Daddy Daughter Date

I had some time off for the holidays so Avery and I had lunch with Kyle at work.

And did I mention that Kyle and his (male) coworkers are having a mustache growing contest?

Finally, being hairy pays off!

(Does someone want to start a hairy leg contest?  'Cause it's winter and, well... you know.)

The winners are announced on Wednesday so he's still got a couple of days to grow a really good one.

She sits!

Yep, she's sittin' up on her own!

Obligatory Christmas Post

This year we spent our first Christmas at home.

It was so nice not to be traveling and just enjoy the holiday!

We spent Christmas Eve looking at lights, playing games, eating snacks, and....

 Making Avery's stocking.  I finished just in time!  Even though my fingers were blistered.

My mom made stockings just like this for all our family when I was little and it's become a tradition for each of us to make them for our own families.

I think she liked it.

In fact, it pretty much knocked her off her feet.

Having Christmas on a Sunday was so nice!  We slept in 'til 8, had church at 9, and didn't even start opening presents until 11!  That's definitely a first in my life but it made the whole day seem to last longer.

This is pretty much the chubbiest my baby has ever looked.

I love that double chin!

Grandma & Grandpa spoiled Avery with a jumperoo (aka Mom's babysitter).  

The first couple of days we had to put blankets under her feet so her feet would touch enough for her to jump.  Now she just jumps on her toes.  I love it!

 Having a baby at Christmas was fun, but she was more interested in the wrappings than the presents.  

In true Avery fashion, she ate everything she got her hands on.

See as follows:

Yep.  If she likes it, she eats it.

 After last year's Epic Christmas Failure, I was determined to get Kyle just what he wanted this year.

He only mentioned about 800 times that he wanted Cowboys & Aliens.

(such a weird movie)

I have to say, I also killed it with new basketball shoes.

Even though he ended up exchanging them.

(I still killed it)

  My parents came down from Idaho to spend Christmas with us.  They both have recently lost a lot of weight so I'm pretty sure all they got was clothes.  Sounds fun to me!

Awhile after we finished opening presents and Avery was down for a nap, Kyle pulled out an envelope for me!  He made a riddled poem that led me to the furnace room where he'd stashed one more present just for me...

A HUGE present--and heavy too!

Expedit shelves from IKEA!  I've been eyeing these for years to help organize my disasterous sewing room. I have to say, it is really hard to surprise me, but Kyle always manages to pull one over on me.

I loved it!

And now we have to get ready to celebrate New Year's.

Hope you all had a merry Christmas!

Worst Mom Ever

Well, the days of letting Avery sleep in the swing are over.

Until the last few days, I could lay her in there and she'd sleep soundly for a few hours... and I wouldn't buckle her in.  If I buckled her in, she'd wake up.

The other day I caught her trying to roll over in her sleep.  While she was in the swing!  I jumped up and ran over to her just as she made it over the edge.  She didn't fall though, she was hanging off the edge with her legs dangling over.  Still asleep!

Pretty much I felt like the worst mom ever.

I wasn't sure if I should laugh, because she looked so cute and funny, or if I should cry because my baby nearly rolled out of the swing.  And it was my fault!  

She just insists on sleeping on her stomach now.
Which means she only naps in the crib from now on... and no more unbuckled rides in the swing.
And I hang my head in shame.

5 Months!

Avery is 5 months!

Stats

Weight: 12 lbs. 8 oz.

Height: 24"

Likes

Grabbing faces

Anything that makes a crinkly, plasticky sound

Mirrors

Fake sneezes

Chewing on everything (hands, feet, tables, books...)

Whatever you have

Baths

Books

Sleeping on her tummy

Dislikes

Anytime you wipe her face

Middle of the night diaper changes

Milestones

She can hold her own bottle!

Falling asleep on her own!  Without crying!! (Or a maybe just a little crying)

Smiling at her reflection in the mirror

Started the counting foods part of the PKU diet

Almost outgrown 0-3 month clothes

Definitely outgrown size 1 diapers

Remembering how to roll over from tummy to back (she forgot for a month or so)

Lights, Basketball, and Babies

Saturday was Avery's 5 month birthday so we had the best date ever!

Really it had nothing to do with her 5 month birthday, but they DID happen to coincide.

So why not?

After grabbing some dinner, we went to Temple Square to see the lights.

I love this place.

(More about temples)

We figured Avery would love the lights because she is always drawn to anything bright and shiny.

And she did.

Not only was it Avery's 5 month birthday, but it was also one of the busiest nights EVER on Temple Square.  I think I may have become agoraphobic after pushing a stroller through mobs of thousands.

It's seriously such a beautiful place though.

And was totally worth the social anxiety.

And getting reprimanded for going the wrong way in the visitors center with a stroller.

Psshh.

(There was no way I was waiting in line behind 6 wheelchairs and 3 strollers to get in an elevator)

After walking around for awhile, we went back to the car for a costume change.  It was getting colder and Avery was not wanting to be in the stroller anymore.  And, we were heading to a Jazz scrimmage and couldn't take the stroller anyway.  So we packed the baby in a snow suit over her clothes so she'd stay warm.  I was dying about her reaction to being changed in the trunk of the car.  

She wouldn't move!  

She's a total Randy...

Avery's first Jazz experience!

My favorite face EVER.

I just can't help but love all over those baby cheeks!

Kyle filled me full of Jazz player facts the whole time.

I think I retained about 3%.

He told me I was his "Bro" for the night and he needed to unload sports knowledge on me.  

Okay.

As fun as it was, she didn't last long.

Even with all the noise going on, she passed out after a half hour of scrimmaging. 

We ended the night waiting a half hour for Hatch's famous hot chocolate.

Well, Kyle waited in line.

I waited in the car with a sleepy Avery.

At $5 a cup, it wasn't as good as we remembered.

Oh well.

B-A-N-A-N-A-S

Today we tried bananas.

I thought for sure she'd love it.

 This, to me, does not look like the face of a baby who loves the bananas.

She did eat it anyway, but the general theme of the day was "let's get bananas on all of the things."

Seriously.  Banana.  Everywhere.

ALL of the things.

Unfortunate consequences of feeding the baby fresh banana puree:

*Every part of banana that ended up on her onesie turned it brown. (which was a lot)

*Banana puree turns brown in the fridge.

*Brown banana spit up.

*Brown banana spit up.

*Brown banana spit up.

I'm tempted to only feed her applesauce for the rest of her baby life.

About Sleep

I hate to say anything because I don't want to jinx it.... but I think we might, we just might be getting somewhere in sleep training over here.  We started the process last Thursday so it's been one full week and it's not been easy, I tell you.  Katifriend has had to hold my hand the whole way via supportive text messages. 

I've done a lot of reading and polling of friends who sleep train and this is what we've come up with for ourselves:

*Establish nap pattern.  Morning nap an hour after wake up time.  Afternoon nap within 2 hours after waking from morning nap.  Sometimes a third nap around 4PM if she wakes up early from the afternoon nap.  If she wakes up happy from a nap I know she is rested.  If she wakes up crying, I rock her back to sleep.

*We give her a bath between 6PM-7PM then feed her a bottle and lay her down while she is sleepy but still awake.

*Then the hardest part ever: she cries.  At first we'd go in and soothe her every 10 minutes until she stayed asleep but the last few days we've let her cry for up to 40 minutes without soothing her.  It's heartbreaking.  But the beautiful thing?  She now goes to sleep on her own!  This is HUGE.

 For 3 nights in a row she's gone to sleep on her own (tonight it only took 20 minutes) and she STAYS ASLEEP until about 2AM for a feeding.  And then she STAYS ASLEEP until 6:30AM.

I am so proud and happy right now I could cry.

I just hope this continues and gets even better.  I'd love for her to only cry a few minutes before falling asleep or, better yet, not cry at all. But we're getting there. 

It's been really difficult for us to come to the point where we're letting her cry it out some.  Before I was born, I had a brother, Blake, who died at 4 months of SIDS.  This has constantly been on my mind since Avery was born and I've worried so much about how she's sleeping, letting her cry, what's in her crib, etc.

Two things helped me get over this:

1. Avery is now older than 4 months.  I know SIDS can still be a risk until she is 1 or something, but in my mind, she's older than Blake was and it feels like the risk isn't so much there anymore.

2.  We were so freaking sleep deprived we could hardly function.  It took a long time to get Avery to sleep and stay asleep every  night and even then she'd wake up at least 3 or 4 times every single night.  And that was a good night.  On a bad night we were up every hour or more.  No joke.  We had to do something.  We were desperate!

A couple of nights during the last week were terrible and she woke up a lot and cried a lot and we didn't get any sleep.  But having a few days of success in a row is encouraging and I think Avery is really responding well to it now.  We are also learning to read her more and understand when she is getting sleepy so we don't let her get overtired.

So there you have it. That's our plan. I like our plan because I feel like we are teaching Avery how to sleep while being flexible enough to adjust to what she needs.

I like it most because so far it is working.

And thank goodness.

I've really missed my sleep.

Hot Cold

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One of the most difficult things about marriage, I believe, is temperature control.

I am always cold.  Or hot.  But I'm never just right.

Kyle is always exactly the opposite of whatever I am.

The worst is riding in the car together.

In the winter he insists on blasting the heat on my face so he can warm up his hands.

His hands that got so super freaking cold walking from the Walmart entrance to the car.

Apparently in 30 seconds or less, his hands get so cold the blood practically freezes.

Or so he tells me.

I mean, it's not like he said those exact words, but I know it's what he meant.

(I can read between the lines)

The problem is, I cannot stand to have the heat blowing in my face.

It makes me car sick and crazy and sad.

It is approximately an 8 minute drive from our house to Walmart.

The whole way there and the whole way back is a constant battle for temperature control.

And at night you'll find me sleeping under a pile of blankets while Kyle is sweating to death.

Changed?

via

I think becoming a mom has changed me. 

And I don't mean just the clothes-are-always-covered-in-spit-up kind of change.
Or the I-only-wear-mascara-on-special-occasions kind of change.
Or not even the 4-hours-of-sleep-now-sounds-like-a-lot kind of change.

You see, late one night while feeding the baby in our old green chair, I started thinking about what it might be like to go skydiving.  I mean really, skydiving?!?  This has never even been an option to me.  I wouldn't say I'm scared of heights, but I am terrified of falling.  I hate falling-type roller coasters (okay so that means all of them).  I hate turbulent flights.  I even kind of hate elevators.  So skydiving?  Skydiving has never even been a thought.

But something got me thinking that maybe it would be really cool.  Life changing maybe?  And I think someone told me once that it doesn't even really feel like you are falling at all?  I got really excited thinking about it, even though not in a million years could I ever talk Kyle into doing it with me.

And then I remembered a story I recently heard about an old woman who waited her whole life to go skydiving and it ended tragically.

Maybe I'm not so changed after all.

Santa Baby

I think maybe I should rename this blog "Avery Adventures" because it's pretty much all about her anymore. 

Sorry, guys.

Hope you like babies!

I promised myself when I became a mom I wouldn't let my blog become 100% baby but the truth of it is, I don't know anything else anymore!  I'm so out of touch with life before baby.  

So it's either, I don't post much at all, or I post about Avery.

So here's more about Avery!

We took our Santa Baby to the church Christmas party.

No one tried to sit on her lap, though.

Hah.

Bald dad's are great for teething babies!

His favorite is when she spits up on his head.

Or when drool runs down his face.

What a good dad :)

Very Busy

If you're wondering where we've been the last few days, we have been very busy not sleeping.

This is all Avery's fault.

I mean, I hate to point fingers.... but it is kinda true.

In 3 days, the longest she slept in one interval was 2 hours and the "best" part is, she seemed totally happy about it!  Normally she'll crash by 7:30 PM every night.  Last night she stayed up until 10:00 smiling and giggling no matter what we tried to do to put her to bed.  It's kind of hard to be mad when she's being so cute.

We're *this close* to trying the 100% cry it out method.  Only we just can't do it.  We do let her cry for 10-15 minutes at a time, but usually she gets so worked up it takes twice as long to get her calmed down again.  And then we're sad.

But do you know what else makes us sad?

Not sleeping.

Poor Kyle had to go to work today with pretty much zero sleep.

I keep telling myself that this is just a phase and we'll get through it... she'll learn to sleep better... she'll finally cut teeth... she'll figure out how to roll the other way in her sleep (instead of just getting stuck on her belly)... it could be worse.

(?)

Pretty much this solidifies the fact that I am 100% NOT ready to have another baby just yet.

Not that I'd been thinking about it or anything...

And here's a gratuitous pic of Avery being cute.

It's what gets me through the tough times.

I like to call this one "West Side" for (hopefully) obvious reasons.

(And anyway you could say that we do, in fact live on the west side...)