Open House

Yesterday was Aynslee's open house at school. We met her teacher and the teachers assistant. Also a few of her classmates. She didn't want to leave. She kept staying, "5 more minutes mommy." I finally got her to agree to leave. She is even more excited about school starting.

However, mommy is not. I was really looking forward to it but then the reality of it hit me. My baby is growing up. Really growing up, she's going to school. Our care free day's are gone, getting up whenever we want, staying in our pj's all day if we want.

I know she is going to do GREAT and LOVE learning new things and making new friends.

And somehow I'll learn to deal with all these changes.

one of those days

Do you ever have one of those days?

When you wish it were bedtime already?

For some reason both of the girls were very clingy yesterday. They had to be either sitting on me, climbing on me or sitting right next to me. Arg! I love my girls but sometimes I need some space. I have shadows when I go to the bathroom. If I leave them room they are running after me. Last night I went into my room while Josh finished up dinner with them. Not a second past before Aynslee was at the door knocking, "Mommy, can you come out?"

Lately even bedtime doesn't mean a moment to myself. Neither of them have been sleeping well and waking up at least once a night. Avery has been having a hard time going to sleep. I am sure it will pass, I just hope I can stay sane before it does.

I finished the book I was reading.

"The Host," by Stephenie Meyers.

I really, really liked it. Which surprised me since I don't realy SciFi, but she just has an awesome way at story telling.

I started reading another book last night that a friend loaned me. Now I am thinking I should have picked a different book. IT's a little to heavy of a story for me right now. I might put it down for now and start something else. Josh started, " the city of Embers" last night but I am sure it wont' take him long to finish it. It's not very thick. I might go ahead and start, "InkHeart." But I must finish some knit projects first, I have been working on a pair of pants for like 2 weeks. Way to long for me. I can have something like that finished in a week or less sometimes a few days.

Ok, I didn't get much done yesterday since I was reading all day. So I am off to be productive for a little while.

our girls

the changes I mentioned.....

I know some of you are probably curious about the changes I mentioned in a post last week.

I think it's safe to tell everyone what that was about. While out for our moms night out with our playgroup. One of the moms mentioned how they started getting her 10 month old to sleep through the night. This baby is 8 days older that Avery, also named Avery. Anyway I thought oh how nice that would be but I can't let her cry. I came home said something to Josh about it. Then we contined on with our normal routine.

But the next night I tested it, I let her cry when she woke up after only sleeping a few hours. She went back to sleep but woke up every half our crying after that and kept me awake. So the next night I didn't have the monitor on in my room just the doors open. She slept better about 6 or 7 hours before waking up. I got her fed her and put her back in her bed.

We had 2 mornings last week when the girls woke up together in their room and played before I got up. It was so nice. Usually Avery will cry and whine because I have put her in the playpen at the foot of our bed to watch Baby Einstein so I can get another 20 minutes of sleep. But when she is in there with her sister they keep each other company.

I wish I could say that has continued, some nights she sleeps good other nights she up a few times. Last night was a decent night she was only up once before waking up for the day.

The other thing I started doing is having a set schedule for naps. Avery goes down at 10:00am every morning for a nap. Then at 2:00pm they both take a nap. This has been so nice because while Avery is taking her morning nap I exercise and get my shower.

I bet some of you were thinking it was something major but really I just didn't want to jinx our new sleeping arrangments. I am still keeping my fingers crossed that we will have more and more good night sleeping with less night wakings the more we stick to this routine.

Until next time...............

30 months

Oh how you are growing. My eyes and ears can hardly believe all the things you are doing. We actually have conversations now. It's so much fun to hear what you have to say, most of the time.



Your imagination is incredable. Sometimes you are a dog, cat, bunny, lion, frog or monkey. Daddy's favorite thing to do is to play along with you and feed you a banana or a dog treat. You just love it.

You are so funny. The things you do or say keep us laughing all the time. You were on the phone with your Papa the other night. I can't even remember what we said but you moved your hair and put the phone right up to your ear so you could hear better. We just laughed.

You finally discovered that your little sister is fun to play with and excitedly asked me the other day if you could play with her in your room. It is just so cute to watch the two of you play together. The sharing thing we still need to work on but I can tell you love her. You tell me that she is your best friend.

Every day is another adventure with you and I love every minute of it.

I love you, my little doodlebug.

love,

mommy

beds.....

Well, we moved Avery back into the room with Aynslee last night. IT was weird. We put them both down at the same time but Avery wouldn't go to sleep. She had a late nap and didn't wake until 6:00pm. She finally went down at 10:00pm after I nursed her.I put her to bed awake and within about 10 minutes and no crying she was asleep.

Only problem was mommy sleeping, I had a hard time falling asleep at first. This is the first time since she was born she wasn't in the room with us. It's going to take a little getting use to. She only slept 4 hours. I got her and put her in bed with us like I usually do so she'd nurse and go back to sleep.

I just hope this works and she starts to sleep better so I can sleep better.

nap war

We have been going through this nap war for about a week or longer. I put Aynslee in her room and for an hour or longer she plays. Most of the time she will go to sleep. But today I put her in there 2 hours ago and she is still awake yelling for me or crying to come out. I need the quiet time that a nap offers just to stay sane most days.



I put Avery in there today hoping it would help and they'd both go to sleep because of the company. It has worked before. Well, they are both either crying or playing. I guess I need to get Avery and put her in her own bed and just leave Aynslee in there.



Only problem with that is, she'll go to sleep and wake up to late. I may just forgo the nap today and put her to bed early tonight.



The nap thing is the reason why I am very hesitant to put her into a twin bed. She is still sleeping in her crib and it's working well for all of us. I am thinking of moving Avery into the bedroom with Aynslee in hopes of her sleeping better at night. Maybe not being in the same room as mommy will be good for her. She is waking up to often at night it's worse most nights than when she was a newborn. Which makes for a very tired and grouchy mommy most days.

I better go get Avery and put her in her bed. Then decided if Aynslee will be ok without a nap.

this is what happens when they are to quiet, take 2

Last night I had put a movie on for Aynslee in her room, this usually works great she is quiet and happy.

I went in to turn the movie off and this is what I found.

Half of the 16 oz container of Butpaste everywhere.

She happily tells me, "Mommy I painting."

The good news is it came off of the table and bed rails without a problem.
The bad it's still in the carpet and there is a little hand print on the lamp shade.

9 months

Where is the time going? My little baby is growing so fast.

You are doing so many new things from crawling all over the house to standing up on things and scaling the furniture. It won't be long and you will be walking. You don't like sitting in one place for very long. You love to be on the go and playing with your big sister.

Your other favorite person to play with now is Rory. I find you crawling all over her and petting her. She loves it and will lay on the floor and let you pull her ears.

You started saying, dada first then said, mama maybe once but you have developed your own word for me. Mmmmmmmmm when you want me that is what you will say. IT took us a little bit to figure it out. I find it very cute. Really I am not picky as to what you call me right now as long as you do call for me and not dada all the time.

We are still working on some sign language with you. You can sign dog and milk so far. Oh, yes and even say, Dog. Aynslee signs to you a lot. It makes your daddy and I happy that we can teach this to you and you seem to be picking it up easily.

Dancing is something you like now. If there is any kind of music on you are dancing. Right now your dancing is sitting on the floor and bouncing up and down. It's one of the cutest things I have ever seen. (I say one because I see a lot of cute things every day that you do) I think we have a bright future ahead of us as a dancer and attending many recitals.

I let you try some pieces of a banana the other day. When you ate them all you looked at me with questioning eyes, Where's the rest? I can even begin to put into words the excitment it brings to daddy and I to see you love food. Not only food but good food, vegetables and fruit.

I am amazed at you every day. Also very thankful to a loving Heavenly Father for sending you to our family. You bring sunshine to our home.

I love you,

mommy

grouchy girls

I should have known that today wasn't a great day to go grocery shopping. Seeing how Aynslee was so ill from the time she woke up. But we needed a few things and since we are having company coming in on Thurs. I wanted to stay in tomorrow to finished getting things done around the house.

She took me to the bathroom twice telling me she has to go potty but didn't go. That aggrevates me to no end because I have Avery to try to hold while putting Aynslee on the potty, etc. I was so glad to be done shopping and get home. She was tired and fell asleep on the way home. She is still napping now.

Avery has been grouchy too. I just think that's from teething. However; I noticed her nose was a little runny so maybe she is trying to get a cold.

That's about it around here.

Anything exciting going on with ya'll?

her 1st tooth

Well, Avery has gotten her first tooth. I noticed it yesterday afternoon. The lightbulb finally went off as to why she might be so fussy and having such a hard time sleeping lately. Sure enough a little tooth has broken through on the bottom left side. She's also been sticking her tougue out more to feel it.

It made me sad. I am not worried about her biting like Aynslee did. She is far to busy for that she eats and runs.

I just love her gummy smile.

adventures in potty training

We went out to story time this morning, in panties. It went well. No accidents she sat on the potty for me their twice but didn't go.

I had to return some broken frames at Target and get Avery some baby food afterwards. I asked her when we went in did she have to go. She said no.

We shop get the things we need. I had put her in the buggy to eat a snack while I shopped. I picked up a none broken frame and put it on the bottom of the buggy.

As I was checking out and getting the frame off the bottom to pay for it. I notice it's wet.

Yeap.

She peed on it.

I asked for some paper towels, whipped it off and bought it.

The mat for the frame is unusable. Good thing it wouldn't have fit our picture anyway. It will be off to Michael's to get a custom mat done or find one that will fit.

Lesson learned:

Use a pull up while out

Until next time..............

how I do enjoy the sound of nothing from time to time

It's quiet in my house. Aynslee is down for a late nap. We took a cake to a friends house for her birthday today. Aynslee was very upset when it was time to go home. She screamed all the way home. Then once we got home wouldn't come inside. I put her down for a nap even though it was 3:30pm. Avery fell asleep on the ride home. Luckily she stayed asleep as I brought her in the house. I am hoping for her to take one of those rare long naps since we didn't get a good morning nap.

My baby is going to be crawling at any minute. She has started to get up on hands and knees and rock. She tried to go forward this afternoon. It makes me so sad. She is doing things to fast. Aynslee was a very laid back baby and took her time doing every thing. So when she finally rolled over, sat up, crawled and walked I was ok. But little Avery just wants to be on the go and do everything with her big sister. She hates to be still.

Update on Potty Training:

We are still working on it. No accidents today but when we have gone out she's had on a pullup.
Last night I was encourage by the fact that she start to go but said something to me. I quickly took her to the potty were she finished going. I have also noticed that when I sit her down to go if she has to go she goes right away. But if she doesn't need to go she gets insistant on getting up.

I am hoping tomorrow we won't go anywhere. I have been out of the house every day this week. I am in desperate need of a day to stay home and go no where. I like being at home. When I am home we have a nice routine where naps are taken on time, etc.

While my babies are sleeping I am going to go clean my kitchen and put away the few groceries I purchased today.

Have a great weekend!

Until next time..................

We're trying this potty training thing!

After reading someones blog on the subject matter, I asked Aynlsee when she woke up from her nap if she wanted to wear big girls panties. She said, "Yes." So I put on the lined ones that I friend gave us and set the timer for 15 minutes. We moved the potty chair into the LR in front of the TV. She didn't go the first time but I set the timer for 10 minutes. She didn't go. I let her sit on it while watching a cartoon for about 15 minutes she didn't get up so I let her sit there. She didn't go. But went the next time we sat down and she got to put a sticker on her chart. She was very excited as was I and we did the happy potty dance.

We continued this using the timer. She had one accident but since the pants were lined I didn't have a mess to clean up.

This morning after she got up we sat on the potty. I started with setting the timer again. She didn't go the 2 times I had the timer set. I had to get my shower because we were going out. I just put the potty in my bathroom and while I was taking a shower she sat on the potty and went pee pee. We did the potty dance again.

I put a pull up on her when we went out. She went poop in it once we got home. But I started again with the training pants. She had a accident but I caught her as she was going. I sat her down on the potty. Then we got clean pants. I had set hte timer again for 15 or 20 minutes. I can't remember. I guess I caught her as she was about to go poop. There was a little on her pants but when she stood up she had gone poopoo in the potty. She was so happy with herself.

Tomorrow we are going to be home all day. I am hoping for some similar results. I don't really think she gets it yet but she's interested as long as I tell her she needs to sit on the potty. She knows when she has gone and will tell me that she's gone in the potty.

Even though I am not exactly sure having her potty trained when we go to Disney will be an easy thing. Having her trained at home will be wonderful.