For one of the first times, writing an update for Avery feels redundant – almost everything I’m about to write was captured in Zoe’s 10-month update. But it would be no fun to suggest you go here and sub in Avery’s name for Zoe – so here I go!

This is another fun age, with Avery’s little (happy, curious) personality continuing to emerge. It sometimes feels like there are two sides of her: at times, she’s an independent girl who is content quietly playing with her toys and watching her sister and parents buzz around her. Other times, though, she’s a bubbly, curious baby who prefers to be zipping around the house, exploring and swiping (more below) and who constantly spins her head around when being held – so she won’t miss anything.

Speaking of zipping, she continues to move about – and quickly. But she’s not just content to crawl anymore. Though she’s been able to pull herself up to a standing position for just over a month now, it’s only been in the last few weeks that she seems to be on her feet more than on all fours. It’s still common for her to crawl over to me and Q to get some attention, but now she immediately pulls on our pants to get herself into full standing position. (Another favorite thing to pull herself up on is Zoe’s musical Sit ‘n Spin, a gift from Uncle Dan and Jenny.) She’s done a bit of “cruising,” and she can walk forward when holding on to someone’s hands – but there’s no real indication that she’s about to start walking any day now.

Avery spends a lot of time roaming around her and Zoe’s rooms, and she can spend long stretches of time playing with bowls, dishes and blocks. (She’s fond of anything that can be stacked and anything she can hold in her hand while crawling around.) She likes dropping things, like most babies, and she recently began to cry after doing so or after a toy is taken away from her. Another new thing: trying to grab anything left on the floor or in Zoe’s hands. She does this so often that Zoe and I recently started calling her Swiper – after a character from Dora the Explorer. (“Swiper, no swiping!” Zoe will often call out to her sister.)

I mentioned last month that Avery loves it when people (fake) sneeze; just in the last week, she started “sneezing” back. And nothing makes her laugh harder these days than when Zoe gives her a bear-hug (assuming she’s not squeezing too hard) or when Q says “WHAT!” to her in a loud, funny voice.

Avery is still very vocal, especially when she eats, and says “dada” and “mama” more than anything else. (I can’t wait to hear what she calls Zoe someday!) I’ve also noticed in the past week or so that she cries out “Mom!” when she’s hungry – and not just for milk. Perhaps she’s getting that word mixed up with “more.”

In the milestones-that-might-not-mean-much-to-anyone-but-her-parents category, we had to lower her crib (because she started standing up and leaning over the edge) in early April. And around the same time, we moved her from her infant carseat into Zoe’s “big girl” one – which meant Avery also started using Zoe’s pink stroller. All of this was done because of her big-girl status; at her belated 9-month check-up, she weighed in at 20 lbs, 11 oz and measured 30 inches. That’s 90 percentile for weight and off the charts (!) for height.

As for other stuff, her sleep schedule is back to (her) normal: she typically naps from 9-11 AM and 1-3 PM or so, and she goes to bed at 7:15 or 7:30 PM. She still wakes up at 5 AM for milk before sleeping for a few more hours; she’s down to only 4 milk sessions each day.

-M

This entry was posted on Monday, April 19th, 2010 at 12:37 pm and is filed under 45.Two kids-April 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.