Hip Hop Avi

The video speaks for itself. Enjoy!

He Walks!

After many months of not-so-patiently waiting, Avi finally took his first real steps alone last night. He's done it again a few times today, too, so we think he's finally on his way to walking. Avi turned 13 months today, so it's about time. We're sure that in a few weeks, he'll be zooming around the house!

He Speaks!

Avi's been saying "Hi" since he was just a few months old, seemingly on purpose, and he said "kitty" (his first "official" word) at 10 months. Now, at 12 months, Avi adds new words to his vocabulary every day. When we went for our 12 month appointment (fyi, Avi weighed 22 lb, 15 oz--50th percentile, and was 31.5 inches tall--90th percentile!), the doctor asked how many words he had, and I realized I didn't know, so I began to keep a list.

Avi's list of words: Hi, Kitty, Woof Woof, car, ball, go, teeth, nose, ear, eye, cracker, juice, bottle, spoon, bowl, no!, don't!, Bye Bye, mine, monkey (he also makes the "ooo ooo ooo" sound that goes with monkey!), Mooo (for cows), baaa (for sheep), nice, choo choo (train), book, light, bean, pea, night night, shoe, sock, belt (he loves Abba's belts), balloon, silly, challah and giggle giggle (by which we think he means "tickle tickle"). He's not as into names. He says "da-ah" for Daya, but only this week has he started to say "Abba" clearly enough that we know he means it, and he's started to say "Ma" in such a way that I HOPE it means Ema....One day I'm sure he'll say it, right?

He's also started saying "Oh Boy!" when he's really excited about something, and now that he is finally into reading, he has memorized cues for different pages of his favorite books, including animal sounds. When he wants to read Dear Zoo, he says "too tall!" because of the page where the zoo sends a giraffe, and the line reads "He was too tall. I sent him back." When we get to the end of a page of Five Silly Monkeys, he wags his finger and says "no mo mon", which means "No more monkeys jumping on the bed!" Speaking of books, Avi loves to read The Very Hungry Caterpillar in Hebrew and says "toot" (strawberry) and "parpar" (butterfly), which is pretty impressive. He loves Tootim so much, in fact, that all fruit is now called "toot."

And there you have it. It's absolutely amazing to see him develop language skills. We keep trying to catch it on video, but no such luck yet. Soon enough, we'll post a video here for you of Avi reading a book to us!

Avi's First Real Purim

Last Purim, Avi was just a few weeks old, so none of us was up for dressing up and going out for Purim. This year, our little Monkey went to the Purim carnival at the JCC and the megillah reading at Kavana dressed as Curious George. He ate his first hamentaschen (apricot) and LOVED it, and had tons of fun lookng at all the other kids' costumes. Chag Purim Sameach!

Happy Birthday, Avi!

Our little baby is a whole year old! On Feb 27, 2009, Avi turned one. It's hard to believe how much time has passed, and how much he has changed from the tiny (ok, not so tiny) newborn we brought home from the hospital to the energetic, opinionated, adorable little boy we now know. The next year will be just as amazing, we're sure. Here are some photos of our little guy's big day, including the banana chocolate chip cake shaped like a turtle that his Nana Cheryl made for him!

Avi Moves to Seattle

Last month, we finally joined Abba Jeremy in Seattle, after 5 weeks with Saba and Savta. Sadly, we had to leave Bernard behind for now as we were too late checking in for them to accept the cat on the flight. This was very traumatic for Ema, but luckily we will be coming back to NJ in April for Pesach and we can bring him back with us then. Avi misses his kitty, too, but is having a grand old time in his new home, crawling the steps and exploring every nook and cranny of our new place. Here are some highlights from this month, including Avi's first trip to the Woodland Park Zoo, the Experience Music Project, and the new piano his Abba got him, as well as his grand new bathtub!