Avery 12-15 Months

The fall of 2010 was accompanied by Avery's first months as a toddler. We had a blast watching her grow and change from a baby into the sweet little girl she is. I am so happy to finally be writing down the memories from this period for her baby book.

• Stats from 12 months: 19 lbs (45th percentile), 26 inches long (25th percentile).
• Stats from 15 months: 22 lbs (50th percentile), 28 inches long (10th percentile).
  
• With her short stature she is proving to be like her momma and meme. Since almost all pants in her waist size are too long, her Grandmommy helped us out by hemming them. She was in 9-12 month size clothes from 12-15 months. Her shoe size was 3.
  
• Also due to her tininess, we decided to keep her car seat turned around through 16 months. She has been used to long car trips since she was born and travels really well, so it hasn't been bad at all.
• Beginning in her 12th month she could identify all of her basic body parts (head, mouth, nose, eyes, ears, toes) and that list continues to grow and now includes arms, hands, tongue, belly, belly button, knees, teeth, hair, etc. She has her own unique way for showing you what each part is. For example to show you her teeth she taps them together in her mouth, to show you her hands she signs for milk.
  
• At 12 months she really picked up on waving bye and saying hi. She started saying bye bye right after turning 15 months old.
  
• She LOVES to read. This love has continued to grow each month. By 15 months she was able to recognize a story and go pull that specific book off of her shelf. She will bring the book to you, point to the floor and say "sit" in the sweetest little. Then she backs into your lap for you to begin reading.
  
• When she sees an object on the page that she recognizes (ex. fish), she explodes with joy and yells the name of whatever she is seeing.
  
• Speaking of short commands like "sit," she can also tell us "more," "no," "yes," and "all done." By the end of 15 months her word arsenal included versions of: owl, squirrel, hot (accompanied by holding her hand out like she is warming it at a fire), ball, bath, bubbles, fish, moon, up, Aubie, Auburn, car, key, cup, book, baby, Huck (our dog), & duck (pretty funny hearing her quack the night of the national championship).
  
• There are really no words to describe this little girl's love for all things Auburn! She recognizes, says his name, and points to Aubie. She get down dancing to the fight song, and glory glory, she can tell you that an AU stands for Auburn and loves to shake her pom pom. She holds her hands up for touch downs and by the end of 15 months she cheered when football games were on, despite who was playing.
  
• Her hide and seek abilities have increased from peek-a-boo to full fledged walking in a dark room at our house, finding a spot, and hiding there as quite as a mouse. This is a little unnerving, since she could possibly do this to us a store, but at home it is hilarious.
  
• She is quite the little mommy and loves to take care of her dolls by feeding and rocking them, as well as wrapping them in blankets. She also likes to share her paci...just not for too long! She loves for me to say her baby doll wants her mommy!
  
• She has a love for girls between the ages of 4-7. She will just randomly run up to them at stores and either hug them or hold their hand. Sometimes she even reaches her arms up for them to hold her.
• Her sleeping habits have stayed the same, she usually goes to bed by 8:00 and then I wake her up at 6:40 each weekday. On the weekends she sleeps till 7:30 or 8:00. We are soooo blessed with a good sleeper.
  
• She is addicted to her paci. It is going to be very hard to break this habit but we plan to at 18 months. It makes her feel so good and I would rather have to break her from a paci than sucking her thumb.
  
• She enjoys giving kisses and high fives. She can't just give out one, anyone who is in the room gets them.
  
• She can drink out of cup without a lid, but we don't let her take the cup by herself. She really likes using a regular cup with a straw. We cut the straw to her size, which works well.
• She likes taking a bath and splashing whoever is giving it to her. She washes her baby just like we wash her. She helps us put her lotion on and enjoys looking at all of her clothes when we are picking them out for the next day.
• She likes when I sing to her and at night when I rock her, signs and verbally tells me more when I am getting close to the end of a song.
  
• Now that she is so active and such a fireball, it is definitely harder to go out shopping for anything other than groceries. If I need to be able to look at anything, I know that I have to leave her with someone. Who can blame her for wanting to explore?
• She knows how to throw a fit and has zero patience. For each hard moment though there are at least 5 amazing ones.
  
• She eats pretty much anything and LOVES milk. We only do milk and water, no juice. Why start the habit if you don't have to? Her favorite foods are cheese, green beans, cucumbers, tomatoes, grapes, cheese, apples, chicken any way, any kind of noodles, rice, cheese, chocolate, and anything Levi or I might be eating that she wants to try. Did I mention she likes CHEESE? Oh and something I find funny is her daycare has collards on the menu every so often and "all" is always circled in the how much she ate column :)