Avery's Adventures Episode 1

We went to the park today where Avery was able to try out the swings for the first time.  It was a bit chilly, but Avery didn't seem to mind that in the least.  The video below contains some footage of that trip, as well as some other short clips.

I thought it wasn't possible for quite some time, but both D and I agree that Avery seems to understand all the meanings of the word "change."  She's been doing the change sign for quite some time now (it looks like she's disco dancing).  It has also seemed for quite some time the she knows it means things other than just change her diaper, which was the intent of the sign. She does the change sign when she wants to change clothes or change the situation she's in or change her diaper.  When she wants her diaper changed, she does the change sign and points at her diaper;  when she wants to change clothes or take off her coat, she does the change sign and then grabs the clothes to put on or tugs at what she wants to come off;  when she wants to change a situation (e.g. get out of the high chair, stroller or car seat) she also does the change sign.  It's amazing to me that babies can pick up on this stuff!
In terms of new signs, she's got the sign for "ball" down, as well as "bath."  She's also come up with her own sign for brushing her teeth.  This is a definite welcome change since she used to fight us when we'd attempt to brush her teeth.  Now she asks to do it.

Finally, her eating is getting much better.  She absolutely loves pasta with sauce - and she insists on eating it with a fork.  If the pasta falls off the fork, she picks it up and puts it back in the bowl to try again. She's also eating bananas and apple slices.  I still haven't gotten her to eat more colorful fruit, but we'll get there I'm sure.  In the mornings, she no longer wants us to feed her the yogurt, so we put her in the highchair and give her a spoon and she does it herself.  It's by no means a clean effort, but she does get a surprising amount into her mouth.


Avery's Adventures - Episode 1 from Megan Smith on Vimeo.

Clips

It's been awhile since I've posted - sorry about that!  I haven't taken many pictures lately because the battery was dead on the camera and I kept forgetting to recharge it.  I finally recharged it yesterday, so my obsessive picture taking can resume.

In the meantime, I do have a video with three unrelated clips.  First, Avery sings to the dial tone; next, she plays with Daddy's hat while we were in Mexico; and finally, she opens one of her Christmas presents.

Dial tone, hat, and presents from Megan Smith on Vimeo.

Some bullet points on fun things she's started doing:

• Avery uses the "help" sign and the "dog" sign with pointing to tell me when I should let the dogs in.  She can see from her high chair when Turtle and/or Eddie are standing at the glass patio door.  In case I can't see them, she lets me know when they are standing there and ready to come in. 
• The "bath" sign has finally sunk in.  This one took a while to stick.  She'll randomly ask to go upstairs to take a bath during the day.  
• When we go on walks with the dogs lately, she holds Eddie's leash from her perch in the backpack.  I grab the leash lower down in case Eddie tugs.  Avery does a really good at holding the leash for most of the walk.  Today she dropped it maybe three times?  That's pretty darn good.  If it's not too cold, I let her eat a cracker during the walk.  She has never dropped one and just munches while we walk.  When we get back, there's always one last piece clutched in her palm.  Pretty impressive considering it's a 30-45 minute walk.
• She's wanting to walk holding my fingers more often now.  She actually has really good balance, she just doesn't trust herself to let go.  I have yet to see her try to stand without holding onto something.
• She's getting into everything.  If there is a drawer, she will open it. 
• Music is her favorite.  She is constantly asking me to turn on the music by doing her little dance move.  She loves Latin music.
• I called her a little monkey the other day and she repeated "monkey."  Only once, though.  She hasn't said it again.
• This morning, she refused to let me feed her the yogurt.  She wanted to do it herself.  She did a pretty good job considering it was really runny yogurt. She'll also eat mac and cheese with a spoon or fork.  Again, it's not exactly neat, but she does get a surprising amount into her mouth.  The dogs happily clean up the rest.

Headstand

We've had a busy few weeks since getting back from Mexico, but things are calming down a bit.

On Monday, we had a long playdate with Elise while E's mom got some packing done.  Elise and Avery love to play together and I love to watch them.  Sure there's the cuteness factor of babies/toddlers playing with each other; but it's also fascinating.  When they were playing up in Avery's room, they pulled out two of the mesh bins, put them on the floor, emptied their contents, then proceeded to climb into the baskets, then out, then in, then out - all the while giggling.  When Avery's nap time rolled around, I pulled the Pack N Play into Avery's room and put Elise down to nap in that.  I left the room and they started a full on giggle fit.  For about 20 minutes, I listened to chatter interspersed with giggles interspersed with squeals.  Towards the end of the day, I decided to dress Avery in a similar outfit to Elise and to put Elise's hair up like I do Avery's.  The video below has a clip of their twins look while sitting on the metal chair in the living room.

Tonight, as we were playing with Avery before bed, D helped her do a handstand.  She loved it.  Once upright again, she immediately did the help sign and we said, "Help with what?"  She got into downward dog position to indicate she wanted to do the headstand again.  Her doing this a couple of times is also in the video below.


Headstand, bass, playing with friends from Megan Smith on Vimeo.

Signing

We are so glad we decided to do signing with Avery - and that we even knew it existed! By far, the most helpful sign thus far is the "help" sign. Thankfully, this is also one of Avery's most solid signs. It has reduced the whining by about 75%. She uses it all the time:

• When she wants to get up into a chair or on the couch, she gets into standing position, then does the sign silently until we notice. We ask if she wants to get up and she gets very excited to indicate it is indeed what she wants.
• When she wants to go for a ride on her new ladybug toy, she climbs aboard and then does the help sign so we can push her.
• When she wants to go outside, she'll crawl over to the door and do the help sign to indicate that.
• She's now starting to do it in conjunction with other requests. She'll do "help" and then "water." Or "help" then "milk." I like this because I believe it's helping to eliminate her use of the "milk" sign when she simply wants SOMETHING, but doesn't want milk. She's starting to do the "help" sign and then point to what she wants.

Avery's signs thus far include: help, change (though she uses this one to indicate she's "all done" with something), milk, water, eat, dog, and upstairs. She also pats her ear when she wants to hear music, so we're working on the music sign. We haven't really been introducing any other new signs, so I plan to start doing that soon.

Of course, it doesn't reduce all whining, nor does it eliminate all tantrums, but I've seen an improvement in both since the "help" sign was fully put to use by Avery.

Avery's also developing her own willful streak. I used to be able to tell her no and she would stop what she was doing. Now she stops for a moment, then gets this look of mischief, and then proceeds with the banned activity as fast as she can. Like if I see her about to put something she shouldn't in her mouth and I say no, she pauses then shoves it in her mouth real fast and looks at me like, "What are you going to do about that!"

Finally, Avery's learned to get down off chairs and beds properly. For a long time she would just head for the edge head first. So the other day I showed her how to turn herself around and lower herself down feet first. She caught on very fast and now does it very, very well.

Daddy Diary Day 1

When D has to travel for business, he obviously misses Avery a lot. I was thinking about what we could do to make the travel days easier for both Daddy and Avery. As all things seem to lead back to blogging for Mommy, it should come as no surprise that the solution is a blog post!

From this point forward, we'll be doing the Daddy Diary Days at Casa de Trio! Avery will tell a story via pictures to tell Daddy all about her day. I have grand plans that eventually Avery will be able to take her own pictures of her day and we can post those for Daddy to view. And maybe when she's old enough to understand, Daddy can take pictures of his day and post those for Avery. For now, I'll take the pictures and hope they're somewhat interesting.

Unfortunately, while Daddy is indeed traveling today, I didn't think of this idea until late in the day. So we don't have pictures of Avery from today. But we do have three cute pictures to tide us over.

Wearing Daddy's hat in Mexico
Note: how perfect that her shirt says "Perfect (just like my Daddy)"

Wearing Daddy's sunglasses on the flight home

Wearing the new baby Beco given to her by the G's

Pool

We visited the pool here for the first time this visit.  Avery absolutely loved it.  So much so that she threw a tantrum when we pulled her out of the pool to put her in the stroller.  That little episode not withstanding, we had a great time.  In talking with Nikki recently, I learned that she was a pretty serious swimmer when she was younger - with coaches, etc.  That must be where Avery gets her natural swimming ability!  On the other hand, she doesn't really enjoy the sand on the beach.  She gets that from me. :)

Kicky baby in the pool

Mexican Adventures

Our little experiment of bringing very few toys (we only brought the stuffed animals that she sleeps with) is going fairly well.  Avery entertains herself by playing with the stroller. This alone can keep her busy for a good 15-20 minutes.  

She also enjoys helping with household chores, such as laundry. 

Given the diversity of plants down here, she's becoming quite the horticulturalist.

Being in Mexico does nothing to diminish her obsession with D's laptop.  Fortunately, she can do plenty of her online communications sitting on Daddy's lap.

When rolling in her stroller, Avery has two positions ... inappropriate

... and even more inappropriate

 

Avery quickly decided that Mexico is the perfect place to break out the Crocs! 

Life is good!