First things first, Avery has moved up to the young toddler class at her preschool and will begin to learn baby sign language and how to walk. The first sign she learned is the hand sign for "more". She does this three different ways all of which include touching her index fingers together, putting her palms together as in a clap, and putting her index finger to her palm. All of these hand signals mean "more" to Avery. Her teacher Ms. Whitney (first name) is also working on helping Avery learn how to walk for which I am grateful.
Last month Avery was having trouble wanting to learn how to walk. I would would try and pull her up into a standing position but she would make her legs loose and would refuse to stand. She has now improved to actually wanting to walk with me holding her hands and will even let Emily hold one of her hands and help. When we practice walking I've noticed that Avery walks on her tip toes and will even step on her own feet. She also has a tendency to lean forward too much and it hinders her balance. As I was dropping her off at school I mentioned to Ms. Whitney my observations and she said she is helping Avery with her walking skills and has been doing stretches to help her tendons elongate. Short tendons in the legs can cause beginner walkers to tip toe which leads to late walking and frustration in learning how to walk. Apparently this is what is happening to Avery so with the stretches Avery should be walking within a month or two.
Vocabulary this month has stretched to include Elmo along with pointing to the character on the front of her diaper. Sister is said often as well as mama and dada but she has now added Alex (ale) to the list of names she can say. Avery also comprehends much more than I thought she did. She can tell you no, no, no verbally and also by shaking her head and finger all the while knowing what the meaning is of the word no. If you try and force something on her she will not hesitate to push it away and say no, no, no.
As we have now hit the 12 month mark, we are going to head towards taking away the dreaded bottle. Both girls live off the baba at home, only taking their sippy cups at dinner time. At school Emily doesn't take the bottle but as soon as we get in the car she's asking for a bottle, know that Avery always has an extra one at school. It's a little embarrasing having your almost two year old walk around her preschool with a bottle in her mouth, but I would rather have that than a screaming child throwing a tantrum in the middle of the hallway. I knew this time would eventually get here but now I'm a little lost. I'm first having Avery take less bottles to school and asking her teachers to keep her on the sippy cup more often. We will try that for the first month and as time goes on I won't take any bottles to school. Then at home we will try only giving bottles at night for bedtime and then eventually be getting rid of them entirely. At least that's the plan. Lets cross our fingers and hope it works.
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