22 weeks

not much time to write...i'm listening to avery scream bloody murder during her "nap"...this separation anxiety stuff sucks :(

long week

we definitely needed lots of this...after what seemed like a looooong week.

avery didn't necessarily get any "worse" as far as her symptoms went, but she was definitely under the weather and not quite herself. i had put a call into her dr mid-week and he said it's most likely a small bug and unless she really seemed off or if i was nervous and just wanted to bring her in, to wait it out and keep her hydrated. finally on saturday morning she ate a big breakfast and seems to be back on track with her appetitie and diapers :) i'm still not ruling out that she may be getting zane's cold...she didn't nap much more than an hour today and was feeling a bit warmer than normal with an attitude to match ;)

there's not a whole lot else to report from the week. zane worked. avery and i layed low. pickles thrashed about every night. today was unseasonably warm and after zane played football, we went for a walk with the dogs and avery (not realizing how frigid the wind made it seem...) zane has one more week of work until his february vacation. so far we have nothing planned but a dinner with grandma kathy (and maybe paiting a room or two? ;)) and i know he's really excited for some relaxation.

avery did have some time for cute snuggles on the couch this afternoon. she went from very serious and in her own zone...

to giggling uncontrollably at something :)

she makes our day :)

one new thing avery is doing lately...around 4/4:30 everyday when we're starting/making dinner, she wanders around the kitchen, begging either one of us to pick her up (actually, it's usually zane she's after since he's newly home from work). as hard as it can be to get things done while she's raising her arms up to you and getting under your feet, it's unbelievably heartwarming and soothing :) she loves watching things cook on the stove (and says "ot! ot!"-hot-over and over again) and enjoys the nibbles of food we give her from what we're cooking (tonight it was orange peppers and cucumbers) i LOVE it when she's snuggly and needy. i can say that b/c she's usually so independent...it's nice to feel wanted!

food post...

happy to report that avery was back to normal (in the sleeping sense) last night. zane and i definitely needed the uninterrupted sleep, so that was a treat. she hasn't had much of an appetite since last night and her diapers have been pretty messy. so...maybe she's got a little stomach bug? teething? she's happy, still drinking plenty of fluids and running around like normal, so i don't think it's anything too serious. if she's not getting back to normal with intake and output tomorrow i'll give the dr a call...

anyway... we went to the library this morning for a change and she had a blast running around the children's room, seeing all the other "babies" (or as she says "bebe!!", aka other little kids) and watching the tank of turtles (or as she said "ish, ish!" thinking they were fish) we came home i got her lunch ready. which she threw all over the floor. each course. on the floor. i ran out of options to give her and gave up. i put down her plate of turkey and cheese slices for the cat to eat (it's nice to not waste food :)) and i guess the competition for her food suddenly made her hungry?

honestly, she had one piece of turkey and lost interest in the game and cleo polished off the rest, but i thought it was a cute picture


tonight we were eating dinner all together. we had made pasta primavera and she was actually eating some of the veggies and pasta. we also had a gerber tub of apricots with mixed fruit that she took a few bites of before she was "al doh!" (all done)...at least she was all done with us feeding her. she picked up her spoon herself, dunked it in the tub (we later had to hang onto the tub to steady it) and made the journey to her mouth! YAY AVERY!! :) she was so proud of herself and so were we!

she shoots...

she scores!

good day sunshine....

...following an absolutely horrible, awful, miserable, painful night...kathy came down to visit and spend the night last night. we had dinner with my parents and avery was in good spirits, eating well and playing/dancing after the meal was over. she had a bath, fell asleep quickly and effortlessly and we didn't hear a peep from her until around 10. and then 11. and then 1. she was crying, had a dirty diaper, was screaming, would be calm if we held her but would squeal in horror when we tried to lay her down in her crib, didn't want any more milk (usually the final straw and answer if all else fails). from 1-4 we tried everything...sat in the recliner with her, brought her to our bed, stood by her crib and shushed, gave her tylenol, gave her teething tablets, gave her orajel, stood and rocked, sat back in the recliner, let her cry for a little bit to see if she'd calm herself. we were at the end of our ropes and could definitely done a better job communicating and coaching each other through the rough spot. finally zane was able to stand over her crib and wiggle/shake her to sleep. he came back to bed, roo decided she was going to meow and yell until i got up and let her in the basement, pickles woke up through all this commotion and started kicking like crazy (i guess it could have also been from the thin mints that i was snacking on :)), zane started snoring. 5 o'clock, avery is screaming again, i go in and sit in the chair with her for 2 hours while she FINALLY slept on my chest and i sat awake listening to her breathe. 7:15 comes and she wakes up for the day and is happy as a clam.
so...NO idea what was causing her such distress. she's napping peacefully now after playing around this morning with no big signs of wear and tear from last night. somewhat reassuring, somewhat frustrating.

some pictures from this morning :)

dance party! there was a song on the kids radio station about mashing potatoes. :)


still mashing...


doing her laps with her push toy


for a week or so, avery has been trying to play the recorder herself. she's gotten a few accidental "notes" out of it, but today she finally got a little bit of the idea of blowing into it and made a bunch of sounds!


it's above 30 degrees right now (maybe close to 40!!) and it honestly feels like spring (well, comparatively)! it gives me hope that the funk i can fall into during the winter blahs will lift eventually and we can be outside and feel good and light again! happy february, we're one month closer to spring!!!!!

our snow day!!

we got a snow storm today-and while i dont think it was as much as they expected-schools were cancelled. to be productive, we cleaned most of the downstairs AND the basement. i joked with zane that he was getting the nesting bug pretty early, even though he's been wanting to get the basement arranged since we moved in. either way, it's getting there! avery watched a baby einstein dvd on farms then took a 3 1/2 hour nap which was perfect for letting us get things done! (and she let us get the first shot of her 3rd and 4th teeth!! you can't see it in the picture, but the next two top teeth are just about poking through :))

there is just something so precious about the stage she's in now (i know all parents say that about every stage their child is currently in...but still). she loves giving kisses, saying "mama" over and over until i answer her, then moves on to "dada" until he responds, she loves trying new foods and sounds (she's very careful to wait until she has a good handle on a new word/sound before she'll try it) and is very getting very concrete with her dislikes. We love when she laughs at new things or doesn't laugh until she knows what it's all about, she's getting more independent everyday, and with that independence comes more snuggles and cuddles (and saying "up" to be held) when she wants reassurance :), she loves songs and dancing (as always), loves to be chased and caught -and is getting better about getting "away"! i could go on and on, but i just wanted to get down some of the latest awesomeness before she's onto the next stage (which will be just as good i'm sure :))

in pickles world...i had a dr's appointment on monday. another short and uneventful one, which is just fine by me. luckily i had left avery at my parents house for the morning, because (as is becoming customary) my dr's office was running way behind. anyway...heartbeat was great (in the 150's/160's this time), i gained 6 lbs in 4 weeks-putting my total weight gain to about 8 pounds considering i lost some in the beginning, and everything from the u/s looked to be normal. i'll get another u/s around 34 weeks to check on pickles' size, seeing as s/he was measuring more than a week ahead with the last one. if we do c-section then i don't know how much the size will matter, but it'll be fun to see a late u/s like that :)

while i was in the waiting room, one of the nurses was talking to the receptionist about the chinese new year (she kept saying "moo" year) and how the year of the cow was a very lucky one and cows are generally laidback and easygoing. i was confused with the "cow" part (i thought it was the year of the ox, and after researching, i guess it's either one?) but i was happy to hear about the possible demeanor and personality of pickles. and up until that point, the personality in utero compared to that of avery put pickles right on track to be a cow. however, i'd say in the last 24 hours pickles has gone from being pretty lazy and content to hang around to insistent and playing around everytime i sit still (a lot more of what i'm used to after avery)! i can't believe i kind of forgot how fun this feeling could be (until it gets to the painful stage :))

one more picture of avery sitting in zane's old chair that kathy brought out from the midwest :) she hasn't mastered how to sit on it herself just yet, but i'm sure she'll get it. she loves it!!

comparison bellies :)

current week 20...

compared to week 20 with avery...

dont know if i can see much of a difference, high or low, big or small?

avery wanted in on the comparison... she's got the cutest one of all ;)

umm...excuse me?

if i go by ultrasound dates from the first and last ultraound i got....then i'm HALFWAY done! WHAT?!?!?!?!?!?!?! that's just plain crazy. i was looking online today at spring/summer clothes for avery and getting really excited, and then i realized how close june is! if the next 20 weeks go by as fast as the first we're going to be sitting on our deck with a newborn and a toddler before we know it!

also crazy...
-i started taking my unisom and b6 again on tuesday night and have felt 100% (as far as hunger goes) since! so much so, that yesterday morning i had 2 bowls of leftover chicken fried rice before 10am, followed by half a bagel and potato soup. it was either that or an ice cream sundae. i waited until last night to make brownies and have my sundae :)


-avery's love of being upside down. it's been said before, but seriously...she loves it. tonight zane was running the loop of our downstairs with her flipped over his shoulders and he'd stop in the living room and she'd sit up and laugh and laugh :)
(ps, Thanks for the sweater, viv!!!! we love it! :))

-avery's energy! we went to the playspace yesterday with grandma kathy and avery just ran form one thing to another, testing out toys, kicking balls, banging on toy pianos....she had a blast and kathy and i were ready for a nap by the time we left.

crazy days :)

so it's been a little hectic around here...grandma kathy is here while she finalizes things for her move north of here, my college friend viv was in town for the weekend visiting, we got a much bigger snowstorm than anyone was expecting (making zane's 3 day weekend full of relaxation and downtime a jumbled mess of shoveling), i thought the iron pills were making me nauseous but now think it's because i stopped taking my b6/unisom combo last week, avery seems to be working on teeth...again, the dogs just figured out how to get over the fence in the backyard now that there's snow piled up (they were semi-smart though and didn't go far). but this little face is doing its best to keep everyone sane :)

some of her new tricks...
-saying "uP", it used to sould like "ut"
-saying "ball" when she's carrying a ball around the house
-blowing kisses :)
-head, shoulders, knees and toes...she's got head and toes down, needs some work on the "inner" parts
-pulling all the books off her shelf 1 by 1
-putting balls in buckets and carrying them around the house
-last night we went out to dinner and for pretty much the first time ever, zane or i were not there for bedtime! grandma kathy did a wonderful job and eventually avery went to sleep (after a harrowing melt-down calling for "dada" :( 99% of the time he's the one to put her to sleep at night and i think she realized something was missing from the routine!)
-her love of blueberries and strawberries
-i have 2 old recorders that avery loves playing with...today for the first time she made a sound when she blew into one. she was thrilled!
-her new bag of animals! kathy brought a bunch of zane's old stuffed animals, we cleaned them up and put them in a mesh laundry basket for avery to find. so far, pooh is her favorite, followed by a dog!


the next few days will either be a bit more laid back or a bit busier depending on kathy's schedule with moving! i know she'll be excited to get settled and unpacked and start her adventure out here!! :) hopefully the next post won't be as delayed as this one...

random pic time

not too much new going on...i think i'm getting a cold-blegh!, avery loves "wheels on the bus" and tries to sing "round and round" (and actually sounds in tune!), pickles has revved up its movements big time, my belly has popped out even more, the weekends go by too fast, i've started taking my added iron pills and can't wait for them to fully kick in, but the biggest thing of all- mama walsh should be here in the next day or two!!! she's been driving from the midwest since sunday and hopefully isn't running into too much bad weather. we'll update when she arrives :)

now the pictures...
one of her favorite new games is hiding behind (or in) something and waiting for us to say "where's avery?!" she pops out and giggles :)




all of a sudden, she LOVES to be upside down.


and early morning bad hair day :) my two loves...

"we grow 'em big"

the post title was a quote from zane the other night when we were feeling pickles thrash about and kick zane's hand. this was confirmed today during our ultrasound :) originally i had an u/s in my dr's office that put my due date at june 12th. then another u/s downstairs said june 19th. my ticker on the right is the middle point of 2 of those dates. going from my june 19th due date (what the dr is going by), i would be right at 17 weeks today. all the measurements from today's ultrasound put pickles between 18 and 19 weeks :) the u/s tech said they probably won't move my due date up, but the difference in size will be noted and will make a difference down the road.

we finally got a profile shot of a baby! the one picture we got of avery in utero was of an alien looking at us (but the cutest alien ever! ;) and i remember feeling disappointed that we didn't get a "classic" ultrasound picture. this profile shot isn't perfect quality, but it works for me :) (the brighter white curve at the left is the forehead, which curves down to the nose, the mouth area is a little fuzzy and then you see the chin going to the neck)

the ultrasound (and the tech) was fantastic! pickles was moving all over the place for the first 3/4s of the appointment (and it's still so surreal to see it move and feel it move at the same time), then went to sleep with its back curled up against me and it's legs tucked up. sweetest thing to see! the tech got all her shots (4 chambered heart, 3 vessel cord, hb=139, open hand) and said everything looked good. she was great about not letting us know the sex, but at the end told us that she didn't even know or try to look. i LOVE this surprise!!

while zane and i were at the dr's, avery spent the afternoon with grammy and gramps and had a blast (like she usually does)! she sat on a pillow (like a queen my mom said) and watched an elmo dvd and repeated about 1,000 times "ehro, ehro, EHRO, ehro!" seemingly surprised everytime he popped on the screen :) when we were done we had dinner there and avery slowly lost it-in a goofy way. she was hysterical...she started running around the house laughing, loved to be flipped upside down by zane, wanted us to chase her, all while intermittently signing "na-na". she had a great time there and didn't want to come to me when grammy was saying goodbye to her. eventually we all got home and she went down pretty smoothly! it was weird to have such a short amount of time with her this afternoon...i'm usually counting down the minutes until bedtime, but once we got home tonight i just wanted to sit and play with her. she definitely needed sleep though, and i probably do too.

YAY for the weekend! i've got a baby shower tomorrow (wooohooo baby rushlow!!), then home in time for the snow to hit tomorrow afternoon/evening. i've got some pictures of avery to download, but it's time for bed...

poke poke, twitch twitch ;)

so i've been feeling pickles poke from the inside for a couple/few weeks now. it's definitely gotten stronger and more frequent in the last week or so. a few nights ago i thought i could see the little twitches on my belly, but didn't know if my eyes were just seeing things because i could feel it too.

tonight we had a big spaghetti dinner. once avery was bathed and asleep, zane and i split a package of peanut butter cups. i layed down on the couch while he checked email stuff and after a few minutes i could feel pickles kicking. i called him over to see if he could see any of it, and sure enough we both saw 2 pretty good kicks a little below my belly button!! :) it's so exciting to share this part with zane :) it definitely wasn't this early with avery that we were able to see her little punches...is pickles living up to the year of the ox??

as for avery and i...we had a quiet day with zane back at work :( i got her up this morning and brought her into our room so i could get dressed and she walked around to zane's nightstand saying 'dada, dada'. we went downstairs and she did the same thing, so sad! i decided we both needed to get out of the house to cheer us up so we ran a bunch of errands and came home in time for a nice 3 hour nap-her longest in days. i swear she knows that it's not as much fun when it's just me at home and it's the days that zane is here that she wants to skip her nap to play ;)

a few more things:
-avery says 'wow' and 'yay'
-tonight she slapped a forkful of spaghetti out of zane's hand and said "oops". hilarious :)
-this morning i was getting stuff ready to leave the house and she toddled up to me with an empty sippy cup and said "mah" (more). i happily got her more water :)
-she thinks it's hysterical when i look at her out of the corner of my eyes with my head turned to the side, has since she was just months old and could laugh at us. today she took her turn trying to make me laugh while she turned her head to the side and then swung it around to look at me. i giggled like a fool. i love her!!!!!!!
-while we were making dinner tonight i opened a covered bowl with cheerios and set it on the floor for avery to snack from. a few minutes later zane and i noticed the cover was back on the bowl and she was shaking it. she hadn't actually snapped the lid on completely, but we were thrilled that she had figured out how to cover the bowl so she could hear the rattling sound :) have i mentioned we love her?...

our teething miracle! :)

zane and i took avery to a little bookstore this morning to check out their stuff and happened to arrive during story time. avery listened to about 7 seconds of the first story then wanted to explore. she checked out some of the other kids, played with some puzzles, then went on to pull all the assorted stuffed animals/puppets from their respective baskets. she had a blast, was soon tuckered out and we headed home.
it's been almost a given that she'll have a meltdown in the car these days. sometimes we're not sure if it's boredom, hunger, being able to see both of us but not be "with" us, teething, being tired, etc...today we were pretty sure it was teething. her right cheek was bright red and she kept chewing those poor fingers. we were both starving, so we stopped on the way home to get some gross (but so what my belly wanted) fast food. we got a milkshake along with our lunch.
avery loves drinking from straws, so i gave her a taste of the milkshake. she quieted instantly. after a few times of twisting around from the front seat to give her sips, i propped the cup in her lap and she was motionless the entire rest of the drive home :) (i think the cold straw was what got her hooked. she wasn't drinking as much as she was gnawing :( poor thing)

and to close...a little picture of her from the back this morning. she looked so grown up :) i keep looking at her these days and thinking she'll be in preschool/kindergarten before we know it! hormones...

a new year!

happy new year to everyone! for our celebration, we had a really fun, low key night at home with michael and meghan, playing a few games, eating greasy good food and hanging out. we actually managed to stay up until midnight...which isn't making us feel too lively now, but it was worth it! zane and i both ended up falling asleep on the couch this afternoon for a short nap while avery was asleep. it would have been perfect if she had taken one of her marathon naps, but we took what we could get ;)



yesterday morning we got an early wake up call by the delivery men with our dining room set! we really really love it and it makes the whole downstairs seem to come a bit more together for us. late in the afternoon we decided to paint the room as well (we're not the biggest planners ;). zane had gotten some "oops" paint from home depot the other day for his basement stairs project but didn't use the yellow, so we got the brushes and rollers ready and it was done pretty quickly. there are definite little touches to make around the room (painting the ceiling trim, maybe not using the pink curtains for the sliding doors, fixing some of the frames on the walls), but we're really happy with the results and glad we decided to paint on a whim.

we got a pretty good cold front move in and snowstorm yesterday as well. we only got about 4 or 5 inches total, but it snowed at a pretty good pace for most of the day. we ran some errands and got lunch out (i'm getting spoiled with zane being home!), but finally settled at home to thaw and rest. i got the results from my dr's office yesterday, and both my iron levels and thryroid levels are low. my dr isn't back in the office until tuesday, so i don't really have a plan yet, but it can't be so bad that i need to do anything immediately. these 2 things must be contributing to my fatigue, so there is some relief that i'm not just being lazy and blah...

some new avery things:
*we taught her how to say "GET" to the dogs...they love to hang around the table during mealtimes which we don't tolerate well. we're usually having to tell them to "get" a few times until they leave the room and give us space. avery started copying us and was walking around the living room yesterday, looking down at them, saying "GET!" so cute.

*we're almost officially off of formula and onto whole milk! i think we have a few more ounces worth of formula to mix into her milk, but for the most part we're done! now we have to figure out how to get her to drink milk out of a cup. i think in her mind, cups are for water (which she loves) and bottles are for milk/formula. we've tried tons of different kinds of cups and haven't found one she'll use yet...we'll keep trying...

*2nd head bonk today. it was in the single digits, so we dressed her in her snowsuit (which is now too small) and she had a hard time moving around. she was playing by the front door, waiting to leave when i heard the thunk. :( i scooped her up and put ice on her head right away and we sat on the couch singing "wheels on the bus" for a while which really calmed her down. she's such a trooper. :)

*she loves watching elmo videos online on our laptop. yesterday she toddled over to me saying "ehro, ehro!" and looking at the computer. while i was loading the website, she was getting antsy and started to whine, stopped abruptly when i looked at her and said "ut!" (up) i put her on my lap and she was happy as a clam!
the other night in the bath, i could tell she was getting tired. she started to stand up, then sat down, looked up at me and signed "na-na" (bedtime/sleepy). we've tried teaching her not to stand in the tub, and when she does, we usually call it quits and take her out. this time she let me know she was done :)
it's amazing to see her starting to grasp the concept of using her words/signs to get what she wants from us. she just amazes me period.

*another new word/demand (;))- "out". she was in the playroom yesterday while we were paiting, and the gate was shut and locked. she complained a bit, zane told her "out" was the word she wanted to tell him what she wanted and she said "out" (or her version of it). it'll come in handy in a bunch of situations...just hope she doesn't start trying to use it when she's in her carseat...

*we're still waiting for another tooth (or more) to pop through. her cheeks go back and forth from being fine to red, she's still gnawing on her fingers and in general is a little fussier than normal :(

we're planning on making the most of the next few days with zane still home. we've gotten a lot of the bigger house stuff done, so hopefully the days will include relaxing, eating, playing, and sleeping ;) let the vacation begin...

13 months and 29 years

yesterday was by far the best birthday i've had in years! (and avery turned 13 months!) zane woke me up (at 8:30 no less!!!) with breakfast in bed :) it was one of the nicest surprises ever. and to top it off, avery slept until 8:30 as well! YAY! after everyone woke up we went food shopping, came home, got the tree out of our house (thanks mike for your help!!), got avery down for a long nap and did lots of cleaning. once avery woke up, we headed out so i could buy some maternity jeans (i found ones that fit and i love! thanks kathy for helping us make that happen :) and thank you grandpa dan for the adorable card and generous gift ;)) and get take out for dinner. the worst part of the day was the drive home...avery was tired and hungry, despite our efforts to give her snacks and comfort items in her car seat. she was inconsolable. screaming at the top of her lungs, past the point of crying or whining. once we got home she was absolutely fine, didn't even run right to the kitchen to get food or lay herself down on the rug to show us she was tired. frustrating. at least it didn't last long and she didn't hold a grudge against us ;) (she didn't make a peep ALL night. freaked me out when i woke up at 6 and realized i hadn't heard her squak once, but soon after i heard her waking up)

today i had my 16 week dr's appointment. good thing zane came along, because they were running really behind and as it was we had a hard time keeping avery occupied during the wait. baby pickles is doing great! heartbeat is in the 150's (a bit lower than avery's usually was), and as the dr was trying to get the heartbeat we could hear it fading in and out, despite the doppler staying in one place. in between the "thump-thump", we could hear the sounds of it flipping around. :) the dr was excited with how much pickles was moving. not much else to report...i've gained 4 pounds since the last appointment (which is okay, i had lost about that much from the beginning), bp is good, and i had another blood test to check my iron levels and my thyroid because i'm still feeling abnormally exhausted. i've got a big ultrasound at the end of next week and we can't wait to see pickles! in the next few appointments, we'll probably talk more seriously about delivery and the probability of a c-section (after avery's delivery complications, there are definite advantages!)

so that's that. i can't believe tomorrow is new year's eve and if i don't get on to blog before then, happy rining in of 2009!

where to begin...

every night i say to zane i'm going to post but a) it's hard to follow his last post and b) there seems to be so much going on that i don't even know where to start :) a shortened version of the last week(ish) will have to do...but, check out a picture album here

*christmas stuff

-it was weird to not really travel anywhere for the holiday this year. not to california, not to kansas, but not even from nh to mass. there was some part of it that was nice to not worry about travelling (at avery's age, i dont know HOW we would have ever survived a long trip, car or plane), but there was also a part that wanted to be packing up and taking a little vacation.

-christmas eve...did a little shopping in the morning. we hadn't really gotten avery much because there isn't a lot that she needs and we figured this was one of the only years we could get away with being measly :) however, hormones got the best of me and i decided i wanted her to have a few toys to open on christmas and we went out and bought elmo live (worth every penny :)) and a bag of air filled balls (to someday go in a ball pit?). later zane made a taco layer dip that we devoured for lunch and a veggie platter that helped our bellies that night. we put avery in her new christmas pjs, took some pictures and settled on the couch for a night of food network shows. definitely a different christmas eve than we're used to, but it was nice in it's own right :)

-we had have a really nice christmas day at my parents, with both my sisters and our brother in law, nephew and future brother in law. we did a yankee swap this year which was a lot more fun than i anticipated and had lots of dinner and sweets throughout the day. avery was a trooper and survived the day on 30 minutes sleep! in the picture album you'll see how she comforted herself for much of the evening roaming around :)

-we've already taken down every christmas "thing" in the house (except for the tree which is dying and on it's way out). today it was 60 degrees out and i've never wanted to skip winter so badly!

-avery and i got together with my mom and her longtime neighbor and friend jan and her daughter (my "sister) meghan for a little coffee/tea/christmas gift breakfast. it was so nice to get together and eat yummy cookies and reconnect. we're pretty sure avery is getting more teeth (upper? lower? molars? who knows), so she was a bit off and cranky, but we had a good time nonetheless!

house stuff...

-zane has been working on remodeling the basement stairs. taking down plaster on the ceiling, putting up sheetrock, painting over the green that has been there for years! its looking awesome already and we can't wait to have the finished product :)

-we painted our bedroom today. we were going to wait until tomorrow and send avery to my parents, but with today's warm temperatures, we decided to get it done quick and have all the windows open while we could. we haven't moved all the furniture back yet, but i already love the change :)

-zanes mom and zanes dad and wife nancy sent us VERY generous christmas gifts that we used towards purchasing a dining room set!!! we've been wanting this since we moved in and didn't know when we'd be able to make it happen, but now it's done and we're so excited!! the table, 4 chairs and sideboard are arriving on new year's eve day, so pictures to come. THANK YOU!!!!! :)

me, 16ish weeks

kid/baby stuff...

-avery has taken OFF with her copycat skills :) the other night we stopped by my parents to pick up some of the leftover christmas things and my mom was playing with avery, lifting her arms up and down and saying "up, down, up, down". seconds later, avery toddled off, flapping her arms up and down, repeating "up, down, up, down". she also likes to repeat "i love you", although in her language it sounds like "i raaah raaahh". we know what she means though and it melts our hearts ;)

-pickles is waking up and making itself known! for about a week now, every time i put avery down for a nap, pickles starts its show. i sit with avery for a while in our reclining chair with her pacifier and blanket while she winds down. right where her bum digs into my belly is where pickles likes to wiggle :) its such an amazing feeling to have both of them "there". last night avery was having a really hard time getting to sleep, and was finally drifting off in my lap (doesn't happen very often, she's almost always awake when we put her in her crib) when pickles started moving. i had visions of this summer when we finally get one child to sleep only to have the other wake up. sounds crazy, but i actually can't wait!

-we noticed tonight that on either side of avery's top 2 teeth, it's swollen with one tooth pretty much breaking through. she's been chomping on either index finger so much in the last few days that her fingers are red and wrinkled :( i hope whatever teeth she has coming are here fast!

k, i think that's it for now. it's an hour past my bedtime, other stuff i think of will have to wait :)