Babies are Cute, but...

I love babies. That's why I'm having another. But seriously? This new stage is way, way more fun. That hard work starts to pay off, you start to see personality and communication and interaction. It's like a light bulb went off in Avery's head recently and she just became so smart. So funny. So cute. And smart. Like genius-caliber human on our hands here. She's stacking donuts and sorting blocks. And not just chewing on them.


Anecdotes more for my future reference than for anyone's enjoyment, although feel free to enjoy:

At 14 months exactly, Avery took her first tentative steps. She’s still wobbly but now seems to prefer being upright and looks less like a drunk by the day.

A few weeks ago feeling much steadier with Daddy Daddy Daddy. Love her hiked up britches.

She knows where her toes, belly button, tummy, ears, nose and hair are. She loves to try to eat her feet and when I tell her "Don't eat your toes, you're going to need them later, I swear" she giggles and tries even harder to get them into her mouth.

You name it, she'll point to the right object much of the time. Balloon? Baby? Ball? Dog? Cat? She'll nail it.

Signs in her vocab include fan, dog, milk, more, baby, ball, banana. She sees us with any food whatsoever and will immediately sign "more." "I'll have what she's having."

Favorite words are Daddy (which I'm now convinced she uses for either of us), dog, and yum yum. She said "nigh nigh" (night night) the other night, and you probably could have heard our hearts breaking.

She’s using objects for their intended purpose—she'll brush her hair with her brush, try to put her socks and shoes on, or will hold my phone to her ear (which is funny because that’s what I do with my phone the least).

She loves her walk-behind dinosaur but will also push her music table around like it's a walker. It ends up all over the place.

She’ll pick something up from the floor, something teeny tiny—fuzz, a piece of dirt—pinch it between her fingers and either give it to me or bring it to her mouth. Sometimes she genuinely wants to put it in her mouth; other times she just wants me to react and grab it from her. This is hilarious.

She crawls into our laps. Usually brings a book. It’s one of her favorite spots.

She can entertain herself with books for an hour. There's nothing that breaks my heart more than looking out and seeing her flipping contently through a book.

She’s super friendly with other people. At story time at the library, she’ll crawl over to another kid, smile hugely right in their face, and then quickly crawl back to me to check in.

She's increasingly fascinated with the toilet and wants to flush it. And grab the toilet paper off the roll.

She loves to beat me to the dog dish and splash in the water.

She loves Marti and looooves that she can get Marti to react. It's hilarious to throw food off the high chair and hear Marti scramble to snarf it up. And she just learned that she can lean over and give food directly to the dog; this is the best thing since sliced banana.

Here Avery has discovered that extra Cheerios sometimes pop out of her snack bowl and fall to Marti. She can hardly contain herself.

She loves being "scared" of Marti. If Marti comes racing in, she loves to come to me like she needs to take cover. Which, let's be honest, sometimes she does.

If you have her on your hip, sometimes she'll lean to the side to get right in your face and give you a huge smile.

And now a few pics for fun.

Checking out pony rides recently on the farm.

Not entirely sure how I managed to hold her up to the cow.

Her pictures should come with sound.

Strike a pose.