More Sq Ft Needed

So we assembled this little (and by little I mean huge) piece of fun last night. The little lion on the front says "rawr." It's pretty cute!

What I want to know is how do you keep your living room from looking like a damn daycare?!?

The playmat

The swing

The bouncer

The infant seat

And now this

My house it too small! But I neeeeed all this stuff, right?! Ugh, I hate clutter!

The Bad News

is that a virus of some sort invaded my body over the past 48 hours. Gag.

The good news is that I'm now back at/a little under my pre-pregnancy weight. Hey, I'm a glass-half-full kind of person...

Knock on wood Avery is unaffected so far.

Mother of the Year

I will be receiving this highest honor in recognition of my unsurpassed mothering skills. See, my daughter fell off the couch yesterday because I left her there unattended. Seriously. She was fine but of course I felt awful. Both Rob and I would prop her in the corner of the couch from time to time to grab something from the kitchen, etc. Obviously we won't do that anymore.

Moms (or dads), please tell me if something similar has happened to you so I don't feel quite so bad.

Stop the insanity

that is Baby Gap.

I apologize in advance if you came here for cute baby pictures, parenting advice (ha!), or updates on Avery. This post will be filled solely with material possessions. Go ahead and leave now if you couldn't care less.


So now that everyone's gone.


For a month or so I have been adding to Avery's fall wardrobe because she "needed" clothes. The madness really must stop. So why do I go into Baby Gap "just to look" when I'm really supposed to be shopping for myself? I did find a few cute work pieces for myself at NY&Co. I really do need some things for fall seeing as how last fall I was pregnant and the fall before that I was...well, thinner.

Avery has also scored some cute new bows and headbands from this Etsy shop courtesy of Grandma Thomas. I also have some bows on order from a girl I went to high school with. Cute stuff!

Saturday's finds:

with matching pants

I need to stay away from BG for a while. And Old Navy. And TJ Maxx. And Target (ha, never!).

TGIF

We put together this neat little infant seat. The tray rotates 360 degrees. Later it can be used as a booster seat for the table. Pretty cool.

This is what Avery thought of it.

Happy Friday!

3 Months

Happy 3 Monthday to Avery.

-The rolling over was not a fluke. I watched her roll over two times after work on Friday. She refused to do it again, despite futile efforts and paparazzi-like stalking with the camera. Eh, no rush I guess!

-Saturday she laughed, and I mean BELLY LAUGHED, for a good 5 seconds. It was so funny. Again, in spite of us acting like complete clowns the rest of the weekend, she didn't do it again. Tease!

-She has just started noticing Arthur. She actually looks at him now and I can tell she's seeing him, most likely thinking "what the hell are you...and why do you smell so bad?" Sunday morning Rob had her on the couch and he called Arthur over. He came over and she reached out and "pet" him. Then poked him in the eye.

-She is starting to grab, bat at, and shake toys. Here in a couple weeks I think we'll break out the jumperoo.

It is a little early, but she really likes to kick and move, so she might enjoy it. And she's got great head control.

-Daycare seems to be going well so far. The evenings were rough at the beginning of last week because she was hardly sleeping during the day. Towards the end of the week she started sleeping more and things improved. She has never been upset or crying when I've picked her up, and Rob said the ladies in the morning always comment on how happy and smiley she is.

-Avery is still on breast milk exclusively. Let me tell you that hauling the pump back and forth to work, making bottles, washing bottles, washing pump parts, etc etc is a LOT of work. A PITA frankly. BUT, I think it is worth it. For now anyway. I would like to make it to 6 months, then re-evaluate at that time.

-She has started making these funny "alley cat-like" noises. Rob took a little video of it this morning.

Milestones

A few milestones to report:


1. Last Thursday, she reached out and grabbed a toy from Rob's hands. Now she grabs at toys on her activity gym all the time. So cute.

2. So I've been telling her for a couple weeks that she needs to laugh at us before she goes off to daycare and laughs at the daycare people first. Well, Saturday morning we got what I'm pretty sure was a laugh. She did it again on Sunday. It's pretty crude and rough around the edges, but I'm 90% sure it is a laugh.

3. Yesterday evening Avery was lying on her gym in the living room and Rob and I were in the kitchen. All of the sudden she started crying. I figured she was just done playing, but when I went to get her I saw she was ON HER STOMACH and that's why she was mad. Granted, it was next to the wall so it's possible she used the wall in some way to assist herself over, but still, she rolled over somehow! So we spent some more time trying to get her to do it again, and the most she made it was onto her side, then back on her back. I bet she'll do it again soon though! Here we are trying to catch her doing it again.

Hump Day

In the hospital, Rob brought me a gift: one of those digital picture frames for my desk at work. I'm sure you've all seen them: you load pictures onto it and it plays them all in a slide show manner. Pretty cool. He loaded it with pictures Monday night, so now every time I glance over I see a different picture of her. So fun! Getting me through the week...

I'm Back

at the office that is.

*Sob*

*Hiccup*

*Sob Sob*

No, I'm ok, really. I've dusted off my desk and keyboard. Hard to believe last time I was sitting here I was 41.5 weeks pregnant and crunching Rolaids like it was my job (just found half a roll in my desk drawer).

Thankfully Rob will be dropping Avery off at daycare in the morning. It probably would have been bad today in particular. As a matter of fact, someone left there in tears in this morning...and it wasn't Avery.

We think we're going to like this place a lot and as of now we're very confident leaving her there. We went by Friday and they all said how smiley and happy she was. I will definitely miss seeing her all day. Work will be like a vacation though! And my sweet husband brought flowers to my work this morning.


We celebrated Stephen's 30th birthday yesterday. Trying to forget that I'm just a few months behind him.

Happy Birthday Uncle Stephen!

Fall Collection

Thanks to Friends and Family 30% discount at Gap and Old Navy and my mom's generosity, Avery is collecting quite the fall/winter wardrobe.

(with something other than the turtleneck)

There are also a few other really cute things that I couldn't find on their website. She is going to look so cute!