Video's of Avery

For Christmas I got the Sony Webbie HD. We had been wanting something to document Avery's milestones with, and since we had already spent a good bit on the Nikon I needed to fine something cost efficient. We looked at all of the reviews and went with this one. It uses a duo stick pro that keeps up to 9 hrs. of video and also takes pretty good pictures. It only cost $150 at Sams ($200 at Bestbuy. So that they would upload faster, Levi selectd a lower viewing quality. But rest assured when you are watching it on your own tv,the picture is crystal clear!

Anyways, here are a couple of videos we have done of Avery over the past month. They are mainly for family and might not be all that interesting to the rest of you. Granmommy, we especially hope that you enjoy!

4 Months!

Ok, so I am doing Avery's 4 month post on her 5 month birthday...to say I am behind on blogging is an understatement! Hopefully, I will be able to catch up in the next few days.

Avery had a very busy and exciting 4th month of life. In fact, she celebrated it on New Year's Day in Tampa, with an Auburn victory! Yes, we took a four month old to the Outback Bowl. At the game, she was an absolute star and I hope we can attend many more Auburn games with our little tiger. I am going to blog about our whole trip in my nextfew posts.

At her four month checkup, she weighed 15.6 lbs. and was 24 in. long. This put her in the 75th percentile for weight and the 30th percentile for height. It looks like she is taking after her Mommy...enough said! We think she is ablsolutely georgeous and irresistably cute! She flashes her sweet smile to everyone and is such a happy baby. She literally is content all most all of the time. Only when she is hungry or really tired does she start to fuss and even then it is not hard to calm her. Lord, please let all of our children be like this!

This month, she really found her fingers and sucked on them quite a bit. She started to get tired of her swing and wanted to be put on the floor a lot more. She loves laying under her activity mat and looking at herself in the mirror. In addition to smiling all the time, she started laughing too. She especially loves for us to sing to her. Her favorite song is "Glory Glory to Ole Auburn" We were just singing it to her one day and she busted out giggling. It is super cute! Currently, the TV is really catching her eye...especially sports which flash on the TV so rapidly. She has not rolled over on her own yet, but is very close. She can sit up on her own though for short periods of time. The dogs are catching her attention now too. She has even started to pet them a little. Last but not least, she has finally started paying attention to her rattles and other toys...and giving her a burp cloth to play with occupies her attention for at least 15 minutes.

She continues to sleep really well and we continue to feel really blessed! We have not started cereal yet and do not plan to until she is 6 months or starts to wake up at night. Nursing and pumping are going great and my milk has not diminished since starting back to work. I am so thankful for this! Not only is it good for Avery, but it is saving us a ton of money :) I have to say that I love nursing. Prior to having her, I was nervous and worried that it would be hard, or I wouldn't be good at it. Overall though, I have had a great experience. Don't get me wrong, it is a huge commitment and very time consuming, but it makes me feel so much better at work knowing that she has me in that sense. Then, getting home to nurse her helps my emotions so much. I have heard from a lot of moms and my mom that it is hard emotionally when you start to wean. This makes since, since you are their source of nourishment for so long. I truly cherish this special time we spend together!

Avery is now staying with Mrs. Alli full time and she loves both her and Noble. In fact, she thinks Noble is hilarious. We are so blessed to have such a sweet, Christian friend and mother like Alli to take care of her while we are at work. I think I am going to start doing monthy recaps instead of blogging at the beginning of a new month. That way I can cover everything that happened throughout the whole month.

We love you Avery Caroline! You bring so much Joy to everyone's life...we can't wait to see what your 5th month has in store for us!

Alex and Beth Anne

My brother (Alex) and my sister (Beth Anne) just recently celebrated their 21st and 22nd birthdays. I think they are pretty special and you know only really special people get blog time so I thought they deserved a post!

They were born only 11.5 months apart and in the same year. Alex came first on January 5, 1988 and Beth Ann on December 22, 1988. Amazing, I know. Even more amazing is how my mom survived it all. I was 3.5 when Alex was born and she had to be induced with Beth Anne to make it home for his first Christmas.

For Beth Anne's day we ordered domino's wings and pizza to celebrate. Since it was her 21st, she and a few others then went out for a little more celebration and late night karaoke at the Oyster Bar. Unfortunately, Levi and I went home to our "adult" life with Avery (that I love) and didn't get to attend that portion. I know they had an absolute blast though! Beth Anne is probably one of the hardest working people I know. She just finished her first semester of nursing school and totally blew it out of the water! She is super smart and super sassy at the same time. She is very protective of our family and is very tender hearted. I am glad she enjoys nursing, so that one day she can take care of our parents!!!

For Alex's Birthday we went to Outback to celebrate. It was a fun time with great food and family. The pictures are from his celebration. Alex is kind and compassionate as well. Who was it when I was starving after delivering Avery that went to get my food? Alex. In the past few months he has started to mature in to a really great man. He is winding down his degree in Kinesiology and plans to go on to physical therapy school next spring. Alex can make anybody laugh and he is a HUGE Auburn fan.

I can't imagine not having them in my life. They are great friends and even better as an Aunt and Uncle to Avery. She adores them and I know is going to love spending lots of time with them in the coming years. Since I have returned to work, with the exception of two weeks, Beth Anne and Alex (and Tiffany, Alex's girlfriend) have kept Avery during the week. A lot of people have said, ok we understand leaving her with your sister, but your brother...do you think he can handle it? I then have to let them know that Alex is just as hands on as anyone else. He changes ALL of her diapers...the wet and the dirty and doesn't even blink an eyelash. He knows how to feed and burp her as well. His specialty though is making her laugh. We don't exactly know what it is about him, maybe it is how funny looking he is, but Avery thinks he is hilarious. And because I don't want Kevin (Beth Anne boyfriend) to feel left out...you know Avery loves you too!
Anyways...here is to Beth Anne and Alex...We love you guys and are so glad you are here in Auburn with us!

Merry Christmas!

May God bless you this Christmas and the joy of the Lord fill your heart with gladness and cheer!

As my friend Alli reminded our Sunday School class this morning in an e-mail, "We can rejoice because Jesus came as a baby to live perfectly, die innocently, and ascend powerfully so that we could live eternally with him and be saved from the sting of death!"

Simply Pitiful...

The past few days have been tough on the Elliott family. It started with Avery getting sick, then me. and lastly Levi. We have all just had run of the mill colds, but they put us out of commission every time. I have a terrible respiratory system and I am praying that Avery doesn't inherit it. Even though we thought it was just a cold, I took her to the pediatrician just in case and he confirmed it was a cold as we had suspected and that it was not RSV. RSV had not even crossed my mind...let alone the possibility that we could be in the hospital, if that is what she had. As of today though, I am happy to say that Avery is on the upswing of her cold and her mommy and daddy, although a little more slowly, are recovering nicely as well. However, you can tell from this picture taken the night before her drs. visit, she was one sick...but still really cute....little girl! The last one is from the day after...a big improvement! Looks like she will be feeling jolly for her 1st Christmas after all!

After the regular Drs. visit, we headed to the Chiropractor. Call me crazy, but I believe in it. Being adjusted throughout pregnancy is what I credit with having such an easy time and sleeping the whole 10 months. At 38 weeks 3 days, I was the furthest along pregnant lady my chiropractor had ever adjusted!

Any ways, I have been going for about 3 years and during that time, Levi and I read up on the positive effects that adjustments have on babies and children too. We learned that it can help with colic, acid reflux, ear infections, and colds. After talking with several people who take their kids, together we decided that Avery would be adjusted regularly and for sure when she is sick. Her first visit was at 2 months and she smiled the whole time. Since I am a patient, my Dr. doesn't charge for Avery. If you need a great chiropractor, Dr. Sean Lauratis in Auburn is who we use and I highly recommend him. If you need a great pediatrician we use Dr. Anthony Greer. He is a primary care physician as well as a pediatrician and loves to treat young families as a whole. I really like that he knows and treats our entire family.

Until next time...

3 Months!!

We took two 3 month pictures on different nights...I couldn't choose so I posted both. On one of the signs, you can see where she drooled on it. Our little chunk weighed 13 lbs 10 oz. at her 3 month appointment. She is so stinking cute!

Where has the time gone? Now that I am back at work, it is really hard to find time to blog. When I get home, any extra time I have is spent with my two loves!

Avery is getting to be so much fun. She smiles at everything and everyone...but especially her momma. I love that when me or Levi walk in a room she hears our voice and turns her head. It is such a great feeling. My favorite time is when she first wakes up in the morning. As you can see from the pictures, she is all smiles, even before she opens her eyes.

She is constantly "talking" now too. She particularly likes the O sound. We say O and then she says it back to us, sometimes a resounding OOOOOOOOO. I think she really likes to hear herself and according to Levi, is going to be quite a talker like her mom! She loves her hands and has them in her mouth all the time now. She sucks her pointer finger and every now and then her thumb, but still enjoys her paci the most. She can see it coming toward her and lunges for it. I love how when she wants to go to sleep, you just stick it in her mouth, turn her on her side toward you and bam, she is out! It works no matter who is holding her :)

Speaking of sleep, she is a WONDERFUL sleeper. Praise the Lord for this. We started putting her on a schedule almost as soon as we got home from the hospital and while it was hard work, I don't regret one minute of it. We moved her to her crib at 10 weeks and it was a seamless transition. We accidentally left the co-sleeper at mom's when she stayed with her, so we decided just to leave it and move on to the crib. It was sad at first not having her beside us...each transition is sad and exciting all at the same time :) We are so blessed that she did not have colic or reflux...I can't even pretend to know what dealing with those two issues would be like.

At night, I nurse her at 9:30, Levi swaddles and rocks her, then lays her down in her crib. Some nights we might have to go in once or twice shortly after that to put her paci back in, but not often. Then she sleeps until we get her up in the morning. She has been doing this pretty much since she was 5 weeks old. This past Saturday, she slept from 9:30 p.m. until 9:00 a.m. Let me just say Babywise works and is AWESOME. One thing that works for us really well is letting her sleep on her stomach. I know this is not recommended, but that is how she sleeps the best. Not to mention that is also how pretty much everyone who reads this blog slept when they were babies too. Avery has really good head control and can move it back and forth at will, so we don't worry about her.

Throughout the day she still eats every 3 to 3.5 hours with the last time at 9:30 or so. I am pumping throughout the day at work and then nursing once I am back at home. We joke that I have enough milk to feed 3 kids! I really hope it stay this way, my goal is to continue until she is at least 9 months old. I am really blessed to have my own office and a very supportive boss, who just recently finished nursing her son for over a year.

We are so looking forward to celebrating Christmas this year and New Year's will be in Tampa! Until next time...

Smarty Pants!

So Dad, you need help with #23 across?

Don't worry, I will help you...What is a five letter word for beautiful? Avery of course!