Justification for Random Photos

For those of you who don't know, I am a lazy mom and do not put together baby scrapbooks or even print out pictures to stick in a random photo album. I started this blog before Avery was born and it seems to be the only tool I have consistently used to document my son's (and now my daughter's!) childhood with. Sometimes it gets challenging to find a creative way to "narrate" this blog and I end up putting a bunch of random photos in a post. So bear with me...while these photos may seem random and boring to one person, they are important pictures I want my kids to see. :)

A couple of weekends ago, Phil and Avery made it down to Edisto Island again to see Ninny & Grandaddy before they left South Carolina. Avery enjoyed gathering and playing with more tacky beach house decorations, TV remote controls, and playing with Daddy in the sand. Poor boy was wiped out afterwards!

Avery finds all kinds of creative ways to play with his toys.

Avery knows where to meet women.

"Teet teet, Tok" (Adult translation: Kiss kiss, Kayla).

Avery had to drag a chair over to his piano one day....he was getting tired of playing and standing, I guess. :)This is a self-inflicted time-out. I yelled at Avery for starting to climb on the stove and he started pouting and put himself in his "time-out corner".Avery is still a bit unsure of his Buzz-mobile and has yet to ride it for more than 5 feet. What a great toy he can grow into, though.Playing trains with Grandaddy.Ninny & Grandaddy each pushing precious cargo."Engineering is fun, Daddy!" Apparently, Kayla was getting a kick out of helping Phil try to fix my phone (that went through the washing machine). Talking to the birds. The bib says cutie pie. Enough said. :)

Happy 6 Weeks, Kayla!

To A New Beach Season

Here's to a new beach season, complete with a fourth member of the Jean Team. I can not wait to put Kayla in little bikinis, baby flip flops, and sunhats (and lots of sunscreen, of course!). We kicked off Beach Season 2011 at Ninny & Grandaddy's rented beach house on Edisto Island. It was a little windy and the water was only in the 60's, but that didn't stop my water boy from having a blast.

Avery can entertain himself with anything. Including tacky beach house decorations. Grandaddy and Kayla enjoying some sunshine on the porch.

Ninny & Kayla snuggling out on the porch.

Avery is anxious to get on that beach!

Mommy & Kayla enjoying the beach underneath the umbrella (oh, the sacrifices we make for our children!)Kayla all bundled up.

Avery can make friends anywhere.

Do you see the dolphin?

Dolphin zoomed in.

Dolphin & boat watching on the beach.

These girls were kind enough to lend Avery their pink boogie board. And he was pretty darn good at it!All by myself. Notice the look of concentration on Avery's face.This water may be freezing, but I am still quite the ladies' man.

Lessons from Daddy.

Kayla finally gets some sun. Avery running after seagulls on the beach.Enjoying the "Avery show" when it was time to leave.

Thank You, Maw-Maw!

A special thanks to Grandma Sattelmeyer (Maw-Maw, as dubbed by Avery) for coming down to take care of the Jean Team for the past 6 weeks. Thanks for all of the house-cleaning, meal-cooking, laundry-washing, errand-running, baby-comforting, toddler-playing, dog-walking, and dessert-providing that you have done. Direct quote from Avery today after hanging up the phone with Grandma: "Buh-bye Maw Maw. Bye Maw. Iiiiiii YOU." (Toddler translation: Bye Grandma. I love YOU."

Jean-ius

Happy 5 Weeks Old, Kayla!

Kayla's 1st bath at almost 5 weeks old. She had an umbilical cord stump almost as stubborn as her Momma. Kayla was a champ and talked and cooed through the entire ordeal. I may have a second water baby on my hands!

Avery's New BFF

Toddlers can be fickle and unfaithful with their toy "crushes". They go through new toy obsessions faster than the Kardashians go through boyfriends. Just ask poor Elmo. Not even a year ago, he was IT in the Jean household. The apple of Avery's eye. But our furry, red puppet friend who refers to himself in the third person proved to be no match to the sword-weilding, tiger-riding, and Skeletor-defeating hunk of muscles known as He-Man. However, He-Man got "phased out"a couple of months ago, as Avery kept thwacking the dogs with his golf clubs, in an innocent attempt to turn the dogs into Cringer, the Mighty Battlecat. So at about the same time, Avery's cousins came to the rescue and sent him a boatload of Thomas the Tank Engine toys, DVD's, and books. Thus developed Avery's choo-choo craze. But the most recent obsession of all has been Buzz Lightyear from Toy Story. Maybe this toy crush started at daycare, where the kids sometimes watch the original Toy Story movie on a VHS tape that is probably as old as most of their parents, while waiting to be picked up at the end of the day. Or perhaps it began at his buddy Luke's house, where there is not one, but TWO Buzz Lightyear action figures to play with. Either way, the fire was stoked by Grandaddy and Ninny, who bought Avery a talking Buzz Lightyear for his birthday. Buzz is now known as Avery's new BFF. Buzz goes EVERYWHERE around the house with Avery. He has to be hidden prior to nap and bedtimes, as Avery has a hard time transitioning to these activities without "Ma Buuh". Enjoy some videos and pics of Avery playing with his Buuh.

Avery was extremely patient while Daddy and Grandaddy took a whopping 15 minutes to extricate Buzz from his box and detangle him from all of the packaging wires. While he was unnaturally patient for a two year old, we still knew Avery was excited because he was literally shaking while these two grown men fumbled around with his new toy.Watch an engineer and executive attempt to unshackle a toy made for four year olds and older.

After Daddy & Grandaddy finally liberated Buzz from the box that was holding him as a plastic prisoner, Avery paced around the living room with his new toy for the longest time and would not let anyone else hold or play with it. Ninny put it best when she said, "He's like a dog trying to find a spot to bury his bone".

Avery finally decided he could trust us being near his precious toy.Ninny & Grandaddy also bought Avery a Buzz Lightyear motorized scooter. We saved this gift for last, thinking it would be the Holy Grail of all birthday presents. Unfortunately, we were wrong. Avery did not want to take his attention away from "Ma Buuh".