Uncle Jonesy's House of Bangs, Nails and Cigars

Late Breaking News: Isabella had a quick Dr's apointment last Wednesay and is up to 8lbs 9oz!

Now Post Time:
I've been excited about that title all week! We had a fantastic time last Thursday evening with friends and family. First up we had a visit from my Aunt Pat and my Granny Sook (Mom's sister and mom). Isabella was overjoyed to meet one of her Great Grandmothers and her Great Aunt Pat. We were also excited to show off the house which Granny had not been to yet and previously referred to as the Sin Den when we were "Living in Sin".

















In addition to all the excitement of seeing family we finally got to sit down and take a picture with the three of us. This is the second picture we've taken in six weeks. We really need to break out that tripod.


















After their visit and a bath we headed over to the Jones household for the evening. It was great for Bella to meet Grandma Judy (yes she will probably be confused for a while about how many grandma's, aunts, and uncles she actually has) And to spend some time with Evey and Adro while the boys enjoyed a cigar on the porch.
















We did have a run in with Giant Elmo (for more details on Giant Elmo see the Especially Evey blog) But all ended well when he decided to cuddle instead of eat my baby.

















Then the best part of the evening, I got out of my first baby nail trim. Somehow I convinced Seth, who by the way has taken on the daddy grooming responsiblities quite well, to trim Bella's nails for her. He did an excellent job and I would highly reccomend his services. I do hold out faith that Eric will pick up a few tricks from him and learn over time.


















So it was a delightful evening with friends and family and we've been hermits since. This weekend we spent our time cleaning the house and getting Eric ready to head for his annual trade show in a week. Bella and I are bummed that he'll be gone but we have Grandma Connie coming to help us out. Not only will she be closing on her new fab Lawrence Condo but she'll aslo be doing some serious middle of the night baby rocking. Be prepared Connie, I'm currently typing this at 4:21 in the morning because she's not too keen on the sleeping right now!

~Trish

Champion Weight Gainer

Our girl is doing great! She is gaining weight like a champ and getting even more beautiful by the day. We had our 1 month baby well visit last Friday and she was already up to 7lbs 11oz. I bet she's 8lbs already at the rate she's going. Hopefully that belly will get big enough soon that she doesn't have to eat every two hours in the middle of the night!

Here she is at the Dr's office with her Daddy, the Dr. confirmed our solid belief that she is indeed perfect!

















In fact, here's the belly shots to prove she knows good eats, She can even recognize Daddy's beer belly.

















The ultimate challenge: Beer belly vs. Milk belly!






















Just kidding Eric! You have a very handsome and well tuned Daddy Belly! Mommy's is getting back into shape too, although I still have that funny pregnancy line which is not even straight, I found that ironic since I can't draw a straight line even with a ruler, apparently neither can my body.

So as you'll be able to tell by these next pictures, We may have found our first babysitter. Here's Maurice making sure everything is alright, or being really mad that his attention and sun spot have been usurped. But he doesn't seem to angry. Don't worry mom, we won't really leave the baby with the cat!

















I've been trying out the pacifier and so far she doesn't really care one way or the other. I bet it will come in handy in the next couple of months, I'll keep you updated. So no big questions at the moment. Now we're just waiting for that first intentional smile, She's been smiling in her sleep for a while and has even had a few reflexive smiles while awake but we're still waiting for the smile that's on purpose. I have a feeling once she starts smiling, she's not going to stop!

~Trish

Our First Month!

Yesterday Bella hit the one month mark. I can't believe how time is flying, especially with still getting up 4-5 times a night! So here's a bunch of pictures to show you what we've been up to this month. Above is a nice artsy photo of Isabella, Daddy likes taking these....a lot... Daddy also likes playing Guitar Hero, here's a great shot of my father and Eric playing a round while Nana holds Isabella. Where am I you may ask? Taking full advantage of not having a baby in my arms and doing chores. Oh the sweet life!


















We went to visit Eric at work but those pictures are on another camera so this is the one I have of the cute outfit I planned to take her to GCSAA in. It's says Daddy's girl, however, during one of our diaper changes the pants were an innocent bystander to a drive by pooping. We then switched to the cute green sweater she's been going out in a lot. It was made by Beth Deringer and we've had more compliments on it then I can count. Thanks Beth.

















Last Friday we took full advantage of the beautiful weather and took a short trip downtown. We first stopped into Salon Di Marco so I could get my bangs trimmed (No Eric YOU MAY NOT TRIM MY BANGS) Perhaps I'll let him have a try at Bella's when she gets older, I hear Jonsey has become quite the Daddy hair cut artist, I suppose he can teach Eric a few tricks. Here is Isabella with my Stylist and friend Tara, Then us at Lunch at Vermont street BBQ. It was fun but I spent most of the time worrying about whether or not she was hungry, odd since she slept right through it. While discussing Vermont Street BBQ I need to give a shout out to the Mac and Cheese Bites. Wow, I loves me some mac n cheese bites, if you've never had them, fix that problem pronto.


















Later that night we heard Jack was in town so we headed down to Johnny's for a bite and some socializing. Jack and Brenda didn't know we had a baby so it was a pleasant surprise. Isabella slept the whole time which was amazing since it was so noisy. But we got some great time with Jack as well as with the Jones family.
Here are the boys having a beer and holding a baby.

















Evelyn got to meet Isabella, She was pretty curious but a little more interested in the task of putting as much marinara on her cheese stick as possible before it got to her mouth. It's okay, They have plenty of time to become best friends and then fight over Grey!
















A Jones Family portrait.... with our baby as well!

















The Girls

















In addition to these outings, I've started going to a couple of support/play groups with Bella. It's been great to meet more mom's and babies. The groups have been really fun and a great way to let my social butterfly out of the house. Yesterday we took a picture of all the babies to look back on in a couple of months. I'll try to get a copy and post it on the blog. Isabella was the smallest, she's so petite!

Here's another Eric Arsty photo, Isn't she perfect!






















We started a bottle a few nights back, we're adding one every other night to start getting her used to it. She's done a fantastic job and did a full feeding the other night. Here is Daddy's first time feeding the baby. He loved it (I on the other hand had to stand in the background and hide my tears, It was weird letting someone else feed her, although it will be very nice in the future)

















So that's what we've been up to this first month. She still hasn't quite worked out her days and nights so I'm up every two hours or so, last night she did a 4 1/2 hour stretch which was great. Hooray for 3 hours of sleep in a row.
I'm currently researching and talking to people about the use of a pacifier, I haven't decided if we're going to give her one so if you've got any tips let me know.

~Trish

Christmas!

Christmas a.k.a December 25th was Isabella's actual due date but Eric and I were thrilled that she decided to make her Debut eleven days early. Not only were we assured the tax break (Hooray for the gov-ment shellin out money for little ones) but we also got to have Bella here to celebrate the holidays with us. It was truly a wonderful day, since Isabella was still a mere 11 days old we kept everything really low key. We went to my parents for Christmas morning, home for a nap, and then back to the folks for Christmas dinner and movie night. It was the perfect way to spend Bella's 1st Christmas.

Here she is with her first stocking, It's good to begin her Jayhawk education early.






















The Averill tradition inckudes stockings first and the stockings themselves are truly something. We stuff them full of as much useful crap as possible until they overflow. This is vastly different then the Neuteboom tradition of well thought out gifts in the stocking. Here is Eric's first true immersion in the Averill stocking.






















Eric also spoiled me rotten this Christmas. Here I am with my beautiful pink sapphire past, present, future necklace he gave me in honor of Bella and our amazing life together.

















Now the necklace was something but it doesn't hold a candle to this next present.. A BABY LEASH!!! Now Eric knows how strongly I feel about the utter nonsense of this particular product ( sorry to anyone that "walks" their baby, You may hate me now) So this was almost the best gag gift of the morning. It was beat only by a little British gift from my bro that is so bad I can't even talk about it on the blog.

















Ahh family, It was a wonderful day ending with National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation, a roast for dinner and Bella snuggling with her Averill Grandparents. We couldn't ask for a better Christmas.
















~Trish

We're wide awake

So it's 2:30am and we are wide awake. And by we I'm using it in the royal sense for princess Bella here. I told you I'd be writing in the middle of the night. Anyway, sorry about the lack of updates for a bit, We've been adjusting to Bella's schedule which is pretty much whatever she feels like doing we do. But things are going really well. She's already up to 7 some odd pounds and growing like champ. She's so beautiful as you can see below. So what have we been up to you may ask? Pretty much just hanging around our house and the folks house. We have yet to venture into public since it's cold and flu season and she's still so little! However, we think these next couple of weeks we may leave the house for short store trips and such.

First installment: Cute pics of Bella and Friends.

This first picture is one of Eric's artsy photos.






















Over the Holidays our friends Cari and Phil came up from North Carolina via Wichita for dinner and to meet Bella. It was so great to see them. Bella was even awake for company.


















One very special part of this year's Christmas was having my brother and sister-in-law home for the holidays from England. Bella was very excited to meet her Uncle Willie and Aunt Lucy.






















It was so fun to see all these folks. Up next.... Christmas pics.

~Trish