The Baby in the Mirror

Go Cardinals and Saints!

We finally got the chance to go cheer on the Pitts boys last weekend.  Between rain and sickness, I didn't know if we would ever get to go see them!  It was pretty chilly but we bundled up and hung out in the press box.  We had a great time and Avery was a great little cheerleader!

Jayden, Cici and Avery at Evan's Game

Cheering on the Cardinals from the press box

Avery and I got an 8 Point Buck!

This is what Avery wears to go deer hunting...isn't she a cutie?!

Not exactly camo and hunter's orange, but on Tuesday morning we weren't planning on doing any hunting.

We bundled up and headed to work/daycare on in the dark and fog.  We had just gotten to the bottom of a big hill when the two cars in front of me suddenly pulled off the side of the road.  I slowed down to keep from hitting them and headed around the curve.  As soon as I came around the curve, I saw a huge 8 point buck running across the road right in front of me.  You may wonder how in that split second I could tell how big of a deer he was, but it was like time stood still for a second.  He looked at me and I looked at him.  I thought...I'm going to hit this deer and of course it has to be a big one - not the small does that we see all the time!

I slammed on my brakes, but couldn't avoid him.  There was a horrible crunching sound and I could see stuff flying off the front of my car.  I pulled off the side of the road into someone's driveway and immediately went to check on Avery.  She didn't seem phased so I called Adam.  Apparently I sounded very calm so after he asked if we were okay and had me check out the damage he teased me saying that I was driving too fast.  Then I just lost it, hung up on him and started bawling!  He called right back to apologize and we decided to go ahead and take Avery to the ER to get her checked out since my neck/shoulders were already sore.  After a quick check, the ER doc said everything was fine and I felt much better knowing that my baby was ok.  Hopefully this was her first and only ER visit!

My car wasn't too badly damaged and I am very thankful that we bought a bigger SUV.  If we would have been in my Terrain, we would have had a deer on my windshield.  They will have to replace the grill and maybe the front bumper.

Melissa said I should have gotten the deer so I could mount the antlers...I'll be sure to keep straps in my car so I can haul it on my hood if it happens again.  Ha!

Do You Have Your S%@# Together?

A few weeks ago I met up with my high school friends for a girl's night in Hot Springs.  One of my friends had forgotten Avery's baby gift and said that she just couldn't get her s%@# together.  It got me thinking...

Do I have it together?  Some days I feel like I do...and others I don't.  I think it's a combination of lack of sleep and just having an extra person to take care of.  I wonder if this will improve once Avery gets older?  Just to make you other mom's feel better that it isn't just you that can't keep it together, here are some examples:

- The same day that my friend made that comment, I was looking for my keys.  Could not find them ANYWHERE!  She held Avery for me while I dug through my purse, looked at the front counter of the restaurant, then out in my car.  I found them in my car, that was sitting in the parking lot, unlocked.  I'm glad no one in Hot Springs decided to take my car for a joy ride.

 - I had just left taking Avery to the doctor for another ear infection and we ran by daycare to pick up her blankie (that I had forgotten).  When I was putting her back in the carseat, I noticed that my house keys had fallen out of my car and were sitting on my running board.  I thought to myself "I better grab those as soon as I get Avery strapped in"...  After running to the Neighborhood Market to pick up Avery's antibiotic, then heading across town and to lunch with Adam since Avery's antibiotic wasn't ready yet, then heading back to Neighborhood Market, I remembered that I never picked up my keys from the running board... ugh.  Thank goodness for having wide running boards because they were still there!

 - I ran to grab a few things at Walmart one day at lunch.  As I was pulling out of the parking lot, I noticed that my Pandora (which plays in my car through my phone's Bluetooth) was cutting out.  I started looking for my phone in the car to see what was going on and couldn't find it.  I pulled back into the parking lot and there was my phone sitting in the shopping cart in the parking lot.

 - I headed to see Avery at lunch this week and was planning to grab something to eat before heading to the daycare.  I got almost to Subway and realized that I had left my wallet sitting on my desk.  It wouldn't be that big of a deal, but I have to park and walk so far that it would have taken me at least 20 min. to go back and get it.  I called Adam and luckily he was in the parking lot at work and offered to buy me lunch :)  We met at Taco Bell and had a nice lunch.  I headed to daycare, pulled in the parking lot and realized that I was missing my purse!  I had left it hanging on the back of the chair at Taco Bell.  There wasn't anything of value in it (just a spare diaper, Sophie the Giraffe, and an umbrella)  but the purse itself is worth a few hundred dollars so I wasn't expecting it to be there.  I got back to Taco Bell and it was still there.. Yay!!

These are just a few examples.  There are many, many more and I'm sure there will be even more to come.  But after thinking back I realized that even though I feel like I don't have it together, I have been very luckily that things always seem to work out okay.  It's all worth it for this wonderful little girl.

P.S.  I know that she is playing with an Afrin box in this picture...don't judge :)  It's empty and you do what you can to keep you child happy so you can get ready for work!

Standing Tall

As of September 30th, Avery is officially pulling herself up to standing.  Here are a few pics and a video from the past couple of weeks.  This little girl is all over the place...it is so much fun!!

The very first time she pulled herself up

Headed for the dog toys

Just hanging out in her cottage...

She loves to peek through the little hole in the window

This picture was from one morning when I was working from home.  I had hoped we could sleep in a little, but this was at 5:30 a.m.  She was crawling all over me like a little monkey!

Playing with her tea set and the little hutch that was Cici's when she was little.

We're Going on a Safari

It was a gorgeous fall Sunday a couple of weeks ago, so we decided to head over to Gentry to the Drive Thru Safari.  These pictures were all taken on my cell phone.  I remembered my camera and we even rigged it up to charge the battery on the way over but when we got there I realized that I forgot my memory card...ugh!  The pictures actually turned out okay (thank goodness)

Adam had never been and I think he was fairly impressed with all the animals they had.  We started by doing the drive through portion.  Since we were going so slow, we got Avery out of her carseat and Adam held her while we drove to see all the animals.  She was so excited to be in the front seat of the car and seemed to be fascinated with the animals.  Some of them would come right up to the car window and she just looked at them liked she was amazed that they were so close.

Then we walked around the outside area.  There were camels, monkeys, baby pot bellied pigs, baby leopards, goats, giraffes and much more!  The baby leopards were so cute and they were letting people play with them, but we thought Avery might be a little young for that :)

This picture cracks me up.  Adam and Avery just happened to be making the exact same face when I took this picture.  I promise that we were actually having a good time!

We can't wait to take her when she gets a little older and can participate in the petting zoo portion.  I think she's going to love it!

8 Months Old

Our favorite baby girl turned 8 months old on the 20th.  I know that I'm super late with this post but I promise to do better!

Our photo shoots have gotten harder and harder.  This little girl is super squirmy and as soon as I put her on her chair, she lunges off! 

Avery is really getting good at crawling.  She is super fast even on the hardwood floors.  She just recently started exploring outside of the small pallet area of the living room and her favorite places are the dog toy basket, the spindles on the staircase and the small chest beside our couch.  

She also loves to try to get the dog bones from Shelby.  Shelby is such a good sport and has let her get it a couple of times without getting mad.  Luckily we have been able to get them away from her before they have made it to her mouth :)

Avery is still not eating many solids.  Occasionally we can get her to eat something, but she doesn't have much interest.  She continues to have constant ear infections and has been on antibiotics almost 2 full months.  I know they make her tummy hurt so I'm sure that's part of the reason that she hasn't been eating solids.  Luckily she is still growing just fine on breastmilk and weighs about 17.5 lbs.  We have an appointment with the ENT on the 17th and we are hoping that he can help this baby girl feel better!

Here some more pics of our girl this month.  I still get to go see her everyday at lunch and it is one of the best parts of my day!

In this pic, we were sitting in the rocking chair on the front porch waiting for Adam to get home from work.  She looked over the side of the chair and saw a granddaddy longleg and was fascinated!

Hamming it up in her new cheerleader dress!

These pics are from a few weekends ago when we were in Arkadelphia for a mini reunion (post to come later).  We dug through the attic and found my old Care Bears and pouting chair that Richard Mills made for me.  Avery loved them both!

Avery was helping me do a little shopping.  She kept reaching out of the cart to feel the fabric and then look at the price tags...must be a genetic thing :)

I have a few videos but I need to upload them from my other computer so I'll try to get that done tonight.  Also, we joined Instagram and I like it so much better then Facebook.  You can follow us at "mkdaily3"