Books!

I got Avery some new board books today!  I bought an Earl Carle book set and a couple of his other board books as well.  His original books (as well as co-authored books) are very colorful and educational.  I'm really looking forward to seeing how Avery likes them.  :) 

Right now, we have reading time where she'll be interested as long as I'm making completely ridiculous noises.  It's actually interesting to try and make a noise for every single adjective and/or noun.  And, it seems that she likes more volume than not.  So, yeah, it's embarrassing for any self respecting adult to watch.  But, that's okay because as one of my favorite memes go (warning: language) : "It doesn't matter how old or badass you are, if a toddler hands you a toy phone...you answer that shit."  Except in this case it's a book, not a phone...and you're reading the book in such a manner that would make even a crazy monkey on crack look like he/she's more under control. 

Books are actually very fun to get involved in though.  And, we'd love it if she grew up to really appreciate them, specifically Harry Potter.  Like everyone, I spent sleepless nights reading those books until I could no longer keep my eyes open.  And, it was worth every single hour. 

Justin and I both love reading.  Justin hopes that Avery will end up reading under a blanket with a flash light at night and I hope that she'll love writing her own stories.  There's seriously nothing better than a story written by a young child.  Their stories generally involve a large panorama of colorful ideas with magical components and many, many very serious claims and dire consequences while only lasting four or five sentences.  If that's not entertaining, I don't know what is. 

Well, we'll see how it goes.  Until then, she enjoys books when they're read with completely insane noises and movements; we're happy. :)

Nibbler for Halloween..

Halloween is great.  We not only dressed Avery up in her Nibbler costume four or five times this year (for different parties and contests) but we actually got candy for the trick-or-treaters.  We haven't needed to do that since we got married.  And, apparently the first rule of thumb when giving candy to the trick o' treaters is to not leave the bowl outside for the first group to completely annihilate.  We actually got a second group to ring our doorbell and we're pretty sure they were just going to ask where the candy was.  We didn't answer because we suck at this game and were in bed already.  Plus, it would have been a really awkward conversation.  Somewhat like this...

"Trick-or-treat!"

I stick my head out and look at the empty bowl and then at them as they look at me impatiently.

"Uh, sorry.  We don't have any more candy left.  I could give you guys a bag of popcorn?" 

The say okay as politely as they can except they probably were thinking..."This sucks.  Popcorn sucks.".  And, they'd all have to share the popcorn bag.  Hopefully they all lived in the same house because it also needed to be popped in their microwave. 

Anyway, Avery was fun and happy during her Halloween outings.  We went to a carnival where many people shouted (or loudly exclaimed to each other), "That's Nibbler from Futurama!!".  And, for some reason, at all of the other parties we went to there were very few people that knew who she was dressed as.  And then we lost a little faith in humanity.  :(  Watch Futurama, people!

Here we have pictures of Avery.  She's really a very, very cute Nibbler.

Here without her Nibbler hat, but she was smiling AND looking at the camera.

Here she looks like Nibbler itself! :)

So, needless to say our Halloween was very good this year.  And, now we have a $50 costume hat that will last us the next few Halloween's!

We hope you all had a great Halloween as well! 

Carseats and Two Little Teeth

Here is our little Avery, with not only her first two teeth visible in some photos but having fun in her car seat:

She apparently has a "crazy face" face.  :)

Her first two teeth are visible here!

These next photos are of her making humming noises with her mouth.  She loves to try and make raspberry's (or this is what we think she's trying to do anyway).  

Here she's deciding how to get out... which happened to be rolling out gracefully yet very quickly.

Just before she rolled out she gave me one of her silly grins. :P

So, anyway, she's growing up fast as you can see.  She loves climbing stairs now and can climb any flight of stairs you have her climb.. as long as they're carpeted.   She also has been making lots of friends her age and having fun playing with mommy and daddy all day.  Love from the Aikens!

We caught a monkey! :)

 Hello!

I know the title is deceiving but there is no other way to put it; we caught ourselves a little monkey. 

She was sitting up, holding onto the hamper when all of the sudden she lost balance and fell back (onto the bed) while still holding onto the hamper and trapped herself.  For the next 5 minutes she looked at me through the holes, and realizing this was how her childhood was going to go: Mommy taking pictures while Avery gets herself in compromising situations. 

1 minute after capture..

2 minutes after capture..

3 minutes after capture...

4 minutes after capture...

4 1/2 minutes after capture...

5 minutes after capture...

As you can tell... she's just wondering how much longer I'm going to look at her through the slats.  :P 

FREE AT LAST!

And, now our monkey gets to play in the hamper!

So, anyway, :) we are back from our trip up north and we'd like to share the photos if you want to see them.  Please just email me at sammie.aiken@gmail.com if you'd like to see the pictures from our trip! :)  Love from the Aikens!

Northern Utah, here we come! :D

Hi guys!

So, I know I missed a week.  It's turning out to be kind of a habit for me and I apologize.  But, here's some updates on Avery I think you'll enjoy.

She's had some big and small changes the last few weeks.  She's officially started to roll over to her tummy, always going left (not right yet).  It's pretty interesting for her and for us because she rolls over almost every time you put her on her back, but then gets pretty frustrated quickly and upon rolling her back to her back, she almost immediately rolls back over to her tummy.  We let her try and figure it out first before rolling her back, but it's been pretty funny so far.  Here's a video of one of her very first rolls:

Now, she's very fast at rolling over and I think she'll start rolling the other direction soon.


She's also been balancing better while sitting, so we decided to take a video of that, and some pictures:

She has been doing better at balancing, though you can't tell so well in the video. 

Also, we've started some solid food.  For now, every night before bed she gets a small bowl of infant rice cereal.  She absolutely LOVES it.  So, we thought we'd post a video:

 And, just for fun, I thought we'd share some cute pictures from this month:

She is snuggly and warm in this fluffy pink jacket.

She LOVES red solo cups and tries furiously to eat them.

One of her winter hats.

She was mesmerized by the bag of cereal and continued (for about a half hour) to try and eat the whole bag (the outside).

She was waiting for more things to play with.

Her puppy winter hat :)

This next week, we'll be spending the whole week in northern Utah.  Justin will be with Avery and I, Saturday and Sunday.  And, Monday through Friday, Avery and I will be hanging out with my family.  We're really excited and have been starting to try and get a packing list together... WOW, packing for a whole week for a baby is NOT easy.  :P  Love you all!  Pictures from our trip will be posted on the next blog!

New changes for the new year!

Hey Everyone!

I know you've all missed seeing pictures and hearing about Avery.  I'm sorry I'm a slacker sometimes.  She's been doing great though!  The new huge changes include: having more balance while sitting, doing raspberry's every once in a while, rolling over (when she wants to) and learning how to roll back onto her back.  She's also very smiley and loves to babble.

Can I just say though... being a parent of a small 4 month old baby is really difficult!  I never really know if she's completely alright and I have a lot of moments of worry.  True, the joy that you get from having a baby overwhelmingly makes up for it.  But, it's just hard not being positive that she's just fine and healthy.

So, here are some pictures and videos of little Avery:

Her little smile :P

"Not sure what you're doing Mom... but I think I like the attention!"

 So, blogger is having some issues... or I am just inept with it.  Either way, sorry the videos and photos are all jumbled together. 

Well, I hope you guys have had a great start of a New Year.  Thanks for reading!