A Whole Month in One Blog?

So much to catch you all up on, I hardly know where to start. I can't believe so much time has passed since I did a real posting. (In my defense though, we didn't have access to the Internet for over two weeks at one point.)

The picture below is Ave's 5 month shot. I'm not sure if we've talked about it, but we take the same photos every month in that chair with that bear so we can track her growth over the year. She's changed so much. We started with a baby that was barely propped up in the corner and now have an animated little person in all sorts of positions every month. We get so many good shots now that it's nearly impossible to narrow them down to a reasonable number for keeping. I liked this one of her leaning forward. It gives you a good idea of how close she is to sitting up on her own.


















This next one is Avery posing in one of her many adorable overall dresses. We love her in the color blue, so this is my favorite one. She's such a happy baby, it's really easy to get her to smile.














As you can see, there are a lot of photos of Ave on her belly now. This is because at some point a couple weeks ago, she figured out how to roll from her back to her belly. I think it was that same day that she officially decided she enjoys sleeping on her belly. I was shocked she picked up her new skill so fast that she was already able to flip over in her sleep within such a short time-frame. Now, she's so good at maneuvering that she hardly has to work to get over. She didn't even use her hands to help her earlier today when she was playing.













I took this picture the same day as the one before it. Nana gave her this outfit and I just love it. We haven't had any pieces with headbands before, and she just looks too cute in them. Nana gave her two outfits like this (you'll see the other one shortly). Anyhow, I just love all the shots I got of her on her changing pad that day. You can tell how sweet she is in this one.

Speaking of Nana. Avery and I got a chance to visit with her last Friday when she passed through town on a long layover (that's why we were wearing the outfit she gave her that day). We were lucky enough to spend a good few hours with her at the airport. I tried to put a picture of the three of us up, but it wouldn't boot any more for some reason.

Another new thing in the Reagin household is the ExerSaucer. Ed decided to get it out and build it last weekend, and it's a real hit. Avery just loves it! She even likes the toys on it that don't make noise just as well as the ones that do. It seems like she's figured out that when one of them sings that I'll do a silly dance, too, because I just caught her looking at me and waiting when the music started to play. With this new form of entertainment, we're bound to get just as many pictures of smiles as we are to get ones with a look of deep concentration on her face. In fact, the first day we put her in it, we had to work really hard just to get her attention to take a face-front picture. She was not interested in interacting with us, that's for sure! This is her playing in it the next day.

Here's the other big thing going on right now: Avery is mobile! She's not crawling yet, but she's getting quite good at scooting. It's still slow, but sure, but she can get decent distance now. Yesterday when I put her down to play, she spent so much time off the mat and on the carpet that I spent the entire time cleaning up little spit-up spots. (By the way, she doesn't suffer from acid reflux anymore - she's finally past that stage! Now it's just your standard spit up... when laying on her belly or after she eats particularly more than usual [she does have a bit of lactose intolerance though, too, so she'll spit up if I have too much dairy].)

I thought this was a cute picture of her enjoying her fingers while pondering her next move.

Other key events in our world as of late? Well, I can finally drive again without a screaming baby holding her breath. Let's have a moment of silence in honor of this blessed occurrence. She's only held her breath once in the past month and a half and it was because she woke up disoriented in her car seat and didn't know where she was. Fortunately, I had just pulled into the garage and was able to get her out and calm her down right away.

And now that we're able to drive without too much incidence, I've started going to a nursing support group once a week. I can't tell you all how nice it is to regularly have somewhere to go and to meet with other mommies and babies. I'm sure it will help Avery learn to crawl, too. And not that I'm in a hurry, but she's started to get really frustrated by not being able to move, so it'll be good for her.

The only other thing of note is that I was briefly tempted to start working from home part time. My old company was trying to woo me into this set-up, but I decided that it's more important for me and our family to remain completely focused on Avery. So that was that.

That should catch you all up pretty well now. I think I hear Ed in the garage, so better go and get the weekend started. Have a good one!