A Letter to Avery

To My Sweetheart, Avery ~
At 12:39pm, on February 2nd, 2009 - you joined our family. I call you my sweetheart because of all the love you have to give ~ there is no doubt your 'love language' is Touch. You are completely comforted by hugs and kisses, and your favorite thing to do is cuddle. I know there will be a time when cuddling isn't cool - so I'll take it while I can get it!

The games you love to play are 'peek-a-boo', and 'I'm gonna get you!' You have 6 teeth, can be considered a speed crawler, and you just recently started walking.  You LOVE your siblings and laughing and playing with them, if there is ever a time I'm not sure where you crawled off to - I look in your brothers' room and that's where I find you.

Your personality was there from the start - a total people-person, you like to be around others, you have an opinion and have no problem sharing it (pretty loudly, I might add).  You are by far the most determined child I have ever encountered.  If you see something you want, you don't stop until you get it.  It's usually shoes, and if we are successful in keeping you away, you wait until we aren't paying attention, and you go for it again.
You are so much like your brother in regards to food.  If you see food and it isn't readily available for your consumption, you scream until it's in your mouth.  A lot like when Evan was a baby, we have had to hide the fact we are making a bottle, or just listen to you scream.  You have enjoyed every new food we have given you, but we are still working on figuring out if your eczema is related to a food allergy - we have been avoiding bananas for a couple months - but we think there must be something else.  We haven't found a rhyme or reason to it so far...

Some of the words you say are mama, dada, hi, all done (ah duh - and you can sign it).  We keep trying to teach you to sign "more" but you seem pretty content with yelling!  You just started to roar like a lion - although I can't seem to get you to do it on camera...  You "talk" all the time, and seem to have so much to say - it's almost like you are babbling full sentences.

Happy Birthday Sweetheart,
Mommy