Cat

Letters and Words

Avery is starting to develop more of an interest in the spelling of words.  She knows her letters very well and mixes up only a few (e.g. B and D, especially the lower case ones).  Today we were in the Apple store because I needed to get a new phone (free for me because the battery in mine wouldn't hold the charge and I am within the warranty period).  As we were waiting for our appointment, Avery and I played with one of the iPads.  We played a spelling game in which the narrator would say the word to spell, then make the sound of the first letter in the word, then give the user a choice between four letters.  I was not overly surprised that Avery knew the first letter of the word "cat" is C.  She picked that one almost immediately after the narrator made the sound for C.  Then the narrator made the sound for A.  Avery hesitated a little, but still picked the correct letter.  She did the same for the last letter.

Also impressive to me is that when she was playing a game on one of the computers in the store, it said to spell her name.  She was able to find each letter on the keyboard to spell Avery.  I was feeding her the letters because she's not quite ready to process both spelling her name and finding the letter on the keyboard.  It was still cool to see her type her name, though.   She can spell her name correctly about 75% of the time.  The other 25% she leaves out the 'e.'

Necklace

As we were walking through the mall, Avery spied Claire's.  I have not been a Claire's since middle school.  Clearly, as a person who wears only two pieces of jewelry (engagement ring & wedding ring), I have no need for such a store.  Avery was so into that store.  It is, of course, junk central.  She walked through fingering each item and noting how pretty it was.  It was like she was savoring the moment versus giddy about seeing cool stuff.  Originally, I said we weren't going to buy anything if we went in.  Avery didn't ask for anything, but I realized this was an opportunity to have her pick out her next sleeping reward and it would be relatively cheap.  She picked out the weirdest necklace ever.  I never would have thought she'd pick that.  I thought she'd go for girly, shiny, and colorful.  It has a dark colored chain and a heart pendant and some other objects. 

I admit I have trouble stepping away and letting Avery make her own decisions about these sorts of things.  I know I need to let her because these are things that don't matter and it gives a sense of control and independence.  However, it's so against my nature to let her pick out jewelry, and crappy jewelry at that.  I just have to remember she will have different tastes to mine and that is fine.  I've even started to like some of her girly outfits since she looks so darn cute in them. 

Sick Husband

Poor D is now sick with what I've had.  He hasn't gotten laryngitis, but I think I only got it because I happened to be talking a lot during the early stages of the virus.  In any case, he's napping now.  I'm hoping he'll feel well enough for date night.  I need to go out.  We didn't have a date night last week and I feel like it's been forever.  I need our date nights.  It doesn't help that D has been working and out often recently, so between my sickness and his schedule, we haven't seen much of each other.