bunny bear

just a picture of avery with her new favorite friend :) i gave this bear to henry when he was little and now he's letting avery have her turn. thanks henry!!

i'm procrastinating. i need to be packing.

Puppy love, appointment and elmo.

i took this picture yesterday...now that avery is on the floor so much, marley thinks her job is to inspect her and sniff her intermittently. avery LOVES it and giggles when she gets approached.

avery had her 6 month appointment yesterday and did wonderfully! she loved seeing everyone in the dr's office and even reached out for the nurse while we were waiting to get weighed. our dr. made a comment that she hasn't reached the stranger anxiety stage yet...i mentioned that she seemed to already go through that stage and she thought it was possible. we'll see what the next few months hold :)

current weight: 20lbs. 11 oz.

current height: 27 in.

still in the 95-97% for both, but she's been that way since birth, so she's still following her growth curve.

for some reason, she did NOT want to lay down on the table in the drs office--even to play with her toys. she was already crying before she got her shots, but calmed down once i picked her up and started to feed her.

she did so well throughout the evening that we didn't even think to give her more tylenol before she went to bed. she woke up around 10. totally normal- she gets one more bottle before she goes back to sleep. but she was screaming. nothing we were doing would calm her down. she has never cried for more than a few minutes at a time but this time she was inconsolable. we gave her more tylenol and sat down with her elmo book and suddenly, she smiled! elmo is our savior!!! we will never go anywhere without elmo now :)

we put her in bed with us and all fell asleep watching caillou. she slept wonderfully all night- with NO swaddling at all!!) and is now napping peacefully -again, NO swaddle, no arms in her sleep sack, NOTHING. i'm so happy i could BURST :) :)

the dr. said we could start trying some finger foods...cut up banana, baby biscuits, and the gerber fruit puffs. we picked some puffs up on the way home and let avery have at it last night. she loved them--even if she didn't quite manage to get any in her mouth herself :) i have a video that isn't uploaded yet, but i'll try and get to it today.

we move in 2 days.

oy.

i SO wish this picture didn't come out so blurry.

leaps and bounds...

it's been hotter than heck here, definitely didn't get much done this weekend as needed. we caved in and dug out one of our air conditioners to put in our room to make the next few days a bit more bearable before we move. avery slept with us last night on the floor and this morning for her nap. :)

last week, she started to make her first attempts at crawling! she still hasn't gotten herself all the way up on her knees, but she's trying so hard! maybe by the end of the month she'll have figured it out?

over the weekend, we got avery a new toy that she can play with while she's sitting on the floor. it's a little "stage" with a mirror that plays all sorts of sounds and songs when she hits different parts. this morning, she figured out she could see me in the mirror if she leaned to the side. she'd look at me in the mirror and then turn around to check if i was really there :)

we've also been teaching her how to clap, since she's pretty much got waving down. it took a couple of days, but now when we clap and say "yay", she'll bring her hands together (either open or closed fists) and beam with pride. now that she's so interested in what hands can do, our sign language with her might really start to sink in!

dada's the word!

ugh. all three of us are sick. lots of crankiness and crappy sleep on all our parts. BUT...avery's the trooper and is keeping us happy with her new sounds. she started chewing on her tongue tuesday night and realized when she makes sounds while she's doing that, it sounds like 'dadadadada'! last night she put on quite the show grinning and saying "dadadada" over and over. at some point i'll get it on video, hopefully today. :)

this is the sound the pig makes :)

so, the sound that i thought avery would stop making as quickly as she had started, has stuck around. enjoy :)

through the months...

november--2 days old

december- 1 month

january- 2 months

february- 3 months

march- 4 months

april- 5 months

may- 6 months!

:)

happy birthdays!

first of all, HAPPY BIRTHDAY MOM! :) hope you have a wonderful day!

and, it being the 29th, it's avery's 6 month birthday. ugh. i can't believe it. zane comes home everyday and exclaims that she seems to gotten even "older" since he left. i see her all day, and i even feel like she's becoming more like a little kid hour by hour. it's so amazing to see how fast she learns things and does something new. like today--she's always trying to make new sounds (though she's yet to really grasp any b, p, m, or d sounds), but she just figured out how to shriek in a way that sounds more like she's singing. really cute, high pitched and i'm sure it'll change tomorrow :)

a few pictures from the past couple of days.

i've tried mashing up real bananas and feeding it to her on a spoon. when i tried in new orleans, she loved it. since then, she hasn't been much of a fan. i decided to put a piece in her mesh feeder and she had a blast! so much so, that she screamed when i took it away (that's also new :))...

this picture is for grandma kathy! she gave us this dress when she was out here in early may, and i thought it might be good for the end of the summer. tried it on the other day and it fits great! a little room to grow, but not too big on her now. thank you!

and finally...the other day avery was sitting playing with some toys. she spotted another toy a bit out of her reach (it may have been a cat...) and as she was grabbing for it, she somehow got herself into this position! she had absolutely no idea where to go from here, and you can kind of see her little foot stuck under her :) but! there's hope that she may crawl afterall! (i was worried her arms would never be strong enough to really support her body :)) after staying like that for a few minutes and getting frustrated, she rolled over onto her back.

that's it. we move 2 weeks from saturday and there's so much left to do, my head is spinning and i should be packing right now :)

catching up :)

we had a fantastic weekend down in boston again. didn't get as much done as we had planned, but there were other things more important :) zane went to phil's bachelor party, i got together with carrie and meg (sans baby, it was a nice treat :)), saw auntie barbara and dick, met a few more neighbors, went to a memorial day parade in town, bought paint, painted two rooms (with phil's help, THANK YOU!), put together a little night table and dresser/changer for avery's room and went to linda's house for an impromtu bbq.

avery's room is almost completely set up. i think all we're missing is the rocking chair and her clothes :) we tried her in her crib for the first time and she loved it! (the first picture in this post is from her first nap--not the best quality, i had the flash off)

some shots from the parade...avery loved the flag and wanted to eat it, loved the marching band in the parade and loved riding in grammy's stroller :)

i think i caught her mid "wave"...when we say hi to her she flaps her right hand up and down, slapping it on her leg. but...she also does this when she's excited, so i don't think it counts as a real wave yet :)

while we painted, avery played in an empty banana box. a bunch of her toys were inside, all within reach. it was a perfect play pen!

i took more pictures of some stuff we did yesterday, will post more later :) hope everyone had a wonderful weekend and is enjoying the short work week.

another picture...or two...

hmmm. so as of yesterday, avery couldn't really sit completely on her own. mostly she'd fall to the side (only once clunking her head on a toy :() and sometimes backwards if she was really excited about something. today it was beautiful outside, so we went on a walk and stopped to sit in a little park area. for a little over 30 minutes, she sat--all by herself-- and felt the grass and watched the cars go by. the one time she started to fall back, her stomach muscles kicked in and it was more of a slow recline until she was laying in the grass, squinting up at the trees. she's sleeping now, but i'm interested to see if she can sit unassisted on the rug as well :)

monday again!?

so...i just went to get avery up from her nap and found her like this...on her belly. and that thing around her neck is her wrap that she gets swaddled with. somehow she wriggled her way out of the wrap and flipped herself over. she wasn't bothered by this at all, but i kind of was :) just thankful that she didn't get trapped in the wrap.

another new trick is standing up in the "crib" holding onto the side and glancing around the room before she falls over...

i dont know how all the weeks and weekends go by so fast...

first things first, CONGRATS to jen and nate and andrew on baby #2!!!!! can't wait to follow you through this pregnancy and see what little christmas present you come out with at the end :)

we headed down to boston (again) for the weekend. i went to jill's (absolutely beautiful) wedding shower in cambridge on saturday (your mom did such a wonderful job! and i want to see pictures sometime :)) while zane worked on the house and yard. we got to see phil, his mom and jill later that night when we went out to dinner. and then AGAIN on sunday when they came over to the house to check things out :) it's so exciting to know that we'll all be close again really soon.

house updates...avery's room and the stairway/upstairs hall have been painted and plans for next weekend include possibly painting the office and maybe our bedroom.

avery did awesome with spending so much time with grammy and gramps so we could get things done. next weekend we're planning on bringing more toys for her over to the house so she can hang out while we work. she may even get to nap in her crib for the first time :)

after a long day of yardwork/house stuff, and about 15 takes to get us all to look decent (or at least at the camera), this is what the weekend left us as...happy and tired.

free time :)

don't know if it's a growth spurt or what, but avery's been napping lots today, so instead of packing and cleaning like i should be, i played around and threw this slideshow together :)

avery's slideshow

Pfffft.

nothing too important to say today...i took avery to my old school/job yesterday and i had a blast seeing everyone! she did awesome and warmed up nicely to the environment :) then last night we went out to dinner in town to take advantage of the nice weather and outdoor deck seating. avery had fun with her toys in her chair and i finally caught her new sound on film...sort of. she loves pursing her lips and blowing spit out everywhere. she did it once or twice on monday and now doesn't stop :)

Happy Mom's Day!

avery just wanted to wish all the mommies and mommies-to-be out there a VERY happy day!!!

(ps, her new trick at grammy and gramps' is to rub her head against the crib bumper, resulting in terrible bed head...)

hope everyone had a wonderful weekend! :)

Oy.

we were so sad to see kathy and dan leave on monday :( we all went out to do a little shopping and have lunch before they had to catch their plane. during lunch, avery and grandma kathy had some "bonding" time :) sometimes, bonding hurts...(ps, i've seen 4 deer this week up here! no joke....sorry dan!)

almost immediately after we dropped them at the airport, my tooth started throbbing and then shooting pain through my head...dentists and throwing up are my worst fears and i avoid each at all costs, but this pain was unbearable. i headed down to my parents house where avery would be taken care of and i could go see my dad's dentist and ultimately get referred to an oral surgeon for an emergency appt. to get a wisdom tooth removed. it's done, my fear of dentists is a little less fierce and i know what to expect when the others come out...

while i was at my parent's, meghan stopped by a couple time and we're happy to report that avery's anxiety towards "strangers" (ie not mom or dad) has apparently vanished! she was nothing but smiles for meghan and got pretty comfortable while she was getting fed :)

last night zane took avery and i to a local ice cream place :) the weather was warm, i still can't eat solid food (or smile, apparently...)and last year we daydreamed about this spring when the baby would be out of the belly and joining us for ice cream (even if we're the only ones able to eat it :)) it was a dream come true...

our midwesterner's visit so far...

we've had such a great time with kathy and dan here! the weather's been pretty crappy, but that hasn't stopped us :) we've showed them the nearby sites of nh, grilled out in the rain (with zane's new grill---a VERY nice graduation gift!) and today went down to boston to see where we'll be moving...avery has had a blast with them and hasn't stopped smiling since they've been here :)

if you want to see some more pictures, go here:

http://www.kodakgallery.com/Slideshow.jsp?UV=155783888811_957866107306&mode=fromsite&collid=10437949406.979866107306.1209863547154&conn_speed=1

hope everyone is enjoying their weekend! we all are :)