Uh Oh Oh - Avery Learns About Gravity

Avery shows her scientist side and makes her Aunt Betty proud. Gravity rules. She has been dropping things on purpose over and over just to say "uh oh."

Troy and his Mini-Me

Avery looks so much like Troy it frightens me sometimes. But then she makes a mad face and looks like me. Like right here. Except grumpy is a cute look on her. Pouting Avery = kissable lips.



Lets just say those sunglasses lasted exactly .5 seconds before she pulled them off. And then we put them back on and Troy held her hands down for a picture. And then she pulled them off and handed them to me. At least she didn't drop them. The lessons in gravity are getting a little old.



Snuggle time for everyone with the Daddy. Optimus gets jealous of Avery love from Troy and me. Troy is much better at giving him attention than I am. I guess parenting is a work in progress. That's right, parenting for fur babies makes you a parent too :)



When we ask Avery for kisses, you get one of two things. The first being an open mouth, spit ring from your nose to your chin, "kiss." The second being a lean in for the kiss, but not lifting her face high enough for an actual kiss, so she touches her forehead to yours. Very cute <3

They're related. Shocker, I know.



This is Troy biting Avery's fingernails. I hate cutting them. When she was about 4 months old I was scarred. For life. I decided to cut her nails while she was nursing. I got to her last finger, the thumb on her left hand. And totally took a chunk out of the side with the clippers. She was screaming. I was crying. Troy was laughing. It was like a scene from "Psycho" on my boob. It was awful. Troy likes to remind me that I "spill't her first blood." Say that with a Scottish accent like William Wallace. I avoid cutting her nails at all costs. So Troy bites 'em.



Look at this chunky monkey hand clutching Troy's shoulder. It's so sweet I just want to cry. I lurve it.



She wants to be a nascar driver. These kind of shopping carts are her new favorite. They have the "car shopping cart" at both the BX and Commissary. We can now shop for longer without meltdowns or baby boredom. It's awesome. She thinks she is in charge, but she's not. Winning.



Troy and Avery. Love Love Love.

Making the Dentist and My Mom Proud

As I said yesterday, Avery has had teeth since she was about 10.5 months old. And she showed absolutely NO signs of teething. No water fountain drooling. No fever. No runny poo. No fussing. She was an angel. How jealous are you right now? I didn't even know that there was a tooth there until she started eating a magazine that she was shredding. There is evidence of the actual event here:



I was taking pictures of her because I thought it was hilarious. She would rip the magazine and laugh at the sound. I am sure many of you have seen this video that went viral on youtube. She was like this.



You can see how I could overlook the fact that she had some of the paper in her mouth. Her laughing was distracting. All of a sudden her mouth opened crazy wide and there it was. A choking hazard. No way, Jose. Not on my clock. I wrenched her mouth open and was sweeping (think what they tell you in the infant CPR/Heimlich maneuver) and suddenly was distracted by a hard thing stabbing my index finger on the bottom right of her mouth. A TOOTH! FINALLY! I almost forgot what I was doing with my hand halfway down her throat. Don't worry, I pulled the paper out.

After that she had only 1 tooth until recently. As in Avery is 13 months and the other 6 teeth came in about a month ago. Within a week. When my mom was watching her one weekend (Avery only had 1 tooth at the time), my mom was all, "do you brush her tooth?" And I was like, "No." But really defensively to indicate that "this conversation is over." I knew I should have been, I just wasn't and didn't want her challenging my bad parenting choices.

THIS POST IS FOR YOU MOM!! Look at her great hygiene! Aren't you proud of your baby girl (that's me!) for making good parenting choices? That I should have done from the beginning? Bygones. That was for you Mom, I know you love Ally McBeal.









LOOK THAT THOSE SCRUMPTIOUS FINGERS! BITE EM!

I Always Knew that Avery was a Doll-Baby!

I call Avery "Baby Girl." I don't know how long this will last. Maybe until we have another baby girl? I dunno. But today I have photographic evidence. Avery's Grandpa Geno and Gigi gave her a baby carriage as a Christmas gift this year and normally she likes to push it around (and practice walking) but today she discovered that she can do something new! I mean, really?? Is this real life? How cute is she?



For inquiring minds, Avery has 7 teeth. 3 on the bottom and 4 on the top. I was worried that she would NEVER get teeth for a while because she didn't get a tooth until she was about 10.5 months old. And then she had 1 tooth on the bottom for forever. The other 6 all came in within about a week of each other. She never drooled. It was crazy. Crazy awesome. Love her.



I pushed her around in it while she sat like a baby. And sang the Beach Boys song "I Get Around." She loved it.



She loved it so much she thought that she would continue the good time by sitting in it and playing with her other toys. Too bad pressure from her bottom in the carriage doesn't equal instant music box of fun. Only Mommy can sing for you on demand. Well, other people can too. But you'll never love it as much. Until you meet an acoustic guitar playing hottie. And then you can take that up with your Dad.



She looks surprised in this one. She was trying to climb out under the handle bar and then discovered it was a lot harder to climb out than it was to climb in. I took this picture right before she had a meltdown and needed hand over hand assistance to get out. You are welcome for not documenting that nightmare.



Hope you got your Avery fix :)

Avery Mommy and Daddy Learn about Quetzals

For anyone who didn't already know, Avery has an Eric Carle/mostly "The Very Hungry Caterpillar" nursery. I know it's kind of boyish, but I figured, we are going to have more children (God willing) and all of our kids can use the same decor. Good plan? I think so :) Here is a smattering of pictures from our house in Texas.



Troy's mom is a genius! She made the bedding. The crib sheet and pillow in the glider chair are from Pottery Barn Kids. Love. I ordered the wall stickers here. I ordered the framed pictures over her book shelf on amazon here.





One of my co-workers in Dover got this for me (Avery?) as a baby shower gift, knowing our nursery theme. Avery is just now getting to an age that I really feel like she is learning things and observing our behaviors with interest so now seemed an appropriate time to bust them out. They are Eric Carle flash cards and I LOVE them.



Here is the side with the letters. I love how they all have a different color/pattern on the back (front??). They are made of super thick cardboard, so I am hoping that she doesn't get bitten by a genetically altered spider or something and end up bending/breaking them with superhuman strength.



On the other side of the flash card is an animal that corresponds with that letter. Now before I address those issues, here is a picture of the other sides of the cards:



Now for the issues. I know you can probably guess what most of the correlating animals are for the letters based on the picture. We feel that some animals could have been more "regular." For example, a frog instead of a flamingo, a horse instead of a hippo, a pig instead of a peacock. However, Troy and I noticed a few things that I will share with you via a play by play of our conversation as we flipped through them together.



Regarding the Jellyfish:

N: Awww, this one is so cute. I want to frame it for our house!

T: What? Why? I don't know if I want to sensationalize murder.

N: What are you even saying?!

T: Look at the little fish swimming towards their death! You know they are going to die in 2.5 seconds.

N: Whatever.

T: Look Natalie, these cards are for learning and I want Avery to learn that jellyfish can hurt her. Haven't you seen "7 Pounds"?

Anyway, moving on to the next card:



Regarding the Narwhal:

T: I love this one!

N: This is weird.

T: What would you have picked?

N: I don't know. A newt? I'm sure there's some other common "N" animal they could have picked.

T: Exactly! Avery is going to be a genius. I'm pretty sure I didn't know what a narwhal was or that it existed until after college.



Regarding the Quetzal:

N: Really? They couldn't pick something else?

T: Queeeetzel? Quatzel? Cue-tzel? Or like pretzel with a Q? How do you say this?

N: Avery can barely say "hi." How is she going to say quetzal?

T: laughs*

N: I mean, pick a QUAIL. They could have even used the same picture.



Regarding the Urchin:

N: (shows Troy the urchin card) Is this technically an animal?





Regarding the Xolo:

T: Oh my God. They had to include a definition for this one.

N: What! What's a xolo?

T: Well let me tell you. It's a "xoloitzcuintli - the mexican hairless dog"

N: Oh good, an animal that we talk about all the time and use in everyday language. I'm pretty sure Avery is going to be smarter than us.

T: I hope so. She's learning words that we just learned today and animals I didn't know about until after college graduation.

N: Go ECU.

As weird and unusual as some of the animals are, I am thrilled with the cards. They come in a sweet little box with a hinged lid and are perfect for her fat hands. I know we are laughing about some of their animal choices, but when it comes down to it, I know she will learn the "normal" animals (sing Old McDonald and try to match those up with the cards...not gonna happen) from everyday life. So I'm glad she can learn some of the unusual ones as well.

Here we are looking at them with her. Excuse the nasty Natalie look...I actually went to the gym. You can close your mouth now. It's true, there's no faking the sweaty hair.











Avery feels the same way I do. Or she's just my daughter. That's totally a Natalie face...



What do you think of my flash cards? Love em or Leave em?

Avery's Favorite Thing

Avery has a new favorite thing. I posted a video of her and Optimus enjoying it yesterday. Any guesses? It's her snack cup, seen here if you feel called to purchase one. And it reminds me that she is growing up. She loves it. I think it makes her feel like a big girl. I am in denial. She's still my little baby. She wants to take it everywhere. And screams in a very unladylike way when you try to take it from her. Here is a photo montage of her and her cup:





Here is her "O" face. It's a fan favorite. I had to include this for her Aunt Kristen :)



She doesn't only feed Optimus. She likes to feed Troy and me as well. Or anyone. She excels at sharing. She's advanced. You will have to excuse the gross morning self portraits of me.





Lets talk about one of my most favorite things in the whole world. Chunky babies. Specifically chunky baby appendages. More specifically, their hands. Look at these hands. I could just chew on her fingers. Look at the fat roll on her wrists. It looks like she is wearing rubber bands around them. Yum!



She has decided that she is too big to be fed. As in, during all meals, she doesn't like for Troy or me to feed her. At all. But, because she loves this cup so much, we are allowed to feed her out of the cup. I even have evidence:



I'll end this Avery love-fest on her sweet face.

Avery the Multitasker

I caught this video of Avery the other morning. There are several things going on here. She is watching Sesame Street. She is helping herself to some Cheerios. She is feeding Optimus Cheerios. She is letting Optimus lick all over her Cheerios hand and then eating them. Eh, they say that a dogs mouth is cleaner than a humans mouth. Now I don't know who "they" are, but that's what "they" say. I'm going to go with it. Also, take note of Avery saying "hi" to all of her adoring fans :) She is so cute. And smart.




Here is the youtube link if the video isn't working for you!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5paUWLi2biE&feature=g-upl

Indoor Playground at Holloman

Have I mentioned yet that it has been VERY hot here in New Mexico? It is scorching hot. I wish I was 13 months old like Avery so that I could wear a onesie to keep cool. Alas, that is not a good look for me.

About 3 times a week, we retreat to the indoor playground on base called Kidsport. It shares a parking lot with the Commissary and is less than a mile away from our TLF.



Here is what you see to the left when you walk in. It is a spot to sit down and put on your socks (because they are required for hygiene purposes) as well as cubbies for diaper bags or purses or whatever.



When you pan a little bit to the right from the entryway nook, there is a sitting area with little picnic tables, a television, and a mini kitchen. I love that there are rocking chairs all over for moms and dads to sit with younger children, nurse, or relax :)



Turn a little bit more to the right and you have the main entryway to the area of fun. Avery may not be walking yet, but she is climbing. And LOVING it. This is a great place for us because she can climb on everything and I don't have to pull her off every 1.5 seconds.



Here are a couple more pics of the various fun things for the little ones. All of the equipment makes my OT heart sing!







Ok, I know. Blah blah blah. Where are the pictures of Avery? Right here my loves, I won't make you wait another minute! Get ready for a photo dump!







Doesn't she look like a girly jail inmate in her onesie? I love it.







Also, please take note of the curly mullet. I keep thinking I should cut it to even it up because the back is growing WAY faster than the front, but I can't bring myself to cut the curls off. Business in the front and party in the back is a super adorable look for a baby toddler.





Have a great day!