Avery: The 16th and 17th Months

Today, Avery is 17 months old! We love her more and more everyday. She is in the phase where she repeats a lot of what we say. She has learned the word pretty, box, water, baby, please and thank you, and more.

She loves to laugh and be silly with mom and dad. She has recently begun to say hi and bye to everyone she sees.

Avery loves to take things out of boxes (like band-aids) and put them back in. At daycare, she usually helps clean up toys before she leaves and helps find missing shoes. She is very alert and always seems to know what is going on around her.

Here is Avery on Easter Sunday. She looks so tall in this picture! 

Avery and her dad went to paint a piece of pottery for me as a mother's day gift. What a sweet idea! Matt was so brave to do this with a toddler. 

I look forward to the next months of her growth and development as I will be staying home with Avery full time. I will share more about that in my next post!

Avery's New Words

What a week! I had lots of plans for my spring break week that didn't happen. I attribute it all to the awful little stomach bug that Avery picked up somewhere and then passed on to me. Matt went crazy cleaning yesterday and doing all he could to avoid getting it too. I don't blame him one bit!

On to better news. Since she got tubes in her ears and can hear, Avery has been saying a lot of words. Here a just a few that we have heard in the last few weeks: up, hi, bye da-da, poop, water (wa-wa). She has also been singing "Row Row Row Your Boat" (Wo, Wo, Wo). She tries to repeat a lot of what we say.

I think I even heard her try to repeat her name today. She really is full of personality! She likes to laugh and make us laugh. Sweet girl!

A Fun-Filled Weekend

We had a great weekend with family and friends. Avery loved that her Mimi and Pappy came to visit. We all went to the zoo on Saturday morning.

It didn't take long for her to fall asleep. She loves falling asleep in her stroller.

Matt and I went to my friend Stacy's wedding that afternoon. It was a late afternoon wedding and absolutely beautiful. When we left the wedding, Matt and I decided that we would take advantage of free babysitting and go to a movie and out for dinner. We stayed out until 10:00! Sounds funny right, but I honestly can't remember the last time we went to a movie together OR stayed out late. We definitely need to do it more often.

Today we met up with some friends and their kiddos for an Easter egg hunt in Cool Springs. It was Avery's first! It was a good weekend.

15 Months

In the last month, I haven't taken many pictures. I can basically say that most all I remember about this month is that Avery was sick almost ALL of it. She went to see her pediatrician at least once a week since I posted about her 14th month of life. Here is a picture of her this past Friday. She was a good little patient as she got tubes put in her little ears. She wanted to put the hair net on herself.

If I would have known that tubes would have made such a difference a month ago, we would have done it right away! She is a different child. I can't even imagine how much pain she has been in since right after Christmas.

Besides being sick, taking medicine, and getting tubes, Avery discovered the toilet paper roll! She LOVES to discover and get into things. What kids doesn't, right?!

She still has only five teeth. She is getting one more though. It certainly doesn't stop her from eating. The girl LOVES to eat! I think she weighs about 19 pounds. She hasn't quite hit 20 yet. If we hadn't been to the doctor so much, I think I would have already taken her to her 15 month well visit. I always get excited to see how she has grown according to the measurements they take.

Here is a picture of Avery leaving daycare one day. She loves carrying her "progress report" for the day!

14 Months

Avery keeps growing and growing ... maybe not so much in weight but certainly cognitively and in personality. Maybe it's because I am not around her all the time, but I am constantly surprised by things she does and knows.

This past month, on Super Bowl Sunday, Avery began to walk. The Super Bowl Sunday part will be important to me later when I actually have the time to sit down and fill out her baby book. Before that she had taken a few steps, but that day she just took off. I was SO glad that it happened on the weekend.

Avery went through a period of really disliking her bath. But now if we say, "Avery it's time for a bath," she will toddle to the bathroom and whine until we come in there and start filling up the tub.

She knows a few body parts (head, nose, hands). Every time I ask her where her nose is she points to it and then sticks her little finger right inside. I am NOT sure who taught her this. I know it wasn't me. Ha! I guess kids just pick up on these things and it makes her want to do it even more when I say, "Avery, don't pick your nose." She just laughs and continues to do it.

Just so you know, Avery is NOT a perfect angel. I think she is going to be one of those kids that is perfect other places. At daycare they say she NEVER fusses and is such a joy to be around. I agree, she is so fun to be around. However, at home she throws her food on the floor, makes dents in our table with her sippy cup, and sometimes throws little fits.

From the time she wakes up until the time she goes to bed at night, the girl just does not stop. I think she is like me in that way. She is constantly on the move and will not sit still for anything (except when she is strapped in to her highchair or car seat).

Her favorite toy is definitely her walker/stroller toy. She is FAST! She puts her doll inside and takes it back and forth, back and forth, back and forth down the hall. Her favorite bedtime snacks are prunes and milk. Yes, you heard that right! It is now part of our bedtime routine.

Here is a little video of our little walker.

13 Months

Well ... almost. Avery will be 13 months on Wednesday, but since I am off today I decided I would take some pictures and write a little about her recent development.

The little one started getting her two front teeth right after Christmas. Just a little too late to sing "All I Want for Christmas is My Two Front Teeth." One tooth is in and the other is just breaking through. I had NO IDEA that teething was such serious stuff. The girl was in SERIOUS pain. So, when all is said and done she will have a total of four teeth!

Avery is still crawling, and at full speed ahead might I add. She is standing for short periods of time by herself too. But, she has yet to walk without help. I am not is a huge hurry, because little Miss has already demonstrated that she is finding her independence. I am not sure I am ready for the chasing that will come with walking.

She has completely mastered using a sippy cup. It actually wasn't a huge deal at all weaning her from the bottle or getting her to drink whole milk. When we were at my parents house for Christmas, my mom had bought her two sippy cups. (We had already experimented with a few different kinds.) She took to them immediately and has not used a bottle since.

She loves playing and reading books. She has learned to give hugs to her stuffed animal "bear." She gives him hugs every night before bed. It is ADORABLE!

Avery has also become quite the talker. She babbles a lot. Sometimes I feel like we are carrying on a conversation, but I don't know what we are really talking about. She clearly says mama and dada and has for quite some time. When she is trying to get my attention, she yells MAMA!

She is still an amazing sleeper. Really it is a blessing, and I am NOT counting on our next child being the same way. Every night at 7:00 p.m. she lets us know she is ready for bed. We brush her teeth, give her a bath, put her PJs on, say night-night, lay her in the crib, and she rolls over and is OUT! She usually sleeps until 6:30 the next morning unless we need to wake her earlier. I wonder how much of this is attributed to the "schedule" we so faithfully worked on when she was a baby.

Here are a few pictures I took today. I am trying to learn to actually use all the settings on my camera. I just realized too that if you turn off the flash, the pictures turn out MUCH better. Who knew?! Enjoy!

Trying to put her sock back on.

Birthday Fun and Lots of Pictures

I mentioned in my last post that I would share more about Avery's birthday party later. Well, here it is with LOTS of pictures! For the first year of Avery's life, the sweet and talented Laurel at Eilas Photography has captured Avery's 1st year. When she mentioned doing a photo shoot at Avery's 1st birthday party, I was beyond excited. Thanks for capturing great moments of Avery's first year Laurel!

OK, on to Avery's birthday fun. Here is a picture of the birthday girl.

Here is the birthday girl and her little friend, Myla.

We had the party at Inside Out Play Park. It is a new play place in Franklin. Since it was new, I got a really great deal AND the people were so great and easy to work with. It was a great place for Avery's party. We were so glad to have family in town and a few of Avery's little friends there to celebrate.

I had so much fun planning and maybe went a little overboard. But I made Avery this little pink tutu for her special day.

Avery really enjoyed playing in the soft play area.

She very carefully explored her cake. She wasn't so sure about it and licked just a tiny bit of the icing off her fingers. Hopefully we have trained her well to eat her veggies. (One can wish, right?!) I just hope she doesn't love sweets as much as her mom and dad.

I think her favorite part was the birthday surprise. At Inside Out, they let the birthday girl/boy ride the 4-wheeler through the "park." She L.O.V.E.D it! As long as she keeps her girlie side, she can play outside with her dad.

I do NOT consider myself crafty, but I sure can borrow other crafty people's ideas. I found the cute Milk and Cookies theme idea at The Tom Kat Studio. Melinda, a crafty friend of mine, helped me brainstorm and stage this sweet 1st birthday party. I did make this burlap banner with some brown paint and stencils. It was easy. And if it was easy for me, you can do it too!

I also created the cake topper. You should have been a fly on the wall in Archivers when I walked in. Talk about feeling out-of-place. That was me. I am not a scrap booker either and was in there F.O.R.E.V.E.R just trying to figure out the perfect way to make the cake topper.

... and lots of Frappacino bottles later, we had a great place to put the milk. Thank you Matt!

Overall, we had a very fun celebration!