A few updates from recently…

Bath time… 

So when Grandma and Grandpa came to visit (for my birthday – so they say, but I’m sure it had a lot to do with Avery) we finally got some bath pictures…really cute.  There are other really cute pictures, but they are not ‘internet friendly’ (meaning, there are little boy parts showing).

                            As Emily says…”who could resist that face??”

 We had lots of fun while they were here.  We went and looked at about 5 houses and each and every one of them were a bust!!  One had some promise, but the bedrooms didn’t even have room for our bed.  That and it was too far away from Todd’s work.

We spent time at our apartment playing with Avery and playing games and in general, acting goofy…   Did I mention that he loves playing with his feet now, he has perfected that too…   

Exersaucer… 

Grandma and Grandpa brought Avery’s exersaucer and his jungle train with them because we couldn’t fit them in the car on the way back at Christmas.  Avery really likes the exersaucer (Todd and I have fun with the train, but Avery is not old enough to really appreciate it yet). Thanks Uncle Dave!!

Rolling rolling rolling… 

Avery was SO close to rolling from back to front while they were here.  Of course, on Sunday, I was taking a nap and Todd ran in and told me that he rolled over (Avery not Todd).  Of course, when I came into the living room, he wouldn’t do it again.  So I left the room for less than a minute and he did it again.  That was the last time for the rolling on Sunday. 

So on Monday, I was talking to Emily and doing something on the computer and looked over at Avery (who was peacfully playing on the blanket on the living room floor) and he was on his tummy.  I missed it again.  He hasn’t figured out that rolling over onto his back fixes the fact that he doesn’t want to be on his tummy.  So he started fussing, so I rolled him back over.  I went to the kitchen for a glass of water and came back in and wouldn’t you know it, I came back in and he was on his tummy again.  He did that another time.  So I stood there and waited for him to do it again.  He wouldn’t do it again.  So I pretended not to be looking at him and I finally saw it.  From there, I couldn’t keep him on his back.  He has surely perfected that talent.

Girraff…

A few weeks ago (I know, I know, I’m going the wrong way chronicalogically, but you will read it anyway) Avery developed a funny attachment to this girraff that Grandma and Grandpa got him at the Botanical Garden.  He has nastied up the head of it by chewing on it…he chews on the tail too.  He passed up any other toy to get this girraff.  Oddly, this attachment lasted a little over a week and went away.  He didn’t want anything to do with him, but that has changed again…

Before…    Now…

Continuing our backwards timeline…

Afew weeks ago, I think I was on the phone with Mom and Avery was in his swing.  He has two toys attached to it by the linkin toys.  Somehow, he managed to remove the middle link.  The odd part was that he left the other two in their place.  I can’t figure out how he did it, I can’t even do it.  I guess he is just smarter than his Mommy.  He then proceeded to try and eat it…

Random Pictures…

It snow again the day that Grandma and Grandpa were leaving, and Avery lounged with Daddy…

      Burr

    

  

   

   

I think that is all for now…

Wiggle, wiggle, dance, dance, four months old…

Doctor… 

On Monday, Avery turned four months old.  He had his doctor’s appointment the same day.  Poor little guy had to have FOUR shots.  He handled it very well.  After the first two he looked up at me ‘Mommy, why did they do that to me?’  After the third and forth shots, he wailed.  Of course, they make the mommy hold him down while they do it, so he sees me through the entire affair.  I feel so helpless when he hurts.

 Stats…

Weight: 13 pounds, 3 1/2 ounces.

Length: 25 1/4 inches tall.

Head Circ: 15 3/4.

He’s getting so big!  At the rate he is going, he is sure to be taller than me.  Lucky boy!

Virus…

So update on his virus…he’s getting much better.  Poor guy has been sick since the day after Christmas.  Being a baby, he obviously doesn’t understand why.  He is to the point that his nose is runny, but no more fevor (or down below problems).  His last time he had a fevor was Friday evening.  We were giving him Pedialyte so he wouldn’t get dehydrated and it seemed to be working until he decided he liked it better than formula.  We weaned him off the Pedialyte and he is eating like a champ now.  According to all the books, he should be eating 4-5 times a day.  Before he got sick, he was still eating every three hours.  Lately, he is waiting longer to eat.  He’s getting closer to 4-5 hours.

Sleep…

He finally started sleeping through the night again.  Thankfully, he is sleeping consistantly from about 9 pm to 4 or 5 in the morning.  I’m loving it again.  He wakes up at about 2 or so and ‘talks’ for a few minutes and puts himself back to sleep; very different than previous where he would scream until I calmed him to sleep  and put him back to bed.  It was starting to be a very long process.

We had a major sleep breakthough yesterday!  He has had the habit of not wanting take his naps anywhere but his swing (I was afraid of that habit starting).  He normally gets to the point where he needs a nap about 2 1/2 hours after being awake.  When that time hit yesterday, I brought him in his room, laid him in his crib, gave him a binkie, turned on his music and left.  He ‘talked’ and fussed for about 5 minutes, then fell asleep.  He only slept in there for about a half hour, but it was still major progress.  I gave him a bath this morning and I tried it again and he is still sleeping as I type.  He has been out for 45 minutes already.  He’s doing so well.

Developments…

As I have already written in the past, he grabs toys with both hands (mostly his monkey and his bee – his two favorite toys.  He also found his feet and won’t let go of them.  I think I mentioned that he is rolling over consistantly from back to front and is so close to front to back.  Well recently, when he has been having tummy time, he has begun to reach for toys that I put just out of his immediate reach.  He has a toy that has a piano setting on it and he ‘plays’ it while on his tummy.  He even smiles when I put his favorite toys in front of him.  He is also starting to play sitting up and reach for books when I am reading them to him (funny side note: on Sunday at church, I was holding the bulletin and following along and he reached both hands in front of him and started grabbing at and batting at it.  Made it very difficult to follow along, but still funny).  His tummy muscles are getting so strong, he will be sitting on his own very soon.

Dancin’ dancin’ dancin’…

Yesterday I was changing Avery into a sleeper and he was grining like crazy, so we decided it was time to play.  He was reaching up at me, so I grabbed his hands and pulled him up to a standing position.  Some funny song came on the TV, so I started ‘dancing’ with Avery.  He was standing and wiggling his cute little butt.  We had tons of fun and he was just grinning from ear to ear.  Todd was watching, so he went to grab the camera.  Of course, whenever a camera comes around, he gets facinated and stops smiling.  But we had fun and this is what we got…

 dacin’ fun.

I can do it myself…mostly…

 SOOOO close   there we go

I think that is all for now…if I forgot anything, I will update when I realize.

Feet, feet, feet, fevers, chickens and more…

Since we have been back from St. Louis, we have had even more developments.  Even with his being sick, he sure is in a good mood most of the time.  He’s snotting all over and coughing and sneezing, but he is still smiling and squealing like crazy. 

He recently started rolling over consistently (he has done it a few times before, but we think it was accidentally, it’s obvious now that it is not accidental).  He is so close to getting from back to front.  He just needs one big heave from his foot and he would be over.  So close. 

He reaches for toys with both hands now.  He grabs them and pulls them to his mouth, gives them slobbery kisses and hugs.  Very cute.  His favorite toys are his gorilla and his bee.  Those two items are the only things he reaches for quickly.  I can put either of them in front of him and he has it in his hands in a matter of seconds (where as other toys take some thought before grabbing them, as if he is trying to decide if it is worth his time and effort to play with these menial things).  He thinks it’s funny when I call him my funny little monkey (he loves his monkey toys…I don’t know what it is).  It just so happens that I have some photos of those toys from this week…

      He even reaches for them when he is on his tummy…big step!

This was mid-diaper change which explains the outfit…

  Cute picture…

He has found his feet and they are fun…  Surprisingly, I don’t have any pictures yet with him with his feet in his hands.  I’m sure we will have tons of them soon.  It is becoming more and more difficult to change his diapers now that he has found this new trick.  Loves those feet.  It looks very cute when he does it.  It reminds me of when I could do that…and yes, I can remember back that far!

Funny story…

For Christmas, Santa left a few presents in Wisconsin for Avery (that was nice of him not to make us try to find room in the car for ALL his new stuff…thoughtful of him huh?)  Anyway, one of his gifts is called a link-a-doo.  It is basically an arch that you can hang linking toys from so he can play with while he is on his back.  It transforms into a sitting play station for when he can sit up on his own.  The other day, I finally got it out of the box and set it up and let him have at it.  He loved it…so much that he fell asleep underneath it.  Now that may not sound to some people like he likedit.  It really does though, if he doesn’t like something, he will fuss until you change his scenery or take him away from whatever it might be.  He played himself to sleep.  I am building this up so that you all will understand that he literally played himself to sleep… I looked down to find this…

If you look closely, you will see that he still has the chicken on the side of the link-a-doo in his right hand.  He passed out mid-play with the chicken.  He even went so far as to wake himself up slightly (okay, so Iwas the one who woke him up…I laughed, I couldn’t help it), open his eyes, shake the chicken (it rattles) and fall asleep again with it in his hand.  I took multiple pictures which I can use for those of you who just think I got a picture with his eyes closed.  It was a very funny day.

Another present that Santa gave him (before we left) was a learning worm.  It is an inchworm that has different lessons (colors, numbers, letters, textures etc) for each section.  It is a rather large worm in comparison to him and it has a ’smiley’ face on it, which I can only assume appears threatening to a 3 and a half month old boy.  When I gave it to him, he stared at it for a few seconds and then started screaming.  I thought maybe he had gas or a dirty diaper (it would have to have been a verydirty diaper to cause such a fuss).  So I checked the things that I could think of and found no problems.  He had calmed himself down again, so I thought he just passed some gas.  I picked the worm back up to play with with him and he started screaming again.  Turns out the worm scared him.  Who knew?

Side-note: I tried playing with the worm today again and he doesn’t seem to be afraid of it anymore.

Doctors…

Of course, since we have an appointment to see Dr C on Monday, he had to get sick this week.  He is supposed to get his shots on Monday, we’ll see.  If you remember a few days before his last appointment to get his shots, he came down with an upper respiratory infection.  Well this time it is some kind of viral infection.  His temperature hit 102.8 on Wednesday night, so I called the on-call doctor (who because Avery is only 4 months old, called our doctor who then took time out of his time off to call and find out what was going on).  He told me to give him Motrin and Tylenol (alternating) and give him Pedialyte to ward off dehydration (which turned out to be a very good thing).  He told me to wake Avery up every two hours and take his temp and give him formula or Pedialyte, whichever he would take, and call him if it got worse.  He also told me that he wanted to See Avery in his office on Thursday (we went in on Thursday and found out that we just have to keep doing what we are doing until the fever goes away.).  His fever seems to be leveling out today.  He is still not eating what he should be.  On Wednesday, he would not eat more than 2 ounces at a time.  He only ate 1/2 of what he normally does for the day.  He is fussy now, but still in an excellent mood for what he has been going through. 

We did find out that he now weighs 13 pounds, 3 ounces.  Big boy.

I have started working with him in what they call ‘assisted seating play’.  It’s exactly how it sounds, I help him sit.  It strengthens his torso and back muscles to help him start sitting on his own.  I was doing that today and decided to take some pictures of it.  I must say they turned out pretty good for blind photos.  I held the camera out while I played with him and held him up.  I was lucky to get us in the shots.  Not only is he in them, but he has cute facial expressions too.  Okay, so I chopped his head off a little in the last one, but I think it is still cute.

       

I have been working on this blog ALL day now, so my brain is fried…here is another random picture I took today just because it was cute.  If I think of anything I have forgotten, I will post later.  Grandma and Grandpa are coming up for my birthday this month so, I am sure I will have more to post before then.  I promise I will try not to go another month without posting.  Did I make up for it today though?

  Love to all

Squeals and Holy Water…

Avery has a habit of squealing through church, I take it as him wanting to make sure God hears that he is there.  In keeping with tradition, he squealed through mass before the baptism and parts of the baptism itself.

On the morning of the last day of 2006 (which was a brilliant year for our family that’s for sure) our little Avery celebrated the sacrament of Baptism.  He was welcomed into God’s ‘family’.  We all knew he was already there, but now it is officially offical.  Father Tom preformed the ceremony (the same one who married Todd and I a year and a half ago).  It was a beautiful ceremony.  It really is nice to have someone preform the ceremony who is so familiar with the entire family and seems to truely enjoy our company.  It really makes it personal.  Aunt Emily and Uncle Neil are his Godparents.  Great Grandma hosted a gathering afterwards.  Father Tom was able to join us also after the next mass.  It was a great day.  Very personal.

Here are some pictures of the event.

                        Ben wanted to blow out the candle after the ceremony…   

Proud Mama and Papa…

Next comes the more recent events…

Flowers, glass and monkeys…

Okay for those of you who are reading this saying to yourself…’Sarah, it was December, there are no flowers blooming in December, you’re crazy…’ I respond with, yes huh.  I can prove it with a picture.

 See…Grandpa could smell it even.

In the week after Christmas, Grandma, Grandpa, Avery, Todd and I took a trip to the Missouri Botanical Gardens.  We got some excellent pictures…They had an exhibit that I can’t remember the name of…but it was beautiful.  Here are some of the photos taken.

By the way, it is very tough to get a picture these days without Avery’s hands in his mouth (usually it is both hands).  It’s cute, he really loves pushing all that drool around on his face using his hands.  Yummy.

  We’re not made of glass, but most of the stuff in the exhibit was.                          

Tweet tweet               

Put Avery in a tree.. We wore him out..

The monkey comes in at the end of the trip.  I know you are all wondering when they let monkeys into the Botanical Garden…well the stuffed kind are there now.  Grandma and Grandpa gave him a stuffed monkey.

Nice long Christmas/New Year’s break…

We were thrilled to have such a long Christmas vacation.  Todd had the week after Christmas off, so we had lots of time to spend with family.  Before leaving for St. Louis, Avery started this adorable squealing/talking thing that just had everyone laughing.  He seemed to be trying to interrupt everyone while they were talking.  Great big chatter box.  It’s funny how quickly he goes through his phases.  Just a week before, he laughed for the first time.  The chattering has kind of taken his attention away from his laughing, but some people got to hear it while we were down.  I’m sure the next visit will be filled with laughs.

Avery got a ton of nice gifts.  Luckily we got a lot of clothes.  He is growing out of his so fast.  I can’t believe he is already wearing 6 month clothes.  Some of his six month clothes are starting to look a little small.  He did get a Santa suit that he looked adorable in…

  Before we left, we also had our picture taken with the real Santa too but it is in the wrong format.

We didn’t get a lot of pictures of Christmas, we were too busy enjoying the company.  Emily has some on her site if anyone wants to see more.  Here’s what I have…

Avery was opening a gift from Aunt Debbie and Aunt Stacey.  Turned out to be some really cute clothes (one outfit from the Toledo Zoo too).

  Concentration galore.  Ben was having fun climbing up and down from the chair at Great Grandma’s house. 

We spent the first part of the week until Christmas with Todd’s parents.  They gave him the santa suit.  We had Christmas on Christmas Eve with a lovely dinner that Grandma got together.  We had fun playing games and talking.

Pretty much everyone in our family was sick over the Christmas break…translation, Avery got sick and I got sick and Todd got sick.  The day after Christmas, Avery’s nose started running like crazy.  Worse than I could have imagined.   He had this little horse cough that came along with it.  It stuck around for a while.  (I am writing this on January 5th and he is still sick)  I had to take him to the doctor on Thursday and we found out has has a virus.  But I will get to that later.  Right now, I am trying to go chronologically.

Grandma and Grandpa got to babysit while Todd and I went to Emily and Neil’s to hang out with Dave.  We all had a great time and it gave Grandma and Grandpa some good bonding time (at least, I think so).  It was fun to see Uncle Dave twice in one month (that never happens).

Avery started really sleeping good through the night when we were at Grandma and Grandpa’s house (must be something in the air).   I love the fact that he can sleep through family noise.  Meaning, he can sleep while we have a game night or just a loud night of having fun with everyone over at my parents’ house.  He is a great sleeper when it comes to that. 

We spent New Year’s at Emily and Neil’s house and Avery actually fell asleep and stayed asleep in their pack and play in the office.  Even through the noise, he stayed asleep until it was time to go home at 2.  He’s such a good little boy.

The next step is the Botanical Garden, so time for a new post.

Merry Christmas, Happy New Year, Giggles, Rolls, Feet, Feet, Feet…

Sweet little angel…   

Okay, so this is going to be a LONG post.  It may even be split up into segments. 

Lots to update since December 11.  Avery will be four months old on Monday.  I can’t believe my little boy is so big.  At our last appointment in the beginning of December he weighed 11 pounds 13 1/2 ounces.  As of January 4, he weighs 13 pounds, 3 ounces.

December…

The weekend of December 16, Katie came to visit.  Katie and I have not had any ‘just us’ time.  I think it has been since before the wedding and Todd and I have been married for a year and a half already.  She had Monday and Tuesday off, so I got lots of time with her.  She fell in love with Avery while she was here (although, who wouldn’t).  As a bonus surprise, Dave was in town as well and he stayed with us too.  The five of us had a blast and here are some pictures to prove it…

 SUUPER Avery…    We like to hug Mommy

More super baby…

…   …  

Katie and I had fun making a gingerbread train…I think we did a pretty good job.  Unfortunately, nobody got to eat it because Todd kept forgetting to bring it into work and it went stale…pretty though.

Aunt Cousin Katie (that’s what she is called now)    

Uncle Dave ‘is not a girl’ (that’s an inside joke for those of us who are privy to it…) 

  

 Avery gives good hugs…   

  

I still have to update on Christmas, the Baptism, the Botanical Garden and some other misc pictures I have that I have been meaning to include in this blog…sorry it took so long.  More posts to follow.

A whole three months old…ALREADY…

I keep telling him he is not supposed to watch TV, but does he listen?   NOOOO

 

 Stay at home…

It’s official, I am no longer employed (kind of).  I quit my job on Monday last week and am officially a stay-at-home-mom (hence the “kind of”…Avery is definitely a full time job). 

Doctors…

I took Avery to the doctor’s office on the fourth, he weighs 11 pounds 14 and a half ounces!!  Big boy.

Last Friday evening, Avery started getting very fussy.  It got to the point where he would be happy as a clown, grinning like crazy and in an instant, he was screaming for 45 minutes at a time.  It didn’t matter what we tried, he would not calm down.  He wasn’t eating right (fighting me every feeding).  I finally called the doctor on Monday because it seemed to just be getting worse.  They told me to bring him in, they looked at him and said “we can’t find anything”.  They checked everything they could, I told them everything I had tried (long list) and she said that he may just be about to go through a growth/developmental spurt.  Sooooo….of course, once we got home, he started to get less fussy.  By Wednesday, he was back to normal. 

Sleep…

Until last night.  This was the first night in who-knows-how-long that he woke up EVERY three hours and three times in between.  He started screaming at 9:45ish, I made a bottle and tried to feed him, he took 1/2 an ounce, then fell asleep at 10.  So I put him in his crib (set him down and he was out…I knew it was too easy). 

11:30 – woke up, finished bottle, back to sleep

2:30 – woke up screaming…ate, back to sleep. 

3:45 – up again, calmed him, back to sleep

4:30 – up again, calmed him, back to sleep

5:15 – up again, ate, back to sleep 

6:30 – up AGAIN!!  I finally just picked him up and brought him into our room to bed with me.  He slept until 8 and I gave up.  It really is a good thing that God makes them cute!!  We woke up, ate and played and he is sleeping now (which is what I should be doing).

I hope that doesn’t continue into tonight.  (Or this weekend for that matter…Katie might decide not to come visit)

Visitors…

Katie is coming to visit for a long weekend on Saturday.  She will be here from Saturday to Tuesday.  I can’t wait.  It has been way too long since she and I have had a good amount of time to catch up without the hub-ub of a holiday or wedding.  Last time she came to visit, she helped us move.  This time, we won’t make her do that.

Snow…

The night that St. Louis had all the ice and trees down etc, we had the first snow of the year (and of Avery’s life).  The word is that we got about 16 inches of snow.  I was watching it at 2am (after feeding the boy), it was so pretty.  That is until it was time to wake up and send Todd out in the snow to go to work.  I woke him up early to let him know to leave early (it still took him about 2 hours to get the 45 minute drive to work). However, it gave us the opportunity to get Avery’s first snow picture.

 burr…

Grins and other little noises…

Last Friday, I was playing with Avery on the floor in the living room while Todd was in the kitchen.  I had him all worked up and squealing and squirming and wiggling in joy when all of the sudden, he let out this noise.  I thought maybe it sounded a little like a giggle, but I couldn’t get him to do it again and Todd and I didn’t know if we were just being hopeful new parents.  Until Thursday, Todd was playing “super-baby” and holding him up in the air (like every parent has done for all time – airplane) and he let the noise go again – it was definitely a giggle.  It was the cutest little noise I have ever heard.  Then Saturday, I got some giggles out of him too…worth crying over.  It’s hard to get them out of him, but I am sure that will change soon.

I survived…

Todd had his Christmas party (I don’t attend “holiday parties”) for work on Saturday.  We searched high and low to find a babysitter who we would be comfortable leaving Avery with for an evening (I even tried to convince Emily and Dad to come visit).  I got in touch with Ann (the one who saved me a few weeks ago).  She couldn’t watch him, but her son’s girlfriend, Melissa, was available to watch him.  She is in college and very sweet.  So, I lasted a whole evening and only called home once, and she did a great job!

Baptism…

We have set up the Baptism for the last day of the year, December 31st after the 8 am mass (9 am).  We are having Father Tom preform the ceremony (we thought that was fitting since he was the one who married us).

Some other cute pictures…

 He likes to help fold laundry

Gobble gobble…

       

Our sweet little cubbie baby…

Please send all the sleeping luck you can muster for tonight…

Growing like a weed…

Sorry…

It has been way to long since I updated the blog.  Things have been crazy!

Growth… 

I can’t believe that my little baby boy is fitting into size 6 month clothes already…he’s very quickly growing out of all his clothes!!!  It seems like only yesterday he was fitting into newborn clothes.  He is almost three months old and the time is flying by.  It was funny, he was in his swing the other day and I glanced over at him and he just looked like a little infant, instead of a baby.  I don’t know how to explain it, it was like I was seeing what he would look like in a few months.  Weird.

I took some videos of him the other day and I can’t figure out how to put them in here.  For some reason, everything I have tried has failed.  I will have to call Emily when I have a moment where he is quiet. 

Speaking of which…

We have him on Similac Advance with Iron.  Recently they changed the “look” of the canister it comes in.  We have been using that for a while.  The other day the canister was empty so we opened up the old look canister and started using that again.  I had a doctors appointment that I could not take him to, so I had Ann babysit.  When I came home (after five long hours), he was happy as a clam.  She said he was quiet all day.  About an hour after she left, he started getting fussy, which quickly turned to inconsolable.   After reading the labels carefully, I found that they had changed the formula.  They had added soy along with the milk.  Apparently that did the trick.  Avery is doing wonderfully on the ‘new look’ formula.  It’s just a shame that we have so much of the other stuff left.  We have more problems with formula, I don’t get it.

Sleeping…

He is doing really well with sleeping in his crib.  It has been rough for me because I miss all his cute little noises.  They were comforting.  But he has to grow up right?  He is even napping in there.  He was awake when I put him in there for his nap today and he fell right to sleep and has been sleeping for about an hour.

Turkey day…

I have some pictures from Thanksgiving, however I can’t find the cables for the camera.  So when I find those, I will post the pictures.  We had a great time at home and everyone got to meet Avery.  He has gotten so big since Grandma and Grandpa last saw him.  It was a nice long weekend.  It was Avery’s first road trip and he handled it nicely.  On the way down, he only fussed a little bit.  Funny side note…he started fussing shortly after we left so we stopped for dinner (he was sleeping when we left, so we didn’t wake him up) I changed his diaper, fed him and then we ate and went on our way.  Shortly after that, he started fussing again and Todd and I began to think that it was going to be a long car ride.  Todd was singing to a song on the radio when Avery started to cry, so Todd, being funny, said ’sorry, I’ll stop’ and stopped singing.  Just as he did that, Avery stopped crying.  We both laughed and Todd didn’t sing the rest of the trip and Avery didn’t cry the rest of the trip.

On the way back, he pretty much slept through the entire trip (Avery that is).  Once we got home, he ate and went to bed.  Good little boy.

We are slowly trying to get back into our normal routine.  We’ll see how that goes.  I’m not sure what else to include in this post, so for now, love to all…

Almost 2 feet tall, and a little spurtlet from a funny little boy…

He is the funniest little boy even without any sleep.  But I will get to that later.

Spurtlet…

Okay, as of yesterday, our little Avery turned 2 months old!  We had our well-baby check on Tuesday (he had to get his shots, boy did that make him mad!!).  He now weighs 10 POUNDS 12 AND A HALF OUNCES!!!  He is in the 50th percentile.  He is almost two feet tall!  He is 23 and a half inches long.  That puts him in the 50th percentile as well.  He got a clean bill of health (besides the upper respiratory infection and the stridor of course).  We don’t have to go back in again until January when he has to get his next set of shots.

I took some photos of him yesterday, I will show some here.  They may all look the same to the untrained eye, but I couldn’t decide which faces I liked better.  Believe it or not, this is only a few of them…

……

… There were a few others with some adorable little grins, but for some reason, they won’t upload.  Don’t know why.

Continuing on…

Bath time…

When we woke up yesterday, Avery was slightly crabby at first, but once his diaper was changed, he got happier.  I decided to give him a bath after I was finished with my shower, because with his infection, I had held off for a few days.  So, I got in the shower (again, he sits in his bouncy in the bathroom while I take my shower).  Normally, he starts out happy, but then gets fussy about half way through the shower, causing me to rush through the end of it.  But yesterday, he goo’d and gaa’d through the entire thing, so I thought - fluke, but it surely won’t stay that way.  Especially because he HATES getting a bath, screams at the top of his lungs through the entire process.

However, on his two month anniversary, he practically giggled through the whole process. If he could giggle - he would have!  I got huge grins and little noises…tooooo cute.  He didn’t scream a peep.  Normally, he gets his bath at the sink in the kitchen or in the bathtub, yesterday however, I took a nice hot shower and let the bathroom get all hot and steamy then started his bath in the sink while it was still warm in the bathroom.  Maybe that was the key.  Who knows, I will find out next bathtime for him.

Friendly visit…

Ann came to play yesterday and we had a great day.  She brought scrapbooking goodies and we enjoyed our fun.  Avery was the picture of perfection all day (until of course Ann left).  We had tons of fun.  A day full of cute little grins and adorable noises.  Avery was cute too.    We had a pretty good night until about 2 am.

The funny part…

About 2 am, he woke up fussing for food.  So being the good little Mommy I am, I got up, made his bottle and fed the hungry little boy.  By 3:15ish, he was back in little baby dreamland snoring like normal.  Then 3:45ish I heard him fussing again.  So I got up and gave him his binkie (which usually is all he needs).  I heard him calm back down and fall back to sleep.  Then 3:50ish hit and he started fussing again, so we repeated the process (check the diaper, made sure the sleeper wasn’t catching him anywhere and hurting him) talked to him a little and rubbed his little head – I heard him drift back to dreamland again.  Then at 4:06ish just as I was approaching the world of dreamland myself, I heard him fussing again.  I decided he had taken his last opportunity for a binkie and scooped him up and brought him back to bed with me.  There he fussed and fussed and fussed until about quarter to seven.  I was getting up out of bed at about that time, swung my feet over the side of the bed and turned around to pick him up, when it happened…

Now this is the point in the story where I give up the funny detail resulting in this post, but …where would the fun in that be.  :)

My sweet little boy is going to loveme for posting this when he gets older…but that’s the right of a Mom.  So when you look at the completely angelic pictures I post in this lovely ongoing diatribe we call blogging, you don’t think of anything but cute little boy right?  Well, that’s where you would be wrong.

Okay, I will stop the suspense…

Where was I, oh yea, he looked at me and let out the loudest longest fart that I have ever heard from someone so small.  Then looked at me (literally) out of the corner of his eyes and gave me the largest toothless grin I have seen from him so far.  Like he was saying, “Mommy, I have been saving that up for a while”.  Then as if that weren’t enough, he let another one out and simultaneously stuck his tongue out like he was trying to lick his feet.  I was laughing out loud when I carried him out of the bedroom to tell the story to Daddy before he left for work.

Mom, I hope you were able to control your laughter on that if you are reading this at work…love to all

By the way, he is getting so much hair.

One heck of a spurt…

 I knew I would get your attention with that title. 

They say that babies go through a growth spurt around the sixth week.  Well boy do they ever!

So, Avery got weighed last night…he weighs 10 POUNDS, 9 OUNCES!!!!  The last time he was weighed was at his one month appointment and he weighed 9 pounds, 5 ounces.  Nobody can accuse me of not feeding him, that’s for sure.

He has an upper respiratory infection.  I called the doctor yesterday because he was running a temp of 100.1 and his lips were chapped and he had this weezy, raspy thing in his breathing.  It was different from his stridor.  Because of that, my doctor said we needed to take him the the ER at Children’s Hospital.  So again, we headed for the hospital.   

We have an appointment for his 2 month well baby check on Tuesday.  He just could not make it until then before he wanted to see a doctor again. I guess he just missed the attention.   He is fine and just needs to get past it.  We will get the rest of his stats on Tuesday.

Just thought I would give that quick little update…until later…

Grandma and Grandpa made it…First trip to Lake Michigan and other accomplisments…

 Awww…I’ll explain this one later in the post.

They made it!  Nobody got sick (not even me, mine was just bluffing).  They both had monday off, so we got a nice long weekend.  We got some great pictures, but I wasn’t able to upload them onto a post due to technical difficulties.  They fixed themselves today.  I have lots of new news since the last post. 

Halloween…

Mom sure does continue to have great ideas when it comes to creativity needed at the last minute.  We were trying to find a fitting Halloween costume for our little one for a while without success.

She read one of my posts where I called him my little burrito and she decided that we could fashion a costume using Avery as the sour cream of a burrito.   She spent a lot of time that weekend making my son into the cutest little burrito I have ever seen.  Todd and I were invited to a Halloween party last week and it gave us the opportunity to debut the costume.  Here are some pictures…

before…  …  

Great Grandma, Grandma and Aunt Mary (on Dad’s side) gave Avery Halloween outfits, they are all adorable.  In the past week, he has worn each outfit.  Thank you all three for the outfits.

Lake Michigan…

We had our first trip to Lake Michigan with Grandma and Grandpa.  It was very cold so we had enough time to jump out of the car, take a picture and run back to the car for warmth.  I will say this, Lake Michigan really is beautiful.

And here is the cold little boy…

Okay, once we got him back in the car, we wanted to warm him up.  (the short time he was out of the car, was enough to chill me, so I can only imagine what it was like for him)  Mom and Dad got a little funny and wrapped his head in the blanket he was under.  It resulted in some adorable pictures.

 Oooo it’s cold out here!    Taking pictures of me taking pictures.

Here are a few other pictures of the weekend…

I see Grandpa…  Rough night

 Sleeping in the swing…  Yum

We found our hands…

The other day, Todd and I were at the mall  wheeling Avery around and I looked down to find him grasping his hands together.  He doesn’t do it that often, but he at least knows they are there.  He is also trying to suck his thumb.

Roll over red rover…

Avery was having some tummy time on Sunday and I got out the video camera because he was being all cute and looking like he wanted to try to roll over.  Low and behold, a few minutes after turning it on, he rolled over for the first time!!!  He attempted it again this morning but some gas got him a little side tracked.  My little boy is growing up.

I started this post this morning about 10, it is now 3:45.  Avery is a needy little boy (cute huh?)  I can’t think of what I have forgotten to put in here, so when I remember, I will post it.

Love to all…

Real quick update…

So, Mom and Dad (aka Grandma and Grandpa) have cancelled on us twice now due to the sickness of one or another.  Now, ironically, I am sick.  They are still planning on coming (which is good, cuz I could use some help).  Wish us luck that Avery doesn’t get sick…

First smiles…

I got my first smile out of Avery on Monday.  I cried it was so cute!  I have seen and am used to the gas ’smiles’, however I had him laying on my chest on Monday and he lifted his cute little head, looked at me for a few seconds and then gave this adorable grin (if he had teeth, the smile would have been all teeth).  He did it twice and none of the other ‘gas’ faces followed and no farts came along with it.  I have only gotten a few since then, however tonight, Todd and I were changing him and we were done and playing with him.  Todd bonked his nose and he just grinned again and again.  We had him going on that for a few minutes straight.  I ran to get the video camera, but there was not enough light in his room to get any footage.  So, I ran to get the digital camera and by the time I got there, he was not doing it anymore.  I’m sure it won’t be the last time he smiles, but it would have been nice to get him on tape.  My beautiful boy.

He had been pretty cranky lately, but I’m sure that will pass.

Ken, Kenny and Ann came over to watch the game.  Ann and I got to “play” while the boys watched their sports.  We had fun and don’t ask me who won the game. 

This weekend Mom and Dad are supposedly visiting us.  This is their third attempt at a visit.  I told them if they are not able to get here this weekend, that is their last shot…3 strikes and you’re out.  (Just kidding)  We are looking forward to it.  We are hoping to take them to Holy Hill.  I think it should be fun.  We may even try to go to a pumpkin patch with Avery.  I hope it doesn’t rain this weekend.  They both took Monday off so it should be a nice long weekend.

There is not a bunch more new, so I will update again if anything else exciting happens between now and next week.

Love to all

Avery had his first WBC (Well Baby Check)…

It is the first time we have been to the doctor without having a problem prompting the visit.  Amazing!!  His new stats…

Born – 20 and a half inches – as of 10/10/06 – 22 1/4 inches. 50th percentile

Born - 8 pounds 8 ounces - as of 10/10/06 – 9 pounds 5 ounces. 75th percentile

Dr.Cherayil (Avery’s pediatrician) gave us a clean bill of health.  Provided we don’t have any more scares (fingers crossed please) we don’t have to see him for a month.  He will get his shots at that appointment.  Boy is he going to be mad!

He does make a cute burrito though.

 My little angel

I seem to have passed on my trait of hic-ups to my son.  I say passes on instead of passed down (that implies that I shared them with him) because since I gave birth, I have not had the hic-ups, and Avery seems to have them every few hours.   Poor little guy.  He also has my sneezing.  Anyone who has been around when I sneeze knows what I am talking about.  If I sneeze, I sneeze at least 3 -4 times (sometimes MANY more).

Uncle Dan, Aunt Sue, Audrey and Caroline came to visit.  They came on Avery’s one month birthday.  We had a lot of fun.  They all got to hold Avery.  Audrey and Aunt Sue and I went for a walk around our complex area while Todd and Uncle Dan watched sports.  We went down to the marina to check out the sailboats and took a nice long walk.  It was really nice to get out of the house and in the fresh air.  We went out to dinner afterwards.

Uncle Dan            Audrey

Todd and I went to  baby’s R Us to look for a Halloween costume for Avery.  They didn’t have much of a selection for a newborn.  We were hoping to find a Circus Peanut costume, but I have searched the Internet high and low and can’t find one anywhere.  I did however update myself on the entire history of Brach’s candy ownership; it was actually very interesting and it gave me at least 4-5 pages of useless information to share at parties.  We are going to go to a Halloween costume store this weekend.  We will see what we can find.  Let me know if you find a circus peanut costume, we would love to have it.

Here are some more pictures from the past few days… 

He makes the cutest little bird beek lips

He loves his Daddy, sleepy baby

                  

One of these day someone will take some pictures of Avery with his Mommy that she can post…I really do exist you now, I promise.