Kicking Ass and Taking Names

Owen is almost four months old now. It's gone by in the blink of an eye, truly. He's quite the easy baby now that I can put him down throughout the day without him doing the crying version of calling the cops on me. He's much more visually stimulated than Avery ever was (typical male). He notices his mobile and the frog in his bouncer like Avery never did. And he flirts with them, giggling, grinning and cooing like crazy.



In the sleep department, he's kicking all sorts of ass and taking so many names. He started going down close to Avery's bedtime and will sleep until 2 a.m. most nights. And has hit 4 a.m. several times. Unreal. As you know, Avery didn't achieve this type of sleep until, well, she sleeps through most nights, but I'll just say that even now we've had nights when Owen came out the sleep victor. He's super duper adorable, and if we're not careful he's going to have us convinced a third would be no problem. He reminds me a little of Gene Hackman. Is plumping up just like Avery did, so he's got adorable little cheeks and rolls to squeeze.


We made it into the city, so he's already learning how to navigate subways and curse out the homeless Elmos. Even in his limited Sesame Street experience he knows the difference between the real thing and the imposters.


He also had a notable diaper blowout on the Brooklyn Bridge, whole outfit change and all. He's really noticing all of us and follows us around the room. He seems especially interested in Avery's shenanigans, as he should be because they are the more interesting shenanigans.



That girl. Her vocabulary astounds me. Move ottoman. Daddy home. I carry you. (Translation: carry me.) Book uh heavy (when she's trying to drag a stack of books around the house). Front door. Crazy puppy. Doorbell. Jump in pool. I kiss it. Be careful. Be right back.


She's fascinated with and terrified of overhead pipes downstairs. Like a moron, instead of ignoring it, I pointed out additional pipes for her to fear. Good job. Now "pipes" are regularly mentioned. Around this time she also developed a fear of her baby monitor camera, so much so that we had to hide it so we can at least get the sound. She also started pointing out the smoke alarm, and we told her they keep us safe. So now she goes around, pointing them out with concern, saying "safe, safe."


She's also memorizing books now, and it's insane how quickly she can start putting phrases with the correct pages. However, I am not saying she's a genius or anything because she's still unable to swallow her saliva and just today she went around licking the couch and ottoman, getting loads of dog hair in her incessantly drooly chin. So, you know, she's a genius in certain areas.

22 Months

Our dear little Avery is now 22 months old. She is sweet, smart and ever more opinionated as the days tick by. She's asserting her independence right on schedule. This means changing her mind immediately after making her mind up, taking off clothing and diapers from waist down every morning and throwing them out of her crib, and blatantly disobeying kind requests from Mommy. It also means not sitting still for photo shoots, making Mommy work really hard for decent photos, and destroying cute pigtail 'dos.

I know I say she's smart, but when you see where your kids start from, it's amazing to see how quickly they learn. She's got at least a million words in her vocabulary. Is that an exaggeration? Peacock. Piece of pizza. Hummus. Trash. Cockadoodledoo. I want cheese. I'm coming. Carry. Help. iPad. Sheep-eep. (Her sleep sheep; cutest thing she says.) We were at the zoo and she called the sea lions "seals"...which is pretty impressive considering that...what is the difference?

She thanks the babysitter without being prompted. When prompted to smile, however, she won't. Doesn't want to sit still. So I started asking her to show her teeth, and it kind of works.

We had our first curse word repeated back to us. She will repeat anything and everything we say, so we have to watch it. She also mimics everything I do, so she'll wipe and diaper her dollies and Elmo. Brush her teeth how I do. Put on my shoes and walk around in them. 

She counted to 10 like a month ago, but now refuses to go past two, although she recognizes most numbers. And then out of nowhere she'll say thirteen, fourteen, fifteen. She recognizes tons of letters and can sing most of the alphabet. When she gets lost and doesn't know what's next, she'll just say "bike" and start over or carry on as if "bike" is a widely known and respected letter. For awhile it was "L-M-N-O-Bike."

She's also either color blind, really stubborn or just doesn't get colors yet. Everything is still "ye-beh-bow." It's impressive when you're asking about the color of a banana; not so when you're asking about anything else. In true Avery style, she'll likely wait until she knows colors like chartreuse and apricot before she starts whipping them out.

 I'll say my colors when I say my colors, MOM. (Does everyone else see attitude in these eyes? It's not my imagination, right?)

She adorably sings Wheels on the Bus and If You're Happy and You Know It. She's been in a Mommy phase recently, which makes Alan's time with her at bath and bedtime a total screamy blast. It always makes me laugh when she wants me so bad at bedtime. I'm like, so stop being a little jerk between 4 and 6 p.m.

I know! I look totally innocent! I don't know what my mom is talking about with this "jerk" stuff!

She's getting much better about Owen. She almost never gets impatient when my attention is diverted. And almost never takes her frustrations out on him anymore. I can just taste how fun it's going to be when he's a little bigger.

This sweet girl. She sometimes makes my head explode and always makes my heart hurt. Which means she's doing her job as a toddler just perfectly.