12 Months of Avery// Month 5

Weight: About 14 and a half pounds

Height: 25-25.5 inches

Diapers: Size 2

Clothes: She wears a mix of 3 months, 3-6 months, and 6 month clothes. 3 month onsies still fit her, but she needs the length of 3-6 month and 6 month for rompers, pants, and sleepers.

Sleeping: Overall, she's a pretty good sleeper. We finally admitted defeat and ordered new crib hardware. (It got lost in the move) The transition from rock n play to crib actually went pretty smooth. She's currently sleeping with one arm out of the swaddle, but it's time for the other arm to be out. She usually wakes up once a night to eat- occasionally twice a night. She takes 2-3 naps a day all dependent on what our schedule is on any given day. She sleeps great in a car.

Eating: She eats 4-6 ounces of formula every 3-5 or so hours. Still spits up often, but not quite as much as she used to. We haven't started her on solid food yet, but probably in a few more weeks.

Milestones: Almost immediately rolls from her back to her stomach when you put her on the floor, sits up with the support of her hands, scoots herself backwards when on her stomach on the floor, everything that she touches gets put in her mouth, she can hold her own bottle for a little while

Likes: jumparoo// baths// play mat// sitting up// dad making her laugh

Dislikes: hiccups// not being able to roll from her tummy to her back- which she does all the time even though she has rolled tummy to back plenty of times

I still can't get over how good of a baby Avery is. She really only cries if she hungry, tired, or has the hiccups. Otherwise, she is always smiley and happy. I could not be more obsessed with her and the joy she brings to our family.

12 Months of Avery// Month 4

Weight: 12 pounds 6.5 ounces (16th percentile)

Height: 24.5 inches (55th percentile)

Diapers: Size 1

Clothes: 0-3 months and 3 months size clothes fit her perfectly right now. I put one 3-6 month/6 month outfit on her yesterday and was pleasantly surprised at how it fit her. I'm ready to have different outfits to put her in.

Sleeping: Hey there 4 month sleep regression... It's not that she's a bad sleeper now, but she has consistently been getting up at least twice a night for the last week or so instead of once a night if at all. her naps are still pretty good. one shorter morning nap 1-2 hours, a longer 2-3 hour afternoon nap, and an hour or so late afternoon nap. She's still swaddled when she sleeps, but we definitely need to start transitioning her out of it. Along with that, we need to transition her to her crib too.

Eating: She eats 4 ounces of formula every 3 or so hours. She still spits up alllllll the time.

Milestones: Rolled from stomach to back for the first time on 12/22. Rolled back to stomach for the first time on 1/7. She has become ticklish. She doesn't stay in the same spot when you leave her on the floor. Now when you go back to her she is always facing a different direction half way across the floor from all the squirming. First Christmas.

Likes: chewing on her hands// play mat// jumparoo// sitting up// eye contact

Dislikes: hiccups are still her arch nemesis

Alternate aliases: Aves, Aveys, Avey, Avey Baby, Aver Baber.

I'll say it a thousand times, she's such a good baby and we are so very grateful for that. She is mellow, content to play on the floor by herself for a long time, only gets fussy when she is tired or hungry, goes to sleep pretty easily, goes with the flow and is happy just to be tagging along, and smiles every time you make eye contact with her.

She did so well with her shots today. She never cried all that loud and was done crying before we even left the room. She put Hudson to shame hahaha.

 A dress I wore as a little girl, and below is Ella in the same dress

First picture with Santa

Her ability to lift her head seemed to change over night. She went from bobbing and just barely being off the floor to lifting it way high and rolling over the next day.

Her "glad my siblings are running around having fun while I'm sitting in my car seat" face.

We sure do love you, sweet girl!

12 months of Avery// Month 3

Weight: according to our scale she is right on 11 pounds

Height: 23 inches

Diapers: Size 1

Clothes: 0-3 months and 3 months.

Sleeping: Avery continues to be a pretty good sleeper. She naps good in her car seat and great swaddled in her rock n play. She takes 3 naps a day, and is down for the night by 7- most of the time earlier than that. She sleeps in at least 5 hour stretches, but she regularly sleeps in longer stretches. She is still swaddled and has no desire for that to change. She sleeps better swaddled in her room with white noise on than she does being held (definitely a sign of not being a newborn anymore).

Eating: She eats 3 ounces of fortified formula every 3 hours during the day and whenever she wakes up at night.

Milestones: Avery got her ears pierced. She smiles all the time now. Awake for a lot longer periods of time compared to a newborn. First Thanksgiving.

Likes: sitting up// being held// binkies// getting attention// sleep

Dislikes: hiccups// tummy time (she doesn't absolutely hate it, but it isn't her favorite)

Avery continues to be a pretty easy baby. She is pretty much always happy and only cries if she is tired, hungry, or has the hiccups. She really is such a light in our lives and a joy to have in our family. After having Ella, Avery has definitely renewed my faith in babies again haha.

12 Months of Avery// Month 2

Weight: 9 pound 10 ounces (14th percentile)

Height: 22.5 inches (55th percentile)

Diapers: Size 1

Clothes: Mostly newborn. She is starting to wear some 0-3 month clothes, but still mostly wears newborn.

Sleeping: I think she is getting pretty close to having a 3 naps a day schedule. A lot of days her morning nap is taken in her car seat as we're running errands. She goes to bed between 7 and 8, is dream fed around 10, and then is up for the day between 6:30-9 depending when the last time she ate was. She eats 1-2 times at night, but lately it has only been once.

Eating: She eats 3 ounces of formula every 3 hours during the day. We're still fortifying her formula (adding more than the normal amount) and will be for at least another 2-4 months

Milestones: First smiles. Her smiles are few and far between, but she has started to smile! Her head control has gotten way better. She's not perfect at it yet, but she's getting really close. First Halloween.

Likes: being swaddled// binky// looking at lights// being around people// ''sit me up'' chair// watching the mobile on her swing

Dislikes: hiccups

May

I busted out the water table for the first time ever once the temperature reached 75.

I had bought it on an awesome Amazon deal before Christmas, so I was pretty excited for the kids to finally get to use it.

We planted our garden.

We spent Mother's Day in Bancroft so we could listen to Taylor's cousin's homecoming talk.

Afterwards, we went to Taylor's parents house for a few hours before heading home.

"Gosh being a princess is exhausting"

Because when you find a saying that's as fitting as this one is for these girls, you obviously have no choice but to make them matching shirts.

We live on the corner by the drains, so our street flooding from a good rainstorm is nothing new.

That being said, our street flooding this bad was something new.

Naturally the only option was to go outside and play in it.

The flooded street brought all the neighborhood kids out to play in it.

I think everyone was a little sad when the water finally drained a few hours later and there was nothing left to play in.

The only downside to the flooding was that it washed away our mulch in our landscaping sending us to the store to buy more.

Shout out to the neighborhood bunnies for eating all of the flowers in our landscaping...

I'm pretty sure Taylor regretted buying these 3D puzzles for the kids after he spent too much time and effort helping them make them. 

Every year Taylor's work sponsors the monster truck show. We've been lucky enough to get free tickets to it for two years now thanks to his work. 

Hudson was a huge fan of it.

His redneck side really came out as he yelled and cheered on the monster trucks.

We'll call these pictures the evolution of Ella at the monster truck show.

She hated it at first and was so scared of how loud they were.

After not long she started to warm up to them, and eventually she was cheering them on.

It has randomly become a tradition to go to the zoo every Memorial Day. I don't really know how it started, but we just keep going with it.

After we go to the zoo we always go to the "Field of a thousand flags" display that is put on in a local park by the city. I want to make sure that my kids grow up knowing what this day is really about, and this display is a great way to show them even though they don't understand yet.