14-month update
We’ve got a walker! Less than two weeks after my last update, Avery decided to get up – and stay up – on two feet. (Interestingly, she started exclusively walking at the exact same age that Zoe did.) She still occasionaly crawls, but not very often – and gone is the knee-walking she once did. She seems to enjoy the freedom that comes from walking, but she hasn’t wandered far away from us (yet) – she likes to stay close, and she’s still known to cry or pout if she feels left behind.
Her communication skills continue to improve: She can follow simple, and even a few not-so-simple, commands. Q recently asked her to give him a bite of something she was eating, for example, and she understood and offered him a taste. She’s also learning ways to express what she wants: She routinely hands me books that she wants read to her, or snacks that she wants fed to her.
In terms of words, she started saying hi, yeah and uh-oh, and she can also make a “thank you” sound. She hasn’t come up with a name (or, at least, one that we can detect) for Zoe yet – but I can’t wait to hear what she winds up calling her.
Avery enjoys many of the same things we discussed last time: her sister’s kitchen, her tea-set, our phones and remote controls. She also likes to explore various drawers in the house: her favorites are her dad’s bathroom drawer, a computer desk drawer (from which she pulls tape, old cameras and batteries, etc.) and a corner drawer (where we keep some of her snacks – go figure) in the kitchen. She’s also shown a recent fondness for shutting the door in whichever room she’s in – so we’ve had to watch carefully to avoid pinched fingers.
She smiles and laughs a lot – but she also has the propensity to whine, fuss or frown when she doesn’t get her way (and often, even when she does). She’s the queen of dirty looks, and Q and I have taken to calling her “Our Little Complainer.” I don’t remember Zoe being quite so whiney at this age, but I’m hoping it’s just a phase for Avery. And the good thing about her: She can be fussing and scrunching up her face in disgust one minute, but then laughing and clapping during the next.
As mentioned before, she’s a big eater (she’s one of those kids who tries to eat the other kids’ snacks at the playground), and she loves almost everything, especially fruit. The only thing that she’s rejected so far: cherry tomatoes. (And frankly, I don’t blame her!)
-M