10 Months Old

At 10 months old, Avery is into everything. I recently busied myself with something in the kitchen only to turn around to find her like this. She was happy as a clam until she figured out she was stuck!

Avery can now "drink" out of a sippy cup. Mostly she just raises it up and down from her mouth, but she does take a few sips. She can also hold her own bottle now, though she prefers to go the lazy route and have it held for her. She loves feeding herself so I give her as many finger foods as possible. Her favorites are cheese and mandarin oranges.

Avery is such a little sponge; it seems like she learns something new everyday. She can now wave bye-bye and pull herself up to do one of her two favorite things: play on her Leapfrog table or pull all the books and magazines she can reach off the coffee table. Avery also says several words. Besides mama and dada, she says hi, uh-oh and doggie,. One of her favorite games is to say "uh-oh" then toss a toy or a bit of food on the floor. The dogs really have made themselves useful lately!

We're heading to Meme and Grandpas to celebrate Thanksgiving. I hope Meme is busy baby-proofing!

Target Portraits

Avery modeled both her Tar Heel cheerleader outfit (thanks Angela B!) and her Halloween costume at the Target Portrait Studio a few weeks ago. We had a great experience there and got some cute photos!

Leaves, leaves, leaves!

Last weekend, we took Avery hiking at the Pine Log Creek Trail near our house. She loves being outside in nature, so really enjoyed our trek. She, however, did not like being in the back pack carrier, and tolerated it for maybe 1/2 of the over 3 miles we hiked. She preferred to ride on Daddy's hip, though I did take a turn carrying her. In my defense, last time we went to Pine Log, I was 7 or 8 months pregnant with her, so technically, I took my turn carrying her on a hike!

Avery likes to explore new textures. She thought tree bark was especially interesting.

Avery loves leaves. Loves them. She is infatuated with them. She's especially curious about how they taste. I'm constantly fishing leaves from her mouth when we are outside. Yuck!

She how much joy simply holding this leaf brings Avery? Forget the leapfrog learning table and bring on a pile of leaves.

Avery carried a leaf in each hand almost the entire hike. She was sad to part with them at the parking area, but I knew the minute I took my eyes off her, these would go in her mouth!

We are looking for a new backpack child carrier that Avery would be more comfortable in since she enjoyed our outing so much. Anyone have any suggestions? Avery will write a letter to Santa...but the first item on her list is leaves!