We’ve got a talker! Avery continues to chat away in her own (sometimes-difficult-to-understand) language, but she also says plenty of real words and phrases now. Shortly after our last update she said for the first time, “What happened?” and that’s something we now hear a lot of. She’ll also say “O-kay?” when she thinks someone is hurt or upset, “and “Where go?” when she can’t find something. Other things we hear a lot of: “Hot?” “Sit down!” and “Kay!” (Just two days ago, she started a new game: Repeatedly closing the door to Zoe’s room after saying, “Bye, kay??” to the people inside. ) And she often points to people’s shoes and coats and says who they belong to (“Daddy’s shoes!”).

She is better at asking for things – “Want milk” and “Want book” are frequent demands (the latter always at bedtime) – and when I put her to bed one night last week she told me (for the first time) “Want to play.” She often asks to be held, and her “Up, please” comes out sounding like “Uppie.”

She’s getting good at identifying objects in her favorite books (she’s especially fond of pointing out a baby’s teeth) and she made me laugh recently by calling a monkey “Mommy.” (Um – is she trying to tell me something?) She has some of her colors down; she has known yellow for awhile and just this morning asked for the blue balloon. In terms of identifying other things, she recently started – proudly – saying “Talia” in reference to one of her little friends. And we recently discovered that she calls herself “Baby” instead of “Avery.”

She has a playful and (mostly) happy personality, though she can be naughty. (She loves playfully slapping faces, as example, and she laughs as we remind her to be gentle.) She could spend hours (and has!) playing with toy kitchens, food and dishes; she’s always making “tea” and handing us little cups and spoons. (“Here, mama.”) She still sings a lot: Happy Birthday and Baa, Baa Black Sheep are current favorites, and she has a little song (“Bye, bye, caca”) for whenever I change her diaper.

She still has her diva-like moments, of course, and she has a high-pitch squeal for use when she’s upset. She is still shy around new people, and she often freezes when scared or upset. She can also be very sensitive: Uncle Dan recently told her – very nicely – not to do something, and Avery immediately stopped what she was doing and just stood there. For almost five minutes.

She has shown an early interest in cleanliness and hygiene: She loves brushing her teeth and showing people the results, and if something spills or she sees something on the floor, she’ll point and say, “Oh, oh, oh!” until we clean it up.

Playing with and mimicking her sister continue to be among her favorite things. She always greets Zoe with an enthusiastic “Sis-ser!” and whenever I pick her up first in the afternoons, she asks where Zoe is. She doesn’t always get along perfectly with her, of course – and if Zoe mistreats her (usually by squeezing her face), she’ll come up to me or Q, complaining, pointing to Zoe and reenacting the crime. I can also report that she and Zoe had their first real, backseat fight (i.e. squealing match) a few weeks ago; they were fighting over a bag.

Other things: Her (curly) hair continues to grow, and her eyes remain a grayish blue. She recently started sleeping with and taking on car rides her beloved baby, and just in the last week or so she has adopted a polka-dot blanket of Zoe’s as one of her favorite things.

And a closing thought: I can’t believe my “baby” is almost two!!

-M

This entry was posted on Thursday, May 19th, 2011 at 9:50 am and is filed under 58.Two kids-May 11. 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.