We had a photography session with Avery in July. The photographer has posted some of the pictures on her blog. Three gorgeous pictures of Avery alone and one with her and my mom.
I absolutely love the first one. I have been in search of the quintessential Avery shot. The one that looks like the smiley, happy baby we know. Each time we've attempted it, she's not had a good time during the session. However, the third time was a charm!
D and I head into her studio in a week or so to look at all the pictures, but I'm just happy with these three if it turns out they were the only good ones!
Thursday, August 28, 2008
Saturday, August 23, 2008
Crawling, Eating, and All Sorts of Noises
What a fast 20 days it's been since the last post. Avery's crawling is coming along nicely. She still does the military-style belly crawl, but has gotten much faster. Also, she doesn't use her face so much. From the moment she realized she could crawl, she wanted down. No holding, thank you very much. She is strong and she is squirmy. She wants to go go go! When I lift her out of her crib, she immediately dives towards the floor. The moment she hits the floor she is off. Most of the time, I don't think she has a target in mind - she just wants to go!
The other huge news is that she is eating solids! It started only yesterday, but since then, we've had three total eating sessions. In each, she literally leans towards the spoon with her mouth open. I am not exaggerating when I say she would simply not open her mouth before this. Then yesterday, poof! She decided she wanted food. She has eaten yogurt and pears in the past two days. We'll stick with those for a few days and then move onto other flavors. I'm so excited.
I finally put together a composite video of her various antics for the past month or so. I tried to keep it short and just put in the cute stuff, but since I find everything she does cute, it's hard to edit. It's a total of 3:35 with about 10 segments in it.
The other huge news is that she is eating solids! It started only yesterday, but since then, we've had three total eating sessions. In each, she literally leans towards the spoon with her mouth open. I am not exaggerating when I say she would simply not open her mouth before this. Then yesterday, poof! She decided she wanted food. She has eaten yogurt and pears in the past two days. We'll stick with those for a few days and then move onto other flavors. I'm so excited.
I finally put together a composite video of her various antics for the past month or so. I tried to keep it short and just put in the cute stuff, but since I find everything she does cute, it's hard to edit. It's a total of 3:35 with about 10 segments in it.
Sunday, August 3, 2008
Crawl!
It isn't pretty. It isn't stylish. It isn't graceful. But it's definitely crawling. We present Avery's latest video: She Crawls!
Scoot
D scooted Avery on the hardwood floors this morning. Following this, Avery started to scoot herself. I took a video and was going to edit it down to just be the scooting, but I figure that some of you grandparents out there might like the longer version, so I left it as is. Disclaimer: yes, she's wearing pants that are too short and a bib. The bib is because it's almost like a security blanket it for her. She's just much happier in a bib, so there you go. The pants are too short because they were the first ones I grabbed in my morning haze. You can also see in the video how she likes to look at the dogs. Turtle never allows her to get close enough to touch her (smart dog!) Eddie will let Avery touch him, but we quickly separate them because Avery will grab hair and yank. Not so nice for the pups to deal with that.
Friday, August 1, 2008
Roll Bar
Avery is currently sitting on the floor of my office just reaching up in the air trying to reach ... well, I'm not sure what. I think she wants to pull herself up, but since there's nothing around, she's just reaching into the air and talking. I just handed her a paper bag to play with and she's thrilled with that development. It makes a lot of noise and Avery loves to make a lot of noise.
She is becoming mobile in every way but official crawling. Through her lay-to-sit skill, combined with her rolling, she seems to appear in completely different places from where I set her down. She will also make dives for various treasures placed in front of her and attempt to crawl, inching forward ever so slightly with a flurry of movements that look like crawling, but which lack the structure to actually result in a crawl. As has been true for several weeks now, she rarely falls backwards when sitting. I thought that head control was one of the greatest milestones, but I am now amending that thought to replace head control with sitting unassisted.
Avery and I have done a couple of walks over the past few days. I tend to do all the walking and her all the riding, but it's a fair trade for the happy grins she greets us with each morning. All of this leads me to this question: does anyone else's baby ride like this in the stroller? She seems to have found a new use for the car seat attachment bar. She just props here feet up there and says, "Wheeeeee!" I call it her roll bar.
She is becoming mobile in every way but official crawling. Through her lay-to-sit skill, combined with her rolling, she seems to appear in completely different places from where I set her down. She will also make dives for various treasures placed in front of her and attempt to crawl, inching forward ever so slightly with a flurry of movements that look like crawling, but which lack the structure to actually result in a crawl. As has been true for several weeks now, she rarely falls backwards when sitting. I thought that head control was one of the greatest milestones, but I am now amending that thought to replace head control with sitting unassisted.
Avery and I have done a couple of walks over the past few days. I tend to do all the walking and her all the riding, but it's a fair trade for the happy grins she greets us with each morning. All of this leads me to this question: does anyone else's baby ride like this in the stroller? She seems to have found a new use for the car seat attachment bar. She just props here feet up there and says, "Wheeeeee!" I call it her roll bar.
Sunday, July 27, 2008
Eastern Oregon
We're back from our trip to eastern Oregon to visit my mom's brother and his wife. Since it's a 5.5 hour drive each way, we really only had one full day for visiting, but we made the most of it! We spent the day visiting relatives and seeing the beautiful scenery of that area. Lake Wallowa was particularly beautiful. I think we'll have to plan a vacation there next summer.
During our visits, we got to meet my cousin's daughter Monique for the first time. That's her with Avery below. Isn't she adorable? She was so good with Avery. You know how sometimes you have to remind kids her age (going into second grade) to be gentle with babies or that something isn't appropriate? We didn't have to do that once with Monique. She was so gentle and interested in Avery, not mention patient.
Here's my cousin Griff (Monique's dad) with Avery.
And here's my uncle Wayne (my mom's brother) holding Avery. She loved his beard, mainly because her new passion is pulling hair. She grabs onto my hair and then giggles and giggles when I say, "Ow!" Great Uncle Wayne's beard was great fun!
***********
Avery had a first yesterday: the first time she sat up from a laying down position. Damian walked in to get her from a nap and there she was sitting up in her crib. Later that day, we witnessed this new skill first hand. You would have thought she climbed Mt. Everest based on our reaction to it! And, as if to
prove she really does have that skill down pat, she was sitting up in her crib when D went in to get her this morning.
Not entirely new, but very intense at the moment, is her lunging for anything in front of her she wants. This has made changing time difficult. If she's sitting up and sees something in front of her she wants (e.g. a Kleenex box), she will lunge so quickly that it's startling to me. I no longer dress her on the changing table. We just do it on the floor where her sudden lunging doesn't give me a heart attack.
When we got back from our trip to eastern Oregon, Avery was just thrilled to be out of the car seat. We spread out a sheet on the living room floor to give her some freedom. She discoverd a brochure that she was just enthralled with, so I put the brochure on the opposite end to her on the queen sized sheet. Avery managed to wiggle and roll herself almost all the way there. Then she decided she was tired, so she just pulled the rest of the sheet towards her to get the brochure. It was a most impressive display of problem-solving skills.
The eating of solids is still a no go. She will now put a Cheerio-like cereal into her mouth, but she ends up spitting it out after a while. If not, then she just gags (not from choking, but the same reaction she has to any food substance being in her mouth). So it looks like this is going to be a slow process, but I'm sure we'll get there eventually. I think the texture just freaks her out a bit.
I think Avery has understood the, "Do you want milk?" question and sign for quite some time, but now she has a very clear response that means, "Yes!" I haven't tried not verbalizing the question and doing only the sign for milk to test if she knows the sign definitively, but it is nice that I can quickly find out if what she is wanting is milk.
So, all is going very well at Casa de Trio. Not a single day goes by that we don't marvel at how cute she is and how in love with her we are. When I see her, I'm often to the point where I feel like I'm going to burst from happiness. Must remember, don't squeeze baby too tightly! When I get to her crib in those wee hours of the morning, all my morning crankiness just disappears.
During our visits, we got to meet my cousin's daughter Monique for the first time. That's her with Avery below. Isn't she adorable? She was so good with Avery. You know how sometimes you have to remind kids her age (going into second grade) to be gentle with babies or that something isn't appropriate? We didn't have to do that once with Monique. She was so gentle and interested in Avery, not mention patient.
Here's my cousin Griff (Monique's dad) with Avery.
And here's my uncle Wayne (my mom's brother) holding Avery. She loved his beard, mainly because her new passion is pulling hair. She grabs onto my hair and then giggles and giggles when I say, "Ow!" Great Uncle Wayne's beard was great fun!
***********
Avery had a first yesterday: the first time she sat up from a laying down position. Damian walked in to get her from a nap and there she was sitting up in her crib. Later that day, we witnessed this new skill first hand. You would have thought she climbed Mt. Everest based on our reaction to it! And, as if to
prove she really does have that skill down pat, she was sitting up in her crib when D went in to get her this morning.
Not entirely new, but very intense at the moment, is her lunging for anything in front of her she wants. This has made changing time difficult. If she's sitting up and sees something in front of her she wants (e.g. a Kleenex box), she will lunge so quickly that it's startling to me. I no longer dress her on the changing table. We just do it on the floor where her sudden lunging doesn't give me a heart attack.
When we got back from our trip to eastern Oregon, Avery was just thrilled to be out of the car seat. We spread out a sheet on the living room floor to give her some freedom. She discoverd a brochure that she was just enthralled with, so I put the brochure on the opposite end to her on the queen sized sheet. Avery managed to wiggle and roll herself almost all the way there. Then she decided she was tired, so she just pulled the rest of the sheet towards her to get the brochure. It was a most impressive display of problem-solving skills.
The eating of solids is still a no go. She will now put a Cheerio-like cereal into her mouth, but she ends up spitting it out after a while. If not, then she just gags (not from choking, but the same reaction she has to any food substance being in her mouth). So it looks like this is going to be a slow process, but I'm sure we'll get there eventually. I think the texture just freaks her out a bit.
I think Avery has understood the, "Do you want milk?" question and sign for quite some time, but now she has a very clear response that means, "Yes!" I haven't tried not verbalizing the question and doing only the sign for milk to test if she knows the sign definitively, but it is nice that I can quickly find out if what she is wanting is milk.
So, all is going very well at Casa de Trio. Not a single day goes by that we don't marvel at how cute she is and how in love with her we are. When I see her, I'm often to the point where I feel like I'm going to burst from happiness. Must remember, don't squeeze baby too tightly! When I get to her crib in those wee hours of the morning, all my morning crankiness just disappears.
Monday, July 21, 2008
The Coast
This past weekend, we went to the coast to spend some time in the fresh air and hang out with our friend's, the G's. Avery loved spending time with Elise. Now that Avery's a bit older, they seem to play together a lot more. Of course, Avery looks on with jealousy as Elise can just crawl away with any toy she wants while Avery is stuck playing with those surrounding her. However, she's getting very good at really reeeeeeaaaaaaching for the toys out of reach and can usually get there eventually. The crawling thing isn't happening just yet, but I am quite confident that once it does, my life will change dramatically.
We went to the aquarium in Newport which Avery seemed to enjoy. That's where the picture above was taken. She gave us some little giggles when she saw the puffer fish and the jelly fish, as well as when some baby sharks were swimming in a pool where we could pet them.
Nain (my mom) has been here visiting for the past week. Avery loves having her around. She just smiles and smiles whenever she sees Mom. It's really very heartwarming to see. Tomorrow, Mom, Avery, and I will head to eastern Oregon to visit Mom's brother and his wife. Fortunately, Avery has been an excellent traveler thus far, so I am hoping the trend continues!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)