Life with Margo

As mentioned in the previous post, one of the Avidon family’s favorite CDs of children’s music is “Look at My Belly” by Brady Rymer because it features so many songs relevant to the experiences Margo is going through. One of Maia and Jake’s favorite songs is called “These are the words that I know.” Sample lyrics include:

The world’s brand new
I’m not yet two
There’s so much in my mind
I hear a new word everyday
So many words I want to say
But these are the words that I know….

So, these are the words that Margo knows:
Hi
Bye
That (usually said repeatedly to indicate “give me that,” but also to ask “what is that” or to say “look at that”)
Uh-Oh
Ball
Bop (Margo uses this when she throws anything, such as a ball or her food on the flood, and also when she plops onto her tush on the ground)
Bottle
More
Up
Down
Spider (sounds like “bider” and said in combination with the finger motion to indicate that she would like you to sing one of her favorite songs – The Itsy Bitsy Spider)
Da Da (not Mama though)

Maia’s persistence with baby sign language is finally paying off as well as Margo is starting to use several signs. So far, the signs she knows are:
More
All Done
Milk
Dog

Before Margo starts picking up too many words, Maia and Jake wanted to make sure to capture some of her silly noises and non-stop chatter on video, so the two videos below are not videos of the words Margo knows, but rather the sounds she makes.

One of Margo’s new favorite activities is to give kisses. She actually started giving kisses several months ago, but then seemed to lose interest in it for awhile in favor of blowing kisses. Then one day, Margo was looking at Maia with her mouth wide open. Maia asked “do you have a kiss for mama?” and Margo planted one on her. Now, Margo gives Maia and Jake (and other people who ask) kisses almost every day — often including a lovely face lick.

Maia and Jake are constantly amazed by how much Margo understands of what is said to her. When asked a question about the world around her (for example, where are the tomatoes?), she almost always seems to know the answer. One of Maia’s favorite things to ask Margo is where her belly is. Margo will lift up her shirt and give her belly a little pat. Here are some videos of Margo identifying objects around her.

P.S. The title of this post is a reference to one of Margo’s CDs of children’s music,  “Look at My Belly” by Brady Rymer.

When asked to speculate on what Margo will be when she grows up, most people guess that she’ll be a politician or a beauty queen due to her love of waving and saying “hi.” However, Margo has other interests as well. Maia and Jake have been taking a lot of videos of Margo lately, and Margo has really wanted to get in on the action too. So, here is a video that Margo shot. It’s a little abstract, but we think she may have a future in film. Warning: you may get dizzy watching this video.

Just a few weeks after taking her first steps, Margo is truly a walker now. Sure, she still looks like a drunkard and frequently plops down on her tush, but she just gets back up and keeps walking when it happens. Here is a video of Margo walking down the street outside the house.

On May 22, Aunt Nora (a.k.a. Auntie No-No) graduated from U.C. Berkeley. Margo and the rest of the Avidon household would like to wish her congratulations!

In addition to taking her first steps on Tuesday, May 19, Margo also had another first that same week — her first wedding. Maia, Jake, and Margo all traveled to Nashville, TN, to attend Eli and Adrianne’s wedding over the Memorial Day Weekend. It was a lovely trip, though Maia and Jake have definitely decided that traveling with Margo is a lot harder than traveling without her (not least of all, because of the huge amount of stuff that is required to travel anywhere with a one-year-old).

Margo’s favorite parts of the trip included anywhere where there was a large crowd of people (such as the airplane, restaurants, and any wedding event) because this gave her nearly unlimited opportunities to say “hi” and wave to people.

Some other highlights of the trip included:

• A lovely walk at the Shelby Bottoms Greenway.
• Putting Margo to bed in the hotel room, leaving Maia and Jake (who weren’t quite ready to go to bed yet) reading in the hallway outside the bathroom.
• Several meals at Fido, a casual restaurant near Vanderbilt University (the Avidons apparently like to find one restaurant to eat at repeatedly when traveling and had three meals in three days at Fido).
• A lovely rehearsal dinner picnic at Edwin Warner Park, with fabulous Las Paletas popsicles.
• And, of course, Eli & Adrianne’s beautiful wedding.