Avonlea: TWELVE months

Avonlea is 12 months, 1 YEAR old!!

October 30, 2019

This girl is a wild bundle of sweetness and joy!! She is 20lbs 9oz and 28 inches long. She wears 12-18 month clothes. She wears a size 4 diaper day and night. She is cruising all over on her knees, and pulling herself up like crazy and walking along the furniture. She has 8 teeth and the cutest smile. She has a few words and they are so sweet to hear. Mama, Dada, uh-oh and hi! 

She is such a good little girl most of the time. She is full of smiles, laughter and playfulness with a side of snuggles. She loves to scoot around and check out all things. SO curious. She is in full blown opening the cabinets and getting into thing. She can reach on top of the side tables and dinner table and the big kids are learning that the hard way. She loves to come after our drinks, remotes, books, papers - basically everything she shouldn't have, she is after. She often gets the pouty lip or cries a bit when she is told no. She may even give a little tantrum when we move her from the spot she wishes to destroy. She loves to play with the big kids. She follows them around and gets right involved with what they are doing. She has learned how to open markers thanks to the kids leaving them on the floor. She loves to eat things off the ground around the table and she gets a good little snack with the other messy eaters in our home around the table. She loves playing on the beanbags or pile of pillows and blankets. She has learned how to climb the stairs but cannot go back down yet. She loves a good box to play with or in. Though our days outside are limited now, she loves them remaining few. She loves a good walk or time wandering in the grass. She loves baths and makes a big mess from splashing. She has slowed down with standing up all the time and for that we are thankful. She absolutely LOVES music and moving and grooving. She hears even the slightest of tunes and she is bouncing or her little torso is moving from side to side. It's the cutest. She is a good traveler when it comes to the carseat. She whines a bit right at first, but doesn't protest for too long. She coo's, chatters, screams for attention, or just sits quietly and sucks her thumb. She has very little stranger danger - just a few people will she not be ok with, but it doesn't last too long. She typically goes to other people very well. She loves when daddy comes home and crawls over to the gate and waits to greet him. He will take her up with him when he goes and changes out of his work clothes. A little routine they started. Sometime she just needs a little snuggle session- which we never mind. She loves to pull the plastic bags out of the cabinet in the kitchen and pull down the hand towels hanging on the oven. She is learning how to sit for Sunday school, church and prayer meeting - slowly but surely. Slowly. 

Avonlea continues to be a good sleeper. We are so thankful. She goes to bed right after we do family worship and put the big kids to bed - so 9pm or so. She drinks a bottle, says goodnight to daddy and then I lay her in her crib after some kisses, cover her with her blanket, turn the noise maker on and close the door. She rarely doesn't go down nicely. She will sleep most the night. She typically wakes up once, drinks a bottle and goes right back down to sleep till morning. I do snuggle her a little extra after her bottle, being that this might be our last baby. She will sleep till 8:00 -9:00am. Getting her out of bed is everyones favorite thing and will be for a while yet. She is so happy and excited to see everyone. I bring her over to her window, open her blinds and sing "Good morning, good morning, so nice to see your smiling face, good morning, good morning to you!" She just smiles. She can nap once a day or twice a day. If we have something going on in the afternoon/evening than I will push her morning nap till after lunch around 1-2 and she does usually really good. If we don't have anything going on, she will nap around 11:30-12:00 and then again around 4:30-5:00. She still naps good at church in the nap room when we need her to. 

Avonlea is learning and adjusting to eating solids. She does not do great yet. She will make more of a mess most days, rather than eat what is on her tray. She has some really good days, and others are just more frustrating because she is so messy. But we keep trying and we are learning some new things she likes. She is a fruit lover. Loves mandarin oranges, peaches, pears, grapes and strawberries. She sometimes really likes cheese. She likes goldfish, pickles, summer sausage and some other things. She drinks a bottle before each nap and one before bed and then another one middle of the night. She is slowly learning how to drink from another cup with water in it and we will try whole milk soon. She can go quite a long time without eating, which is impressive and also helpful when we are in a busy situation or whatnot. But she was in the 62nd percentile for weight at her 1 year check up, so clearly she is not even close to starving. She can say "all done" in sign language which is nice. 

We are so thankful for the joy she brings to our family!! She is such a little girl packed full of spunk, silliness, stubbornness and a whole lot of sweetness! 

Here are some of her cake smash pictures!!