Avery: 14 Months Old...

Sweet Aves is 14 months old (or was last Sunday)!  It's hard to refer to her as a baby as she is definitely more in the toddler stage.

She seems to have grown up overnight!  She is still a feisty, little thing and lets us know exactly what she wants.  She points and grunts in order to let us know what she needs.  She is babbling up a storm and even starting to put together words.  She says "uh oh", "shss" (shoes), and "thank you" (however not that clear).

Avery is obsessed with shoes (specifically her purple crocs).  It's usually the first thing she goes to find after breakfast and often brings them to us to put them on her.  Whenever she finds them laying around the house, she immediately wants them on.  She's even been known to pitch a fit when we try to take them off, so sometimes she gets to nap in them as well!  Lately she's been walking all around in Kensley's play high heel shoes. They are twice the size of her feet, but she manages to keep them on as she walks around.

She is walking everywhere and her balance seems to get better everyday.  If she falls, it's usually because she's wearing those silly shoes (crocs) and tends to trip on them.  She loves being outside and walks everywhere.  We have to keep a close eye on her as she is nonstop!

Avery seems to understand so much these days and can follow simple commands like, go get your shoes, water, snack, etc.  She is starting to play independently and will often head into the playroom by herself to play.  She seems to be irritating big sis a lot these days as she is constantly getting into Kensley's toys or wanting to play with her dolls.  We are in a big "mine" stage around here and sharing is something we work on daily!

Avery loves reading books and her favorite book right now is "How Big".  She'll often grab books, bring them over to us and sit on our lap for us to read to her.  She also likes to sit on her little chair or stool and flip through the books by herself.  Avery also loves to be outside.  She always wants to go on rides in the wagon and loves being at the park.  She tries hard to keep up with big sis and follows her everywhere.

Aves is still a pretty good eater and still manages to out eat her sister at most meals.  She always seems to want to try whatever we are eating.  She is a lover of sweets and has been enjoying lots of ice cream this summer.  She is loving using utensils and feeding herself.  She's getting pretty good at it, but still manages to make quite a mess.

As of last weekend, Avery is officially done nursing.  I had weened her down to once a day (mornings) the past few weeks.  Jeremy and I were gone for several days last weekend, so that kind of helped with the weening.  She still does not like whole milk.  I still buy it on a regular basis and we try it every few days in a variety of ways, flavors and settings.  It baffles me that she does not like chocolate milk as she is obsessed with chocolate milkshakes.  I guess we'll approach the topic again with the doctor at her 15 month appointment, but all we can do is keep trying it.

Sizewise, Avery seems to be "chunking" up.  It doesn't really surprise us with how much food she consumes.  She is wearing size 12 - 18 month and 12 month pj's.  She is moving more into 12 - 18 month clothes, but can also wear most of her 6 - 12 month outfits (especially the bottoms).  She wears size 3 shoes and size 3 diapers.

Avery has 6 teeth right now, two middle on the bottom and her top four middle teeth.  She is loving crunching things between her front teeth!

Happy 14 month birthday, sweet Aves!