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!

South Carolina State Fair

This year when the SC State Fair rolled around Heath and I both knew we wanted to take Avery. We wanted her to see all of the cute animals, bright lights and smell all of the yummy treats. Of course the weekend that we wanted to go to the fair it was supposed to be rainy, cold and windy. Not what you want to hear when you are trying to take out a 10 month old to look around. The weather seemed like it was going to hold on Sunday so we headed out to the fair. The wind was blowing a little but it wasn’t too cold and everybody was bundled up accordingly. With so many people, noises and lights Avery was a little apprehensive at riding in her stroller at first, but she calmed right down. We got to see all of the prize chickens, ducks, cows and even some pigs. The display of the baby ducks riding on a ferris wheel and going down a water slide was so cute; but what she especially loved was little finches jumping around in their cage and singing to her. Heath carried her up close to the cage and she just lit up with a huge smile.

Overall it was a great trip and we can’t wait to take her again next year when she can enjoy it even more.

Halloween & Our Little Monkey

This was Avery’s first Halloween and of course it was celebrated with much excitement. Roy, Brenda, LeeJayne and even Bauer travelled to South Carolina to visit us all. We loved spending the time with them and we were so happy that they could come and play with Avery. She had just gotten tubes in her ears the day before everybody came in but she was a trooper and had a great time. On Saturday during the day we decided to hit up a pumpkin patch that was close to the house. We walked around and checked out all the fun things they had on the farm. As we were checking out the goats one sneezed and Avery got so scared, I guess she didn’t understand that everybody sneezes! They had an old time horse ride that we put Avery on and she loved it. On a side note the horse cost 25 cents to run. Not that it was a lot of money but I can remember when those things were a penny in the grocery store. Wow, it makes me feel pretty old to even type that.

She looked like such a big girl up there.

The farm also had a cute area with pumpkins and bales of hay set up for pictures. Of course we put Avery up there and snapped a few cute ones. We had to put down a blanket because the hay was a little prickly and she didn’t like it touching her legs. She loved holding the baby pumpkin and even tried to put it in her mouth a few times. We had to stop that because the pumpkin was a little dirty…ewww! As you can guess Avery dressed up as a monkey and she was SO cute. It was really warm the weekend of Halloween so we waited until it cooled down to dress Avery up in her suit. We handed out bags of candy to the other kids in our cul-de-sac and dropped off a few other bags to some of the people up our street. Avery was pretty confused at what was going on; kids screaming and yelling, people dressed up in weird costumes and lots of people coming up and touching her and telling her she was so cute. We stayed outside for about an hour until the heat and noise pushed us back inside. We had a great time for Avery’s first Halloween and being able to spend the special time with family.

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.

It's A 10!

Avery turned 10 months old this past Thursday and we couldn't be more excited. Our little girl is growing up so fast...sniff, sniff. It's hard to believe that in just a few short months she will be one year old. I know the next few months will fly by just like the last ten have already.

Avery is really moving around now and showing us something new every day. (That is why posts are less often, she is tiring us out.) She is crawling all over the house now and exploring everything. We used to be able to sit her in the living room and she would just cruise around to her different toys in there. Now she is crawling out into the dining room and into the kitchen as well. I know she hears Heath and I in the kitchen and wants to come join the party. As soon as she spots Trotter's food and water she makes a bee-line for it. We usually have to put it up while she is crawling around so she does not make a mess or try and eat it! She is pulling up on her toys now and gets so excited when she can look at things from a different point of view. We know that she will be walking soon and are ready to babyproof the house more.

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!

2 Very Big Suprises

We finally got a tooth! I guess they come in pairs because we have 2!!!!!! On Friday morning when I was getting Avery ready for school I thought I saw her bottom left tooth popping through her gums. I didn't really want to bother her and dig my finger around her mouth that early in the morning so I decided to check after we picked her up from school. When we got home Heath and I both checked and were so suprised that she had popped her two bottom teeth in one day! She was a little uncomfortable the couple days before but nothing that an ice cube and her mesh teether couldn't fix. BTW...these pictures are horrible but trying to take pictures of tiny little teeth when someone dosen't want to open their mouth is very hard. The only way we could get it done was to distract her with some puffs.

Here's to number 1 and 2!