14, 15 and 16 Months!

Can you say your Mama is a slacker?  Geesh...I truly don't know what is wrong with me these past few months.  I just have not updated like I should've.  Plain and simple.  But...I am here today to try and record what I missed these past few months.  Here we go, Avery Jo!

14th month

• Starting to put words together - like "Hi Dad"
• Words you can say - Mama, Dad, Sissy, Up, Hop, What's this, What's that, This, I la la love you, All done, Uh Oh, Amen, Oh Boy, Hi, Bye
• Loves your blankie
• Starting to be more lovey-dovey
• You are psycho about playing outside!
• Your "Hi's" are crazy!  You say them constantly to anything - alive or not!
• I think you are starting to dream - you have started waking up in the night again, but put yourself back to sleep.
• More teeth!  Molars popped through around 13 3/4 months!
• Your hair is becoming curly in the back - love it!
• We started sitting on a little potty, just one or two times a day to get your comfortable with it - and you have successes at times!
• We love going to the library during the day - you love to play with all the fun toys there and I love getting books for you when you are on the potty!
• You are standing all on your own - in fact you can stand up from the ground not holding on to anything.
• You are a very, VERY vocal little girl - you have a scream that will make anyone's hair stand up!  And it's not always a bad scream, sometimes you are happy!
• You are a climber - you have easily figured out how to climb up the stairs a couple months ago, but not you are on to attempting to boost your leg up to climb just about anything.

15th -16th month

• You love lids and caps - you love to attempt to screw them on and off - and get really frustrated when you can figure it out!
• You have started walking 8-10 steps at a time, and could walk farther, but you sit your buns down once you get going too far!
• You are doing much better at playing by yourself - I attribute this to your independent play time (which we moved to your room this month so you have more room to play).
• You can point out people whenever we ask who they are - like, "Where is Kyndall...Megan?" and you point to your Sisters!
• Mimi and Pa were here and they got you a bike seat for the back of their bikes - you went riding for the first time and loved it!
• You have learned how to pray - so whenever we sit down to dinner, you just sit there and look at us with your hands together until we look at you and are reminded to pray!  We also pray before bedtime too.
• Your Aunt Soila and Cousin Andrew came to visit at the beginning of March.  You warmed up to them pretty quickly and soon got used to your Cousin sleeping on the couch in the morning when we came downstairs to eat breakfast.  The first day he wasn't there anymore, you put  your hands up like you were wondering where he went.  
• You have started finishing phrases.  We say, "ready, set..." and you say, "GO!".  Or, I will say, "One...." and you say, "TWO!".  
• Right around 15 months, you started REALLY walking everywhere and choosing to walk over crawl.  It took just a week or so of falling down here and there to be really good at it and now you are a champ!
• You are still taking two 1.5 hour naps a day.
• I can't even begin to count how many words you say now!  You attempt to say anything and everything that we say.  Right now, my favorite word is cracker.  The way you say it is so stinkin' cute!
• And your all time favorite word?  HI.  In fact, sometimes you probably say it 50-75 times a day!  We go to the grocery store and you make sure and hit everyone in that store with a "hi".  At least one...sometimes you go on for a few even if they already answered you back!  We joke that you are going to be a Walmart greeter when you get older!

Sweet baby girl, I can't tell you how much fun you have been the last few months.  You are a treat.  Every so often (if I am being honest) you get a little needy/screamy/whiney and there are a few rough days...but most of the days are smooth sailing with you and you are just my little sidekick.  We do everything together!  And you make everything that much more fun - especially since you say hi to everyone five times!  You are not afraid of strangers and love to be the life of the party.  You definitely already know how to show off...and that just boggles my mind.  How does this little girl that is just a one-year-old know how to put on a show and get laughs?  Well, I don't know how, but you do.  You love little kids too.  When we go to the library, you just walk over to the kids and start playing with them...whether they want you to or not!  

Your Sisters and Daddy love you so very much.  I can't even express to you what we would do without you.  You are the glue that unites us all together.  Your smile and laugh can make any of us forget that we had a bad day in a millisecond.  You are simply the best.  We love you!

13 Months - Social Butterfly

Here we are at 13 months already!  You are your own little person...tons of personality and are feisty for sure!  You love people!  In fact, you aren't scared of anyone....you smile at strangers and get so many "ooh's" and "aaah's".  I can't take you shopping with me without you reeling in at least a few people with your big smile and "Hi!".

You still sleep very good - morning and afternoon nap and around 12 hours at night.  You love all kinds of food...you are not picky at all.  You love your veggies almost as much as a cookie, believe it or not!  We switched you over to whole milk in a sippy cup with relative ease.  You didn't have much to do with milk for the first 3 weeks and then one day, you just started chugging away.  You love water too.  Here are some more highlights from this month with you:

Like I said above, you say "hi" and "bye" to everyone!  Especially when we leave the house and other people are there.  And you are very, very loud when you are talking too!

You can whistle.  You blow in and out with your mouth in an "O".  And when you suck in, you make a whistle noise.  So cute.

We just discovered that you love to blow bubbles!

You love to go outside.  In fact, we can't even say "outside" anymore because you go crazy when we say it!  We are starting to have to spell stuff out instead.

Speaking of spelling everything, you understand EVERYTHING we say...it's like all of a sudden, you get everything I say to you.  Stuff like, "put your cup on the tray", "stand up", "where's your toy?"...you understand it all!

You are not walking yet...but it is coming very soon.  You are cruising around things and have even stood up for several seconds on your own.  We just bought you a little walker toy and can walk when you hold that...so the real thing is coming soon!

You are a bit impatient.  I know it's the age, so I'm not worried about it.  You just want what you want and if Mommy or someone else doesn't get it or take you over to it....or if you can't hold on to it like you want....or whatever it is....Miss Impatient comes out big time!  You are still a screamer when it comes to the impatience thing!  It's really your only negative though!  We are working on the word "wait."  =)

You are also Curious Avery.  Whew!  Everything is "What's this?" "What's that?  "Who's this?"  And you point to whatever it is that you are curious about.  And then, Miss Impatient comes out if you don't get your way.

Pa, Mimi, Aunt Nikki, Uncle Ryan, Kiara and Vera all visiting over Christmas and New Year's.  You loved having them here!  Your Mimi takes awesome care of you and you love her for it.  Pa is your buddy that you love to play with.  You have a little pointing thing with him that you like to do.  So cute.  Aunt Nikki can't get enough of your cheeks...and she taught you how to blow bubbles!  Uncle Ryan really loves you too...he can make you smile for sure.  And Kiara - she loves you to pieces!  She loved to chase you around and "get you"...and you would crawl away and laugh so hard.  Vera is your favorite though...but she didn't really want much to do with you unfortunately...she's just at that age where she wants to be the baby and doesn't like it that you are.  =)  You would light up when she came around!  And smack your lips because you wanted kisses from her!  Soon...she will give you love right back, I promise!

We all got sick this past month too...and we are slowly getting over it (I hope).  Megan had a cold, then Mommy did...then you...then Kyndall.  But it has stuck around in the form of thick snot still in our noses...so I'm hoping this all goes away soon!

You really are a huge mimic at this point.  We have to REALLY make if we are saying something out loud that it may get repeated and we are okay with that.  =)

You love to be funny.  In fact, if I ask you if you are funny, you give a little laugh.  Or if you realize that something you did got you a lot of laughs, you will keep doing it over and over.

I know there is so much more, but that is all I can think of right now.  It's like you really took off this month with developing into a cute little person.  You grew with your development so much!  Here are some of my favorite pictures from this month!