Beach Baby

Our first full day in Floriday was pretty decent weather-wise. We had to take advantage and be outside! The pool still was freezing, but Avery enjoyed sitting out on the huge lounge chair on the back patio:



Then we decided to take a walk to the beach and check it out. Avery hadn't been in her stroller since the airport and at first I don't think she was too thrilled with the idea....

Then she kicked back and relaxed...

and played with her new shades:


(By the way this is my all time fave pic of her! Too darn cute!)

We took the 10min walk to the beach-it wasn't very crowded (probably because the water was FREEZING) and we only stayed a few minutes since it was Avery's lunch time, but she got to stick her feet in the water:



What you didn't see here was the screaming that took place when her feet hit the water-she obviously wasn't a fan of the cold water!

For Avery and I, that was our only trip to the beach the entire trip! Gabe went another time and the rest of the family went a few times, but Avery and I stayed closer to home due to her nap/feeding schedules and the closeness of the pool.

Lauderdale-by-the-Sea

Our trip started out early Tuesday morning. We had an 11:30 flight out of Buffalo so we were on the road by 8:30 to get there in time to check in, etc.

I was a little nervous and anxious about how the flight would go since it was our first time traveling with Avery. Luckily the flight had a lot of empty seats so the woman at check-in allowed us to bring on Avery's carseat and give her her own seat for the flight....for free! Normally you get charged regular fare for that, but since there were plenty of open seats, she let us bring it on which was very nice. It was just nice having the extra room and carseat for Avery to sit in.

Here are a few pics of us getting ready to take off:




Once in the air, we got her carseat installed. We put her in it to eat lunch and near the end of the flight she fell asleep in it (for the last 20min).

It was a very long day. Avery only napped about a half hour in the car on the way to Buffalo and about 20min on the flight. By the time we landed in Florida, she was exhausted.

Gabe and his Dad went to get the rental cars then we drove to our home for the week. Avery by this point was so tired that she screamed the entire way there. I was sitting in the back seat with her and she could have cared less. She was hyperventilating and just miserable. I ended up crying right along with her because I couldn't do anything to calm her down. Once we arrived at the house, she settled down and was fine the rest of the evening. We were all happy to be "home" after the long day of travel.

Gabe's parents rented a townhome for all of us to stay in. I think we were all very happy with it.
Kitchen:

Dining room:

Living room:

Living room looking towards kitchen area:

Pool/hot tub:

When we got there, the pool was freezing! It was supposed to be heated so we were pretty disappointed that the water was way too cold to get in. It finally got fixed on Thursday but we did miss out on a few pool days because of it which stunk. The ocean water was very cold too so our first few days we couldn't get in and enjoy the water at all. Once the pool was fixed Thursday, things improved!

Leaving on a Jet Plane....

Tomorrow morning we're hitting the skies to go to Florida!

Gabe's parents, his sister, Molly and her two kids along with Avery, Gabe, and I are all heading down to Lauderdale-by-the-Sea, FL. We're flying out of Buffalo, so we'll be driving there first. Luckily we got a direct flight which will be nice having the kids.

Please say a prayer for us that Avery is cooperative on the plane. I think that's what I'm most worried about at this point. She is so squirmy lately that I don't see her sitting on our laps for the 3 hour flight there and back. I'm crossing my fingers (and toes!) that all goes well for us!

While we're there, I won't be able to update on my blog, but when I get back, I'll post the details and some pics of our trip.

Hope you all have a great week!

Crawling!

Avery is officially a crawler now! A few weeks ago she started the army crawl and was all over the place with that. A few days ago she started doing some real crawling "steps" and now that's all she pretty much does! When she starts to get tired, she'll resort to the army crawl, but not too much anymore. When we get back from our trip to Florida (we leave in 2 days! Eek!) we'll really have to start babyproofing the house!

Yesterday she really started going after Jerri-it was pretty funny. Every time she would make it to her, Jerri would run away and the fun would start all over! I tried taping it, but it didn't come out very well so instead you'll have to settle for this little clip:
oo

Welcome Cousin Giada!

My cousin Joe and his wife Eileen welcomed their first baby this morning! They weren't due until early April so baby came a few weeks early.

Giada Evelyn arrived this morning at 5:39am! She weighed in at 6lbs 6oz and was 19" long.

They live in Florida right near where we're staying, so the baby arrived just in time for us to meet her. I kept joking with my cousin that if Eileen went early, the baby possibly could arrive when we were in town. Little did we know that the baby wanted to meet us! Now they should be home and settled before we arrive in Florida on Tuesday! So hopefully we'll get to meet her and I can get some pictures of her! Avery will love meeting her new cousin!

Congratulations on your new arrival Joe and Eileen! We can't wait to meet her!!

Spring Forward

I haven't been on in the past few days-I feel like I'm playing catch up with the whole spring forward for daylight savings.

Avery's schedule has been off-whack since then but I finally think she's getting back to her normal routine. I've decided that whomever created this whole "fall back/spring ahead" thing did not have kids-otherwise they would know the "fun" you go through every 6 months for this garbage. You think it's hard enough for adults to adjust...well, try adding kids to the mix-not fun!

The rest of our weekend was pretty good-Sunday we went to my in-laws for dinner which was nice. We had turkey on the grill and it was so yummy! I had Monday off as well (I have a conference to attend Friday so I switched)-we didn't do too much. Avery's napping was all over the place time-wise. We ran a few errands and that's about it.

I had an awful night of sleep Monday-went to bed by 10pm (had to be up at 6am for work) and was still pretty awake at midnight. And of course Avery had me up once to eat so yesterday I was exhausted. I think that was my night of adjusting to daylight savings. So last night I was in bed around 8:45pm but still didn't sleep very soundly. I was tossing and turning a lot for some reason (could be thinking about our trip to FL in 6 days!).

Today is another day off and Avery and I met Gabe for lunch. She's napping now and we're going to run to our favorite store...Carter's!!

I still have a lot to do for our trip-we leave in 6 days and I haven't done much at all. I have a list of stuff written to pack, but haven't really packed anything yet. I have to get my ass in gear. Today was going to be my packing day, but Avery's morning nap was consumed with me showering, etc. and her nap right now I've spent doing laundry, getting part of dinner made, making my lunch for tomorrow and checking my email. Guess I should go do some packing huh?!

Oh and have I mentioned that Mother Nature has been kind this week as well? I think she has taken "spring" forward literally-it's BEAUTIFUL out!

Stand Up!

Yesterday I had the day off of work so I went in to get Avery in the morning like usual. I had some laundry of hers to put away so I kept Avery in her crib. I was hanging a few things in her closet and when I came out, this is how I found her:




Yep, that little stinker pulled herself up! The funny thing is that she hasn't tried doing it anywhere else at all. But she did it several times yesterday so when Gabe got home from work, the mattress got lowered again-so now it seems like she's sleeping on the floor.

**************************************

Today Avery and I took a day trip to Buffalo for a visit. We haven't been there in about a month so we just went in for the day. Avery hung out with Grandma and Aunt Pat and I met up with Megan to celebrate her birthday over some ice cream at Condrell's (YUM!). Had dinner later then drove home-a pretty uneventful visit, but it was nice. Avery has a little bit of a cold so she was under the weather, but still in great spirits. She had fun visiting with Grandma and Aunt Pat!