BITTER SWEET

April 30th - The past two days I have had "missed Mommy moments", which makes me think being a working Mom is for the birds. Tuesday Avery decided to walk six steps without holding on to anything and Wednesday she took eight steps. What a proud moment for Avery (as well as David and I). But I can't help feeling sad that my little baby is growing up and doing things on her own. I feel as if soon she won't need me to do anything for her, well except change her diaper and that is a battle I will gladly fight. Though isn't it true that you always need your Mommy is some form? My Mommy is coming tonight because I want her support when Avery has surgery (tubes) on Friday. It doesn't help the situation that Avery is fast approaching her first birthday, a huge event that is bitter sweet. I never imagined time would fly so quickly and things would progress so fast. I guess that is why you have to "stop and smell the roses", but don't expect Avery to smell them with you because she is on the move.

HODGE PODGE

April 29th - This entry is a hodge podge of things.

Purse & Baby doll
Apparently Avery loves to carry around her "purse" (or as I would say pocketbook) and a doll while at fun place. I managed to get a picture of her with her purse over the weekend. We don't have any dolls at home so I guess I need to purchase one.


All done, No more
On Friday Avery started doing this while she was eating as if to say "There is no more food Mommy".

Pucker Up
Avery has a new facial expression. She now looks at you and puckers her lips. You better act fast if you want a kiss from those puckering lips since she doesn't keep that face long. I guess David and I like to kiss her so much that she finally decided to make the face back at us.

LIKE MOTHER LIKE DAUGHTER

April 23rd – This weekend I began to wonder if Avery was going to be like me and yesterday after hearing another Avery story I was sure of it. David bought a golf net so he could practice his swing. On Saturday he wanted to put it up and needed some help. I sat Avery on the grass so I could help and she immediately started crying. I am the type of person that likes to be outdoors but I don’t want to get dirty or sleep there. I think Avery is headed in that direction, though I’d love to break her of that now so she will spend time playing outside and not watching TV.

Every morning when I drop Avery off I unpack her bottles from her pink New York Yankees bag and put it in her bin, which is under her crib. When I dropped her off at fun place yesterday her teacher told me she liked to pull her bin out, see what is in it, grab her NY Yankees bag and crawl around the class room with it as a purse. Is this the beginning of a purse obsession????

BULLY OR FLIRT

April 22nd – The best part of my day is dropping Avery off at fun place and hearing what David and I call “fun Avery stories”. My day starts off differently if there is no funny story to hear, which with Avery is rare. I’m not sure if Avery is getting bored with the babies and wants to be with the big kids or if she just has a thing about being in control (which of course she doesn’t get from her Mommy). You be the judge.

Yesterday a boy from the big kids class (1-2 year old class) came to play in her class for a while. Avery knows this child because he used to be in her class. Apparently she was so excited to have big kid to play with that she hit him a couple of times with a rattle and made him cry. He continued to cry for about 10 minutes until the teachers could calm him down. After he calmed down Avery started following him everywhere he went. He could not get out of her sight. They ate lunch together and she held on to his tray the entire time (most likely trying to steal his food). The rest of the day they were inseparable. Avery’s teacher said she would bat her eyes at him and smile. Of course I just laughed.

So I ask you…with a face like this is Avery a bully or a flirt? I’m sure she is just acting like a normal 10 1/2 month old, but David and I may really have something to worry about when she turns 16.

STRONG GIRL

April 13th – As I have said before, Avery is so funny. You never know what she is going to do. When David picked Avery up on Monday they had a funny story to share with him. A little background first. Avery loves to pull up on anything she can reach be it the refrigerator, coffee table or a person. Well on Monday she decided to pull up on the highchair at fun place and hang on to the tray part. After a few minutes of hanging and I imagine pulling on the tray, she managed to fall to the ground and brought the whole highchair with her. The highchair fell on her but she didn’t cry, in fact I think she laughed. When I took her on Tuesday the highchair was sitting behind the gate so Avery couldn’t get to it. Wonder how long it will take her to figure out how to climb over the gate to get to the highchair?

HAPPY EASTER

April 10th - 12th: I hope everyone had a good Easter weekend. My Mom flew in and we headed to the farm. It has become a tradition to spend Easter at the farm with my Grandmom. Avery had a great time and showed off as usual.

Avery and her Great Grandma Broadway. We met them for a late lunch Easter Sunday after we dropped Mom off at the airport. Grandma is teaching her how to count her fingers.

Avery and Mommy all dressed up in our new Easter outfits getting ready to go to church.

Avery and Great Grandma Brooks with one of Avery's Easter baskets.

Avery and her bouncing rabbit that was in one of her baskets. She enjoyed throwing him and kicking him.

We have a long standing tradition of making a bunny cake every Easter. This tradition was started when I was a little girl and I just recently started doing it again with my Grandma. This year Avery got to have a little taste of the icing. Thanks Grandma!!

My Mom got a great shot of Avery's two little teeth.

And for the grand finale....Avery sitting on Great Grandma's new porch in her Easter dress. She didn't know what all the fuss was about.

HERE WE GO AGAIN

April 6th - Avery went to the doctor today because she has a bad cough. Thankfully her lungs sound clear and she didn't cough at all while we were there. BUT, her right ear is infected. She just finished her last round of antibiotics on Sunday. She is on antibiotics AGAIN and has to go back in 10 days to get her ears rechecked. Her appointment to get tubes is on May 1st. I hope this is the last ear infection for a couple of years.

OUR WEEKEND

April 5th - We had a great weekend. It started off at Publix. I never knew I could have so much fun at Publix. A lady was there giving away samples of ham. I gave Avery some and she got so excited. She ate just about the whole piece. We are trying to feed her more "real" food. Sunday we went to eat with my Grandparents and she did really well, though if you looked under her high chair you would wonder what she ate since there was so much food on the floor.

Avery trying to help Mommy empty the dishwasher.

David introduced Avery to water out of a big girl cup and she loved it. We put some in her sippy cup and she curled up with Mommy and drank it.

Avery trying to climb the stairs.

I really needed to get the dishwasher done and Avery was determined to help me. I thought I could give her a pot and spoon to play with so I could get it done. She didn't have any interest in the pot but she did enjoy putting the spoon in her mouth. I tried to get it on tape but as soon as the camera comes out she immediately tries to play with it.

THIS IS NO APRIL FOOL'S JOKE

April 1 - So, we’ve had a child safety gate in our house for about a week now. I am thinking we need to set it up as soon as possible. As Avery and I were playing on the floor, she did her normal routine of crawling to the bottom step and then pulling herself up to a standing position. I glanced away so I could put a coaster back on our coffee table and the next thing I see is that Avery made it up to the third step. I quickly got behind her incase she decided to lean back. I did it quietly so I wouldn’t startle her. She nonchalantly kept climbing up step after step until she was at the midway point. I don’t know if she was tired or scared but she all of a sudden stopped. I picked her up and brought her back down to ground level so she could resume chewing on the television remote control.