A Visit from the Onesto's

Last week started with Grandma Carolyn flying in on Tuesday to help while Chad was in San Antonio for business. Then on Thursday Avery got to meet her Uncle Anthony, Aunt Debbie and her cousins, Nicolette, Frankie and Ella for the first time. The Onesto's arrived right around dinner time and we were so excited to see them.

Avery meeting Frankie

All the girls!!

The visit was jammed packed with fun activities. Friday we headed to an indoor water park in Frankenmuth. The water park was just perfect for the kids and they had a blast. Nicolette went on the big waterslides with her dad. Frankie loved the little waterslide and Ella just enjoyed splashing in the water. Even Avery got dressed in her bathing suit for the first time.

Avery in her swimsuit

Ella in the water swing

Aunt Debbie and Nikki in the lazy river

After a nice lunch the kids decided they were done with the water park and wanted to hang out in the arcade. They played lots of games and even won some prizes. Their favorite prize seemed to be a whoopie cushion which came with us everywhere for the rest of the trip:0) After leaving the water park we stopped by Bronner's the largest Christmas shop in the world. After that we headed home to take showers before heading out to dinner that night.

Dinner was at Genji's the Japanese steakhouse in town. Unfortunately, Midland does not get the top quality Hibachi chefs and Frankie was left wondering why there was no volcano, but the food was yummy and the kids seemed to enjoy the show.

Nikki at dinner

Frankie with Chad

Saturday we started off by heading to the Children's Zoo in Saginaw. Despite being small it was really perfect for a short visit. We saw Bald Eagles, Penguins, an Otter, Kangaroos and lots of farm animals. The kids even got to practice milking a cow and we rode on the miniature train.

Frankie and a wolf

Nikki on a seal

Frankie and Ella milking a cow

Avery was such a good girl

After the zoo the girls and Frankie we headed to the outlets for a bit to do some shopping. While Uncle Anthony and Chad went to the World Beer Expo in Frankenmuth. After shopping we went bowling. Frankie, Nikki and I bowled while Grandma Carolyn, Aunt Debbie and Ella watched. Frankie was so excited as it was his first time bowling and thanks to bumpers both he and Nicolette did very well.

Nikki going for a strike

Frankie bowling for the first time

After bowling Chad and Uncle Anthony joined us for dinner. After that we headed back to our house to get everything ready for everyone to leave at 5 am the next morning.

Grandma Carolyn and I woke up at 4:30 and the plan was for Anthony to just load the kids into the car while they were still sleeping. Unfortunately, Nicolette woke up and started to cry that she did not want to leave. Of course this broke my heart and I too started to cry. It was so hard to say goodbye especially since it was such an amazing visit. Luckily, Chad, Avery and I will be in NJ in three weeks so we will see everyone again soon.

2 month check up

Avery is now 2 months old and continues to amaze us with each passing day. Avery had her 2 month well visit on Monday and she did amazing. She is still on the smaller side, although she did climb to the 50% for weight, weighing in at 10 pounds 7 ounces. She was still in the 25% for height and head size measuring 22 1/2 and 15 inches respectively. The doctor checked to make sure Avery is hitting all of her milestones like smiling and picking up her head up when she is on her belly. We were not worried about the first milestone at all as all you have to do is talk to Avery and she will smile and sure enough the doctor talked to her and Avery immediately smiled, laughed and tried to talk to the doctor. The doctor said it was the easiest smile she has gotten from a baby as she normally has to work for it. We warned the doctor that Avery is often very lazy during tummy time and likes to just lie there without lifting her head. Well did Avery ever make a liar out of Chad and I. Not only did she lift her head, but she basically did a baby push-up using her hands to lift up her chest as well. She held it up for a long time and even had her legs moving a ton. So much so that the doctor said she looked like she was trying to crawl. The doctor kept saying that Avery was perfect and although we already feel that way it was great to hear :O)

On the negative side Avery did have to get 4 vaccinations. One was oral and three were shots. She did great with the oral one, but as was expected she did not enjoy the shots. As soon as the first one went in our little girls face turned more red than I have ever seen it. She screamed out in pain which broke our hearts, but once it was all done she calmed down in less than a minute. She slept a ton after the shots, which the doctor said she would. The nurse suggested I give her infant Tylenol as soon as we got home so I went out and picked some up. I did not give it to her because she seemed to be doing well.....that was a huge mistake on my part. Around 4pm she woke up screaming. I tried feeding her thinking she was hunger and she would not take it. I could not even hold my poor baby because her legs hurt so bad. I gave her the Tylenol and after a half hour of heart wrenching screams she calmed down. You better believe I gave her the Tylenol every 4 hours after that. The next day she was fine and back to her happy self.

Avery's next visit will be at 4 months!!

Is it the beat??

In my 28 week post I mentioned that Chad and I had invested in the Babyplus pre-natal education system. Chad and I referred to the Babyplus as the beat since it's lessons consisted of hour long thumping sounds to mimic the sound of my heartbeat. The beat had 16 lessons, which I played twice a day for the last 14 weeks of my pregnancy. The beat claims to help babies to absorb more of the environment around them leading to higher intellectual, social, emotional and creative skills. While all this sounds great what really caught the attention of Chad and I was that many of the reviews said it helps babies to sleep better and to be more alert.

From the moment Avery was first born many people told us that she was very alert. Avery was able to follow voices and turn her head from side to side since she was a week old. We thought maybe it could be because of the beat, but we not certain. This week, Avery's 6th week we got the results that convinced us the beat was a great investment. On Wednesday night Avery slept from 10 pm to 6 am.... 8 hours straight!!! Both Chad and I woke up that morning and were shocked and thought it was probably a fluke. Well she did it again on Thurs, Fri and Saturday night and all we could think is that it was because of the beat.

According to babycenter.com experts say most babies are capable of sleeping through the night when they hit 3-6 months, but they define sleeping through the night as going 5 or 6 hour stretched. Given that statistic I think it was worth the $150 to get our little girl to sleep 8 hours when she is 6 weeks old!!

A Visit to Dow Gardens

I am finally catching up on blogging and posted three new stories today!!!

We have had some really nice days in Midland over the last two weeks. Avery and I try to get out for a walk every opportunity we have. Unfortunately, unlike when we lived in Boston and Hoboken the scenery in Midland leaves something to be desired. Most of the time Avery and I are stuck walking around subdivisions. The other day I heard that Dow Gardens had tulips on display. Since these are one of my favorite flowers I figured Avery and I should visit the gardens for one of our daily walks. Avery and I walked around the gardens for about 45 minutes seeing all the beautiful tulips and rhododendrons that were in bloom. Avery slept through most of our walk, but we will definitely go back as new flowers come into season.

Lots of Tulips

Avery in the Tulips

Smiles and Laughing

As I mentioned in a previous post Avery started smiling and laughing about two weeks ago. It took me a while but I finally got some pictures of this amazing milestone. Each time she smiles it melts our hearts!!

A partial smile

Bigger smile

Laughing

Avery's First Passport and Kentucky Derby

It took me 20 years before I got my passport, but for Avery she was just under 6 weeks old. Chad and I are big travelers and as Chad always likes to tell me I have been all over the world, but have yet to see anything in this country. I always said places like the Grand Canyon are for when you have kids, but I still have a very strong desire to expose Avery to other cultures and people. I am sure we will get to the Grand Canyon someday.

Our first trip out of the country will be an easy one. We hope to go to Toronto, Canada sometime in July. This will be the first trip to Canada for both Avery and myself. Toronto is only about 5 hours from Midland so it is a good trip to start with. We may also stop by Niagara Falls for a day.

Even though I called ahead to make sure they took photos of infants at the County Clerks Office when we arrived the lady said they don't take photo's of babies. I told her I had called ahead two weeks ago and they said they would try. Luckily another lady at the counter offered to at least attempt to get Avery's photo. Luckily Avery was very cooperative and it took less than a minute for the women to get an acceptable photo. The lady was so proud of the shot she took she even sent us home with extra copies. I am so grateful that she was there to help us out since the other women did not even want to try. Here is Avery's first passport photo:

Avery also experienced her first Kentucky Derby. Since the weather in Midland was beautiful (unlike in Kentucky) and Aunt Kelsy and Steve were in town we decided to host a barbecue. We had about 15 of our friends over to watch the race with some even dressing up for the occasion. Avery herself was decked out in her Polo dress and flower headband.

Avery all dressed for the derby

Our family