Happy 5 Months to Avery!

Avery is 5 months old today! How did that happen?! I feel like she was barely born, but now I can't even imagine life without her.

The last couple weeks Avery has become SO FUN. She has started to become a lot more interactive and actually focuses on people and things a lot more. She smiles and laughs when we play with her or tickle her. She reaches for things and is getting pretty good at putting them in her mouth. She gets better at it every day. That's part of why she is so much fun right now. I feel like I can see a difference in her development from day to day. She is getting better at sitting up and can almost do it on her own. She still hasn't rolled over, but she loves to roll all the way on her side. She actually sleeps like that which is really cute.

This is a typical Avery face. She gives us this look a lot.

Speaking of sleep... when I was in Colorado I decided to do sleep training with her. She wouldn't go to bed until 11 at night and was really fussy in the evenings and there was nothing I could do to calm her down. I was at the end of my rope and after reading lots of stuff on the internet I decided I was going to try my own version of Cry It Out. It was hard. Really really hard. I have such a hard time listening to my baby cry, but my mom helped a ton by reassuring me she was ok and we were helping her in the long run. I think my biggest fear is that it wouldn't work. I didn't want to put her through the misery of crying herself to sleep for hours every night and then not get anything out of it. Luckily, it only took 3 days. The first day was awful. 2 hours of crying. Day 2 only 1.5 hours. Day 3 - 20 minutes. Day 4 - 0 minutes. And since then it hasn't really been an issue. Sometimes she does cry for a little while when I put her down, but it's more of a whine than a cry and it doesn't last long. We've been at it for 2 weeks now and my life is sooooooo much better! I love Avery more since I don't get so impatient with her at night and I think she is a happier baby overall. She also goes down for her naps much easier now too. It was totally worth it. 2 nights of misery for both of us, but we are both happier now.

She was snuggling with Daddy the other day. This NEVER happens anymore and it didn't last long, but it was super sweet!

Another fun thing is that Avery tried cereal for the first time yesterday! She has been showing a lot of interest in what Tyler and I eat and sometimes I let her lick/chomp/gum at my food so I decided to see how she would do with the cereal. It was pretty fun to feed her. She mostly just licked the spoon the first time, but I think she ended up with most of the cereal going down. I tried again today and she was already doing better. So fun. I'm not really trying to feed her enough to make a meal out of it, just trying to help her practice swallowing right now. I really like to let her taste things when I'm cooking (like strawberries I was cutting up for tonight's salad). It's so fun to watch her expressions from the taste of food and watching her discover new things. She is really starting to explore her world right now!

Licking her cereal off the spoon. Haha
She also kept trying to grab the spoon from me.

We are having so much fun having this little person around. Sometimes we look at her and wonder "who is this little person in our lives??" She is a little stranger that we are having fun getting to know. It gets better and better every day.

Today Tyler sent me a text that said "Miss my girls!" This is the picture I sent back to him with "How about now?" Is it bad that sometimes I think it's funny when she cries?

We love you, Avery! We're glad you're ours!!!