Tooth

Yes, there is a tooth finally. I can't post a picture because the tooth is nearly invisible. It may be nearly impossible to see, but, boy, can you feel it when she bites!

Daddy's Girl

Avery may be a little sick, but that does not mean that she can't take care of her daddy. She is such a daddy's girl already. Whenever Joe comes home from work she gets all excited and giddy. If he doesn't give her immediate attention upon his arrival then she gets REALLY mad.

It's okay. It doesn't hurt my feelings that she likes him best. So last night when Joe laid himself down for a little rest, Avery crawled herself over to him and started to rub his back. Okay, maybe she was just trying to crawl OVER him, but for 5 minutes it really did look like she was giving her tired daddy a massage. She's never given me a massage. She just likes to kick me whenever she can reach. poo.

Little Sicky

Avery has been sick a couple of times in her life. Nothing serious really, just a cold or two. This last week she got her first really yucky virus. This includes getting her first fever and some awful sores on her throat. This makes sleeping, eating, drinking, and everything else much harder. I just read that the sores in her throat may take 2 weeks to heal. Stupid virus.

Baby food, schmaby food

Guess who decided this week that she is too big for baby food. That's right; Avery. My 9 month, toothless, picky little baby has decided that anything pureed is offensive to her palette. She will have real table food or she will have nothing. Thank heaven that my child is really good at gumming food or this could be a problem. She actually does really well with solids, but I wish that I could just grab a quick jar of prepped food and feed her in 5 minutes. As it is, her meals take almost 30 minutes now to give her ample time to gum down all her food. Fun.

Into Everything

Why do moms want babies to start crawling? I knew the moment would be bittersweet, but it really does change the entire dynamic of my day. Avery now must be watched EVERY SECOND! No more setting her down and going to do the dishes for 15 minutes while she stays nicely in place. No, no! Watch out for the stairs, the computer cords, the trash can, the DVD's, the book shelves, and try to stay out of the bathroom! Time to start picking by battles.

Angela and Avery

This weekend my sister, Angela, stopped in for a quick visit. I love these surprise, last minute visits that make a normal weekend suddenly exciting. It isn't like we do a whole lot of exciting things when she is here, we just have fun being together and realizing that even though we live hundreds of miles apart we still have identical responses to many situations. If we were of a mind to, we could have jinxed one another about a hundred times in the 3 days she was around.

Highlights of the weekend included: hours of Ticket to Ride, cute t-shirts from Angela, a trip to QT for yummy drinks, a dinner with the Friends, and playtime with Avery. She has changed so much since Angela last saw her that it took some time to get reacquainted. Much of the time was spent with Angela sharing her water bottle with the ever-thirsty baby.

In keeping with her constant development, Avery started to CRAWL the day after Angela got here. It was like she wanted to show Angela how big and fancy she really is now. She is all over the place now.

Thanks for coming to visit, Angela! We hope you come visit again soon!

9 months old

I feel like Avery has gotten so big in the last couple of weeks. She still doesn't crawl, but she can bounce in place like nobody's business. She does, however, roll all over the place moving from sitting position to crawling position and then stopping in I-can-finally-stare-at-the-ceiling position.

Avery has learned how to clap and is struggling to learn how to snap. She gets very intense when she practices.

She is also pulling herself up into a standing position. Sometimes I think she will walk before she will crawl. Or run, maybe. She gets into the crawling position and then plants one foot firmly in the ground and stretches the other one back like she is a sprinter on the block. It's hilarious.

Sadly, she has stopped sleeping through the night. She has been a night sleeper since 11 weeks, but this last month she has decided that she needs to wake up at 12 and 4 to eat again. Not fun. I thought it was just a growth spurt that would last a few days, but it's been weeks now.

She has started drinking from a straw now. It gets so hot sometimes, and she wants so badly to drink from my water bottle, that I decided she should just get her own cup. It took her about 5 minutes to figure out what to do and now it is her favorite thing.

One of her other favorite things is being upside down. Her dad will hold her that way until she is in a fit of giggles. Then, when you least expect it, she will bend herself backward or fling herself over the edge of the couch trying to do it herself. That is a more stressful development.

Other than that, all is well here at the Jackson home.

Make a Smilebox slideshow

The Fourth!

I love the 4th of July. I love everything about it. I love red, white and blue everything! I love the sun and the BBQ. I love pool parties and parades. And I love, love, love fireworks!

This year Joe and I made it up to Las Vegas to spend the weekend with our friends, the Whitings. It was too much fun. Avery took to them immediately and could not smile enough at young Julia. I think that Chris may be her new best friend as well. She really wanted to be friends with their do, Kuda, but I discouraged that friendship since Avery likes to pull.

Since it was Avery's first Independence Day, I was really excited to see how she was going to react to the pretty sparkling lights that I so enjoy every year. And, of course, she had to have a patriotic outfit for the day. Our actual evening plans changed a few times before we finally settled on a course of action. In the end we did some little fireworks at the house, then we hiked up to the top of a hill to watch the fireworks over the whole valley. I'm not sure I have ever seen so many fireworks going at one time.

Julia and Mason were really excited about doing their own fireworks before the big show, and Avery did not seem opposed to the idea. But then the whistling, cracking, popping, and exploding started. That was not as thrilling for her as I had hoped.

Preston had himself under control the whole time. None if it seemed to phase him too much. It must be the fact that he has older sibling that make similar sounds all of the time! I hope that Avery soon learns to love fireworks as much as I do.

It is always hard to pick a couple of photos to share when you feel like there are so many good ones. Luckily I have a slide show to make for the next post so I can add all of the ones I couldn't put in here.