Averie was 9 months on May 20, but I didn't get to editing her pictures until recently.
Here is our little adorable princess with a big personality.
Averie does not sit still the way she used to,
so it has become much more difficult to photograph her.
9 Month Stats:
18 lbs 2 oz
27 in
Loves Sesame Street
Enjoys being outside
Able to pull herself up to a standing position
Crawls with the speed of light
Loves her daddy and smiles the moment he walks in the door
Says "Oooooohhh" to so many things...we laugh when she does this
Eats mostly finger foods now - loves all food - loves to eat in general
Two bottom teeth
Likes to be LOUD and scream with laughter
Loves dancing with her mommy and daddy to music and silly songs that mommy and daddy make up
Does not enjoy getting her hair washed during bath time
Does not like being laid down to change her diaper
Averie has become very mobile over the past few weeks. She is a little daredevil....but she is still very unstable. Scroll down to see the super sad face when she falls on her butt.
This one is priceless...
AND BACK AT IT!
Your mommy and daddy love you so much little Averie and we love watching you grow.
Our house is 5-6 years old. When Justin moved in, the yard needed a lot of work. Justin takes a lot of pride in his yard and house and so do I. We like to keep the yard looking nice with flowers, plants and bushes. Justin put in a sprinkler system a few years ago, so the grass always look marvelous even in a drought like last year. I love our house and yard so much. It is all very cozy and relaxing.
I wanted to share some photos of our yard.
This way we will be able to look back and see how things have grown.
This is our front yard. When Averie is napping, I try to get the grass cut when I have time,
so we have more time together as a family when Justin gets home from work.
I felt creative this day and went diagonal!
These are the maple trees that were planted a few years ago. We desperately wait for them to grow.
Justin's dad made this Wine Bottle Tree for me last year for my birthday. I love it!
I just need more wine bottles and some different colors.
These are lemon grass spirea. They are so bright and colorful. The picture does not do justice.
One lilac bush that is older.
Our new lilac bushes...patiently waiting for them to grow.
This is our variegated lilac bush, Sensation Lilac. This is my favorite.
Along the back of our house we have a couple hydrangea, a rose bush and some hosta.
Life goes by so fast. I love sharing our life's moments but feel like I never find the time. There is always some excuse isn't there? So I am going to try to post something everyday until Averie turns 1 on August 20. Whether its just a picture or few paragraphs...I just always want to remember this time in our life.
This morning we are out for a walk with Milo. Poor guy needed to get out of the house after the few days of rain we had. Going for walks in the morning with Averie and Milo is on my list of top ten favorite things I love about being a stay at home mommy.
Averie is just three months away from being a year old. I can hardly believe it. She is getting so big and has become very mobile these past couple weeks. She won't sit still for anything hardly. It is a lot of fun changing her diapers!
I always found it interesting to check out other baby's schedules, so I wanted to share her's:
6:15 - 7 am - Averie wakes up with a beautiful smile on her face! I change her diaper right away and then fee her for about 10-15 minutes. After that sometimes we might play in her room or read a book for a little white depending on how early it is just to have some more peaceful time before the day begins
7 - 8 am - We give daddy a morning kiss and interrupt him while he gets ready for work. I make coffee, make myself something to eat while getting Averie's breakfast ready. I usually give her some finger food to keep her content while I get the rest of the food ready. Lately she has been enjoying steamed carrot slices, black beans, Cheerio's, and banana slices. I also feed her oatmeal with some applesauce and a little cinnamon and then she will finish about half a banana and some days she will also have some yogurt. We say goodbye to daddy as he leaves for work and give him kisses. Once we are done with breakfast, I clean up her face and hands and just put her down for her nap in her pjs.
I can't get Averie to sit still anymore, so I had to put her in a laundry basket for one of her 9 months photo shoots!
8 - 10 am - Averie will nap for about two hours after the morning routine. If she is not tired right away we will read or play for a little while but she generally is asleep by 8:30 - 9 am. I take this time to clean up the morning mess, do dishes, take a shower, and in general just clean up the house maybe some laundry etc. I will do some work on the computer with my photography business or catch up with emails or volunteer work.
10 am - 1 pm - Averie wakes up from her nap after about two hours almost all the time. Some days she surprises me and wakes up after just an hour...those days can get long! On days like that I might let her stay in her crib a little while longer as long as she is content. I change her diaper right away and then I feed her for about 10 - 15 minutes and then change her into the clothes she will wear for the day. We will play around the house, read books, go for a walk, or something along those lines for about an hour before she eats lunch. She just started eating three meals a day. Some days she seems really hungry at lunch time and others she just snacks more or less. I will give her carrot slices, some black beans, some cut up cheese chunks, some more fruit, and maybe a little more oatmeal. Daddy usually comes home for lunch, so we try to be here most of the time to see him! After lunch, sometimes we will run more errands or play outside at our house. By this time she is close to her second nap, so we try to be close to home. There are days where she will skip this nap altogether because we are busy with family or friends. She handles it quite well though most of the time.
1 - 3 pm - Averie will nap again for about two hours. Pretty much the same as her first nap. This nap time I might use the time to cut the grass or do some stuff yard work now that it is nice out! Pretty much try to get done whatever is on my schedule. I also use this nap to get dinner prepped for that evening so there is not too much to do when Justin gets home.
3 - 5 pm - Averie wakes from her second nap and I change her diaper right away and then feed her again for about 10-15 minutes. I have a feeling this feeding will be the first to go sometime here soon. Depending on what is going on that day, I might take her and Milo for a walk, go to a play date, or I might be busy getting dinner ready. If Justin and I are planning to go for a bike ride or running with Averie, I try to make sure she is fed before we go so she is more likely to be content the entire time we are exercising. If I am busy in the kitchen, I will give Averie some snacks and let her watch this Noggin Playlist on YouTube...she absolutely loves it!
Averie learned a new trick...sticking out her tongue out and spitting all over the place!
5 - 7 pm - Justin is usually home by this time. Averie always has BIG SMILES for daddy when he comes home. She is just so happy to see him....and probably happy to look at someone else after looking at me all day! During this time we try to get some biking or running in, or do something with all of us. I usually try to feed Averie solids again around 5 pm, so she will be hungry for her bedtime feeding. The three of us are not usually eating dinner at the same time. I find it too hard to eat and feed her because she is still doing a lot of spoon feeding. She does eat more finger food now, but not her entire meal yet. Sometimes we will feed her some stuff off our plate since she can eat almost anything now except high allergy foods. Basically we spend this time as the entire family as much as we can.
7 pm - I will feed Averie one last time before bed. We try to be as close to this time as possible. Some days she is crabby and needs to go to bed earlier, so the time is moved up. Then some days we don't get home until later and the schedule is adjusted accordingly. Early on we noticed how important it was to have a very strict schedule. She needed that to help her sleep and get used to the way of life. Now she doesn't seem to need it to be as strict. Now we give her a bath after her bedtime feeding about three times a week, but 5-6 months ago we were giving her a bath everyday to keep her on her schedule...and she is a great sleeper!
7:30 - 8 pm - Averie will go down to sleep for the evening. Justin usually puts her to bed because she seems to like his rendition of Twinkle Twinkle Little Star better than mine! She likes that time with her daddy, but some days I do put her to bed. We give her her pacifier at sleep times (naps and bedtime). She practically falls asleep the minute you give it to her. She has a little security blanket she sleeps with...Justin calls it "her guy" no idea why...but it has stuck. She will be asking to sleep with her guy in a few years and people will be wondering what the hell happens in our house!
LOL :-)
Averie is pretty much down for the night. She rarely fusses anymore. Lately she has had a few more nights that she has randomly woke up screaming. We've read in a few places that this age might bring on some separation anxiety. It is not too bad, but for the most part she sleeps through the night until 6:15ish...we are very lucky!
Then comes mommy and daddy time! Justin is currently working on finishing off our basement, so that takes up a lot of his time. We sometimes do more work in the yard. Last night we had a fire in the new fire pit Justin got for an early Father's Day gift! Some days we will just relax with some wine, beer, or _________ fill in your favorite alcoholic beverage here...while watching some shows. No matter what, we try to make sure we have our time together as a couple and some time on our own.
We are really happy with the way our system works. It may not work for others, but I wanted to share it.
Averie has become dramatically more active this past week. She is a little spitfire on wheels. She sees something and then she goes after it. She just figured out today how to stand up in her crib. We have a camera in her room and I can't help but laugh when I watch her. She goes after the sound machine, she goes after the camera...I have to wonder if she is ever going to sleep again.
Now she is just getting pissed off because she doesn't want to sleep, but is tired. Is this what happens when kids get to this stage? They become so active that they don't want to stop and get crabby because they are tired? Well this is exhausting. Things have changed so much with Averie just this week alone. She does crack me up though.
This is what I see now when I look at the camera. A little mischievous cutie pie! She is one smart cookie. You can't help but laugh at stuff like this.
We have been pretty busy lately around here. The weather is finally looking like spring/summer! It is so nice because we LOVE to be outside. Justin and I have been taking Averie, and Milo, for a walk pretty much every day after work. Averie loves being outside. She just takes in the sights and is so happy to be outside.
We walk around the house every day and look at the buds on the plants and see how much they changed in one day. Averie loves looking at the plants, bushes and trees. She likes to touch everything and then says "ooh ooh ooh" while she is doing it. It is so cute!
We got our wagon together, we are trying to figure out how to put the bike trailer together and we also got an Ibert bike seat from our friends that we have used already. I wish I would have gotten a picture of that, but I haven't yet. Averie is so cute with her bike helmet on.
Justin was so excited that he finally got to take out his new toy on the water this past Saturday. I was excited to be out on the water finally. We went out Saturday and Sunday. We were fishing on Saturday and caught a few fish. I managed to catch NOTHING! It was such a lovely day and so nice to be on the water.
I have been staying really busy as well. I absolutely love being at home with Little Miss Averie. She is just so much fun. Lately my photography work has picked up a bit, so I am working on that while she naps or in the evening. I created a photo book for my recent client. I can't wait to see the finished product. I will share a preview once I get it. I am shooting a wedding tomorrow in Wausau and am looking forward to that as well.
I recently joined the local MOMS Group and have started to meet some new women. Such a nice group of women and what a great resource to have. I am finishing up some art work that I created for Averie's room. Other than that, my days are filled with running errands, cleaning the house, making dinner, and all the other tasks that go along with being a stay at home mommy....but I love it all. I am so happy to be able to spend this time with Averie and we love it when Justin comes home. Averie lights up when she sees her daddy. She just loves her daddy so much!
I love that we can spend our evenings and weekends together as a family and not be stressed out with that tasks I am able to get done during the day. I feel very blessed!
Almost forgot to add that Averie's first tooth finally is popping through, so May 1st will be the day! She also officially moved across her room last night while crawling, dragging herself and whatever other form of movement she could produce. It was so precious to watch!
