Update on Avilynne (Eighteen Months)

Cute Kid, huh?
Happy 1/2 year birthday, Avilynne!
Avi peed in the toilet for the first time today! Yey Avi! I've been working on early potty training, which has been a huge challenge (probably more so for me than her!). Yet progress is being made, so I am trying not to complain.

In addition to Avi's body functions getting on the floor during her diaper-free "naked time," She also spilled all my lemonade everywhere and dumped a box of cereal all over. And this is just one day of Ms. Trouble's antics. All to say, she has a talent for making me clean our floor. Thank God for hardwood!

Avi has a few favorite toys. Her real favorites are everything but her actual toys. But among her actual toys, Avi loves ridding a rocking horse she has. This is rather scary to us as she is so small on it but rocks so hard. She also loves her "bal." She has a plethora of balls, ranging from being as huge as her, to almost small enough to put in her mouth. Avi likes to bounce her hard plastic balls along the floor. Today I discovered these sound like bombs going off from underneath, where our friend Deborah's bedroom is. Now, having heard that, I sincerely feel sorry for "Auntie Deb-deb."

Avilynne likes to climb and stand in precarious positions, tear things apart, get into everything she shouldn't, and a whole bunch of other things which toddlers do to make our life difficult. Her recent addition to her vocabulary is "mo!" For all of you who don't know what that means, this is her version of no. Oh, such a lovely word.

For the most part, though, Avi is a great kid. She is a sucker for attention from all of us, and strangers (oh yes, especially males). She still sleeps well at night, often plays well by herself, and climbs up and down the stairs when we ask her to (which helps me a ton). She responds at least 1/2 of the time the right way to our warnings and discipline. Except, she does everything but "come here" when we ask her : ) She does think everything is funny, though, which is funny in itself. Being even cuter than a button (thankfully) probably helps make her delightfully endearing. One of these cute things Avi does has been putting on Josh's, mine, or whoever's pair of shoes. Its really amazing to me that she can actually walk wearing them, tromping around somehow without falling.

One thing I am worried about is her understanding of the word "baby." To Avilynne, baby is a real baby/toddler, it is a doll, and it is also my big belly. Last night I was trying to get her to hold her baby-doll, and she kept pulling up her shirt and rubbing her belly. I've been wondering why she has been pulling up her shirt recently and rubbing her belly, and it finally dawned on me she thinks belly and baby are the same! Either that or she thinks she has a baby in her belly. Afterall, she does regularly rub my belly while doing her sign and mumble for "baby." She also did that to Josh the other day, pulling up his shirt, rubbed his belly and called it a baby. I am hoping she doesn't do this to a self-conscious, non-pregnant woman!

Her doctors said all is well with her physical self. She is pretty much average in size and developing the way she should. Avi's hair is getting longer, so I am constantly trying new hairstyles on her thin, straight, blond/brown hair. Otherwise it eventually just lays flat, going forward, slick against her forehead and over her ears. Technically, she should be the envy of any teenaged-emo-skater-boy, as her hair does that current style naturally. But that style just looks bad on a toddler girl. I am curious to see if it will curl at the bottom as it gets longer, as it seems that it might do that. Anyways, there is always more going on with our kid, but I can't think of anything else now. Hence, this update will have to suffice for her 1 1/2 year update. Take care!