story time!

we got some awesome books from our friends phil and jill (thanks guys!!!) and have finally started to introduce them to her routine at night. she was momentarily unsure of "spot" but got over it quickly and then was captivated by "chicka chicka boom boom". she's well on her way to higher education :)

then today, though we may not have read "little miss muffet", i thought she kind of looked like a little nursery rhyme character in her outfit...

i'm getting sick of seeing this background in all the pictures now, but she LOVES the chair so much, she's in it a LOT. last night she worked hard at getting the toy on her tray to light up and make noise and she succeeded! she's a champ :)

later on, we're headed down to my sister's for the week where we'll try our hands at taking care of an infant and a toddler (our 2 1/2 yr. old nephew henry) while my sister and brother and law take a little vacation. should be interesting! if we get a minute or two, i'm sure there'll be pictures to share and many updates :)

avery's best friend...her chair.

so...i think this chair was the best investment we've made yet! since we've gotten it and introduced avery to sitting all by herself, she's been thrilled! she's figured out how to hit and "play" with toys that we place on the tray in front of her and now knows that her hands exist and are pretty fun :)

last night we were cooking dinner and avery was sitting in her chair playing with her toy sun (it's motion sensitive and lights up when you touch it)...we were getting ready to eat and i wanted to cuddle her a little bit since she had been playing by herself for almost an hour. i picked her up and a few minutes later she started getting fussy. zane and i joked that she wanted to go back to playing, so i set her down again...she stopped crying, looked up at us, smiled, then went back to playing with her sun!

ps, i'm not sure her hair is quite long enough to be put up :)

i can't think of a good title

so, we went on a little shopping spree today with some gift cards we had at target. we figured it was time avery had some toys other than mom and dad to play with! i remember thinking before she was born that we didn't need to worry about all the fun, colorful things yet because it would be months before she would even enjoy them. and now we're here. and she's enjoying them :)

we got a "big girl" chair that can attach to our chairs and give all of us the illusion that we've got company for dinner :) i wasn't sure how she'd do, but she seemed to like sitting up higher and looking around the kitchen.

we put her down on her play mat with a couple of the toys hanging above or next to her. she had a blast kicking her feet and accidentally hitting things with her hands a couple times. i noticed her eyes getting heavier and figured she was going to give a good "i'm tired" yell any moment. instead...

good and bad news with the dogs. good: avery has definitely finally "seen" them. she watches them when they wrestle around and seems intrigued by kings wagging tail (which is a bit longer and more noticable than marley's). we love that she's noticing even more of our family and hope that in the years to come she likes them as much as we do.

which brings me to the bad...the last few days we haven't liked them (or more, what they have done) as much as we could. it's probably the combination of having a baby that is number 1 and the cold weather which has prevented us from letting them romp outside for long stretches at a time...

this is a not uncommon scene that i've/we've come home to recently. diapers strewn about, books chewed up, ready-made formula, diaper cream, gas drops and pacifiers eaten...anyone looking for a couple of cute dogs?!

hope everyone is doing well and enjoying the start of this leap month (if that's what it's even called) :) and to anyone that's reading that hasn't been thanked yet for gifts/well wishes, the thank you's are going out next week!

ps, just kidding about the dogs.

the pain cry...

so, avery had her 2 month appt yesterday and she looked great :)

weight: 13 lbs 8 oz.

length: 24 inches

she did, however, get her shots yesterday and for the first time, zane and i heard her pain cry. it sounds silly, but it was one of the hardest moments to go through :( hopefully we won't hear that cry anytime in the near future, i keep hearing it enough in my head as it replays over and over...we ran a couple errands after the appt. and avery was a champ and slept through most of it. we came home and gave her some prune juice (to offset the new thicker formula) and she gobbled it down like it was candy :) after a bottle, she slept soundly for most of the afternoon, waking up to smile at us a couple times then drift back...

ps, that pink outfit was too big on her just over a week ago. and now look...

our baby's growin' up!

we've gone from this...

to this...
:) avery's first bath at home might not have been much of a success, but a lot has changed. now after all the cleaning is done, she loves splashing around and getting us soaked in the process :)

we had a pretty whirlwind weekend. we headed down to my parents on friday evening and got to see my sister linda and our family friends meghan and her niece katherine. avery did amazing and stayed up a bit past her bedtime but managed not to have a meltdown! then on saturday i met up with a bunch of my college friends at our friend carrie's house to hang out and then have lunch. it was awesome to see them and get some adult time!


on our way home saturday night we stopped at a bonfire party right near our house to see our friend brigit and her friend scott. avery didn't like the outside bonfire part too much, so we stayed inside by a heater and caught up :) fun times...

last night while we were eating dinner, i found an old calendar that was laying around the kitchen and i put it on the table for avery to look at. she was fascinated by the picture/color and it let us have a relatively quiet meal. :)

she'll be two months old tomorrow!!! how the HECK did that happen!?!

a writer in the making :)

slowly, avery's hands are opening up and exploring things around her. the other day i slipped a pen in her open hand while she was on daddy's lap. it only took her a few moments to notice something was different and soon it was in her mouth!

this weekend we're heading down to my parents for some financial counseling from papa morse :) and then tomorrow i'm getting together with some college friends. can't wait to see everyone and get a break from nh for a few days :)

just wanted to update with a small miracle :) i was cleaning/packing in our bedroom earlier and avery was starting to get fussy/grouchy/sleepy. i swaddled her and put her down briefly in the jeep play yard we have in our room, so i could get her boucny seat cleared off-the times i've tried the pay yard before have been short lived and not worth the tears since she's still so young. BUT... by the time i was ready to get her to put her down for a nap, she had already spit her pacifier out and put herself to SLEEP!!!! with no vibration. no bouncing. no rocking. only some white noise and her sleepiness :) this was at 11:15am. it's now 1:45! i'm a proud mama :)

we'll be shrieking any day now...

though we've been shrieking in an unhappy way on and off for a week now (fun, fun :)), i think we're on the brink of shrieking in happiness soon! the other morning i was in the kitchen making breakfast and avery was in her rocker chair, talking with her "friends" (a stuffed dog and cat) hanging above her and suddenly i heard a semi-shriek, looked over and saw her grinning :) then yesterday when zane came home from work, avery gave him a wide open-mouthed smile and we were sure some sort of noise was going to follow!

so...we're thinking avery might have a bit of acid reflux, which could explain the sudden bursts of fussiness over the past week. we did some research and could come up with lots of common symptoms in her (frequent hiccups, irritability during eating, short naps, wet burps, sudden crying, and of course frequent spitting up) . the nurse we talked to thought trying a new formula that's a bit thicker might help, so hopefully that'll help make her a bit more comfortable. it's horrible knowing that something is making her unhappy and not being able to cure it right away :(

BUT...the good that has come from either the new formula or just where she is developmentally...on saturday night she slept for 5 hours straight and sunday night--7 HOURS! she seemed happier and more well-rested and so did we :)

7 weeks!

i just a week, avery'll be 2 months old. yesterday, we switched to a faster flow nipple on her bottles cause she seemed to be getting frustrated at how long it took to eat, and zane said "our little girl is growing up!...." very sad and true. :) she's also transitioning from sleeping in her bouncy seat to her play yard/playpen! we still dont have a mattress for our crib and it's in a room that doesn't get direct heat, but we're trying to make sure we get her comfortable sleeping in a stationary place :)

it was frigid here this morning, so for our trip to the grocery store, avery got to wear her bear snow suit for the first time. i thought she'd feel too bundled up and warm, but she seemed to love it! thanks auntie monkey (meghan!) :)

grown much?

just was going through pictures and came across these! first one from the hospital the day we left and the second from sunday...crazy :)

and yet another snowstorm...

it's january, so it's not surprising that we're getting more snow...but it's still not fun. avery's not quite old enough to appreciate and have fun in the snow piles :) (if she was, i'd welcome as much as it could dump on us!)

we had a good weekend--did some much needed shopping on saturday, (for the first time avery faced out in the baby carrier that zane wore and in between cat naps, i think she really liked being able to look around :)) and yesterday zane had a game for his basketball league. but the best part of the weekend was starting to book our trip to new orleans in april! we're so excited to go back and have avery with us to experience jazz fest and the french quarter (..and to not be pregnant!) :)

as every new parent knows, sleep is sometimes all you can think about and put energy into doing--for yourself and for baby. i can see that avery's starting to fall into some pattern during the day with napping...and last night had her last bottle at 10 and only woke up once during the night at 2:30! after that she got up with us at 6:30 and went back down for a nap around 8. it was lovely :)

a little anniversary...for my mom and dad :)

i'm pretty excited cause...

if my mom hadn't made a call 5 years ago to my dad, they may never have met in manchester for their first date, decided it went pretty well and kept on dating, gone on to get married and had me!

oh. and i'm 6 weeks old today, so i'm pretty excited about that too. i just keep getting more and more grown up...and since grown ups don't sleep as much as they should, i've been thinking i should cut back a bit to see what all the fuss is about :) i usually only last for a day or two on this type of schedule though, so we'll see...

ps, my mom must be doing this no sleep thing really well! she just realized that it's only the 10th and it's january 11th that's their "anniversary". sheesh. ;)

picture happy :)

so i decided this morning that i needed all pictures printed out from the last 6 weeks. and now i've made even more of a mess than this place already is! :)

last night as we were making dinner (well, zane was making dinner, i was sitting watching avery in her seat), zane came over to us...he got in front of avery, she looked up and he said something and her face broke out instantaneously into the biggest grin ever. he said it best--"that was maybe the best thing that's ever happened to me!" it was a pretty fantastic moment :)

i absolutely cannot believe she'll be 6 weeks on thursday. 6 weeks during pregnancy was an ETERNITY and now here we are, already a month and a half into our daughter's life. crazy.

pretty velour :)

thanks to stevie for this outfit!! i wish we had gotten a picture of her the first time she wore it--it seemed to fit a little better then :) maybe if she had pretty little socks on you wouldn't notice it so much!

nothing new really to report. just wanted to add these pictures. :) enjoy your weekend!

we're happy again!

after a few days on sleep-strike, ms. avery has blessed us with a few long stretches of sleep! so now she's all smiles again (even though she looks like a boy in her blue and white hoodie :)) and i actually got to sit down and pay bills and eat a bowl of cereal! the small things in life really DO mean a lot! :)

and to all you people out there that told us she'd lose her beautiful hair...you seem to be right. the hairline is starting to recede a little and i've been finding little hairs on her sleep wedge. in one sense, it's kind of fun to wait to see what her "real" hair will be like! maybe it'll stay dark brown like ours or maybe it'll go blond like zane's was when he was little...we shall see...

ps...we're 5 weeks as of yesterday!

Happy New Year!

hopefully everyone had a safe and wonderful holiday :) zane's been fighting off something for a few days and we're not sure if avery is getting the same thing, so we had a low key night at home.

in the last couple of days, we've definitely seen a huge change in the way avery is more aware and reacts to us...she's smiling even more now, even when she sees one of us from a short distance and we say something to her. it's amazing to see her growth right before our eyes :) (the 1st picture is when she was a few days old, the 2nd is from her 1month b-day)

we had yet another snowstorm yesterday...we got almost 11 inches! here's a little clip from one of the local news stations about our winter so far :) (just so you know we're not making this snow stuff up...)

"After the recent snowfall Concord, New Hampshire now has a new weather record. With 10.1" of snow out of this past storm, December 2007 has become the snowiest December on record with an amazing 44.5", breaking the old record of 43.0" set back in 1876. To take it a step further December 2007 also becomes the 5th snowiest month on record! Bear in mind those records go all the way back into the 1870s."

and with that, we're expected to get another 5-8 inches tonight. too bad zane doesn't get snow days :)