6 Months

Some day soon, I will update this blog with Christmas, but until then, I figured I could at least post a couple pictures to commemorate Avery's 6 month birthday. Happy 6 month birthday, Stinky! Mommy loves you so much!

June 30, 2009

December 30, 2009

I'm Dreaming Of A White Christmas

As I type this, it is pouring rain outside and I am wishing for a Christmas miracle of a fifteen or twenty degree drop in the outside temperature. While I realize the winter storm blowing through parts of the United States is causing holiday travel havoc for many people, I can't help but wish Missouri could get a taste of the white stuff.

We are finally (Almost) ready for Christmas. All the gifts have been bought, the house is clean (thank you, Luke for insisting on hiring a cleaning lady) and the Musselman family is headed to St. Louis for Christmas. Yes, I am writing this while Luke drives and Avery sleeps. I have to use my free time wisely! We are spending the next few days in St. Louis to celebrate Christmas with our immediate families and then headed back to Columbia on Christmas day so we can celebrate our Christmas on December 26. We figure Avery won't know the difference this year! Christmas in St. Louis will be fairly low key. The highlight for Miss. Avery will be that she gets to meet her Great-Grandpa Greene for the first time. My grandfather and his girlfriend, Carol, are en route to St. Louis as I type this.
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Luke and I haven't had time to take Avery to meet the "real" santa. She had a Christmas party at school and the director's father-in-law dressed up as santa. We are hoping to do take her to see santa today or tomorrow in St. Louis. We also need to find a cute Christmas dress for her to wear tomorrow night. Unfortunately, clothes shopping in Columbia is impossible. The selection just doesn't satisfy Avery's (or my) fashion needs!

Our Christmas Tree

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Avery's Class At School. Her favorite teacher, Miss. Stephani, is holding her.

Avery and Santa. She wanted to pull his beard off.

Catch Up

I know I have been terrible with actually writing lately. The Musselman family has been incredibly busy over the past month or so. As a result, this blog gets neglected.

In mid-November, I found out that I still have a job next year. This was very exciting news as my company has gone through layoffs four times in the past three years. This year, they merged with another major pharmaceutical company and the layoffs will top 15,000 people. While I am fortunate to have the opportunity to continue to work in my industry, I hate to see so many of my colleagues lose their jobs. I am hopeful that the rest of my colleagues in Columbia will get the same good news early next year.

We spent the Thanksgiving holiday visiting Luke's family in Holland, MI. We almost didn't get to go as I came down with the dreaded H1N1 on the Saturday before Thanksgiving. Luckily, Luke and Avery stayed healthy. Luke was a great daddy and did everything for Avery for the five days I was running a fever. I was sick the entire time we were in Michigan, but it was worth it for Avery to be able to see her Great-Grandparents, Aunt, Uncles and cousins. She was perfect during the nine-hour car rides and an angel for all of her relatives while we were in Michigan.

While everyone else ate dinner in Michigan, Miss. Avery was jealous so she had to try some food of her own. We gave her applesauce for her first food. It was a hit! Unfortunately, she didn't like mommy's homemade applesauce when we got home. Fortunately, she is getting much better and now eats squash and sweet potatoes. She also LOVES oatmeal. For anyone considering making their own baby food, I strongly recommend the Beaba Babycook. It is fantastic!

Avery turned five months and is quickly approaching her six-month birthday. She is changing every day. I can't believe how grown up she seems. Since I have done such a bad job updating this blog, here is a list of some of Avery's new favorite things:

• Avery loves experimenting with her voice and talking.
• She has started screaming and blowing raspberries at her toys.
• She gets unbelieveably excited when she is hungry and sees her bottle.
• She LOVES the cat. It is so much fun to watch Avery giggle and scream when she sees or gets to pet baby kitty. Now, we are just working on teaching her to pet and not pull baby kitty's hair.
• Avery loves the Christmas lights on the tree.
• She still enjoys looking at herself in the mirror. Whenever she gets fussy, the quickest fix is to take her to a mirror and sing the song, "Build Me Up Buttercup."
• Avery loves being outside and seems to enjoy the cold weather.
• Avery likes playing with anything and everything. One day, we gave her an empty Dove chocolate bag and she was entertained for almost and hour.
• Avery LOVES sitting in her high chair.
• When Avery does something good, she likes it when mommy and daddy cheer and clap for her.

Avery is doing so much that I could write all day, but it's getting close to my bedtime and Luke and I are watching a Christmas movie courtesy of Falalala Lifetime. I love this time of the year!

This Is What Happens When Daddy Dresses Me...

It might be a little much, but isn't she cute?

Happy 30th Birthday, Luke!

Today is Luke's 30th birthday. Unfortunately, he is not home to celebrate. He is out of town for a company meeting. Yes, it is a Saturday. No, I'm not bitter at all. Anyway, Happy Birthday, Luke! Thanks for being the best husband and daddy in the whole world! Avery and I love you very much.

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My Big Girl

I still hate tummy time...
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but I learned to do this!

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Four Month Check-Up

Avery had her four month check-up yesterday and neither of us enjoyed it. She had to get two immunizations. During the check-up, I talked to the pediatrician about Avery's extreme fussiness, gassiness and eating issues. (Since Avery started school, she has decided to protest eating from anyone other than mommy or daddy. It has been incredibly frustrating and worrisome.) After a lengthy discussion, Avery was diagnosed with acid reflux. Luke and I suspected some GI issues for a while, but didn't want to be the crazy parents who thought their fussy baby was sick. Unfortunately, after last weekend, I couldn't take it anymore and decided that if there was nothing wrong with Miss. Avery, I would have to consider trading her in. Luckily, her fussiness seems to be justified. I think we'll keep her!

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Avery's pediatrician told us we could begin putting rice cereal in Avery's bottles. We tried it last night and she seems to like it. Because of Avery's acid reflux and excema, the doctor is worried about possible food allergies so we have to wait until 6-months to start Avery on any other foods.

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Avery has done a good job growing over the past two months. Her stats are as follows: height-23.75" (25-50%), weight-12 lbs, 12 oz (25%) and head circumference-43 cm (75%).
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Avery is changing everyday. Sometimes I can't believe she was once my itty-bitty baby girl. She becomes more and more like a little person each day. It is so much fun watching her personality develop and grow. She LOVES looking at herself in the mirror. Whenever Avery gets fussy, we take her into a bathroom to look in a big mirror and she giggles and smiles at herself. She has started talking a lot. She also found her feet and loves to hold on to them when she is being changed or playing.
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Over the past few weeks, Avery has become increasingly picky about her food. She recently quit breastfeeding and will only take a bottle. (This means I have to pump a lot. I hate it, but continue on...) She is also very particular about the temperature of her bottles. This is a change from when we could give her a cold bottle without protest.
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Luke and I fall more in love with our baby girl everyday. She truly is our angel!

Fall Fun

School

Avery starts school (daycare) tomorrow. I hate it. Luckily I don't have to take her because I have a meeting in St. Louis all day. The downside to the meeting is that I will be gone from 7:30 am until 7:00 pm. I sure am going to miss my Avery!

Three Month Pictures

Luke and I took Avery to Kansas City last weekend for her three month pictures. We had a college friend of mine take the pictures at Loose Park in Kansas City. It was a little cold outside, but we had a great time and it was a lot of fun to catch up with Julie. The following are a few of the pictures Julie posted to her blog. We love the ones we have seen and can't wait until Julie gets the rest of the pictures to us.

Avery did really well at the beginning of our photo session, but she decided to fall asleep a little over an hour into it so Julie took a few pictures of Luke and me. Thanks, Julie!

Back To Reality

Today was my official first day back at work. I hated it. I spent most of last night staring at Avery and crying. I can't believe how hard it is to even think about leaving her after being with her almost 24-hours a day for the past twelve weeks. Lets be honest, I knew my maternity leave would have to end eventually, but I didn't want it to be so soon. On one hand, I feel a little guilty because my company allows up to six-months off for maternity leave and I only took three. On the other hand, I know I needed to get back to work because my company is laying off again sometime next year and my boss was let go while I was on maternity leave. I need to attempt to make some sort of positive impression on my new boss. Gotta love this economy and job market-it adds a whole new level of stress to life!

Luckily, I am able to somewhat ease back into things at work. This week, I will be home doing administrative work most of the week so I can see Avery anytime I want. I also have to work a conference at the Lake of the Ozarks on Friday and Saturday, but Luke and Avery are joining me so I won't have to spend the night away from them.

Luke and I are very fortunate to have such helpful moms. They decided to donate their time over the next few weeks to come to Columbia and take care of Avery so she doesn't have to go to "school" right away. (I like to call Avery's daycare her school because it makes me feel better about having to take her.) Avery loves spending time with her grandmothers and Luke and I really appreciate the extra help. I know it will make my transition back to work a little easier.
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Of course Avery is growing and changing more and more everyday. She is finally big enough to fit into her BOB stroller. We call it her "big girl" stroller. Doesn't she look cute?

Our Little Tiger

Recap

Over the past month, the Musselman family has been VERY busy! In mid-August, we took a big road trip to MN for a Gordon family wedding. The wedding and bride (Jenna) were beautiful and the trip as a whole was a lot of fun. We were able to see some good friends, take Avery to the Mall of America and simply enjoy the state I used to call home. Unfortunately, we didn't take many pictures. I take pictures ALL the time, but tend to forget to take them when we are with other people.

The weekend after our trip to MN, Luke's sister, Coby, got married. This was Avery's first wedding. (My friend's mom, Martha Aas, graciously offered to babysit Avery while Luke and I attended the wedding in MN.) Sadly, Miss. Avery decided that she was not interested in watching Aunt Coby get married. Instead, I had to walk up and down the stairs with her the entire ceremony. Coby looked beautiful and she and Mike seemed so much in love. We are truly happy for them.

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Yesterday, Avery officially grew out of her newborn diapers. I finally had to switch her to level 1 diapers because the diapers would leak and she kept peeing on me whenever I fed her. Of course the new diapers are huge on her, but I guess she'll grow into them. Avery has also grown out of most of her newborn clothes. While I realize we got a lot more time out of them than most people, it was still a little sad. I remember when the newborn clothes swallowed her and Luke and I would hold up the 0-3 month clothes thinking they were so big!

Avery and I are now staying at my parents' house in St. Louis while they are on vacation in Aruba. In total, they will be gone just under two weeks. It has been a busy and stressful week with five cats (I brought our cat to join their four), a dog, a 26 year-old brother and my precious baby girl. The most important thing I will take away from this experience is the decision that we will NEVER get a dog. I think Avery will just have to be happy with a cat, fish or a stuffed animal.
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