Avery at 14 Months

Well it took some time but it finally happened...Avery is officially walking!  Our stubborn little girl would only take a couple of steps at a time before giving up and reverting to crawling.  Her confidence level was only  high enough to take small steps for about a month, but then all of a sudden she decided to take more than a few steps and before we knew it she was walking from the living room to the kitchen all by herself.  Once she got the hang of balancing herself she started walking all over the house.  I think she feels so much better now that she can follow Emily around without crawling or bruising her knees.  We are so proud of her and mama can actually go about doing things around the house without Avery crying out.  Now don't get me wrong, she still has her moments where she wants to constantly be carried, but as she gets older there aren't as many of those moments.  Now that she is walking Avery is more likely to play on the slide with her sister although swinging is still her favorite past time.

Bath time sing-a-longs are still between mama and Emily, but Avery joins along with hand motions especially with the "Wheels on the Bus" song.  Although she can't sing or say the alphabet she will sway along to Emily's singing and then clap at the end of the song.  She doesn't dance too often but once she does it is the funniest thing to watch.  Avery's dancing consists of swaying and bobbing her head up and down, she hasn't discovered moving her hips or bouncing yet.  Emily does like to grab little sisters hands and dance with her which Avery loves now that she can stand and balance herself.

Avery's vocabulary has extended to include juice, cookie, snacks, milk, Emily, and please.  We are helping her as much as we can with learning more vocabulary as we point to objects and then pronounce its name.  She is getting into the habit of pointing to an object she wants and saying, "Dis, dis, dis!"  It is very frustrating for all including Avery to try and decipher what it is she is pointing and wanting.  Soon she will have more words to say because she is sa very quick learner.

As small and petite as Avery is at the moment,  she can sure can eat and she loves doing it.  As I start to get her plate together at dinner time, I like to place it in the refrigerator for a few minutes so she doesn't burn herself.  As she watches me put her plate in the fridge she starts to yell out thinking I'm not going to hand it to her.  Once I place that plate on her high chair tray f her she goes to town and eats everything in front of her.  It always amazes me at what a great appetite she has and how picky she isn't.  I'm hoping that doesn't change anytime soon.  Right now her favorite food is frosted oatmeal cookies.

Avery is Walking

Buggy in Progress

Nonna and Pawpaw bought Emily a new buggy for her birthday and at the time of putting it together, the girls got a little taste of how much fun they would have with it once it was complete.

Avery's first ponytail, which she wouldn't keep on.

Emily's 2nd Birthday Party

Emily's 2nd birthday party was a Tinkerbell themed splash party that went off without a hitch.  As the summer has gone and fall is here I thought it would be nice to have one more good time with water before the cool air starts to travel down from the north.  We placed a splash pool in the backyard and borrowed a friend's blow up slide and let the kids go out and have fun.  Everyone had a great time but the most surprising was that Emily did not want to go anywhere near the water even with her cousins coaxing her to play.  It wasn't until an hour into the party that I finally got her to play a little in the splash pool.  Last year as everyone was singing "Happy Birthday" Emily started to cry and I was hoping we weren't going to have a repeat of events, but instead of crying she just shyed away from everyone.  It was a little windy outside so we had to pretend to blow out the candle.  Overall, Emily had a good time and got some great gifts from all who attended for which we are greatful.  She kept saying, "Wow", to evey present that she opened.  A big thank you to Aunt Rachel and the girls who got Emily her Sally doll (from The Nightmare Before Christmas) which she loves and placed in her collection of stuffed objects she sleeps with every night. 

Sassy Girls

Emily at 24 Months Old

Emily Mae is now two years old and we are feeling the wrath of an independent toddler.  This child wants to do everything for herself and she doesn't care if you don't have the time or the patience to stand and watch her struggle.  I know it's all part of the learning game but when momma is running late and trying to rush out the door her independence can try my patience.  Emily is also testing mom and dad on whether we will come through with our threatening punishments.  Time out is what Emily gets at school when she doesn't listen or does a bad deed so we try and implement the same punishment to her at home.  It works most of the time and then there are those times when she likes to see how much further she can take her behavior.  These are the moments in parenting that I hate.  I am a patient person so I don't get mad very easily but she sure knows how to almost push me to my limits. 

The "mine" phase is still going strong and she doesn't only do it to items that belong to her but with everything she gets her hands on.  Now that little sister is getting wiser, she isn't so easy to push around.  Emily towers over Avery but that doesn't really matter now that Avery has learned how to fight back and play at Emily's game.  Tug of war is often what I come across when there is a fight between them, of course Emily is the strongest so she always wins but Avery has learned to retaliate by pinching or biting.  This behavior is condoned by us but I have to chuckle a little inside to see that Avery has learned to defend herself.  Mommy and daddy punish Avery for her bad behavior just as we would Emily, but I also teach Emily to step up and tell sister, "No, bite!".  Instead of a short, "no bite" Emily has to draw in out to a "No, no, no, no, noooooo bite Avery!" all while wagging her finger at her little sister.  I laugh now as I imagine it because it is such a funny sight.

Emily's favorite song now is "The Alphabet Song" which she can sing all by herself up to the letter I.  She makes mom sing it over and over again while we do bathtime.  Emily can also count up to 10 and participates in the counting while watching her favorite show, "Dora the Explorer".  Reciting prime colors is something we do everyday and it turns out that yellow is Emily's favorite color, or at least favorite color to say.  She can't quite say all of the colors names correctly so they come out sounding like, "bue, lello, popo, orase, geen, and red".  We are very proud of how much knowledge she has gained from school. We try and read to her everyday and repeat everything she has learned to help with memorization.  Right now her favorite book is still "Moo, Baa, La, la, la" which she can almost say by heart.

Emily's athleticism is still developing so she still gets off balance when she kicks a ball or when she jumps up and down but dada is helping her out.  He and Emily like to go and kick her big ball around the back yard and fight over who gets to it first.  This is great for mom as it helps to get that last remaining energy out of a worked up toddler before bedtime.  Speaking of bedtime, we have come to the place in our child's life where she gets out of bed every 5 minutes to see what's going on or to waste time.  When her crib was converted to a toddler bed we were fortunate to have two or three good weeks of her staying put and falling asleep.  Now it is chaos every night and sometimes she stays up until 10pm when mom and dad and ready for bed.  It takes a little pushing and coaxing but she finally stays in bed for the night.  I'm hoping this gets better as times goes on.

As of her 2nd birthday Emily was still drinking from the bottle but the day after her birthday party I decided it was finally time to start weening both girls off the bottle.  I started after school with giving the girls the same color and type of cup with milk in it and although we got some protesting they finally took the cups.  As bed time approached and the bottle was asked for I just placed milk in their cups and said, "Okay, here's your milk in a cup.  One for Avery and one for Emily."  Seeing that both got exactly the same thing makes it better and helps with the transition.  So far we have only had a 2 minute break down but we have had almost 4 days with no bottles and I'm hoping with help from the grandparents that this might break them of their bottle habit.  Keep your fingers crossed!