Silent Night

As I stated in the last post, Avery is starting to coo and smile a lot more. She is particularly animated when I sing Silent Night to her. I was singing it tonight and she was so cute during my first rendition that I grabbed the camera and tried a second. She wasn't quite as animated (and lost patience with the activity half way through), but just try and tell me this isn't adorable! Apologies for my singing voice. I apologize to her on a daily basis.

Visit from Grandpa and Grandma

My dad and his wife left today after spending five days visiting us and getting to know Avery. Grandpa was just thrilled to meet little Avery. He brought a handmade tube plastered with pictures of D and I and Avery as a gift. Very creative indeed. The visit was terrific! Thanks for coming out, Dad and Joy!

Most of our time was spent lounging around the house. We did have one outing to the doctor. Avery needed to have an ultrasound on her hip since she was a breech baby (it's a standard thing done for all babies born breech, apparently). So the four of us loaded up into the minivan and headed over to the hospital. Avery was so good for the doctor and charmed the pants off her and the nurse. She also pooed in her diaper at an inopportune time, but hey, can't be perfect! All is well with her hips. Following that, we headed out for lunch. Once again, I was able to share my love of Marionberry Poppyseed cake with our visitors. They were both thoroughly impressed with the cake, as well they should be!

Some pictures from their visit ...

Grandpa plays with Avery

Grandma & Grandpa feed Avery

In other news, we received three beautiful, hand-knitted sweaters from Grandma Rosie in England. They are absolutely gorgeous! I admit I'm not overly into buying clothes for Avery - I'm more about function than fashion. But I cannot wait to go buy the perfect clothes to go along with these sweaters! Since Avery is the first girl in the family, this is the first time Grandma Rosie got to knit in pink. Click the photo to enlarge it and see the beautiful work.


The big news for us was that Avery had her first night with only one wake up! It was pure bliss! The past week or so, she wakes an average of 2-3 times per night, which isn't bad because it's typically once during D's shift and once during mine. For the most part, she seems to be a really good sleeper. While I can't say I'm thrilled to be woken from my lovely, much needed slumber, when I go into her room to feed/change/comfort her, my heart just melts. Those gorgeous little eyes peaking out from her burrito swaddle make me immediately smile.

Her personality seems to be developing a bit more. When I sing Silent Night to her (the only song I actually know the lyrics to - must remedy that situation!) she gets very calm and watches me sing and then at the high parts of the song she smiles and coos as if she's singing along. That's another heart melting moment for sure. She's also seems to be close to laughing. She smiles and kind of makes a noise along with the smile. It's not a true laugh, but pretty darn cute nonetheless. She smiled earlier than most babies, so perhaps she'll laugh a bit sooner, too.

Avery and I may be having her first play date out of the house on Friday. It depends on the schedule of a friend. Most of the rest of our time will be spent getting ready for our upcoming trip. I'll hopefully do another post before we leave, but just in case I don't get time, check back in a couple of weeks.

The G's come for a visit

This morning, Avery and I dropped off Rachele and Elise at the airport. It was really a fantastic visit. 8-month-old Elise was just adorable and so easy. I would brag about getting a great shot of her smiling, but she is always smiling, so it's really not a great accomplishment.

Avery is doing so well. I have been building up the six-week mark in my head as a difficult week, but so far, so good. We have fully transitioned her to sleeping in her crib in her room at night. She seems to do very well with it - at least right now. She's sleeping anywhere between 2 and 4.5 hours at a stretch at night.

D and I got to have a date night while Rachele & Jay were here. It was great! We went to dinner and a movie (shocker!) We also enjoyed several really good meals, including a Sunday morning quiche prepared by Jay before he left on his flight out Sunday afternoon.

We have also discovered that Avery loves the fitness ball. If I bounce on it with her for 2-3 minutes (sometimes more, but usually not too long), she'll either fall asleep or get drowsy enough for me to put down. This is great because it's the most portable of all the various baby devices we have quickly accumulated. I have bought myself another so I'll have one for upstairs and one for downstairs, and bought D one.

We also finally had our glider arrive and a dresser that we received as a gift. Her room is starting to look a bit more done. No pictures until we get a little further along. I think it'll look quite nice when we finally get everything done. Things progress slowly around here, though, so don't hold your breath waiting on those pictures! To keep you satisfied, here are a few pictures for you:

Mommy & Avery before date night

Rachele, Elise, and Eddie

Aunt Rachele & Avery

Avery sleeps on Daddy

Next up, we have a visit from Grandpa and Grandma - my dad and his wife arrive on Saturday for a few days.
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Some technical details that most people won't care about. I decided not to use the .Mac web gallery for storing photos. I wanted to do a slide show on the blog, so I switched to using Picasa. In summary for those with RSS readers, go to this Picasa album to get an RSS feed for the Daily Avery pictures. These are the pictures that display in the slide show at the top right of this blog. Ah, this all seems very complex, but I did say I was working out the glitches!

Aunt Vic Visits

Since I last posted, we've had a visit from Aunt Victoria! Vic flew into town for four days to meet Avery and cook for us. That she was an au pair when she was younger was immediately evident. Within minutes of her arrival, she was making notes on how to feed the dogs (we have a ridiculously complex feeding time for the dogs), how to wash nipples and prepare bottles, noting where all the dishes go, etc. I knew I'd hit the jackpot when I turned around one day and she was cleaning out the entire refrigerator - not just sorting, but cleaning the entire thing. Anyway, her visit left us with many frozen meals for the next few weeks and me feeling nice and refreshed. Thanks, Aunt Vic!

Yesterday, I bought Avery a playmat. We took some videos of her playing. Mom has let me know of her love of watching the videos, so here's one of them (it's the same video if you click this link or play the one below ... the one via the link is slightly larger ... I'm still playing around with what method I want to use for videos posted to this blog).


Avery and I also did our first dogs walks without help from others. The first time, I took her in the sling and then walked first Eddie, then Turtle. The next time, she preferred the stroller, so we again we walked Eddie, then Turtle.

The other day, I started playing a game with her where I whisper into a paper towel tube in one ear, then switch to the other ear. She loves to listen and gets all quiet and then starts to smile.

Next visit is from Rachele, Jay, and baby Elise. I haven't seen Elise since she was about 5-months-old. She's now 8-months-old, so I'm sure she's changed quite a bit! Avery can't wait to meet her new friend!

Roadtrip!

Seattle Road Trip

We are back from Avery's first road trip. It was fantastic - way easier than I thought it would be and we all had a good time. On the drive up, we were 30 minutes late getting out of the house, but that was due more to us dawdling than to any difficulties with Avery. We made two stops on the way up there - both very efficient and easy. Changing Avery in the minivan is so much easier than it would be a sedan, so that was wonderful. Here's a little video I took of D with Avery on the first stop to change and burp her.

When we arrived, we were thankfully checked into two adjoining rooms. The set up could not have been better. In addition to the regular hotel room, the adjoining room was basically set up like a living room / conference room. Within 10 minutes, I had her feeding station set up and everything spread about the suite.




Activities while there included:

• A stroll through downtown Seattle to a drug store for supplies and snacks
• A stroll through Nordstrom's for some shopping
• A trip out to The Cheesecake Factory for dinner with D's colleagues
• Lots of important baby stuff, like squealing at a book (see video below)

Our trip home was very easy. We stopped once, but not for Avery - we had to hit Burgerville for some food! Delicious. We did have one momentous occurrence: a tornado. As we were driving through the outskirts of Vancouver, we were heading into very heavy rain that then turned to hail. As we reached a bridge, we noticed the wind was picking up something fierce. There was debris flying throughout the air. I looked over and saw a massive piece of siding (or something flat like that) flying through the air. D asked if it was a tornado; I said I didn't think so. We got home and lo and behold, it was. Thankfully, all is well and we made it home perfectly safe.

General Avery Update

Avery is showing a lot more personality now. She smiles a lot and makes the absolute cutest faces right before she goes into full on scream. I have tried to get a picture of this face, but I always get the full-on-scream face which is not as cute. She is probably mad I keep trying to get that shot rather than changing her immediately. Tonight, as D was feeding her, she was quite anxious to get that second bottle in her mouth. I delivered it to D and she practically did a sit up right up into the bottle so she could feed. It was adorable.

Cool Stuff

We have loved all of the various gifts people have sent. People have been so generous and excited for us. It truly is amazing. Today, a gift from a friend of mine who knits arrived. I can't wait until she's big enough to wear it ... a few months, I think:

Upcoming Events

Saturday, the three of us will go to the Infant and Toddler Care for Adoptive Parents Class. We had no idea we'd be bringing our very own model with us when we signed up for it many months ago.

Next week, our friend Vic will be swinging into town to help out with things for a bit.

We'll hopefully be scheduling a visit with Avery's birth family within the next few weeks.

Other

Finally, I added a feed over there on the right so you can see when new pictures are posted to the Daily Avery album. I name them differently and the date it was posted is displayed.

Reading!

She's already reading!


Nain (Megan's mom) sent Avery a couple of black and white pictures books. Avery just loves to look at the pictures. I'll lay her down in her second home* and she'll just look at the book. After a while, she'll fuss a bit, I'll turn the page and she'll stop fussing. So far, she seems to like the zebra page the best, though there's a page at the back with a baby looking at all the animals and she seems to like that one, too.

This morning, I was talking to my mom while holding Avery and she lamented that I'm not taking enough pictures. So I whipped out my new phone and took this pretty good shot of her laying on me. Not too bad for a camera phone picture.


* She basically spends all her sleeping time in her second home, aka the Pack N Play crib, in the living room. There is currently no seating in her room - it's on order - so we find that this set up works best.

Visits Galore!

Hi, all! Avery's doing very well. There's not a lot to report. She's a good little farter, pooper, eater, burper, and sleeper (well, not so much yet on that last part, but I'm thinking positively!) She also makes the most adorable sound after she sneezes. I think it's typical baby noises, but it just melts me inside when she does it. So cute!

She has prompted no fewer than five different parties to make a trip to Portland for a visit in December, January, or February:

• My mom over Christmas - she was a massive help while here
  
• My friend from HS, Jen, who is drove up from Northern California for a visit
  
• Our friend Vic, who has promised to spend her five days here cooking up a storm and freezing meals for us
• Our friends Rachele & Jay and their 7-month-old baby Elise; Rachele has quickly become my answerer of all questions not-yet-researched by me
  
• My dad and his wife, Joy

It'll be a full house, but both D and I are loving that everyone is so excited and happy for us, as well as the opportunity to catch up with family and friends.

The big news (well, at least for the more technically inclined and/or avid blog readers who use an RSS reader like Google Reader)... here is a photo feed for Avery pictures. If you don't use an RSS reader, you can simply visit the album any time by clicking directly to the album via that link (I'll stick it over on the left side bar for future visits). If you use an RSS reader, you can subscribe to the feed via the album (there's a Subscribe button at the top). I'll do my best to stick new photos at the front so when you come back each time, you don't have to scroll through the lot. Additional tips:

• If you scroll to the bottom of the page, you can view photos in numerous ways: Grid, Mosaic, Carousel, and Slideshow. Give each a whirl to see which one you prefer.
  
• You can also change the background color to be black, dark grey, light grey, or white based on your preference.
• There is a slider bar on the bottom right. Moving this back and forth will make the pictures bigger or smaller.
  

I'll still be putting some photos on this blog, but since I'll only be able to update this blog every week or two, hopefully the photo stream will give you a bit more insight into a day in the life of Avery.