6 months

So Avery has hit the half-year mark and I simply cannot believe it! This little butterball, which seemed to be in my belly just yesterday, is now only 6 months away from being a year old. We are just in awe of how fast she is growing and changing. It seems that she does something new everyday!

She loves baby food and I'm yet to find anything she doesn't like...however we've not tried anything green yet, so maybe that will allow for a more video-worthy reaction. She is able to sit on her own for a long time but still has her "whoops, I fell over" moments. Avery has also made an exciting (and deafening) discovery...her vocal chords. She has been making sounds for a long time but it wasn't until recently that she figured out the concept of volume. She loves to yell and scream and we've discovered that she will often do this when she's tired to try to keep herself awake. This also goes hand-in-hand with the little 'tude she's developed (I think she gets this from her daddy...he disagrees). I will often get a good yellin' at (did I just say "get a good yellin' at?!?") when I do something she doesn't like, like pulling a shirt over her head or buckling her in her carseat. It is quite humorous though. It will be interesting to see what the next 6 months have in store....

Just for laughs

4th of July

We got together with our friends Sean, Aprile & their daughter Kayden for the 4th. Avery had her first pool experience! She liked to stand in the pool but absolutely would not let me sit her in it. Kayden is beginning to warm up to Avery but still gets a little jealous whenever her mama holds Avery. It is fun to watch them interact and I look forward to the day when they can play together!

5 Months

Wow, it is so hard to believe that Avery turned 5 months old today! She is growing so much and seems to change everyday. She is full of smiles and beginning to turn into the Micheline baby...not joking, the child has some serious rolls on her legs. I am probably going to have to give in and eat them any day now.



She started sleeping in her crib this weekend and is doing really well! Better than I am, at least. She has also made a new discovery...her feet! Why is it just so darn cute when babies hold their feet in the air while flashing their diaper-padded booties to the world?!?



She has also entered the world of foods. We started out with cereal and have now progressed to oatmeal. It only took a few days for her to get the hang of it. It is quite humorous to watch. She eagerly opens her mouth when you hold up her spoon and when she has a bite she makes an "mmm" sound. And if you can't give it to her fast enough, she will let you know.

She loves to stand up. We're thinking she may just skip the crawling and go straight to walking because she prefers to be standing all the time. We bought her a jumparoo and she loves it. She's still a little too small, since her feet don't quite touch the floor yet. But it keeps her from sitting which equals a very happy Avery. She also seems to find it rather tasty....







One thing is for sure...she definitely gets cuter and cuter everday!

My newest obsession

I love to shop online.....correction: I love to "window shop" online (since I rarely ever actually buy anything). I recently discovered this fabulous website and I'm sure I'm one of the last people to know about it, but I just can't get enough of it. It's called Etsy and it's basically like E-bay except it's all handmade items. You can pretty much find anything on there like jewelry, housewares, clothing, etc., but of course my obsession is all the cutesy baby stuff. You can also buy patterns, fabrics and supplies for things like scrapbooking. If anything, it's a great place to get good ideas if you're a crafty person. And if you're super crafty, you can sell your own stuff on there. Check it out! www.etsy.com

Pictures

We recently had Avery's pictures made and it was quite the experience! We were fortunate to have not one, but two offers to take Avery's pictures as a gift. Our friends Jacob & Colleen gave us a free portrait session with Colleen's friend who did their wedding pictures, which were amazing. Me being the picture-obsessed person that I am was super excited but couldn't decide when to have them done. In the meantime, a lady who sings in my dad's choir also wanted to take Avery's pictures. We decided to go ahead and let her do them sort of as a "trial run," since I was a little unfamiliar with her work.

We went to her house in Junaluska Highlands, which isn't far from where my parents live, to have them made. We had seen an example of a "naked baby with roses" picture that she had done and really wanted to try it. This turned out to be slightly challenging...okay, very challenging. Lets just say that the ones that actually turned out good should be blown up and plastered all over our walls as a reminder of a victorious moment in our lives. Anyways, to do the naked baby pictures we had to take off Avery's diaper ahead of time to get rid of the diaper lines on her skin. This resulted in one wet outfit, wet pants for Shayne and roses that were watered in an unconventional kind of way. While actually taking the pictures, we had to strategically place one or two roses in order to cover her lady parts. As if trying to keep the roses in place wasn't enough of a challenge, we had the chewing of the hands to deal with. Avery, being your typical baby, loves to eat her hands. And at this particular moment in time, she found her hands to be especially delectable. So here we are...naked Avery, mommy the rose placer and daddy the hand remover. 3,479 pictures later (not really, but seemed that way) we decided we may possibly have gotten at least a few good ones. Needless to say, Avery's first picture session was a memorable experience...and we have some pretty good pictures as a reminder.