Avery's First Christmas

Christmas celebration for 2012 started a few weeks before Christmas. Since Megan and her family were traveling to Ireland for xmas this year we did an early Chicago celebration. What a fun time the girls had with their cousins. We even did a trip into downtown Chicago which was extra special. Isla loved the Macy's window displays and the street performers playing drums. The girls did a great job in the car even when we hit a major snow storm on the way back which added an extra 4 hours to the already long (7 hour) trip!

The next part of Christmas 2012 was the Mendekota Santa Brunch. Avery loved Santa! She grabbed on to his beard and didn't want to let go! Isla also did better this year and actually sat NEXT to Santa but not on his lap. She really enjoyed the puppet show and life sized gingerbread house.

Finally Christmas week arrived! Laura and Jon flew in from New Jersey and then we were off to Moorhead. We were able to celebrate with "GG" Ruth and had a wonderful time with Nancy and Loren at their lake home. Also got to see Beth and Dale on the ranch. Back to Minneapolis and it was Christmas Eve! We went to mass and then had a wonderful Italian dinner. Gifts followed and Avery had fun playing with the wrapping. Isla set out milk and cookies for Santa. The next morning everyone was up before Isla so we all got to watch her come down the stairs to see what Santa had left. Isla got a Dora set and guitar and Avery got some bath toys and a rattle! The Stapleton's including John, Saori and Ken came over for a wonderful Christmas meal! What an amazing first Christmas Avery had in our first house!

9 months

Standing!

 At her nine month check (done when she was actually nine months!) Avery was 28 inches for length (53%), 19 pounds 6 oz (66%) for weight and 17.5 in for head (61%.) Big news this month is that Avery is pulling up to standing and cruising around the furniture a little bit. She has learned to climb the stairs so all the gates are up. She is also babbling when she is happy and rested. She eats like a champ! Lots of baby food and formula. I'm still nursing morning and night when I can. Mostly for bonding. I know she's not getting a ton of milk anymore from me but it seems to help her wind down.

She takes two naps a day for an hour or two each. She loves her sleep just like her daddy. She sleeps between 12-14 hours a night! This month we did let her cry it out. She was waking up a few times a night to nurse/pacify herself so I finally let her cry. It took two nights for her to start sleeping through. The first night she cried about 45 minutes and second night only about 20 minutes. She was good from then on out! I tell everyone that she is an angel baby. She really never cries unless her sister is hugging/squeezing her too tight or she is tired.

Avery loves the bath! She likes to splash and play with the toys in the water. She loves following her sister around. When she is hungry she puts her open mouth on my jaw and starts gnawing away. She responds to her name. My favorite game is chasing her around by crawling after her on the ground. She'll get away and then stop and look back and then start crawling again. So cute!

Still no teeth! Lots of drooling but no teeth. Also not much hair but it's starting to grow behind the ears a bit!

Avery's 1st Thanksgiving!

Avery's 1st Thanksgiving celebration started the weekend before Thanksgiving with all of her Johnson 2nd cousins. Jessica hosted a little get together and it was great to see Erica and Eve who we don't see that often.

Thanksgiving day celebration was at Barb and Marty's with all of Barb's siblings and Avery's Lynch 2nd cousins. The kids had fun dancing Gagnam Style (Isla's favorite song!) Both Megan and John's families were also in town so we had them over on Saturday and I cooked pot roast (with Emily's generous help!)

As you can see in the pictures the xmas trees are up. Mark insisted that as soon as Thanksgiving was over the trees should go up. We did two trees in our new home this year! Actually this was our very first xmas in our first actual house which was so fun!

8 months

This is what happens with your poor second child. They have their 6 month check up when they are eight months. Bad mommy! So at 8 months Avery was 27 inches long (49%), 18 pounds 2 oz (61%) and 17 inches for head (64%).  Apparently the clinic changed their growth charts because she was 97% for weight at her 4 month check. I guess kids are getting bigger these days!
Big news for this month was that Avery got a new nanny. Emily is awesome- we love her and so do the girls!

Boston

Avery took her third flight last month out to Boston to see her godmother Laura. She did an amazing on the flight and just had a little trouble with the descent and some ear pain. In Boston we played with Emmitt, went shopping on Newbury street and played with second cousin Rachal. It was so good to see Auntie Lou and spend some time in Boston since her and Jon are moving to Jersey soon!

Halloween 2012

This year Isla was a princess (after weeks of wanting to be a llama!!) and Avery was of course a lobster! I promise that I will not make her wear a hand me down costume every year! Actually it is a good thing I didn't buy her a brand new costume this year because she went to bed at 4:30 on Halloween!! She was so tired and I just couldn't bear to keep her up for something she wouldn't even remember. So we put her to bed and took Isla out for a little trick or treating. It all went well until we went up to a house that had some monsters jumping out from behind tombstones! I think we made it to 7 houses total. Plenty enough for me! She also had fun handing out candy to people and set up post in the hallway with the front door open.

Crawling

At 7 months and 3 weeks Avery Ruth started crawling. It began with her arms moving forward and her butt hopping along but now she is full steam ahead. The temporary gates are up but the permanent ones need to be ordered! She is also doing some sort of move that looks like downward dog (yoga pose) where she puts her butt up in the air! So cute! She pulls up onto the couch or a stair onto her haunches but not all the way up to her feet yet. She is now mobile!!

7 months

Time continues to fly and Avery is 7 months old now! The biggest change is that she is moving around now and is able to roll/wiggle her way across the room. She will also get up on her hands and knees and do a little wiggling dance....just a week or two away from crawling I'm sure. I think she'll probably be quicker to move than Isla since she has to keep up with her big sister. Isla loves to take Avery's hands and dance with her (or drag her across the room.) Isla is Avery's favorite person to watch. Her face lights up when Isla walks in the room. Constant entertainment with her singing and dancing.
Avery is eating more too! Three meals a day of baby food and rice cereal. She is also able to grab food off of her high chair tray and put it in her mouth. She loves rice cakes and baby puffs. She still loves bananas too. She was spitting food at us for awhile which was quite entertaining but she is doing that less now.
Avery goes to sleep between 5-6pm! She was only getting up once a night but she has been sick this week with a cold and so is up every 3-4 hours. I did lower her crib yesterday because she was getting on her hands and knees in the crib and will probably pull up on the side very soon!

Time flies!

My BIG, growing girls!!!

6 months

First of all...Isla has another imaginary friend. This one is Ricey....another interesting name. Ricey is a girl and is not around as much as Lettler. She also used the word "otherwise" today. I think she is a very smart girl. She started "pre-school" this week. It's still the Montessori school we were at before I think they just raise the bar a bit. They are working on Phonics. She also has Spanish and exercise class. One day she came home and had yoga class that day. She was doing down dog and all sorts of poses! Seriously...I don't think I had that in pre-school!
Avery is cute as ever. Not a champion sleeper during the day but she is doing a great job at night. Still goes to bed at 6pm and sleeps usually until 3-4 am. Then up again at 6:30. Not too bad. She's loving eating. She eats solids a couple of times a day now. Prunes, pears, sweet potatoes, rice cereal...she likes it all pretty much. She is still squealing when she's excited. Her new thing is grabbing everything in sight. Watch out for necklaces and eyeglasses. My hair is a favorite. Our favorite nickname for her at the moment is Aves.