Averie is laughing!

After what seems like months of trying to get Averie to laugh, we have finally found the trick. Unfortunately, it has nothing to do with myself, Jerome, Nana, or any other person that Averie knows. Leave it to our dog, Louis, to finally get our solemn girl giggling. It turns out that Avi thinks that Louis running around in circles and fighting with Lola is the most hilarious thing in the world. She is obsessed with Lou, so it should not be a surprise that he would be the one to get her laughing. And now, we find ourselves constantly coaxing Lou into action just so we can here that sweet little belly laugh. Oh. how we love it!

Averie is 4 Months Old!

It's hard to believe that Averie is already four months old! Where has the time gone? I am finding myself more and more in love with her every day, and I am dreading the end of summer, when I'll have to return to work.  We have definitely been enjoying our time together. Oh, why does summer have to end so soon?

Here is a little update on our feisty 4 month old:

-We didn't have an "official" check-up this month, due to some mixed-up scheduling of appointments. Not sure on her exact weight and height, but our home scale says she is somewhere in the 12lb range, and she is definitely getting longer because her clothes are getting shorter and she has grown out of her bassinet. My mom and I took her in for the 4 month shots this past week, and I'm proud to say she took them like a champ! Much improvement from the bloody-murder-scream-fest that happened at her 2 month shots. She cried a little, but was calm shortly after, and thankfully she only ran a low temp of 99.7 the next afternoon, and it was gone within an hour!

-Averie is still a "grazer" when it comes to eating, and will take anywhere from 2-4 ounces, depending on her mood. We are officially phasing out breast milk and sticking to Good Start formula. I figure 4 months of me breast feeding and pumping was excellent, considering all the trouble I had. I am happy to be moving on, and hopefully she is too! We started rice cereal this week. Averie is not quite sure what to make of it. She makes some pretty silly faces while eating it, and I can't quite decide if she truly likes it or not. A great majority of the cereal often ends up on her face, but I know it is more of learning mechanism than nutritional source. We will keep at it!

-She is awesome at holding up her head, and has gotten really good at turning her head to follow people as they move. Averie rolled over once for my mom last week, but has yet to do it again. I know she knows how to do it, but given her feisty nature, she is probably purposely holding off because we want it so badly. She will do it when she wants to, on her own time! The same goes with laughing. She is selective with her laughs, but when she does, it is so cute! I find myself trying to do anything I can to get her to giggle. Hopefully she will be more forthcoming with her laughs in the next few weeks.

-Averie has started to babble A LOT. We definitely have a talker on our hands. In the mornings, she has been waking up much earlier just to "chat". Sometimes I ask her questions, and she will babble back, almost as if she can understand. It is so cute! She is also responding to voices and her name.

- Averie continues to grab at everything in sight. She also wants to taste everything that comes within her reach. She is very "oral" and wants to suck on just about all her toys, hands, feet and clothing, as well as the hands of anyone holding her. She is also a big time drooler. I feel like I am constantly wiping her little chin. I know this is all going to get worse when she begins teething in the near future!

-Averie has begun whining sometimes when you take away something she is enjoying. The other day she was fascinated with looking at my new watch, but every time I moved my arm away from her, she would cry. As soon as I put my wrist back within her reach, the tears ended, and smiles ensued! I guess she likes jewelry and diamonds as much as I do!

-We have been having as love/hate relationship with sleeping. At my last post, she was sleeping a good 5+ hour stretch, followed by a few 3 hour stretches. Upon writing those very words, I think I jinxed us. For the past month, Averie's sleep habits have been all over the place. Gone are the solid 5-7 hour stretches. At first, she started waking up on an hourly basis, sometimes to eat, but mostly to be re-swaddled or the paci to be put back in. It was miserable! That lasted for about a week. Now we have moved on to sleeping a good 3-4 hour stretch, which is an improvement, but nowhere near the blissful 5+. On top of that, she has also discovered how to get her arms out of the swaddle, but then fusses until we re-swaddle her. This happens several times a night (and during naps too). This all makes for one exhausted family. We've tried a lot of things to get her sleeping again (earlier bed time, bigger bed time feeding, stopping the swaddle), but none of it has helped. I've done a lot of research on sleeping patterns of 4 month olds, and I guess this type of sleep "regression" is very common during this time. 14-19 weeks is a huge developmental period for babies, and just like clockwork, she has not been sleeping since 14 weeks, and as I write this, we are at week 19. I pray that this erratic sleep schedule is on its way out and we will be back to our good sleeping habits soon.

-We bought Averie a jumper this past week. She is loving the new toys attached to it, but hasn't quite figured out how to make her little legs jump.

-Averie took her first road trip. My mom, Jerome, AverieLaughlin, The Grand Canyon (so amazing!), and our usual summer stop in Scottsdale. Averie did great considering the long car rides! We were so thankful to have my mom with us. She sat in the back with Avi and acted like a "circus clown" of sorts, entertaining Averie for many hours.

-Averie LOVES swimming. In Scottsdale, we took her swimming while we were staying at the Four Seasons. She absolutely loved being in the pool. Jerome held her, and would "drag" her little body around the pool. You could see her little legs paddling in the water, and she had the BIGGEST smile on her face the whole time. She is definitely our little mermaid girl!

-She loves Louis and is constantly looking around the room for him. When he is close, she will put her hands out for him to lick, and loves petting him. He is her little side kick, and pretty much follows me around the house whenever I have Averie with me. I know they are going to be great friends!