Avey Adventures: What's New?

In the life of a 17 month old, everything is new and exciting! The past few weeks have been so entertaining as we watch Owen learn new words and concepts every day. We also had our first official Avey Family Vacation which can be described as: Fun, Exciting, Stressful, Different, Relaxing, and an Experience. We love to travel and always try to go on one or two vacations each year. This was definitely a new experience going on "vacation" with a toddler, but I wouldn't change it for anything.

The first three days were rough, Owen had a fairly high fever and I had a terrible cold, and the weather was cold, rainy and cloudy. By Monday the weather turned perfect, but we still felt lousy so we headed north 20 miles to the closest urgent care clinic to find out that Owen had 2 ear infections and an eye infection. I think the eye infection was actually just irritation from a day at the beach, but the ear infections were definitely real. We got our medicines and went on our way. We were both like new by the next morning and ready to really enjoy our vacation.

Saugatuck was a great town, we loved everything about it. We started most days with a run or a bike ride to the beach, which was about 4 (hilly) miles away. We'd hang out for a few hours and get back in time to put Owen down for his afternoon nap. Teague and I would then head to the pool for some sun and relaxation while Owen slept. In the evening we'd walk into town or take Owen to the pool, then we'd grill out or cook after we put him down for the night. We ventured out to dinner twice, but it's just too rushed and not very relaxing so we spent most nights cooking. All in all, it was a great balance of activity, relaxation, sun and fun. We definitely plan to repeat the week next year. I'll end this post with some pictures of the week.

So now onto what's new. Owen is in the toddler class at school and I can tell he is just soaking everything up like a sponge. Here are a few highlights from the last week:

He loves to direct you somewhere or get your help on the stairs by reaching out to hold your hand and saying, "Hand." But he says it with an accent and it sounds like, "Hond."
He can now say his teacher's name, Ms. Sveta, a tough name to pronounce. It sounds like, "Vetta", very cute. When I say his other teacher, Ms. Nancy, he just smiles really big and gets excited. He loves his teachers!
Repeating is the name of the game and this weekend Teague reached his arm in the air and yelled, "Sucker!", in reference to a person. Owen immediately mimicked him, hand gesture included.
He repeats everything we ask him to say and has learned: birdie, tomato, buggy, hummus, egg, toast, George (friend at school), Katie and Adam (who we miss dearly!), Annie and Rob (neighbors), ice, mouth, and truck, just to name a few.
We left the dry mop out last night and this morning after breakfast he found it and proceeded to mop the entire first floor.
I taught him how to drink out of the hose and now it's our favorite after-school activity.
We have annoying trees that drop black walnuts inside what look like green apples. Tonight, Owen walked up to me in the yard and tried to take a bite out of one and said, "Yum, Apple!". Pretty sure a squirrel had already taken a few bites out of it.
We have grape tomato plants and Owen loves to pick the ripe ones and eat them as we walk around the yard. So proud of this! Tried to give him a regular tomato at dinner tonight though and he dry-heaved.
Last accomplishment of the past few weeks, we are officially done with the night-time bottle. We cut it out cold turkey and after a few nights it was like we never had it. We also are officially only using "Sussies" in his bed and in the car. When we leave either location we say, "Sussy stays in the bed (car)...boom!" and we throw it and high-five each other. Works like a charm.

Here are some pictures as promised and I'll post a great video next week of his chitter-chatter.