Flying!

Avery loves to "fly"! It's quite a shoulder workout for mommy and daddy, but we love to hear her laugh so of course we keep doing it! Happy six months to our girl, can't believe how fast the time has flown by! Every day for the past six months has been a joyful learning experience. I am so excited to see what the next six months brings for our family!

little bully girl...

It looks as if Avery is taking after her sister already... And she doesn't even like pacifiers...

Enough is enough!

I have had enough. I hope people don't read this post and think that I am terribly vein, ungrateful, or crazy. I realize that I am extremely lucky in the fact that I was born with thin genes. Not to say that I don't have to be discliplined and work hard to keep my shape, but I have always been thin. Before I became pregnant I felt muscular, I loved working out almost daily and was very happy with my body shape. I am no longer pleased with my shape. I think that is what we should all strive for, satisfaction with our bodies. I am not satisfied. It's not that I need to loose any weight, I need to put on muscle. It's not easy for me to put on muscle, it's actually very difficult. Between being pregnant and having an infant, I have lost my butt and it is starting to wear on me. I do not want to be skinny fat anymore and I want my muscular legs and butt back. To accomplish this I need to lift weights, and not once a week but at least three times a week (minimum). I've been privately struggling with this for a few months and now I need to make it public to hopefully encourage me to stick with a workout regimine. I'm posting my workouts and will check in weekly to update my progress.

You would think as a stay at home mom I would have plenty of time to get a workout everyday. This has not been the case and I have not made time. Seriously, I can get my lifting done in 20 minutes and I am committing to a 20 minute session three times a week. Cardio will come in time and I'm not really concerned about that right now as I'm burning enough calories simply from breastfeeding and lugging around an 18 lb baby all day! The problem is that when I do have a free minute from Avery, I am cleaning, messing around online, reading, and not making working out a priority. So here goes my vow to change! Wish me luck :)

Sleep and Play...

I never really understand why it seems like the first question anyone asks you about your baby is, "Is she sleeping through the night?". It's as if my role as a parent, and Avery's as a baby is judged upon how well she is sleeping. My take on sleeping is that 1) I did not expect to have glorious, blissful nights of sleep once I had a baby 2) Avery has a tummy the size of her tiny fist and I am breastfeeding her which means her nutrients are digested quickly and efficiently so she eats often, even during the night 3) Just because it is night time does not mean that I get to turn off my mommy switch, if she needs comforting I am going to be there for her. I've said this before but I think one of the greatest joys of parenting is that you get to do it your way. To me, it doesn't feel right to let her cry it out, so I won't. Not now anyways. Some babies are great sleepers and will naturally sleep 8-10 hours a night. Avery is not one of those wonderful sleepers. I am ok with waking 2-3 times a night to nurse or comfort her. Above all else, I want her to know that I am there for her when she needs me, even at night :) So that is the way I've tackled sleep, doing what feels right to me and it seems to be working so far. Some parents tackle sleep differently, and that is great for them. Yesterday, I bought a sling for Avery and I to use. I have a bjorn, but it is just too difficult to use now. It was a godsend at first, but now it takes two people to get her into it. I mostly wanted a sling to use when I go to the grocery store because I know how much she likes interacting with people and she is so restrained in her carrier (but not quite ready to sit in the grocery carts). We went to HEB today (our grocery store) and she loved the sling! She smiled at people, babbled, and was shrieking with delight when we were looking at birthday cards (who knows why she loved the card aisle but she did)! So, the sling was a good purchase and I think she's going to have a blast interacting at face level with lots of new people. I am posting a video of Kyle and I playing a trick on her! She's still working on that pincher grasp :)

She loves to eat!

Since I got good feedback from the last video, I will post more! This one is Avery eating dinner. It's a bit long and sorry about my poor camera skills. I have to try to keep the camera out of her line of vision because she gets shy if she sees it! Enjoy :)

Easter, San Antonio, and more!

It's been awesome having Peter visit us, not only has Avery had a blast with him but we've also stayed busy exploring Austin and San Antionio in ways we hadn't done yet. Nothing like having out of town guests to motivate you to get to know your city!

I wasn't sure how Avery would react to being around someone new. She really doesn't spend much time with anyone besides me and Kyle, but she loves Peter! She smiles and plays with him as if she sees him everyday! This gives me hope that she will take to the rest of our family when we visit them.

Peter, Avery, and I went to First Thursday on South Congress Street. Got to see some real Austin flare (by that I mean the eclectic folks such as the guy shouting out The Cath in the Hat story to anyone walking by!) and enjoyed pizza and cupcakes! Friday, Peter helped me tackle Ikea and get me started on baby proofing our apartment. We went to County Line that night and we all determined that we like Salt Lick BBQ better! Saturday we took Easter Bunny pics, which turned out fantastic! Avery loved the bunny and smiled the whole time. You never know what you're going to get with those pics, but we got a happy girl :) We then drove down to San Antonio and enjoyed the River Walk. I was transported to a little European city, it was beautiful (see pics)! We ate at a Mexican place, people watched, and of course watched Avery try to grab everything within reach on the table! Sunday we went to church and Avery made it through the whole service! We also went to the Longhorns spring game at DKR stadium. Loved that Avery got to go to the stadium and the Horns didn't look too bad either!

All in all it has been a great week and we will be sad to see Peter go! Trying to talk him into applying for PhD programs wherever we end up :) Selfish, I know, but it would be awesome for Avery to have some family around on a daily basis!

She has two teeth now and is getting into more and more everyday! She hasn't progressed in the crawling or sitting areas, but those will happen when she is ready!

Lastly, I only posted the family pic of us on my blog, not on FB. The reason is because I can't stand my hair! Honestly, something must be done about it. I've just kept it up in a pony tail most days because I don't have the time to blow dry it everyday and Avery is constantly pullin it. And I've had no time and money to get it professionally colored. I will be getting a cut soon which will help. If anyone has any suggestions for me on hair improvements that I can make I am all for any help that I can get!