10 Things You Might Not Know About Avery

1. She Loves to Push Things.

Her walker – obviously. Other items would be dining room chairs, my guitar, boxes, large toys, a vacuum. But the most unusual habit she has when it comes to pushing things around is when we’re at Target. There is something about those bright red, smooth carts that make her throw a fit and demand to be held – against my chest facing out – so both her hands can be on the cart pushing it around the store. Oh, and my hands cannot be holding the cart AT ALL. This is grounds for an immediate “foul” and the offending hands are aggressively removed.

2. She Drinks Water All Night Long.

Avery has slept through the night exactly once in her entire life. Once I quit nursing her at night, she would still wake up 5-6 times screaming, crying. I finally tried giving her water and she literally chugged 5 ounces and fell flat on her face back asleep. I then realized that perhaps the key to her sleeping through the night was that she was thirsty – and then proceeded to put a sippy cup in her crib and showed her how to find it and get a drink on her own during the night. So, instead of waking me up 5-6 times, I now hear her up 5 times shuffling around her crib searching for her cup with a subsequent “glug, glug, glug, (glug, glug, glug)” and then she puts herself back down. Ahhhh…

3. She Listens.

I have been around a lot of babies recently, and I have to say that Avery – although one to continuously test boundaries – listens and knows right from wrong. For example – putting rocks in her mouth. I told her once not to with a stern voice and an “ah ah ah!” noise I make for anything that I don’t want her to do. It affected her – she is moved by the negative response. So, from there on she didn’t put rocks in her mouth anymore. Every once in a while I’d see her looking at me out of the corner of her eye, rock sitting on her lip – but as soon as I’d say “Avery” – she smiled and put it down. Another baby I watched was doing the same thing – I responded the same way – stern voice and “ah ah ah!” and literally nothing happened. Over and over and over again I repeated my words, but this other baby just kept on doing it. Unaffected. It was strange to me.
Not Avery. She hears the rules and understands and is affected by a serious voice – most of the time. It’s really amazing.

4. Speaking of Listening.

Avery knows books by the content inside them. When we sit down in front of her book shelf I’ll recite lines from any of the books in front of us – and she will acknowledge the words with a smile and quickly move to find it. Every book she knows by heart. Not by titles or pictures, but by words.

4. How Water Truly Affects Her.

Did you ever see that movie Big Fish where the protagonist Ed Bloom just has to “get wet” sometimes to feel right again? This is Avery. The sight of water physically compels her towards it. This could be water coming out of a sink faucet or a large fountain. Or it could be a pan of water in a backyard. If she hears me running the water in the kitchen for more than 10 seconds at a time she comes flying into the kitchen as if to say “is that for me??”. When walking on pedestrian bridges over creeks she grabs the rail and holds on with the strongest grip I’ve ever experienced a 1-year-old to have, staring at the water rushing over rocks. It changes her mood from bad to good. It changes her temperament from frustrated to calm. Her biggest problem in baby swim class was that she was so fully stoked that her mouth never shut – so she was always taking in massive amounts of water. Even the teacher laughed.

5. She Has a Daring Nature.

After months of going down baby slides face first on her belly, we tried for bigger and bigger ones. There came a point where the slides were so big that we would actually attract a small crowd of other parents who would watch her sit at the top of the slide while I ran to the bottom to flag her down. “My god!! How old is she??” they would ask. “13 months” I answered like it was no big deal. Of course, I was very proud of my fearless baby girl.

6. She Loves to Rearrange the Refrigerator

Another sure-fire way to make her happy is to open the fridge and let her go nuts. She most enjoys moving the condiments and trying to get them to “stand up” on the wire shelves. She also greatly enjoys the veggie drawer. One day I even found her halfway through my bag of red potatoes – a pile on the floor with bite marks in them. I think she thought they were apples.

7. She Loves Dirt.

If there is dirt or mud available, she will find it and proceed to dig her fingers in it. With dry dirt her favorite thing to do is take a handful and then “pour” it over her feet. She also enjoys taking a handful of sand and doing what can only be likened to a “polish” of sorts on any nearby objects – so, the bottom of the slide, a metal pole, and smooth steps are all fair game. When we are at the part first thing in the morning, part of me wants to stop her from getting so absolutely filthy before first nap has even happened – but seeing how she is so content, I have to just let her be.

8. If You Give Her Something Special Two Days in a Row, the Third Day Will Bring a Tantrum.

Cookie for dessert? TV? Facetime? Smoothie for breakfast?
I have seen full meltdowns over not receiving all of the previously listed items. One exception: she will throw a tantrum over ice cream regardless of the day.

9. She Understands French.

Avery is allowed to watch exactly two shows. The first being “Little Pim” in French – a DVD language series for kids. Here is a small sample of her vocabulary:
chat (cat)
chien (dog)
c’est chaud (it’s hot)
bon jour (hello)
au revoir (bye)
brosse à dents (tooth brush)
l’eau (water)
un boit du l’eau (a drink of water)

10. She is the Best Baby in the World.

Obviously.