Mirror

Avery has really become fascinated by mirrors. Today we were out shopping with Melissa and Chelsea and we came across some mirrors;

*kisses*

Avery loves to give kisses now! She will give just about anyone a kiss. She even gave her buddy Ella a kiss today, wish I had caught it on video! this video was taken last night, she gave her stuffed animals each a kiss! so sweet! this evening she gave me a few kisses without me asking for one! :)

Avery also gave me some giggles tonight;

and practiced saying mama;

9 months old

Oh my, how the time has flown by! 9 months sounds so old! Here is whats new with Avery this past month;

 

• She has changed SO much, its hard for me to remember her as a tiny newborn.
• Her "mommy anxiety" increased exponentially at the beginning of the month. the moment I would start to walk away, or even turn away she would melt down!!
• she thinks she in invincible, when she pulls up she lets go thinking she can stand on her own, but she's not quite there yet!
• We celebrated her first 4th of July! she didn't make it to the fireworks though, maybe next year
• At her 9 month doctor appt (July 28th) she weighed 20.6lbs (80th percentile) and was 28.3 inches tall (76th percentile)!!!! Her doctor said she was looking great and right on track! I asked about her crawling, since she is still crawling with her belly on the floor, she said as long as she was mobile she was great!
• New foods this month were; raspberries, peaches, bread, pumpkin, puffs, strawberries, cinnamon, brown rice, turkey, tomato, chicken and teething biscuits. So far she doesn't seem to dislike anything, she eats it ALL!
• Avery is getting her first 2 teeth! I first felt one on July 4th (about a week later I saw there were 2)! This has made her a little cranky, I think she was in pain just before they pushed through the gums. I also think this is why she had mommy anxiety!
• She LOVES to wave at everything, people, pictures, target, even the TV. At the beginning of the month she started doing the "miss america" wave, now she does the open-close hand wave!
• She loves to look at all of the pictures on the wall, she gets very excited and always waves.
• I thought Ave might skip crawling but she proved me wrong, just after the 4th of July she started army crawling on her belly!!!
• Avery has been doing great sleeping through the night, she's been "sleeping in" till 8:30am some mornings! her bedtime is 8pm! (fortunately, her teething hasn't affected her nighttime sleep!)
• At the beginning of this month we dropped Avery's evening catnap. for the most part she is up from 4pm until bedtime, unless she's had a busy day or a short afternoon nap.
• We celebrated Daddy's new job at DELTA Air Lines! he will most likely start class on September 20... Avery and I may even go visit for a few days. We are so proud of him!
• Avery is ticklish on the bottoms of her feet! she loves when I tickle them in the bathtub!
• Avery finally said MAMA! she was 8.5 months old!
• She has started playing with her ears, i think its because she has been teething. Although I think she scratches them in her sleep because I have found little scabs in her ears ;(
• she's wearing mostly 12 month clothes, especially shorts! her chubby little legs won't fit into anything smaller! she's still in size 3 diapers!
• on July 24, Avery decided she was ready to drink from a sippy cup. She acted like she'd been doing it all along! She used to just chew on it and not actually drink! She's a turkey!
• she would rather walk around holding someone hands than do anything else!!! she gets mad sometimes when you try to sit her down...
• If she isn't too distracted Avery will lean in and give me a kiss when I ask her for one. She just started doing this about a week and a half ago and its the cutest thing ever! :D 

 

Click HERE for our favorite pics of Avery from this last month!

(yes, there are 144 pics, but that is trimmed from over 500 that I took in July!) I have a hard time cutting them down!

sippy cup

Avery finally decided to start drinking from a sippy cup! Up until recently she would only chew on the spout! you can also see how she loves to run her tongue over her new teeth that are almost fully out! And she also gives me a kiss! just love it!

 

seriously adorable

she's such a little ham!

future soccer player?

maybe so....

amazing photographers

My uber talented cousin Emily and her husband were the photography team for my sister's wedding! They have put up a sneak peek on their blog... check it out....

Part One

Part Two

bathtime escape artist...

She's on the move and can't be stopped :D

looks like she has outgrown her baby tub!!!

more "talk"

Avery has been quite the chatterbox while my parents are visiting! seems like she has alot to tell them. She also has 2 favorite books. a book about colors and one about animals! in this video we finally get her to say momma and dada on camera!!!! little stinker!

MAMA

Avery has started saying "MAMA"! I finally was able to get it on camera! Usually as soon as I bring out my phone she usually stops! She has also started saying "BA BA". We're working on "book" and "ball"!

she's escaping!!!

puffs

Avery decided to feed herself some puffs today! She still doesn't quite have the pincher grasp yet but at least the puffs are now making it to her mouth instead of the floor! :)

As you can see she was very proud of herself! She has also said MAMA a few times today but as soon as I grab the camera she gets camera shy!

big day!

These pics were taken just before Ave and I took Chris to the airport for his Delta Air Lines interview! His interview was today and he was OFFERED THE JOB!! :D we are very excited and proud of him!

He has a medical test tomorrow and will hopefully hear within a month about when his training will start!

Thank you friends and family for all your prayers today!

Avery and I spent the afternoon at the Rhodes house, waiting to hear from Chris. I was pretty antsy as was Rusty. Chris finally sent me a text around 3:18pm that was a picture of his letter of hire. I read it outloud and Rusty jumped out of the chair and we all got so excited we woke up Avery, who was asleep upstairs! Even though Chris couldn't be there we celebrated over dinner at Mi Cocina. We also met Chris' grandparents there and got to share the news with them. Everyone is so proud of Chris, I think his dad is most of all!

LOVE YOU BABE!

2 teeth

I enlarged a pic of Ave so you can see her 2 bottom teeth slowly making their way through her gums!!! Can you see them? look closely

learning no

Everyone has to learn it at some point. No one ever likes to be told "NO", but it must be learned. I think Avery is getting the hang of it, although she isn't a fan of it. The past few days when I've told her no she melts down. Its amazing to think she can already understand me and she is upset that she can't do something. I finally captured a video of it, i hope this isn't cruel of me. I don't usually have to say "no" very sternly but this time she was very captivated by the cords. You can see towards the end of the video she keeps looking and inching closer to it but stays just shy of it to not get into trouble! :)

random pics!

no real rhyme or reason for this post, just wanted to put up some new pics so here are some of Avery from the past week or so...

now that she can scoot, she is all over the place!!!

i was tickling her tummy!! her little giggles are so cute

my 2 kids... look out target! :)

mmmm love me a good book for lunch!

Avery and daddy hitting the books!

more finger food practice

I have been letting Avery try some finger foods lately, cheerios, puffs and these mum mums. She doesn't quite have the pincher grasp yet but she's getting closer! today I caught a video of her "eating" a mum mum. She doesn't usually get much into her mouth :)

@ the airport

Avery and I decided to watch airplanes at the DFW airport while waiting for Chris' flight to arrive. She was more interested in watching a group of boyscouts than actually watching any airplanes. The only time she would turn to look at the runway was if she heard the engines spooling up! But it was fun anyways, I caught a few pics with my phone;

 

Lake pics

As promised, click here to see ALL 305 pictures I took on our Lake vacation! yes, i take lots of multiple pictures! also some pics of chris and i just being silly. enjoy! :)

p.s. hope my parents are enjoying Seattle and chris' parents are enjoying Ft. Lauderdale! Miss you guys!

4th of July

Here are some pics from our 4th of July;

Melissa came to visit!!

Avery didn't want to focus on anything but Aunt Melissa!

The Rhodes backyard! looks like a kids' paradise! :)

Cute Layla!

annual Bball game!

Even the "big" kids went down the waterslide!

Avery getting some vitamin D! :)

Parker on the waterslide!

happy girl! probably laughing at her Papa!

Chris and I

Avery didn't stay awake to see fireworks this year, can't wait till next year!

Thanks Rusty and Cindy for having us over! we had a great time!

laundry basket

Last night Avery wanted to get in the laundry basket! don't ask me... i think she really just wanted something to pull up on. this video was after she had pulled up once and i put her back down to catch her on video. she wasn't happy with me initially for making her sit back down! :)

she is so proud of herself when she stands up!

p.s. this morning i noticed that she is getting BOTH of her bottom teeth!!! I guess I was feeling both but didn't realize it, but I can see 2 coming in!

swinging time

Avery loves her swing;

hi

Avery has just started waving, and she likes to wave at everything, people, target, the TV! :) its way cute!
she does spit up at the end, poor little munchkin! she doesn't do it very much anymore!

little P

Found this video while cleaning up the desktop on the computer today! Little Parker singing a taylor swift song! She loved to watch the music video, her favorite part was when the rain came down and taylor got her hair wet! I love how she makes up her own words! This was taken around Feb of '09 so P was a little over 2 years old;

here she goes...

Here is another video of our little munchkin;

More of her "belly crawl"!!

belly crawl

Avery spent the afternoon at her Gramma and Papa's house while chris, parker, jenny, the pitchers and I had some fun on the lake! She has just recently started army crawling on her tummy. I haven't caught a video of her yet but Cindy did with her phone and sent it to me...

and I thought she'd skip crawling... :)

development

Avery has entered a new phase in her development and its wearing me out! :) in a good way! She wants to be into EVERYTHING! especially whatever chris or myself are doing. for example, my best friend melissa was in town this past weekend and we had dinner at pizza hut. I had finished my pizza and took Ave out of the highchair to hold her (she used to sit very contently on my lap). I looked away for (literally) ONE second and she grabs my (filled to the brim) glass of water and dumps it all over me!!!!! I look down and bust out laughing. I couldn't help it, it was hilarious. My jeans were soaked from the waist to the knees. you just can't get mad at an 8-month old. i have a feeling it won't be the last embarrassing thing she does to me! :) but it just illustrates how she is once again changing. instead of being content with her toys she wants whatever else she can get her hands on, especially if mommy is using it. its fun to watch her with a new item and see what she does with it, how she studies it. she has also started a form of military crawling. i hope to capture a video of it soon.

love this little munchkin;

tooth

Avery has a tooth coming in!!! Last night was the first time I've been able to actually feel something under her gums, its on her bottom front gums. I think thats why she has been fussy and clingy lately! Hopefully it will break through the skin soon and give her some relief! Fortunately, her nighttime sleep hasn't been affected lately, she still sleeps 8-8! I can't see anything yet but I'm sure I will soon! :)

3rd of July

Here is pic of Avery in one of her 4th of July outfits!!!

Hope everyone has a fun and safe 4th of July!