Kicking off the new year

Along with a birthday comes a visit to the doctor.  I am so grateful to report that Avery's lead levels were good for the follow up check from her 9 month appointment.  She got two shots as well, a pneumococcal and hep a vaccine.  Today she woke up a bit toasty - likely a result of the shots.  I still took her into daycare as it was a mild fever, after giving her a little bit of baby Tylenol.  Well, didn't daycare call mid-afternoon saying she was unhappy, wanted to be held, and was running a fever.  The temp I got when she got home wasn't as high as what they saw, and was lower than this morning, so I'm not sure what's up, but she did go down for a nap pretty quick.

While we were in the pediatrician's waiting room Avery decided to show off something else she has learned how to do - point!  She pointed to tweety bird, she pointed to minnie, she pointed at pooh... and so on.

Happy Birthday Avery Violet!

My little girl is 1.  How fast this past year has gone.  I look back at photos and video and marvel - she's grown and evolved so much.  She continues to amaze me every day - and even more so amazing is that I love her more each and every day.  I'm so proud.  I'm so full of joy.  I'm so in love... and it's all for this blessed baby - I guess I can't call her a baby anymore, she's officially a toddler.  Let's modify that with a "my" - MY baby.

I took Friday off to spend it with Avery for her birthday, but of course, the activities to prepare for her party today took over a good bit.  At least I can say my house is reasonably clean right now.  We did make a trip out to the grocery store and for some ice cream on Friday, so we had some special moments.

We had quite the full house today all for sweet Avery.  She didn't dive into the cake like I thought she might after having had previous exposure.  Avery continues to be happy getting passed around and the large crowd didn't bother her much. I didn't get to take too many photos, so I am hoping that they will come in from others in attendance.  It's hard to do everything and talk to everyone as I'd like at busy events.

Taking a Walk

Aunt Jackie is here! And just in time too...

I arrived to get Avery from daycare to find her trying to motor.  Her one teacher turned her around to walk to me and she most definitely took more than the 2-3 shuffles that she had up to this point here at home.  After we got back to the house, post picking up her Aunt, and she continued to demonstrate her skills.

Little Gym Graduate

Today was Avery's last class in her first session at Little Gym.  We have a week off, but we did sign up for the fall, so we'll see how she progresses over the next few months.

Today we took our family photos and the remainder of the first birthday shots.  The smash cake photos turned out decent all things considered.  Avery was still a little unhappy today, but she was rested and had her moments of happiness to capture.  One thing for sure it was pretty hot out there, so I'm glad our time only lasted an hour.

I found a baby food that had eggplant and sorghum, so we've now added those things to our list of edibles.

Let them eat cake

This past Saturday we met with a new photographer to get some shots of Avery in preparation for her birthday with a smash cake.  She was not happy at the onset of the session, it is so unlike her, I don't know what she was worried about.  I'm hoping we still got some cute photos, even if a tear is streaming.  Once we convinced her to try the icing the tears stopped and she started to enjoy.  I brought home a purply-blue baby who colored her bathwater, but fortunately it all washed off reasonably easy.

This coming weekend we return for some family pictures with the same photographer.

I also gave Avery one of her birthday presents - a set of multi-texture balls

When I said first few steps I meant walking

This kid!  On Monday after little gym her Daddy brought her home while I got my hair done.  He allowed her to discover the stairs and told me she was interested.  Curiosity got the best of me yesterday, so I allowed her to walk to the stairs and give it a go.  I was RIGHT behind her hands hovering and brushing her to grab if necessary.  But didn't the little bugger go the whole way up the flight of stairs.  My mind is blown.  Needless to say I moved the stair barrier over to the bottom of the stairs so it is ready to deploy as required in the evenings.

When I picked Avery up from school yesterday I was talking to one of the little boys, Leo, who was also leaving with his Mom.  His Mom said "this is Avery?" when I said yes she told me that Leo talks about her at home.  Oh boy!

We've been pretty busy this past week... a chiro appointment, little gym, and swimming today.  I was really hoping we'd see those first few steps this weekend, but it didn't happen.  It seems like Avery clings to the very edge of things for a while and instantly masters them, versus a few tries/fumbles.  She's getting to be quite the expert at going while holding on to my hands, and sometimes only one hand.

Now that we have the diaper rash back in check (for the time being), we've added orange to our repertoire.