20 wk baby update

Hello all!

Well, I am actually 23 wks along, which I can hardly believe, but I have been slacking on uploading pictures. The latest picture I have are from my 20 wk appt on Sept 5th, which are below. The baby is doing well. And for those of you that haven't heard already, the Dr is pretty sure we will be having another girl! She wasn't very cooperative in her positioning, but we are all pretty sure Avery will be getting a little sister. We have been having a hard time finding a name for different reasons, but once we decide on one, we will let everyone know! My next appt is Oct 3rd and I am sure we will have another ultrasound b/c my mom will be at this appt. My Dr is really nice about doing ultrasounds when family can be in town or at the appt. Hehe, in this picture, Avery was trying to text and call Daddy. She wanted to tell him to get his booty to the Dr's appt so she could find out what her sibling was going to be.

On the Avery front, she went to her first non-family birthday party Sept 6th. Our friends daughter turned one. Avery had fun. She had her first Capri Sun and her first experience on a bounce house. Hope you had a nice first birthday, Jaslyn!

Next time I post will probably be after Avery's first birthday, Oct 4th!! I can't believe I will have a 1 yr old. It's amazing how time really does fly when you are having fun!! Nothing major planned, just family and close friends over for finger food and dessert. Maybe next year we will do something more spectacular. :) Until next time...

Cute picture of the week...

So, I couldn't help but share one of the cutest pictures we have of Avery. It was taken last week and with all of the excitement from her swimming, I forgot to post it. You can barely see her top tooth that has started to come through. Including that one, she has 4 others on the bottom and she is trying to push the second top one through her gums. As you can tell, she LOVES her Winnie the Pooh bear! When I ask her "Where is Pooh Bear?" She will find him in her Pack N Play amidst her other toys, pick him up, hug him and give him a kiss. It is the cutest thing!! The funny thing is she could care less about any other dolls. We were at a friend's house and someone brought over some Barbie Dolls. Well, Avery checked them out for a few minutes and then decided she wanted to explore instead. It sounds like she is going to be like Mommy and have little interest in dolls - other than her Pooh Bear that is! :)

Avery Graduated!!

WooHoo - finally!! Fri I took a few videos with her passing her Winter clothes test. Then, Sat, our Instructor decided to try and make up some lessons, so Brian went to take pictures and longer videos. I went in the pool with Avery to learn the cues so her could continue her skills until next Spring when she will learn to actually swim! The Instructor and I were wondering how many lessons she had since she has been a student since mid-June. It turns out she only had 23 lessons - crazy to think how much of that time off was b/c of teething and Strep! Anyway, below is a video from Fri and some pictures after our last lesson Sat. We are so SUPER proud of her!

WOW - What a week!

We are SO happy last week is OVER! As much as I really enjoyed my 10 Year High School reunion, I am exhausted! LOL - it was great catching up with some old friends - some I haven't seen in 10 years. It's so crazy how time flies! I just wish more people got to meet Avery. Unfortunately, we had to cut some time short with some friends on Sunday because, as most of you know, Tropical Storm Fay came into Central Florida Tuesday and didn't decide to leave us until Friday!! I am so happy to see sun. For where we live (about 30 miles west of Cocoa Beach & Cape Canaveral), Thursday was probably the worst because not only did we have the rain from the past two days, but the wind was HORRIBLE! With the shift in direction, our front living room window was the target. Somehow, the rain found it's way into the house and wet our carpet. Hopefully, we can dry it out and do some inexpensive fixes to the outside of the house. Apparently, this same window had problems during the 2004 hurricane's but got fixed by the previous homeowner. ?? We will see.

Baby updates - let's see. Nothing really new. I am almost 19 weeks along and am starting to feel alittle kicking. Ahh, how I missed that feeling! It's so cool how I get to experience the growth and movement, but others don't truly get to experience it. I feel so privileged! We tried to find out if we were having a boy or girl at my 16 week appt, but it was too early. So, we have to wait until my 20 week appt Sept 5th. Hopefully the baby will be cooperative! Brian is hoping for another girl and already has a name picked out, so we will keep you posted if we find out.

Avery is doing well. My last post I told you about her Strep and she recovered fine. However, she is STILL trying to push her second top tooth out from her gums! She hasn't been able to finish her winter clothes test for swimming in 2 1/2 weeks. The girl is going to kill me with these lessons. haha. We are going to try and start up again today and see what happens. Here is a video that I took from her Spring clothes test. The reason for these tests, in case you are wondering, is so if the child falls in the pool or body of water at anytime, the ISR Instructor feels confident that they won't drowned. Pretty amazing, huh?

Though she is teething, she has started to brush her teeth on her own. She loves to do it and every night before bed, she knows the routine. It's adorable. The picture below is when she first started at my in-laws.

Avery is also beginning to walk. Last night she took 4 steps in the family room before she got so excited that she lost her balance and fell.

Hehe, we tried "adult" bananas the other day. That was interesting! She had it all over herself, but loved every minute of it. Can you tell?

I can hardly believe she is already 10 3/4 months old. I am already being asked about her 1st birthday and what we are doing! We will see, I have another month to decide :)

Avery and Brian's latest accomplishments

Wow, we have had an exciting week! Last weekend, Avery was at Grandma and Grandpa's spending some quality time together when I called to check up on her, she was starting to get a fever. After talking to her Pediatrician and going to the Pediatric Urgent Care, it turns out Avery was not only sick for the first time, but she had Strep! Completely rare for children under the age of 2! She has been great though. You would have never known the girl was sick about 10 minutes after they gave her Children's Motrin to reduce her fever. She even takes her antibiotics really well. So, after a few days off of swimming lessons, we started back last Thursday. I jokingly said Avery should get sick more often. In 10 minutes, she finally learned to roll over by herself once she was placed face down in the water so she would be face up! Luckily, Grandma and Grandpa were planning on coming to her lesson on Friday to see her accomplishments. Below are a sequence of pictures of Avery turning over on her own that Grandma took at Avery's Friday lesson! Today, the Instructor challenged her even more by placing her in water from different places in the pool (the stairs, the elevated wall, and even gently flipping her over like a back flip) and she did GREAT! We are so super proud of her!

As for Brian, many of you have probably heard us talking about Rebounderz. Rebounderz Planet Jump, as the advertising says, is "where FUN, FAMILY, & FITNESS come together with a whole NEW bounce!" Brian was apart of a group of investors that created an 11,000 sq foot trampoline area for people to bounce around and literally even bounce off the walls! It looks so much fun and has been doing really well. This past Friday they had their Grand Opening in Longwood. There were so many people there, even local government officials - some of which never go to these types of things! We are really excited about this opportunity and can't wait to start designing some more for future investors! Check out their website at http://www.rebounderz.com/ & see some video's of people jumping. They even have party rooms, so when Avery is older we know where her parties will be. :) Below are a few pictures that Brian's mom took at the Grand Opening.

Sensei Mark Gurley (friend of 10 years and owner) with Brian

Brian's design.