You are 16 months old!

Wow! I know I've said it before, but time flies. You are definitely all Toddler! You have really come into your own and have so much personality - although you've been full of personality from day 1. You love to express your opinion and normally answer all my questions with a very sweet "no". It actually cracks me up. You are talking more and more. You can repeat a lot of words back to us. You've been saying cracker, snack, go, down, etc. You love to make toasts with your sippy cup. We always hold up our drinks, say Cheers!, and clank the cups together. You still love singing your ABCs and are getting better at it. You love music and "dance" whenever a tune catches you by swaying back and forth and smiling. It is THE cutest thing. You still love playing outside and we've been lucky to have great, warm weather this fall. We walk up and down our street and around the culdesac. You like to ride your cozy coupe and also pull your wagon. You love love love animals - especially Shelby and Kitty. One day you almost fed Shelby an entire bag of dog treats because it was so much fun. He didn't mind at all. You are taking baths in the big girl tub now and that is a real treat. You just splash away and have a ball. It's a nice time for us to spend together too. Every once in a while you will stand up and splash with your feet. You have become quite a snacker and love to ask for yogurt, graham crackers and other treats. You always share with us and like to feed us. We have been learning the parts of our face and you love to point to your nose, ears and eyes. You have an absolute obsession with pens, markers, crayons and anything you can write with. When you do get hold of something like that, you walk around pretending to write things. Your favorite toy right now is your megablocks/legos. You love to build things and also knock things down. Daddy hung up your swing for you from one of the trees in our yard. You loved it and kept saying "Weeeeeeee". You were not happy when it was time to get out of it. We are getting closer to the holiday season and it is so exciting. Well, that is a good recap of what you are doing at this moment in time.

Happy Halloween!

This Halloween turned out to be cold and rainy, but you still had fun dressing up and playing with your cousins. You are still too young to realize you missed anything, but next year we will plan on doing lots of trick or treating! Here are a few pictures from Halloween night and from the Fall Festival at daycare. Daddy also carved a pumpkin, but you weren't interested. We will try that again next year too.

15 months old today!

You are 15 months old today! Such a big girl now. At your doctor appointment last week you were almost 23 lbs and 31.5 inches long. That is a long way from the 8 lbs 2 oz/21 inch long baby I brought home from the hospital. You have changed so much along the way. Actually, these days you change more and learn something new every day! You are full of energy.

Your favorite things to do now are play outside - either just exploring in the yard or culdesac or riding your cozy coupe. You love it when Daddy takes you to the top of the hill and you can ride down it really fast. I call you my little daredevil and you get that from your Daddy. You also LOVE to pretend you are talking on the phone. Sometimes it is with your play phone or our cell phones or anything else you can hold to your ear, but you have long, detailed conversations with yourself and it cracks us up. You are talking so much more now.

You can say blueberry, go, book, shoes, cracker and sing part of Row Row Row Your Boat and the beginning of the ABCs! You are very vocal and you get upset if we don't understand what you are trying to tell us. You tell us when you want milk or a snack or more. Every night I will ask you if you are ready to go Night Night and you always answer with No. You are definitely a girl who knows what she wants. You still love waving and saying Bye Bye. Every night when you climb the stairs to go to your room for bed, you turn and wave saying Bye Bye Daddy. It is too cute!

You had school pictures this month at daycare and you wouldn't smile in any of the pictures. The teachers said they tried eveything and you just wanted to stare down the photographer. We joke though abut how you don't smile on camera. You like to look serious for photos. One day we will capture that gorgeous and contagious smile on camera.

We are getting excited as the holidays approach. Last year, you were too small to do much for Halloween, Thanksgiving and Christmas. This year, we will have so much fun!

Pumpkin Patch

We went to Berry Patch Farms for your very first pumpkin patch experience and you loved it. Mommy forgot to clear off the memory card on the camera, but thank goodness I had my phone to take pictures. We took photos with a giant pumpkin, took the hayride down to the pumpkin patch and you chose a pumpkin. Then, we had apple cider which you LOVED!! They also had a petting zoo! We really enjoy these little experiences we get to have with you. We will make it a tradition every year.

Destin, FL Beach Trip - Sept. 2009

More to come on our beach trip.

Where did September go?

I can't believe it is already mid September and you are 14 months old! We took you to the doctor this week for another double ear infection and you weighed 22lbs 8ozs. You are such a big girl! After your appointment, you insisted on walking out on your own and without holding anyone's hand. Your independence is showing itself more and more each day. You are learning new words so quickly now. Last night you said "good girl" several times after I told you that you were a good girl. You love to clap for yourself when you accomplish something. You started doing "gimme five" this weekend too. Another new happening is that you finally started giving kisses. It's funny because you will make a kissing noise with your mouth and then lean forward to either give a kiss or wait for one. It's the cutest thing ever! You are such a sweet girl. You also love blowing kisses too. Normally when I drop you off at daycare, you blow me a kiss or wave and say Bye Bye. I love watching you grow up and am so amazed by you.

Labor Day Weekend!

I have not done a good job of updating our blog. I will go back and update some things that have happened since your birthday. This weekend was a long weekend for Labor day, so we were able to do a lot of fun things. The weather was great, so we played outside as much as we could. We went to the park twice to feed the ducks and swing on the swings. You also like the slide now. On Monday, we went to Aunt Teresa and Uncle Steve's house for ribs. You had a blast playing with Suna and James. James pulled you in his wagon and took you for lots of rides in his Jeep. He also let you play with his favorite Transformers toys, but asked you to be “a little bit careful”.

You are 13 months old now! You are all over the place now walking, running, talking more. This weekend you said No and Baby for the first time that I've heard. So, at this point you can say those two things and Mama, Dada, Mommy, I, Daddy, Uh Oh, No, Kitty, Pepper, Shelby, Dixie and Night Night. You also use the sign language you learned at daycare to tell me milk and more. Right now, your favorite things to do are play outside, swing at the park, splash in your pool or the tub, stand at the front door and look out the glass door, say Bye Bye to everyone and everything, try to climb the stairs on your own because you are not supposed to. You love touching the electrical outlets and listening to us say no over and over again. You have already figured out how to remove the covers we put on them, so we have to get new ones. You enjoy clapping your hands to pat a cake or a Korean song Grandma taught you called Jam Mocho. You are a really funny and sassy girl. You talk all the time, but we don't know what you are saying :) You keep us all entertained and laughing most of the time.

Your new favorite place to sit when the baby gate is down - the first step.

James pulling you in the wagon I used to pull him in.

You borrowed Daddy's Braves hat

Surveying the scene at the park

Ready to jump on the swings

Looking for ducks to share your cracker with

Deciding if you want to share your cracker with the geese.

Hanging out in the cozy coupe

Zooming down the hill

Pointing at Mommy

Showing off in the Jeep

Going for a ride in the Jeep with cousin James

You guys looked so adorable in the Jeep together

James was being such a big boy showing you the ropes

James hamming it up for the camera

Birthday Party Pictures

These are the photos from our camera. I hope to add lots more as we receive them from people.

This is the only picture of the three of us and you do not look happy!

This is the giant cupcake your Aunt Joann made for you.

Cupcakes...Yummy!!


Your super cute hat I forgot to put on you for cake until Emo grabbed it and
put it on your head about halfway through.


You were amazed by the bright decorations like these paper puffs mommy and Katie made.

More paper puffs on the front porch. Your Emo from Korea is holding you.

Showing off your hanbuk (traditional korean bday dress)

You did not know what to think about this outfit.

Mommy holding you while we open cards and gifts.

Playing with the giant alphabet caterpillar Katie gave you.

Checking out more gifts and cards.

Taking a breather with Daddy on the deck. You always look so serious!

Singing Happy Birthday and smashing the cake!

Avery is ONE!

I can't believe you have been here for a whole year! It absolutely flew by. It has been the most exciting, fun and meaningful year of our lives. We had a big birthday bash at our house to celebrate and so many people that love you were there. Although you probably won't remember it, we tried to make it a very special day for you.

We didn't get as many pictures as we would have liked because the day was more hectic than we expected.

You spent the day being spoiled by your grandparents, aunts, uncles and everyone who came to celebrate. You wanted to walk around and check everything out. The whole party was done in pink and green. We had a giant cupcake that your Aunt Joann made for you and then regular cupcakes for everyone else. We opened presents and then sang Happy Birthday before you dug into your cupcake. You were very shy about it and didn't get very messy at all. You tried to lean down and take a bit, but the cupcake was so huge it didn't work out so well. I think the audience scared you. At one point, you acted shy and hid your face. Your favorite part about the cake was picking off all the pink and green polka dots.

You were so excited about all of your wonderful gifts -your first baby doll, first wagon filled with beach toys, bounce and spin zebra, books, tons of new outfits, fridge dj, sensory balls, girly cars, outdoor swing, big girl princess sippy cups, cookie sorter toy, super soft teddy bear and the list goes on and on and on...

I can't wait to see what future years bring and if we can top this party next year and for years to come!

New Blog!

I am finally starting a blog after a long time of thinking about it. I really wish I had started one while I was pregnant to document every moment and then during your first year too. I can't go back, but I do want to keep a record of all our memories so that maybe one day you can go down memory lane. By the time you are grown up, I won't remember when you said your first word or got your first tooth, but my blog will. You have brought us so much joy over the last year. I can't even remember what life was like before you came into this world. You have been such a gift and we treasure you more than you will ever know. You may understand one day when you have a little girl or boy. Until then, just believe me - you are mommy and daddy's whole world!

Your first year was filled with firsts - first bath, first tooth, first word, first smile, first laugh, first steps, first day at daycare, first time sleeping through the night, first trip to the zoo, first bite of food, first time at the beach, first time in a pool, etc. We have so much to look back on and so much to look forward to.

I will try to update this on a regular basis so I can share it with you when you are older. How fun will it be to look at this in 10 or 20 years?

I love you my little bear! :)

Mommy