11 months

I know, I know, this is a little late but as I said before, I am trying to play catch up. I will start out by saying that our little Poots went through a transformation over Christmas break. She went from army crawling to completely "normal" crawling, and from grabbing onto furniture to pulling up and then cruising. For a while, she wasn't able to get back down from her new found standing position, but she quickly fixed this problem by pointing to her mommy or daddy and saying "deh" (for "down") for assistance. Yesterday, she started bending over to reach toys as she stood and today she has learned to sit back down on her own. She shows pride in this by clapping for herself after she sits. Since she is now more mobile, she has decided to embark on the rest of the house rather than sticking to her play area in the living room. Unfortunately one of her favorite places to go is the bathroom, and it did not take her long to discover the toilet...the bathroom door now remains closed.

Avery is still a little chatterbox. She will say "deh" when she is done with her bottle, which is usually followed with a throwing of the bottle (just in case you didn't get the hint with the "deh"). She is using her "more" sign all the time when she wants more food. She attempts to sing the "Hip Hip Hooray" song from her favorite show, "Super Why" (wait, I don't let my small child watch TV, not even when I need a break....I have no idea where she learned that song:) ). You can ask her what a duck says and she'll say "cack cack cack," a monkey says "ah, ah, ah," and a sheep says "baaa." She likes to say "pretty" and "aw, man!" Dixie is beginning to become a two syllable word....and something with fur, which is fun to pull out by the handful. She loves to look at pictures displayed around the house and she will occasionally say what sounds like "who's that" as she looks at them. Avery loves to read books and sometimes she will pretend to read them herself. She also loves pretending to talk on the phone. She'll hold one of her 200 phones to her ear, say "hey" and "bye bye," and sometimes blow a kiss.

It's so hard to believe that she is only weeks away from turning a year old. These little, precious beings simply grow way too fast!