Aveline is Sixteen Months

Okay, Aveline is really more like sixteen-and-a-half months, but whatever. It has taken my awhile to recover from the holidays, okay? Blogging, if you could not tell, has certainly taken the back burner. But, yes, our girl turned 16 months old on January 16th. She is nearly running at times now, and in the rare instance that she is actually crawling now, I have to take a second look and ask, why? In those cases, I honestly think she might be pretending to be a dog. She is kind of obsessed with them at this point. She hears them barking and starts saying "uff, uff" before I even know what she is talking about. And our dog is not even around, and hasn't been since Christmas. He is living the high life with my parents until we go up to see them in mid-February. I am sure they will be happy to be reunited, because even though she seems to love the dogs right now, she also seems scared of any one of them that comes near her. I am sure she will love to see our Merckx again, though.

Avie continues to add to her vocabulary. But a lot of her words sound very similar coming out of her mouth. There is "snack" ("ack"), "book" ("ahk"), "milk" ("ehk"), and "clock" and "sock" (which both pretty much sound like "ock"). And then there is "ruff" ("uff") and "off" ("off"). And "help" ("ep"), "soap" ("ohp"), and "up" ("up"). She says "banana" ("nanana") and "bunny" ("nunny").

If you ask her where her various body parts are, she can correctly point to them -- hair, eyes, nose, ears, mouth, feet, etc.

Avie has really developed a love for books here in the last month or two, which makes me super happy. If she sees a book, it is "ahk, ahk, ahk," and she goes and gets it and brings it to us to read to her, backing herself up, and plopping into our lap. Her attention span is still usually only long enough for the shorter board books, but she now definitely wants to read more in one sitting.

She still adores "Mommy's shirt," but also has a nearly as deep an affection for the super soft bunny Tim and Kate gave her when she was born. I absolutely love watching her walk around, clutching them both in those little hands. (Which reminds me... I really must get a picture before this ends.)

Speaking of pictures, here is the most recent one I have of Aveline, from this evening.

This is not the normal Avie, in that she does not typically just sit around crying her eyes out. But she had run out of her pre-dinner snacks and was quite upset that Daddy was daring to clean her up and let her play for a bit before our actual dinner was ready. Upset by a lack of food? Yes, I guess that is fairly typical. Avie doesn't seem to like carrots or leafy greens, and she seems to be getting a bit more picky about certain textures. But overall, she just likes to eat.

I take both girls to separate music classes (at the same location, just different times) on Thursdays, and they are both loving it. Both of our girls just love to sing and dance and play instruments. I have no idea if this passion will continue, but I will not really mind if it does. My parents got me a dock with speakers for our iPad because I often use the iPad in the kitchen to look up recipes, etc., so I have been playing more music at more times during the day because of the ease in doing so. Avie loves this. She will now sign for music and point to the iPad from her little seat, perched at the counter (see sad photo above) or, if walking around, will walk up to it and sign and reach for it from the floor. You will also hear her "uh, uh, uh-ing" from the back seat and turn around to see her signing and asking for you to turn on the music in the car as well.

The girl also continues to be quite the emulator. I am not the type of girl to spend a ton of time in the bathroom, grooming each and every day. But Avie still catches on to the little things I do. I will comb my hair while it is still wet and, in doing so, will catch the stray hairs that I shed during the process or pull them from the ends of my hair. I then take this fallen hair and throw it into the toilet. Avie will now take the spare Elsa comb that resides in our bathroom and comb her hair at the same time. She will then reach up with her other hand and tug at her hair, and then pinch her fingers together and walk over to the toilet, fluttering her fingers over the toilet seat like she is getting rid of her hair too. Hilarious. I also occasionally take the time to put on makeup (gasp!) and, if I do, she (or both girls, really) must take my makeup brushes as I am done with them, and copy what I do. Girls will be girls, I suppose.

I know with my experience with Elsa that every age is fun, but I am really, really enjoying where we are with Avie right now. She is just such fun and such a delight.