Say Again?

Of course, there are many things Avery says that only we understand.  There are just as many things it seems that we haven't figure out yet.

Here is one of the more recent ones that we managed to translate:
"suck" -> at first I thought it was another variation of sock but it never happened in situations that made sense.  We've discovered that it tends to actually be "I suck" meaning "I'm/it's stuck".

Here's one that we can't nail down, it sounds like she's saying "dumb".  I'm at a complete loss.

Other things I hear a lot:
"I do I do I do I do" spoken with urgency.

Action packed day

After our typical Saturday morning Avery and I quickly headed back out to attend the first birthday party she was invited to!  Actually we were all invited as they are friends of her Dad who had a little lady, but it felt like Avery's first birthday party.

After that we went to visit her Nonno!  We sat outside and enjoyed the nice weather and walked around the yard collecting different flowers and chasing the chickens.  As part of that visit she also made her first (and probably very few) visits to McDonald's at Nonno's suggestion to check out the play area.  She ended up crying three times thanks to other kids in 15 minutes.  sigh.

The best part was that she was pretty wiped but cuddly when we got home, so I got a nice long cuddle and solid hugs as we sat upstairs for bedtime.

Gnap Gnap

Have you ever watched the episode of the Smurfs where a purple fly bites one and then they start biting, saying "gnap"?  Yep.  Avery is all "gnap gnap".  She's been a bit bitey the past week when she isn't happy with us for constraining her (picking her up when she needs to go do something).  I guess it was inevitable, but I was hoping to have skipped that phase since we're to 20 months and they say that starts around 18 months.

While we were away on vacation she also popped out the two lower cuspids.  Now we're down to 6 more to go.  This at least explained a few bouts of diaper rash we've had lately.  I do wonder if it encourages the biting, but her instances of biting all seem to be frustration-based.

We did have a nice cruise vacation together.  Avery did well sleeping and we managed to eat in the dining room.  She wasn't much of an eater onboard, but we did pretty well without needing a ton of outside food brought on.  While in Bermuda we took Avery to a pink sand beach where she played with her bucket and shovel in the sand.  She still is not a fan of cool water lapping up at her feet - be it ocean water or the 'beach' pool onboard.  In Boston we took Avery to the aquarium.  Despite the obscene crowd we had a good time and she enjoyed watching the penguins, fish, sharks, and other critters.

We have lots of great photos once again of her, and the whole family.  Sunday was Easter, so we put even more miles in heading to two get togethers.  All of these miles in the past week and a half and it was the last couple miles that scared me.  Last night we were very lucky on the highway coming home from a bit of shopping.  Ben's car is a bit banged up as a result, but we are all well.  To my knowledge the folks in the other vehicles were also ok.  Long story short a dog ran across the highway.  Ben was in the left lane.  He and the driver to our right slammed on their breaks.  Unfortunately, the guy to our right had another car behind him, and a tractor trailer behind that.  The truck didn't get stopped fast enough and crunched the car in the middle, which we believe popped out and came into our lane, hitting us.  I believe the dog also was safe and ran up the hillside.  Thank you God for watching over us all.

Losing Track

This morning I asked Avery, to see what she would say, what was on the socks I was preparing to put on her.  She announced well enough that I know she understood that they were dinosaurs.  You're correct!  When I asked what was on her dress she instead decided to put her hands into and announce 'pockets'.  Well played girl, yes, there are pockets on that dress ... in addition to the flamingos.

We're to the point now where I've lost track of the words she has used and what she understands.  We sat down with a baby's first 100 words book before heading to school since we had a few extra moments and I started asking her where certain things were, getting her to point.  She's doing a pretty good job with a lot of things that she isn't saying yet in addition to the words that are getting solidified.

She is also picking her own shoes now, even climbing up on the side of the toy box to reach them on her own.  I'm so in trouble.  I think I need a little mini tray to put them on the floor.