Avery's Baptism Dress

Luke and I are so excited to have Avery welcomed into the covenant community this Sunday. She will be baptized at our home church in Austin, where we'll be returning to in January; we are so grateful for the care they gave us after she was born, for the sweet friends we've made. We look forward to finally being able to really get involved, and to see Avery grow up knowing that there are so many out there looking out for her.

So - here is the debut of her baptism dress. This was definitely a labor of love, in which I spent the past week learning how to sew while trying to achieve perfection at the same time. With help from both grandmas, Avery's dress is complete.

Front

Front detail

Back

Yay! Bumbleride

I've been coveting the Bumbleride Indie - I've settled for something far less expensive, but this one is still so pretty. And now I have a chance to win it! Wouldn't Avery look so cute in this stroller (see button to the right). You can try and win it here, and then if you're feeling generous, you can gift it to Avery.

Hello Friday...

...Avery and I are glad to see you.

Pumpkin Patch

It was the longest drive ever. 40 minutes to the farm, only to find out that they aren't really running a pumpkin patch anymore, as far as we could tell. We saw pumpkins on the vine through the locked gate, but there was no sign for the farm, no corn maizes and hay rides and other little kids. So we decided to go to the only other one we knew of off the top of our heads, which was an hour in the other direction. Possibly longer. Had to stop for lunch on the way because it was taking that long. And then we get there, finally, only to see that it was just posing as a pumpkin patch. Sure, they had pumpkins, as you can tell from the photos below, but this isn't the kind of patch of my childhood memories. But we went in anyways and had fun taking pictures with Avery in the pumpkin pile. And she even came home with her own little Avery-size pumpkin! So it was worth it in the end.

Cloth Diapers Make Me Laugh

Afternoon Outdoors

It was GORGEOUS yesterday afternoon, so Avery and I spent an hour playing outside. I took pictures, of course. Sometimes she can be so silly, and she is always ready to give a smile, but I'm noticing more and more that she can be so serious. The whole time we were out there she just took it all in and very carefully considered her toys and the dog. She wasn't unhappy, or bored, but she just sat there so quietly.

Um, loving her eyelashes.

Avery at 6 Months

Our sweet baby turned 6 months old on the 2nd. I'm not sure when she transitioned from "newborn" to "baby"; she is just so expressive and her personality shines through. I'm loving this time - the interactive playtime - where I can do something and she'll respond with a smile or a laugh or mimic a sound I make. Her newest sound is a clicking of the tongue. She's been sitting on her own for a few weeks now, and is scooting all over the place, although she only manages to push herself backwards.

We took her to my sister's choir concert last week, which Avery loved...she bounced and "sang" along with the students.

In the world of solid eating, we've moved onto squash, though I'm not so sure that one sits well with her. It's hard to tell because she's so easily affected by what I eat, so it might have been something in my diet instead. I've given the squash a break for a few days, and we'll try it again later this week. In the meantime, she's loving her peas. I've also explored making baby food for her, and I have freezer bags full of carrots, butternut squash, and apples, all pureed up and put into ice cube form.

Her stats from her doctor visit last week:
15 lb 4 oz (50th%)
27 inches (75-90th%)

The nurse weighed her and said "Great, she's 25-14", and I nodded and we moved back into the room. But I sat there, thinking this over, and started getting nervous. 25 lbs 14 oz?! What?! This can't be right...surely this is a mistake. No wonder she's so hard to carry around in the carseat. I mean, no one has ever put a baby on a diet, but I'll have to be the first! The nurse then popped her head back into the room...I'm sorry, she says, I think I said 25 -14, I meant 15-4. HUGE sigh of relief on my part.

I'm also attempting to teach her some signs, like Eat, Milk, Mama, Daddy, and Bath. We'll see if this works out - I hope so, because I can see how useful it would be, but we'll see if she starts to pick up on these signs, and then try some others.