22 Months

Averie!

I have been terrible at keeping up with writing down all your milestones and special moments. Before you were born I was sure that I would have the time to scrapbook and carefully record every cute thing you ever said or did. And I was wrong. You keep me pretty busy and I love every minute of it. I thought I would try to start doing your blog again since I'm online more than I am able to sit down with a pencil and paper. Here are some things you are doing at 22 months old:

- You go to preschool two mornings a week at BDRPC. You love school and after you got through the first two days you don't even notice when I leave you now and you usually run and hide from me when I come pick you up because you don't want to leave.



- You have been so healthy and we are so thankful for that. You had an ear infection at 14 months, pink eye (on Halloween) at 19 months, and another ear infection at 21 months. You have been to the eye doctor, the dentist twice, and you love to brush your teeth.

- You have started going for overnight stays at Nan and Pup's house once a month so your Daddy and I can have date night. You love to go and have so much fun, and you usually hide behind Pup's legs when I get there because you don't want to leave their house either.



- You have 14 teeth, you wear size 24 month clothes, size 5 shoe, and size 3 diapers. We think you are probably about 35" tall and weight about 28 lbs but we'll find out in March at your two year check up.

- You talk up a storm. You aren't putting words together or speaking in sentences yet (at least not in English) but you know the word or meaning for everything you see. You have recently learned your name and it is the cutest thing to hear you say "ahvie" when we ask you what your name is or when you see a picture of yourself

- You love to go to church. When we turn off the main road on to the road where the church is you start saying "Yay, yay church" and kicking in your seat.

- You are still rear facing in your car seat. We will probably turn you around when you turn 2 and can't wait to see how excited you are to see things in forwards!

- You aren't very interested in toys. You would rather play with shoes, boxes, plastic bags, or your latest obsession, tampons. That is a battle I don't fight with you, they are clean and you can occupy yourself for hours with them. You did get a baby doll for Christmas that you take such good care of, changing her diaper, pushing her, giving her a bottle and "juice", and brushing her hair. You also got a Fisher Price kitchen and you like to "cook" with all the stuff in there.

- Books are your favorite thing in the world. You call them "boops" and you usually have one with you at all times. We even got you books to read in the bath. You like for us to read to you and you like to sit and flip the pages by yourself. I usually find you at least once a day sitting in front of your bookcase with a stack of books in front of you. Recently you have started saying "the end" when we get to the end of a book. I hope this means you will be really smart!

- You don't watch a lot of tv but when you do Sesame Street (especially Elmo) and Clifford are your shows of choice. You usually only watch tv after you get up from your nap and I'm trying to fix dinner.

- You still sleep like a champ. You go to bed between 7 and 8 depending on how long your afternoon nap was, and you will sleep until between 8:30 and 9:30. Your afternoon nap is usually about 3 hours but sometimes you get to playing in your crib and you forget to sleep.

- Dogs are your favorite thing in the world. You can spot a "doggie" from a mile away and you say "woof, woof, woof" to them. Tucker is your best friend and you love to throw his toys for him or put them on a higher surface and watch him jump to get them.

- When we are undressing you and we are pulling your shirt over your head you start saying "ahvie, ahvie" like you are looking for yourself. You also think that when you cover your eyes we can't see you, so you do this when you are around someone you don't know or when you know you've done something wrong.

- You can now put yourself in time out. You either know you are doing something wrong before you do it or you can tell from the tone of my voice that I'm upset with you so you run down the hall to your timeout spot and sit down to wait for me to tell you that you can come out.

- You have learned where the trash and the sink are and you love to put stuff in both. You are so proud of yourself and grin from ear to ear when we tell you to put something in the trash or sink and you do it.

- You are not a cuddly baby at all, you would much rather be on the move than sitting still. You only like to snuggle with us when you first wake up, when you are not feeling good, or right before bed. I cherish those times with you and soak up every last second.

- Here is a list of your most often said words: ball, bow, shoe, boot, shirt, pants, doggie, tucka (Tucker), truck, tractor, boop (book), no, baby, mama, daddy, Nin (Nan), Pup, Katie, Mapp (Uncle Matt), uh-oh, cheese, milp (milk), eat, yay, nack (snack), peas (please), thank you, recently you started saying "there you go" when you hand us something, school, church, eye, nos (nose), apple, nana (banana), peaches

- You can name almost all of your body parts - eye, nose, ear, mouth, cheek, hair, head, shoulder, hand, fingers, toes, feet, knee, belly. You are obsessed with belly buttons and you like to pull up everyone's shirts and point at their belly button.

- You give the best kisses and make the "mmmmmmmm" noise as you lean in to give us one. You also love to give hugs and love to everyone.

- You used to eat anything we gave you but now its become a power struggle at meals sometimes. If we leave you alone and don't ask you to eat anything, you usually will. But if we make a big deal out of it and ask you to eat, you won't. Your typical days meals are a waffle, fruit and milk for breakfast, lunch meat with cheese and crackers, yogurt, fruit, and baby food veggies for lunch, and whatever we are eating for dinner. You love chicken, roast beef, and spaghetti. You also love broccoli, raw or cooked, green beans, cole slaw, most fruits and other vegetables. We don't give you sweets because you don't know yet that you want them. I think you've had one french fry and one cookie your whole life. I know there will come a point when you want these things but until you can ask for them and know what you are missing we aren't going to give them to you.

- You are the cutest, sweetest, most precious baby girl and we are so thankful that we get to be your parents. You are better than anything we could have dreamed or asked for, and we look so forward to seeing you grow into a little girl. You have taught us what life is really about and we are so glad to go on this ride with you. We love you!