Two Years Old ~ Big Stuff!

I'm a little late in updating, but 2 yr. olds sure do keep you on your toes. June 4th was Avery's birthday and we had a big party the day before. She was pretty shy, I know, can you imagine our little social jabber-jaws shy, but all that attention was totally new for her.
She has totally changed overnight. No more baby. We've got full sentances, demands, and opinions out the wazoo. Oh, and she is now a Dora the Explorer fan. In fact at our local amusement park all the attractions in "kiddie land" are Nick Jr. themes, when she saw the big statue of Dora, let me just say I though she was going to climb it! DOOORWAAH!!!!!!!! Silly thing!
Avery is doing great on the potty, but we really aren't pushing it. It's very nice to not change a diaper every time I turn around those (especially the poopies).
She is so maternal lately. Very into her babies. We got her a stroller for her birthday and she pushes the babies around, feeds, them, tells me "Shhhh! night, night baby!", and "Here ya go baby!" "That's right!" It is just the cutest thing to watch.
In just a few weeks we are headed up east to visit our dear friends that kept us sane during our long stay in Russia! Very excited about that! Since Avery didn't do so well on our last little trip, we are talking it up as much as we can. She says, "I go Maaahk (Mark), see Kasseee (Kathy), pay Marta (play with Tamara)". I think she'll do fine. If only we can get her to say Tamara's name correctly. So Kathy, Mark - if your reading this, when Ave asks for Marta, she isn't nuts.
She loves the pool, but being the independant spirit she is, safety is not a factor. On the first day of setting up her little pool, she dove in head first and swam up to the top. As you can see from the picture above, no swimmies for this kid!
I had great aspirations for weight gain by the 2 yr. mark. We were shooting for 22 lbs. It was a week late, but she made it! Bottom line is, she's just a bean pole. Her teen years will be glorious! Oh yeah, and Little Miss Vain, says "I'm GORGEOUS!" And if I do say so myself, she's right!