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AnnCarter Playing

AnnCarter's First Avett Brothers Concert (outside of the womb)!

Waiting on the lawn for the concert to start.  We had just arrived in Portland, so AnnCarter was very happy to be free to roll around and play on the blanket and not be in her car seat. 

Eating dinner.  We arrived at the venue early, so we had a few hours to kill.  Thankfully the weather was great.  We found a spot in the shade and ate dinner and chatted with people around us.  This is the way to do a concert--love the ampitheatre venues!

AnnCarter hanging out with our friends Tiffany and Katie (who joined us for the concert)--outfitted in her pajamas (in case she decided to fall asleep...which she did at the end of the show) and waiting for the concert to start.  She was one happy girl.

 

The Avett Brothers concert was a great decision!  Marshall had bought us tickets during the pre-sale in May I think (thanks to Aaron Tolson letting us know about it).  We had no idea if it'd work to take a 6 month old, but thought we'd buy the tickets anyways.  Once I found out it was an outdoor venue, and because Carter is such an easygoing baby, we decided to go for it.  I felt good when I saw several other babies and kids at the show--we weren't the only ones :-)  The show even started at 7:00 and was over at 9:00, which is her normal bedtime anyways. So that worked out well--I had expected the show to go later.

When the music started, AnnCarter moved in real close to me and her face looked like "what is going on?!" but she quickly relaxed.  Marshall and I took turns holding her and then she played for a while with Tiffany and Katie. By the end, she'd worn out and fell asleep in my arms and then slept the entire way to our hotel (which took forever to find due to some funny directions...and Portland being a hard to navigate city), and then she slept the entire night (almost).

As usual, the show was incredible. We love how much they love what they do--there's so much energy and their music is our favorite, so of course we love hearing it live.  Seth played "The Curve," which is one of my favorites, so I was especially excited about that. "Murder in the City" was one of their encore songs, and it was done exceptionally well--as were most of the songs they played. 

It was also a great decision, for multiple reasons, to get a hotel after the show versus driving 3 hours back to Bend.

  First of all, I love staying in hotels.  For whatever reason it's so fun to me--especially if they offer continental breakfast.  I don't know why I like that--they're usually not even that good, but take me to a hotel and I'll be excited.  Secondly, it made the whole weekend feel like an actual little "get away;" it was nice not needing to rush back home.  Thirdly, unbeknownst to us, we were staying in the same hotel as the Avett Brothers. We discovered this at breakfast Sunday morning. 

 We had just come downstairs and selected a table.  Marshall and I were getting ready to head over to the omlette station and when I turned around to look at the line, that's exactly where Scott and Seth Avett were standing. I had to do a double take. We couldn't believe that they were right there but did not want to bombard them, so we just got in line--which just happened to be directly behind Scott.  BUT, I did not want to pass up the chance to talk with them either (and by them, I just mean Scott--Seth had gone to another food line) because not only do we love their music, but even more I think--at least for me--I love the fact they're from North Carolina. And living in Oregon, anytime Marshall and I get a chance to talk with people from the South visiting the area, we take full advantage of it!  So, I struck up a converstaion the only way I could figure out how to in a short amount of time... "Hey, are you Scott Avett?" (like I didn't know) "We were at y'all's show last night.  It was really great" (obviously I did know :-)

At this point in time Marshall had just walked back over to the line (he had left for a moment to get AnnCarter--our friend Tiffany had been holding her). I think he was a bit surprised to find us talking, that I'd just gone for it. But immediately, Scott put out his hand to shake Marshall's and said, "Hey man, thanks for coming to the show last night."  Then he asked if the baby had come too. As we all ordered and waited for our food we talked about kids (his and ours) and the South and our love for it (mine and Marshall's and his). It was a pretty natural and easygoing converstaion, and all through it AnnCarter was quite taken by Scott--just staring.  He told her, "I've really caught your eye." She has heard quite a bit of their music, and we went to two of their concerts when I was pregnant--one of them being when I was 8 months along, so Marshall figured she recognized his voice ;-)

Our meeting was entirely unexpected.  One of those things that I never would've even looked for or thought about happening. Something I've not "wished" to happen, but it was sweet.  Like I said, Marshall and I love any connection with the South--living so far from it, and this was like talking to one of my cousins or something (with the NC accent--not that Scott Avett felt like our cousin).  If there's anything I learned, or perhaps better said, was reminded of from meeting an Avett Brother, it's how much I love our home! As great as Oregon is with our community here and the landscape, the South will always have our hearts, that's for sure. I'm kind of laughing as I write this. In some ways I think I was more excited that this person was from our home rather than the fact that he's one of our favorite musicians, though I'm sure that fact made the conversation a bit more thrilling.

 

Having a good time and talking at dinner

AnnCarter is 6 months! (as of Aug. 15)

It's hard to believe AnnCarter is already 6 months, but with each month as she grows and develops, she is increasingly more fun to interact with (the videos below are an example).  Marshall wishes that we could just keep her this age, though now that we're out of it, he's fond of the newborn stage as well (although anytime he hear's a baby cry he takes that back :-) and I'm with him--I'm just now to the point where I feel like we could survive the newborn stage again were it to happen, and we are not planning for that to happen again for a while yet!).

I took AnnCarter in for her 6 mo. well check last week.  She is now 13 lbs. 8 oz.  We are making progress! She's in the 10th percentile for weight..so at least on the charts :-) And she's in the 80th for height now.  She was very healthy and the doctor gave us more instructions for how to follow through with adding solids to her diet, as well as prepared us for the "stranger danger" phase, as he coined it, and the mother attachment phase, which are both upon us.  He told me that at the 9 mo. check up he will do the entire exam with her in my lap because of these milestones.  I'm not looking forward to this stage--simply because it will break my heart when I have to leave her and she's crying. BUT, I realize these are good things for her to experience and milestones she has to go through.

The other night, Marshall and I left her with some friends of ours while we went out on a date.  We left while she was happily playing them.  Apparently she was fine all through their dinner with many people around to entertain her.  But about an hour or so after we left, AnnCarter was taken into a room with just one other person and suddenly realized we were not there (at least that's what we think) and got really upset.  We were almost done with our dinner and hurried back, but suggested for them to sing to her until we could get there. AnnCarter loves singing, which thankfully worked to stop the crying until we arrived (and then she burst into tears as soon as she saw us).  Marshall quickly got her laughing after our arrival and she fell asleep on the way home. At least we know singing works, but how long can a babysitter sing? Looks like our dates may need to be shorter for a while...

Below: In the videos below our friend Laurie was feeding AnnCarter and held back a sneeze at one point.  Carter thought this was hillarious! So of course, we asked Laurie to keep doing it because it was so fun to watch AnnCarter laugh.

Carter Laughing 6 months 003