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