Avery at 4 months

Here is a little bit about Avery at 4 months old. She is almost 6 months now, but I don't want to skip any of the monthly posts I have been doing. I kept good baby journals for my other kids, but I find I keep caught up better if I type things and use pictures to help me remember so I have been using my blog for Avery and will print them into a book, at least that is the plan. I have had most of this post done for a long time, but couldn't load pictures because of our computer issues. These pictures are from Dec 25 - Jan 25. Most of you won't want to read my long account, so you can just skim the pictures of our sweet little A!

Here is Avery partying on New Years Eve. She is so darn cute! This is also her 14 week picture.
While we were playing card games, Avery just hung out in her bumbo. She loves sitting in there. It is her favorite place! She loves to hang out there in the kitchen while I am cooking and just talk to me or have me sing and dance for her. You can also see that she is getting much better at grabbing her toys in this picture. By the end of this month, she is a pro at grabbing things and puts everything right into her mouth. She loves to chew on everything!
While we were hanging out at Brian and Val's on New Year's Eve, Avery discovered her thumb and she is now a big time thumb sucker! When I wrap her now, I have to leave one arm out so that she can put her thumb in to go to sleep. She does NOT do binkies. She chokes on them or bites them and doesn't like them in her mouth. I have one thumb sucker and one binky baby so far and I don't know what is worse. At least with the thumb, they don't lose it and you don't have to worry about taking a binky everywhere, but as we are learning with Logan, you can't really take it away.
And...babies sucking their thumbs are just cute, at least I think!
Here is how Avery brought in the New Year! She partied with us until just before mid-night and then fell asleep!
Avery loves her Grandpa Boman! He got her to sleep by just carrying her around. This is at my Uncle's big New Year's Day party. It was Avery's first time going, and she was too little for the yummy oil cakes - Maybe next year!
Avery on New Year's day.
Mom and Dad also went away for our Anniversary that weekend. We planned to leave Avery with my mom, who lives very close to the hotel that my brother got us a stay at for Christmas. However, Avery decided she doesn't like bottles anymore and would have nothing to do with it and ended up coming with us. She is such a good baby, we didn't mind her tagging along and it was kind of nice to spend time with just her. It was her first night staying at a hotel and she was great! I wish we would have had time to take her for her first swim!
Avery loves her Daddy! Here she is smiling and talking to him.
I love that sweet face!
Here she is getting a little bit serious.
Talking to daddy while he reads the paper. She is getting much more social and loves to talk to us and she squawks a lot. Her sweet coos are getting a bit louder and by the end of the month, she is more of a screamer than a talker. She is also starting to respond to her name and laugh and smile a lot more. Logan and Rylee can get her laughing the most, but we still have to work for the laughs. She loves to be entertained and she really loves when the other kids go to bed and she has Daddy and I all to herself!
Avery all dressed and ready for church. (Jan 3) Isn't she the cutest baby ever? I love these tights! (Thanks Aunt Kim!)
Avery does this face a lot for pictures - Do you think her eyes could get any bigger???

chilling in the bumbo
Some more thumb sucking.... Avery is really fast at getting her thumb in now! (Jan 4)
Avery still loves to be swaddled and it usually puts her right to sleep - She does now like to have one arm out so she can put her thumb in. She loves to snuggle right in to you when you wrap her up or to be bounced to fall alseep. She will also do great at falling asleep on the couch or wherever you set her down once she is all wrapped up.
Avery blowing some more spit bubbles - She is fascinated by her tongue. She also loves my tongue, or anyone else's. She will study it and then try and move hers the same way. It is so funny to watch! She is so great to just hang out while we play up in the toy room.
Avery at 15 weeks (Jan 8)

Here is Avery's bed head! This is just to show how much hair she has - It is actually after a bath after I dried it. It can be pretty crazy! (Jan 9)
What a sweet little sleeper! I just couldn't resist taking a picture of her. She is growing up and changing way too fast!!! (Jan 14)

Then she started to wake up, and in went the thumb!
Here is Avery at 16 weeks at yet another Aggie game. I think it was against Boise State and the Aggies won by a lot. (Jan 16) She did better at this one. It gets so loud in there, but she really doesn't seem to mind and she seems quite entertained by all the people. She is SUCH a good baby and now that she is getting a little bigger, we are taking her more and more places and she does great! Soon, we will have her doing the Scotsman!
This is just too precious! Rylee reading to Avery. One of Rylee's favorite things is to "read" books all by herself. It is pretty funny - She will actually remember a lot of lines word for word, or sometimes she will just make stuff up. It is pretty entertaining to listen to. Rylee really has good intentions with Avery - She is just a little rough at times and I don' t know if Avery knows how to handle her. But when I caught her sitting and reading to her, it was just too sweet! She loves her baby sister! (Jan 20)
Avery sitting in her bumbo!
Rylee talking to Avery - Avery looks a little nervous.... there is probably a good reason for that.
Here is Avery looking all cute to go to book club with Mom. (Jan 20) She is always popular there and everyone loves to fuss over her and hold her.

Here is Avery playing out in the snow for the first time. She wasn't too sure what to think about it and could barely open her eyes because it was SO bright! We haven't had too much snow this year, at least not new snow. It seems like it snowed a ton and now we just have all the old and crusty stuff, so this was after a new snowfall and lots of nice new snow. (Jan 21)
Avery and Daddy - It is still too bright to open her eyes!
Avery was still not too sure about all the snow, but she did great and stayed out for quite awhile while the kids and Daddy built a snowman.
I love those lashes and chubby cheeks!
Avery at 17 weeks. (Jan 22)
Blowing more spit bubbles - She is doing a spit bubble face in most of these pictures.




Avery on her 4 month birthday! I even got her to smile! (Jan 25)
She is really funny with her hands and always has them clasped like this. She will clasp them and hold them right up against her chest, close to her body when she is a little nervous or unsure. I noticed it in the tub, but then noticed that she does it a lot of the time. Kind of funny.
Yep....More spit bubbles!
Here is Avery looking at the toys in her swing. She REALLY wants to grab them! She is actually getting pretty good at getting them, but it still takes her a little bit.
What a sweet little baby!
She loves those toys! Some of her favorite toys right now are all of the dangling ones in her swing and car seat, her mirror, her little butterfly mirror rattle, and her Princess fairy doll. They all go into her mouth as soon as she gets a hold of them. She loves seeing herself and if I put her in front of a mirror, she thinks it is so funny and stares herself down for quite awhile.

A few more things about Avery - I took her for her 4 month dr appt at the beginning of February. She is one chunky little girl and weighed in a little over 16 lbs, which was somewhere between the 80 and 90 percentile and her height was around the 50th percentile. (I am looking for the paper with her exact measurements...) Daddy took her for shots and when he came out he commented on how terrible it is. He said she was just looking up at him and talking, and then they gave her the shot and she looked at him like "What are you doing to me?" So sad! Avery is starting to get a bit more mobile. She hasn't actually rolled over yet (at least not at 4 months...) but she will roll her body from side to side. When on her tummy (which she isn't too fond of, but she is getting better), she will start to push off with her feet a little and looks like she WANTS to crawl, but she has no idea how. She will stare at things though and it seems like you can just see her thinking about how she could get to it. She may be trouble when she does get going. She is also starting to sit up pretty well if you set her up against something and is much less tipsy and holds herself pretty well and has pretty good balance. She has spent a LOT of this month in the bathtub! For some reason, we had blowout after blowout and she would be in the tub 2 or 3 times a day. I tried EVERY kind of diaper and finally decided the cheapest ones work the best...go figure! Avery doesn't mind spending time in the tub though - She loves the bath and is so cute kicking her legs and splashing. She is now wearing mostly 6-9 month clothes, although I have a hard time putting a lot of them away, so we are still squeezing into some 3-6 month ones. We are also starting to move into size 3 diapers. She also seems to be noticing colors and patterns more. I will see her staring at things with stripes or contrasting polka dots or really bright colors and really wanting to grab them. They seem to really catch her attention. She also is drawn to the TV (uh-oh!) and when we went to the movie this month, she was really interested in watching. Last month, she didn't seem to notice, but this time she just stared at the screen. (It was an animated movie-Cloudy with a chance of meatballs). She loves people and going places and is always checking everything out and is a really alert baby. She is sleeping OK at night, but still doesn't have too much of a routine or pattern to her sleeping, which is mostly my fault. It is so neat to watch her grow and change and make progress even from day to day, although I do wish she would slow down a little bit! The kids have nicknamed her "Little A" and I think it is so cute! They thought is was hilarious at first, but it has really stuck. We love our cute Avery!