Avery's Year in Review

Avery's first New Year's Eve, 2007.  She had just had a feeding and couldn't quite make it to the new year!   *faux hawk alert!

3 month picture...Avery had just started holding up her own head-all that tummy time paid off!

Avery's baptism

First bite of solid food.  This picture shows Avery's faux hawk...that's right, she had one that we couldn't do anything with. People would ask us if we styled it that way-um no, she's a girl...but it was the cutest thing, I really missed it when her hair got longer and weighed down the hawk!

First ND jersey

First trip to the Dome

Saint Patty's Day in Chicago.  We were lucky enough to see the river green and stay with Aunt Beth and Uncle Dave.

1st Easter

6 month picture-now I can sit on my own!!

1st plane ride-heading to California:)

Trip to the San Diego Zoo...it was so neat to see the pandas so close!

1st ocean experience...Avery and her cool shades at Redondo Beach in LA, she also visited Hermosa Beach just down the street.

We drove up the Hollywood Hills as far as we could to get close to the Hollywood sign. Visiting LA was such a great trip.  We went to the beach, ate dinner in Beverly Hills, and went to Hollywood and Highland to visit the Kodak Theatre-we even were able to get on stage!

First Father's Day

First Mother's Day

Uncle Jake's senior prom

Uncle Jake's graduation

The ducky tub...this was the best thing!  We used it to transition Avery from her baby bath to the big girl bath tub.

1st wedding-Janelle's in Cincinatti, where we also celebrated Avery's first 4th of July-here she is meeting Elizabeth (Osburn) for the first time:)

1st trip to the park

On a trip to Asheville, NC-on our way to Charleston-we stopped to see the Biltmore Mansion...so amazing!

2nd beach experience, this time Avery is on Folly Beach in Charleston, SC.  She got to visit the Atlantic and Pacific in a span of about 5 months!

Swim lessons...Avery took swim lessons for about 5 months this year.  We are currently on a break to pursue gymnastics, but will revisit swimming again sometime in 2009.

1 year pictures-at 3 months she could hold her head up, by 6 months she was sitting on her own, and by 1 yr. she had been walking for two months!

1st baby doll:)

1st birthday party...first taste of cake!

Avery finding she was going to be a big sister in the new year!

This has been a year with a lot of exciting trips!  Avery has been to many places in her first year. 2009 will bring the arrival of our second baby, and we hope that we will be able to give him or her similar experiences that Avery had in her first year.  Avery started 2008 as a 2 1/2 month old and ended a 14 1/2 month old that has developed into an amazing person!  Looking back, I cannot believe how far she has come, and how far Artie and I have come as parents.  This year we have been to weddings, reunited with friends, faced hardships, and come through believing that we are blessed because our family is intact and healthy.  I hope to continue that in the new year!  Happy New Year:) 

Christmas

We had a pretty low key Christmas this year.  It was very nice.  We celebrated just the three of us with watching Avery open her gifts and enjoying the once-a-year traditional Christmas breakfast in my household of donettes (the powdered sugar Hostess variety are my favorite). Then we spent the afternoon with Artie's side and the evening with my side of the family.  Hope everyone had a nice celebration and are ready to ring in 2009!

Avery and Aunt Cimmy...Avery chewing on her new cup from Aunt Cim.

Peek-a-boo...Avery had the best time playing with Aunt Cimmy's patio door blinds!

I've got the remote!  Let's watch what I want!!

Mommy, daddy and Avery

The Belschner family photo...at this point in the day Avery was beyond tired from missing her nap and cousin Garrett, freshly rested, is wondering 'what's her problem'!

Christmas morning, Avery needed a milk break from unwrapping gifts!

BUBBLES...my very own bubbles!!

Giving kisses to her new elmo towel:)

Really getting into the unwrapping...notice mommy proudly sporting her ND football shirt after the awesome Christmas Eve bowl game-that's the way to end a mediocre season!

Ooh...what are these under the tree?!  This is Avery discovering the tree after waking up Christmas morning.  What a difference a year makes.  Last year on Christmas morning, Avery couldn't even hold her own head up, let alone unwrap her own gifts!!

Ice Cream!

This week we escaped the terrible weather we have been having here in Indiana and headed for a quick trip to the mall with grandma.  We shopped a little and made a stop at the food court for a snack and the DQ for an ice cream cone for me (the baby has really been wanting ice cream lately even though it's been freezing outside).  However, Avery decided that she really wanted the cone more than mommy.  Avery has had ice cream before-and loves it-but she has never had a cone.  Well, we cannot say that anymore.  She took mommy's cone and went to town.  It was all over her and her clothes, but it was just so cute.  After finishing her cone, she got to take 2 rides on the carousel!!  We had a nice time, though when we came to the mall it was snowing and when we left it was sleeting.  The weather here has just been awful.  We have lost power 3 times since Friday.  My dad was without power for 4 days-when the temp. was 20 something below zero with wind chill!!  My dad lives like 2 minutes from us and we live on the northeast side of Fort Wayne.  I talked to Beth (Didier/Krieg) on Tuesday and her parents were also still without power since Friday and they live on the southwest side of Fort Wayne.  That just shows the magnitude of the ice storm and terrible weather we've had.  Most people have their power restored, but like us, it sporadically goes out.  Anyway, the temperature jumped like 40 degrees today and finally melted most of the ice.  We are going to enjoy having power and watch holiday movies and then enjoy family Christmas gatherings.  Wishing you all a very Merry Christmas:) 

Avery digging into the cone.  At one point her face was so red from the cold ice cream being shoved into her face!

Here's the girl discovering that she can actually eat the cone and it's yummy!

Grammy and Avery riding the carousel on a dragon.  She got to go twice and cried when we didn't have anymore tokens to ride!

Ice comes to the Fort

We received Ice Storm '08 last night in Fort Wayne.  Not since senior year at Saint Mary's have I seen an ice storm of this magnitude...this may even be worse!  Our power flickered on and off for a while this morning before we eventually became powerless.  We went all day without power...brrr:(  We tried to pass the time (and stay warm) by going to Target and having a yummy meal at Cheddars.  Driving around town we saw branches, trees and power lines down everywhere.  We saw huge branches crush cars parked in the street.  Thankfully, we don't have any big mature on our property so we don't have to much risk to our house or cars.  It didn't get warm enough to melt the ice today so I'm hoping we keep our power through the night!  Hope everyone's staying warm and ice free!

Our poor Notre Dame flag is frozen solid!

Our sad tree, so droopy with the weight of the ice.
A tree branch in our backyard that's about to fall.  Thankfully it's far enough away from the house.

I do love how ice looks on trees, especially this time of year.

The funny tree we have in the back corner of our yard is about to fall...

Growing Up

As I have posted before on the blog, I am having a hard time coming to terms with my baby girl growing up.  She's 14 months this week and has done things this week that really make me see just how fast I'm losing her-okay, a little dramatic, but sometimes it feels like it's snowballing into that!  She has helped me clean the floors-she's partial to pushing the swiffer and helps load the dishwasher (well, really she wants to take things out, but is pretty good at helping close the door).  We've tried with her helping to feed the dogs, but the food ends up all over the floor-too soon for that one.  We did have some other "big girl" experiences that were captured by photo/video!

Here's Avery doing her first bit of floor work at gymnastics-she's doing a backward roll here with some help from her teacher.  Artie was able to take lunch today and assist Avery in class-as you can see him standing there observing-they had a great time...other activities included Avery's first taste of the foam pit!

Artie and Avery again-It seems I'm a better picture taker than participant in this post, but I swear, I do things with my daughter too!!  Anyway, we took Avery to the mall one night this week-during a major winter storm I might add (which was nice because the mall was pretty dead-not so nice trying to drive!)-and she had her first carousel ride!!  Yes, Glenbrook, Fort Wayne's main mall, has a carousel inside-it's a huge 2-story one and very expensive I'll say.  It replaced the ice rink that used to be there, personally I liked the ice rink better.  Okay, back to her first ride...at first when she was strapped onto her animal she was clinging to Artie trying to get off.  But, once the ride started she held on tight and stuck out her tongue the whole time!! It was so cute:)

This video is from one night this week.  Avery was having yogurt with dinner.  Normally, we feed things of this consistency to her.  However, this particular night she had brought a spoon with her to her highchair (she's obsessed with spoons and "spoon" is actually one of her first words that is understandable), and reached over to the yogurt, put the spoon in and fed herself!!  We couldn't believe it, so I hurried and got a little bit of video of it.

Treats and Gymnastics

Avery and mommy have had a couple of busy days!  Yesterday, I decided to brave the holiday shoppers and head to the mall.  I wanted to see how Avery would behave with just her and I.  The trip was good and bad.  First, I was annoyed that I couldn't find a parking spot on a Wednesday afternoon.  But when I finally did, we headed inside to get cookies from Mrs. Fields. They have the cutest little cookies that are just Avery's size.  It was a hit, but once she finished her cookie she screamed to get out of her stroller.  Ok, so off we went, Avery pushing the stroller under me as we walked through the mall.  She would try to dart from time to time.  It was a bit too much for me to try to keep track of her and the stroller!  At one point we were in the Disney store, which Avery loves, and she had two cups she was carrying around.  I was trying my best to keep up with her while trying to maneuver the stroller through the tight spaces and ALL of the freakin' people-um it was 1 o'clock in the afternoon, does nobody work-when Avery took off weaving her way to the entrance of the store!  I was so worried that she would be booked for shop lifting that I ditched the stroller, practically pushing people over, and I caught her just in time!  After that, we headed to the small play area.  WAY too many kids.  Avery likes to go right up to other kids and hug and tackle them, so I decided there were too many to try and referee.  We headed up to the fountain, where she was in amazement for a short time.  We made a complete trip around the mall and Avery was starting to want to go in all the stores so, in an attempt to distract her, I took her to Auntie Anne's.  She happily sat in the stroller to eat her pretzel and let me stroll her to the car!  Phew, it was exhausting, but good to get her out.  It is just too crowded and it really annoys me.  Then, this morning, we had our first gymnastics class.  Avery has joined the itty bitty bugs at a gym just down the street.  Oh my.  I think I was more tired than she was after!!  She got to do the high balance beam, and we found out she's not good at walking in a straight line, yet!  She also got to hang on the uneven bars, which she really liked.  But when it wasn't her turn to do these I was chasing her around and she wouldn't listen to me at all!  I felt like all of the other kids were so much more behaved.  She wouldn't sit and stretch or listen to her instructor.  She kept picking up the floor directions (like feet and hands) and handing them to another dad-I felt bad that my kid was bugging him!  At the end, they do bubbles and Avery tried to hit other kids with her wand and take other kids' wands!  On the positive side, she only bear-hug-tackled one girl the whole class:)  I was a little frustrated and exasperated by the end and I must have been wearing it on my face because a few of the other moms told me there kids took about a month to adjust to the class and were just like Avery when they started.  Whew!  I felt a little better.  Avery wasn't a bad girl or anything.  I just realized how much work my daughter needs on learning to take direction and understand that we can't just do whatever, whenever we want.  Hopefully, this class will help teach her some structure and boundaries.  I wanted to take pictures, but clearly couldn't pause for a second do that, so if Artie makes it for a class then I will hopefully take some then!  All in all, it's been good to do things with my daughter.  I'm trying so much to cherish the precious time with her! 

Avery enjoying her yummy chocolate chip cookie.  She kept saying "mmm" the whole time she ate it and even shared some with mommy!

What a beautiful sight-and sound!!  This was Avery after leaving the mall, she was so tired!!  She also looked this way after gymnastics-mission accomplished:)

One of her two stamps that she got at the end of gymnastics class.  This hand had a reindeer, the other had a snowflake.