Avery - 9 Months

Well, actually Avery is now 9 1/2 months. I LOVE this age. It is such an age of discovery, growth, and laughter. She is a lot of fun to be around. Her teachers at daycare love her too. They say she is full of personality. I would definitely agree. Here are a few pictures and a little update of her current milestones.


















About three weeks ago Avery started getting her two bottom teeth. It took about three weeks for them both to come in. It is near impossible to get a picture of them. So, here is a sweet picture of her playing in a box! Who needs expensive toys?!













Like I said, she LOVES to laugh. She is the perfect fix to a bad day at work. I love coming home to a happy baby.













Look at me! I LOVE to stand! It is definitely her favorite thing to do right now. Avery goes from sitting or crawling to her knees. Most of the time she still needs help to get up ... but other times ...













she surprises us and does it her own! She thought it was hilarious that she was standing in her crib.













Ma Ma and Da Da have become a part of Avery's vocabulary. I certainly think she knows what it means. I am pretty sure she even understands the word NO, except when it comes out of her mom's mouth.

She Likes to Move It, Move It ...

Wow! It has been a hectic last two weeks. I truly can't even remember what happened yesterday and SLOW is not a word in my vocabulary these days. But, we took the good with the not so wonderful and made it through. Here is a little recap.

After Labor day, Avery spent the next three days at home with a double ear infection. Matt stayed home with her most, because ya'll they don't make it easy for teachers to take off! It took me an extra 2 hours to prepare to be off with Avery just for ONE day! Now, is there a trick I don't know about?! I mean, don't hold out on me teacher friends. If there is a secret to quick sub planning, fill a girl in, would ya?!

So Friday, Avery finally went back to school. Yes, we got to donate four days of tuition to Avery's daycare. Gotta love that! That afternoon, I was late leaving school and missing my little girl. Once again I left my classroom in a HUGE mess, rushed out the door, got in the car (the nicest one I have EVER owned), and backed up like I normally would. Unfortunately, there was a car parked RIGHT BEHIND me on the curb and BOOM, I ran into it. What a way to end an already less than perfect week. Still my fault I know, but ya'll I seriously think there should be a rule about people parking on curbs! Especially when I could back up and hit you.














So, apparently a stomach virus was going around daycare and the one day that Avery went that week, she picked it up! She was sick (if you know what I mean) almost all day Saturday and into the night! Poor thing was PITIFUL! We took her back to daycare on Monday because we thought she was well. At 1:30 that afternoon they called Matt to come get her. Matt called me right before dismissal at school that same day and told me that he was sick too. Oh. MY. WORD. YA'LL. Seriously?! I did my bus duty, got excused from the faculty meeting and went home to take care of both Matt and Avery. And guess what?! We donated another day's worth of tuition to Avery's school on Tuesday. Icing. on. the. cake!














So, that my friends is the "not so wonderful" news. The good news is this ... Avery is into everything now! She is army crawling EVERYWHERE! She started on Labor day. That is not all! She is pulling up on her new favorite toy! Our little girl is growing up fast.

Labor-Less Days

Labor day weekend could not have come at a better time. After 17 (what seemed like 30) days of being back at work, I was ready to relax, refocus, spend time with my little family, and clean our neglected little condo.


















We took Avery to the zoo for the first time. Since it is so close to our condo, we bought a membership and will be taking her this fall for sure. It was MUCH cheaper than buying day passes for two adults. Plus, since I am an educator we got $10 off! Yippee!


















Avery also got to play with a new toy! One of the sweet families in my class last year was cleaning out and gave us this awesome toy. Avery loves it already!
















Seriously, did you just love your Labor Day holiday as much as we did? It was low key, but really good! Now I will be looking forward to Fall Break! Until then, I am hoping to figure out a better routine to get more lesson planning and prep done during the week so I can enjoy my weekends more often.

Avery 8 Months

Avery is 8 months old! She has become quite the social little girl. She smiles and coos to almost everyone she sees. Two weeks ago we dropped her off at school for the first time. When I picked her up she was happy as can be. Hard for mom? Yes. But, I truly believe this is best for Avery. She LOVES to be around people.


















I took this picture of Avery before she went to school for the first time.

Avery is still sitting strong. She hasn't started crawling yet, but has been scooting around for a few months. Lately, she has been rocking back and forth on hands and knees. I tried to convience her to crawl today. I just know that she is going to crawl at school this week, and then I won't be the first to see the "first." Or maybe she will skip crawling and walk. Apparently crawling is NOT a milestone that is necessary for further developmental milestones.













Look at this girl standing on those strong legs!

Avery has been LOVING puffs lately. She has a lot of fun picking them up and putting them in her mouth. She loves the apple AND the "greens" (spinach, kale, and greens). I think she will eventually figure out that they have "green" stuff in them since she refuses to eat the pureed peas and green beans now. The only semi-green thing she will eat is avocado. This makes me proud though, because it is packed with good things for healthy brain development. She has recently began eating toast and diced bananas. Maybe next weekend I will have time to cook and cut up some other yummy finger foods. Seriously, I need to hire someone to cook/clean for us. (I WISH!)


















One of Avery's favorite treats is frozen banana. She usually lets me know it is all gone by throwing a BIG fit!

I miss her during the day when I am at work. I MISS HER A WHOLE LOT! I just know and believe that she is where she needs to be for now and is well taken care of. And for some reason, I have been entrusted with the job of encouraging, motivating, and teaching 20 VERY different 6-year-olds. Some of them could care less about learning (but by the end of the year they will LOVE it). One can't speak English AT ALL. Another has had only a year of English in her country of Korea. I have a challenging school year ahead, a little girl to love on when I am home, and a God to serve daily. I am praying for the strength to carry out the task He has set before me knowing that WITH Him all things are possible.

7 Months Old

Yesterday Avery turned 7 months old! I can hardly believe it. (I think I say that every month.) I feel like I am going to wake up and all of a sudden she is going to be walking and talking and I will have missed her growing up. (Especially since I am about to start school in three weeks ... ahhhhhhhhhh!) That will be another post for sure!


Matt and I LOVE this little girl more than words can describe. It doesn't take much for her to make our day brighter. Her smile is contagious.

Here are some things Avery has been doing this past month:

Sitting up very well

Trying to pull up to sitting from lying

Eating solids!!! (I never thought this would happen.) Her favorite so far is sweet potatoes and banana.

Learning to drink from a sippy cup. (We just introduced it to her to see what she would do with it. She thinks it is funny, because she laughs every time she puts it in her mouth.)

Continues to be VERY curious and loves to watch what is going on

Laughing (After all this time, we finally caught it on video.)

Reaches for EVERYTHING and procedes to put it in her mouth

Scoots backward and around but not forward yet

***This sweet picture of Avery was taken by her Bibi.

Avery's 6 Month Pictures

Once again Laurel at www.eilas.com did an excellent job capturing Avery's sweet personality. We met at the Factory in Franklin and found some perfect outdoor spots for the photo shoot.

Enjoy.













Avery has already learned how to wink (Ha!).



















The girl LOVES her dad ...


















... and her mom!


















She has already mastered the pouty face.













We LOVE our little Avery!

Meal Time Progress

Today, Avery was unusually happy when I was feeding her oatmeal. Between my ridiculously animated "this is really good" faces and the giraffe bib, I think Avery decided that she might actually like solid foods one day. At least it is progress!