Saturday, January 12, 2013

a 12 month old or an introduction to toddlerhood.

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i'm sort of hesitant to call avery a toddler yet.  i mean she's not walking so i figure i can at least hold off until that happens before i'm forced to make this transition.  but despite the fact that she acts like walking is for her servants and would prefer to be carried wherever she needs to go, i can't deny that she's acting more and more like a toddler every day.  for starters, she throws tantrums.  they are awesome.  kidding.  they're still not earth-shattering yet but lots of screaming with the occasional head slam against the ground.  she also hit me for the first time the other day.  and all i could think was, here we go.  i was holding her and plopped her down on the floor immediately and then 'boom': head smack against the floor.  maybe we'll make her wear a helmet.  

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she gets more and more demanding by the day.  she knows quite a few words but her preferred method of communication is the point and grunt.  she uses this when she wants me to carry her somewhere, when she wants something i'm eating, when she wants her water, or when she wants to listen to music. sigh.  why couldn't please or thank you have been one of her first words? 

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she is also a terrible napper.  as in will not nap unless  it's in my arms.  for a few days i was putting her down for a nap like i was putting her to sleep at night and she would cry for a bit and then take an actual nap, but after about three days that went out the window and she would scream and scream and scream and not sleep.  so awesome.  there are lots of days now where she doesn't nap much.  

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but there are some pretty cool things, too.  her vocabulary is growing like crazy and it's so fun to hear her say new words and really understand what they mean.  she's known hot for a while but i'm sort of amazed at how she's really able to apply it to all things that are hot.  it started with my coffee cup and she's applied it to candles, boiling water, tea, the dryer, and my beer.  okay, no one said she was perfect.  

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she's really into figuring out how things fit together and loves putting the lids on containers, stacking blocks, her shape sorter, and putting small things inside bigger containers.  we have two sets of nesting blocks which are a big hit.  and she's into reading books on her own now.  she has no patience for me reading to her these days unless it's a lift the flap book but will sit and flip through books herself for a while.  

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she's a dancing queen.  ha.  and loves to dance.  she knows that charlie's iphone has all the good music. she's been blowing kisses for a while and does like to blow herself kisses in the mirror.  she's started kissing me unprompted, which is the sweetest thing ever.  especially when she grabs my face with both hands and kisses me 4 times in a row.  avery, i'd like to remember more of those moments and less of the head banging ones. 

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she still love, love, loves the animals.  the cats still may be a slight favorite but it's hard to tell.  henry is completely over her and will get up and run away when he sees her coming.  dunkin is a lot more patient these days.  she's started using him to pull up on (the poor dog) but really does love him.  the other day she grabbed handfulls of his fur and stood up and then planted a kiss on his chest.  if he's sitting and she's standing she fits just under his chin.  she loves pointing out his body parts and eye is a favorite.  she pokes him in the eye and then says "eye".  she does the same with ear and paw and knows tail but can't say it yet.  she's gotten pretty rough with the animals so we're trying to introduce the concept of "gentle".  it's not going well.

i can tell we have a lot of fun things headed our way as she gets older & probably some frustrating ones too.  i try to remember that it's probably pretty difficult for her sometimes, when she wants something and can't figure out how to tell me.  but mostly it's fun to see her try and figure out her world and makes up for the chunky baby rolls that she's losing by the day now.

1 comment:

Sara McCarty said...

Oh, this is wonderful! She is so funny and adorable. I love that she's already being a little drama queen! And the head smacking cracks me up. My how they grow so quickly! Enjoy those slobbery kisses!