Monday, October 29, 2012

Avery's First Sensory Bag!

I'm an advocate for offering kids different experiences that help them to figure out this big 'ol world they're living in - even if that means letting them get a little messy. Thanks to my favorite website obsession, Pinterest, I have found some amazing ideas for all kinds of fun play that engages kids by allowing them to experiment with different things. 

My ultimate favorite is Growing a Jeweled Rose. If you're looking for fun activities to do with your kids that are sensory, educational, and cheap (most of them are made out of things around the house), this is a great site to browse around! I seriously want to repin EVERYTHING she posts and I'm so excited to try out all the neat things she has that I'm almost excited for Avery to get a little older to enjoy them. Avery is getting to the point where he's old enough to experiment with Sensory Bags, so I whipped one up for him the other day to try it out. He did love it, mainly because it looked like something fun to put in his mouth. Like everything else within arm's reach. :)

He especially loved watching the little characters move around when he hit the bag. It worked great on his tummy too because that's where he had the best angle to latch onto the surface :)  

I used a gallon-size freezer bag filled with water (I did buy some hair gel to use as 'goo' inside, but I thought I'd start with water just in case it leaked. I'll be using the goo in another bag down the road) and just filled it with stuff I had around the house - some yarn (which looks really neat flowing around in the water!) and some little foam critter stickers. I used duct tape to seal around the edges (for extra reinforcement). I wanted to keep the contents pretty simple for my first one, but there are SO many other cool things that I've been thinking of to put in future bags!

Here's a link to Sensory Bags if you want to try one out for yourself. (they're a GREAT way to keep toddlers busy, too!) and here's where you can find  50+ play activities for babies. Seriously, people, there aren't enough hours in the day to try out all these amazing things, but I'm going to give it my best shot!  (I see colored spaghetti noodles in a baby pool in our future!)


Wednesday, October 17, 2012

Our Little Caterpillar...


By introducing him to books early, we figure he should be reading in a few months...
ha ha!! :) He's so intellectual!
While going through Avery's closet the other day, I realized he has SO many cute outfits that he won't fit into for much longer... and I've never taken his picture in many of them! 

This one is really special because, as many of you know, 'Eric Carle' is the theme in Avery's nursery (you can check out the nursery reveal here) and at our baby shower back in April, he received this super-cute outfit from my step-aunt (step-aunt? Well, my step-mom's sister, anyway... she rocks.) that she had bought years ago when Carters had an Eric Carle line of clothing and had just held onto... it was fate that she and I should meet and Avery should come along and have an Eric Carle themed room! Perfect!! 


Not only are they overalls (my FAVORITE article of clothing for little boys!), but they have a line from the book on them and he even has matching socks with a little caterpillar on the side! (When Avery was first born and all swaddled up so cute, we called him 'Our Little Caterpillar' :)

Since receiving this outfit, Avery has also gotten 2 more outfits from the same Eric Carle line (thanks Sally and Lisa for being such good scouts!) and I'll be sharing them as soon as he fits into them!

Happy Wednesday!!


Thursday, October 11, 2012

Avery: 4 Months!


How is my baby 4 months old?!  I'm still convinced that I have the fastest growing child of all time. I'm sure no mother has ever said that... ;)

Avery had his 4 month well-baby checkup the other day and is doing awesome. He weighs in at
16 lbs 14 oz
,
(in the 85th percentile)  and is
26.5 inches long
, (in the 97th percentile!) Surprise, surprise... I know :)


He's developing a strong personality and is oh-so-sweet. He's so content and so alert, taking in everything around him. He's become more vocal this month and gets stronger by the day.






What Avery is up to at 4 Months:
  • He FINALLY has a napping routine/schedule that doesn't include the nap-and-nurse all day in my lap
  • Nighttime is still pretty hit-or-miss. He usually goes down great, but how long he stays sleeping is another story. Some nights he will get up 6-7 times to nurse, other nights only once. He slept better his first weeks of life than he does now... Sleeping is definitely our biggest challenge.
  • He enjoys play sessions on the floor and is so content just hanging out and 'talking' to (and eating) whatever colorful object happens to be nearby.
  • He's much more tolerant of 'tummy time' and reaches for things while on his tummy.
  • He loves to sit up in his high chair at the table with us and play with toys while watching us eat.
  • He prefers to chew on his index and middle fingers
  • He loves to go on neighborhood walks with his BFF, Max :)
  • He can SIT by himself for short periods of time, and will sit supported forever and play. Sometimes he even gets frustrated when we leave him on his back too long
  • He pulls everything into his mouth.
    Everything.
    And then he drools on it.
    So much drool...
  • He blows raspberries :)
  • He can get his feet up in the air and roll onto his side, but stops there
  • He notices Bella and Jasper and watches them intently 

  • He's gotten 'spooked' by a few men he's encountered over the last few weeks. We aren't sure if it's their voices or their facial hair or what - hopefully it's just a phase!

  • He had his first giggle-fest with daddy over the weekend. He's been giving little 'chuckles' for a while now, but this is the first time he's straight-up giggled. I'm so lucky to have gotten it on video (even Grandma Connie got a laugh out of it!)

This past weekend, Grandma Connie and Grandpa Delbert came to visit and hooked Avery up with some Packers gear! He spent LOTS of time playing, talking and reading with Grandma and even warmed up to Grandpa by the end of the weekend :)