Tootsie

After a fun party and a trip to visit Daddy at work there was still one thing left to do... a special birthday date! We dropped Norah off to spend the morning with our friend Lindsey (thank you Lindsey!) so that we could have some time just to focus on our birthday girl. Avery has been unbelievably patient with the addition of a baby to the family. Norah requires a lot of our time and attention and Avery does a great job accommodating that. For a 3 year old, she seems to comprehend her role as big sister better than we ever imagined. It was due time for us to have some time to love her up without any distraction though, and we had a perfect morning together! We took Avery to the Build-A-Bear store so that she could make her very own teddy bear. Since it was a weekday it wasn't very crowded and we had a great experience. Avery picked out the bear she wanted and declared that she wanted a bear with a tutu and wanted to name her Tootsie! And so it was. After Build-A-Bear we went out for lunch at every 3 year old's favorite restaurant... McDonald's. Then we picked up Norah and headed home to round out Avery's birthday week with a couple other presents from Mommy, Daddy, and Norah (some play food, the game "Memory", and fruit snacks). It was such a fun day!

We gave Avery free reign to pick any bear from the large variety of choices. I'll admit I breathed a sigh of relief and got a big smile when she picked the most classic teddy bear in the bunch. I love it!

Helping make her bear by putting in a little red heart (after they had her do a cute little sequence of motions with it)

Momma and Avery giving her new bear a "bath"

Daddy and his princess fluffing up Tootsie's fur

She picked out three or four different outfits to try on the bear at the changing station. In the end she picked the classic ballerina tutu and ballet slippers. So very "Avery"!

Sweet girl

At home opening presents and cuddling Tootsie. We made some fun memories!