And just a photo of the squishable one, prior to our walk into Decatur with friends yesterday morning.
Thursday, March 29, 2012
Avie's New Sound
Jarrett and I are delighting in Avie's new happy sound.
And just a photo of the squishable one, prior to our walk into Decatur with friends yesterday morning.
And just a photo of the squishable one, prior to our walk into Decatur with friends yesterday morning.
Monday, March 26, 2012
Official Stats
Dr. Owen's office emailed Aveline's growth charts for weight and height. At her six-month visit,
she fell into the 75th percentile for weight (no change from previous
appointment) and 90th-95th percentile for height (a bit of a jump!).
And, as of this morning, she has two teeth -- both of her bottom front teeth!
And, as of this morning, she has two teeth -- both of her bottom front teeth!
Wednesday, March 21, 2012
Extended Stay
The girls, the dog, and I made our way to North Carolina to stay with my parents on Tuesday, February 28, and ended up staying with them until Saturday, April 10. It was quite awhile to be away from home, and even toward the end of the second week, Elsa was asking to go back. Jarrett came up for the weekend in between, so it was nice that we did not go the entire time without seeing him.
We had a really nice time while there. The girls were able to see a lot of their grandparents and Uncle Billy, we were able to get out and do some things while my parents were at work during the day, and Merckx, as usual, had a hayday playing with the border collie next door.
Some of the highlights from the trip were:
- Elsa's jumping sessions with Uncle Billy and Grandpa. She would get a stool, place it in front of the recliner where they were sitting, stand up on it, and then jump off, onto their laps (sorry, guys -- but she had a blast!).
- One evening after my dad got home from work, he pulled out his smaller remote control plane (I think there might be a fancier name for these model planes he built with a friend, but I am not sure of it), named "Sweet Pea" (the larger one is named "Elsa Marie"). My dad tried and tried, but was having a terrible time getting it off the ground. There was a bit of a breeze, and every time it would fly just a bit, it would almost immediately crash back down. Elsa asked if she could do it, so my dad graciously handed over the controls, most likely thinking there was no way she would get the thing to fly, if she could even get it to move at all. He pointed to a lever and told her to move it. I swear to you, that plane took off, did a couple of circles in the air around the culdesac, and then just continued to fly higher and higher, further and further away, until it appeared to come down some great distance behind a neighbor's house. We were about to fall over with our laughter. My dad drove around that evening and Elsa and I took a walk the next day, but our searches came up with no sign of Sweet Pea. Maybe she'll turn up one of these days...
- The girls and I spent the better part of a day at Discovery Place Kids. Elsa had an absolute ball. We started in the morning, took a break and left for some lunch, and then came back. It was still hard to get her to leave. She was able to pretend she was a veternarian, was in heaven while playing with the large water table, drove a car up to the bank teller window, went grocery shopping, played doctor to a little baby, served me and Avie at the cafe, worked on the farm, etc. It was really a fantastic place for young children, and I am sure she will visit again in the future.
- I took the girls to an overlook to watch airplanes take off and land at the Charlotte Douglas International Airport. I attempted to do this with Elsa when she was much younger, but we had problems locating the overlook then and ended up in a fast food restaurant parking lot. We were still lacking our doughnuts. I am telling you, I am not even sure how often we actually did this when I was a child, but I now have a strong association with eating doughnuts and watching the airplanes. (On a side note, I just found out that this place, opening soon here in Decatur, will have gluten-free and vegan doughnuts -- you do not understand how excited I am!) Anyway, we had a fun time at the overlook. The weather was gorgeous, and we enjoyed our picnic lunch in the strong breeze. Elsa spotted a little boy attempting to outrun the planes as they took off and landed, and she eventually decided to try it out herself.
- I somewhat convinced my mom to take a half-day off the last Friday we were there, and all us girls went out for a Mexican lunch and some shopping. My mom and I also made it out to a movie one evening after the girls were in bed -- Safe House. I cannot say I would really recommend it. It was certainly suspenseful. I think my blood pressure was quite elevated by the time we left, and I spent a good part of the movie with the lower part of my face tucked into my zippered fleece. But it was just a lot of shoot-em'-up drama without a whole lot of resolution. It was still so nice to actually go. Mexican and movies -- a must for me and my mom.
- Many trips to Target. Please tell me, why can I not stay away from that place?
And I realized that I just might be able to attempt placing the girls together in their room at night. With my parents' jack-and-jill-style setup with the two rooms and the bathroom upstairs, I often had everything open at night, to where Elsa, who was sleeping in a room with me, could surely hear Aveline when she awoke in the middle of the night, but yet did not wake up herself. Now, there are still other issues. For instance, last night, because Elsa had fallen asleep on the couch for a little while earlier in the afternoon, she did not want to go to sleep. So she ended up staying in her room, with the light on, reading to herself until 9:30 p.m. I am not quite sure if Avie could sleep through all of that. One of these days, we will find out.
Monday, March 19, 2012
Aveline's Half-Birthday
Jarrett and I have decided that barring some God-sent miracle (on His
terms) or mistake on our part, we are completely happy and settled with
our two little girls and do not plan on having any more children.
Because of this, I have found myself savoring each and every moment with
this second baby quite more than the first time around. I try to not
let myself become too overcome with sadness as I watch Avie grow with
each passing day, as I know I have so many days ahead of us to enjoy
both girls as they experience every stage of life. I look forward
to days of learning to read, learning to ride a bike, looking over
homework, experiencing whatever hobbies and extracurricular activities
they cling to, helping them through the inevitable middle school trauma,
watching them grow tall and beautiful, helping them behind the wheel
that first time, seeing them fall giddily in love, crying as they leave
our nest, but staying oh so close to them even in adulthood. But right now, in this moment,
I take snapshots in my mind of all of the baby-ness. I delight in the
rolls of chub, the baby giggles, the sweet baby snoozes, and, yes, even
the closeness while nursing, something I only half-heartedly enjoyed
with our firstborn.
Now I know I likely will not experience all of these baby stages again, so I am clinging to each new step. And time is passing so quickly. Aveline turned six months old -- half a year -- on Friday. And I am delighted with the energy and excitement these coming months hold as she learns to do so many new things, but I am also overly sentimental and nostalgic over the time that has already slipped through our fingers.
Avie is still pretty sedentary, though still manages to move around a lot in her non-mobile-ness. She is squirmy and wiggly, and pushes with her feet while on the changing table, moving herself upward while on her back as if she were an overturned inchworm. As I have said before, she can roll over in both directions, but still has not really seemed to figure out that she can do so. She still is not so keen with tummy time, but does not understand that she can simply roll over to her back at will. She enjoys sitting up for very brief moments, and can somewhat catch herself as she topples forward. She loves to grab anything within reach, and as I read books to her, she enjoys slapping at the pages. She smiles with delight when I sing to her (and when we are all singing in church), especially the ABC song. And yesterday, when her daddy was playing the guitar and singing along, she lit up with joy. She has eaten numerous veggie and fruit purees and multigrain cereal (to introduce her to wheat prior to six months, as our doctor suggested), and I plan on trying yogurt with her soon. She now eats three times a day (if I remember!) and still nurses around seven or eight times in a twenty-four-hour period. She has yet to sleep completely through the night, and will still awake once, usually twice, before she is up for good, usually between 6:00 a.m. and 7:00 a.m. Many times I awaken with her, as we still often sleep together on the couch during that last stretch. Otherwise, she remains in the pack-and-play in the back room during the night, and in the crib for her naps. I am coming close to deciding to just chance putting the girls together at night, but we shall see. Her first tooth broke through her bottom gum over the weekend! And this (possibly in combination with extreme pollen counts and some messed up naps) has probably made her the most fussy she has been, but still completely bearable. She talks up a storm, squealing (or yelling... however you would like to view it) with delight.
This morning was her six-month doctor's appointment, and though I do not have the official measurements/stats written down (I have emailed Dr. Owen for those), my memory is that her head circumference was 17 inches, her weight was 16 pounds, 9 ounces, and her length was 27 and 1/8 inches. So her head measurement stayed the same from last month, but she gained a little over a pound and a little over an inch. She received two vaccinations, which I believe were the Haemophilus influenzae type b [Hib] and pneumococcal conjugate. Her next appointment will be solely for vaccinations, and she should be caught up by then. Overall, Dr. Owen thought she looked wonderful.
We were a month later than we were with Elsa, but we finally pulled out the camera equipment yesterday afternoon and got some great shots of Avie before we lose that gummy grin. I still need to more thoroughly go through them, and hopefully put together a slide show, as I did with Elsa's five-month photos, but here are a couple of my favorites thus far.
Happy half-birthday, sweet one!
Now I know I likely will not experience all of these baby stages again, so I am clinging to each new step. And time is passing so quickly. Aveline turned six months old -- half a year -- on Friday. And I am delighted with the energy and excitement these coming months hold as she learns to do so many new things, but I am also overly sentimental and nostalgic over the time that has already slipped through our fingers.
Avie is still pretty sedentary, though still manages to move around a lot in her non-mobile-ness. She is squirmy and wiggly, and pushes with her feet while on the changing table, moving herself upward while on her back as if she were an overturned inchworm. As I have said before, she can roll over in both directions, but still has not really seemed to figure out that she can do so. She still is not so keen with tummy time, but does not understand that she can simply roll over to her back at will. She enjoys sitting up for very brief moments, and can somewhat catch herself as she topples forward. She loves to grab anything within reach, and as I read books to her, she enjoys slapping at the pages. She smiles with delight when I sing to her (and when we are all singing in church), especially the ABC song. And yesterday, when her daddy was playing the guitar and singing along, she lit up with joy. She has eaten numerous veggie and fruit purees and multigrain cereal (to introduce her to wheat prior to six months, as our doctor suggested), and I plan on trying yogurt with her soon. She now eats three times a day (if I remember!) and still nurses around seven or eight times in a twenty-four-hour period. She has yet to sleep completely through the night, and will still awake once, usually twice, before she is up for good, usually between 6:00 a.m. and 7:00 a.m. Many times I awaken with her, as we still often sleep together on the couch during that last stretch. Otherwise, she remains in the pack-and-play in the back room during the night, and in the crib for her naps. I am coming close to deciding to just chance putting the girls together at night, but we shall see. Her first tooth broke through her bottom gum over the weekend! And this (possibly in combination with extreme pollen counts and some messed up naps) has probably made her the most fussy she has been, but still completely bearable. She talks up a storm, squealing (or yelling... however you would like to view it) with delight.
This morning was her six-month doctor's appointment, and though I do not have the official measurements/stats written down (I have emailed Dr. Owen for those), my memory is that her head circumference was 17 inches, her weight was 16 pounds, 9 ounces, and her length was 27 and 1/8 inches. So her head measurement stayed the same from last month, but she gained a little over a pound and a little over an inch. She received two vaccinations, which I believe were the Haemophilus influenzae type b [Hib] and pneumococcal conjugate. Her next appointment will be solely for vaccinations, and she should be caught up by then. Overall, Dr. Owen thought she looked wonderful.
We were a month later than we were with Elsa, but we finally pulled out the camera equipment yesterday afternoon and got some great shots of Avie before we lose that gummy grin. I still need to more thoroughly go through them, and hopefully put together a slide show, as I did with Elsa's five-month photos, but here are a couple of my favorites thus far.
Happy half-birthday, sweet one!
Saturday, March 10, 2012
Why "Aveline Muir"?
This is something I have been meaning to write for quite some time
now -- nearly six months, to be exact. So, yes, we have a fabulous
second daughter, our Aveline Muir. But I am certain some of you might
have asked yourself (or us, directly, for that matter), why Aveline Muir?
We deliberated over the name of this sweet second one for months. Jarrett and I both prefer less popular names, and were, thus, trying to come up with something somewhat original. We had some more common names on our short list: Lauren, Heidi. And there was one we had from the last time around, Marion. Ingrid was fairly high on the list, but we felt we might be going too far with the Scandinavian names with an Elsa and an Ingrid. We also considered Joanna. And Sydney. And, at one point, almost decided on Jolene.
But one afternoon, during a leisurely search of names on the laptop, Jarrett came across the name Aveline. The French pronunciation of this name is a-vuh-leen, but we preferred the English pronunciation, a-vuh-lin. It sounded very unusual to me right at first, but immediately felt nice across the lips as I said it over and over again. Aveline. Jarrett, I really like that. I think you might have found it.
Being the troubled decisionmakers we are, we still could not commit. And still searched out names. Consistently, though, we came back to Aveline. And when I found out while on a girls' trip up in the mountains that the name meant little bird (or little nut or hazelnut or desired one), I was pretty much sold.
Then came the middle name. This was extremely tough this go around, for some reason. With Elsa, it was a cinch. My middle name is Marie, my mom's middle name is Marie, and my great grandmother's name is Marie. So Elsa Marie it was. I was kind of searching something out in this child's name that would relate to nature. We already had our little bird, so that was making my search even more of a sincere endeavor.
I truly think it might have been the day before I (finally) went into labor that we decided on Muir. In 2010, Elsa, Jarrett, and I went on a month-long trip to California. We flew into San Francisco, where we rented a Volkswagen Westfalia camper van, and spent the subsequent weeks living in and out of its belly, traveling through Kings Canyon, Sequoia, and Yosemite. Both Jarrett and I went out there with great hopes of finding something while out exploring these wondrous, monstrous, glorious, natural worlds. Of somehow clinging closer to God while experiencing His creation first hand. Of somehow experiencing Him. At the time, it felt like all we were really finding was sickness, stress, discouragement, and heartache. Now, don't get me wrong. The trip was absolutely fantastic. And I do, honestly, believe I would pack it up and do it all over again in a heartbeat, despite it all. We saw and did some amazing things. And, the reality is, now that we look back on a lot of those trials we experienced, we realize that God was there. And he was doing some amazing things. (I could go further, but that is really another story for another time.)
So back to the name. Muir. We already knew of John Muir, but learned much more about him through our trip out West. He was an amazing person, and did some amazing things that helped preserve a lot of the natural areas we trekked through and gazed upon with complete awe. For those of you unfamiliar with the work of John Muir, he was a Scottish-born American naturalist, author, and early advocate of preservation of wilderness in the United States. His activism helped to save the Yosemite Valley, Sequoia National Park, and other wilderness areas. He is also the founder of the Sierra Club, now one of the most important conservation organizations in the United States. So, in desiring a name relating to nature, Muir seemed perfect. And both Jarrett and I agreed immediately. So there you have it, Aveline Muir.
After we visited Muir Woods, near the end of our trip, I wrote the following, and ended the blog post with a favorite Muir quote. It seems just as pertinent today.
Nature has been good to us, and good for us. Even during the most difficult times, once we could get into those woods, out on a trail, and high on a mountain, everything seemed to come into focus and make a bit more sense. Again, John Muir says it best, and with his words, I leave you.
"Climb the mountains and get their good tidings. Nature's peace will flow into you as sunshine flows into trees, the winds will blow their own freshness into you and the storms their energy while cares will drop off like autumn leaves.
We deliberated over the name of this sweet second one for months. Jarrett and I both prefer less popular names, and were, thus, trying to come up with something somewhat original. We had some more common names on our short list: Lauren, Heidi. And there was one we had from the last time around, Marion. Ingrid was fairly high on the list, but we felt we might be going too far with the Scandinavian names with an Elsa and an Ingrid. We also considered Joanna. And Sydney. And, at one point, almost decided on Jolene.
But one afternoon, during a leisurely search of names on the laptop, Jarrett came across the name Aveline. The French pronunciation of this name is a-vuh-leen, but we preferred the English pronunciation, a-vuh-lin. It sounded very unusual to me right at first, but immediately felt nice across the lips as I said it over and over again. Aveline. Jarrett, I really like that. I think you might have found it.
Being the troubled decisionmakers we are, we still could not commit. And still searched out names. Consistently, though, we came back to Aveline. And when I found out while on a girls' trip up in the mountains that the name meant little bird (or little nut or hazelnut or desired one), I was pretty much sold.
Then came the middle name. This was extremely tough this go around, for some reason. With Elsa, it was a cinch. My middle name is Marie, my mom's middle name is Marie, and my great grandmother's name is Marie. So Elsa Marie it was. I was kind of searching something out in this child's name that would relate to nature. We already had our little bird, so that was making my search even more of a sincere endeavor.
I truly think it might have been the day before I (finally) went into labor that we decided on Muir. In 2010, Elsa, Jarrett, and I went on a month-long trip to California. We flew into San Francisco, where we rented a Volkswagen Westfalia camper van, and spent the subsequent weeks living in and out of its belly, traveling through Kings Canyon, Sequoia, and Yosemite. Both Jarrett and I went out there with great hopes of finding something while out exploring these wondrous, monstrous, glorious, natural worlds. Of somehow clinging closer to God while experiencing His creation first hand. Of somehow experiencing Him. At the time, it felt like all we were really finding was sickness, stress, discouragement, and heartache. Now, don't get me wrong. The trip was absolutely fantastic. And I do, honestly, believe I would pack it up and do it all over again in a heartbeat, despite it all. We saw and did some amazing things. And, the reality is, now that we look back on a lot of those trials we experienced, we realize that God was there. And he was doing some amazing things. (I could go further, but that is really another story for another time.)
So back to the name. Muir. We already knew of John Muir, but learned much more about him through our trip out West. He was an amazing person, and did some amazing things that helped preserve a lot of the natural areas we trekked through and gazed upon with complete awe. For those of you unfamiliar with the work of John Muir, he was a Scottish-born American naturalist, author, and early advocate of preservation of wilderness in the United States. His activism helped to save the Yosemite Valley, Sequoia National Park, and other wilderness areas. He is also the founder of the Sierra Club, now one of the most important conservation organizations in the United States. So, in desiring a name relating to nature, Muir seemed perfect. And both Jarrett and I agreed immediately. So there you have it, Aveline Muir.
After we visited Muir Woods, near the end of our trip, I wrote the following, and ended the blog post with a favorite Muir quote. It seems just as pertinent today.
Nature has been good to us, and good for us. Even during the most difficult times, once we could get into those woods, out on a trail, and high on a mountain, everything seemed to come into focus and make a bit more sense. Again, John Muir says it best, and with his words, I leave you.
"Climb the mountains and get their good tidings. Nature's peace will flow into you as sunshine flows into trees, the winds will blow their own freshness into you and the storms their energy while cares will drop off like autumn leaves.
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