Dear Avery,
Oh how you love to move! Climb, twirl in circles on your bottom, lift yourself up, race down the hallway on all fours, and most recently walk with two grown up fingers in either hand. In the past few days your desire to walk has intensified. Throughout the day you will go from sitting to standing without any support and then stand there with a huge grin and slight wobble until your legs buckle.
You are so very busy and have very little time for toys colored bright and designed for small hands. Instead there are cupboards to explore, open dishwashers to climb inside, a pantry door slightly ajar, a iron fireplace about your height, a screen door left open a crack, and a toddler bed that you can climb up on. And, open doors are just about the best.
When you are tired from your adventures in seeking out ordinary small place dangers you screech loudly and raise your arms up for comfort or food. And, you are no picky or dainty eater. You have yet to refuse an offering. Your pick across your tray of fruit, cheese, vegetable, and meat bits with great purpose and pleasure. And, you will grab whole sandwiches off Zealand's plate when the coast is clear. You are in other words, hungry - for life and food.
Keeping you out of harm's way is my job most of the day. There is nothing you won't try or get into. Someone is always peeling you off some wobbly surface, or retrieving you from the bathroom or off of the deck leading to the outdoors. You love the outdoors and our rough backyard is no deterrent. So eager are you to move about that scratchy grasses and uneven rock patios are no bother. You crawl with your butt in the air and knees off of the ground in some sort of modified crawl/walk.
And, you love, love, love the water. The minute you spot a tub of water that you are certain is for you, you start crying and pushing yourself out of my arms toward the water. You splash and pull yourself up to standing on the sides of the bath and then release for a huge delightful plop.
The other day you climbed in and out of the baby pool on the grass for a good hour.
And, when it has all become too much you slide your thumb in your mouth, tilt your head, and use your other hand to rhythmically rub your upper lip or the underside of your thumb sucking hand. Your eyes become dreamy and you are calm.
When you are not scooting through the house conquering the world you really do stop and take in all that is around you. There is a depth behind those pretty blues that is always filling up. You stare intensely at people and objects around you and at times you adopt expressions that can be disarming. You don't just look at someone - you look inside them it seems. At times your head will tilt, your eyes will cast coyly downwards, you put on a half smile and you really engage people around you.
You also like to put your head into other people's heads when you are being held, especially if I say "kissy kissy." You like a good cuddle, and a good giggle, for that matter.
You are a real silly willy and love to be tickled. You have a low throaty giggle that is just the cutest. Your brother can make you laugh the most. The two of you love "silly kids" on our big bed. Rolling around shrieking/laughing.
In fact, your first word, it seems, is "tickle tickle." At first I thought it was just a sound you were making and then I realized that you were saying "tickle tickle." This is your signature word, so far. You are even called "tickle tickle" at times. It suits you, somehow.
Your other words, besides mama and dada are "da" for dog. I have said it before, but you just love animals. Dogs, horses, kitties, and birds throw you into a smiley, squirmy place of delight. I sometimes wonder if you have inherited your love of animals from the other AK, Auntie Annika. You love books with animals, and babies too.
Story time has become a special time for you. You now have the attention span to sit with a story. I love watching your face as I read a story to you. You smile and your face just lights up with wonder. You point at the pictures and eagerly reach to turn the pages. It is very sweet.
I can't imagine a more perfect cocktail of a little girl. You are a huge mess all of the time. Did I mention that you love to eat dirt, rocks, sticks, stones, really anything on the ground? You are feisty, fiery, stubborn, persistent, determined, active, fearless, and you are also sweet, coy, shy at times, with a dab of utter femininity that all the mud in the world could not cover up. You are so very alive and I feel so blessed to be your mother and continue to be inspired to be my best so you have the most positive role models out there for all it can mean to be a human, a girl, woman, and so on.
You bring so much to our family already in just a year. And, your brother too - lessons about sharing love, toys, and how to manage all of the feelings that come up when you are so close to someone else. He is working on it, even if at times he sneaks in a push or pulls to hard when you are chewing on one of his beloved trains. The funny thing, even as he struggles with jealousy or wanting ALL of the attention, he wants to be just like you. He will ask to have his shoes off, like "baby avy," or he wants to be in just a diaper, "like baby avy." And, he will crawl after you on all fours the two of you giggling down the long hallway.
A few weeks before Zealand's 3rd birthday party with his friends at the Discovery Museum I asked Zealand if he would rather you stay at home so he can have his mama, dada, and friends all to himself - a big boy party sort of thing. That week had been particularly tough for him - more pushing than normal. He surprised me by saying, no, he would like baby Avy at his party. I found that to be telling, a true measure of his love, versus the acting out during long, sometimes frustrating days with his momma and baby sister.
Well, we all couldn't be more proud. You seemed to have turned one years old in a blink of an eye, gracefully finding your place in our family of four. None of us can imagine our family without you in it. Not even a 3 year old birthday party with all boys and trains and the promise of undivided attention from mom and dad. If that doesn't say it all, I don't know what does.
Love,
Momma
