Kickiness

Before Avery, I had no use for iMovie. Now that we have her, I find myself sorely lacking in both the skills to use it properly and the creativity to make it flow well, not to mention a tendency to not get her entire head in the shot when I'm videoing*. I doubt I will improve much, so you'll just have to look forward to videos like this one. It was intended to be a montage of her kickiness, but then I found some other cute video I took one morning when I went in to get her up. So really it's a hodgepodge of Avery cuteness and iMovie bells and whistles applied in the tackiest of manners.


*I have just discovered the original video does have her whole head in these shots. I must be doing something wrong in iMovie. Ah well, you get the idea! Besides, her adorableness surely makes up for all that my video capabilities lack, right?

4-month check-up

Avery's 4-month check up was today. She is doing wonderfully! She's ahead of the curve with her motor coordination, but that wasn't really surprising for me. I call her a very "movey" baby. Her stats:

• Weight: 14 lb 9 oz (75th percentile)
  
• Height: 24" (50th percentile)
• Head Circumference: 16.3" (50-75th percentile)

She did very well with her shots. She cried while the nurse was giving her the shots, but stopped when I picked her up. She fell asleep in the car seat on the way home, slept for 45 minutes once home, woke up for a diaper change and a bottle, and now has gone back down for another nap after rubbing her eyes furiously.

I can see her coordination improving rapidly. For months, she's been trying to grasp the toys on the toy bar of the bouncy chair. She's been able to make contact for quite some time, but couldn't figure out how to sit up to grasp them. The other day she finally figured out the secret: prop herself up with one elbow to give her more balance and leverage to grab the toy with the other. Her ab muscles must be terrific!

We're also enjoying our walks more - both of us! She is content to sit and stare from her stroller as we walk the dogs around the neighborhood. In fact, she even fell asleep on a walk the other day. This is major progress as before she would have just screamed from over tiredness if she started to get tired while we were out on a walk.

Her napping and sleeping are coming along very nicely. I'm pretty much guaranteed an hour when she goes down, if not two. She's close to consolidating to two naps per day, but we still have the third nap most of the time. She is still waking twice a night for a bottle, but goes down easily afterwards, so it's not too taxing to get up with her. And we are happy to report that she hasn't been waking until after 7 AM for the past few weeks. I am particularly thrilled with this development since I am so not a morning person!

It's hard to believe that 4 months ago she wasn't in our lives. It seems like just yesterday she joined our family, but it also feels like she's always been a part of us. There is nothing like a baby snuggling into your body to make you feel whole and warm inside.

Bjorn?

Avery knows what Bjorn means. She gets so happy when she sees D pull it out. So, I asked her about it and she let me know that, yes!, she is indeed excited. Apologies for the bad camera work!

That's Just How She Rolls

Avery is now becoming an expert roller. Yesterday I put her on the floor of our bedroom and she rolled from one side of the room to the other in just five minutes or so. We've got a pretty big bedroom, so this was quite impressive. I fetched the camera and caught a couple of her 360's (though she was more tired by this point, so I edited the video to cut out the waiting between the two of them). It's amazing how fast babies become experts once they get past their first tentative, yet ultimately successful, tries. Note: 11-month-old Elise was out of frame; you can hear her squeak at the end.

360

I decided to offer proof of Avery's roll over capabilities, so I patiently waited to capture the feat. 6 minutes later, she finally decided to show off her skills for the camera. Fortunately for all of you, I do at least know how to edit out only the actual roll over. And, as if she knew she was on camera, she went for the 360 degree roll over. Over achiever. Sheesh.

Roll Over

Avery is changing so fast! She is eating a ton lately and hasn't been napping so well. I'd heard that a change in sleep patterns might indicate a build up to a milestone. Sure enough, she rolled over ... deliberately ... and then righted herself! She did a 360! After that, I grabbed the camera, D got home from work at that exact moment, and we capture one of her first belly to back roll overs. I consider this a milestone as much for me as for her. I'm so not good at getting the camera out to capture stuff like this. The snag is that she was not wearing any clothes or diaper at the time of the roll over (she gets so happy when she's not clothed and I thought that make it easier for her to roll over), so we can't post that video. However, we do have the video of Daddy making her giggle. As you know, I love giggles! This best giggle is at the very end of the video.



She and I have found that the hip carry suits her much more for sling wear than the newborn cradle position. I like the material of the mesh sling, too. I've also ordered a few more slings that will hopefully be the sling perfection for which I search.

Today we went out for lunch and then a walk through the park. Avery much preferred to be in the sling vs her stroller, so that is a nice development.

Drool has arrived!

The joys of blogging. I just wrote a fairly long post, but then something went horribly awry and I lost most of the text when I imported the pictures. So, I will do a recap with bullet points.

Colorado Trip

• D came home on Sunday; Avery and I flew back on Wednesday, after moving our flight up two days when I got sick in Colorado.
  
• Flying solo with Avery was easier than I expected, but we were still exhausted when we got home.
  

Avery Developments

• Avery is now shoving everything within hands reach into her mouth. She grabs a toy with such gusto and then attempts to shove the entire thing into her mouth, sometimes squeaking in frustration when it won't fit.
  
• She is learning that shoving her thumb too far into her mouth will result in her gagging. I hope she learns this lesson soon, since it can be a messy one to clean up depending upon when she last ate.
  
• Drool is now omnipresent on her face.
  
• She is very interested in watching us drink, and sometimes eat. When I was drinking water from a glass in Colorado she reached up her hands to the glass and tried to pull it towards her. I tipped a bit into her mouth, but she didn't seem to know what to do with it, so most of it spilled out. I love to watch her watch us drink. It's fascinating.
  
• She now weighs 13.6 lb and is going through a growth spurt, eating way more than usual.
  
• The giggles are becoming less rare, but still not frequent. Giggles are simply the best.
  
• Avery is much better in the car now. Crying is certainly very possible - I doubt car rides will ever soothe her as I hear they do for many other babies - but it is no longer guaranteed.
  

Pictures!
We took the following series of three shots. You can just see how she loves the camera once she realizes her picture is being taken.