Avery at Six Months

We took Avery to her 6-month check-up yesterday to find she is growing steadily in the 25th percentile for weight (14.5 lbs) and 75th for height. She was all smiles until she was given four shots in her thighs! Ugh, I hated that for her!

She is still a super happy little girl with lots to coo and smile about. She's been sitting up all by herself for a few weeks now. She grabs everything within reach and tries her hardest to get to things just out of reach. She is loving all the baby food she's tried so far... peas, carrots, sweet potatoes, bananas, pears and apple sauce. She also eyes everything we eat and tries to grab for it. I almost feel bad eating in front of her. :) She still sleeps very well taking several naps during the day and sleeps 10 hours at night.

Finally, she's old enough to bring to my gym's child-care!!! I've really enjoyed working out indoors again. Running in all this cold weather was really getting old!

I'm just amazed at how fast these first six months have gone by! We love you, sweet Avery!

With the standard amount of spit-up on her chin.

Loving the sweet potatoes!

Seven Inches of Snow in NC!

We awoke to a winter wonderland this morning! We put on the warmest clothing we could find and headed outside to play. The snow was perfect for packing into snowballs or building a snowman. We did a little of both... after Mike shoveled the driveway with a gardening shovel (not prepared for so much snow in these parts!) we built "the biggest snowman ever" at AK's request. Then a snowball fight ensued. I got Mike pretty good a couple times, but he won. I had snow packed in my hair and down my neck! Naturally, we warmed back up with hot chocolate. :)

We only had baby carrots, so we went with coal for everything. :)

Helping place Frosty's nose.

And the scarf. This looks like a snow storm, but it was actually just the wind blowing the thick snow off the trees in our backyard.

Needless to say, Avery didn't stay outside very long. She napped, warm and cozy in her crib during the snowman building and snowball fight. :)

AK enjoying hot chocolate with marshmallows.

As I type this, the sun is already claiming old Frosty. :(

Hail & Farewell Party

A few weeks ago, I was jogging in our neighborhood with the girls in the stroller. As I came down the home stretch of our street, I noticed a big black flag sticking up beside the tree in our neighbor's front yard. I started to wonder what it could mean... then I noticed in was actually in OUR yard. [I'm running closer at this point] Had it been there when I left? [Nearing our yard] Is it some sort of gang sign? [Looking around to see if anyone is lurking around] Are we the next gang target? [Pulling up the flag to see some sort of Japanese symbol on it] Are we some Japanese gang's next target?!

I began to realize how absurd a direction my thoughts were going, so I looked at the other side of the flag and recognized Mike's squadron's tiger insignia. OK, so something to do with Mike's work... I call him to find out we have been tasked to host the next Hail & Farewell for VMA-542. They are for welcoming the new Marines and sending off the Marines who are moving on to a different squadron or wherever. And apparently these parties always have themes.

So Mike and I researched some fun ideas online and came up with a "Dead Celebrities" theme where you dress up as a celebrity who has passed. I know it sounds morbid, but it actually turned out really fun!

I designed the theme graphics we would use and Mike sent the invites out via e-mail. Then we rented some velvet ropes and made a red carpet out of red roll paper that we set up in front of our house. I made a slideshow including pictures of all the celebrities I could find online and listed their names and years. We looped it and played it on the TV all night. That was about as far as I got with the theme besides a few stars here and there.

We ended up having a great turnout. It really was a fun time. Mike dressed up as Paul Newman (because he looks like him anyway) and I was a very unconvincing Marilyn Monroe. Our guests had some fabulous costumes including Steve Irwin (crocodile hunter) - we had four of those, Audrey Hepburn, Michael Jackson, Caesar, Bob Marley, Anna Nicole Smith (a guy dressed as her which was hysterical), Bonnie and Clyde, Rick James, Farrah Fawcett, Pat Morita (Karate Kid's Mr. Miyagi), Billy Mays (the Oxy Clean guy), Johnny Cash, and so many more.

Here's a picture of the whole group:

"John Lennon" was especially good because this guy is British. He said he actually already had everything for his outfit! :)

Now we look forward to passing the black flag to someone else's yard!

Girls' Weekend in NYC!

I flew to NYC last Friday to meet four friends for a girls' weekend. It was SOOO much fun! My friend, Nikki, and her husband have lived in Midtown for several years, and we went up there to celebrate her recent birthday. We rented an apartment in Manhattan that was beautiful and a lot bigger than I'd anticipated. It had three floors and lots of space. We spent time just hanging out there as well as going to see Phantom of the Opera, eating a couple DELICIOUS dinners and going out on the town afterward. Did you know that you can order food from almost any place in that city and they'll bring it right to your door?! They have this whole web site set up where you browse any restaurant, click what you want from the menu and just charge it to your account. A few minutes later, a hot meal (yummy breakfast omlettes, in our case) shows up! It was bitterly cold up there, but we didn't get any rain or snow, so that was a plus.

I missed AK and Avery, but it was nice to have a short break for some time with friends I haven't seen in a long time. I was nervous to leave Avery because I still nurse her, but she did fine with the pumped milk out of a bottle from the babysitter all day Friday and from Mike on Saturday and Sunday. However, me trying to pump while out and about in NYC was interesting to say the least! So worth it though.

Times Square. The ball... Mike and I went to NYC for New Year's Eve ('98/'99) and I remember being surprised at how small this ball is. On TV it looks so big!

My college friend and sorority sister, Meredith.

Maggie drinking from her coffee cup in the Backroom's bathroom while I pumped in the stall. hahaha

Jill, Nikki and Maggie. Nik and Mag are also my ADPi college friends. Jill lives in Chicago and works with them. I had the pleasure of meeting her for the first time while there.

View of the Empire State Building from the rooftop restaurant/bar we visited before going to STK for dinner.