Pool Par-tay!

We had a blast celebrating Auntie Beth's birthday with her on Saturday. Avery loved meeting lots of new friends and seeing her Uncle Trav again. She's grown quite a bit since he last saw her at 5 days old!

Avery's almost sitting up all by herself! What a big girl! She's totally styling here in her pink hat and Tommy Hilfiger bikini. Hey, no one has to know I bought that at a consignment sale! Only the best labels for my munchkin!

Avery loves being swung up in the air. She smiles and giggles every time!


The whole time Avery was in the pool, she kicked and splashed water. You'd think that would wear a girl out!

We hope you had a Happy Birthday Auntie B! We sure had fun celebrating with you!

A Few Summer Photos

Who would believe this little one got two shots earlier in the day at her 6-month check-up?

Here are we are with Meme after we got back from Williamstown. (Avery's ensemble was completed with the white short when we got home...)

Avery is into everything within her reach these days. Here she is helping me read the Sunday paper.

Look how strong she is! She loves to play with toys and roll on this quilt that used to be mine when I was a baby!

Here Avery is "petting" Maggey. She is absolutely captivated by the dogs' presence in the room and watches their every motion. It especially thrills her when they get close enough to lick her hands or toes. And she just giggles when they let her "pet" them. Too cute!

6 Months Old

Avery turned 6 months old on Sunday. Where does the time go? She's growing so fast! She went for her well baby check-up Wednesday. She weighed in a few ounces shy of 16 lbs. (45th percentile) and measured almost 28 inches (97th percentile). She's still aiming to be a baby supermodel! And though she has numerous boy babies vying for her affections, she will have to be choosey and consider height as a factor. So, Harrison, Cooper, and Andrew, get us your stats. Luke's just came in just this week and we confirmed he's also in the 97th percentile for height, so he meet's Avery's requirements!

Avery has tried several baby foods in the past couple weeks. She seems to like sweet potatoes and applesauce, but rejected bananas and green beans. I'm not sure if she just wasn't in the mood or legitately did not care for the last two, so I'll keep trying! Here's one of those meal time pictures I said I wasn't going to take and certainly wasn't going to share! The look on her face is just too funny.

Meme in Charge

This weekend, Greg and I went up to Williamstown, Massachusetts for the wedding of our good friends, Mark and Emily. Avery was going to go also, but the week before the wedding, Meme offered to come and stay with her. After much deliberation, we decided to take Meme up on her offer and spend our first two nights away from Avery as a couple. This ended up being a great decision, especially since I was a Bridesmaid in the wedding!

Though we missed Avery like crazy, we really enjoyed all the wonderful wedding festivities Emily and Mark planned for the weekend. We had a great time with Tera and Lee (also baby-less for the weekend) and Heather, Jay and Luke, who makes a good dance partner. We also enjoyed exploring Williamstown, a very quaint and picturesque New England town.

Williamstown is known for the theater festival they host every July which brings some fairly well known actors into town. Well, I had my brush with fame Saturday morning when I recognized the character Susan (Carol’s lesbian lover) from Friends. Here’s the link to Jessica Hecht’s imdb.com page if you want to check her out. She was super nice and very down-to-earth.
http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0372961/

Otherwise, Meme and Avery got along perfectly. I was a little nervous leaving at first, but knew that she was in good hands. I also wanted to take the opportunity to really wanted to enjoy the weekend and not call home every few hours to check on things. In fact, I only called to check on the girls once! Avery slept well, ate well and did lots of fun things with Meme, including going on two walks at the park. Meme's only mishaps (that she admitted!) were wardrobe malfunctions involving the sleep sack, which just baffles her, and mistaking a shirt for a dress. No big deal!

Meme says she’ll baby-sit again, so we’re hoping that we may be able to take a longer trip in the spring. So, here’s to Meme, who celebrated her 60th birthday with Avery on Friday!

Splish Splash!

Avery loves bath time. She gets a thrill out of kicking her legs in the tub and splashing water everywhere – on me, on the kitchen counters, and on the floor. It’s amazing what a mess an inch and a half of water can make. Here’s your obligatory post-bath naked baby shot.

During the day Saturday, I installed Avery’s high chair so that we could officially start her on Stage 1 baby foods now that she’s almost 6 months old. She experimented with her first vegetable Sunday night. I selected sweet potatoes since baby Samantha loved the taters when she tried solids for the first time. Well, like the cereal, Avery looked at me like I was loony. While she ate all that I gave her, she made some of the most interesting faces of displeasure I’ve ever seen her make. So, the verdict is still out on whether she liked the potatoes or not. Either way, she thinks I’m nuts for feeding them to her in the first place!

More Vacation Photos

Avery thought you might like to see a few more vacation photos, so here they are.



Avery got her Daddy a BBQ Road Trip book for Father's Day, so we stopped at one of the featured venues on the way to SC. Freeman's BBQ is just across the GA border from Augusta in Beech Island, SC. Avery enjoyed a bottle while we sampled the cue. Everyone had a fully belly after leaving Freeman's!

One of the many things that Avery enjoyed on vacation was Brookgreen Gardens. She liked the fountains, especially the one pictured below.

On the way home, we took a quick break from the car to stretch our legs, and Avery decided to show off her red, white and blue on the Fourth of July. Does anyone else think she's grown lately? I think she has an extra roll on those meaty thighs!

Pppththth!

Avery learned a new trick at the beach, and what a trick it is.

It was all fun and games until she figured out she could do this on her own, unprompted, while I fed her cereal. I actually found a little crusted cereal in my hair tonight. Yummy. Maybe Avery was just saving it for later.

Avery's Got Tanlines

We had a great week at the beach house in Pawley’s Island, though our little beach bum didn’t quite take to the ocean like I’d hoped. She enjoyed the sounds and crashing of the waves from afar, but the minute we got her close to the waves, she got scared. I sat with her in the surf once but had to retreat quickly when a wave splashed her in the face and upset her. Baby Daddy and Grandpa each tried, but relented when they saw she was giving the waves the stink eye! She did enjoy sitting on the beach though, and especially liked the breeze. She took lots of quality naps by the shore and tolerated her SFP tent (aka her “bubble”) well. And, despite her wearing SPF 50 and either hanging out in the tent, coated in SPF 50, or under a beach umbrella, her little legs browned up quite a bit. She has the cutest diaper tanlines!

Being around her family (four generations, photo above) and friends was quite exciting for Avery. So exciting, in fact, Avery decided to see just how little sleep she could survive on. That made for her share of major meltdowns and likely caused some babysitting offers to be retracted. Now that we’re back home, Avery has done almost nothing but sleep!

One of the highlights of our trip was getting to meet baby Luke. He seemed so tiny and delicate compared to Avery though he’s quite tall and about 10 lbs! He was certainly on his best behavior at 6 weeks old doing little other than sleeping or eating. Show off! He is a very sweet little guy and we can’t wait to see him (and his parents!) again in two weeks at Emily’s wedding.

Both babies enjoyed the beach house hammocks and getting acquainted with each other. We have tons more photos both on the shutterfly site (and more to add) or on facebook. So check those out if these don't satisfy you :)

Avery really got the hang of grabbing on to whatever you were holding. Especially is it was a beer. By the way, the Mich Ultra Lime Cactus Beer is AWESOME, but hard to find!

"I'm watching those waves, Mom. I'm getting a little concerned that we are too close..."

Avery is much happier observing the waves from afar!