Avery is at such a fun age. She's learning so much and every day I am more and more impressed by her. She's saying please and thank you without prompting. She is pretty much always happy; loves to sing (especially Moana and now another new favorite: Let It Go), dance, play, read and be silly. I love watching her personality come out and she is turning into such a sweet little girl. She gives the best hugs and kisses. After work in the car she likes to tell me about her day and is always so happy and excited to spend her days with her family. She enjoys naming shapes and colors. She can count from one to ten and is learning the ABCs and loves to sing the song, especially in the car. Avery has some favorite phrases right now like "Awesome!" "Yes yes!" "No!" (typical toddler) "One, two, threeeee!" "Ready? Set? Go!" "Sit! Stay! Down!" (to Memphis and her stuffed animals) and "Avery silly" She loves to name all of her relatives and kiss their faces on pictures. Now that she has more words, she is even more opinionated than she was as a baby. Or maybe now just able to voice her opinions better. Either way, you'll never have to guess what Avery wants or thinks; she will let you know. I love that about her and I hope she keeps that quality as she grows.
She has been obsessed with the moon lately (shocker, our nature girl in love with the moon) and always tries to find it at night. We got her an outer space book about the planets which we read every night (sometimes twice). She's learning that the sun goes "night night" when the moon comes out and she always likes to remind me that "plaaaaaaneees!" are in the sky too. She still loves to be outside despite the cold; it doesn't seem to bother her at all. She's not too fond of the fact that she can't full out sprint in the snow and can't comprehend why this is so; however, she enjoys sledding and exploring. She still likes to pet trees and say hi to them, to the point where Papa had to snow blow a path to a certain tree so that we can say good bye to it every time we leave their house.
Avery has added a new activity to our bedtime routine. Shadow puppets. Now we have been doing shadow puppets for some time now. While snuggling before bed we would put our hand out and make a doggy shadow on the wall and she would say hi to it and that would be that. Well now, the child has masterminded a whole activity. She drags two pillows over to the corner of the room with the night light, we lay down and look up at the ceiling and make all different kinds of shadow puppets. I swear the kid could be entertained by this for hours if we let her. It's actually really fun and I love how creative she is. Her imagination is so awesome. On a similar note: her pretend play is blossoming too and she is so fun to play with. She has started to cook in her play kitchen when I am cooking dinner. Then she brings me over something she made to try and loves watching me "eat or drink" whatever she made. I gotta tell ya, she makes the best fake tea and best fake soup. Ever.
Majority of the things she says and does is adorable. She does have her toddler moments though. For instance, she now likes to smack our cheeks as hard as she can and then immediately give us a kiss to make it better. Now this is hilarious to me and it is hard not to laugh but MAN does it hurt. She's got a mean slap! And I can't always see it coming, which adds to the shock. I know one day I will feel bad for her future boyfriends and/or feel proud if she smacks the crap out of some jerk. This kid is strong. She's got a good kick too. Another toddler moment: a few weeks ago she climbed out of her crib and smacked her head on the floor 😑 She was totally fine, other than a ginormous bruise on her forehead. In fact, while monitoring her for a concussion, she was busy practicing her jumps and somersaults 😆 Yeah, so, needless to say the escape didn't shake her up too much. Yes, she is still in the crib. This mama is so not ready for her to be in a toddler bed. Avery doesn't just lay down and go to sleep. She likes to unwind (and by unwind I mean launch herself across her crib doing WWE moves on her stuffed animals) and play in her crib. Knowing her, she is going to be doing laps around her room and will likely fall asleep on her floor or in the closet or something weird when we decide to let her have a big girl bed. She loves to play with her animals and line them up on the edge of the crib. Most nights she ends up falling asleep with her stuffed animals on top of her. She is such a love and if you couldn't tell already, we are super proud to be her parents.
