Moving and Shaking

So Monday Avery took her first steps, finally breaking out from standing and balancing to move one little foot forward. She later put 2 little feet forward before collapsing in exhaustion :) and crawling over to where she wanted to be. We were at the YMCA gym and swim and at the end of the gym class there are great bubbles propelled by an industrial size fan and Avery took her spot in the back of the classroom and watched all the bubbles fly straight toward her. She stood, balancing, enthralled by the goings-on.

Anyway, it is only fitting that the day after she takes the courageous move to take a few steps throughout the day, that Mother Earth decided to shake things up a bit for her. Yesterday at 11:42 Avery got to experience her first real earthquake, a 5.6. Apparently she didn't mind. She was at daycare. They threw 5 babies into an emergency crib and wheeled them outside and all the teachers told me how much she loved it. All the other babies were sitting calmly in the crib and Avery sprawled out in the middle, lying on top of some of her little friends. Then apparently she was standing up in the crib watching all the people outside, it was very exciting. It does now cause me more anxiety than it did before yesterday that her daycare is located underneath a 7 story parking garage!?!?! But I am sure it is up to code.

Here's wishing you all sure-footed days.

Birthday Fun

We have a great little park 3 blocks away where we had Avery's birthday party. We were so lucky to be surrounded by friends and family for this special gathering. The first picture is of Brett pedaling the kids around. Avery needed Jon to help keep her on the seat. Maddie and Anna (and an unknown neighborhood girl) had lots of fun, thanks Brett. The 2nd and 3rd picture are of the hit of the party, the ball tent. Avery spent a good solid hour enjoying the ball tent, actually, all the kids loved it. Our neighbors bought it for their son Oskar (above in the brown shirt) and they were kind enough to let us christen it for the party. The 2nd pic is of Avery and her friend Ava (my college roommate and dear friend Kelly and Joel's daughter). The 3rd pic is Oskar, Avery and Gabriella (another sweet neighbor girl, born 2 days before Avery). The park was lots of fun.

Beets and Chocolate

I got it in my head that since I have made most everything that Avery has eaten thus far, that I would also figure out a way to make pink frosting for Avery's cupcakes without using food coloring. Don't ask me why, I know we all grew up on food coloring and turned out just fine, I guess I am just trying to hold it off for as long as possible. A friend at work and my sister helped me in this endeavor and the final verdict was beet juice. I tried boiling beets and using the pink water, but it wasn't strong enough of a color, so I resorted to canned beet juice added to my variation of the Barefoot Contessa's cream cheese frosting and it came out pretty nicely. I also made the chocolate cupcakes from scratch, a la Joy of Cooking black bottom cupcakes without the cream cheese/chocolate chip filling. I then squeezed them onto a pretty silver platter my grandmother had given us when we got married. I was proud of her 1st birthday "cake".

Go(gh)ing to the Getty

For Avery's 1st birthday Jon, Avery and I met Grancy at the Getty. I had this desire for her to see her first van Gogh on her first birthday. My favorite room at the Getty is what I call the Impressionist room. There are Monet, Manet, van Gogh's Irises and many others, all in one room. One of my most memorable life experiences was walking into the van Gogh room of paintings in the Musee d'Orsay in Paris. I am not often moved by art, but I really felt the power of one man's gift in that experience. I was always intrigued by Vincent, writing essays about him from grade school on. Anyway, above is the tram ride up to the Getty. Above that is Avery and her first van Gogh. Needless to say, the picture does not do the painting justice. She was much more interested in 3 sculptures she found, rather than any of the paintings on the walls. Specifically she was drawn to a sculpture of 2 girls, sisters.
Below that is Avery checking out some flowers in the beautiful garden at the Getty. It was pretty hot and sunny, so we couldn't thoroughly enjoy the garden, but she got to point at a few flowers before heading home. We also had a nice trip to the beach with Quincy on her birthday morning. And finally once Avery was sound asleep, GG arrived from Florida. All in all it was a very happy first birthday. Wow, how that year flew by, it is truly unbelievable. Happy birthday, Mae Mae.

My First UCLA 8 Clap

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