All About Being One

 I think of all the years kids are alive, their first is the most amazing to watch. I'm three kids into this and it still blows my mind all that my kids learn in 12 short months. Considering they start out as helpless (albeit completely adorable) little blobs...

...and morph into little people is just incredible.

Our little Avery is no exception. She is so busy right now. Here are a few of her favorites:

No walking yet. No surprise there, she's just following in her sisters' paths! She's a pretty adept and fast speed-crawler, and there's just not much interest there. She'll pull herself up to furniture, but that's about it. My kids operate on their own timelines, that much is certain.

Sleeping has very much improved from those very trying first few months. I'd say she sleeps through the night without making a peep about 75% of the time and the other 25% of the time, she only wakes up once or twice when she can't find a binkie. Once I pop it in, she's usually right back to sleep.

She's still taking two naps a day. I would record how long those naps are, but they're a little bit different every day. I guess if we have absolutely nothing going on, the first is usually an hour or so and the second is an hour and a half to two. I would actually be totally okay if she dropped the second nap since it's so much easier to get things done when we don't have to work around a morning nap. But even though they've gotten shorter recently, she still seems to want and need both nap times. And I do look forward them. It's the only time I can walk out of a room without inducing screams of panic.

She still loves to have a binkie in her mouth and one in each hand when she sleeps. Silly girl.

She is very, very good at giving big wet kisses and giant hugs. She thinks it's especially fun to give them to her big sisters.

She has eight teeth - four on top and four on bottom - which she's had for quite awhile and two more bottom molars that are currently working their way in. (They make her randomly miserable for a couple of days at a time and we wish they'd just come in already!)

She can click her tongue. And she thinks she's pretty cool stuff when she does it. She's also a pro at sticking her tongue out at anyone who does it to her.

She's suddenly aware of what's on other people's heads, as well as her own. That means lots of ponytails get pulled out and I rarely put bows and flowers in her hair anymore. She may not like it when I put those things in, but she loves to crawl into the bathroom and sit and try on whatever bows and headbands she can find on her own head.

She's OBSESSED with our phones/iPads/iPods. She's learning quickly how to work them and can swipe, tap, and push the home button at an alarming rate. I don't let her play with them very often because she goes absolutely ballistic when I take it away, but the Fisher Price apps are perfect for her and are great for when I'm desperate for her to be distracted for a minute.

She's still a bit attached to her bottle. We've obviously switched her to whole milk (yay for no more formula!) but she prefers it out of a bottle as opposed to a sippy cup. We're working on her, though, and I think she'll give the bottles up soon enough.

Her favorite toys (besides the electronics) are balls to chuck around the house, toy phones that she can pretend to "talk" on, and anything soft and cuddly which she'll instantly smother in a giant hug.

Her favorite song is "Once There Was a Snowman" - but in our house, we sing "Once There Was an Avery!" Her face instantly lights up when we start to sing and she usually claps and "sings" along.

And last of all, she worships her big sisters. She's getting to the point where she'll let out a giant screech if they start pestering her too much, but for the most part she loves to follow them around the house (as long as I'm close by, of course) and be right there involved in whatever game they're playing. For the most part, the older girls still worship the ground Avery crawls on as well. Sister relationships are so much fun!

Love this little girl and all the challenges and love and silly times that come with her!

Her party was lots of fun and we enjoyed celebrating with our little family. The only bummer was that Kevin was away on a business trip on her actual birthday, but we resolved that by celebrating the night before he left.

The smash cake - we kept it simple this time around!

She wasn't quite sure what to make of the cake. After digging around in it for a minute and tasting it a few times, so finally dumped the entire cake on the floor. Glad I didn't spend a lot of time on that one!