Life with Margo

Margo turned 18-months-old on October 20. Based on her 18-month check-up, she is right on track in her growth (despite some days when she only consumes a yogurt and some cheerios throughout the whole day). She weighed in at 22 lbs, 15.75 oz (okay, lets just round that up to 23 lbs) and measured 32.5 inches tall. She is in the 25th percentile for weight (basically following the same growth curve since birth) and the 75th percentile for height.

At 18-months, Margo’s verbal skills continue to astound her parents. She is a little parrot and will repeat everything that is said to her. She is starting to combine words together (“mommy’s shoes,” “daddy’s snack,” “bye-bye people”), make simple sentences (“daddy sit here,” “mommy read book,” “I see ball”), and even relate whole narratives (“Oh, no. Drop it. Cracker. Find it.”). She knows the names of every kid in her daycare (and can also identify which lunchboxes and jackets belong to each of them). And she knows the words to several of her favorite books, as shown in this video of Pierce reading to Margo and her friend Patrick.

Margo also loves songs and knows some of the words to several of her favorites. She knows almost all the words to Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star and when she sees a star shape in a book, she says “tinkle, tinkle……how I wonder.” When her parents sing “Five Little Monkeys Jumping on the Bed,” she will say the whole last line: “No mo monkey jump in bed.” And she says “row, row, row” when she wants you to sing “Row, Row, Row Your Boat.” Unfortunately, Margo’s singing has proved somewhat difficult to capture on video due to Margo’s strong desire to hold the video camera, but here are a couple moderately successful attempts.

Eighteen months holds new challenges for the Avidons as well. Margo has a strong preference for her mommy these days and really finds it unacceptable for Maia to be directing her attention to anything other than Margo at all times. Margo is also starting to express her feelings a little more intensely. She wants what she wants when she wants it. And if she isn’t getting it, she lets you know — sometimes by crying and throwing herself on the floor. Luckily, distraction seemed to work fairly well so far. Even when it doesn’t, Margo’s tantrums are usually fairly short lived. And, she’s pretty much the sweetest person in the world the rest of the time, so Maia and Jake are managing these developmental changes fairly well.

The biggest changes Maia and Jake have noticed about Margo recently is how much she seems like a little girl and not a baby anymore. She has likes and dislikes. She has favorite books (Kika: My First Word Book) and favorite games (Ring Around the Rosy is a current favorite). She bosses her parents around. She makes jokes. She is growing more independent and wants to do things herself, such as using a spoon or fork to feed herself, as shown in the next video. And, though sometimes it feels like she’s growing up too fast, it is mostly just amazing to watch her personality emerge.

Margo participated in a variety of fun Halloween events this year. The festivities started on Sunday, October 25, when Maia and Margo attended the Jack O’Lantern Jamboree, a Halloween-themed special event at Children’s Fairyland. Margo loved seeing all the kids running around the park in costumes and was intrigued by (if a little afraid of) all the costumed characters. The fun continued on Friday, October 30, when Maia and Margo participated in the Montclair Halloween Parade, a fun, but very short (about 10 minutes), parade through the Montclair neighborhood in Oakland. On the day of Halloween itself, Maia and Margo went to pick out pumpkins at a local pumpkin patch and the Avidons were joined by several friends for La Fiesta del Pumpkin, an annually pumpkin-carving party held at the Avidons house. Halloween night itself was fairly uneventful. The Avidons tried to go trick-or-treating (not so much to collect candy, but just to visit our neighbors), but Margo refused to wear her spider (or “bider,” as Margo says) costume at that time (though she had worn it at all the previous events). The family still took a little walk down the street and enjoyed giving out candy to the trick-or-treaters who stopped by the house.

Margo’s favorite part of Halloween, without a doubt, was the pumpkins. For several weeks leading up to Halloween, Margo talked about pumpkins. The family would frequently take walks down the street to see the pumpkins on the neighbors’ porches. Margo would say hi to them, ask to touch them, and suggest that they give her a high five. Margo especially liked some miniature pumpkins Maia got for her and called them her “tiny pumpkins.”

Margo at the Pumpkin Patch

Margo at Children's Fairyland

Margo and her friend Maya (dressed as the ocean) at the Montclair Halloween Parade.

Pumpkin carvers at La Fiesta del Pumpkin

Margo with her pumpkins. Jake's pumpkin, left, has elephants (or "ottos" as Margo calls them) carved into it.

The Avidons had another spate of out-of-town visitors in October. First, Jake’s childhood friend, Ivan, swung by during a tour of California. Then, Grandma Elaine and Grandpa Richard spent a long weekend here. Ivan’s visit included a trip to one of the Avidons’ favorite (if windy) spots, Crissy Field.

Ivan, Jake & Margo at Crissy Field

With Elaine and Richard, the family explored some of Margo’s favorite parks, attended a concert by Asheba, a children’s musician, at local music spot Ashkenaz, and just enjoyed spending time together. Margo loved having her grandparents around, and applauded when they pulled up in front of the house. Richard and Elaine also took on Margo-duty alone for almost a full day and got to experience changing their first poopy diaper (fun!).

Margo, Richard, & Elaine

Margo is finding lots of new outlets in which to express her creativity. Maia and Margo have started taking a music class on Friday mornings through East Bay Music Together, an organization that leads music classes for children up to age 4 and their parents. The music classes were a birthday gift for Margo from her Great Grandma Miriam. There are 12 kids (ranging from 3 months old to 3 years old) in the class, which includes a mix of singing, dancing, and “playing” musical instruments. Margo especially likes playing the musical instruments and dancing. During the dancing part, she sways her body side to side and stomps her feet very quickly. She is a little less engaged in the singing part of the class and usually takes this time to go collect everyone’s shoes which they took off when they got to class (and then sometimes to try to put the shoes on other people’s feet). She also really enjoys it when the teacher, Andy, plays her guitar. Margo will go up to Andy, look at the guitar very closely, and very softly touch the strings. Here are a few pictures from a recent class.

Margo checks out the drum, while Andy plays guitar.

Margo surveys the scene during free dance.

Margo has also taken up drawing as one of her favorite activities. Maia and Jake try to keep most drawing confined to the kitchen, so as soon as Margo steps foot in the kitchen, she will start to say “draw, draw, pen, pen, Owen, Owen.” (For some unknown reason, Margo almost always talks about Owen, a kid in her daycare, when she draws.) Margo also knows where Maia and Jake store the scratch paper and will go get herself a piece if her parents aren’t quick enough to meet her needs. While coloring, Margo likes to ask for various colors of crayons, especially yellow (“lellow”), purple, blue, and orange. She doesn’t necessarily know which color crayon goes with each name, but she does like to say the color names. Margo also likes to have other people draw things for her, especially circles. Jake’s co-worker Lynn recently gave the Avidons a hand-me-down child-sized table and chairs (and washable crayons to protect the walls), so there will soon be an art center set up in the Avidon house.

Here are a couple more Margo-isms inadvertently left off the previous list:

1) Every night, Maia or Jake read Margo “The Sleep Book” by Dr. Suess. The book is fully of lines like “The news just came in…,” “This is very big news, it’s important to know…,” etc. Margo calls this book “news” and now requests it when she is getting ready for bed.

2) Margo likes to pretend to drink “juice” from an empty cup and often likes to play with a spoon and small tupperware and pretend she is eating. She will say, “yummy” as she takes a bite of her “yogurt.”

3) When Margo sees a box of tissue, she says “nose.” Then she holds the tissue to her nose and makes a blowing noise with her mouth.

4) Margo likes to take a square of toilet paper off the roll, crumple it up, and say “garbage” and then throw it away. (Unfortunately, she then likes to reach into the garbage can to get it back.)

5) Margo likes to use a wet paper towel or the swiffer to clean around the house.

Margo in the coffee table

Margo is constantly cracking up her parents with all of her antics. Here, in no particular order, are some silly, hilarious, or just plain adorable things that Margo does.

1) Maia and Jake  replaced their coffee table with some ottomans that have room for storage inside. Margo will come up to the ottoman, say “open,” then climb inside and play peek-a-boo.

2) When Margo is getting tired, such as just before a nap, she will take some clothes out of her dresser, lay them out very carefully on the floor, and say “ni-ni.” She will also put her dolls and stuffed animals to bed by laying them on the floor, patting them, and saying “ni-ni.”

3) When Margo wants you to hold her, she lifts up her arms and says “hold you.” Because Maia would always say, “you want me to hold you” when Margo lifted up her arms, Margo came to think of “hold you” as one word that means “hold me.”

4) When you ask Margo to give you 5, she slaps your hand and says “Alright.”

5) When Margo wants to read a book, she will get the book, sit in your lap and say “yap.”

6) When music (or “mik,” as Margo calls it) is played, Margo will dance by swaying her body side to side.

7) When counting, Margo says “twoooo,” after you say “one.”

8 ) Margo likes to hug and will ask for one by saying “huc.” She often asks to hug dogs, other kids at her daycare, or even total strangers (for example, in the line at the grocery store).

9) When Margo sees something she knows she is not supposed to touch, such as an electrical outlet, she will wag her finger at it and say “no, no.” This does not necessarily prevent her from touching it, however.

10) When you tell Margo you love her, she says “I…you” or “Yuv you.”

11) Thanks to her grandfather Jimmy’s obsession with his i-phone, Margo now calls all phones “i-shone” and asks to see pictures on them.

12) For no apparent reason, Margo calls all elephants “otto.”

13) When you are laying down, Margo will climb on top of you and say “horsie… neigh” until you play horsie with her. Similarly, she will climb on top of cardboard boxes to play horsie.

14) When Margo is eating in her high chair, she likes to play footsie with you under the tray and will ask to play by saying “footsie.”

15) When Margo gets really excited, she will slap your chest. She also loves to say “yay” and clap at the end of songs.

Maia, Jake, and Margo spent a wonderful 15 days in Long Lake, NY, this summer.

Margo definitely thought that Long Lake was a pretty cool place. She especially loved walking up and down the trails between the cabins and exploring all of the exciting things she found along the way. She also absolutely loved the beach and would sit happily digging in the sand for up to 30 minutes (since she normally only spends about 15 seconds on a single activity before she’s onto the next thing, this was pretty impressive). She also added lots of new words to her rapidly expanding vocabulary: pinecone (“pi-toe”), bark, rock, stick, moss, tree, boat, beach, towel, airplane.

Margo was also very excited to spend more time with her East Coast family — Uncle Eric (E’ic), Grandpa Richard (“Bampa”), and Grandma Elaine (“Yain”) — and friends Kenny and Malani. (Her west coast grandparents Nancy and Jimmy also joined the Avidons for a few days). Since returning home, Margo keeps looking for her uncle and grandparents. She often points at strangers on the street and says “E’ic?” or “Bampa?” Today, while Margo was talking on her toy cell phone, Maia asked Margo who she was talking to and she said, “Bampa.”

Kenny, Malani, Richard, Jake, Margo, Eric, Elaine, & Maia on the dock

Uncle Eric and Margo

Margo and her East Coast grandparents, Bampa and Yain

Some highlights of the trip included:

Hiking to Castle Rock in for spectacular views of Blue Mountain Lake. Margo was a little annoyed at the top because Maia and Jake would let her run around (and likely off the side). But, on the way down, Jake taught Margo the word touch. She proceeded to say it about every 10 seconds for the whole hike down (and for the rest of the trip as well), asking to “touch” the trees, logs, leaves, etc.

Jake, Margo & Maia on Castle Rock

Visiting John Dillon Park, a nature area just outside Long Lake, with Maia’s old friend Ken and his 2.5-year-old daughter Nelle. At John Dillon Park, the whole group rode the electric pontoon boat on the lake and Margo and Nelle loved standing out on the deck of the boat and watching the water, the loons, and the float plane land.

Margo on the Pontoon boat at John Dillon Park

Margo exploring "The Pines" at the Wild Center

Visiting The Wild Center, a natural history museum, featuring animals of the Adirondacks. Margo loved seeing the fish and river otters and hiking on the trails surrounding the museum. She especially liked exploring “The Pines,” an outdoor play area with logs to climb on and tree roots to explore.

Exploring all the various beaches along the lake, including Turtle beach, the town beach, and, of course, “Bampa Beach,” the beach on the Avidon’s property.

Eating Yain’s oatmeal blueberry pancakes, which Margo just could not get enough of. They ended up all over Margo’s face, of course.

Margo eats blueberry pancakes

Attending the “Babies belong in Libraries” events at the Long Lake Public Library and meeting all the other moms and babies in Long Lake.

Margo in the town of Long Lake

And, of course, all our other trips to town for ice cream at Custard’s Last Stand, attending the Long Lake Farmer’s Market (where there are no farmers, but some cool crafts and great bread and pickles), browsing at Hoss’s Country Corner, and generally seeing the sights of Long Lake.

On the boat to town

Here are a few videos of Margo enjoying her time in Long Lake.

It was an especially exciting year to visit Long Lake. After 40 years of renting the same property each summer, the Avidons bought the house this year. Congratulations to Bampa and Yain on this exciting step. Maia, Jake, and Margo look forward to many more summer vacations at the Avidon house on Long Lake.

One of Margo’s favorite songs, along with “The Itsy Bitsy Spider,” “The Wheels on the Bus,” and “If You’re Happy, and You Know It,” is “Old MacDonald had a Farm.”

Margo likes to request this song by saying EIO. Margo sings along by saying all the sounds that the various animals make. So far, Margo knows the sounds for the following animals: cow, duck, sheep, dog, pig, rooster (yes, that’s right, Margo says “cock-a-doodle-doo”), snake, monkey, bee, owl, bird, fish (smacks lips together), dolphin (eee, eee), and frog. You might not think all these animals live on a farm, but if you had to sing EIO as many times as Jake and Maia did on our recent trip to New York, you would get pretty creative too.

Here is a video of Margo and Maia singing “Old MacDonald Had a Farm.”

Margo with cousin Caroline at Williard Park

Margo has been doing a lot of exploring of the Bay Area recently. Maia, Jake, and Margo have been trying out all of Oakland and Berkeley’s parks on the weekends. A favorite is Willard Park in Berkeley. Margo particularly likes this park because there are all sort of riding toys that she can ride on. Margo will let you know she’d like to go on a ride by repeating the word “ride” over and over again.

The Avidons first discovered Willard Park when Jake’s cousin Caroline came to town. Caroline took Margo on the tire swing and gave her lots of rides on the riding toys. Needless to say, Margo really enjoyed her trip to the park that day.

Maia, Margo, and Grandma Nancy also ventured further afield with a recent trip to the Bay Area Discovery Museum, a fabulous children’s museum in Sausalito. Margo had a great time playing in the museum’s Tot Spot, an area especially for toddlers. She loved bouncing on the waterbeds, crawling through the tunnels, dressing up like a spider, and splashing in the stream. Here are a few photos from the trip.

Margo has recently developed a strong interest in hats. Sometimes she will stand at her dresser pointing at the drawer where her hats are kept, saying “hat,” “hat,” “hat” over and over again until someone opens the drawer for her. And Maia often arrives at Margo’s daycare to find Margo wearing a dress-up hat from the school’s collection. As you can see from the video, she also loves to take something that is not a hat (like her mother’s underwear or a toy) and put it on her head and call it a “hat.” (As you are watching the video, keep an eye out for Margo panting like a dog–Margo’s version of the baby sign for dog–while she is holding her dog toy and also saying “uh-oh” when she drops the dog.)

Recently, Margo has developed a particular fondness for a Red Sox baseball cap. The hat was a gift from Boston-based friends Julie and Craig — a joke playing off of Jake’s strong dislike for the Red Sox. Somehow, despite her father’s feelings, Margo has really taken to this hat and will wear it all day long. Because of the nearly universal dislike of the Red Sox in Oakland, Maia and Jake are a little concerned that Margo’s attachment to this particular hat will make it difficult for her to make friends. So, Maia and Jake are planning to order an Oakland A’s baseball cap for Margo. Hopefully she’ll like it as much as her Red Sox cap.