NINE Months Old

{blogged a week late}

Oh Avery-
It seems like before my very eyes you are changing. Sometimes you look older to me at the end of the day than you did that morning. Because I spend all-day-every-day with you sometimes I don't realize how much of your "infant-ness" is dissipating. You aren't quite a toddler, but you certainly aren't a newborn. Every night when I'm rocking you to sleep, I look down at you and my heart hurts with love. Does every parent love their child this much? Sometimes it takes my breath away. I worry about you constantly. I think about your heart being broken, or kids being mean to you at school and my heart aches. I want to protect you from the world. It's a scary, helpless feeling being a mama. I want to keep you little and in my arms where I'm able to keep you safe. And on the other hand I can't wait to watch you grow into a joyful, kind human being. I hope your dad and I will always be able to watch you live out your long, happy life. I love you baby girl.
Stats: At your 9 month doctor appointment you were:
 -29 inches long (93% - how did you get to be so tall?) 
-19.4 pounds (69%) 
-and your big ol' head was 46.5 cm (97%). 
New: You love to stand on your own - holding on to the ottoman, or your crib. The look of pride and satisfaction on your face is amazing. Your expression just beams, "do you see what I'm doing mom? No big deal." 
You are understanding more and more words. My absolute favorite is that I can say, "Kisses? Give mama kisses?" And your face will freeze and you'll slowly lean towards my face until our faces touch. Then you scrunch your nose and give me the best smile, satisfied that you were able to understand what I said and carry out the action. You also say, "dadda" "doggy" and "Wassat?" (Translation: What's that?)
Sleep: Sigh. This has probably been the worst month we've had. You've been sleeping through the night more or less since you were a few months old. The past 3 weeks you have been waking up several times a night crying reallllly hard. The only thing that will calm you down is the boob. Then you fall quickly back to sleep. I'm still not sure if it's a growth spurt and you're actually hungry, or if you're just becoming more aware that I'm not in the room and it makes you mad? I really, really don't want to just leave you to cry by yourself, but I'm terrified I'm going to create bad habits. After a couple of weeks (one night you woke up every two hours like a newborn baby!) I let you cry for awhile before I went in there. After about ten minutes or so, you fell back asleep. I think maybe you just need the practice learning to soothe yourself. Talk about ripping mommy's heart out though. 
Food: You are the BEST eater Avery. You will eat anything, and everything. I've been experimenting with different combos. Your favorites seems to be sweet potato-apple-green beans and banana-blueberry-peaches. You really like broccoli (pureed as well as just steamed and in chunks) and love your morning steel-cut oatmeal. Sometimes I mix in banana-blueberry puree to sweeten the oatmeal, or sometimes I just add halved blueberries. You are still nursing every 3-4 hours, but not for nearly as long. You spend maybe 10 minutes nursing and then you want to be moving, standing, playing, singing. I NEVER thought I'd say this but I kind of miss the hour-long nursing sessions when I could just stare at you {and watch my reality tv shows}. 

Phone Favs:

The Pumpkin Patch

We've gone to Bates Nut Farm almost every year for the past 6 years. And every year I've told Brandon how much fun it will be when we have a little babe of our own to take pictures of in the pumpkins. Saturday was that day. 

Although it was sweltering (and SO crowded) we managed to have a great time with Brandon's family! Avery got to spend time with her cousins which I love to see.

We bought some homemade chocolate from the store,

{chocolate covered gummy bears anyone?} 

devoured ice-cold popsicles,

and tried to find the largest pumpkins in the patch.

Only a few more days until Halloween!

Mini Chicken Pot Pies

The other day I was desperate for a new recipe. I actually went through my blog to see if there were any favorites of ours that I had forgotten about. Ah, behold, Turkey Pot Pie. It's been rainy the last few days and this seemed like the perfect fall meal. I didn't have left-over turkey, but I did have chicken. And I didn't have pie crust, but I did have Pillsbury Biscuits. Improvise! I basically followed the same recipe as my Turkey Pot Pie, I just rolled out each biscuit and pressed it in a cupcake tin. 
The roll of Pillsbury dough makes 8 biscuits, so this recipe made 8 mini chicken pot pies.

Ingredients: 

-Cooked chicken or turkey

-Vegetables of your choice (fresh, frozen or canned)

-Little Potatoes

-Trader Joe's Turkey Gravy (or any other gravy)

 -Pillsbury Biscuit Dough

Directions:

1. In a bowl mix veggies, chicken (cooked), potatoes (boiled for 5 minutes) and gravy.

2. Roll out each biscuit until flat and press one into each cup of cupcake tin.

3. Fill each cup with veggie, chicken, gravy mix.

4. Cook at 350 for 14-16 minutes.

Makes 8 mini pot pies.

Bows and Ruffles and Rompers Oh My!

Dressing a baby girl is just as much fun as I always dreamed it would be. I had so much fun shopping for baby clothes while I was pregnant, and now that she's here and getting older it's just as much, if not more, fun to shop for her. Rompers, jean shorts, ruffles, baby cardigans, leg warmers, summer dresses, bows, headbands, I could go on and on. There are a couple of staples every baby girl should have in her closet:

1. A romper: This was one of the cutest gifts I received at my baby shower. This adorable, ruffled romper has been hanging in her closet and I couldn't wait to get it on her! I'm pretty sure my friend Sarah got them at mylittlelegs.com which is also where she bought a ton of Avery's leg warmers (including the pink & white heart ones a little farther down)

2. Leg warmers: There is something about baby leg warmers that just make me squeal. One of my co-workers gave me these little leopard print ones when I was pregnant with Avery (they came with matching sunglasses. swoon.) Leg warmers are a fun way to spruce up a onesie. I also prefer them to baby pants which tend to dig into her tummy.

3. Bows & Headbands: Enough said. Get them in every color. If you have a baby that doesn't have much hair, a bow clearly makes your baby look more feminine. Or, in Avery's case, she went through an awkward stage around 5 months where she had lost a lot of her newborn hair and just had a few long strands. Headbands and bows helped cover it up :-)

4. One of a kind outfits: Although I LOVE Target and all of the trendy baby options you can find, sometimes it's nice to shop in smaller boutique shops where you can find outfits that you won't see in your instagram feed on all of your friends' babies. What to say about this little chevron dress with ruffle bottoms? I found it from The Hair Bow Company, and the best part is that it was only $9.99! I loved that you could tell it was handmade with love. She looked like a little cabbage patch doll!

5. Trendy Shoes: There's nothing like finding trendy shoes in tiny baby form! 
Toms, Mocs, boots, gladiator sandals.

Thank you Aves for letting mama have so much fun dressing you :-)