To Avery, With Love.

Dear Avery,

One year ago, at 5:25 pm, my life changed forever. After a full day of labor, my baby girl was born. When you finally arrived, Dr. Jones quickly showed me your sweet face and whisked you off to get weighed and checked out. I hated that daddy, the nurses and Dr. Jones got to see you while I was confined to the hospital bed, but once I finally had you in my arms, I couldn't take my eyes off of you. I was in love. You were and still are the most perfect baby I have ever seen. I feel so lucky to have the privilege of being your mommy. I couldn't imagine a better gift.

Today, sweet Avery, you are no longer the fragile baby I brought home from the hospital. You are now a full-fledged toddler. You love playing with all the big kids in your new class at school. You like to rough house with daddy, play outside and get dirty. You have the best laugh and personality. You are a mommy's girl. It melts my heart when I hear you say, "mamamama."

I want you to know that I will always be there for you. No matter what you do, I will always love you. As you grow, I hope you know that you can come to me with anything. Although I may not always agree with everything you do, I will never judge you and will always be there to offer advice or simply show support.

Thank you for the best year of my life, Avery. You mean more to me than words could ever describe.

Happy 1st Birthday, Goose!

I Love You,

Mommy

Avery's First Birthday Party

On Saturday, we celebrated Avery's first birthday. Our families willingly came to Columbia to help us celebrate Avery's special day. Avery did such a great job at her party. She woke up from a nap right as the guests arrived and wore her self out enough to take a second nap when everyone left.

After opening her first gift, Avery had no interest in opening any more. Everyone was incredibly generous. I know Avery really does appreciate all of her gifts. I think her favorite gift came from Grandma and Grandpa Greene. They gave her a new kitten! She loves her little kitten, but I don't know if the kitten will feel the same way in a few days. Avery is still trying to learn the meaning of the word, "gentle".

Avery's LOVED her cake. We weren't terribly surprised by this, but it was still fun to watch her dig in to her cake. Many thanks to Grandma Musselman for taking over bath duty after Avery finished her cake.

After Avery's party, Luke's family stayed the rest of the weekend. Luke's grandparents actually came all the way from Michigan to celebrate Avery's birthday so we wanted to spend some extra time with them. I know they were amazed at how much Avery has changed since they last saw her. We had a great time with everyone, but it was an exhausting weekend!

Enjoy the pictures. I am quickly learning how difficult it is to get good pictures of a one-year-old. Good thing her professional pictures are being taken on Friday!

A Lot Can Happen In Two Weeks

The past two weeks have been crazy in the Musselman household. Sometimes I feel like I need a vacation just to catch up from being on vacation!

Avery had tubes put in her ears last week. Over the past year, she had multiple ear infections that each took a number of antibiotics. Instead of having Avery on antibiotics all the time, we opted for tubes. Surprisingly, the surgery was really easy for everyone involved. She was away from us for less than fifteen minutes. When Avery woke up from surgery, she was really disoriented and cried on and off for about thirty minutes. Once we got home, Avery ate, took a nap and was back to normal. It was amazing how quickly she recovered.

Two weeks ago, Avery took her first two steps. Now, she is walking like a pro. It's crazy how quickly these little ones pick up on new tricks. Of course, I feel like a terrible mom because I didn't take any videos of her early steps. I really meant to. Actually, yesterday was the first day I had a chance to get the video camera out.
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Since Avery's first birthday is quickly approaching, we decided to make a couple "big girl" changes. First, we switched her to cow's milk last week. Over the past three months, her formula consumption had significantly dropped. She likes her table food A LOT. When I asked Avery's pediatrician what to do, she told me not to worry about it and that the one-year formula suggestion is just that, a suggestion. Finally, I decided to to take Avery's pacifier away this week. She is doing great! The first night, I set a timer for thirty minutes and told myself that if Avery was still crying when the timer went off, I would snip the nipple and give it to her. Luckily, she stopped crying after nineteen minutes. She has gone to sleep without any crying every night since. I am so proud! Naptime has always been difficult for Avery so I had to let her nap in her swing today. I'll work on the crib sans-pacifier tomorrow.
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Avery cut two more teeth this week. Her first two top teeth are now poking through.

Finally, Luke has been in Salt Lake City for his annual sales meeting the past six days. He takes a red-eye tonight and gets home tomorrow at 11 am. It's been a long week; I am hoping I get a few hours off to rest when he gets back. Although Luke travels often, a whole week is a little tough. I don't know how single mothers do it.

Enjoy the pictures I took of Avery after her tubes. Could she get any cuter?

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This was right after she put a handful of dirt in her mouth. Yum, yum!

Where's your head?

Where's your tummy?

Our Second Babymoon

Luke and I took an unplanned "babymoon" last week. Although the trip was planned back in January, the pregnancy wasn't. As a result, our trip became a "babymoon".

16 Weeks Pregnant With Avery in St. Kitts

16 Weeks Pregnant With Baby #2 (I'm definitely bigger this time!)

Although Luke now refers to Puerto Rico as "The Osage Beach of the Caribbean", we had a great time! Our hotel was beautiful and we really enjoyed the chance to spend some quality time together.

While on our trip, we went to the rainforest, Old San Juan and the beach. The weather wasn't the best, but we had plenty of time to relax, sleep and read books! We took less than ten pictures on our entire trip. It just isn't as fun to take pictures when there isn't a cute little girl as the subject.



Thanks to the grandparents, Avery was a very happy girl. She was spoiled rotten while we were gone. Of course I called about ten times a day to ask about Avery and talk to her. I even had my sister send picture text messages. I think/know that I drove my mom crazy! It was the first time Luke and I were both gone. What did she expect?

A picture of our sweet girl.