group therapy

we had another great weekend :)

mema came down to stay with us, and got some one on one time with nola while we took avery to see james and brian! we ate some fantastic "gumbolaya", spent time with fantastic friends, and let avery play with all the fantastic things in their place (including a tennis ball, ramp, toy giraffe and lots of cool musical instruments!) :) thanks again for the dinner and company!

(please note the chocolate candy james is holding...it was the bribery needed to get avery to take this picture :) it was almost bedtime, so she was fading fast...)

tonight we went out to eat with grammy and gramps to celebrate zane's certification! it's been a long and weird road trying to get nh credentials and paperwork transfered down here, but it's done and we're so proud :)

(i'm assuming avery had food in her mouth? not sure where the enlarged cheek came from ;))

i really need to get back into writing more frequently. maybe then the posts wouldn't be as random and jumbled. until then, i'll leave with one last list of updates.

*last night avery was reading a story with zane before bed. she had her stuffed doggy with her and said "i love you, doggy!" unprompted for the first time! later i said "i love you, avery" and waited for her response. it was "i love you, avery". hmph :)

*we now leave her bedroom door open and a light on in the bathroom/hall at night and she's doing really well with going to sleep and staying quiet through the night. yay! tonight when we were leaving her room i heard "na-na, mommy!" :)

*gave nola yogurt the other day and she loved it! i can't think of one food we've given her that she hasn't liked. (i will say that green beans are not in her diet right now though...the last few times she's eaten them, she's been super cranky and uncomfortable-acting after.) her favorite foods: squash, carrots, peas+carrots combined, and sweet potato. she really likes bananas, applesauce, pears and peach, but i don't think she likes them better than veggies.

*i hosted a playgroup here last week and even though not many people showed up it was really fun and worthwhile!

*can't remember if i mentioned nola is clapping! and she loves zane's glasses. and giving kisses. and pounding the table/ball/her thighs/etc with her hands.

bored while zane watches A&E

a- zane is CERTIFIED!!!!!

b- crazy week. i may have been sarcastic in the last post about being busy, but this time i'm serious! everyday we either had visitors, went somewhere or had more visitors. it was hectic but a really nice change from the regular days :)

c- nola's new babble is "dadadadababadadada". she usually breaks out in babble while clapping (also new)! she's also almost a pro at feeding herself her puffs! growing up way way WAY too fast.

d- it's almost february!! how did that happen?

e- tonight when we were reading one of avery's bedtime stories, zane asked her to point to the big tree. she did, saying "Biiiiiiiiig!" and then pointed to the slightly smaller tree calling it "mama", then to a smaller one and said "avery", then the smallest one and called it "nola". really cute.

f- it's almost friday!!

so busy.

seriously. we're swamped around here. i don't know when we'll get a break.

we're spending lots of time not getting kisses...


putting lizards in our mouths and waiting for someone to notice...


wearing our shirts over our heads and comparing it to when we did the same thing with the big one...
nola

avery


and dressing up like a tough girl.


but we have managed to schedule in some time for smiles, which is always a welcomed distraction.




but really, we had a lovely weekend. it was very low key, but not in a "i'm bored and we should do something but we have no money and no real desire to do anything" kind of way. which is how some weekends have felt lately. instead, we chose to focus on getting healthier, keep on our routine and make the most of it. we cleaned the house, made a bunch of baby food, kept people well rested and happy and even watched a movie!

:)

avery screaming. and nola eating a puff.

excuse my voice. and avery ;)

feeling better with their help ;)

when you're feeling down with sickness and weird moodiness, it helps to have a couple cuties to soothe your soul ;)

if that doesn't work, a pair of sunglasses and conveniently placed stickers should do the trick...

...or a pair of yummy thighs...with a side of love handles ;)...

...or a bunch of pigs lined up perfectly, just the way daddy would like them.

...or maybe some good old fashioned playing around on the floor....

if that doesn't do it for you, i don't know what will. it sure helped me :)

in other news...
*nola fed herself her first puff today! she's been grabbing them and losing them to her fist or the floor for a while now, but successfully grabbed and made it to her mouth this morning. i even got it on film accidentally.

*avery is giving us a run for our money at night. put her to sleep fine, then 20 minutes later she's screaming at the top of her lungs (for mama or dada) and will keep at it every few minutes until one of us checks on her. we're at a loss. i don't really want to go the ignoring route, but we've tried a whole host of other tricks. this might be a separate post entirely, but if anyone has advice/tips/btdt stories for me before i get to it, please share!! (ps, i also got her screaming on film this morning, same video as nola slam dunking her puff...maybe i'll post it)

*zane has also been feeling crappy this week, i'm hoping he's recovering as well as i am. i drank coffee this morning for the first time in almost a week and i'm starting to feel more and more normal. here's to a good and healthy weekend for everyone!

april, i can almost see you!

having a pretty good handle on what any given day will be like now makes me realize how difficult the first 5-6 months were around here. before nola was born, avery had such a definite and consistent pattern to her days. and even though that stayed pretty much the same after nola got here, we now had the new little one to figure out and soothe.

things weren't necessarily unhappy and people weren't trying to be difficult, but there were more days than not where we would have no idea how and when things were going to happen. looking back, we should have just relaxed and tried to have faith that things would fall into place eventually. (i say "we", but i think zane had more confidence in the future than i did.)

then when things first started falling into a routine around here i was a little overwhelmed. it seemed that nola took her nap in the morning and would wake up a little before or just in time for avery's nap. then as i put nola down for her second nap, there would be a small window (if any) before avery woke up.

now that it's been a while on this new schedule, i'm realizing what a blessing it is. we have time with all of them together, then we have time to spend one on one time with each girl. yes, it's exhausting. there are days when someone is awake and needing something at all hours from 6am-7pm. those are hard. and there are days like today, when i'm sick and want nothing more than to crawl into bed and just don't see that happening.

but it's so fulfilling. seeing the girls together in the morning, eating breakfast together and laughing at each other, playing on the floor together and just hanging out. spending time with avery when nola naps in the morning and getting a taste of our old one on one relationship. playing with nola in the afternoon and really getting to focus on her fun little personality with no distractions. coming together in the late afternoon when zane gets home from work and playing and eating together.

anyway, i'm so glad those first rough months have passed :) april can't come soon enough, i'm ready for vacation.

another attempt

(ps, i'm talking to my mom on the phone, trying to tell her what was going on ;))

7 months!

it wasn't until yesterday when i checked my email and noticed babycenter sent me something called "your 7 month old, week 1" that i remembered nola turned 7 months! shocking, i know. you blink your eyes and these kids are old. ugh.



i have a video of her lost in the hood of her shirt, but youtube seems to have changed and i'm too slow right now to figure out how to get it on here. maybe tomorrow. but maybe not. we are coming out of a 3 day weekend, you know. which means i'll be mourning the loss of the much welcomed help around here, and i might not have time for much other than snuggling ;)

our babies

our first animal baby with our first human baby. nope, i didn't set them up.

in the mornings when i put nola down for her nap, avery sits in our bed and plays or watches sesame street. from the chair in nola's room i can see into our room and watch avery. most days cleo follows us all upstairs and settles down next to me while i feed nola. on saturday though, she left my lap (or what's left of it with nola there :)) and headed straight for our bed. she jumped up, stalked across and landed in avery's lap.

i got to see the whole thing. avery's face lit up as she looked around the room for someone to share the moment with. she looked down at cleo and just beamed. and cleo looked up at her and snuggled even more. my two "first" babies found each other and were loving it.

hunkered down.

ok. question time. (and a bunch of boring daily schedule talk).

two kids. different ages. different needs. different schedules.

will i ever get out of the house again?

kidding. kind of.

so the girls wake up around 7. then there's diaper changes, getting dressed, getting downstairs, two breakfasts (three if i have time to make something for myself). by then it's usually after 8, sometimes closer to 8:30.

nola goes down for her first nap around 9. by the time she falls asleep it's probably 9:30 and she'll get up around 10:30/11:00. i usually take avery upstairs with me. then diaper change, round up avery, downstairs again.

then there's usually about 20-30 minutes of downtime before i need to start lunch for avery (and nola, but baby food doesn't take much prep :)).

eat around noon.

then we all go upstairs for avery's nap around 12:30. after she goes down, nola goes down. they both sleep until 3 or so.

soon after, zane gets home, i go to phototherapy (dermatologist) 3 days a week, sometimes i drop them at the playspace on my way to the dr and pick them up on the way home, then dinner gets started, then bathtime and bed.

does anyone else with 2 kids get a chance to get out of the house? i know every once in a while we get out and their schedules are easy enough to get back on track...but i just want to know i'm normal ;)

the sweeter side :)

avery is a sweetheart. a sweetheart with a silly streak. i want to wrap her up in cuddles and kisses (when she'll let me) and bask in her cuteness and syrupy hands :)



she's also a toddler. and anyone with a toddler can tell you that sweet-ness and toddlerhood can sometimes be at war with each other. luckily for us, the sweet overpowers the sour most days and we've all found pretty good methods for helping move things along when things get icky.

lately, some of the pictures i've been able to take of avery have shown that she is her own person and will do (or not do) what she pleases. no matter how hard i'm trying to make silly noises or get the camera cued up so that i can catch her the split second she glances my way. in some ways, these have been some of my favorite pictures. capturing her in her natural state-busy, independent, silly, bored, preoccupied. real.



but there are some times when i'm going to want a picture that looks like the sweet avery. and so this week we've been working on "the nice smile". before, i tried telling her to close her mouth a little when she smiled. she ended up closing her mouth, eyes, and sometimes fists too.



so today, i tried showing her what i meant. without realizing it, i must have cocked my head to the side and grinned a little grin. because that's exactly what she's been giving back to me when i ask her for it.



either way, she's a keeper. if she wants to bare her teeth and make silly faces, we'll love it (and understand it-zane can be smiling nice for a photo and at the last second, makes a face. used to drive me crazy, but now i expect it :)). if she wants to act shy and give a smug smile, we'll love it. if she wants to put on a tiger suit, stick out her tongue and run away, we'll love it and wait for her to come back. or maybe take a picture of her running away.



but we'll always know our sweet avery is snuggled inside, waiting to come out :)



ps. please leave out any comments on her looking 12 in this picture. it just might break my heart :) thank you.

but i don't wanna!

this is the problem with not posting often enough. there's too much to recount/remember/relive/say and i just don't feel like doing any of it. and for this "vacation", there's good reason to not want to remember a lot of it. but, there are probably just as many good things that happened that we'll want to remember down the line and so here i am...

the first week (plus) of our 11 day holiday break together, most of us were sick. first avery, then dada, then nola, then mama. the girls definitely got the worst of it, each of them spending (at least) one night in our bed/room during the height of their ickiness...that definitely does not make for good sleep for anyone in our house. zane was definitely the next hardest hit, and i got spared with a mild version of everyone else's germs. it's hard enough to get through the days with one sick kid, but then add another while the first is still recovering, and then your adult partner in crime and then start feeling the effects yourself and it's just misery all around. tissues, soup, blankets, cuddles, ignoring behaviors and a nasal aspirator all played a major part in our surviving the past week and a half. and a sense of humor. sometimes. if we were lucky.

but with all the things that we were looking forward to that didn't happen-a haircut (for myself and avery), hours and hours spent at the local play space (where we probably picked up the germs in the first place!), mornings lounging with coffee and donuts, long card games with snacks and drinks, birthday celebrations with friends and family (i've never been so happy to see a birthday over!), snuggling on the couch with movies at night-some wonderful things did happen that saved our sanity and memories :)

in no particular order...


on thursday, after a particularly hairy morning, grammy picked up avery and they spent a couple of hours playing at her house. it was a wonderful break for us, nola slept almost the entire time and we got a ton of stuff done around the house, but it was also an awesome treat for avery! she was so excited to have a special day out without us! when she came home (in the snow), she was equally as excited to be home and back in her space. a winning situation all around.


later that day she took her first shower! normally she absolutely hates the water coming out of the showerhead and says "all done" until it gets turned off. i was dying to take a hot shower and casually asked her if she wanted to take a shower instead of a bath. she said "okay" but i wasn't sure how it was going to play out until we got upstairs. oddly enough, she suddenly wasn't scared at all and sat playing on the floor of the bath while i showered. when she got out she was so proud of herself for being a big girl and going in the shower. really cute to see that independence blossoming.

nola's day is pretty much mapped out now. her naps have been just about consistent in time and length, along with her food intake and night routine. it's wonderful to be able to predict with more certainty now what she'll need at any given time. (it's also nice to know that when we lay her down in her crib and she sputters and cries, it's because she misses us. and she will stop pretty quickly after we leave. and if it doesn't, she's hungry and food solve it. hopefully the days of going in 4 or 5 times after we put her down are over!)

in the last 2 days, nola has worked SO hard at getting on her hands and knees. she's got a lot of weight to hold up, but she does a great job and i don't think it'll be long before she's scooting backwards or attempting to really crawl. (i want my baby back!!)

the knowledge that nola will on the move sooner rather than later, coupled with the cut avery got on her heel trying to walk through the downstairs sun/play room the other day, prompted us to clean/de-clutter/organize. the sunroom is now spacious and clean and a really nice space for both girls to be in. very glad for that productivity. and i think they will be, too.

some avery-isms
avery's latest phrase is: "look, dada!" or "look, mommy!" while she holds up something new that she's found. my favorite from today was "look mommy, prunes!" when she saw what nola was eating :)

today she was walking through the dining room and the dogs were sitting by the door. she passed by them and said "hey guys!" :)

i went to get her from her nap yesterday and i was wearing zane's fleece jacket. i walked into her room and she said "look! mama is wearing dada!" lol...

in the past week there's been a huge change in her communication. she's putting her own thought and sentences together more and more (less just repeating what we've said or asked) and her imagination is just taking off. yesterday she put her arms through a plastic bag and flapped her arms and said "avery chicken!" this age (minus the tantrums and meltdowns) is so. much. fun! it seems like each hour she's coming up with something new to share or exclaim. definitely brings more excitement to the days.

so, while this holiday season may not have gone exactly to plan...or even slightly according to plan...it will be one we will remember. and maybe even laugh about one day. the important thing is that we spent it as a family, with all of the ups and downs. and we still want to be around each other :) that's saying something.