Avery's Day at the Zoo

My cousins Rebecca, her mom Karen, and her son Ethan, my mom, Avery and I went to the Ft. Wayne Children's Zoo last week. We had an awesome day! Despite it being 99 degrees, we managed to survive and spent a whole day seeing all the animals. The kids were awesome and we all enjoyed it.
Avery got to see what it would be like being a little "joey." I think she would LOVE having her own kangaroo pouch to play in!
The seals were probably her favorite animals. They were swimming around in their tank and she loved to watch them pass by.
We got some dry corn and fed the ducks and geese. Avery thought this was hilarious!
We rode a manatee on the carousel. Avery thought it was so fun and cried when we got off. I'll have to remember to bring a few extra dollars next time so we can ride again. :)
The giraffes were really neat! There was a brand new baby giraffe that was only a few weeks old!
There was a big female lion (you can see her in the back right hand corner) but we didn't get to see the male.
This was a carpuchian monkey. It and its buddies enjoyed putting on a show for us (this is the kind of monkey from "Night at the Museum").

It was such a great day and I'm so glad we got to do this! We are planning a trip to the Memphis Zoo in September and they have lots of different animals that Avery and I didn't get to see in Ft. Wayne. We are checking out library books on the zoo and learning about all kinds of animals. Can't wait for the next trip!

Avery is 10 months old!

Avery's favorite things: Playing with her train, music, Baby Einstein sign language video, swinging, cell phones, snacks, strawberries, sharing yogurt with mommy, talking on the phone, playing with other babies.

New milestones: Takes 3-4 steps without holding on, plays standing up without holding on, helps to "dress" herself (pulls her head/legs/arms out of her clothes), sticks out her tongue when you ask "where is your tongue?".

Dislikes: "Real" peaches, bananas, and melon unless mommy eats it first, loud dog barking, the car wash, bathroom hand dryers, laying down to having her diaper changed.

She is starting to look and act so big! The baby stage is almost over and we are moving on quickly to toddler stage. She is going to be walking and talking full force in a few more weeks. It's almost time to plan her first birthday party. This has been the most awesome year and while I'm so sad to see it pass, I am also so happy to see what kind of things this little sweet girl does in the future. I love you Avery!

Avery's 9 month pictures

Back from the Beach

We've been back from our beach vacation to Topsail Island, NC for almost a week now. I HATE coming back from vacation! It's so hard to get back in the rhythm of things. We left and drove overnight on 7/9 which worked really great for us. Little missy slept most of the time, waking only when we stopped and then went back to sleep. When we stopped in Beckley, WV, she got really excited when she saw a little boy. It turned out that they had the EXACT same birthday! It was so fun. We drove back part way on 7/17, had lunch in Greensboro, NC with our friend Amanda who we used to worship with in Fort Wayne. Then we stayed overnight in Charleston, WV and drove the rest of the way Sunday and made it back in time for a little rest before evening services.
We have a beach babe on our hands! Avery loved everything about the beach (I think it's inherited!). She wanted to go right into the water, didn't mind the sand at all (even the few mouthfuls she got) and took the BEST naps. Her doctor was very proud of us for not letting her get a baby tan!
We liked taking walks on the beach every day. Sometimes they weren't very far, but often they ended up in a nap for Avery! One day, the three of us walked down to the house where the rest of our family was staying....about 2 miles away. Avery took a nice nap in the stroller, Nathan pushed her and I looked for shark's teeth. It was great!
Avery liked going shopping at the beach stores and she wanted to check out this super cute Avery-sized chair!
Avery was super fascinated by Grandpa's fish. She really wanted to touch one, but as her hands frequently end up in her mouth..that didn't happen. She DOES have her own fishing pole now, though!
She is also practicing to be a Charlie's Angel. Check her out in her speed boat! It was a great way to unwind after spending lots of time in the car.

We really had the best time. She was great and usually quite a cheese. She took nice, long naps and went to be early every night...giving us plenty of time to boogie board during the day and play euchre at night. Our new car also did very well on the trip...glad we made the change so we had something roomy and reliable for the trip.

Avery is crawling full force now, standing for short periods of time without holding onto anything and pulling up on everything. I will have more pictures of her milestones to post soon. We also had her 9 month (can you believe it?) photoshoot today so those will be posted probably next week.

Well, I guess it's back to reality. The summer is going by too fast!

Fun on the Fourth

Little Avery got all dolled up in her stars and stripes swimsuit for the 4th. She loves to swim and kick in the water. It was 90 degrees so a great day for swimming!
Avery got her new big girl carseat just time for our North Carolina trip!
Avery likes to eat sour pickles!
Hanging out in the water...
Getting ready for her first fireworks! She liked them although they were a little loud. She actually fell asleep during the last 15 minutes of the display!
On 4th of July morning, Avery got to get up and eat her first pancake before church.

Avery likes to get snuggled up and take walks with mommy and daddy. We'll be using this a lot on the beach!

We have a lot of things to get done before we go to the beach and I think none of us are really looking forward to the 14 hour car ride. We are leaving at night so hopefully little miss will sleep most of the way! So ready for a vacation!

Teeth, and Words, and Crawling...Oh My!

My little Miss Avery has 7 teeth in now and 5 more that should appear before too long. My poor little trooper. We finally have had 3-4 nights of decent sleep for all of us. When her mouth bothers her, it could be waking up every 30 minutes to an hour. It's rough on everyone! I can't believe how different it makes her face look with all those teeth!
Avery enjoys playing a lot. She is getting new big girl toys like this little car. It's neat because it converts so she can stand and walk with it. It has lots of fun gadgets that she likes to play with.
I couldn't resist this picture. These bloomers were a gift from Nathan's cousin, Gina. So cute! This is the only time it's going to be acceptable for anyone to be looking at her little booty!
Avery has a little vibrating toothbrush that she likes to use. It is a lifesaver sometimes when we just need a few hands-free minutes. She likes to do big girl things like mommy and daddy do.
Her favorite toy is her yellow jingle ball. She likes the funny noises that it makes. She also likes playing peek-a-boo...and surprisingly, she LOVES to be scared!
She is also learning how to feed herself. She has a few little snacks that she can eat on her own, but she still really likes when someone feeds it to her. My dad had her eating it out of his hand and now she will eat a snack pretty much wherever it is laying. We are gonna have to watch out for that!

She is getting much more mobile. She rolls and crawls pretty much everywhere now. This also means that she is much more capable of getting into things, which she does quite often now. She also somehow manages to back herself into small spaces and corners, and then can't figure out how to get herself out.

Avery is also building quite the vocabulary. Although some words don't come with any frequency, she can say "da-da", "bye bye", "hi", "baby", and "uh oh." She can also use sign language to say "more."

Everything else seems to be going well in the Seago household. Work is going pretty well for both of us, nothing really eventful but we stay busy. We are looking forward to our Topsail Island vacation soon and for some R&R!

Memorial weekend

I've been enjoying a few days off with my sweet little girl and Nathan's family has been in town for the last several days. We had a house full! Nathan's parents, Pam & Calvin, his sister and her husband and his daughter, Mary Helen, Stefan and Katlyn were all here visiting. We had a wonderful time and it was nice to know that you CAN fit 8 people in a 2000 sq ft house and all get along!
Avery just keeps growing! She will be 8 months on Saturday! Where does the time go? She is the best mannered little baby and she loves to smile and laugh all the time!
Summer is here! We have had lots of warm weather and sunshine. We blew up Avery's little kiddie pool and we've spent some time out there soaking up the rays. Avery LOVES the water and she can even kick herself around the pool a little bit. On Memorial Day, Avery, Pam and I went to a cookout/birthday party at my aunt and uncle's house. They have a big inground pool and we swam for a good hour. I think we could have been in there even longer! The best part... it tuckers Avery out which means some good sleepin'!
Avery enjoyed the time with her Pops and Gram. They made her a recordable storybook so she will always be able to hear their voices, even though they are far away. They are going to come up and help babysit Avery the first week of August while I do some PRN work.
We've been spending as much time outdoors as possible. Our yard and flowers have been amazing this year. We have worked hard at trying to make it all look nice and now it is SO nice that it is hard to keep up with it! Avery and I like to sit outside sometimes while Nathan works in the yard.
Although you can't tell it in this picture, Avery is getting two more teeth. That puts her total up to 4 teeth in the last 6 weeks. The top two are coming in and it makes her little face look so different. She just gets cuter all the time to me though!
She still isn't crawling quite yet, but she does know how to do it backwards. This picture reflects her frustration with that because she can't figure out how to get herself going forwards to get the stuff she wants. It is so funny!
Finally, I think she is starting to look a little more like me! I found a picture when I was about her age and she looks A LOT like I did. I felt so relieved because when she was born she looked nothing like me!
She likes to dress up in pretty dresses for church. She has started going into the baby bible class and has done awesome! She hasn't fussed at all and likes learning with the other babies. Plus, mom and dad get a break and can pay attention in our class!
We had a baby and grown-up play date with my cousin, Rebecca and her husband and little boy, Robb and Ethan a few weeks ago. The last time I posted a picture of these two together, I think Ethan was beating up on Avery, but now she can give him a run for his money! They are so hilarious together, always trying to out-do each other. Once the little ones were down for bed, the grown-ups played Wii Resort!
This last picture is after Avery's super good nap. As you can tell, she likes to lay on her hands. We've always called her ostrich baby because she likes to bury her head in whatever. Sometimes she will be face flat on the bed and it really used to scare me, but I just check in on her and she does just fine. Makes for a funny picture though!

My new jobs finally seem to be settling down some. It's been two months now and I am finally starting to figure it all out. We are looking forward to our beach vacation soon! I will try to post again soon. God bless.