Knierim Family: Our First Christmas

I apologize for such delay in posting. We have had quite the busy life here recently. Avery went to the doctor the Sunday before Christmas and was diagnosed with a double ear infection and bronchiolitis. You would have never suspected that she was sick had it not been for a runny nose. I am happy to say that her 2 month long runny nose is gone! After one round with Amoxicillin and one round with Augmentin, we are back toward being normal. Her appetite is still a little off, but it gets better each day. She turned 8 months old over the holiday season--that is so hard to believe! Here's a few things that she enjoys doing now:
-sitting, sometimes very acrobatic-like
-crawling...no army crawl here, just the normal, up on all fours
-pulling up on everything (sometimes she gets up on her feet, but for now she's content with staying on her knees)
-babbling
-giving kisses (if she actually kisses you, it's with an open mouth; if she kisses you from across the room, you get a real, lips together with smacking noise kiss)
-using her pointer fingers and pincher grasp (except with her right hand...her pointer finger on that hand is her middle finger---very ladylike)
-watching football and/or basketball for extended periods of time
-still no teeth
Back to Christmas...

Here she is on Christmas Eve morning. We had green waffles for breakfast. Santa actually came to our house early since we were going to be traveling. He knew that the presents would not all fit :)

Here she is Christmas Eve evening at Gigi and Skip's house (Lauren's parents) under the tree right before we opened presents.

She got a pair of shoes and thought that they were wonderful. Possibly her favorite gift this year.

She also got a shape sorter that she thought was really fun.

The only other present that may have tied with the shoes for "favorite gift" would have been her purse. Avery and Lauren got matching Vera Bradley purses, a small one for Avery, and the bigger one for Lauren. She was so proud of that purse and those shoes. You can also see her pig pjs around her neck. Those may have been one of Matt's favorite gifts.

Avery got her first baby doll. She was a little perplexed by the clear plastic box that it was in. That didn't stop her from kissing the baby doll though! It was so sweet.

Once the baby doll was out of the box, the poking and examination began. She poked around on that baby doll for quite a while. She's using her right hand, so you can see how she uses her middle finger to point with that hand :)

She got multiple riding toys this year. She got a rocking horse, a rocking grasshopper, a push and ride car, and a rocking dog. Here she is on the dog. Hilarious.

Christmas morning in her "First Christmas" pjs playing with her new toys from the night before. The pjs had reindeer on the feet and the bottom. So cute. She got two of these large sensory balls, a red one and a blue one. She would let you throw them at her and would laugh if they hit her in the face. We decided to stop with red whelps began to form on her face from the ball's sensory nubs. It was so funny though!