Collin & Baby Avery

Collin is getting SOOOO excited about the coming arrival of Avery. Around Christmas, we were at the mall & he noticed the Build-A-Bear store. Right when we walked in, he said that he wanted to make "Baby Avery" a bear & of course one for himself. So we told him we would come back in a few weeks. He had not stopped talking about it since. So when my mom came to visit a couple weeks ago, he told her about it & a trip to Build-A-Bear became a priority on the list of things to do.

So we go to the store & he picks out the bears. Then we pick out the voice box that says a recorded message when you push the bear's paw. He choose a generic voice box for his bear. For Avery's bear, we decided to let him record a message. So her message is "I love you Baby Avery." It sounds so cute! Then came time to stuff the bear & put the bear's heart inside. The whole time this is going on, the employee stuffing the bear is giving him instructions on how to "care" for the bear. He was eating it up. Then came time for the outfits. For his bear, he chose a Buzz Lightyear outfit. For Avery's he chose a Cinderella outfit because "Girls love Cinderella." He ended up naming the Bears "Buzz Bear & Cinderella Bear."

So last week, I'm in Avery's room and Collin walks in. He goes to her closet and gets her bear out. He then says (while looking at my stomach) "Baby Avery, I have a surprise for you. Close your eyes." (Then he asks me if her eyes are closed, I tell him they are.) Then he pulls Cinderella Bear out from behind his back and says "SURPRISE this is for you." Next he runs to his room and gets Buzz Bear and "shows" her his bear. It was SO sweet.

He talks about "Baby Avery" everyday. He says things like "when she grows bigger, we can build a fort in my bunk beds and she can sleep in my fort with me." He also says that he's going to show her his toys & then they can take turns playing with them. He also says that he's going to teach her how to roll over, sit up and jump. He just can't wait to become a big brother. We have several "events" on our calendar before Avery is born. Anytime we talk about one of them (like the circus for example) Collin says "will Baby Avery be out of your tummy so she can come with us?" He is going to be a great big brother.

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Here is a picture of our little Spiderman. Mom & John gave Collin this costume when mom came out to visit. He wore it to a playdate at my friends house. He told me that "the girls will wear their Princess costumes, so I want to wear my Spiderman costume." Of course when we show up, he was right - both of his little girlfriends were in their Princess costumes. It was so funny.

CHRISTMAS

We had a wonderful Christmas this year. On Christmas Eve, Collin & I made Christmas Tree Sugar Cookies for Santa. Before Collin went to bed we left a plate of cookies & a glass of mik for Santa and we scattered some Reindeer Food (aka birdseed) outside for the reindeer. On Christmas morning, Tony & I woke up early (guess we were excited to see what Santa left... ha ha) and we waited for Collin to wake up. Thinking he would wake up at his usual 6:30am, he actually slept in & we had to wake him up. So we wake him up & Tony tells him that he heard the reindeer on the roof. Collin looks out his window & says that he heard the reindeer too. So we all walk down to see what Santa left.

This year, Collin's only request to Santa was to bring him a remote control truck with big wheels. Santa went the extra mile & brought him a Batman bike with matching Batman safety helmet & pads. As Collin opened the bag with the bike, he sees the logo and says "A BATMAN BIKE" - he was so excited. He had so much fun opening all of the gifts. He would pull out a gift & ask if it was for him - we would tell him yes & say who it was from & he would say "THANK YOU" before he even opened it. It was so cute. When he opened his telescope from Peggy & Art, he said "This is just what I wanted." The mystery gift was a dinosaur BC builders set from Mom & John. All week when he shook the box, it made noises & he would try and guess what it was. As he opened it, he said "LOOK, it's not a firetruck - it's BC BUILDERS." It was funny. All in all we had a great Christmas, ate too much food & lounged around doing nothing - it was a perfect Christmas.