Watching the Cubbies with Daddy

Getting ready for her head shot

Strike a Pose!

OK MOM, ENOUGH WITH THE CAMERA!

Her favorite pastime...staring at the lights!

This is a video of Charlie joking about how Avery is going to pay for her $204,000 bill at St. Francis. Notice her Air Jordan socks...guess she'll have to auction those on EBay! HA!

Beautiful Smiles

In the mornings Avery usually wakes me up when she's hungry, but today I set my alarm so I could go shopping for some work clothes. I heard her making little noises (coos?) and went in and she jumped when she saw me (I think I startled her!) Anyway, then she let out some of the biggest smiles. I ran to get my camera and caught a few of them. In some of these I think she looks a little like my baby pics. I guess I'll get these beautiful smiles every morning when I go in to wake her and feed her before I go to work! What a blessing. She is the most adorable, precious little blessing I could've ever imagined. I've been putting together the scrapbook of all the pregnancy journal entries. It is looking so cute, too bad there's no way to put it online! Maybe I'll take some pics of it? :)

Well, we have a big Memorial Day planned. My mom and dad and brother are coming for a cookout. We are going to grill steaks and veggies. I'm going all out and making homemade Raspberry Lemonade and a Berry Patch Brownie Pizza! YUM YUM! I guess it'll be my last big hoorah before I go back to work. After that life is probably going to get very, very busy.

We go for our 4 month appt on Wednesday to Dr. Khanfar. I'm interested to hear when we can start feeding her cereal and solids. I'll let you know what he says.

Enjoy these beautiful pics!

Well hello there, mom!
(It is amazing how she wiggles her arms out of the Swaddle Me in the night!)

This is the one that reminds me of some of my baby pics:


All Smiles

Random Pics

For anyone who didn't see, these are some of the pics done by Jami Ainsworth. She is the BEST. Visit her blog at japimages.blogspot.com to see more of her work












Now here are some other pics I took that aren't nearly as interesting or cute!

I tried to take Avery on a walk but about 2 houses down she started screaming and wouldn't stop! So, we ended up coming back after about 2 minutes...better luck next time!



HOUSE FOR SALE!!!



This is on our trip to Nonna and Poppa's. I love how she holds her little hands up in the air while she sleeps! I remember her doing it in the NICU too.



The cutest lil Weepublican I've ever seen!



Yes, I think Avery has definitely made her choice for the 2008 elections!



Helping momma clean the kitchen



She loves her Bumbo...what a big girl!

I took Avery to Dr. Khanfar's office today to have her weighed. Lil chubby is 9 lbs 4 oz! WOW! She is still gaining about 1/2-1 ounce per day! She has grown out of most of her preemie clothes and is almost out of newborn diapers!!! I'm starting to notice little changes every day. Today she reached out for one of her toys. She also smiled really big at me and Charlie this morning. I love those smiles. Still not too many coos but she is starting to 'talk' without grunting more and more. Her head control is excellent.

We had a great time in Vidalia on Monday and Tuesday. Avery got to spend Monday with her Poppa since he is off work on Mondays and Tuesday she got to meet her Papaw Charles (Charlie's dad). Of course, nonna had her all the time in between! Her and nonna had a fun time playing Tuesday night, she was in such a good mood. We had one person look at the house while we were gone, but no offer. I imagine it will probably be on the market at least 3-6 months with the market the way it is right now. But there's no rush! Well, I go back to work in one week. OMG i can't believe the time has gone so fast! At least I have monday off for Memorial Day. I think my parents are coming for a BBQ. The sitter situation is still up in the air. The girl I've asked now is asking her boss if he can work around it (she has another job) but he is on vacation this week, so she'll call me on Monday. So say a prayer for that please! The back up plan is that my mamaw can come until I can find someone or figure it out. Well, here are some pics from this weekend.

Smiley Face

Well, I think Nonna is having Avery withdrawals and needs a video...so here it is! Avery is wearing an adorable dress that Charlie's mamaw bought for her.

In other VERY exciting news, I'm ECSTATIC to announce that Avery had her first 'social smile' on May 9, 2008. I was sitting in the recliner and she had been sleeping on me for about an hour and she started to wake up. She was staring straight at me with big, wide eyes and I was telling her how beautiful she is and how much I love her. She gave me the most beautiful, precious smile I've ever seen. A big, open mouthed social smile - followed by 2 more! I burst into tears. Ok, I know I'm pathetic. But smiling is one of the things we've been working on with the therapist and I was starting to get worried so I've been praying every day that God would let her smile and I would be sure it was a 'social smile'. And I've never been so sure. Isn't it amazing that he answers all the big prayers and all the small ones too? Thank you, Jesus! Now we're looking forward to (and praying for) that first coo!!!

Her daddy dressed her up like a little boy! Oh well, GO CUBBIES!!!

Sleep isn't all it's cracked up to be!

I just woke up from a full 8+ hours of sleep! (No, she did not sleep through the night!) Charlie bribed me. LOL. He wanted a new iPhone, which I was NOT thrilled about because he JUST got the new BlackBerry he BEGGED for, and so after a few hours of convincing and bribery, I gave in! I thought 2 nights of sleep (that was our deal) would be worth it. It was nice, and this is going to sound so corny, but I really missed her when I woke up this morning. And each time Charlie got up with her I was not really sleeping much anyway. This was the first night since January 21 that I haven't been up at all during the night. (Even while she was in the NICU I had to wake up to pump). And another thing, I feel about the same as I do on any other morning. I don't feel amazingly rested or anything. Before the baby I was a woman who LOVED my sleep. I always thought without 8 hours I would not 'function' during the day. But life changes and you realize things that you thought you couldn't do...you actually can and they aren't so bad after all. No one tell Charlie, but I may not even make him 'work' the 2nd night! hehe.

In other news, I'm still having sitter troubles. Two people that I know and thought would be able to do it, can not. I have one person left in mind who says that she may be able to do it, but she has another job that interferes and has to see if her boss can work around it. I am a VERY planned person and the fact that I go back to work in 2 weeks and have no idea who is going to keep Avery is SCARY for me. I do have a back up plan though - my mamaw said she can come until I find someone, but that is not a long term option. I guess my next option is to put an add in the paper??? Talk about scary! If thats the case I also need to purchase some Nanny Cams. I think I'm about to go on a shopping trip to EBay!

House for Sale!

Omg I'm kinda freaking out. The realtor just left and there is a for sale sign in my front yard. I hate, hate, hate change so I feel really nervous right now. I guess mostly because I don't know what the future holds. I know we want to move to a better neighborhood, we haven't had any problems in our 3 years in our first house but it isn't the best neighborhood. But that brings me to the biggest question: should that neighborhood be in West Monroe, Monroe, OR VIDALIA! And I have no idea. I really would like to be closer to my family and hometown, especially since I go back to work in 3 weeks and still cannot find someone to sit with Avery 6 hours a week!!! But the houses in the Vidalia market are really high right now so I don't think its the right time to buy for us. Which is fine. We've owned this home since before we got married and it hasn't been the easiest thing. We've replaced a washer and dryer and had the AC and Heat and plumbing worked on numerous times. It'd be nice to just call the landlord and say "come fix it." On the other hand, I'm not crazy about living in an apartment. For some reason it feels like one step forward, two steps backward and we are happy in this little house! I guess the major problem is that we have decent jobs here and there aren't many oppurtunities in Vidalia. So we don't even know if we can find jobs to pay what we make now. I guess I'm just really nervous and tired of all this change. I'm 23 and for the first 18 years of my life I lived in the same town (for 15 years the same house!) went to the same schools with the same friends and known all the same people and since I was 18 life has gone too fast!!! I've graduated high school, moved to Ruston to go to Tech, moved to Monroe to transfer to ULM, bought a house, got married, changed jobs, had a miscarriage, got pregnant again unexpectedly, had our wonderful lil 2 lb Avery and now I'm selling a house! WOW! It's time for life to slow down a little bit!!!

Pics I Promised...

In her 'Flutter Dress' from my favorite high school teacher...Mrs. Ulmer!

And the beautiful bonnet her Nonna bought her!

And the preemie shoes Mrs. Penny gave her...


Thankfully, the rest of the weekend went pretty well. No more broken $90 plates!

Whew, What a day!

We are in Vidalia this weekend. We had the bright idea to take Avery shopping downtown. We wanted to go to the Farmers Market on Main St. to get some fresh veggies. They ended up having no veggies so we decided to walk down Main St. and do a little shopping. The very first store we went in was a total DISASTER. It was basically going smooth until Avery got fussy. While trying to get her out of the stroller, I had the diaper bag swung around my shoulder and the store was like a little gift shop, crowded w/ stuff. I knocked a $90 plate on the floor and broke it. Lovely. Thankfully, the nice lady sold it to me at price ($45). We got out of there and came home. We also lost her shoe in the process but mom backtracked our steps and found it! So, now we're at home and Avery is fed and happy and maybe in a little while we'll take some pics because she got the cutest new dress from my favorite high school teacher, Mrs. Ulmer. So, I guess we learned a lesson today: Shopping in tiny stores w/ expensive things is not as easy when you add a fussy baby, a stroller and a diaper bag to the picture. (Oh yeah and my purse and frappucinno!) hehe!

In other news, Avery has thrush! : ( Her first sickness since the NICU. Dr. Khanfar says he doesn't know what could've caused it. The day we went to the dr. (Thursday) he had seen 3 cases that same day of thrush! WOW! After 2 days on Diflucan her little tongue is looking more normal. I saw some whiteness on it Wednesday and thought to myself, "Why is the formula sticking to her tongue?" The next day when I saw it again I realized how stupid I was and knew immediately it was thrush. I called Dr. Khanfar and they saw me the same hour I called - they are the BEST!

Hopefully some cute pics in her new dress and bonnet to come soon...