Recap

Just a warning, this may be a long blog post and I'm going to start it out with a slight rant.

Spring?
The church across the street has a saying on their sign that says..."Rest assured, Spring is on its way". It's a nice thought, but I'm not so sure it's coming fast enough. It seems like this winter we've had so much snow. A few weeks back Greg shoveled the deck because so much snow had collected on it.

The dogs are always there to help.

Last weekend we had this amazing weekend. Greg and I were able to get out of the house just the two of us, because Steph and Steve volunteered to watch Avery. (Thank you!!) It couldn't have been any nicer. We did some outdoor shopping, headed to Winking Lizard for a cold beer, and the sun was even out. So I thought maybe the church was on to something...Spring was on its way.

Until this weekend this hit us (again)...
The dogs like to play in the snow.


Avery supervising.

All I have to say is...Thank God tomorrow is March 1st! and the end is near....I hope!

End of rant.

Playdate...On Wednesday Avery had over Miles, Sophia and Mason for our play date. Alicia and Miles were the first ones to arrive. So I caught this moment....

This was right before Miles realized Alicia was out of sight and started to cry....then Avery started to cry. It's this new thing the two of them have started to do. I'm not a fan.

This is Sophia. She is around 4 weeks older than Avery. She has the most amazing laugh and a very sweet little girl.

Church...About 20 minutes into church today, I decided today was the day we were going to check out the daycare options they offer. Avery use to be so quiet and patient during the service, but lately she is everything but quiet and patient. So at first Avery and I walked around and checked out what it looked like, then I proceeded to check her in. She seemed fine when I left her and they gave me a pager so if she was upset they could reach me. So I get back just a little after church started. The ENTIRE time I'm thinking about her. What if she is crying? I have the pager they will call me. What if she is hungry? They said they had snacks. She won't go hungry. Etc. Etc. The reason I even took her to the daycare was so I could get the most out of church, but all I did was think about her....and come to find out later...so was Greg. He hated the idea just as much as I did. So as soon as it was time to go, we both raced out to save Avery. Guess what? She didn't even notice we were gone. She was having a blast playing with the new toys and watching the younger little girl in the room. How did I become that person. Never thought it would be me. But I think it was a good start for both Greg and I, and maybe we might try again some time.

Swimming Lessons!!

Have to bundle of the baby to head to swimming lessons. She has her suit and cover up on under.

When we first walked into the pool area, Avery wasn't too sure she was a fan of this adventure. But once class began and they started by singing "The Wheels On the Bus"....Avery's favorite song - she was fine.

Headed into the pool.

Avery was a big fan of chewing on the ducky.
This was Avery's idea.

Next week it will be Greg's turn to be in the pool with Avery and I will try to capture some video of our little mermaid.

Bath time!

Guess who took her first big girl bath tonight?

That's right...this girl!!

Avery has always enjoyed bath time. She is usually casually lounging in her baby bath tub while I read her books. However, lately I've noticed that she was outgrowing her baby tub. I wasn't sure if she was going to enjoy a big girl bath because there was no lounging involved but we tried it tonight-and did awesome! I will mention that at one point we tried some tummy time in the shallow water and she decided to take a drink. But it was just a minor set back. Now we need to go shopping for some bath toys. The regular toys she played with tonight are still drying out. Hopefully her first swim lesson goes as well this Saturday!

Thanks for letting me know that you couldn't view the videos. The issue should be resolved now. It was a problem that the actual site was having. Hopefully they have fixed it for good.

Tomorrow we are hosting the play date at our house. Greg has helped moved some furniture, I have the food part pretty much done, now hopefully I get some good pictures to post!

Video update

Here is video I took of Avery crawling. At first she was a little camera shy...so be patient. I promise that she eventually comes around.



This second video is of Avery playing with her drums. As you can see from the video above, Avery can crawl anywhere. However, she is not as big of fan of sitting up. I've been trying to work on it with her. So I was impressed she sat as long as she did.


And a random picture...


I say that this is Avery practicing the "O" for the O-H-I-Ooooo cheer. Greg strongly disagrees!!!

8 months

Avery you're 8 months old today! What are you up to these days...

• You have graduated from size 3 Pampers "Swaddler"diapers to "Cruisers", which seems appropriate because you army crawl EVERYWHERE.


• You still wear size 9-12 month clothing, but I only buy you size 12mo so you can wear it for awhile.


• You still just have the two bottom teeth, but I think that you may be working to cut your two upper.


• You are such a good sleeper. Most days you sleep from 730pm-730am.


• You always take 2 naps-around 10am and 2pm and sometimes another short one around 530pm.


• You have 3-5oz bottles most days.


• You eat all sorts of fruits and veggies, and have started to eat food with pasta in it. So far you've tried Primavera and Pasta and Spinach and Pasta.


• You love to feed yourself whole cheerios and other finger snacks and drink juice from your sippy cup.


• You are a very vocal baby - no surprise!


• You smile and laugh a lot!!


• You are very entertained by Jackson & Franklin dog - and the cat too if she dares to come close enough.


• You love to read touch and feel books.
  

Avery... a picky eater?

Avery has been eating "real" food for almost 4 months now. She has never rejected anything we've given her to eat. Greg and I were not surprised at all. Don't forget who she has for parents. But just in the last week, Avery has become a little more opinionated about her food selections. I've even had to get creative when feeding her certain vegetables. For example, I may have mixed her broccoli into her blueberries. Hey, it worked! Here is video showing her deciding whether or not she is going to spit the peas back out at me, her mad sippy cup skills, and it also shows her crazy little laugh she does.

It was just Avery and me for the first part of the week. Greg went to sunny Las Vegas for work on Sunday and came home late Tuesday. I was a little worried, because at the end of last week Ave was not a big fan of napping, which makes for a not so fun baby. It went really well with just the two of us, but it's more fun when Greg is home too.

We kept busy on Tuesday with a play date with Miles. He isn't mobile yet, but it won't be long. He was watching Avery move along, and you could tell he was trying to figure out how she was doing it. This picture shows Avery in her side pose. She will be crawling along and then roll to her side to check out what might be going on-like a cat passing by.

Avery in her side pose.

On Friday, Greg and I went to the neighborhood wine party get together. We are very lucky that Alicia's parents don't mind baby sitting both Miles and Avery. If it wasn't for Mr. and Mrs. Gardiner, we wouldn't get to attend as many neighborhood festivities.

Here is a picture of Miles modeling the hat my mom sent him. I should have taken a picture of the two of them in their hats. I will work on at least getting Avery in her new hat.

Miles

The wine party was a good time. Greg, Chuck, Alicia and our other neighbor Brian were attempting the worm by the end of the night. Sorry I didn't have my video camera with me.

We drove to the party because it was suppose to be a descent snow storm. We didn't really believe we were really going to get too much snow...but by the time we left the party, we had to shovel the drive way just to get the car in the garage. We got so much snow over night, we couldn't get out of the neighborhood until the afternoon. There were cars stuck in the middle of our street. Just Mother Nature's way of reminding us that it is still Winter.

We didn't really do too much today, but it didn't have anything to do with the snow. You know when you see this...

Greg in his hoodie...he's sick. Around 3pm today he got a stomach bug. So Avery and I did our best to let him get better, and do our best to not catch his bug. It's almost 11pm now, and the hoodie has come off -so I think the worst is over.

I'm looking forward to next week. Monday is my first Organic Chem exam. I always hate the first test of the semester, so I'm looking forward to getting this one out of the way. Tuesday I am subbing in the neighborhood BUNCO night, Wednesday is the baby play date and then on Sunday we are meeting our friends Kris, Sara & Izzy.

Avery's Dedication 1/27

First I want to start out with a quick apology that I did not blog at all last week. My computer was having issues and was out of commission most of last week. Thanks to the help of Uncle Bill and the patience of my dear husband...(yes I did refer to Greg and patience in the same sentence) my computer is back up and running.

Last Sunday we took part in the Baby Dedication at our church. It was a two part process. In the morning we stood in front of the church as a group with all of the other parents and their babies being dedicated that morning. The parents promise to raise their baby in the Christian faith and seek to instill faith in them. The second part took place later in the afternoon and was done individually for each child. Our good friends/neighbors Chuck, Alicia and Miles came to watch and take pictures for us. Not too long before it was our turn to go up, Avery decided she wanted to see how loud she could be. I think she was trying to entertain her friend, Miles.

When it was our turn, the Pastor started by telling us that Avery means "to be a good counselor" and read Psalm 16:7-8 "I will praise the Lord, who cousels me; even at night my heart instructs me." He then gave each of us a little advice on raising Avery, and finished by praying for her. We were very excited to take part in the dedication. Afterwards we took a few pictures and then of course celebrated with some Mexican food!!

Avery was okay with the Pastor holding her at first, but eventually decided she was done.

The Pastor praying for Avery.

A family photo afterwards.

I like this picture because it shows off Avery's pretty bow.