Sunny Side Up: 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.