RSV

Friday (2/1) Avery woke up with a pretty thick cough in the middle of the night, but went right back to sleep. The next morning, she did the same. No runny nose, fever no signs whatsoever of illness. I heard that when babies are cutting teeth, they can sometimes develop a cough, and thought that's what it was. Then Saturday morning, I noticed that she was coughing more frequently and it scared both me and Sid. Luckily our Doctors office accepts walkins on Sat and Sun. We took her in and she giggled with the nurse...played with the paper on the bed...flirted with everyone she came in contact with. The Nurse thought that perhaps it was just a cold. I asked about RSV, since I have seen a lot of news about it on TV and how it's been really bad this year. She said that we could test her if we felt like she needed it, but that typically the symptoms are more that just a cough. She asked us to be patient because the test will take 15 min to show if it is positive or negative. (They just swab the nose).

Approx 2 min passed when she came back in to tell us that Little Avery tested positive. We were so scared. RSV is pretty serious in Utah and lots of children have been hospitalized for it.

So, we were told to take her home, watch her closely and that most likely it would get worse in the next 24 hours, and that we were to bring her back on Sunday.

I called my mom and she came up right away.

Sunday we took her in and she was much worse. The Doctor told us that we needed to get a nebulizer and to give her breathing treatments around the clock every 4-6 hours.

It's been a long couple weeks! We didn't go anywhere, see anyone, and just locked ourselves in for the week to make sure she healed. And I think it worked. She is back to normal for the most part and her cough is still there, but not as bad as before.

THANK YOU to all of your thoughts and prayers as we dealt with this...

My baby is growing up...

I can't believe how fast time is going by us! It seems like just yesterday we found out that we were expecting and then making all the neccesary preperations for baby...now she is like a little kid! It's amazing how fast she is growing and how fast she is learning.

Some of the few things she's picked up:

1. Clap her hands

2. Wave bye-bye

3. High five (sort of)

4. Eskimo kisses (if she's in the mood)

5. CRAWL

6. Dance

Here are some of the latest pictues of Miss Avery at 9 months:

Wearing mommy's reading glasses

Like father like daughter...in her cap.

LOOK OUT! It's official! She's mobile!

Falling asleep in her highchair.

Just being her cutie self.

Blvd of Broken Dreams

Sid has made some pretty good friends teaching guitar. One in particular is Tyler. Tyler is 11yrs old and LOVES Sid. It's neat because I can see that they have this special bond that they share because of their love for the guitar and making music.
For Tyler's b-day in January, his mom, Kareen, bought some recording time for him in a real studio! (Sid's dream) She invited Sid to attend and he loved it! They had a lot of fun.
From what I understand they recorded "Blvd of Broken Dreams" by Green Day. Sam is Tyler's 'brother from another mother' on the drums.

Needless to say, it was a great gift for them both.

Thanks Kareen!!

Tyler's Rockin' Birthday

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This ones for you Aunt Penni!

When Sid and I found out that we were expecting, only a few people knew at first. Well, before we even told our families and our parents, we told Penni and Steve.
Penni was so excited!! And as you may or may not know, Penni is the QUEEN of shopping! (Which is not hard to tell - I mean just look at her - you never see in the same outfit twice!) And by the time I was 2 months prego - she had gotten me a few things. Including this Hat. Steve thought it was the most silly thing to give a girl a blue hat. Which in turn started a discussion of the differences of Teal vs. Blue...

Long story short, I think it suits her just fine. And this is one of my favorite things she has...

We miss you Penni and Steve!!

The Duck Toybox

For Christmas, Sid and I knew that Avery - being the only grandchild on both sides of the family - would get spoiled this year, so we only bought her a few small things that we felt she could use. One thing we got her was a new bathtub that is an inflatable rubber ducky. It even Quacks! It's the cutest thing.
As we blew it up she was very curious. Trying to take it from me and pressing the beak to make it quack.
We got it all ready, took it in the tub, filled it with water...all the time she clapped her hands and squealed. Then, we plopped her in it and watched her have a complete melt down! It was really sad! She screamed and screamed. We double checked the water thinking somehow it was too hot, not that, we looked to see if there was something pinching her, not that either. All the while she screamed and screamed. Sid took her out of the bathroom to stop her from crying and I was baffled...Once we settled her down we walked her back in to the bathroom and as soon as she saw the duck she SCREAMED out. She was scared of it!
We put it in the laundry room and let it be.
The next week was rough. She would not get in the bath (her normal tub that she is growing out of). And usually she loves the bath time. Then we started to notice that anytime we would walk past the laundry room to her to her room, she was crank her neck to see the duck and start to squirm more and more the closer we got to the room.
So, one afternoon, I took the duck out and put it on the living room floor and sat her down in front of it. We sat there for 10 minutes before she reached out and squeezed the beak making it Quack! Then the duck was her new found best friend. She climbed in and out of him, chewed on him, played with him all afternoon, and the next afternoon too.
We still haven't been able to get her to take a bath in it, but we decided it holds her toys well and that's it's purpose for now.

Averys First Christmas

This is by far one of my favorite pictures of Avery. She just looks so sweet! We used this as our christmas card this year...I can't tell you how many pictures I took before I got this one - it was a lot of work...but worth it!
See what I mean?
She did so good Christmas morning. I was a little afraid of how she would do, but she just jumped right in!
She picked up on the concept right away of opening presents...although, she wanted to eat the paper more than get to the gift inside. She is wearing a beanie that her uncle Brad made for her. She has one from uncle Tony too (he even made her monkey Mallory one to match)
"Oh Oh Oh" Merry Christmas!