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Avery at 14 1/2 months:

23.5 lbs
31.5 inches
Walks, runs, climbs, dances (bounces), rides a little rolling turtle, climbs up her playhouse and goes down the slide on her own, kicks her soccer ball, makes baskets in her hoop, gives hugs and kisses all the time, walks peyton around on her leash in the house, uses a spoon and fork on her own, drinks from her sippy cup, loves reading books, climbs into mommy or daddy's lap to read books, empties mommy's clothes drawers everyday :)
Says: mama, dada, bath, ball, bubble, turtle, doggie, baby, bowl, banana(comes out ba), bow (although she stil won't wear one in her hair), still a ton of animal noises.
Signs: water, eat, again, all done
Favorite foods: Leek soup, bananas, pears, cheese, berries (blueberries, strawberries, blackberries), eggs, oatmeal, sugar snap peas, chili, pancakes, peach yogurt, milk, and tries to drink mommy or daddy's protein shake!
Takes one nap a day, about 1-4 (roughly)
Typical week:
Monday: open gym 10:30-11:30 (huge gymnastics gym is set up for kids so lots of running on trampolines, playing in the foam pit, climbing, and crawling! daddy has been able to go with us for the last few weeks which is awesome) and grocery store in the afternoon
Tues: We go to practice to hang out with daddy and the girls
Wed: Library story time 10:30-12 (stay for both classes for singing, clapping, reading, and playing with her friends)
Thurs: hang out at home, go to a game if there is one at home in the evening
Fri: hang at home, sometimes daddy gets off early enough to go to annapolis for dinner
Sat: hang at home, go to game if there is one. Thinking about starting a mommy and me swim class on Saturdays
Sun: usually a home game or hang at home, haven't tried any churches but want to start looking for one.

She is just the most wonderful baby girl, funny, curious, active, loving, fiesty at times, but overall just a blast to hang with! She is easy to take places, but needs to be around people often before she will warm up to them. She's finally starting to get used to the girls and will give them all hugs or high fives. She does not like anyone besides mommy or daddy to pick her up, so as long as new people don't try that she is great!

I can't tell you how much joy she brings me everyday. I love her so much and am amazed that this love continues to grow!

GO

Washington DC: Smithsonian Museums of Art and Natural History Highly suggest the Gallery of Art, but not so much with a baby! Lots to see but kind of expected to be quiet and not bother other patrons. Still, very interesting and lots of beautiful pieces of work. Also reccomend the cafe on the ground flood. Decent food, great ambiance with a beautiful waterfall display. The Natural History museum is great. A lot of cool exhibits, highlights are the Hope diamond, dinosaurs, and insect zoo. The sculpture garden which is directly in front of the National Archives building is very cool. Cafe inside which is very cute, but expensive. Now during the winter months they have an ice skating rink. I will not be doing that, but Avery had fun watching the skaters! For an afternoon snack, Au Bon Pain is a great bakery. I would have preferred something local instead of a chain, but I'm still searching for that! Avery ended the day by sleeping the entire metro ride home. Peaceful ride for mommy!

GET

I'm always looking for good books to read with Avery. I LOVE all of the books I've read by Sandra Boynton. They are simple, well illustrated, and even funny for adults! Avery now laughs at the pages that I laugh at! Great to check out from your library or to give as baby/birthday/holiday gifts!

One Year Old!

We have internet at home and I can get back to blogging! Avery is walking everywhere and is a busy, busy bee!

What's new: Avery is making a lot of new sounds. Her only words are baby and dada, but lately I've noticed her trying out many different noises. She makes the following animal noises and is learning new sounds daily: moo, meow, baa, neigh, bzzz, hoot, pants like a dog, quack, and does hand signs for monkey and seal. She can point out: nose, eyes, ear, hand, toes, head, tongue. I am amazed at how quickly she picks up things and I can't wait to hear some more words from her!

Thankful for: Friends and family who either travelled a long way to visit us or even just thought of us to say happy birthday to Avery. Reminds me that we are not alone out here and have many people who love us more than we know. Trust me, the feeling is mutual!

Wondering about: How long can we keep this lifestyle of Kyle working seven days a week, 12-14 hour days. I want a parenting partner and I don't know if this is the profession for that. He does love the job and maybe in time it will get easier and he will be able to spend less time doing the same amount of work.

Loving: My new sweats. $6 sweats from Target. Of course they are so soft before washing and then once washed, never the same! And having internet to blog!

Beach!

Spent the morning at the beach! What a blast!

Avery on the move!

Finally have a few days of decent internet at my parent's house. Here is a video of Avery crawling. She is literally all over the place. As soon as we got to my parents house, we had to do some quicky baby proofing. Literally everything within reach of crawling or standing is fair game for her. She is having a blast here, especially chasing after three dogs! She is also getting a mind of her own, and does NOT like to be told 'no'. Uh, oh for me! Our days are so fun, filled with her learning and exploring and at the end of the day we are both completely exhausted! Naps are still a struggle, way too many fun things to do everyday besides sleep :) Looking forward to a few days with Kyle and then headed out to Salinas for a wedding. Dreading the plan rides by myself, we change three times! Praying for a good day out of Avery, although best case scenario we just make it through the day in one piece!

Where we are

I have figured out how to post from my phone but still can't upload pics unless I can get wifi on my laptop. I have to say that after four years of struggling financially because of one of us being in grad school, it is frustrating to still be struggling. Kyle continues to work very hard, long hours and we are nonetheless happy where we are.

Now for some Avery updates!
Nine and a half months, crawling everywhere, standing up, cruising on furniture. Loves going to the library for story time, baths, pulling out the dvds from our movie drawer, playing with balloons and balls, and chasing Peyton. Dislikes getting changed, being in her stroller, and being left alone for even a second!

We are looking forward to upcoming trips to Charleston and Salinas, can't wait to show off our girl! She seems to charm the socks off anyone she meets, hopefully our travels go well!

Bath time

Another video of av enjoying life (and shouting at her toys!)

New Things!

It's been a while since I've been able to update the blog. We don't have internet at our house right now, so I have to make a trip to Starbucks to bum wifi. Our new townhouse is awesome, but it stretching our budget so cable/internet is on hold right now. I'm sure once college football season rolls around we won't be able to hold off anymore and that will drive us to get back into modern civilization:) Since I only have a few minutes due to Avery thinking sitting in her carrier in Starbucks is super boring here is a quick update on our lives: Kyle likes his job, he works at least 12 hours a day and then comes home and is on his phone responding to emails for another two! So we don't see a lot of him, but when we do he seems to like things. Love our house and the space that comes with it. Having a basement that is set up to be a gym has really helped my workouts. I have been working out every morning and I'm starting to feel like myself again. Avery is so busy! She is now pulling herself to standing (this totally came out of nowhere!), not crawling but scooting herself on her belly wherever she wants to go, babbles all day and is very serious about it!, has eight teeth, is outgrowing everything but it's so hot she spends a lot of time just in a diapers, her favorite part of the day is bath time, went to the community pool and loved "swimming", and went to her first story time at the library in our neighborhood! She is taking two or three naps a day, at least one hour each and is still nursing with the addition of baby food and cereal. She was eating some finger foods, but we had a couple of choking scares and I completely backed off the finger foods for a while. All in all, life is good for an almost nine month baby girl! I do miss Austin, even more than I expected. I miss our grocery stores and our coffee shop and our friends. It takes time to get used to a new place and I'm working on it. Making friends will surely be the most difficult part, as staying home with Avery doesn't offer a lot of social interaction with others! I've been trying to get out of the house and go places where there will be other moms. So far I haven't met any other mom's that are friend potential, but I still hold out hope!! Here are a few videos of the girl :) xo until next time in case it is a while!

Moving on

Reflecting on our time in Austin has been tough to do since we've had the major task of moving with about ten days notice. We are so lucky and so excited to get to Maryland, but i feel like I need to describe what I gained from Austin and the things that i will miss while I am still here.

When I think of our two years here it has been a serious adventure that has flown by. Obviously my favorite thing about Austin is that it brought us Avery. When we first arrived here, I got a job that I ended up loving but I was truly unhappy. I loved living in Charleston and somewhere in transition I lost my joy. I think that is one reason we decided to have Avery, both Kyle and I felt that something was missing in our lives. We wanted excitement, a purpose, something bigger than ourselves. We wanted, we were blessed, she came, we all go.

I will mostly miss the wonderful friendships I've made here in Austin. Truly some of the most generous and kind people I've ever had the pleasure of knowing. The hard part is that it is really hard for me (and keeps getting harder) to meet people, form great friendships, knowing that I will have to say goodbye at some point. That is the nature of Kyle's work and to look at it positively, I meet wonderful people along our travels who truly help make me a better person in so many ways.

I will also miss football seasons, wearing burnt orange, Torchy's tacos, Central Market, walks to our park, Avery's awesome doctors, and Quack's coffee.

I will not miss Austin summers, Austin traffic, Austin roads and lights, our current apartment, and distance from either coast.

So looking forward to Kyle finally being able to do what he loves and is really good at, being so close to DC, Baltimore, Annapolis, and NYC, four true seasons (white christmas!), and Maryland sports! This will be a new phase of life for us with so much to look forward to.

I have a feeling we have not seen the last of Austin, but until then, Maryland here we come!

Catching up or falling behind....?

It's been a while since I've posted and that is because we have been exceptionally busy in the last three weeks. The end of the semester came, Kyle's parents were in town to celebrate graduation, two days after they left we went to Charleston for a week to visit my parents. A day after we got back we flew to Kentucky (up and back in the same day) for a job interview and now we are leaving on Sunday for Maryland so that Kyle can interview for another job. This is getting crazy. The picture above just about sums up our last 10 days.

We are all ridiculously tired and seriously ready to make some decisions so that we can get on with our life. On the bright side, we are extremely lucky that Kyle has options and whether we end up in Kentucky or Maryland we will be very happy.

It's time to move on from this phase of our life. Temporary, graduate student living has been great, but it's time to move on. Should be exciting stuff happening in the next few weeks! Here are a few updates on Avery and some things I've learned from taking eight flights in 10 days!

*Avery turned seven months old, she is sitting really well on her own, she is pushing up and wants to crawl badly but is not quite there, she has seven teeth (they all just sprouted at once!!), she is babbling with lots of bah bah bahs and mah, mah, mahs, which is so fun to hear her voice!

*Changing a diaper of a squirmy baby in an airplane bathroom is really hard!

*The ground in the airport is dirty, but sometimes a baby needs to play. This is why you bring blankets and ignore the looks of disgust on other mother's faces.

*Workers at the Nashville airport were the friendliest people I've ever met at an airport.

*Random grandmotherly women will want to hold your baby...I usually said yes and stood right by their side.

*It's amazing how long a water bottle can distract a baby, easily buys you 10 minutes!

*I'm still trying to find a comfortable way to sleep while sitting up in the plane. Anybody have suggestions?

Also, we go to the hip doctor today for a checkup. Praying that all goes well!

I'll hopefully get to update this blog with definitive info on where we will be moving to by the end of next week. Until then we will be jetsetting and trying to make good decisions as a family :)

Mother's Day

Yesterday, I celebrated my first Mother's Day on the "mother" side of things. It was amazing! Of course Kyle had a special day planned. I woke with orders to stay in bed with Avery while he made breakfast. Avery and I lounged in bed and played with toys. We got dressed and by then we were ready for the day. Shayla was already gone, I assume to set up some sort of surprise. Kyle, Avery, and I drove to Quack's (our favorite coffee shop) and got lattes. Then we drove to our park (I call it "our" park because we walk there almost daily with Peyton). Shayla had already set up presents and flowers at a picnic table. Shayla got Avery a bunch of really cute 24 month clothes and Breanna got me a gift certificate for a pedicure (much needed and appreciated!). Kyle did the most amazing thing and paid off mine and Avery's hospital bill which we have been making payments on (and were supposed to be paying off until October), so now we officially own Avery :) He also got me the most perfect charm necklace with Avery's name engraved, a charm with little baby feet, and her birthstone. I love it so much and he as usual knows exactly how to make my heart melt! We then enjoyed our delicious bagel sandwiches and lattes!

Later, we went to the Austin Zoo. It's a rehab zoo and on the outskirts of Austin. Avery loved it and the adults might have loved it even more! Fun to get out of the city and enjoy some wildlife. I could see us visiting the zoo quite often with Avery if we stay here.

We watched Avatar last night, I wasn't too excited but now I am in love with it! Can I have one of those whispering trees?!!

Great day, reminds me how much I love my life and that I have SO much to be thankful for!!!

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!

Bunny Fun!

My parents sent this dancing, singing, hopping bunny in Avery's Easter package. I think we'll have some good times with this new toy!

It's Been a While....

Whew, the past month has been busy for me! I haven't forgotten about the blog or given up, just haven't had more than ten minutes to spare on the computer for a while! My days have been more consumed with baby time. Both Avery and Gage have become more active, which means more time for all of us to play. Also means less downtown for me! That's ok, I love staying busy with them.

Kyle has also been monopolizing the computer because he's working on his final project. This is a culmination of all the information he wants to take with him from this program and from his internship. It's quite an endeavor, already almost 100 pages! Anyhow, since we only have one computer I often get about 30 seconds to check email and fb then goodbye to the computer for the day!

This past weekend Avery and I spent our first night without Kyle. He was in Dallas at a certification seminar. I was dreading it, but the weekend actually turned out delightful! The toughest part was taking the dogs out, but we managed. You all know how I feel about that subject so I won't even get started!

Saturday Avery and I slept in, ate, played, napped. Then we did some shopping, rented New Moon, I got a salad from Central Market (and a red velvet cupcake), watched New Moon and basketball games. Kyle got home around 1:00 Sunday, we made breakfast bagel sandwiches, watched more basketball, watched New Moon again, walked Peyton and called it a day! It's a relief to me that we made it on our own since that is something we'll have to get used to when Kyle has a job as strength coach. Half the season is spent on the road, so daddy will not always be home to help out!

We have some fun stuff to look forward to in the next few months, Peter will be here on Wednesday for almost a week! Kyle's family (including both grandpas) will be here in May for his graduation, then we go to Charleston for a week!

Lookout for Avery pics on fb, she is starting to sit up on her own and it is awesome! She gets a new view of the world! She turns five months this week, hard to believe!

Ok, babies are calling for me! Time to run :)