Avery at 18 Months Old

At 18 months old, Avery defies all expectations of who you think she is by looking at her small frame.  Not only can she be quiet as a mouse but also loud as a crow, yes a crow with her high pitched yells coming in short bursts.  She has a curious mind which gets her into trouble at times but she doesn't seem to mind it.  As much as we tell her "no" or "stop" she doesn't seem to want to listen.  We have started to place Avery in timeouts and she obeys by sitting quietly in the place we sit her in until it is time to get up and go back to play.  This behavior is so unlike her sister who cries bloody murder when taken to a timeout. 

I have to laugh at times at Avery's behavior because at this tender young age she already knows how to push her sisters buttons.  Emily is going through a pacifier phase and Avery loves to irritate her sister by pulling this "puppy" out of Emily's mouth and then not giving it back to her.  Other times Emily will tell Avery go night-night, meaning she wants her to lay down so she can pretend to put her to sleep by placing blankets on her and patting her back, to which Avery will monotonly tell her "no".  This answer will set Emily off on a crying rampage and there is no getting Avery to agree to what she does not want to do.  Although there are times when Avery is against her sister, most of the time she is following Emily around and picking up on her words and phrases.  She is very bright and learns very fast.

For her 18 month appointment Avery came up in the 15th percentile for weight, 43rd percentile for height, and 54th percentile for head circumference.  All of this tells us what we already know, Avery is petite, but she is on track for her own measurments.  Normally Avery is not a very picky eater but lately she has been going through a phase where she picks at her food and will only eat mostly fruit and of course snacks.  Her doctor said it is normal and that Avery is doing very well for her age.  She was very impressed at her speech when she spoke to the doctor, telling her "thank you" when she received a Dora sticker.

At this time in her life Avery does not have a long attention span.  She will watch the beginning of Dora the Explorer and then walk off after the theme song has played.  If you don't sit and play with her she is off trying to find something interesting to get into or stacking objects.  Stacking objects or placing objects in a row is something that Avery loves to do.  After she is done she may place them back in their proper place but most of the time she leaves her creation out.  She is also into books and loves to bring books out for you to read, especially books where you have to recognize objects, such as "Baby's First Words."  Our baby is growing up and becoming a little girl. 

Early morning photo shows a sleepy Avery with puffy eyes and mama with a puffy face.  Oh no!

Valentine's Day 2012

Emily and Avery had a wonderful time at school during their Valentine's Day party.  So much chocolate and goodies were given out and Apa surprised them by picking them up from school and taking them to the park to play.  The day was so exciting and long that they were both yawning at dinner time.  We would like to thank Nonna for the girls Valentine's shirts and Ama and Apa for the stickers, DVD of Lady and the Tramp, stuffed frog and candy.  We love you all so much!!



Emily decided it would be great to place all the Dora stickers she got on her shirt.



So much chocolate!



Someone is tired!



She says cheese and then squints one eye.



Some of the goodies the girls received



Trying to get that chocolate energy out of their system



Avery also went a little crazy with the stickers

Fun Time at the Playground

Avery's Lone Weekend

When Emily went to the deer lease for a weekend with Nonna and Papaw, Avery was able to have a lone weekend with mama and dada.  Needless to say, she loved it!!  We thought she was going to miss sissy and wonder where she was hiding but not at all.  Avery carried on as if she was always an only child and loving every minute of her alone time.  We loved it as well and got to get to know Avery more on a one-on-one level and we loved it so much.  It was always great to have special moments with our parents without our siblings and I intend to have some of those moments with my girls.  You can see in the following pictures how much Avery enjoyed her time.

Nueces County Junior Livestock Show 2012

I took the girls to this year's Nueces Coutny Junior Livestock Show to show them all the farm animals that they have been learning about at home and at school.  With Ama and Apa to help we saw the pigs, goats, chickens, turkeys, rabbits, and cows that were waiting to be auctioned off that day.  Emily and Avery, much to my surprise, did not like the pigs.  They did not want to go anywhere near them.  Now when I say pigs I mean huge 100-200 pound animals that were laying down sleeping.  They didn't grunt but they did smell bad and I guess they didn't live up to the girls expectations of the cute little piglets they probably imagined.  The goats were so cute but because they weren't afraid of people they were a little too forward for Emily's liking.  She did like the turkeys and wanted to keep looking at them.  They were big and white and went "gobble gobble" just as her toys sound.  Emily also liked the rabbits but hated the cows.  Avery on the other hand liked the chickens and loved the cows so much she couldn't get enough of them.  She didn't want to touch them but she was fine being near one whereas Emily cried when I tried to get her to touch one.

Besides getting to see all the animals, the girls also got to munch on kettle corn, cotton candy, nachos and every other type of junk food you could possibly imagine.  Plus they also got some Kai Lan and Dora blow up toys while they were at it.  All in all they absolutely enjoyed themselves.  We are definitely going back next year and I am starting to plan a trip to either the zoo or the circus.