Updates from the Homefront-Avery 14 1/2 months

Busy doesn't accurately describe our past few weeks. More like an ant farm on crack and coffee. We are constantly working and moving and doing. Avery is loving school, but had some "incidents" last week. She hit Will in the face, stole Finley's blankey, and got put in time out for the first time. Eeeek. When did my kid become the bully? She is not even the big girl anymore! Everyone else has caught up! Whew. I just knew she was gonna be huge forever. Turns out, she's normal! YAY! She has realized how much she enjoys being outside with all this nice weather. Anytime the front door opens, she runs to it, and tries to squeeze out into the yard. She loves eating dirt, washing rocks in her mouth, and anything else that irritates the stew out of me. She's obsessed with the hose, picking off leaves of my best looking plants, splashing and stomping in puddles, and blowing kisses to lucky passer-byers. Here are the words she can say with some consistency:

1. duck

2. dog

3. Boo (my moms dog)

4. ball

5. uh oh

6. juice

7. bye bye

Words she says occasionally:

1. mama

2. da (that would be daddy, but she just says "da")

3. baba

4. hie (Heidi)

5. Hi

6. hot

Words we have heard once or twice:

1. squirrel

2. puppy

3. g daddy

4. flower

She is currently eating all food and has no desire to eat anything for babies. She only wants what we eat! Which is good and bad. Because sometimes I just want a french fry and she is not allowed to eat those yet. We are sticking to mostly organic and home cooked foods for her right now. She gets lean meat, fresh fruit and vegetables, and legumes or potatoes everyday. I send her food to school since they eat all kinds of processed food that I don't want her eating. It is my goal to teach her as early as possible about good nutrition. We have been watching Jamie Oliver's Food Revolution and it has made me even more aware of the growing problem with our diets. I think Allison has posted somewhere on her blog about this too. It is truly an epidemic. I won't get on my soapbox today, since you have heard it from me before, but I am recommitting to eating organically, locally, sustainably, and healthily. I hope you will, too.

And now, a quick photo montage of our past few weeks:

After Grant's 6th place finish in the ARCA race at Talladega and a 3rd place finish the week before at Texas. TJ and I ended up not going, but we watched both raced from the living room on Speed Channel.

Avery at the park, again. The obsession continues!
The day we took 5 neighborhood kids to Hobby Road to fish, and I almost lost my mind. You can't go from one toddler, to 5 children under 13 in an afternoon, and keep your sanity. Although TJ somehow managed to.