9 Months

Here we are again- month 9! Lots of changes have happened. I would have described Avery to someone last month by saying that she is quiet, shy, and happy to sit still or lay playing with a toy. My, how things have changed! It seems that overnight she has become a crazy, curious, high energy child. She is much more vocal and so different than before. It's fun to see her personality come out.

Here's the latest...

Stats-

Weight- 19 lbs, 12 ounces- 67%

Length- 27.5 inches- 48%

Head- 44 cm- 51%

Ave had her date with Dr. Nandwani on the 22nd. Last time she saw him, she was stone faced the entire time- not even the slightest bit of a smile. This time he held her while she tried to get some tongue depressors out of his pocket. She thought that was lots of fun. Her weight has steadily decreased over the past few months since her activity level has increased. We've noticed her cheeks and leg rolls getting ever so slightly smaller. She must be trying to get ready for swimsuit season! She had to get two shots but was very brave and only cried for about 30 seconds.

Eating- Not much different in this department. She went through a little phase where she rejected any finger foods. It was really strange coming from a girl who couldn't get enough food before! It lasted about a week and now she's back. She even tried some Chick-fil-a fries today. Yum!

Sleeping- We've had two issues come up this month.

Exhibit #1

She now stands up in her crib. This has made getting to sleep for naps quite difficult. She will stand up and sit down about a 100 times before she will finally go to sleep. One day after a nap, I heard some noise coming from the video monitor. I turned on the monitor to see this...

She had found the video monitor and was ripping it off the crib (it was velcroed down). Very mischievous! So this is where our monitor now lives...

Not so cute but it serves the purpose.

Issue number 2- She got her top left tooth a couple weeks ago and the top right is making its way through now. Ugh! I hate teething more than anything! It hasn't disrupted her nighttime sleep too much (only a few rough nights) but her naps are pretty short these days. I can't wait for them to be all the way grown in. I hear the molars are a lot of fun (sarcasm) so hopefully we have a little break before them.

Poor girl

Anyway, her usual routine is about the same as the past- bed at 8ish, feed at 5ish, awake for the day around 8, nap around 10:30 and another around 3:30.

Other news- Ave is a full blown crawler. She is all over the place...

including under coffee tables!

She also is pulling up on everything. We had to do some baby proofing around the house including moving our barstools into a nearby closet. She is so unstable while she stands that I'm scared to death that she will pull one over on top of her.

So proud of herself!

She also has started doing way more talking/babbling. She still makes the th sound but not quite as often as before. She has replaced it with some go, go, go's, and some mooing like a cow. The only time that she will say mama is when she is crying in her crib for me to come get her from her nap. She obviously knows that this makes me come a little quicker!

Here's some more pictures from this month...

She loves her new play table!

Watching a plane fly by at Hooks Airport on Luke's B-day

We had been storing this mirror in what is now the play room and Ave thinks it is the greatest!

Too grown up to recline in the tub

Another mischievous act with a pen when I wasn't looking (bad parenting on my part for not seeing this happen!)

1st boo boo- she face planted on the storage cube behind her. It was so sad!

Another great toy- the doorstop!

Ave's new favorite hangout spot

Only 3 more months until her b-day!

Luke's B-day Party

Ave's main squeeze, Luke, turned one this past week! It feels like yesterday that Bill and I went up to the hospital to see his arrival. He has transformed from a little baby to an such an adorable, expressive boy that is so full of personality that I crack up every time I'm around him. It's amazing how time flies!

I can't believe that this was already a year ago!

His birthday party was last Saturday, and Ave had a blast! The theme was sock monkeys, and the decorations were so cute. I was too busy taking pictures of all the cute kiddos there that I unfortunately didn't get any of the decor.

First pic of the b-day boy- He wanted his close up!

Our play group (this was a pretty good shot considering they are all majorly on the move)

Sweet Hudson supervising the babies

There were tons of kids at the party so Ash and Kyle had set up lots of fun things for them all to do outside. It was such a pretty day, so everyone took advantage of the weather. I've mentioned a ton of times that Ave is usually surrounded by boys so this was a rare occasion to hang out with some girls, Madeline and Grace!

This picture cracks me up. It looks like they have been best friends forever and are just hanging out.

Next up, the tunnels with her friend, Jackson.

Got to do some swimming in the grass

And finally, the sand and water table. It was a BIG hit!

Just hangin' with the boys

After some playing, it was time for Luke to eat his cake! I loved watching him. He really cracks me up!

Hmm, a candle!

Not so sure

A plane!

Ash helped out a little

Oh, balloons!

Loving it

Ave came to watch the clean up process

She even tried frosting for the first time. She was a little timid at first but then decided that she liked it. Just like her mama!

Owen was quietly observing all of this from the swing

Ave took a super long nap when we got home to recover from all the excitement! It was such a fun party, and Ave had a blast which could be seen by her dirty behind and completely soaked shirt!

Happy 1st birthday Luke! We are so blessed to know you! You always bring a lot of laughter along with you. We love your pointing, raising the roof, r rolling, and so much more. You are such a sweet little boy, and we can't wait to see what God has in store for you!

It's a ...

GIRL! No, not me. My sister, Stephanie, and her husband, Scott, are going to be welcoming a little girl to the family in August! I am so excited about a new little one to play with. I was secretly hoping for a girl so that Avery would have a cousin to do all of the girly things with. I can't wait to hold and love on sweet little Sophia!

It's an ongoing joke in my family that we can only produce females. Literally, there are NO boys. I have one female cousin on my dad's side of the family. My mom's brother has three girls. My mom's sister has one girl. I only have sisters. Now we have a girl, obviously, and Steph will have one too! I think that it is crazy because we aren't even the ones that determine the sex. I'm convinced that one of us will in the future, though, since Bill has a brother and Scott has a brother too. Surely, someone will have a boy sometime. We'll just have to wait and see!

Ave's Quivering Lip

When Avery gets upset, she juts out her bottom lip before she starts to cry. She doesn't do this for just any old cry, only her really pathetic sad cries like if she is scared or got caught off guard by something. Bill started calling it her quivering lip, and I have tried to capture it since she was just a couple of months old. This is the closest I have gotten to it...

Poor baby... what a hard life she has!

8 Months

We are one month closer to Ave's 1st birthday! It is just going too quickly! I feel like things have been falling into place this past month- definitely my favorite so far. Avery is able to do more, is a better sleeper, and is so much fun to be around!

Here's what she's been up to...

Sleeping- Again, we have made some major gains in this department. Before this month, any time that she would cry, I would jump up and go to her room to get her back to sleep. After one or two nights of craziness (she was up for around 2 hours and would not go back to sleep with my help) I decided to let her cry it out a little. This was extremely hard for me but I knew that it would be worse if I went in there. So, she started putting herself back to sleep after about 10-15 minutes. Now she has been sleeping from 8 to 5 with virtually no middle of the night wakeups, feeds, and then sleeps until 8. There have even been a couple of times lately that she hasn't woken up to eat! I hope this will be the new norm! Also, for naps, she will put herself to sleep. I no longer have to rock her to get her to go down. She may cry but it usually is not for more than 3 or 4 minutes.

Eating- I have tried to be a bit more adventurous in this department. Ave has eaten some new things like yogurt and pureed chicken. I still am so confused about when and how much to feed her. I've read that babies are supposed to be eating cheese, meat, veggies, fruit, and grains every day. If I feed her these on top of her nursing sessions, she is going to gain tons of weight and be huge! I feel like it would be easier if I was bottle feeding because I would know exactly what she was getting but I've got no idea how much she gets when she nurses. I know that it's not that big of a deal, and I'm sure that I will look back at this time and laugh at myself for thinking too much into it!

First taste of chicken with sweet potatoes

Crawling- Ave hasn't quite conquered this but she is getting close. She has her own special crawl at this point. Her arms push the top half of her body up. She will get on one of her knees and push off but her lower body goes back to the floor and gets dragged. Then she repeats. It's pretty funny to watch, but hey, she can move around pretty quickly this way. I keep thinking that any day she will figure it out.

Getting close!

Other news- We have been working with Ave to wave. She does it on occasion when she feels like it :). She also started clasping her hands together with her fingers intertwined. For some reason it looks really innocent and sweet. She also likes being rocked with her head on my shoulder now. She never would do this before. I used to rock her horizontally and always secretly wanted her to rest her head on my shoulder and fall asleep. Well, even though she doesn't need to be rocked anymore to sleep, I will do this sometimes just for my own benefit! I keep thinking that she is getting older, and I need to get this in while I still can. I have also been told that my child is very flexible. I thought that all babies were like this but apparently not. She will bend in some crazy ways!

She will play with a toy completely bent over. She also will be sitting up and then just bend her head backward. Maybe she's going to be a ballerina!

Some pictures from this month...

Ave loves anything that is not technically a toy...especially the camera case

Reading an US Weekly... this is a dangerous habit to start!

All the babies at Ash and Kyle's superbowl party. It is very difficult to get a picture of them sitting nicely next to each other!

We all are loving the warmer weather

Love you Avery!

Surfside

This past weekend, we decided to head up to my parent's beach house in Surfside. We have been getting so excited/ready for summer weather, and we thought that a beach trip would be a perfect little getaway. Our good friends, Daniel, Lindsay, and Garrett came too!

When we left Spring, the weather was amazing. It was warm and sunny with no clouds in the sky. I was convinced that my two year no sun streak was over! Well, once we turned off 288 to go to Surfside a huge fog surrounded us. It was crazy! We could hardly see in front of us. I was convinced there was a fire but no- just record breaking fog. It got about 15 degrees cooler as we got close to the water too. So much for summer weather. Oh well, we were not going to let the weather ruin our trip!

Just arrived- ready for some fun!

The babies were incredibly low maintenance. It's amazing how a change of scenery can make a huge difference. Avery will get bored with her same toys at home but she was so interested in playing with them at the beach. Garrett and Ave were just content hanging out on their blanket in the living room!

We decided to take a walk down the jetty that afternoon. It was a little chilly and moist but the babies seemed to enjoy it.

Ave's little spout got curly after the walk

That evening, we grilled some burgers and hot dogs which were delicious. The babies went to sleep around 8. It was wonderful being able to spend some time with just adults after the babies were asleep. We never have been able to accomplish this before. The last time we tried was New Years Eve, and it just didn't happen!

The next morning we took it easy in the morning to wait out the fog.

Ave and Garrett were cracking us up! I don't know what they were doing here but they wanted to get very close to each other.

Check out the fog outside

Eventually it cleared up, and we took the babies to the water for the first time...

Ready!

So fascinated with the water

Mom, you have got to be kidding me!

Checking it out up close

Crazy child

Sweet kiddos!

Although the weather didn't always cooperate, we had a great time. There is something about just getting away from home that is so relaxing. The babies did awesome, and it made me excited for more trips in the future!