Happy 8 Months Old, Baby Girl!!

Steam Train

Last weekend, we woke up early in the morning and made a two hour drive to visit the South Carolina Railroad Museum, which is just north of Columbia. They were having a special visit from a steam train built in the 1930's that weekend. We thought Avery would love to ride on the train, as the boy is obsessed with Thomas the Tank Engine and all things train-related. The pictures below are slightly edited, as I chose not to include the pics of Avery crying for approximately 70% of the hour-long train ride. "Excuse me, Daddy....I wanna get off, Daddy...". Let's just say that no one on that train would have awarded us best-mother- and father-of-the-year award based on that trip. It could have been that we hyped the steam train up too much the week before, or we had to wake him up too early in the morning, or the whistle on the trains were too loud (I would choose the term "nerve-wracking", but that's just me), or maybe he's just two and a half and at this age, you never know what you are going to get on a daily basis. Kayla, on the other hand, loved the train ride, and tried to cheer Avery up by pulling his hair and sharing her toys. After the ride was over, Avery enjoyed visiting the exhibit car and other parts of the museum. And then cried when it was time to leave. Oh, to be two!

Four Generations

I forgot to post these pictures from our trip to Cleveland back in May. These are a "must-have" in my baby blog book.

Four Generations in 1980: (L to R) Mom, Grandma, Great Grandma Becka, Baby Emily
4 Generations in 2011: (L to R) Grandma, Mom, Emily, Baby Kayla
Grandma & Baby Emily: 1980
Grandma & Baby Kayla: 2011 (Kayla is wearing one of my baby dresses from 1980)

Punkin Patch!

Last weekend, we visited Legare Farm, which is a large farm on John's Island. They have an annual !Punkin Patch! Avery was so excited to visit the !Punkin Patch! and pick out !punkins! at the !Punkin Patch! Avery purchased a !baby punkin! at the !Punkin Patch! As you can tell, Avery is very excited about pumpkins and all things related at this time in his life.

Kayla Mischief

Bring it, world. I'm ready.

Avery videos

Here are some videos of Avery this past month. They are pretty funny!

"Cleveland Rocks"
In this video, I was singing "Cleveland Rocks", the theme song from the Drew Carey show. I have no explanation for why this song was in my head and why I felt the need to share it at the dinner table. Nonetheless, Phil, my ever supportive husband, did not approve of the song and tried to stamp on my freedom of speech (song). Luckily, Avery had my back!! I think he was remembering his last awesome trip to the Cleve.

"Dance Dance Revolution"
Avery's dance moves are ever evolving and always amusing.

"Bathtub Mischief"
I was cleaning up the living room downstairs and it took me about five minutes of listening to Kayla's hysterical laughter upstairs in the tub before I finally stopped being lazy, grabbed my camera and started filming upstairs. According to Phil, Avery randomly dumped a bucket of water on Kayla's head and she started cracking up. Maybe this is practice for the future, when someone will dump a cooler of Gatorade over Kayla's unsuspecting head when she kicks a** in some sport!

Bye Bye Luke!

We are so sad to see our friends, the Newlins, leave Charleston. Avery and Luke have been buddies since Avery was 1 week old and Luke was 1 month old. You all will be missed!!

They went from this...
...to this...

...to this... ...to this... ...to this... ...to this... ...and finally, to this.

We will miss you, Luke (and Levi, Kurt and Rebecca!!)!