Welcome to the World Avery Parker!!

It was the day we have been waiting for since February - the birth of our sweet baby girl.  Wednesday, October 24th we welcomed our second daughter into the world.  At 9:46am Avery Parker Clark was born via a very much scheduled c-section.  Of course as scheduled as this c-section was, everything else about the day was nothing short of unscheduled.

The night before Avery's birth, Riley got sick and remained sick for the next 2 days and Avery had a very much unplanned visit to the NICU.  Fortunately for us, her visit to the NICU only required her being 2 floors above me instead of a helicopter ride away from me.  And she was only in the NICU for a little over 24 hours.

Avery weighed in at birth at a healthy 8lbs 8oz (we don't have small babies I guess).  She was also measured initially at 18.5 inches, but they were wrong and she was actually a very long 20.5 inches.  

Here are some pics from the hospital and home.

Here I am patiently waiting for it to be my turn in the OR.

Right out of the "oven"

In need of some extra oxygen after taking in some fluid during the birth.

Riley tried so hard to be a trooper, but was too sick to stick around and went home shortly after arriving at the hospital.  But she was a proud big sister regardless!

Avery was out of her oxygen hood by that night and I even got to hold her and feed her.

Riley finally getting to meet her baby sister for the first time 2 days later.  Needless to say she was smitten!!

We were discharged from the hospital on Saturday, 10/27/12.

And are VERY happy to be home.

We are all adjusting to our new family of 4 - but so far it is going pretty good.  

Avery went to her first visit to the Pediatrician's office today, 10/29/12.  She was 7lbs 13oz. when we left the hospital and through lots of feedings, she has gotten her weight back up to 8lbs. 3oz.  The nurse practitioner was very happy with her progress - as were we!!

We are thrilled to have Avery as part of our crazy family and are looking forward to watching her grow!!

The Month Long Project!

The beginning of this month started and the one thing we knew we needed to take care of before October came was getting Baby Girl's room put together.  Who knew it would be such a LONG process.  The first weekend of the month, we went and picked out the color.  Riley ultimately made the final decision and we went with the color Katydid.  

The following weekend Jeremy painted (and Riley got in the way helped).

It only took the day to paint - but it took forever for us to decide what we were going to do with it.  Here is the final result.  The only thing missing in these pictures is a shelf I bought - which can't go up until I get the right drill bit (thank you Grandpa for have a gazillion tools)!  And we also want to get letters for her name over her crib.  Of course I can't find any letters that I like and I don't want them to be the same as Riley's, so even if that takes a while it's ok!

Hope you like what we did to the place!

4-year checkup!

Today was Riley's 4-year well visit with Dr. Rufa.  The afternoon started off where I picked Riley up from school a little early and we got caught in a torrential downpour from the doors of the school to the car!!!  There was ZERO time to go home and change and after calling the doctor's office there was no way we could miss our appointment unless we wanted to wait until October 23rd!!  So it was off to the see Dr. Rufa looking like drowned rats!

Riley did great though despite the rough start.  She answered all of Dr. Rufa's questions and everything points to Riley being right on track.  To date these are her stats:

Height:  41 inches

Weight:  39 pounds

Riley had a vision test and it looks like she has daddy's vision (so far)!!  She was also given 3 shots - chicken pox, polio and the flu shot.  She cried a little - but since she was such a trooper we stopped and got some munchkins on the way home.  All was then right with the world.

Here is Riley with her "battle wounds."

I think we are both glad this appointment is over!!!

Hanging with the Grandparents!

Late this past week I found out that Juh-Juh and Gramps were coming to visit!  I was so excited when I heard that they were coming for the weekend - I couldn't wait to see them.

We did so much stuff over the weekend...

We went pumpkin picking:

Then we headed to Beak & Skiff.  We didn't do any apple picking, but I did ride on 2 ponies, and we shopped and ate lunch there.

That night we went to my favorite place to eat - TULLY'S!!!!  Afterwards I showed Juh-Juh how my Leap Pad worked.

On Sunday Juh-Juh made a delicious turkey dinner - like you would eat at Thanksgiving and I  painted my pumpkins.  

I also watched a little football with daddy and Gramps.  It was such a fun weekend - I hope we can do it again soon!!!

Riley's 1st day of Pre-K

We cannot believe that this day has come.  Riley began full day Pre-K today at Holy Family.  We have been looking forward to this day since waaaaay back in February when we signed her up.  We couldn't wait for more structure, more learning and better preparation for Kindergarten.

Riley has been excited about attending Pre-K at her "big kid school."  When she woke up this morning she yelled "I am so excited to meet new friends!!!!"  

We dropped her off at 7am for before care and were able to leave there tearless.  I am certain it helped that our neighbors 2 little girls were there.  When I picked her up at 3pm from after care, she was all smiles.  She had a great day, that she made new friends, and learned about apples.  She then said she would not tell me more until dinner - ha!  She also told me she liked no other school but this one.  I guess that means that she will be going back tomorrow!!!