… and eats and eats and eats and eats! Avyn has been sharing our meals for about a month and she loves them. She gets really agitated if we don’t offer her food when we are eating or snacking, and actually chews and swallows most of the food we give her. We put her and Sean next to each other for now, so she can see how he eats, and he can learn some sharing manners while she’s little enough to not cause him too much trouble. I love the way they influence each other. She likes his silverware, and I let her try some beans with on a pre-loaded spoon one day. She loved getting to eat like her big brother! Sean wasn’t a huge fan of plain avocado (loves guacamole, though), but when I gave it to Avyn all of a sudden he started requesting “appatado” at lunch. Love seeing them at the table together!

I wasn’t quite ready to say goodbye to Sean’s little boy locks, but Ryan was convinced that he was hot and sweaty under all of it. So, I buzzed it… first I cut Ryan’s hair and Sean watched, then the next day I “cut” the hair of multiple stuffed animals while they sat in the chair and wore the cape. Sean took a little bit of convincing when it was his turn but not too much. I do love his hair now, the look and the fact that it is less in his way.

Along with the big boy hair cut, he’s acting like a big boy in so many ways. His older cousin was over the other night, and after they ate Sean said “Let’s go Brendan!” and they ran into his room to play. His tone was very “hey the adults are in here let’s go play cars”. He talks in really long 10-15 word sentences, or stories, and even ordered his own water at dinner the other day when asked by the waiter, with no prompting from us. The waiter just wrote it down and then asked what I wanted, not even knowing that it was Sean’s first time to order on his own. It reminded me of when we were learning different languages, when we go to the point where we could have an interaction without someone knowing that we were practicing, where our language was accepted without comment and the appropriate thing happened. So fun!

Avyn learned to blow through her lips the other day… you can see that her brother is very distracting to her in her practicing. But, she loves seeing what he’s doing and tries to participate when she can. She’s still a mama’s girl, and she gives hugs and kisses when I pick her up, which is so sweet. She has signed Mama and milk with intention, and was so happy when we responded correctly. She loves her daddy and brother, and if she can hear them at all she wants to abandon whatever is happening (nursing, changing, playing) to see what they are doing.

She is quite the little trooper, but still very opinionated. I took her to Austin by myself for a reception for a friend who was moving overseas. We drove down in the afternoon and back after the reception the same day, so it was quite a journey. She did so well, and entertained herself in the backseat or slept the whole way. But, a couple of times she dropped her favorite rattle and she let out her “indignant” cry that stopped as soon as I dropped the rattle back in the seat.