Our little baby is now a toddler. It’s amazing how quickly they change. Avery took his first few steps on Saturday, and each day since there’s been noticeable improvement. He’s also been especially hungry lately, and has been devouring everything. Today Lindsey was going to share a pear with Avery, but the hungry little caterpillar ate the whole thing.


Pausing to read a book.

Avery did a lot of changing this past week. It seems like a light went off in his head, and now he’s trying all sorts of new things. The big news is he start walking! It began with a few steps between Mommy and Daddy, but before long we was traveling ten or fifteen steps in a row. He gets a huge grin and puts his arms straight out to keep his balance. It’s the cutest thing to watch.
Avery also started eating a lot of new foods. For the past couple of months he’s been a picky eater, leery of anything new. Now he’s liable to climb up your leg if you’ve got something he’s interested in. Here are a few of the things he just discovered:

• Peas & carrots
• Diced peaches & pears
• Mint girl scout cookies
• Pizza with pepperoni and sausage
• Mommy’s bran muffins
• Daddy’s oatmeal with whipped cream
• Ice cream with chocolate syrup

He has a funny habit of sorting his food. We’re not exactly sure what his system is, but he moves some of his food to the side of his tray, and then returns it to the middle before eating it.
Other new skills include: clapping, waving, and climbing. His vocabulary has expanded to include: gah (dog), Mama, Dada, hay, bye bye, ball, ook (book), boa (boat), and uh oh.


Avery loves to hang out in his chair.




We painted the living/dining room last week while Avery was sleeping.

We took Avery to the doctors office on Tuesday for a checkup. In December when we took Avery in he had the flu and his weight was a little low. Since then we (read: Mommy) have been making sure our son gets plenty to eat. She’s really good about getting him to try new things, and very tolerant when he doesn’t cooperate. I find it more difficult to bear.
The sad news is our doctor, who recently became a father himself, is leaving the 15-hour-days in family practice in favor of 12-hour-days in the urgent care clinic. He’s been a great doctor for us, throughout the pregnancy, delivery, and first 10 months of Avery’s life. We’ll miss seeing him.

Avery hit 10 months old last week. His Birthday is coming up fast. Amazing how quick it slips by.
For today’s entry I’m going to use a slightly different format. Normally I write a little bit about what’s happening in our life and then show a few pictures. For this entry I’m going to share the story with each picture.
This first shot was taken in the morning light as Avery was taking a look out the window. Avery isn’t walking yet, but he’s cruising along couches, windowsills, etc. He’s taken interest in the cords on the blinds so part of the morning routine involves raising all the blinds up just out of Avery’s reach.

This past week Avery had a cold. Lindsey and I felt terrible for him, especially for the first day or so when he had a little fever. In this picture we were getting ready to take him for a walk and he didn’t like getting all dressed up. Poor guy.

In this shot he was having a long bath with Mommy. Avery really enjoys being in the bath, and the steam helped with the congestion. Mommy helped him with the hairdo.

The other day Avery was walking back and forth along the empty bathtub trying to reach in and grab his bath toys. Then he turned around and discovered the lever on the toilet. Maybe we can potty train him early?