Saturday, April 28, 2007

. . . her rattle on video

Here it is . . . two minutes of rattle-shaking cuteness from baby-adorable. Also note her sweeet new 'animals on the farm' sleeper . . . complete with cows, pigs, horses and a bunch of Old MacDonald's other barnyard creatures. Jammies like this only up the cuteness ante.

The music you hear in the background is from our cable's light classical music channel. Baby-sweetheart is experimenting with new genres every day, and finds this channel perfect for practicing her own rhythms. She especially enjoyed the performace by Josh Bell, who we recently read about in the Washington Post.




. . . her bunny slippers and a book

Nothing's better for lounging around than a pair of soft, fluffy, slippers. Baby-bunny-toes models her very own pair of house shoes while waiting for daddy to finish grilling her dinner on Friday evening.


Early Saturday morning, that smart baby spent some quality time with Daddy, Leonardo, and one of her favorite books.

Friday, April 27, 2007

. . . Beethoven's 1st, 3rd, 5th, 6th and 9th

plus various themes from Wellington's Victory - all together with a bunch of cute babies and furry toys. This celebration of sound and cuteness comes courtesty of the Baby Einstein company, where "discovery begins".

Ordinarily, babymama doesn't let baby-smartest watch tv. Many theories abound on this subject, and we're really not sure which is the right theory, but we feel certain that too much tv can't be good at such a young age. That said, Averie received Baby Beethoven dvd at her shower . . . and since she's really interested in music and colors, we decided to try it out.

Let there be no skeptics! She loves this dvd. She sat in her little pink flower chair and watched the entire thing - smiling, laughing and staring, transfixed at the lights and colors on the screen. Babymama has decided to go shopping for Baby Mozart and others soon. In the meantime, check out baby-brilliant watching her very first round of video . . .



Thursday, April 26, 2007

. . . the rattles - two fisted

Baby-coordinated trains daily to improve her athleticism and hand-to-mouth-to-other-hand skills. As evidenced by the photo below, she's developed her talents to such degree that she can shake it like a polaroid picture with little effort.


Tuesday, April 24, 2007

. . . the DTaP and some band-aids

Baby-bravest had her 2 month check-up yesterday which meant it was time for her first round of shots. She did great, and only cried a little bit, although she did show mama and daddy a new shade of purple during the very brief screaming period after the first needle went in.

Her nurse was super sweet, which made the whole thing easier for everyone. Afterwards, baby-band-aids went to her favorite store with mama to restock her supply of baby wipes. Upon her arrival home, she played with her (mama's) rattle and promptly fell asleep.



More info on baby-girl at 2 months is here.

Sunday, April 22, 2007

. . . absolute cuteness

Self-expression is the name of the game these days, and baby-brilliant's parents couldn't be prouder of her achievements. Each day she learns something new, and this weekend, she demonstrated a wide array of her newly perfected facial expressions.

First, her serious face:




And next, her surprised face:



Now, these next two faces may appear similar, but if you look closely, you'll see that they are in fact, two distinct expressions.

Averie laughs:



And finally, Averie smiles:




We guarantee that this is the most cuteness you've seen today, this week, and possibly even this year. And of course you want to see more, so head on over to her galleries page to view the latest slideshow.

Wednesday, April 18, 2007

. . . the spit-up with babymama

Fans of this rockin' blog have requested photos of baby-cutest with babymama. Said mama is not photographed often as she is usually at home alone with baby girl and has nobody to take her picture. Additionally, babymama is usually the one holding the camera, so most of the photos are of baby-sweetest with daddy.

However, daddy did snap this shot of mama, baby-burps-a-lot, and some spit-up. The spit up is nearly invisible against the white burp cloth, so those of you with weak tummies (baby-eats-a-lot does not have one) don't have to turn away.


. . . sticky fingers

It's been mentioned before, and on more than one occasion, but it's such a part of daily life with baby, that it's worth mentioning again.

Those little hands can hold more sticky, smelly gunk than anything else you could imagine. We are continually cleaning out her fists - and finding more and more of this gooey stuff in there every time.

Since we're new parents, babymama & daddy didn't know if this was the norm. We consulted a more experienced parent to find out that in fact, it is normal. At least it was for her baby, which makes us feel much better about the situation, and less like bad parents for allowing our child to become so stinky-dirty. (*Note: 'stinky-dirty' is a new vocabulary word that babymama learned soon after baby-adorable was born. It comes on the heels of other new words like 'fartie-poopie' - the "ie" is the feminine form, 'icky-smelly', 'sleepy-sweetie' and 'yucky-diapie').

Combatting this problem is sort of like shucking an oyster. First you pry the fingers open, then you scrape out the gooey stuff (which incidentally, baby eats raw), and then you wipe out the palms with soap, a baby-wipe or whatever cleaning agent (baby-friendly, of course) you have available. Usually, baby-fast-as-lightning gets those little fingers back into a ball and into her mouth before we've had the chance to dry them.

Brilliant babydaddy (pictured below, with baby-dry-hands) came up with the perfect solution for this dilemna.



Sunday, April 15, 2007

. . . her adorable milk- face

We aren't sure what we'd describe as the cutest thing baby-adorable does, as everything she does is the cutest thing. But . . .

Her milky-face has to be top 5 in that list.

Standard operating procedure for meal and snack times has Averie concluding her dinner, breakfast, lunch, second lunch, etc. with the absolutely adorable grand, milky-face finale. Said grandiose conclusion to mealtimes proceeds as follows:

First, a quick toss of the head so that baby-I'm-so-full ends up with her head tilted back and her nose pointed to the sky, eyes closed. "I'm done", her expression seems to say. Next, she throws her arms out (if she's not rocking her swaddle) and spreads out her tiny fingers, exposing whatever gunk mama & daddy missed at last bath time. Finally, she opens that tiny, rosebud mouth to sigh softly. It's at this point that the milk she hasn't yet swallowed begins to drip down her cheeks.

So cute. Never mind the sticky mess pooling under her chin in the little wrinkles of her neck while mama & daddy sit and stare at the sweet little spectacle. This is top 5 cute - actually, it's probably top 3.





Saturday, April 14, 2007

. . . the park, some ducks, a nap

Averie went to the park for the first time on Friday. She and mama decided it was time to get back into a serious work-out routine, so they drove on over to Lake Mayer and took out the Larson family's super cool pram.

Being outside was great for both baby-athletic and babymama. An added perk was the baby ducks we saw waddling around their own mama on the side of the walking trail. The air was fresh, the sun was bright, and babymama realized after the first half-mile that she may have over-estimated her stamina. Undaunted by the remaining length of trail, baby-sweetheart and mama pushed on to the end, and made it, happy, a little sweaty, and monumentally hungry back to the car.

Upon her arrival home, baby-worn-out promptly began her afternoon period of relaxation. See below.






Thursday, April 12, 2007

. . . heavy equipment & pure contentedness

what's better than a bulldozer and a backhoe? Daddy's arms, of course! Wednesday afternoon, Averie got her first view of some construction (destruction) equipment as the city continued demolishing our front yard.

Neither baby nor babymama are certain that the big yellow digging and smushing things in the yard are actually a bulldozer and a backhoe - they could just as easily be an excavator and some type of grader. Either way, she seemed even smaller than usual next to these giant slabs of steel, and we decided to take a picture.





While the construction of the new sewer line provided a big dose of thunderous, wall-shaking excitement, nothing's better than a hug. The perfect tonic after a full day of brand new adventures? Cuddle time on daddy's chest.



Wednesday, April 11, 2007

. . . a little Godliness

Baby-stinky enjoyed a bath today, and spent a few minutes listening to mama talk about cleanliness. It took some time to pry open those little fingers, but mama finally managed to do so and get the accumulated grayish gunk out of her palms.

Voila! The tranformation to baby-smells-good is complete! What's cuter? (Rhetorical question, of course).




. . . the scale and FINALLY,

a morning nap. Baby-cranky has been just that for the past 4 days, spending all her waking hours (which were numerous) screaming until a) mama fed her or b) her face was purple and covered in spit and she passed out from exhaustion. Option b only happened twice - both times in the car as neither mama nor daddy can handle the deafening siren that is Averie's cry for more than a few minutes. After that, we can feel our brains melting, so it's really a situation of feed her or die.

Easter was not as much bunny fun for baby as we'd hoped. True, it was cold, and her Easter dress was for much warmer weather. And, she fussed nearly non-stop from 6 a.m. until the following morning. But babymama still had high hopes for a few photos of a smiling, cherubic Averie in her first Easter dress by her first Easter basket on her first Easter Sunday. This, however, was not to be. Our three sets of hands (Aunt Nancy's included) were all busy trying to distract and soothe baby-unhappy, and we had no time to grab the camera for a photo op. Probably better anyway, as her cute pink smocked dress was soon scrapped for a t-shirt and her diaper.

After 4 nights of little sleep for baby & parents, and 4 days of nearly constant feedings, baby-starving was rushed to the doctor for a weight check. Turns out baby-starving actually isn't - she's right on track weight-wise (10 lbs now at 7 weeks after birth) and is probably just crying because she
a)has gas
or b)wants to suck on stuff
or c)is colicky
or d)is going through a growth spurt
or e)some other reason.

You'd think that a list of 5 options would be less than reassuring, but actually, we feel immensly better knowing that it's most likely one of the first 4 options, 3 of which, we can fix. Who knew that my daily calcium intake (3 oz of cheese) could be gassing up her little tummy?

Also wonderful was the suggestion (made by nurse as advocated by doctor) that mama begin drinking red wine or dark beer at night - in a bubble bath, no less. Understandably, babymama LOVES our pediatrician and the staff there! Babydaddy, angel that he is, brought home some red last night.

The good news is that baby-adorable is back, and sleeping - after a nice 7 hour snooze during the night hours - for her first morning nap of the week. We are thankful for gripe water - it truly is a little piece of baby bliss.

Saturday, April 7, 2007

. . . the plump DJs

The Funk Hits the Fan with the calm-that-baby-down-dance. Baby-awake has been a little bit unhappy today so we rocked the swaddle and some good old fashioned electronic beats. Daddy's masterful dance moves quickly soothed our sweetie and took her right into sleep mode.

On today's agenda: window-shopping for hardwood flooring and Easter egg buying and dyeing with Auntie Nancy.

Thursday, April 5, 2007

. . . some bubbles

We have a new trick this week, and while it's wet and messy, it's also absolutely adorable. See photo below for a visual example.




Averie is also holding her head up more when she's on her own tummy. She's been able to hold it up for a good amount of time while lying against mama & daddy, but now she can do the same on the floor. Of course you'll want to see how cute this is, so visit her galleries page to view the photos. Near the end of her workout, she suddenly realized she was hungry and tried to eat her blanket. Remy came to her rescue.

Yesterday, baby-sweetest and babymama went shopping at our favorite store. At least for now it's our favorite, as it has nearly everything we need to get in one place. This helps minimize stops and the whole getting in and out of the car/sun/air conditioning/buggy ordeals that usually result in a baby-cranky. We go shopping there a lot because we're almost always out of diapers and wipes. Plus, there's a Starbucks right by the door. Anyway, baby enjoyed her outing and only cried in the checkout line when a lady in a wheelchair started yelling at another customer. Everyone calmed down after the manager broke up the fight.

Wednesday, April 4, 2007

. . . the reggae

Currently listening to: Majek Fashek's I come from the ghetto from 1991's Spirit of Love. This seems to be a huge aid in facilitating Averie's morning nap, although the soft sounds of her breathing are randomly punctuated by little squeals and sighs. We think it could be gas, but babymama & daddy can't seem to figure out a way to prevent it.

Not long before cutest baby was to be born, smart, kind, wonderful babydaddy signed us up for real cable. This has been a huge help for babymama - first while she was home from work on bedrest and now while she's home on maternity leave with baby-sweetheart. Included in this awesome tv package are roughly 20 music-only channels, one of which is the reggae channel.

Baby-adorable sometimes has trouble calming down, and like most new parents, babymama & daddy have tried, and are willing to try, anything and everything they can think of to soothe her. Best options? A tight swaddle and either the reggae station (sometimes in combination with the special calm-that-baby-down dance) or electronica (daddy favors the Nike Original Run mix).

So today, after a late night 12:00 a.m. bedtime with special party interludes at 3:45 a.m. and 6:00 a.m, baby is finally full and sleeping to the sounds of Nigerian reggae. Babymama is relaxing to the sounds herself, and is finally able to gulp down some of that much needed coffee.

In other news, Averie went out for Mexican last night and slept soundly through the entire meal. She did, however, make up for her silence with loud and unceasing wails on the car ride back home.






Tuesday, April 3, 2007

in general

So this is a blog for Averie, updated by babymama since she can't quite rock the keyboard yet. Although she will be able to do that soon - with all 20 of her phalanges. Yup, our perfect baby girl has the long toes of her parents. We think this makes her quadidextrous.

News of the day:
Baby is sleeping in her pink chair. She's all swaddled up in her pink blankie, and is currently making sweet little sighs. Eventually, these will turn into louder squeals and finally the "anh, anh" sound that she loves making when she's unhappy and ready to be fed, changed or otherwise entertained. Of course, she's beautiful as always.