Walking and Talking

Avery took her first step (just one) on September 24th, at 13 1/2 months. Sadly, Bryndon was working and didn't see it. Then took 3 steps at church on September 30th, which Bryndon missed again. :( She continued to take a few steps here or there for a few weeks, then she officially started walking on October 25th, when she was 14 1/2 months! It was very exciting because we were getting impatient to see that girl walk! All her friends and relatives that are her age or younger had been walking for months already, so we set a goal (not that we really made it happen) for her to be able to walk by Halloween, and she did just in time! :) Here's a video of her just after she decided she'd do it (I really think it was a decision or else a realization that it wasn't that scary). She's a champ now, and is all over the place (I see why people said not to be in too much of a hurry to get her walking...). But it definitely is cute to see her little body waddling around the house. :)

She's also talking quite a bit, which is very fun. She started saying some words when she was around 10 months or so, and has learned about 30 words now! It amazes me-- she learns new words every week. I thought I'd document her words at 15 months, and the funny way she says them. And by the way, some of these words she'll say without any prompts from us, but others she says on her own--I'm just counting all of them because she really does know what they mean or represent.

Avery's words (the first 8 are in order of when she said them and the rest are mixed up):

Dadda
Momma
Baby
More
Milk (Mell - said with tongue out to the side)
No 

Banana (Nanana)
Book (Boo)
Pumpkin (Boppees)
Crackers (Dedders or Daddis)
Bread (Bebb or Ba)
Cheese

Ball (Ba)
Up (Pah)

Down (Dew)
Meat (Meee)

Stairs/upstairs/downtairs (Tews)

Apple (Bappis or Po)

Outside (she only whispers it- it's hilarious)

Keys

Bib (Buh or Bee or Bubba- I try to pronounce things clearly, so to her it sounded like I was saying "Bibba" with the two b's)

Beans (Bees)

Beads (Bees, and yes, she knows they're different)

Socks (Soss)

Shoes (Shoosh)

Big Bird (Buh Buh)

Dearie (her grandma Williams - Dee)

Papa (her grandpa Williams)
Fishies (the crackers - Sheees)

Help (her latest word - Hhhh)

?Please (the only time I've heard her say it is when she surprised me after I asked, "Can you say 'more please'"? and she said 'more please', and did it again when I asked her to later. But she may have been just repeating what she heard. The funny thing is that she knows how to sign 'please' so I'm just not sure.)

Grace (I was telling her one day that we were going to go over to see Auntie Grace and she said "Dace" or "Deece" a couple different times), but hasn't said it since. :)

Jesus (Jeez)

She also does a few signs:

More

Please

Food
Thank you

(See a theme here? She's motivated to communicate when it comes to food.)

She loves animals and makes a few of their sounds:

Dog (her favorite - she says "ruff" and pants with her mouth wide open)

Duck (she also loves and makes a high-pitched squeaking/squawking sound)

Kitty (she sticks her tongue out to the side and says "meh" which is supposed to be "meow" whenever she sees a cat or a picture of a cat)

Snake ("sssss")

Monkey ("eee eeee")

And she knows how to fold her arms when we pray and says "Men" at the exact time (or even before) we say Amen. She also says "Beeeeeeep" when the microwave beeps - usually when warming up her milk.

So that's it for now! She's a lot of fun (when she's happy). :)