Uncle Jake

This weekend we took a trip down to Bloomington, Indiana to help Uncle Jake move into his dorm room at IU.  We spent Friday night at Uncle Chad and Aunt Jamie's-in Indianapolis-and had a great time.  We got to visit and hang out and Avery got to play with her cousin, Garrett, whom she just loves.  Garrett's only 6 months older, but Avery just couldn't keep up-her walking isn't quite up to par!  But it was so cute to watch her try to play with him and copy what he did:)  Artie got to hang with his older brother, which he loves to do, and Jamie and I got to talk mom stuff and reality TV:)  It was a great time and we thank them for letting us stay-Jamie makes yummy pancakes!  Then Saturday we were up nice and early to get down to IU.  It was a hot day-in the 90s-and, of course, Jake's in one of the oldest dorms with NO AIR and on the 10th floor no less!  It was absolutely miserable, but typical for college moving day-brought memories back to Artie and I of our college days...The fight for a good spot to unload in front of the dorm, trying to lug as much as possible, fights for the elevator, massive chaos in the room to arrange and unpack, trips around town to do the completion shopping for all the things you forgot or didn't know you needed, meeting your roommate for the first time and feeling a little awkward, making the trip to the bookstore and spending most of the money you made in one summer to buy the first semester's worth of books...but it's all the most amazing experience!  We can hardly believe Jake's off at college.  Artie has known him since he was 6 yrs old and now he's a college freshman!  Since Jake's so much younger than Artie and I, it's almost like we were sending one of our own kids away-we definitely got a taste of what it will be like if Avery decides to go away to college:(  So, congrats to our little bro and Avery's Uncle Jake for all that you've accomplished and we will be making many trips down to IU to see how you grow and adjust to your new lifestyle-Go Hoosiers (after the Irish, of course)!    

Video Proof

I finally got some video of Avery walking.  She's still a little wobbly...but since her first steps last week, she's really starting to put more of them together and doing it more often.  It is the best feeling, as a parent, to get to watch your child work at something and accomplish it.  At 10 months old, we already have a pretty good idea of the kind of personality Avery is going to have-the fact that she's already walking says a lot of her determined little self!  I think a lot of it has to do with the fact that she just wants to get into as much stuff as possible and make mommy nuts!  

Puppy Time

This past week, Avery has spent some time bonding with her furry brothers after not seeing them for a week while we were in South Carolina.  Rocco definitely missed licking her!  Domer is more of her protector and I'm sure he thought of the week we were gone as a vacation!  The second she cries or he thinks she's in danger, Domer runs to get us.  The dogs got a nice break to take a nap outside in the sun while Avery ate lunch.  Rocco really could care less that Avery is around, except for the fact that her face and fingers always taste good and she leaves nice treats on the floor whenever she eats!  Thank goodness for Domer, he's so protective of her, yet he's the one that gets mostly abused by Avery because he is bigger and has longer hair-yes she enjoys pulling herself up on his soft, long coat!  Domer never waivers in his mission to keep Avery safe, and he's never even flinched at her when she's pulling on his hair and flopping down on him!...anyone want a beagle-he sleeps a lot, scavenges for food and barks out the window at all things that move-sounds tempting, right?  

First Steps!

Well, we're back in Indiana after a loooong drive through the night last Friday/Saturday morning.  A few big things have happened with Avery since our last post...Our final night in Charleston, Avery FINALLY got her first tooth!  Actually, she got her first 2 teeth.  Her bottom 2 came in at the same time.  We were so excited when we felt those little sharp teeth in her mouth-I had asked the Dr. at her 9mo check-up if it was maybe possible that she was born with no teeth...definitely not!  Thankfully the teeth broke through before we left because that would have been an awful trip home!  So the second big thing, which I'm sure you can guess from the title of this blog, Avery took her first real steps!!  It was so great...it happened last night, when Artie was home from work (yay!).  We had just had dinner and Avery came into the kitchen to watch her dogs play outside.  I was in the kitchen with her and Artie was putting shoes on in the living room, (we were getting ready to take our dogs for a walk) so we were both in the perfect position to see her.  Then, she just stood up and took 3 steps!  Artie couldn't see that I could see her and shouted at me that Avery was walking, then she stopped!  She didn't fall or anything, she just stood there like, 'Oh my gosh, what did I just do??'  She really loves crawling so we thought she wouldn't really be curious about walking for awhile.  But hey, the girl rolled over at 3 months and crawled at 7 months so why not start walking before 10 months!  Sometimes I think she's so much older than she really is because she's already into absolutely everything-and I mean everything...I guess that comes from her being mobile so soon!  We don't have footage yet of her taking real steps, but I put this video up of her cruising with her walker (she's such a show off only using one hand).  She stopped at the tv to watch one of her favorite shows, Handy Manny!  Hopefully I can catch some video of her taking more steps-or waving, which she's getting really good at when she wants to tell you hi!

Tour Through Time

Since we are in the most historic town in the U.S. (or so the Charlesonians say...) we decided to take a look at some history while spending our week here in Charleston.  One of the most historical things to see is, of course, Fort Sumter-where the Civil War began. There isn't a whole lot left of the original fort-hello it was in a war-but there's something so serene about visiting monuments like this. I had a similar feeling when Artie and I visited Pearl Harbor on our honeymoon. They are monuments where people died for the country that I call home, it's very special. There are still two shells that are embedded in the wall of the fort that took it down and you can go right up and touch them (I swear when I did I felt like I was transported back in time just for a split second). Artie and I were surprised to find out that the night President Lincoln was assassinated, he was supposed to be at a ceremony in Charleston for Fort Sumter but he turned it down because he thought people wouldn't want him in Charleston-um yeah he was trying to abolish slavery and the south loved their slaves! Guess it didn't work out for him in the end. The ferry seemed to be Avery's favorite part of visiting Sumter because she got in a nice nap (or it was the heat since it's been 100 degrees down here, not included the humidty!). 



To get a little more history on the actual city of Charleston, we took a walking ghost tour. For those of you that don't know, I'm obsessed with ghost stories, old homes, etc. so this was perfect for me! A few of our favorite spots are in these pictures. We went to a cemetery (which there are a ton of here) that felt like a jungle. There was greenery (and bats) everywhere, including my favorite trees-the southern ones with the moss hanging off of them. It was supposed to be nature filled since death is a part of nature...anyway, we were there right at dusk and it was creepy! My favorite place was Poogan's Porch. It's the third most haunted restaurant in the U.S., according to the history channel, and I think there was a presence on the porch when I took the photo...seriously I wasn't moving (and if you notice the lady looking at Poogan's grave isn't blurry!!)! It's supposed to be haunted by a lady and a dog (not related), which our tour guide alluded to how Poogan died, but when I asked Artie what happened he looked at me and said he got run over (that's how the guide made it sound)! It kind of bummed me out because Poogan used to live in this house but then he moved with his owners down the street, but he loved his porch so much that he kept escaping his new yard and coming back...Artie googled him and the web says he died of natural causes-that's better:) But he loved this porch and restaurant so much (trying to get scraps!) that the owners of the restaurant named it after him and made it his monument...so he still returns to the porch looking for scraps:) So our tour was wonderful and we cannot get enough of Charleston! Avie has found a way to beat the heat...she has discovered the pool! She and Artie have been getting a lot of daughter/daddy time swimming in the evenings...when it's still 90+ degrees at 9:30pm! We'll be heading back to the Fort (Wayne, of course) tomorrow...we're sad to be leaving this amazing town, at least our puppies are at home waiting...!

Biltmore and the Beach

Well this week we are in Charleston, South Carolina! Let me tell you, it is HOT here.  On our way down, we drove to be able to pack all the baby necessities, we stopped in Asheville, NC to tour the Biltmore Estate.  If you have never been there-GO! I had heard of it, but one of my besties, Beth said we should definitely check it out-thanks for the tip Beth it was incredible!!  I really cannot do it justice in words. If you have never heard of it, google it. This place is the largest residence in the United states (ca. 1895). So we toured the mansion...er castle, did I say it was hot-um these people were rich but even they didn't have central air-so we had to carry a stroller (the big Graco kind) up AND down 5 levels! It was definitely worth it though and it was an amazing experience. On the property there is a farm yard with animals-hence the picture of Avery and mommy with the horse. I absolutely love horses and was so excited to pet one and be up close and wanted to share that with Avery. However, Avery was terrified of the horse, Bert was its name, up close (that's why she's turned away in the pic). From a distance she was excited and excited by the other people petting the horse, but up close she must have been like Holy Cow (...horse) this thing's way too big-this isn't my doggies that I can climb on! So after a long day, we concluded with the winery...yes, the estate has the most visited winery in the U.S. Neither Artie or I drink wine, but we thought hey we're here and there's a free wine tasting let's go! I tasted a few and ate a few wine crackers, but had no idea what I was doing. Needless to say, I still don't like wine, but I enjoyed the atmosphere! After visiting the Biltmore, we drove the 4 hrs to Charleston and the next day we took Avery to Folly Beach. Can I just say, Avery has been on a west coast and east coast beach within a span of 4 months! She was 6 mo when we went to LA and took her to Redondo and Hermosa Beaches. Now she's 9 1/2 mo and getting to enjoy the much warmer Atlantic. We had such a nice time and while taking pictures a lady came up and said Oh let me take a family picture...they are so much nicer in the south! Anyway, we have so far really enjoyed ourselves. Artie is actually at work today, but we're planning lots for afterwork activities to get the most of our experience! More to come from Charleston:)