to answer grandma kathy...

as avery approaches 4 months (and is nearing 6oz every 2 hours or so...), we decided to give her a taste of rice cereal :) (i know she's not "of age" and we understand why dr's tell you to wait, so we don't want any lectures :)) i figured she'd spit it right back out with her tongue...nope...

she loved it and by the 5th bite was opening her mouth when she saw the spoon coming closer. she's been more and more interested in our food and watching us eat the last week or so. and now she got to try it out for herself and did phenomenally :) don't know how often we'll start giving this to her, but at least we know she won't protest!

what i'm doing every 2-3 hours :)

hungry=furious

she sees the bottle!
she wants the bottle
she grabs the bottle from me...

ah.

another little video...or two... :)

videos are so much more fun than pictures now that she's doing stuff :) enjoy...

some home movies :)

here's a little clip of avery talking to her pig :)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_V_sJPB1HmU

AND...i keep trying to upload this directly to the blog, but it hasn't come through yet (i'm sure in a while there'll be 5 of these posts :))

avery feeding herself ;)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yb59ghDeKss

night out on the town :)

we decided to celebrate march fourth and go out to eat in town...it's been a really long time since we've been out to dinner in hillsboro, so it was a nice treat. thankfully, everything coincided nicely with avery's late afternoon nap, dinnertime and awake time. it also helped that it was cold, rainy and gross out, so we were one of 3 tables filled in the restaraunt. we started taking pictures and our wonderful waitress offered to take one of the 3 of us...

the only other people in our section turned around to see what all the fuss was about...there were 3 waitresses standing around trying to get avery to smile... instead, she raised her arms to show her presence :)

****this just in****--i look as tired as i feel :( ah well....life is good :)

it's march fourth!!!

beginning of january vs. beginning of march :)

so, just a year ago zane and i were heading back up to new hampshire after a week of taking care of henry...we had stopped at a dunkin donuts and i had gotten a coffee and was convinced they didn't put any sugar in it, made zane stop at the one in hillsboro before we went food shopping and the same thing! how could two stores 50 miles from each other BOTH forget to put sugar in my coffee??? surely there was a conspiracy :) little did i know the reason for my taste being so off (though i started to figure it out a few days later)...i was just mad that i didn't get to enjoy my coffee

my camera finally seems to be working again, so i got a picture of avery with her favorite toy :) the other night we were eating dinner and zane brought out curious george. who knew that a little monkey with a missing nose (thanks to the dogs) would end up being such a hit! yesterday we went shopping and george was in her hands or mouth the entire time. thanks grandma kathy!!!!

when zane gets home later we're going to try and take a picture of the 3 of us, which at the very least, should be a bit comical :) we'll post later...

leap day, 3 months and snow!

i'm so mad i didn't get a chance to post yesterday for leap day! it was avery's 3 month birthday. can't believe it.
new likes:
*chewing on anything that she can get her hands around
*watching the dogs (or maybe it's just their tails) play
*a weird show on tv called "yo gabba gabba" (well, maybe it's zane and i that like it)
*anything sung to elmo's song--which is basically a word sung to the "jingle bells" tune
*standing...and more standing..
*hearing toys that squeak
*taking a long nap in the morning, then a couple shorter ones in the afternoon
*being rocked to sleep

same old dislikes:
*not being fed the minute (well, actually second) that she's hungry
*loud noises that come out of nowhere
*having her arms free when she sleeps--they flail around and hit her in the face...so, we keep on swaddling :)

our camera charger is broken somehow, so we dont have any new pictures, but we did take some videos this morning of all the new snow. yep...more...snow...(a little bit from our local new channel---"As of yesterday, we were at 102.2" of snowfall. That had us in 2nd place for highest snowfall in a winter season since 1900 and only the third time we've reached 100" since 1900." currently, we're holding steady at the 6th snowiest winter on record.)

the first video is actually the 2nd one we took, but it shows the huge piles better :)

snowstorm

snowstorm

anticipating the sun...

zane is on vacation from work for the week, so we're spending some time down at grammy and gramps' :) so far zane has talked money stuff with chuck, i got a haircut, avery has not slept--but had a blast with the grandparents!, we've gotten our fill of good food--hit one mexican restaraunt last night and caught up with phil and jill and might hit another one tonight and have a little "date", and gotten more and more excited that next weekend is the start of march and getting us closer to spring!

while i was out shopping with my mom, we found a cute little sunhat that'll be perfect for the new orleans sun in april. it's still a bit big, but so far she doesn't mind it being on her head. hopefully we won't have to strap it to her head, but it's an option if she gets feisty :) on friday, avery'll officially be 3 months old. i'm guessing she's around 15 pounds, and if she could hold still long enough for us to measure her, i'm sure she'd be an inch or two longer than last month.

some big news for the future...we'll be moving back down to the boston area this summer! we're excited to be closer to family and friends (and food and activities :)), but it'll be hard to leave our friends and lifestyle up here...especially now that avery has spent her first months in nh and we've created a whole new slew of memories. the good thing is that we like to take short trips and driving up for visits has it's advantages :)

i'm starting to feel much better and luckily no one else in the house got sick. it'll be nice to actually get things done again and not just the bare minimum to keep afloat :) once we get back home i'm going to send out another kodak gallery from the last 6 weeks...stay tuned...

february flu

we're all finally home and somewhat settled. we had a really fun week with both kiddos. unfortunately, henry started getting sick at the end of the week. hope he's feeling better!! it's amazing how much a week ages babies! avery loves to stand, is starting to mini-laugh, and tries to bring her toys to her mouth when she's playing. she's just shy of 12 weeks and a couple weeks away from her 3 month birthday! it's amazing how much time is flying by.

i took myself to a walk in urgent care center yesterday, got fed up with the fevers and feeling so bad...turns out i have the flu. my only hope is that it stays far away from zane and avery. i've been trying to distance myself from her, kind of hard to do when she wants to cuddle and i'm the only one around. :(

in a few days when i'm feeling better (hopefully!) i'll post more but for now i'm going to try and nap while avery naps..

...how i wish you were here...

happy valentine's day!! so far, avery is enjoying her first valentine's...the sun is finally out after a long day yesterday of snow, rain and ice :) this week has really flown by. henry keeps us entertained with questions and revelations...last night he was thrilled to discover that he and avery both have feet! (as well as 2 eyes, a nose and a mouth) he seems to adore her and has been gentle and loving towards her since we got here.

zane and i took care of henry last year around this same time and he was just beginning to string words together and know what he wanted. now, he's non-stop action and there's no tricking him into anything he's not up for (though shark bites as an extra incentive really help!)... more challenging but more fun and engaging :)

unfortunately, zane had to go back up to nh for a few days for grad classes and work. i'm missing the heck out of him while i'm also sick and feeling pretty cruddy...it's been a BLESSING that my mom could come down and help with the kiddos.

(if nothing else, this week avery's been slowly learning how to fall alseep anywhere :) naptimes have been a breeze (knock on wood) and hopefully it'll carry over once we get home)

wishing a day of love to everyone :)

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.