Dear Avery girl,
In less than a month, you will be ONE. What!?!? Pardon me for not believing that one bit!
I am pretty late on this post, since you're now well into your 11th month and nearing the one year mark, but here we go!
You've been growing like a weed, at least in our eyes - your dad and I said recently that sometimes you look older each morning! You've started to look less like your brother (or me for that matter) and a lot more like your daddy (and Auntie Sara!). You're such a beautiful girl, and we are so thankful that you SMILE so much these days!! It is so fun watching you explore the world and learn new things, and I catch myself staring into your sweet blue eyes sometimes just thinking how full of joy you are with such simple things like grass and kisses from your brother. (PS - He's STILL your favorite.)
Here are some of the things you are up to lately:
* saying "wooooow" and "woooooaaaaahhhhh" - seriously, you say this all the time and it never gets old to us! If you see something new, or a dog, we especially hear a lot of "wooooow"s. :)
* babbling "mamamama" and "tatata" for mom and dad (or just on command, probably not knowing what they actually mean just yet) - you're a good talker so far and do LOTS of babbling throughout each day.
* being SUPER blonde. And yes, you do have a
little hair coming in :)
* pulling your brother's hair. He hates it but he's learning that sometimes being a brother is just hard. No way around that. ;) Good thing all the benefits outweigh the hairpulling negatives!
* having three teeth on the bottom and one about to come through on top... you've generally been pretty good about teething, but it does look like several may come in at once up top soon, so we'll see how that goes!
* loving the water! (there
may or
may not have been an incident in the red speedboat raft at Lake Michigan... we'll tell you about it when you're older.) :)
* "crawling" backwards, never forwards... we still wonder if you'll ever crawl! You can't be bothered to stay on your tummy for long and you have little interest in figuring out how to move forward as far as we can tell.
* standing and holding on to furniture (not pulling up by yourself completely, still need a little help) - you LOVE standing and want to do this all the time. Sometimes we try to set you down somewhere and you lock your body in plank position so you can't sit. You're very stubborn that way!
* your eyes are SO expressive, you can change your whole demeanor with one squint of the eyes... it's often the first thing people notice about you! You can go from deliriously happy to utterly angry in the span of 1 second.
* shaking your head for "no, no, no", and for a brief period doing a very dramatic "uh huh!" nod for us. Now it's a little less dramatic, but it sure was cute:
* eating, and eating some more...
* riding in the trailer with your brother - you still hate the helmet sometimes, but otherwise you'd been doing great and even hold his hand or leg sometimes, which is extra cute :)
* being nicer to people!! You've finally let go of some of your separation anxiety and have begun to trust people a little more. You still don't want to be held by people other than us until you get to know them for a bit, but you've been so much kinder to new people and friends these days. More smiles!!! And we love them :)
And this month you finally met your middle-name-sake. My grandmother (your great grandmother) Virginia, who is a feisty 92 year old, amazing woman. Wear her name proudly throughout your life Avery Virginia! She's a woman who speaks her mind, fights for worthy causes, loves to learn, and is filled with love for friends and family. I'm so thankful you got to meet her and spend time with her at the Lake!
We visit the CF Clinic next week for your one year appointment!! We're anxious to see how your chest x-ray turns out and to see what the next year holds in store for you! :) (Hopefully it will include crawling and walking... right?!?) :)
Love you sweet girl!
Love,
Mom & Dad
