Avery Update!

Everyone has been asking for some new Avery pictures so I made sure to take a few last night when we had the Martins over for dinner. This video & picture is of Avery & Wyatt playing in her toy baskets. Of course, they dumped all of her toys out onto the floor! The two of them get along so well and always have such a good time playing together. Wyatt is so gentle and patient with her! It's so fun to watch her play and interact with other kids. She was following Wyatt around, laughing with him, giving him toys and taking them back, talking to him, and even being a little rough with him (which we're trying to work on). I could sit and watch the two of them play for hours. It's just so amazing how much she's changed and developed.

She has also started a few new things... She's babbling so much more these days! She seems to have a lot on her mind. What she's actually saying is still a mystery! She also has started pointing at things and saying "da", which I think means "that"? Also, yesterday she was trying to play with something she shouldn't so we told her "no". She proceeded to respond "na" back in a stern voice and just kept saying "na na na na" back to us. Uh oh!!!! The funny new thing that she's doing is when we say "be a puppy" she'll pant like a dog. When we say "be a monster" she'll grunt/growl! It's her new party trick... we show this skill off to all our friends! It's hilarious! I'd try to get a video of it but I'm certain that she'd just freeze up and not do it! Lastly, she's getting her top two middle teeth in!! One has broken the skin and the other is just under the surface. So soon, she'll have 4 teeth. She's been bit cranky but overall has been quite good through teething.

Another semi funny story is that as a crawler, she's finding the tiniest things on the floor to try to put in her mouth. I vacuum every day and check for little things but she always seems to find something. Luckily, she'll try to show it to me first before she puts it in her mouth. If I don't catch it, she'll put it in her mouth! Well, last night we had some friends over and were chatting while we were cleaning up the kitchen from dinner and Avery was crawling around. The dogs were eating their dinner and she has a fascination with this. We were sure to watch to make sure that she was doing well. I turned my head for 1 second to rinse a dish and Andrew came in the kitchen and caught her with her whole hand in the dog food dish! The dog (Bowen) was just sitting there watching her do this! (However, this is also the dog that backs up and lets the cat eat his food too though!) Seconds later, a piece of dog food popped out of her mouth! Gross!!!! I joked that her first boyfriend was going to hear about the time she tried to eat dog food! LOL

Speaking of eating, as Avery quickly approaches her 1st birthday, she's become more adventurous when it comes to trying new food & textures. We've been trying to get her more used to eating different things so that the transition from formula to food after her 1st birthday is an easy one. So far, so good! She eats all sorts of cereals, crackers, etc. She also has cut up bananas for snacks. For lunch, she'll eat shredded cheese and little pieces of chicken or turkey. We always make a point to let her eat dinner with us at the table. She'll have some of whatever we have (within reason). She'll eat little pieces of chicken, noodles, rice, potatoes, etc. She's very open to trying new things. Some things, she doesn't like too much and others she'll eat right up. Whether she ends up eating it or not, I'm just happy that she's open to trying things!