much I love Emerald Isle?

Pretty content during our layover in Charlotte.  Yes that is Thomas on the iPad.

Here is a picture of our video monitor, it's hard to see and hard to tell them apart,
but this is a shot of Teague and Owen fast asleep in Owen's bed.  Teague
went to check on him and never came back.  After 20 minutes of waiting to go to bed,
I finally checked the monitor and saw them both snoring away.

And finally, I saved the best for last.  Here is Baby GIRL Avey at 19 weeks.  Happy Shopping is right!