Home Alone

We watched the movie Home Alone with the girls tonight for a change of pace from the standard holiday movies.  We thought they would get a kick out of a kid being left home alone around the holidays and pulling a lot of pranks on the 2 guys trying to rob the house.  They were excited to see the movie.

We got a lot of questions during the movie with the most prominent one being "how could they forget the boy at home?"  We had to explain that it wasn't all that hard because there were over 20 people in the house and the woke up late for their flight which made it fairly easy to forget a sleeping kid in a room all by himself.  Taylor was able to pick up on the fact that the boy was the youngest of the family which is when she clearly thought about what would happen if this happened to us.  What she said next was great.  Could be innocent if you take it literally or could be something different if you live with Avery on a daily basis.

"We wouldn't get very far without realizing Avery wasn't with us."

Classic.

She finally said it

Well, it has taken what seems like years but that is impossible because Avery is only a year and a half. Last night after months of aggressive badgering, Avery finally said "I love Daddy"!!!!! It still took some coaxing but I got it out of her. It made me sooooo happy. Here is the gist of the conversation:

Me: "Do you love Daddy?"
Avery: "No"
Me: "Say I love Daddy"
Avery: "No"
Me: "Say 'I'"
Avery: "No"
Me: "can you say love?"
Avery: "love"
Me: (amazed at what I just heard and sensing my opportunity as she has never said the word love before went for it)..."Say Daddy"
Avery: "Daddy" (that's an easy one!)
Me: (sensing the cracks in her defenses)..."Say I"
Avery: "I"
Me: "say love"
Avery: "love"
Me: "say Daddy"
Avery: "daddy"
Me: "say I love Daddy"
Avery: "I love Daddy"

I couldn't believe my ears!!! I gave her the biggest hug ever with lots of cheering. She was so excited, mostly because of the cheering but I don't care. I got my first I love you from her and as Erin would say, it was great.

Just for the record, today we were back to square one again.

Me: "Avery say I love daddy"
Avery: "no!"

Well, at least I know she can say it and it was great to hear :-)

Bowling

I was able to get the video onto my computer and thought I would post it so we can all see what it is like bowling with a 1 year old.  I think Avery would have pushed me out of the way if she could have to throw the ball as she told me a number of times..."me do". 

I am not sure what her focus was...whether it was to just throw the balls or actually knock down the pins but I think it was just throwing the balls.  The only thing that stopped her from continuing for the entire day was that they shut the lane down shortly after I shot the video.  I like that she bowled 5 balls in this video and had two of them on the lane at all times.  Also funny was how slow the bowling balls were rolling compared to the ones being thrown on the next lane over.

How did he know our names?

We took the girls to a bowling party yesterday which could be a post all by itself.  It is quite funny seeing a 6, 4 and 1 year old bowling, especially the youngest one.  I tried to help her bowl but she kept saying "me do".  Anyway, after bowling, we decided to take the girls to Stew Leonards since it was right there next to the bowling alley.  As we made our way through the store, there were countless singing cows, chickens, milk cartons and plenty of dolls doing flips above the girls heads.  It kept them very entertained.

As we made our way around the last corner before the registers, there HE was....Santa!  There was no way the older girls were leaving without talking to him so we got in line.  We have always told them that you never know who the real Santa is since he is everywhere this time of the year.  We have said that he has to use "helper Santas" to talk to all of the kids so while in line the girls were evaluating him.  The consensus was "I don't think this is the real Santa". As a side note, Avery wanted nothing to do with Santa....she's at that age!

When it was the girls turn, they walked towards Santa.  As they got close, he greeted them by saying "hello Taylor, hello Erin".  They were stunned.  They sat and talked with him for a few moments and when they were done, he handed them candy canes and they walked off.  As we walked away, their tune changed.  "I think he was the real Santa!  How did he know ours names?  He was definitely the real Santa!"  It was very cute.

What they failed to realize was that they were still wearing their name tags from the bowling party :-)  You can see them in the picture below.