Avery 13 Months

So I decided I wasn't going to do "monthly" posts after she turned a year. I wouldn't have monthly pictures to show anymore, and I thought I'd just write when something cool happens. Well then I got the urge to blog on Oct. 7 - right when she turned 13 months. I guess I had conditioned myself? But then I haven't had a chance to actually write until now...

So here's her 13 month update - 

She still weighs right under 20 lbs. She now has two teeth on the bottom and two more that are trying to come through on top. 

She's not walking yet, but loves pulling up. That's almost all she does all day. 

I think I have a picky eater on my hands. I feel bad because I always feed her the same stuff, but it's all she'll eat! I even got some recipes for baby finger food and spent all this time making them and she wouldn't eat a bite. The only things I can count on her to eat are avocado, peaches, and yogurt melts. Then of course she loves the Gerber puffs and crunchies, which I'm sure she'd be fine with me feeding her all the time but I am trying to limit it.

She has also picked up some bad habits while eating. She likes to get her hands super messy and rub them all over her hair. Luckily she doesn't have much hair so it is sort of easy to wipe out.

She also thinks it is super funny to drop things, and the more sternly I tell her "no," the more she laughs. I have started ignoring her and that seems to be working better.

While we were in Wichita Falls, she went to her first wedding. My cousin, Keyton, got married. She actually did great during the ceremony, and it helped that it was super short. Here is a picture of her and my parents before the wedding -

She also had the time of her life hanging out with her BFF, Willie. 

Also during the trip we went to my cousin, Lindsay's, baby shower. Avery was napping when I left to go so she didn't join in that event. 

Here are a few more pictures of her lately. This is us before we went shopping one afternoon-

This is her eating at Gloria's with my mom and me - 

Avery's 1st Birthday

Wow so this post is super late. We had some technical difficulties with the camera/pictures. I was waiting on those to get resolved, but not sure how long that will take, so I'm just going to post them. The camera was on the wrong setting (my fault) so the pictures aren't that great. Rustin and Casey took a lot with the "big" camera, but they are in some sort of format that we can't download without some other software program. At least you'll get the general idea.

At first I compared myself to the other one-year-old birthday parties I've been to or seen on Facebook that reminded me of that show "My Super Sweet Sixteen" because they were so over the top. Part of me feels like I need to keep up, but I really try to keep that part of me in check. Keeping up with everyone in Dallas is as futile as keeping up with the Kardashians!

I wanted something low-key with just family and close friends. And I didn't see the point of having entertainment like a bounce house, pony rides, clowns, etc. For one, Avery is too small to enjoy most of it, or it would have scared the crap out of her. Also, most of my friends are still single, so there wasn't even going to be that many other kids there.

I decided to go with an "owl" theme. Partly because I still think it's cute, but also because I wanted to use decorations from her nursery. Here are a few pictures of the decorations -

I got this banner at Hobby Lobby. They actually had a lot of cute 1st birthday stuff there.

I hung all of her monthly pictures above her high chair. 

My wonderful and talented friend, Sherrie, made the cupcakes and Avery's smash cake. I got the owl cupcake idea off Pinterest and she did the rest!

So Avery was not happy at all for most of her birthday because little did I know, I was poisoning her with whole milk (see previous post for more information on that).

Yeah this pretty much sums it up haha... There was no way I was taking the paci out.

A lot of great family and friends came to wish her a happy birthday -  

So all the pictures of her eating her smash cake are on the other camera. But I think this one is before we had it ready. I tried to tide her over with some crunchies (which she loves). Then distracted her with the smash cake so she'd stop taking her birthday hat off!

For most of the party Avery wore the super cute dress my Aunt Holly got for her. But then she changed to her casual, after-cake onesie. It even has a 1 on it (thanks Hillary).

My parents got her this princess car and she loves it. I think she wasn't too sure about Aunt Andrea touching it. Or maybe she was interested in her wine...

Playing with Myra, Neeraj and Kavli's little girl. 

All her "loot." Thanks again to everyone for making her first birthday special!!

Avery 12 Months (1 Year!!)

I can't believe she turned a year old! This may sound silly but I felt a sense of accomplishment - I mean I raised her a whole year and she's still alive and so am I!

I took a few pictures of her on her birthday. Of course, I had to finish up our monthly pictures with her 12 month sticker.

I also wanted to take a picture of her in her birthday dress from my Aunt Holly.

I ran out of formula about a week before she turned one. I know you're not supposed to start cow's milk until a year, but I figured 5 days didn't matter that much. And I didn't want to get a whole new can of formula. 

She seemed to like it but about 3 days later, she started acting incredibly fussy. I felt like it was a flashback to her first few months of life. She was constantly crying. I couldn't do anything because she was only happy if I was walking around holding her. Her naps went back down to 45 minutes and she was waking up at 5:30am. I really thought I was about to go insane. Sorry TMI but she also had diarrhea for several days. It was so bad that there were several times when there was nothing I could do to get her to stop crying so I ended up crying with her.

My mom said all of those things could be symptoms of teething - and she was getting her first tooth in on the bottom so that made sense. But I was still worried because she was so incredibly unhappy. Even for her birthday she was so upset. There were moments she was ok, and I think all the people being at the house helped distract her. But I'll do a separate post about her birthday.

So anyway she had her 1 year check up at the doctor scheduled for Monday. If she hadn't I was going to call them anyway because I was so worried about her. 

I was really wondering if the milk was the culprit and not teething. I had her on Similac Alimentum formula because I felt like she was very fussy on soy or anything milk based. I thought maybe I was being too cautious since I never knew for sure if she had a milk allergy, so that's why I decided to just go for whole milk.  

Anyway at the check up, the doctor said she looked great. He said those symptoms could be teething, but if it was, it was some bad teething! I asked him if starting her on the milk might have done something and he told me the only way to find out was just to try something different. He said I could try soy or rice milk, but since I had tried soy formula before and it didn't seem to make it better, I thought I would try rice milk.

Hallelujah! I feel like I finally have the baby back that I know and love. She is smiling again and crawling around and playing - none of which she had done in a week. And she is sleeping normally again (which means mommy is sleeping!!).

The doctor said that if she has a milk allergy (which apparently she does), most babies grow out of it. I hope she does because if she's like her mom and grandpa, she's going to like drinking milk!

She now weighs 19 lbs. 6 oz. and is 30 1/4" long. He said she's in the 30th percentile for weight, but 80th for height. So as expected since she was born, she'll probably be tall. Not sure where she gets it.

Her favorite thing to do is run errands with her mommy - especially the grocery store. She loves seeing all the people and making noises at them. The other day we kept passing this older man in the aisles several times and she would smile and squeal at him each time. When she gets fussy in the store, I give her a wagon wheel and she laughs and looks around like she wants everyone to see what she just got and is very proud of herself.
I'm trying to get her used to other people taking care of her. I have been going to a women's Bible study at my church on Tuesday mornings and taking her to the nursery. It's still a little hard for her. I guess she's like me - I didn't like my mom leaving me either. But hopefully she gets better.

I'll close with a few pictures of her this month.

This is her at BJ's Pizza celebrating Uncle Casey's birthday -

And this is her with her first birthday present (I gave it to her a little early. I couldn't wait!) from her mom and dad. I think she liked it.

I am so thankful for the gift of being her mommy a whole year and look forward to many more with that sweet girl!

Wichita Falls Trip

Last week Avery and I made a trip to Wichita Falls - my hometown and "God's country" according to my dad.

We go back there about every 6 weeks. Why 6 weeks? Because, yes, I still get my hair done there. I go to the same lady who has done it since early college. Every time I've gotten it done in Dallas, I've paid double and ended up with super short orange hair. But that's not the whole reason. I can't stay away from my family very long, so it also gives me a good excuse to visit. And they like seeing me... or Avery. 

The drive was a little more treacherous than normal. As I left Allen, I noticed my gas tank was about half full. I should have stopped but I thought a half a tank could get me there. More on that later.

I don't go the way most people go from Dallas to WF. Since we are so far north, it is about the same distance for me to go up to Sherman and take 82. There is less traffic and more places for me to pull over with Avery if I need to. Overall I just feel like it's a safer route. I also love feeling like I'm in the country. And I love driving through Nocona. My best friend in high school, Sandy, lived there for a while and I think I spent every weekend of my sophomore year there.

Anyway my gas tank started to dip quicker than expected but it started POURING rain. Who wants to pump gas in the rain?? Plus Avery was asleep and if there's one rule we live by at my house it is NEVER wake the baby!

The rain stopped around Saint Jo (if you recognize any of the towns I have named so far, you are a true Texan), but I guess I zoned out on memories in Nocona because getting gas was the last thing on my mind. Then my gas light came on. If you're familiar with this route, you know there is NOTHING for miles. Yes, there's Ringgold, but there's no gas stations there. 

I've always judged people who ran out of gas. I always wondered how dumb you had to be. I mean do you not see your tank gauge or gas light? I also knew that if I did run out of gas, the person I would be forced to call would be my dad. He thinks his tank is low if it is below 3/4 of a tank. I knew that phone call would not be pretty.

Avery was sound asleep in the backseat as I felt my car start to sputter (is that the right word??). I felt like it was my "Jesus Take the Wheel" moment. I've never had a panic attack but I am certain I did right then. I was sure we were running out of gas. I started breathing really fast and my heart was beating out of my chest. I kept praying for God to get me to Henrietta.

We made it to Henrietta.

I feel like I just wrote a lot of build up for nothing. Anyway lesson learned. I will fill up before leaving town from now on. I didn't even tell my dad when I got to town. I didn't want the lecture, but I'm pretty sure my phone will be ringing any second now...

So while in WF Avery got to see Uncle Colby's new apartment. It's really nice and looks out over Lake Wellington.

She also made her first trip to one of my all-time favorite restaurants - Samurai of Tokyo. We figured the guy making the food would keep her entertained. Well instead he scared her and she started crying at the top of her lungs. Here are a few pictures. My mom's going to kill me for the first one.

We also ate at Jason's Deli. They just got one there and they think it's super awesome. I had my fill of Jason's Deli when I worked at IBM. Angie and I went there every day for lunch. So much so our coworkers asked us if we owned stock. But anyway I think my parents wanted to get the all you can eat ice cream. My PE teacher from elementary school was working the door.

Avery is still obsessed with Willie, and now that she can crawl, he's in trouble.

We had a great time and can't wait to go back... in a few weeks...