Jolly Old St Nick

I've always loved the Christmas season, but this year my excitement is unlike it has ever been before. Even though Avery has no idea what's going on, sharing holiday traditions and the joy of the season with my daughter gives me a whole new perspective on this wonderful time of year. I can't imagine how fun it will be in years to come when she understands what is going on and can actually be excited with us! Yesterday we kicked off what is sure to be an annual tradition... a visit to Santa! Avery's first time meeting the man in red didn't exactly turn out to be the glorified experience I'd envisioned in my mind. For starters, she had a fat lip due to a small run in with a coffee table the previous day. Then we got to Santa's workshop only to find a line a mile long and a not so cheerful elf informing us we had to take a "time slot ticket" and come back a couple hours later. By that time Avery was past due for a nap and not at all thrilled about being all dolled up in tights and a frilly dress. We waited in line for half an hour and of course right when we got towards the front we noticed a certain stench coming from a certain diaper... so poor Santa got to hold a cranky stinky baby with a swollen lip. We made a memory, that's for sure! Erich was able to get a couple cute pictures. We couldn't get her to smile, but I was just happy she wasn't crying!

Baby Dedication

On Sunday Erich and I had the honor of standing up in front of our church congregation and our family to dedicate Avery to the Lord. Erich and I pray that Avery will one day know the joy of a personal relationship with Jesus. Sunday was our opportunity to declare our intention to raise her in a Christ centered home and to lead her by example. We were so thankful to have our family travel in from out of town to celebrate this special occasion with us. Unfortunately, Avery was feeling a little under the weather but she made it through the day and seemed to enjoy that there was always a set of arms ready and available to hold her.

Getting ready to leave for church and looking so precious in her little dress. She hated the hat and refused to leave it on her head for more than a second.

Standing up front getting ready to pray for Avery. Notice she's missing a shoe. oops

If we can be half the parents to Avery that these four people have been to us we'll consider it a job well done.

Thankful

This year we celebrated Thanksgiving in Marysville with the Kelley family. It was so much fun to visit with family and show Avery off to the relatives we don't get to see very often. I especially loved feeding Avery her first Thanksgiving feast. She got to sample the turkey, mashed potatoes, and pumpkin pie. It was a wonderful day! I would love to write about all of the many things I'm thankful for this year, but my heart is overflowing and trying to put it into words might cause the internet to explode. To say I feel blessed is an understatement.

Avery missed Nana and Papa Piland this Thanksgiving but was very excited to receive some love in the mail from them. It was tasty!

Avery was the kitchen supervisor on turkey day. It's a tough job but somebody has to do it.

Good gravy Grandma!

Her first bite of mashed potatoes... mommy's favorite food

Happy Thanksgiving!

The Gatekeeper

Avery has her father's endless energy and her mother's curious nature. Now that she is mobile, she is keeping us very busy chasing after her! We decided that in the interest of Avery's safety and our sanity, it was time to put up a baby gate in the doorway between the living room and the kitchen. We thought this was a great idea. Avery did not. How dare we limit her freedom to explore and destroy?? As long as we are on the same side of the gate that she is on, she doesn't mind it. But if we dare leave her side, pitiful miserable Avery just doesn't know what to do with herself. Nellie isn't super fond of the gate either, but it does provide her some protection from the little hands that like to yank her fur so she can't complain.

A couple of weeks ago Avery decided that crawling is for amateurs. She would much rather pull herself up on the furniture and cruise along it to where she needs to go. Our little dare devil is still quite clumsy and wobbly (notice the padding all over the coffee table? That was our response to a few too many bruises and tears). She also has a tendency to accidently step on the bottoms of her pants as she walks along the furniture which causes this to happen:

Perhaps Avery needs to ask Santa for a belt this Christmas.

Waving!

Erich captured another milestone moment on video. If you can get past the first 30 seconds without getting motion sickness and if you can ignore my giddy first time mom excitement... then enjoy this short video of Avery waving hello to you!

Laughter is the best medicine

We don't like Avery to spend a ton of time in front of the tv, but we do occasionally rent Baby Einstein dvds from the library for her to enjoy when it seems like all the toys have been exhausted and nothing else will hold her attention. The dvd we currently have has little clips throughout of hand puppets. We couldn't help ourselves from grabbing the camera when we saw her reaction to the puppets. Our previously cranky baby was cracking up! Sometimes laughter really is the best medicine!

Quack Quack

Avery was a duck for Halloween this year and what a cute little duck she was! Although she's too young to go door to door trick-or-treating, she sure made the rounds in her costume... touring around Ohio to see grandparents, great grandparents, aunts, and uncles. She even went to "Boo at the Zoo" with her cousins!

Our little duck posing for the camera

Showing off for Nana K.

Avery-O-Lantern

Who on earth would strip their baby down to her diaper and set her inside a cold, wet, slimy pumpkin?? We would!! And she loved it...

Holiday Traditions

I love holiday traditions. There's something about doing the same thing year after year as a family that makes whatever holiday we're celebrating that much sweeter. I want carrot cake and chicken crescent squares for my birthday. I was putting out cookies and carrots for Santa and his reindeer on Christmas Eve well into my 20's. I watch the Macy's Parade every Thanksgiving morning. Why? Because it's TRADITION! Those are just a few of many special childhood memories that I plan to carry on forever. A fun part of being married to Erich and starting a family of our own is the chance we have to start new family traditions together. And how sweet it is to have dear friends to share those traditions with. When Erich and I were dating, we carved pumpkins with our friends, Bryan and Mandy, who were also dating at the time. This has turned into an annual event for the 4 of us. This was the 5th year that we've all gotten together for our Halloween tradition... only this time there were 6 of us! The addition of our precious little ones, Avery and Jack, made this year's pumpkin carving a little more hectic and lively... and a whole lot more fun!

Before

This picture was taken last fall. Mandy was 8+ months pregnant and I was about 5 months along.

After

A lot changed in a year!

Avery and Jack proudly showing off their pumpkins

Crawling!

Avery has abandoned her signature inchworm move and is really crawling now. Yes Nana Piland and Grandma Kelley, we are aware that she could poke her eye out if she fell on that toothbrush. We promise we won't let her run with scissors when she's older. As much as I keep trying to push the teddy bear on her, the toothbrush is currently her favorite companion.

Playing in the leaves

One of the best parts of Jen's visit was when we went down the street to our favorite park and took advantage of the beautiful Fall scenery. Jen graciously put her photography skills to work and took some incredible pictures of Avery for us. She did a great job of capturing Avery's sweet and precious personality. Don't you just want to eat her up??

A special visitor

Last week my dear sweet friend, Jen, flew in from Austin, TX to spend the week with us. While I was thrilled to get to spend time with one of my favorite people, I would be kidding myself to think that Jen really came to see me. I can't complain one bit about the fact that little Miss Avery was the center of attention during Jen's stay here. Introducing my daughter to one of my oldest and truest friends just about made my heart burst with pride. I loved getting to show her off and I especially loved watching "Aunt Jen" and Avery bond over the course of her 5 day stay. Although I wanted to entertain Jen and show her all the sites of Toledo like she did for me when I visited her in Austin last year, I quickly realized that Toledo doesn't have a lot of sites to see. Also, life with a baby makes taking off to do exciting things a little more difficult. So instead, we stayed put and didn't do much of anything. It was just a normal week in the life of the Pilands and Jen jumped right in... helping with meal time, bath time, nap time, play time and everything in between. I just can't explain how wonderful it was to have her here or how sad I was to see her go. My friendship with Jen has proven time and time again that distance and time apart are not barriers to how close two hearts can become. I'm so grateful for her and can't wait for Avery to know her more. Feel free to check out Jen's blog for more pictures and her sweet thoughts on her visit to Perrysburg.

So my dear sweet friend Jen is in town for the week and although I would love to write a huge post and show you tons of pictures of what we've been up to, this momma has got to go to bed. So for now, I invite you to hop over to Jen's blog and let her show you tons of pictures of what we've been up to instead. More to come later...

Swim Time!

For the past several weeks, Avery and I have been participating in a "Mommy & Me" swim class at the YMCA. It's been a fun way to get Avery used to the water and spend time with other moms and babies.

with our friends Lindsey and Grace

practicing "backfloating"... Avery's favorite part

Playing games with the rest of the group

Daddy was at the Y working out and stopped in for a quick hello. I think Avery was cold!

Avery and Asher

We had a great visit with the Martins and Avery's new friend Asher on Thursday night. At nearly 2 months old, Asher is such a sweet little bundle! Avery was very intrigued by the little guy and chose to show her affection by giving him a nice scratch on the head... oops! (We're still working on being "gentle") Many dear friends are having babies and it's so fun to meet the new little lives that God has created. Avery will have no shortage of playmates!

She's on the move...

Hello! Apologies for the lack of posts lately. I forgot the camera in Columbus and had to go without it for a couple of weeks. No camera=no photos=no blogging. We're back in business now! Avery is 6 months old now and is changing every day. Her most recent accomplishment... she's mobile! I'm not sure what to call it. She isn't crawling, per say. She definitely has her own unique style. Just see for yourself:

Nellie's life just got a whole lot more complicated. Thankfully she's being VERY patient with Avery and hasn't seemed too annoyed yet that she is constantly under attack. I'm sure it'll get old as she loses more and more clumps of fur to little hands :)

The Uptons

Last Friday, Shannon, Travis, Spencer, and Karly came to Toledo for a visit. We went to the zoo in the morning and then came back to the house to eat lunch and hang out for the afternoon. While Avery, Karly, Travis, and Erich napped, Spencer watched a movie and Shannon and I got to play one of our favorite card games (any other "hand and foot" players out there?). It was a wonderful day and it meant so much to me to have my sister and her dear family travel to visit with us! Here are some pictures from the zoo... Avery isn't really old enough to notice the animals, but she was quite entertained by Spencer and Karly!

Let's go to the movies

What do you get when you take 6 babies, all under the age of 1 year, to the movie theater?

Chaos. And a whole lot of fun.

Our local theater was advertising a program they have called "Baby Pictures". They play a chick flick in the middle of the day specifically for moms and make the theater "baby friendly" (lights not as dim, volume not as loud, etc). In theory, it's a great idea... moms get to enjoy a movie in the theater without having to worry about disrupting other paying customers. Today I met up with 5 friends from church and we all went to see "The Time Traveler's Wife". We ended up being practically the only people there. What a hoot! Not the movie, I mean, the movie was pretty depressing. But 6 babies playing together in the theater was priceless. And they all behaved much better than expected! I'm not sure we'll try it again any time soon, but it was definitely a fun experience.

Lydia, Avery, Sydney, Grace, and Jack

Grace and Avery fighting over Sydney's book. Can you feel the love?

Time to childproof the house!

Avery can't walk or crawl yet, but she has figured out that she can get to what she wants by rolling! This morning I set her down to play on her play gym and left the room for less than a minute (yes, even mommas have to pee now and then!). When I left she looked like this:

When I walked back into the room this is what I saw... Avery found a new toy:

That cord was safely tucked away underneath the entertainment center... or so I thought. Lesson learned! From now on I'll only leave her safely secured in the exersaucer or the bouncer seat or something I can strap her in to! It is so much fun to watch her explore... what a fun age this is! Although, I have a feeling Avery is going to start hearing the word "NO" a lot these days. Why do parents always have to ruin all the fun?!