The Big One!!!!!

My little baby, or toddler I should say, turned 1 year old just a week ago. In the days leading up to her birthday it was hard for me to imagine that she had been with us coming on a year and then in the next breath it felt like she had been with us for an eternity (in the good way)!

On the morning of the 8th I woke her up to get ready for daycare and as I was giving her a bottle I started to cry. She was no longer the little baby that I had held in my arms almost a year ago but fastly becoming a toddler with a personality all her own. She not known as baby girl Stone but Avery Grace Stone.

She loves it when her Daddy and puppy go outside at night because she can stand at the glass door and look out at them. Avery is a teething monster and has 7 teeth now; 4 top and 3 bottom. This means that she will bite and chew on anything including Dad's shoulder or Mom's knee (true but painful story). She is crawling all over, pulling up, trying to climb and walking around everything. She will let go and stand for a minute but then will fall down. She loves all of the Christmas decorations, including the tree, and will look at them for hours. Avery is eating all table food now and no longer on baby food. She is also on whole milk but the switch was made from breast milk/formula to milk around 9 months. She is such a big girl and we are so proud of where she is now and so proud of where she will go with her life!

Back to the birthday celebration. She wore her special birthday shirt made by B and she looked so cute. The cupcake and the 1 were perfect!

She has not had much sugar at all in her little life so we decided against letting her smash, smear and eat a whole cake by herself. So, I made cupcakes instead with pink frosting and blue lettering. I messed around with several designs including her initials, name and Happy, First and B-Day. They looked so cute and we couldn't wait to see what she would do with one. We lit the candle, sang happy birthday and then let her go at it. She put one finger in, tasted the frosting and then really started to eat. She got all the frosting off first and then started on the cake part. Sounds like she learned well from her Mom, going for the highest sugar content first. She had eaten about half of the cupcake when we decided that she was done before there was an overload on sugar! She loved it and every time I tried to sneak a cupcake after that she would come over and want to share. We opened some presents and then went on with our normal routine. I was so happy that we didn't do anything crazy or big for her birthday. It turned out perfect and just the way we wanted it. The little one and us celebrating together. Of course, if all of the Grandparents and Aunts/Uncles could have been there it would have been great, but we loved it all the same.

Happy (Late) Birthday Little One!

11 Month Pictures - And Slacker Mommy

Ok, so I have been a REALLY bad blogger. Avery is about to turn 1 and I haven’t even posted her 11 month birthday pictures yet. Of course there is a lot going on at our house but it includes chasing after a fast crawling baby, baby-proofing, pulling a certain baby off the bottom of our coffee tables and making sure that most things can safely be pulled up on instead of cooking, reading and playing on the computer while the baby plays with the toys surrounding her. It is hard to believe that Avery is becoming much less a baby and really turning into a toddler. She is pulling up on everything and is walking around toys and furniture while she is holding on. She is standing on her own occasionally and after about 3-4 seconds will fall down to her butt. Her personality is really blossoming and she is talking up a storm. Momma, DaDa, baba and other sweet babble is filling the house all day long. I promise to recap the last month and a half in a few posts, just not all at one time.

Here are the 11 month pictures with the cute one!

Someone behind the camera is SO funny!

Would much rather be playing with toys than posing for Mom and Dad.

9 Is So Very Fine

I finally got around to posting some of Avery's 9 month pictures. As you can see she is quite a ham for the camera and is such a happy baby. She is crawling all over the place, working on pulling up and wanting to put everything in her mouth so she is keeping us very busy. You really do get a break until they become mobile and then you are constantly on the run, the good news is that you don't have to work out much!

Starting to fit in my Pooh chair

Hugging Mr. Monkey Hamming it up for the camera Are we done yet?

Happy late birthday my sweet one!

8 Months Old!

Avery turned 8 months old on Saturday. She is getting so big and learning something new every day; people are right when they say that infants are sponges at this stage. She really soaks up everything that is going on around her.

Avery is still doing great at solids and has been working on feeding herself. She loves her mesh feeder with all sorts of foods in it. Last night she had pears and they were a hit, even though she ended up smearing most of them on her face and head!

At first I thought these mesh feeder things were so gross, but after I tried it out they really made sense. I highly recommend putting an ice cube in them for teething. Avery is working on puffs and Cheerios as well and is starting to actually get them in her mouth instead of just crushing them up. She loves her sippy cup and has moved from gumming the spout to actually taking a drink or two.

As you can see from her new pictures she is growing like a weed. My arms are getting a great workout from all the baby lifts I do on the weekend with her. We don't have a well child exam this month, but my guess is that she is around 17 pounds.

Avery is still scooting all over the place and occasionally will get up on her hands and knees but no official crawling yet. Some of these outtakes show that she can turn around in her chair and is working on getting down without a big wipe out. Also, if you prop her up near something she will stand and hold on to it. I have a feeling that these pictures will be harder to take in the next few months.

Funny/Exciting story from last weekend

On Saturday around lunch time Avery took a pretty long nap, about 2.5 hours. I went to check on her because she had been sleeping for so long and she was pretty quiet. When I walked around the corner to her room I saw her sitting up playing with the lovie that had been in her bed! I was SO excited to see that she had gotten into the sitting position all by herself that I busted into her room and started talking to her. BIG mistake, she jumped about a foot into the air and immediately started crying. Poor thing, I scared her to death and all because I was excited that she was sitting up. She calmed down quickly and was back to her happy self and we are still waiting for her to show us how she does it.

Go Avery!

7 Months Old

We are back from out visit to Tennessee where Avery got to see Aunt LJ, Rubs, B and Mamaw. We all had a great time, even the dogs! I will definitely blog more about our trip later but I wanted to post Avery's 7 Month pictures. She is getting so big and her pictures are great.

Avery is moving constantly now. She is rolling all over and doing the bulldozer, as Heath calls it. She puts her chin to her chest, arms down by her side and pushes herself around with her feet. She is pretty effective at moving around like that and I think that crawling is in her future soon. We have not seen any teeth yet but her gums are pretty bumpy and she is chewing on everything! She loves to sit up and take in everything that is going on around her, she is so inquisitive. Yesterday we were unpacking from our trip and Heath was emptying out the cooler while Avery was watching over him, she reached out and grabbed the ice on top of the drinks. I think we both expected her to be shocked but she just scrunched her eyebrows together and then smiled. It's great having such a happy baby.

We took lots of cute pictures of Avery this weekend. A few staged shots and lots of pictures of Avery with the family, but I will save that all for later. Hope this is a good start to your week and that Monday is not too hard on everybody.

6 Months Old!

It is hard to believe that our baby girl is 1/2 a year old. Six months ago seems both like an eternity and just a second ago. Avery showed us last night how much has changed since those first few weeks home; she is scooting all around and playing with her toys. I am sure that before the end of the June she will be getting up on her hands and knees and crawling. A mobile baby, how exciting and scary at the same time!

This is what I got yesterday morning after getting the big girl out of her crib and taking her downstairs to get ready. I put her in the pack-n-play for just a minute and when I came back to her this is what I saw...I guess she was having LOTS of fun with her toys!

Of course I have to post the "official" 6 month pictures. She is getting so big and is now able to sit up in the chair all by herself. We definitely have a heart breaker on our hands, or at least we think so.

This one is too cute, I love that she crosses her little feet.

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!