THE BLAND FAMILY: Milestones!

(Originally written July 9th)

Seems like a lot has gone on the last couple of weeks! Avery turned 4 mos. old. We celebrated the 4th of July. We got a new deck. We dealt with illness. And lots and lots of sleepless nights. :)

First off, our new deck. We really wanted a patio but we don't plan on being at our house long-term, so we figured just replacing our existing (dilapidated!) deck was the best (most cost effective) thing. We're excited to have a bigger space!

Before

After

Avery Update:

Milestones: Lots of milestones hit lately for little miss Avery!! She's rolling! Well, she has rolled. LOL. She rolled belly to back on 6/29 (16w 4d). She had been showing signs the preceding days so I put her on her belly again that night to see if she'd get close again. I think she was so pissed at tummy time that she finally flipped herself over - haha! She looked a little shocked when she ended up on her back. :) We all started clapping and yelling. Carson too - "Good job Avery!" It was so cute. I was so excited that Lucas and I were both there to see it. It seemed like I missed a bunch of Carson's firsts.

Right before. Notice how MAD she is!

YAY Avery!!

That same night, she found her toes! She's been grabbing at them since then.

Then on 7/5 (4 mos. exactly), she rolled from back to belly! I think she was just trying to see the TV, but...she did it.
She can stop growing up now any time. :)

Ear infection: Avery had a cold for a couple of weeks but was pretty much over it. I went out for the first time w/ Mandy (6/30) (so much fun!), and not even 10 minutes into our night, Lucas called to say that Avery had a fever! (Another first I missed I guess!) It wasn't that high but enough to make her fussy for sure. She ran a fever the rest of the weekend, getting up to 102.1. Not horrible since she's over 3 months old, but it was obvious that she was miserable. Her skin was hot to the touch and we had to just leave her in her diaper. Poor thing! I went ahead and took her to the doctor Monday to rule out an ear infection, etc. But he actually confirmed that she DID have one. He said she probably had a virus too but her right ear looked pretty bad and it was obvious that she felt pretty awful. :( So we've got one dose left of our first antibiotic. He confirmed that she definitely had rotavirus (AKA nasty poo) too. He said to start a probiotic and hopefully that would help. She's pooing w/ every single feeding now, but knock on wood, it's normal poo! Anyway, it took a few days of her feeling pretty yucky, but she seems to be on the mend. :)

Teething: We think Avery's teething now too (started around 17-18 weeks). She's been drooling constantly for a while and lately, she's been chewing on everything and pretty fussy. If I remember correctly, Carson started teething early and had symptoms for months before that first tooth popped through!

Swaddle-buster: We're still struggling hard-core with sleep. We swaddle at night and she's been busting out! She wants that right arm out for sure. But she usually wakes up then. I'm tempted to just wean her now, since her sleep isn't great anyway. But she does sleep better with it, and selfishly, I'm so tired.

"I will not be contained!"

Carson Update:

Quotes: I've been bad lately about writing everything he says down, but I've caught a few. He just cracks us up pretty much constantly. I'm amazed at some of the stuff he says. :)
- "Crayons, line up. Ready to go outside. Good job crayons." :) (They must line up to go outside at daycare!"
- "It's ok, Avery. Mommy needs to get your boogies!" - Reassuring Avery when Mommy had to get out the nose bulb sucker!
- "Avery can't play in the pool Mommy. She's too little. Maybe when she's bigger". - This in fact is the start of many things. Avery can't do quite a lot because she's too little. But maybe soon..... :)
- "She's too little to wrestle bellies with me?"
- "My piggy toes are too cute!"
- "I just wanna........(you name it!)" - Watch TV, take a bath, see my friends, etc., etc.
- "Could I.......(again, you name it!)" - But oh how cute! I'm not sure if they do this at daycare, but lately everything is "Could I please.....". I just love it!!

Sweet brother: Carson continues to be the best big brother! He just adores his sister and is always looking out for her. I just love seeing them interact more. I hope they grow up to be the best of friends. When they're not beating each other up, that is. :)