Chowing Down

This past weekend Heath and I decided to try out some rice cereal with Avery. We were so excited to get to this milestone; of course we got out the video camera and the regular camera to document the big occasion. We had our first attempt on Saturday and it pretty much failed.

We set Avery up in her Bumbo seat with the tray and I am sure she was pretty confused at why we were gathered around her. She spit out most of the cereal and what little made it into her mouth made her pretty upset. Her little tongue kept poking out and she had such a disgusted look on her face. I picked her up out of her seat and tried to feed her a little more while I was still holding her. She took a few more bites but she was done. As I said before, pretty much a big fail.

Knowing that it may take a few tries to get her to start eating solids we decided to make another go at it on Sunday. She was much happier this time and Trotter was VERY interested. I thought for sure that he would go up and lick Avery in the face, but he was more interested in the bowl of food.

This is one of Trotter's many attempts to get to the food bowl. I guess we will have to move her to a highchair soon.

I am planning on making as much of her food as possible. My Mom bought me the book "Blender Baby Food" and I have been so excited to start using the different recipes in it. We plan to start on other foods after we get back from our little weekend trip so I am sure we will have lots of other messy baby pictures to post.

Happy Memorial Day

It rained on and off for most of the weekend so we did not do much but hang out and relax. Our trip to the pool didn't happen but it was probably for the better. I am sure it was crazy because of the holiday so we will wait for another weekend. Heath blew up the floaty that we got for Avery so we are one step closer to getting her in the pool.

Here are some pictures of what really went on this weeknd.

We worked on sitting up.

Mom tried out my carrier for our trip coming up.

It wan't cold at all in the house I just wanted to see Avery in this cute Pooh hat!

Dad and Avery were so tired from playing that they had to take a nap.

Playing in my red, white and blue dress for Memorial Day!

Overall, it was a great weekend to unwind and get some much needed rest. We did do some packing for our trip this weekend to Atlanta. We will be going for a Knife show and will be meeting up with Rubs and B. I know it will be a great time for all and there will be lots of Avery pictures to put up next week.

Who Wears Short Shorts

It is getting warmer here in South Carolina and Avery has grown enough that we have had to break out the warm weather clothes. She is in the middle of sizes right now; her 3 month clothes are getting much smaller and the 6 month clothes are pretty baggy. I found these shorts a while back and just couldn't pass them up. They are so small and so cute!

Avery is now able to push up while on her stomach and hold herself up. When she was first rolling over she hated it because she could only push up for a few seconds at a time, now she holds her head up and looks all around. The picture below is Avery looking at her "light show". This is a crib soother that hooks on the side of her crib and she loves it. The lights, music and movement all really mesmerize her; as you can see below.

Look Ma, I'm Doing a Handstand!

Avery is back to talking again. She stopped for a little bit while she figured out her tongue and how it worked, but the Chatty Cathy is back. I love it when we capture her talking because she looks so serious and you can really see that she is trying to tell us something.

Little Miss Sunshine

We don't have any big plans for the long holiday weekend, just being able to relax will be great. I am sure we will hang around the house and do some barbecuing on the grill. If it stays nice we may even take our first trip to the pool!

Hope you all have a GREAT Memorial Day.

Dancing Queen - More Like Jumping Queen

Ok, I know I have been pretty bad about updating the blog this past week. I planned on posting lots of pictures and a few videos but it seemed like there was not time for it this week and I am sure that this will be a common thing in our house.

My plan is to post a video of Avery on Fridays so you will all be able to see her in action! I stole this idea from one of my favorite Mommy blogs and I hope that you will all enjoy the videos.

This video was from earlier this week. While Heath and I are in the kitchen cooking we normally put Avery in her bouncer so we can see and talk to her but also so she is entertained while we are working. She loves to play and bounce but as you can see she still has to use the phone books we have taped together because she just isn't tall enough yet.

Summer Time In The Pool

It is starting to warm up here and we are getting excited to start using the pool in our neighborhood. So, we did a little shopping and modeling to get ready for the summer and all the fun we are going to have.

We bought Avery a little turtle floaty with a sunshade. I had been checking it out at Wal-Mart for the last month or so and finally broke down and got it. I wanted to make sure that she had one for the pool and had a feeling that they would be sold out before the summer even started. It was just too cute to resist.

We also invested in a small baby pool with a shade for Avery. I don't know if she will get scared or over-stimulated with all of the crazy kids at the big pool so this will allow her to play in the privacy of her own backyard. We have not blown it up yet but it looks like the perfect size and I love the canopy over the top to protect her from the sun.

Rubs & B gave Avery this darling swimsuit and matching sunglasses for Easter this year. I wanted to try it on her and make sure she didn't freak out. She seemed to not care at all and was more interested in the new teething ring that she had to play with.

Avery has been drooling up a storm and chewing on everything in sight. I am sure that we have started teething because she is showing all of the signs and she even has some lumps in the top and bottom gums on the right side of her mouth. She is still a happy baby and it doesn't seem to be hurting her too much. Now that she knows her hand, or anything else within reach, is available to chew on she is fine.

She played for a while in her crib while I took a ton of pictures. I didn't snap too many of her smiling because she was pretty upset about hitting herself in the head with her new sippy cup. FYI... in most of these pictures you can see the red mark where she had just hit herself.

As you can see below she rolled over and let me know she was done with her fashion show!

Hope everyone has a great Friday!

Adventures of The Hulk

I had Friday off this past week so Avery and I did a little shopping. We were almost through the whole store and nothing had caught my eye until this! I stopped at all of the brightly colored straw and sippy cups thinking that surely there would not be one for Avery. When I saw that there was one for Miss A I quickly put it in the basket and beelined to the checkout. After we got home and I washed the cup I let Avery play with it. Right away she grabbed the handles and shoved the spout into her mouth. Looks like our little girl knows how to use it already! She had a great time passing the cup from hand to hand and chewing on the spout.

All was great until The Hulk grabbed her sippy cup and smashed herself on the forehead. There was a silent cry followed by a few tears. She still had a faint spot this morning:( After 5 minutes of rocking with her in the recliner she looked up at me, spit her pacifier out and gave me a big "all better" smile. Looks like she bounces back pretty quick.

Happy 1st Mothers Day!

Yesterday was my first official Mother's day with Avery. It may sound weird but I made Heath take pictures of Avery and myself just to document this great day. It wasn't the card that made me cry or the beautiful gifts that my wonderful husband gave to me but being able to spend time with our family that was the best. We didn't do anything out of the norm, but that's really how I wanted it.

Just being able to see this crazy little girl and know that she is all mine made the day perfect!

Happy Late Mother's Day to all the wonderful Mothers that I know. Also, to two very special people in our lives that will be mothers soon!

5 Months and Counting

Today is Avery's 5 month birthday. I really can't believe how big she is getting, but more importantly how she has grown such a funny personality. Right now she is really into blowing raspberries with drool coming out and rolling down her chin. She likes to do it at the funniest times; like waiting in line at the checkout in Babies R Us. Several of the moms around me just smiled but the checker loved it and egged Avery on while we were up at the checkout. She also loves to flirt with people. If we are holding Avery and someone comes up to talk to her she will smile at them and then hide her face, so cute!

Here are her 5 month pictures. As you can see she is really getting strong and turning into quite the wiggle worm. Just trying to get a picture with her looking at the camera, not chewing on her hand, smiling and sitting on the chair was definitely a feat. I think the pictures turned out great and the "outtakes" are hilarious.

I hope you all have a great weekend and Mother's day.

Sorry this didn't post on Friday. I thought I hit the publish button and all I did was save the post. I am still getting used to this blogging thing!

Toys, Toys and More Toys

On most days Heath and I pick up Avery at daycare and make it home around 5:45pm. This gives us about two hours for play time before we have to head up to give her a bath and get to bed. She really enjoys this time and has a blast playing with Mom & Dad.

One of the coolest gifts Avery received for her baby shower is her Bumbo seat and tray. The little foam seat is formed just right to help Avery sit up and the tray is perfect for holding toys for her to play with. She loves being able to look around and see what is going on.

On Wednesday night I put Avery into her seat and we played for the longest time. One of her favorite toys to play with is a car console that her B & Rubs (Grandma & Grandpa Stone) got her. This thing is so cool; it has a steering wheel, traffic lights, a shifter and even a key to crank up the car. When she first started to play with it all she could do was pound on the buttons to change the songs and lights. Now she is grabbing the wheel and turning it as well as hitting the shifter. I know that as she gets bigger she will have even more fun with it.

As you can see Avery gets pretty serious when it comes to driving, hopefully it will be the same way when it happens for real!

Sometimes our crazy girl gets a little wild and I have to hold it for her; otherwise she pushes it off the tray.

On another note; Avery will be 5 months old tomorrow! I can't believe how fast the time has gone by. It seems like just yesterday I was tying up my loose ends at work and getting ready for my maternity leave. Anyways, I promise to post her 5 month picture tomorrow!

The Beginning of My Journey

I have wanted to start a blog for a while now. I have several blogs that I read on a daily basis and I always think about how awesome it would be to share what is going on with our little clan to our friends and family. My Sister In Law writes my favorite blog that has been the hub for any and all information regarding the great Miss Avery. She chronicled parts of my pregnancy as well as Avery's birth from afar and now how she has grown into a crazy girl who is just shy of being 5 months old! I am in no way trying to take the place of LJ's blog because it is my favorite, but I also want to share what is going on through our eyes! Now that I am out of the stupor of having a newborn I want to take as many pictures of my little girl, keep track of all her milestones and share them with you all.

The name of my blog is a little silly; but after coming up with it on a whim it kind of stuck. Our little Princess and her puppy T.