Leap Day

Leap day....a day that only comes around every 4 years. So to celebrate the extra day Avery and I played hooky from work and daycare and spent the day playing. We had big plans for our play day and Avery’s Up North cousins were down for the week so we had plenty of people to play with. Our day started with breakfast at home the we got dressed in our swim suits and headed to the YMCA to play in the pool. 

Avery the Minnesota Bench Suffer 

Everybody is ready to swim 

Playing in the pool

Having a good time at the Y

Pool side at the Y

Everybody had a great time playing in the water. After the pool we sat down and had a little snack to refuel before heading to the ball pit /climbing area.

Having fun in the tunnels

The ball pit was a little too deep for Avery

Picking out the perfect ball

Playing basketball Avery style (roll & chase)

After crawling thru the tunnels, sliding down the slide and playing in the ball pit we made a quick stop in the gym to run and play with basket balls before packing up and heading to grandma’s for lunch.
Avery’s lunch had to wait, because when I went to get him from his car seat he was fast asleep.

Tired little swimmer

After his nap Avery had lunch, his first Happy Meal, chicken nuggets, his toy was a red ball with numbers on it (perfect!).

First Happy Meal

After lunch it was time to play, Avery got  out all the toys and one by one his cousins woke up and came to  play. It was a good day, and by the end of it everyone was tired. Happy Leap Day....see you in 4 years.

Solo Trip

Ready to go

It has been some time since I have been been able to get together with one of my college roommates, and finally after a few reschedulings we found a day and time that worked. The plan was to meet in the middle, Owatonna, an hour from our house an hour from hers. It was great to see her and catch up, soon she and her husband will be welcoming a new baby to their family making getting together even harder for a while, but I am sure we will make it work then too. I am so lucky to have such great friends that even if I haven’t seen them for awhile we can just start a conversation like no time has passed. This trip was not just special because I got to see my friend but it was the longest solo trip Avery and I have taken. I know lots of people drive that far (or farther) alone with their infants everyday, so driving an hour with my newly dubbed toddler isn’t a huge deal, but it was a first for us. Also Avery’s new car seat is too big for me to see over into the mirror on the back of the seat, so I couldn’t see him the entire time we  were driving, a weird feeling when you are used to seeing him in your review mirror. He was a great passenger, he slept some both ways (I think), he was quite most of the time, just looking around I am guessing. It was a great day, roads were clear, traffic was light, food was good, conversation was wonderful and when we got home Daddy was back from his three day pool tournament with hugs and kisses for the boy and flowers for me!

Back home.

Tooth Tally: Just starting to make their appearances are teeth #7&#8 (they can be found to the left and right of two front bottom teeth)

Bye Bye Bucket

Avery in his new big boy seat

Avery has finally out grown is “bucket” aka a Graco SungRide 35 car seat. He was actually getting too tall for the seat, he had a ways to go before he was too heavy but with a winter coat on the harness straps were getting tight. So Avery upgraded to his new Britax Boulevard 70 CS Convertible (his Christmas present from my parents). It is sad to see his old car seat go, it means he is growing up. Once upon a time his bucket was how we marked his growth, because it never changed and he did. His new car seat can face both backwards and forwards so we plan for him to be in this one for a while and his bucket is being passed on to some friends so they can use it with their baby girl when she arrives.

First time in his bucket 

Avery & his bucket at 3 months

Avery & his bucket at 6 months

Avery & his bucket at 9 months

Last time in his bucket....

Walking!!!

It was a big night last night at our house. Avery started walking!!!! We had been practicing walking while, he would hold one of my hands everyday to and from the door at daycare so when GG & GT showed up to drop some things off and play a bit I thought we should show them his walking skills.  He recently started taking one or two steps on his own, but last night we walked all by himself the 3 or so feet between GT and me. It went from 3 feet to 5 to 10. Every time he took off again and when he reached his destination we clapped and cheered and celebrated very step. By the end of the evening he was chasing his ball around picking it up and continuing on. It was so much fun to see him walking, this morning Avery woke up early and showed daddy his new skills too, I think were off and running or walking as the case may be, no turning back now.

I really hoped that title of the blog post was going to be “Walking in a Winter Wonderland” but it has been a low/no snow year,  so only the walking part would have been true, as the "winter wonderland" part has yet to be seen. The two or three times we have actually had snow Avery has been sick and hasn’t been able to go out and play/sled but maybe as reward for being a walker we will get some snow and we can finally go out.

Ready for K

Avery playing with his school bus.

Last night I attended my final Ready for Kindergarten- Infant session. The “Ready for K” program is designed for parents of children birth to 5 (aka Kindergarten age), there are 3 sessions a year, fall, winter, and spring. Each session has a different focus...math, reading, social/emotional and  “tools” (toys) are provided that you take home to work with your child on the skills discussed. Last nights “tools” were a 5” ball, Melissa and Doug wooden stacking rings, wooden puzzle, and soft book to put pictures in, all really great toys. The infant classes center around making sure your baby is developing and providing a variety of sensory simulation. Most of things that were covered in the Infant class may seem really basic like, talking to your baby, but the first year is so important in the learning process that all those basics become the most important things. One fun little fact I learned last night is how much the brain grows and “learns” in the early stages of life, if you applied the way the brain grows in the first month to weight, a 8.5lb baby would weight 170lbs at one month.....that is crazy!
One concept regardless of the actual focus of the session is reading and how important it is to read to and with your baby, 20 minutes a day is what is suggested. Avery loves books so this is an easy task at our house. All in all the classes have been very education and informational, in the spring I will start the 1-2year old sessions I cant wait to see what I learn then. 

Happy Mardi Gras

Put your party hat on it's Mardi Gras!

Food As Fashion

He started with a 100% liquid diet and now in the blink of an eye, Avery eats what we eat. Some of his favorite foods are green beans, bananas, apple sauce, yogurt, hot dogs, and mac n’cheese. He eats almost everything we feed him, except carrots. And he wears almost everything he eats too.

Beef Mac Night

I like to mash my peas before I wear them

 Since Avery has been feeding himself he has gotten to take more baths then ever before, because usually after a meal he has a sample of every thing he has eaten on his shirt and on his pants, between his fingers on his face and in his hair. It is a messy stage but makes for some great pictures, and the dogs in Avery’s life seem to really enjoy this stage too.

so good to share with his puppy

Happy Valentine's Day

Family Game of Fetch

Playing fetch/catch

Saturday night, even though it was bed time, Avery was still too awake to even try to attempt to get ready for bed, so instead we played, and what did we play....fetch/catch. Avery found a tennis ball that the dog had brought up from downstairs and started throwing it, and surprisingly the dog went to get it (Nico isn’t usually much of a retriever) so Avery threw the ball again and again, and the dog kept going to get it. Then Avery decided to let the cat in on the game and threw the ball in the direction of Diesel. Not surprising  at all Diesel did not want to play fetch/catch with a tennis ball, he looked at the tennis ball, stood up, moved a foot or two away from the ball and laid back down.

Playing with the puppy

After a quick laugh, Jon and I joined the game, bouncing and throwing the ball back in forth over and to Avery. When the ball would get past Avery he would scurry down the hall to retrieve it and throw it back in our general direction. Sometimes he would throw the ball with his left sometimes with his right. It was a fun game!

Tooth Tally:  Avery now has six teeth, four on top, two on the bottom

Some Assembly Required

A month ago at Avery’s birthday he received a  bunch of new toys and within days of his party we had opened and played with everything except the Little People Wheelies Stand’ n Play Rampway. The main reason that I kept putting off getting out this last new toy was on little phrase, “some assembly required”. The first time I opened the box so see what was really involved in “some assembly required” I saw pieces with holes in them for screws, so I freed the cars from the plastic tied downs, shut the box and gave the cars to Avery to play with. He gladly played with his cars on the picture of the rampway on the box rather then the rampway itself. The box provided days of enjoyment, it served as a place to drive cars, something to climb over and sit on.

Playing with his ramp....

Sitting on his ramp....

Finally I decided that it was time to assemble the rampway, so my little helper and I got out all the pieces and we started  building the ramp step by step. It wasn’t too difficult, snap this piece into this slot repeat like 8 times, 5 screws and we were done, took less then 5 minutes. 

Ready to assemble...

First Avery just looked at it, and stood by it, it is the biggest toy he has ever had, over 2 1/2 feet tall.  I sent one of his cars down one of the ramps and Avery tried to catch it as it flew down the ramp. We took turns putting cars down the ramps, it was so much fun. It is a great toy I am sure we will enjoy it for a long time!

Trying to catch the cars 

This is the quit taking pictures and play with me face

Thirteen Months

For the past 12 months on the 8th of every month I have woke up Avery and dressed him in his “robot-of-the-month” shirt, and taken his picture. Well here we are on the 8th of the month and I am out of robots. And now, somehow magically when I ran out of robots my baby boy turned into a big boy. How did this happen?

13 Months

At this stage in his life Avery wears 18 month clothes, size 3 diapers, has 5 teeth, “talks” all the time (and even uses some words we can understand: Mama, DaDa, Hi, Bye Bye, Puppy, PaPa, GaPa, Ball, Ba, etc), “sings” and dances, he doesn’t walk on his own yet but walks/runs behind toys like nobodies business, eats what we eat and more and more each day he is making decisions for himself and finding ways to communicate those decisions with us. Overall Avery loves to play and read and is a happy kid most of the time.
Sure he may look different but I know inside of my big boy will always be my baby, because like the book says, I’ll love you forever, I like you for always and as long as I am living my baby you’ll be!

Watch Me Grow 1-12 Months

Corn Dog Cars

Saturday night we met up with my family for dinner, and for the first time we ordered Avery his own food from the kids menu, mini corn dogs and french fires. Avery did a great job eating. Rather then have me cut up his food Avery preferred to hang on to the “big” pieces and take bites or in the case of the corn dogs, eat the batter off or use them as mini corn dog cars and drive them on the table. 

My First Kids Meal, Corn Dogs and Fries

What a good eater!

Avery’s meal even came with desert, Oreo cookies! This was Avery first ever expereance with Oreos, so we gave him a little help and only gave him half the cookie (the side with the frosting of course). After his first taste his first order of business was to eat the frosting, then eat the cookie part. I even dipped the cookie in some of his milk so he could have the full Oreo experience.

Enjoying his treat

Such a silly boy 

Peaches

The unofficial results are in, Avery and Peaches are not friends. I am pretty sure that Avery has a food allergy to peaches. In the past when we have given him pureed peaches or peach flavored things he developed red rash-like dots. We stopped giving him anything with peach to see if the dots would go way and they did. Coincidence, maybe, but I think my food allergy suspicions were confirmed when Avery woke up with red “zit” like bumps this morning, one on his face, scalp, back and tummy. And as it turns out yesterday’s fruit with his lunch was peaches. The bumps don’t seem to be painful and don’t seem to bother him in anyway but they are a reaction to something, and I believe peaches are the culprits. So when it can be avoided no more peaches for Avery.

Wacky Week

This week was Wacky Week at daycare:

Monday: Sports Day

Tuesday: Inside Out/Backwards Day 

Wednesday: Wacky Hair/Hat Day

Thursday: PJ Day

Friday: Costume Day

Bed Time Changes

How I found Avery sleeping last night.

Everyday more and more Avery is making choices, and making his opinion known one way or another. Bed time is a perfect example of how he has been making his own choices lately. For most of his life we have gotten Avery ready for bed around 8-8:30. Getting for bed involves changing his diaper, putting on pjs, sitting with someone in the chair in his room, reading a book or two, turning on his lullaby crib thingy, then having a bottle, finally he usually falls asleep in our arms soon after finishing his bottle. For the past few nights things have been a little different,  we start off the same but it’s the falling asleep in our arms part that has changed. Rather then fall right asleep Avery lays, eyes wide open, with me in the chair, not struggling to get up and play or anything, just not sleeping. I give him until his music stops on his lullaby crib thingy to sit with me before I lay him down in his crib. Some of time he sits right up, others he just lays there, either way I don’t stick around. I restart his music, partially shut his door and walk away. If he doesn't fall asleep when I put him down usually within 5 minutes we can hear him turning his lullaby lamb light on and off, and talking. If the talking escalates to crying, and it has to be crying not just whining, we let him cry for awhile before going back to check on him, then he hold him until he calms down and put him back in his crib awake or not. We have used this process a few times in the past, but this week is the first time we have used it for two days in a row. So far this change hasn’t been too bad, Avery falls asleep a little later but he seems to almost enjoy putting himself to bed and his private playtime in the dark (with his night light), and I actually like the change of  him putting himself to sleep, that way he isn’t as dependant on someone holding him to fall asleep. 

How I found Avery sleeping this morning.