Avery's on the move!

As of this weekend Avery is officially crawling! Guess it's time to get some baby gates. Good job sweetie, Mommy and Daddy are so proud of you and thankful that you waited for the weekend so we could witness your first crawl!

9 Months Old

Avery turned 9 months old last week. I can't beleive how big she's getting. She had her 9 month checkup today, and weighs 18 lbs, and is 27" long. Still a little girl. In her 9th month she had quite a few new developments. She grew 2 new teeth: her top front ones, so she now has 4 teeth. The top teeth are coming in with quite a gap which Nana (former dental & ortho assistant) says is good for her adult teeth - I hope so! She loves to use her new teeth on her baby crackers, puffs, and sometimes on Mommy. She can now pull herself up to a stand in her crib so we've had to lower her mattress down as low as it will go. We often see a mischievous grin looking back at us in the baby monitor when she's supposed to be sleeping. Speaking of sleep, ever since those last 2 chompers started coming in she no longer sleeps through the night. Those teeth were hard for her to get through - it even caused a 1 1/2 week bottle strike.

Clapping is still her favorite trick and when you say "yay" she will almost always start clapping. Her other new trick is playing peek-a-boo with you: pulling her blanket up over her face when I say "where's the baby?" and then pulls it down for a "peek-a-boo!" Very cute! She's become very much a Mama's girl, and has to be by Mom if I'm in the room. (She's sitting on my lap as I type this).

During her 9th month she worked hard on crawling and made a few steps forward - but generally scooted backwards on her tummy. Her favorite word is still "Dada" which she says all day long. Except at meal time which she says "Mama" when eating her favorite food - cereal puffs.

As usual here are some of my favorites from her monthly photoshoot. Doesn't she look like a little girl? My baby's growing up too fast.
The littlr Monkey. She's obsessed with feeth.

Happy birthday my sweet baby!

Fun with Friends

The past 2 Sundays Avery got some play time in with her buddies. It's so fun to see her starting to interact with other babies now. Although most of the interaction at this point is looking at each other trying to decide how they're going to steal each other's toys. It's pretty cute.

Here is our playdate with Avery's new friend, Vail (3 weeks younger than Avery) and her Mommy, Jen. (Good name!) We had alot of fun and can't wait until the next play date!
Avery was trying to give Vail "kisses" or trying to eat her. Poor Vail, she was such a good sport. Aren't they cute?!

Then last Sunday for the Superbowl Avery got to play with Alena (2 days older than Avery). Alena has been mobile for a couple months now so she left Avery in the dust but we're hoping that has inspired her to start moving too. Avery's already made a couple moves forward.

Here are the Chrostowska girls with the babies. We're hoping to see some beautiful babies from these 2 in the next few years... :)

Toward the end of the day the girls were getting tired, they were all played out.

We are so glad Avery has some friends (and a cousin) her age to play with. She learns alot from them and we think it may help the only child syndrome. :) Thanks to Jen and Christal for sharing your babies!

Lucky Granddaughter

Avery is a very lucky girl, she gets to spend lots of time with both sets of grandparents, and she lvoes them very much!


2 weekends ago we spent some time up at Grandma & Grandpa's.

Grandma rocked Avery to sleep.
And Grandma and Grandpa played with Avery. She likes to think she's a big girl and stand up.Pretty much every Sunday Avery and I go down to Kent while Andy is at work and spend time with Oma and Opa - and sometimes even Grote Oma & Grote Opa and Auntie Nan.

I think Avery has finally gotten over her fear of Opa's mustache. They bonded last weekend.

Avery gets to hang out with Nana 4 days a week since she is our full-time Nanny. Yesterday Nana and Avery came to have lunch with Mommy at Starbucks. Avery is a rock-star here at work so a good hour was spent making our rounds saying hi to everyone.

My little cutie. Of course she had to wear one of her Starbucks shirts.

We are very grateful that Avery has loving grandparents and great-grandparents that she gets to spend alot of time with.

Limited Time on Avery's 6 Month Pics

Avery's 6 month pictures are only available for purchase for another couple weeks. If you haven't seen them yet, here's the website:

Please visit http://www.collages.net, and fill in the following information:
Username: Avery Hunt
Password: 21366

Here are some of my favorites from her photoshoot, and as you can imagine these pictures are proudly displayed all over our place. :)

Go Hawks

Last weekend lucky Daddy got tickets to the Hawks Wildcard game, so Avery and Mommy watched the game at Margie & Scott's house and Avery got to play with her buddy Alena. They actually played very well together.
Here are the girls sharing toys and puffs.

Auntie Margie & Uncle Scott spent lots of time snuggling the girls.

Here's my little SeaGal.

Go Hawks!

All of our cheers worked - the Hawks won! On to the next game...

8 Months Old

Our little munchkin turned 8 months last Saturday the 8th. (Does that count as a Golden Birthday?) Her 8th month had alot of growth: she grew her first 2 teeth, officially grew out of all her 3-6 month clothes, and if possible grew even more personality. She's a solid 18 pounds now and though I'm fighting it, she's too long for her 6 mo pants. She has tiny feet too, her 0-6 month shoes are still on the big side.

Avery may be a little girl in size, but she thinks she's a big girl! She sits up on her own and when on her tummy rolls back and forth like a fish. She hasn't mastered crawling yet - or even giving it a try - but she loves standing and will even stand a few seconds on her own before falling on her touchy. She plays very well on her own now, sitting on her Einstein gym with toys scattered. Her favorites: still Sophie the Giraffe, soft books and cell phones & remotes. She's also very fond of the toys that make noise when she shakes them and throws them. Her very favorite game is Peek-a-boo, especially when Mommy hides below the bed.

She has so many funny habbits now - that make you laugh even when they frustrate you. She has found her scream and isn't afraid to use it when she feels she isn't getting enough attention. Now when she cries, she spits too, which is a lovely face wash. Instead of holding her arms up when she wants to be picked up, she closes/blinks her eyes with her mouth open - it's hilarious! Though she's a bit high-maintenance (yes, she gets it from her Mama), she has learned to get along well with other babies, and even shares her toys. Play days with Cousin Nolan and buddy Alena are helping that!

She's a good eater - she'll eat anything that comes in contact with her mouth. The only exception to that rule is formula - which she HATES! She LOVES puffs, and will consume an entire container in a sitting if you let her. (Don't worry, we don't!) She's also a huge Cookie Monster. She will even will herself to crawl(ish) to get to the cookie and put the whole thing in her mouth. She gets that from Daddy.

She's held pretty consistent to her words - her favorite being "Dadada". The other one most often used is "kaka," which sometimes comes out only "kak." Pretty funny. Sometimes she'll throw a "Mum" in there. She's a party animal and loves to stay up late - sometimes even after Mommy & Daddy want to go to bed. But she sleeps in until 10 on most mornings.

This little girl keeps a huge smile on our face and we couldn't be prouder to call her ours! As usual, here are some pictures from her birthday photoshoot.

She did this on all on her own. Yes, she's a diva.

Daddy was making faces at her that she thought were hilarious.

With her new bearista.

Her other favorite activity: clapping. Usually accompanying patty cake, though she won't perform under pressure.

And looking through my camera I found a couple from earlier in December with her Bearista that I haven't shared on the blog yet. How cute is she?! :)