8 month newsletter

Avonlea,

You are 8 months old. So much has changed since your last newsletter.

You are now appropriately in your 6-9 month clothing, and they seem to fit you alright. Your pants are getting too short, and the shirts are a bit big, but they work for now. Soon we will need to go on another clothing shopping spree, but we can hold out for now. Your hair has grown much thicker, and now it doesn't look too weird when I put a little clip in it. And with that, your hollywood lashes have gotten thicker too...drawing even more attention from strangers! I didn't think it was possible!

In the past month, you started waving at us. At first we thought it was a fluke, and then you became more consistent. You wave at us, at your aunties and grandparents, at your kitties, at strangers, and even at the people on television. You have started crawling...backwards, nonetheless, but crawling. You haven't quite figured out how to go forward yet, but I know that a few days after this posts, you will have figured it out on your own. You started standing with some help, and now you can pull up to stand all by yourself, tucking your little leg beneath your body and pushing yourself up to reach your play table or the coffee table. My newest favorite thing that you do is "dance" when you hear music, wiggling your belly back and forth and giggling like a maniac. I love it!
You haven't changed much in terms of your food choices:

loves:

sweet potatoes

butternut squash

raw grapes

raw apples

puffs

crackers

likes:

bananas

avocado

carrots

biter biscuits

dislikes:

pears

peaches

apples

peas

zucchini

I have had a sippy cup/straw cup out for the past two months. Every day, you tipped it, you chewed on the bottom, you chewed on the straw....but you would never drink out of them. Every day, you would steal my straw out of my Starbucks cups to chew on...but would never suck up any of its chai deliciousness. Finally, I got you a little valveless Santa mug, and one day...while you were watching mommy drink out of her straw cup, I could just see that you got it...and I ran and got your santa mug. Immediately, you leaned over and sipped up a huge gulp of cold water...and that was the end of that. Now you want sips of everything that there is to offer.

Your vocabulary has also grown. you can currently say "hiiiiiiiiii" in a your high pitched baby voice. Grandpa taught you "Hey" and I believe that mommy taught you "yeah". In addition to that, you say "dada", though inconsistently. And every time you see a kitty you stare hard at them and say "keee". One morning, while cuddling in bed, one of the kitties jumped up onto the bed and you waved to it and said "hiiiiiii keee" and mommy almost fell over. You haven't repeated it, but still. I am amazed!

Every day, your personality shows more and more, and more often than not, you are an uber friendly, uber happy baby, who is a total ham in front of my camera, and even when I hold my phone up to take a picture. You certainly know how to work a crowd, flashing your cheesy grin and batting your hollywood lashes at just the opportune time.

I can hardly believe all of the changes that you went through this month, and I just have a feeling that next month is going to show up this month! I can't wait to see where your cute, Conversed tootsies will take us this month! Bring on the holidays!

we love you baby girl!

A Giving of Thanks

I am thankful.

For this home that becomes a little more like home every day.

For this job that keeps me on my toes, and keeps me humble.

For this amazing family network that I have and have married into, who love unconditionally and provide when there is need.

For warm food and cold drinks, like punkin pie and iced chai tea.

For friends who have made me who I am in one way or another.

For my ever-loving, if not sometimes frisky, kitties.

For my sister, who keeps me laughing, keeps me from crying, and keeps me sane, among a trillion other things.

For this past year, which has been hard and amazingly satisfying all rolled up into one package.

But most of all...

I am thankful for this child, who takes my breath away every day, and who makes me become a better person so that I can, someday, make her proud of her mommy.

And I am thankful for this man, this love, which is just beyond all of the words on this page.

I am so so so so thankful.

7 month newsletter: abbreviated

ok. so i haven't gotten around to this month either. here is what's going on with the peanut, in abbreviated form.

awesome at sitting up
started getting on all fours and scootching around but not quite crawling
also does that pre-crawl bouncing that looks hilarious because she's so little
is definetely on a stable schedule, sleeping most of the way through the night, with one feed squeezed in there

started some solids this month
likes:: rice cereal
butternut squash
sweet potato
avocado (of all things???)
tolerates some of those gerber puffs

dislikes:: everything else (haha)
for example...apples
pears
peas
peaches

we will continue to trial the dislikes. she'll get there. the look on her face when you put something in her mouth is priceless though...almost like we are trying to torture her. ha!

6 month shots went fine. i caved and we all got the H1N1 vaccine after i took care of a sick-as-shit little one at work with it. enough to scare the bejesus out of a new mommy.

spending lots of time with grandparents and aunties. loves lunch dates and play dates with amy & the girls.

i think that's it for now. i promise her 8 month newsletter will be a real one!

ah!

lobster #2

my little lobstah

so, i wasn't going to post this yet....but i just can't wait anymore! here she was in her halloween costume....a lovely little lobster. she loved wearing the frock but hated being carried around in a stock pot. ;)

no seriously. we did.

hope this makes your day. :)

corderoy

owl eyes

i think this is one of my favorite photos. e.v.e.r.

apple munchin with grandpa

tutu2

tutu

nom nom

smooches

6 month newsletter

Ok---so I know i'm a bit behind. Here is the 6 month newsletter that I was working on, with some pictures to come. Since I uploaded new photo software, it wont let me post pictures INTO my blogs anymore OR post more than one edited photo into the same blog. i have spent a great deal of time kicking and screaming. so here is the newsletter, and here are the pictures to follow it up.

Avonlea,
Today you are 6 months old! Half of a year has gone by! I can hardly believe it! You weigh about 13lbs, and have grown so long that we have needed to go up two notches on your excersaucer to keep you bouncing on your piggy toes. Just as I had predicted, two days after I wrote your last newsletter, I woke up, and just like that you had outgrown your 0-3 month clothing. You are petite, but very long, and so we have skipped the 3-6 month genre all together, and have opted to go straight to 6 month. I know you will get much more wear out of these clothes, even though they are big on you now. While reorganizing your drawers, I was shocked to see just how much of your clothing you had never even worn, and was reminded of how wonderful our family and friends are to have kept you so well dressed. Your little face has grown up so much since your puffy newborn days, and every day I can see a glimmer of a little pig-tailed girl carefully playing with her toys. I love to watch you play, because your movements are so gentle, so deliberate, and nothing like the hurricanes of other babies with their grabby hands and flailing limbs.

Not surprising, while visiting with Amy and the girls, we determined that you could sit up by yourself, and you did so well that I had to fend off the mommy-guilt because I hadn't even attempted to sit you up on your own. You were barely rolling over, but there you were, playing with toys and laughing at Kylie from your newly seated stance. As the days went on, you got stronger and stronger, and now you can even correct yourself when you start to topple or lean too far forward when you want to munch on your toes. We are still anxiously awaiting that first tooth to break through, and I laugh every time you shove my hand in your mouth for a good, fierce noshing to help ease that teething pain. Tylenol has been your friend this month.

One of my favorite parts of this month has been seeing your bond with your Daddy. He takes amazing care of you, and it is obvious that the three months that he was home this summer were wonderful for the two of you. I love to see your reaction when he comes home in the afternoon…you get so excited, all smiles and laughs, even in the middle of the worst of meltdowns.

Not too much has happened this month, we have just been enjoying you and your emerging personality. Next month begins the flurry of the holidays, and we cant wait for trick-or-treating and beginning new traditions.

Here’s to you, little peanut.

6 month newsletter

i know....i know....

i know. i havent posted her 6 month newsletter. at this rate, i'm wondering if i should even bother and just do a 6/7month one. haha. :)
things are busy! lots of changes going on! i will post some pics at the least.

a little celtic action

Last weekend, Justin, Avonlea, Sarah and a multitude of other friends and family went to the Celtic Festival in Hartford. We drank yummy beers, ate warm kettle corn, listened to diggery doos and bagpipes, and had a great day out in the brisk autumn air. The day was perfect. Here are some pics. :)

a sneaky smile

silly hat

weeeeeee

mommy's snack

i snack on delicious fingers as avonlea snacks. :)

a little family

ooooo

i <3 symmetry.

honk honk

Some random things from the past few days:

I woke up this morning at 1:30am to Justin honking my nose. In his sleep. When I wasn't laughing hysterically at him, I was really mad at him. :)

While out for an evening neighborhood stroll the other day, I finally smelled it.....Autumn. It might be one of the best smells ever. It makes me want to go back to school shopping and put on jeans and a hoody. *sigh*

I think a Sangria party is in the works for this November. I will keep you posted.

I can't wait for work-related things to slow down and work itself out. I need to make a decision already and move on!

This whole news story about the CT legislature playing solitaire is infuriating and amusing at the same time. It doesn't really make me lower my expectations any, as I realize that I really just didn't have all that much faith in them anyway.

I got furloughed tonight. Where is the respiratory virus season??? Bring it on!!

alright. goodnight.

a few more to feast your eyes

There were so many cute pictures this month...here are some of the runner ups. :)

5 month newsletter

Dear Avonlea,

Today you are five months old. You aren't that much bigger than you were a month ago, and weigh about 12 lbs. Although you don't seem that much bigger, your little feet don't need the dictionary to reach the floor while you are in your excersaucer, and so we know that you have grown. You are STILL in your 0-3 month clothing, with no sign of outgrowing them any time soon. Although, I have a feeling that one day we will wake up, and just like that, you will be in the next size.

Your apple cheeks have rounded out quite a bit, and your arms don't feel quite as thin as before. I love to see your little roundy fingers wrapped around my thumbs. I love the weight of you in my arms and cannot describe it any better than that.

One day this month, while playing with Amy and the girls, (I've found that most things seem to happen when we are with them), you rolled over from your belly onto your back. One moment, you were propped up on your elbows, and the next moment, you were flopped over on your back with a "what-the-hell-just-happened?" look on your face. I flipped you back, thinking that you had simply just fallen over, but a few minutes later, you did it again. And so, you have officially begun rolling over. :) It's about time!Adorably, you have also begun to turn your cheek to us for kisses, and quite honestly, it is one of our favorite things to do. We simply cannot hold you without covering you in them, and you giggle when Daddy's beard tickles your face. After we kiss you, you turn your face to us and slime us with your smoochy drool, and it is divine.

This past week, we have noticed that when we eat, you are very interested in our meals, diving forward to reach for our foods and even wanting to eat from me while we eat. I anticipate needing to start solids with you soon, and while that makes me a little bit sad, Daddy can't wait! But we will hold out for as long as we can. Although no teeth have officially cut through, we can see them beneath your pink gums and know that the “teething” process will begin very, very soon.

In addition to being interested in our snacks, you are also increasingly interested in the kitties, leaping forward to touch their fur, usually ending up with fistfuls of their soft hair. They tolerate you for now, as you aren't very mobile yet, but I can see the skepticism in their green eyes and they know that their time is limited....that sooner than we all know, you will be chasing them around, squealing in delight.

The end of this month has proven to be a struggle, as Daddy has gone back to work at a new school, and I am trying hard to find a schedule that works well for us as a family, and so some sacrifices will have to be made all around. But we know that it is for the best, and I can't wait to be with you on a more consistent basis. In the meantime, in our absence you are lovingly being cared for by your daddy's cousin Drina and your grammy mother. And so far, you have had wonderful play dates with them, napping when you need to, playing when you want to, and getting covered in their lovely kisses. When you come home from your play dates, you are pooped. I love how you seem to melt into my body, giving me your own little hugs as if to say "oh, i missed you mommy!". I find myself waiting for that moment all day, and when I unleash you from your car seat, my heart bursts to feel the weight of you in my arms. There may be nothing better.

As the summer comes to an end, I find myself getting excited for cool autumn walks with you in our neighborhood, and showing you the colors of the changing leaves. I can't wait for the surge of physical and emotional developmental milestones to come your way, and look forward to what you have to teach us, and not just what we have to teach you. I already can't believe that you are 5 months old....and while I have relished every day with you, I feel like we just left the hospital with you a few weeks ago. I love that we are still in awe of you, and after we have put you to bed, we stay up and frequently say "Can you BELIEVE her? Can you believe we MADE her? Can you believe how much we LOVE her?", and yet I know that I might feel that way forever. Life is good. Life. is. good.

Until next time, sweet girl...we love you.