Out of all the monthly updates I’ve written, I feel like Avery has changed the most between this and the last one. She may not be walking yet, and she doesn’t say many (real) words – but she has nonetheless emerged as a very tall, vocal presence in our home. Her personality is really emerging!

Avery isn’t a difficult child, but she knows what she wants – and she’s more determined and stubborn than I remember Zoe being. If she wants something, she’ll keep going after it – even after we tell her “no.” (In fact, she has taken to smile or giggle when we say “no,” and she recently started mimicking me by wagging her finger.) She loves knocking over the chairs in her room, as example; I tell her not to do this and move her away from the chairs at least five times a day, but she continues to make her way over to them.

She loves keeping up with her sister, which includes often trying to take things away from her, and it’s common for her to grunt/cry in frustration if she can’t get her hands on Zoe’s things. The girls have had a few small tug-of-wars in recent weeks, and more and more of my time with them is spent “refereeing” or making sure Avery doesn’t grab or ruin Zoe’s things (especially her drawings).

Aside from chasing after her sister, Avery still likes playing with rings, stacking dishes, and blocks. Her new favorite book is Peek-A-Who – every time I start reading it, she breaks into a big, toothy grin. (And the best part of the book: it’s so simple that Zoe can read it to her.)

Avery is super vocal: Every morning, around 6:10, Q and I awake to a series of squeals, babbles (“mamamama,” “dadadada”) and words that sound like “eye-ya.” She doesn’t say tons of real words on her own yet, but she is very big on mimicking. If she hears a word (hat, ball, etc.) she’ll usually say it right after – and Q’s new game is to sing “la la la” to her and listen as she repeats it. Avery also likes to grunt a lot: she has taken to grunting when she wants more food and when someone walks in the room – her way of saying “hi,” I guess.

Speaking of walking in a room, Avery is also known to cry when someone walks out and leaves her alone – even for a few seconds. She likes to be paid attention to or held most of the time, which, as I’ve mentioned before, can make getting things done a bit tricky. But I do appreciate that she likes being around people!

A few other random things: she’s up to four teeth, she has a lot more hair than even a few months ago, and she weighs just over 22 pounds. She still primarily crawls, though she has stood on her own a few times, and Q reports that she took a step on her own last night. She doesn’t wave, but she loves giving high-fives – something she started to do around the time of our last update. And her sleeping schedule slightly changed since I last wrote: she finally gave up that pesky 5 AM feeding!

-M

This entry was posted on Wednesday, May 19th, 2010 at 8:59 am and is filed under 46.Two kids-May 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.