she's 1!

 Avery turned one year old on Friday! It was quite an adventurous birthday, since we stayed at our friends' house Thursday night through late Friday afternoon, due to a furnace issue. I called about something I thought would be a minor repair, but the gas company "red tagged" our furnace, and the whole thing had to be replaced before we could have heat again. The new furnace wasn't installed until Saturday morning, and our friends had family coming into town Friday night, so we slept pioneer-style in our 49-degree house. Well, sort of - we bunked with a heater and electric blanket, so it really wasn't bad for sleeping. Before going to bed, though, we ate dinner at Emiliano's Mexican restaurant, then came home to sit by a heater and build a fire. We roasted marshmallows and sang Happy Birthday to Avery by the fire's glow, so it actually made for a pretty sweet little birthday, not that she'll remember any of it!

Some updates on our one-year-old:

She is just over 18 lbs., as we found out last Monday when she had an upper respiratory infection. Poor girl made it a whole year with no sick visits to the doctor but got slammed with throat and ear issues, as well as a fever. They gave her an antibiotic and she is back to normal again, though!

She has 8 teeth - four front top ones, three front bottom ones (not sure where the 4th is!), and now a molar!

She takes multiple steps! She's definitely becoming braver with walking and will take 4-5 steps at a time. Her only real word is "uh oh" (if that's even considered a word!), but she repeats mama, dada, "good girl", and other sounds. She still loves to talk in her crazy tongue language.   

 She is so feisty! She's constantly on the move and looking for trouble, and has very little interest in toys. She is louder than ever, and I really hope that once she talks, she will stop her screeching and screams to let us know she is bored/tired/lonely/mad, etc! Being confined is absolute torture for her, and she will not last long in her high chair, car seat, or gated room. She is very agile and climbs steps in seconds. She also has a little temper on her. For example, if she has something and you take it away from her, she will yell and sometimes throw herself backwards in protest. Lovely! She is so darn funny, though, so I guess you could say she has a pretty full personality. She is so small-framed and delicate, but her personality is not!

We just love this girl to pieces. She brings so much joy and humor (and noise) into our lives. I love this age, but it was still a little sad to think back to a year ago. Her arrival was such a wonderful experience, and I really cherish the memories of my hospital stay with her as a newborn, crazy as that sounds!