Pretty China Shoes

Along with 35,000 Great Work Perks cards from China, we received a special gift. Jon's super sweet supplier in China, Yasong, sent 2 pairs of hand-knit shoes that his girlfriend had made for Avery. They are adorable and they fit her little feet perfectly. Doh je, Yasong, or is it xie xie? Thank you either way. Avery loves her new shoes.

One of Avery's Very First Kisses

First Stairs

Avery has always had access to a set of carpeted stairs. For 11 months and 6 days, she was carried up and down them or crawled right by them. She did not yet see their great potential. Until Monday, that is. Monday morning she crawled over to the stairs and stood up. Monday afternoon she crawled back over, we grabbed the camera, and she climbed her fist stair. About 5 minutes later, despite ever vigilant parents she fell off her first stair, but that won't be stopping her. Stairs are super fun! And, wow, our little baby is growing up.

11 month Family Foto

Now that Avery is 11 months, she is cruising, kissing all her stuffed animals and pictures of animals and babies in books, saying "hi", starting to stand without holding on, and is just very busy crawling around exploring anything and everything. We were lucky to catch her for a moment to capture this picture of the whole family.

Forgotten Outing

So as to commemorate Avery's first trip to the Aquarium, she was photographed watching Quincy's squeak toy swim by. We forgot the camera and she LOVED the aquarium, loved watching all the different fish. I am thinking about a membership. And next time I will bring the camera. It was great fun.

Catching up/ Quincy and Avery's worlds collide

This morning my sister and I had a conversation about blogs and how there can reach a point where you are so far behind that you consider quitting. This conversation re-motivated me to catch up with the happenings of the past couple of weeks. I came home from work Saturday to find Avery playing with Quincy's water bowl, splashing and squealing, water (dog bowl water) all over her dress, arms, legs, diaper, FACE, and the floor! Jon says, "you have to see this!" You all will see it too, there is video to follow soon. So I watched for a couple of minutes until I could stand it no more, then wiped her down and undressed her and daddy had a great idea of putting water in a pot and letting her splash around. She had SO much fun splashing! Much more sanitary, but unfortunately her little thumb got stuck in the handle. It's hard to win!! But after some loving cuddles, she was fine.
Another video to follow is her giving kisses to "dolly". She has over the past few days started giving kisses. Her first kiss ever was to Quincy's bear. Those of you who have visited our place know how very revolting this image is. Quincy LOVES bear. So after her first kiss shared with Quincy's bear, she then kissed Daddy, then Mommy and now all stuffed animals. It's really cute, if she is holding a stuffed animal by the feet, she will turn it around and kiss the face. Now she is probably all kissed out, because we are often asking her for kisses. Wishing you all lots of sweet kisses :)

Baby's First 'Do

Over the past month or two I have heard regular mention of a little thing called the "faux-hawk". It's something crazy kids are doing with their hair these days (wow, i sound old). After a sweaty nap on the car ride trip home from the Camarillo outlets where we shopped with Deirdre and her 2 girls and Jenny, Kylie and Kira, the above hairdo resulted. I thought it was funny and so took plenty of pix to capture it. The bottom picture kind of captures her big smile she gives when she's extra happy where she crinkles up her nose too.

Creeping

One little game we have started to play is placing "dolly" at the other end of 2 chairs against the wall and getting Avery to creep over to get her. There are 2 issues with this game, namely that it brings to the forefront that we have totally unoriginal names for her dolls and stuffed animals. Bear is "teddy", all dolls are "dolly", oh there is one i named "petunia" but i realize it will be a long time before she will be able to say, "mommy, can i play with petunia?", so i am thinking of renaming petunia "dolly". The other issue is that she really doesn't care for this game and it demonstrates how she seems to err on the side of caution in her life experiences. Except when she tries to launch herself off the side of our bed, she tends to be careful of anything new or scary, like how to get down from standing up, for a few days she would just cry and fuss until she figured out how to get down onto her knees or bottom. She's got that figured out now and spends lots of time pulling up to stand anywhere she can. Just in the past week she has started standing in her crib calling out to anyone who will listen.

These are a few of my favorite things...

Avery has a new favorite activity, that is taking mail out of her mailbox on her new (used) Little Tikes Garden Activity Center. She tried it out at our good friends Deirdre, Ella and Charlotte's house and had a blast with it. So we sent daddy searching on craigslist and within 1 week we had our very own center. It rocks! Endless hours of fun, exploring, creeping, gardening, opening, shutting. It is no longer made, but perhaps your local craigslist might offer it as well.
Over memorial day weekend mommy got to spend precious time with her bookclub friends. Laura flew in from New York City and brought all 5 bookclub second generation girls their very own beautiful dresses from Ralph Lauren Baby. There are mainly 3 pictures of Avery and her Garden Center to capture how precious this dress is. Thanks Laura, we love you!!

Video: Role Reversal

Video: Every Baby Needs One Embarassing Movie

Ten Months and One Day

Daddy found these pretty purple flowers on the ground for her to sit in. These trees are blooming all over LA right now. If I were a botanist I would surely tell you which kind they are, but all I know is they are pretty. I tried to get Avery to look out the car window a few days ago as we drove down a street lined with these purple blooming trees, but she was more interested in a rattle in the car than anything outside. This particular setting is outside a house where a nice older couple lives near us. If I were my sister, I would be able to tell you their names, their children and grandchildren's names, and I would be drinking lemonade on their back porch. But this is LA, not the small town south, so they just say, "sure, you are welcome to come on up onto our steps and let the baby look at our roses". They have the most gorgeous roses, all different colors, there must be 20 huge rosebushes. Avery loves to look at the roses every time we take Quincy for a walk. Anyway, this picture is on their front lawn. They are really nice to let us enter into their space on a regular basis. Happy 10 months! Oh she is babbling up a storm, pulling to stand, bouncing, loving eating and going to the park to crawl around in the grass.

Video: You Best Not Leave Me!

Finger Food

My mommy has noticed the other kids at daycare eating little cubes of food while she still feeds me super-pureed food. So after much thought and preparation, she finally put away the Cuisinart for a minute and chopped up some cooked yam for me and let me play away. I don't exactly get what I am supposed to do with the cubes so I mostly smashed them around but mommy put a few in my mouth for me to eat. I really liked it. Oh did I mention I have 5 new teeth coming in? It isn't very much fun, I must admit. If you look closely you might see the 4 top ones working their way out. Cheers to finger food!!

Video: Baby's Best Friend

Video: Daddy The Menace

Video: The Prodigy

Hello Friends

Avery had a fun playdate with three of her favorite girls. Ella, 2-1/2, Charlotte, 4 months, and Maddie, 5 months. After letting Ella play with Quincy's toys for a little while, we rounded up our 3 Bugaboos, Blue, Black and Red and headed to the local park for some fresh air. Avery agrees that there is nothing better than a little girl time with great friends. Thanks Deirdre and Kelly for visiting. Brandy and Anna, we missed you!

Avery Waving

Yummy!

After rejecting almost all fruits, I finally found a fruit I can really dig my teeth into. Pineapple! It is so tasty and feels so good on my gums as my top 2 teeth are preparing to bust on through. Thanks Mark and Mijin for getting my parents to introduce this amazing food to me. I loved it. Thanks for letting my try to nap in Babyboy Brown's crib too. That was very sweet of you all. I can't wait to meet him! Here's to more summertime fruit enjoyment. I will come barbecue at your house any day.

Happy Birthday Mom!

Me and dad sneakily ran around during the day on your birthday. Dad wanted to pickup some fresh fruit for your Birthday at the farmers market, but I told him he was crazy. While mommy was  watching the "Hills" on MTV I overheard them talking about this magical cupcake place in Beverly Hills, called Sprinkles. I said "it's Sprinkles or nothing". When we came home from Sprinkles I was still in my PJs. I told dad that this is a big day and that he better get me out of these peasant rags and make me look like a million dollars. As you can see he delivered... Here's looking at you mom, I hope you had a wonderful birthday enjoying your cupcakes and your million dollar view...  

9 months!!!

Little Miss Avery Mae is nine months old. Crazy how time flies. She is doing so much lately. She started crawling 2 weeks ago, she waves goodbye (video to follow soon) to herself, she has started clapping, which is really fun, and pulling herself up to stand. She is feeling much better, just tired and coughing still but definitely on the mend. She lost at least 2 pounds so I am on a mission to fatten her back up. That started with her first trial of avocado today. She loved it, devoured it. Unlike pears and bananas which she still hasn't taken to. She is our little love. As we prepare to celebrate our 4th anniversary later this month, I am reminded of how fortunate I am to have such a supportive, involved and loving partner in this journey of parenthood.

Our Sunday adventure....

So after 4 days of a fever and worsening cough, Avery had the great pleasure of checking out the ER at the hospital where she was born almost 9 months ago! The nurses were really great, RN John drew her labs on the 1st try and the xray tech was very sweet and the doctor was helpful. Basically she has viral bronchiolitis and we have to ride it out. We are reassured that her xray did not show anything serious beyond that and that her body is mounting an appropriate response to the infection. So we are going to keep on keeping on with Tylenol, humidity and TLC. Here's hoping now that we went to the ER, tomorrow morning she will wake up feeling much better.

Look out world, here I come...

Meeting Great Grandma Jenny

Doo Hickey & ALEM

Happy 90th Birthday Libby!

One Of The Best Sounds Ever...

Really?!?!

Did I really have the nerve to say on Monday "you know we have really been lucky that overall Avery has been so healthy these last 9 months. Despite a few colds, she hasn't had any ear infections or been really sick." To which Jon responds, "uh, knock on wood!" and I say "oh, of course, knock on wood."

So it should have come as no surprise Tuesday when daycare called me and said, you know she's not fussy or feverish but Avery isn't eating or sleeping. Or Wednesday when she didn't eat so heartily and her cough worsened. Or Wednesday at 11 pm when uncharacteristically Avery was crying and we went to check on her and she was on fire, fever of 103.7. Yikes!
Even for a neonatal nurse practitioner, there is something about seeing my own child listless and in despair that just tore my heart out. Since having Avery, it has become clear to me that I would be one of "those" parents if my child were ever hospitalized. And in turn I find that I have much more empathy for my patients' parents than I did before Avery entered our lives.

So I totally jinxed us. And I am not really a believer in jinxes, but maybe now I am. Her temperature then dropped to 96.5 after Tylenol, yikes again. Then this morning I took her to the Dr as her temp was still 101-102 and she is having times of moaning and her cough is preventing her (and us) from sleeping well. Anyway, she'll be fine, but in the moment I have been on official 24hr mother/nurse duty. Thankfully, I have had Jon as my right-hand man. Being up all night, practically, has brought back into focus how awesome it is to have a child who regularly sleeps 12hr a night uninterrupted (knock on wood x10).

Jon has been quite impressed with me because he was worried that my nursing treatment toward him (something along the line of "you aren't dying, you don't need IV fluids, suck it up") might translate into improper care of our beloved Avery. But alas, I managed to treat her right. Our normally too busy to cuddle baby has desired non-stop cuddles, and I have gladly complied. We called her little Lucia today because my sister's baby Lucia is a total lover and Avery is just like that when she feels terrible.

The dr said her chest is rattling, mentioned pneumonitis, placed her on antibiotics, keep up the Tylenol and give plenty of fluids.
Here's hoping for a speedy recovery.

Avery Meets Great Grandma Jenny

We dragged Daddy off his 'deathbed' to go spend some time with Great Grandma Jenny, GG's mom. She has recently moved from W Hartford to live near GG in a wonderful assisted living apartment. Avery and I got to see her a couple of times, but Jon only managed to get out of bed this day to go see her. He was sick from the night of Libby's party until the day we flew home 5 days later. I will say if he had to be sick, there was no better vacation location than his mom's house. She was a great nurse/mom to him, much better than I would have been if we were in, say, Hawaii. Despite the illnesses (which I somehow escaped, thank goodness), we had a great trip and it was so wonderful for Avery to meet all her great grandmothers. All of my great grandparents were deceased by the time I was born, so I just feel so blessed that she has 3 to enjoy.
I will also mention that flying with a 3 month old was much easier than an 8 month old, but she did well overall and she would try to get anyone and everyone to smile at her by offering up a smile of her own. Such a sweetie.