Cuteness

The following are a series of events that happened last evening:

Jeff, Averi, and I were all playing in Averi's room and she had brought quite a pile of stuffed animals to Jeff and me. When it was time to leave to meet friends for dinner, I began to sing our cleanup song, "Bears away, bears away, time to put the bears away" since most of her stuffed animals are bears. Well, she immediately began to put the bears away, but whenever she came to a stuffed animal such as a duck or a fox, she brought it to Jeff. When I realized what she was doing, I changed the song and began to sing, "Animals away, animals away, time to put the animals away" and then she began to put all the stuffed animals away. We couldn't believe that she made that distinction between bears and other animals.

As Averi was putting the last few animals away, she was giving them lots of kisses and some "grizzly bear hugs" which is something Jeff has taught her that involves giving a tight hug and making a grunting sound. Since he had arrived home, Jeff had been asking Averi for a grizzly bear hug and a kiss, but she had sweetly said "No" and given him an ornery grin. So when Averi came to the last stuffed animal, an elephant named "Horton" and was giving him lots of hugs and kisses, I said, "Daddy, could really use a hug and a kiss, too" hoping she would give him one. Her solution: She took Horton over to Daddy and put his trunk up to Daddy's lips and made the kissing sound and then laid Horton on Daddy's shoulder and grunted like a grizzly bear hug. Jeff and I laughed and laughed because Daddy had gotten his hug and his kiss, just not from whom he wanted a hug and a kiss.

We then left to go out to dinner at Max and Erma's, a restaurant right near our house.  We have been there often enough that Averi knows that there is a statue of a lion in the lobby that she can sit on. She immediately ran over to it, but there were three other kids playing on it. Not deterred, Averi began to sign "take turns" and "please" to them over and over. Of course, the other kids had no idea what she was trying to communicate so I said to Averi, "I know you are saying "take turns, please" but it is the other kids' turn right now and I am sure in a little bit, they will give you your turn." The other kids' mom looked at me with a surprised look and said, "Oh wow, I thought she was just pointing and waving at them trying to tell them to get off the lion." Then because she was so impressed with Averi's signing, she made her kids get off the lion so Averi could have a quick turn before we were seated for dinner. Of course, we told Averi to tell the kids "thank you" and with a sweet look on her face, she pointed at the kids and then made the sign for "thank you" which the other mom and kids thought was so cute!