Another month (where does the time go?), another update.

Avery is continuing her role as super happy, super fast baby. Now that she’s a seasoned pro at crawling, she’s always zipping around with a big smile (and some heavy breathing). A common thing for her to do these days is crawl up to me and Q and pat our foot or leg as a signal that she wants to be picked up. And she’s always, as mentioned before, crawling over to her toy shelf and getting into something. She’s also been extending her legs and pulling up on things lately; she hasn’t “cruised” yet, but I don’t think that’s far away.

She loves putting things (okay, almost everything) in her mouth, and her favorite things, of course, are things she’s not supposed to have. (Zoe has learned the hard way to keep her toys and artwork out of Avery’s reach!) She routinely makes a beeline for my phone or netbook when it’s out – the fact that they’re both pink, I think, could have something to do with it! Other things that make her particularly happy: jumping in the ExerSaucer (still), hearing someone say “Ah-choo!” and watching her sister jump up and down. (As previously mentioned, that’s a new development.) Her favorite toys are the same as mentioned last month, as well as her rubber ducks, and a wooden activity tube that her Aunt Yola and Uncle Jake gave to Zoe a few years back. Her favorite book these days is Neighborhood Animals from Baby Einstein (Zoe always liked that one too) – every time I open it and start the first line (“Could that be a dog in the park?”) she smiles.

In the last few weeks or so, Avery has adopted a (very loud) squeal as a way to express her happiness/excitement. She’s prone to squealing when someone new walks in the room or when she sees a toy she likes – or sometimes, she’s prompted by seemingly nothing at all. She’s also chattering way more than before: she babbles “dada” and “mama” a lot, and she can say what sounds like “hi.” I still don’t know what counts as her first word (when she says “mama,” does she know it’s me, or is she just making sounds?) but it’s fun having her talk just the same. And on a related note, although she can’t say the word “milk,” she does understand it. I’ve noticed only in the last week or two that she perks up and starts breathing heavy in excitement when I say that word. (And if I’m far away from her, she’ll crawl right over to me.)

In terms of looks, Avery is getting more hair, and it’s a bit darker than it was when she was first born. Her eyes are still bluish-grey, and she still only has two teeth. She’s always opening her mouth (in a big smile) and showing off those bottom teeth; we think she kind of looks like a can opener!

On a less fun note, Avery has been a bit of an inconsistent night sleeper this month. For awhile, she was sleeping straight through the night and waking at 7 AM to eat; lately, though, she’s been waking up several times in the night. It could be teething or a growth spurt (the typical things on which to blame sleep problems), or maybe it’s just a bad phase. I don’t like it, obviously, but when she gives me her big smile in the morning (like below), there’s just no way I can be mad!

-M

This entry was posted on Friday, March 19th, 2010 at 12:21 pm and is filed under 44.Two kids-March 10. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.