the "little" one

my mom was over the other day and i said something about nola and referred to her as "the little one". my mom said, "what? there's a little one here? i don't see a little one." i realized she's right, nola is growing leaps and bounds and i forgot how amazing it is to watch them do something different and new every day!

*she suddenly loves cleo. (and i bet she'd love roo if roo ever came home :) that's a post for another day) she squeals whenever the cat walks by and actively seeks her out if she wanders into another room.
here she is trying to pound on the glass to get cleo's attention outside


*as of yesterday (or some time this week) she officially has 4 teeth! 2 on top, 2 on bottom

*she adores bathtime and would probably stay in the tub for hours at a time, just splashing. can't wait until it's hot (and i find her a bathing suit!) and we can get her in a little pool.

*she loves snuggling and resting her head as she says "awwwww". on the floor, on a ball, on elmo, on a blanket, on a shoulder. it makes my heart melt everytime.


*she still sleeps flat on her back with her left hand shoved under her back. and now whenever she's tired (and not in bed), you'll see the hand creep under and stay there. on the floor, in the car, in her high chair. random and sweet.


*she's starting to copy us (mainly avery) more and more. and now says 'uh-oh' when we drop things too.

*she crawls, pulls up, cruises, climbs stairs and just realized she loves to walk holding hands. when she's really distracted by a toy, she'll stand on her own for a few seconds :)

*she and avery chase each other around the house, crawling. and they squeal and giggle and laugh. it's AWESOME!

*just like avery did, nola is obsessed with zane's glasses. and every day when he comes home from work and goes to give her a kiss, she goes to grab them.

*she signs "more", "all done" and "like"

*she dances. all the time. we play music while we're eating dinner and she's usually the first one to start grooving. then starts to giggle when we all start to copy her moves.

i can't believe we're almost a month away from her first birthday!! it's been an insanely challenging and beautiful year and i can't wait to celebrate all that she is and all that she has accomplished :)

goodness

thank goodness we're in a streak of amazing-ness, because i don't think we could have endured much more of last week's mood.

last night after dinner, we let the girls down from their chairs and told them 5 minutes until we headed upstairs for bedtime. and then for the next 15 minutes we watched them chase each other, play with each other and giggle. we didn't have to do anything. we just sat on the couch and smiled at them, smiled at each other. and realized once again that these times are becoming the norm, and that's just awesome.

then they both went to sleep without a peep. and we sat on the front steps and remembered just how awesome the sunsets in front of our house can be. (and i captured just how awesome zane is at shaping/pruning our hedges)


and even today, when there seemed to be a lot of complaining, a lot of fussing and nay-saying. there were 2 little lovebugs that are learning that they simply love each other's company 99% of the time. i even captured the first time they watched a movie together ;)

nola completely flopped and lounged and enjoyed. avery had woken up from her nap with a much lower temperature, but still wasn't herself. when i told her they could watch snow white before dinner, you would have thought i gave her tickets to disney world.

and to complete the day of goodness-the day that i've been longing for finally arrived. i didn't have to carry nola up the stairs once today. she climbed up after avery every time and it was GLORIOUS! do you know how taxing it is to carry almost 30lbs of dead weight up and down and all around everyday? answer: extremely. so i'm all to ready for her to start doing some of the work on her own :) and she loves doing it, so it's win-win.

hoping for, but preparing myself for the opposite, a silent night with soundly sleeping, fever-free kiddos. cheers.

not.

just to give a little taste of life with a 2 year old around here lately...

we're in the car on the way home from the drug store so i could get some sensitive skin sunscreen for nola (went to the dr's and they said it's a non-specific rash and to cut out blueberries and see if that helps) it's a GORGEOUS day out, so as we're driving i say:
"hey! we're going to go home and go in the house. get some sunscreen on. go on the back deck to play in the sandbox. and have fun in the sun!!"

avery's response: "or NOT!"

(and no, she wasn't trying to be funny.)

my response (trying to be funny): "yes!! yes we ARE going to have fun! and you're going to like it!! yippee!!!"

avery: "or not! or not! or not! or NOT!!!!!"

(we came home, she flipped out over something unrelated and i said it seemed like she needed a nap. then she asked to go in her crib. she stayed there for 15 minutes and then was ready to get up and join the fun. i hear the 3's are even MORE fun?? yippee!!!!)

not.

;)

*update* this morning's "fun" was part 2 1/2 year old contrary-ness and part illness. took her temp before her nap and it was 102.2...of course she didn't want to go outside where it's hot out. she was already burning up! :( hope she bounces back quickly. and i'll be sure to take her pleas/demands/verbal attacks a bit more seriously next time...

here is the rainbow i've been praying for...

i wish i could have posted last week. really, i do. but we were caught in the midst of tantrums, sickness (3/5 people in this house were under the weather), sleeplessness and a few more tantrums. i think i can safely say it was one of the most trying weeks of parenthood so far. i think i can also safely say that we're on the upswing and we made it through!

a random picture/update post.

-we had just about the most perfect weekend we've had in a long long time.

-nola learned how to crawl up the stairs yesterday. well, she didn't really "learn". she just crawled over to them yesterday morning and went up like she's done it her whole life.

-we volunteered at a local consignment sale on thursday night to help set up. on friday, i got to shop the sale before the public. got the girls' entire summer wardrobe, some books and a couple toys for $100! wonderful! (i also consigned a bunch of old clothes, hopefully they sold and we made a little bit of profit)

-since it was 95 degrees yesterday, it was only natural that avery snuggle under a FLEECE blanket and watch yo gabba gabba on the couch (?!?!)


-a saturday morning walk before it got hot out. tried to find some inspiration for our front yard. got a coffee and some donuts. stopped by grammy and gramps' house to let the bigger little lady run off her donut :)

and the little little lady snuggled with dada.


-west of boston had a huge water main break. we're under strict boil water orders and urged to use water sparingly until they have it all fixed. if i can just remember before i start to brush avery's teeth that i can't use tap water, we'll be all set! seriously though, it's eyeopening to see how much we rely on tap water! they say it'll be a few days before they get everything fixed, so i see lots of boiling this week. (we did, however, stock up on nursery water at babies r us the other day when we happened to see it! all grocery stores were sold out within hours of the news of the break)

-while the girls ran out to get a new sand/water table, zane stayed home and got started on one of new projects: a magnetic chalkboard in the sunroom. can't wait to start using it!

once the girls went down for their naps, zane and i finished staining our deck table and chairs. love the way it turned out!

-went to a neighbor's 40th birthday party on saturday. not only did avery go off on her own to play and explore, when she joined us on the blanket she and nola wrestled, laughed, enjoyed and loved each other! it was probably the best family outing we've ever had with all 4 of us. no one was cranky, tired, hungry, etc. looking forward to more and more of these experiences!

-the girls watched yo gabba gabba yesterday afternoon while we tried to escape the heat and nola fell in love!


-as you can maybe see in the picture above, nola has some rash/skin thing going on on her forehead/face, hopefully it's nothing serious and it might explain why she's been uncharacteristically fussy the last week!

-grilled out a ridiculous amount of food and ended the weekend with delicious homemade margaritas :)

2 out of 4...

so, we had amazing weather for the first 2 days of our trip. the 2nd two? i'm not sure new orleans has seen that much continual rain/wind for a long time. (though it's really weird to think we were watching all the tornado warnings that were issued for towns/communities not terribly far from where we were and then to see the devastation later that day from those towns that were leveled. makes a bunch of rain and lightening and mud seem not so bad. but still, it made the 1st day of jazzfest a little less than wonderful)

the weather may have petered out, but there was: lots of good eating-though for us that doesn't necessarily equal traditional creole/cajun food. lots of good company. lots of good hours laying by a pool. or walking around the quarter. or eating breakfast on our balcony.


we don't have a whole lot of pictures. i blame the fact that we were focused on relaxing and not having any responsibilities. (which was a lot harder than i thought it would be. there were definitely times where i would be sitting around not really knowing what to do with myself and happily agreeing to reapply zane's sunscreen or run out to search for t-shirts for the 800th time.)

but here are some highlights...

our little italian restaurant with excellent (and extremely cheesy) pizza and fun tablecloths. this year, their new addition was the local beer in a strawberry brew. our waitress told us she hadn't had anyone not enjoy it, and zane being the skeptic, gave it a try. he enjoyed it.


our night (or 2 hours) spent on bourbon street. we had dinner first, then headed to bourbon for dessert and a drink. walking home we passed the "huge ass beers" storefront and stopped in. we have a nice collection of these cups at home (they're a great size for water or juice) and wanted to add some more. i think we each successfully drank about 1/30th of the beer and dumped the rest out at the hotel. but the cups are happily sitting in our kitchen.


zane and i made our way to jazzfest on saturday, hoping that the rain that flooded the fairgrounds on friday would stay away. good news, the rain did stay away and even better, we got to see the "treme brass band". one of the jazzfest posters this year features "lionel batiste" and we got to see him in action (see above).

so though there isn't much picture evidence, we had a great time and it was a lot easier being away from the girls than i thought it might be. the night before we left after the girls had been put down, i burst into tears thinking of them waking up and wondering where we were. but once we were on vacation and knew that the girls were having a blast with mema, it was really nice to let go and enjoy everything the city had to offer.

the funny thing? i never napped.

81 and sunny

nola is now pulling herself up on anything and everything. trying to crawl up the walls. pushing herself backwards to plop down and laughing. letting go of my hands when i'm standing with her and helping her walk. saying "uh-oh" when something "uh-oh" happens (i'm thinking of counting this as her first word). we're leaving for 5 days and i can't even imagine how much she's going to change while we're gone!

avery is trying to be patient with nola's newfound ability to get into everything. and she's also trying to ignore nola's crying at night since she's been sick, but that's not going so well and no one has really slept much in the last week. (hopefully that will make our 3am wakeup for the airport tomorrow morning a little more manageable ;))

i can't even express how much i'm going to miss the girls or how much i'm looking forward to an uninterrupted nap.

laissez les bons temps rouler!

10 months and mommy #2

\
10 months and i can finally gather a few pieces of hair to put in a pony tail ;)


wearing a bathing suit top, mismatched bottoms (around her neck) and some high heels. someone's ready to hit the town ;)

it's friday!

and here was the first conversation of our day

z: did nola sleep through last night?

a: i think so, i didn't hear anything.

z: hmm, i hope that's a good thing.

a: well, why don't you peek in her room and check?

z: nah, i can never be quiet enough. have a good day, love.

happy to report that she was fine, the pillow contraption that zane made in her crib to help her breathe must have worked. and maybe the benedryl ;) either way, she had a great night's sleep and is back to playing and smiling this morning.

just in time for 10 months!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! holy.cow.

speaking of 10 months, i think it's safe to say that it's taken us just about this long to really settle into a groove of having 2 little ones. it's been a long road, but worth every step and setback. this morning, the girls woke up around the same time and mema brought avery into nola's room. nola lit up when she saw avery and avery begged to be put in nola's crib with her. these moments are coming more frequently and it's such a blessing to sit back and watch.

more to come later with tales of midnight crib sheet changes, new signs, avery's story reading, excitement for vacation, anxiety about vacation and the horrors of shopping for a bathing suit post 2 pregnancies ;)

it's almost friday!

kind of. a little bit. hey, it's close enough for me.

we've got a sick little baby in the house and aside from feeling helpless that we can't snap our fingers and make her feel better instantly, it's SO HARD to take care of a sick baby when there's also a toddler that needs/wants/deserves attention/food/snuggles/fun. and when you were up half the night with the sick one.

(i do have to say though, i'm so glad this is happening now and not next week when we're away!)

i forgot what i was going to even post about, which is okay b/c nola is having a hard time falling asleep and i don't have the time to write anyway ;)

hopefully i'll get back to post in less time than it took to get this one up.

*update: after nola's second 2+hour nap of the day, we took her outside and zane went for a walk with the girls and dogs. i met them as they were coming down the street and it looked like nola had been crying hard for some time. her poor face was red, puffy, and splotchy. so, we're thinking allergies. gave her a half a dose of benedryl and so far so good!

i could make a killing off my medicine cabinet.

towards the end of my pregnancy with nola, i was so excited to be done with doctors and medicine for a while. i had come to the conclusion that this would be a year to focus on myself without the worry of an unborn child. and then i went to the dentist and we all know how that turned out. then i went to the oral surgeon. and that time didn't go much smoother. and without going into detail, right now i'm fighting 2 infections, am allergic to one of the medicines i was given and hoping the new one doesn't make me throw up.

and to top all this off, because my body and mind aren't tired enough, i cannot for the life of me figure out nola and avery's sleeping stuff. they're up at 5:30 or 6 am just about everyday. nola has slept for 20 minutes today. avery's finally stopped screaming for 30 minutes at night when we put her down. nola's waking up pretty consistently at night, after having a good couple months where she slept soundly through....

all of these things combined result in me trying to look up airline information and typing "boston airport" in yahoo. i've lived here all my life and can't remember the name of the airport? i need a nap.

at least when i'm not napping, i can look at these little faces.



because they aren't sleeping either ;) (especially with prune all over her face :))

catch-up

we had a fantastic easter weekend!!

friday-

went to the park on a perfect spring day. avery played on the swings, went down all the slides, enjoyed the sunshine, and ended the day with pizza and a movie.

saturday-

went to a local church that was having a block party. bouncy houses, face painting, cookie making, hot dogs, and really really nice people.
got accepted into my grad program!!!!
dyed easter eggs
had a cookout with lots of meat and cold drinks on another perfect spring day!
hung out with our neighbors without the kids! a nice treat :)

sunday-

had a blast with avery searching for treats that the easter bunny left.
painted/stained our porch table and got lots of sun.
cooked off and on all morning for an awesome early ham dinner.

for a full album of the weekend, here you go

no bunny's gonna take a picture of me

avery was begging to sweep the porch this morning. it was tough handing over the broom, but i got over it quickly. and she had a blast!


and then i tried to get a picture of the girls in their matching "no bunny's cuter" t-shirts and nola had a small breakdown. and then napped for 2 hours.

nothing's safe!

i had to document what the house looked like tonight after the girls were down.
with two mobile kids, toys and treasures get tossed, carried and kicked everywhere. at times it makes me smile, at other times i want to grab a huge trash bag :)
i think we're in desperate need of more bins, buckets, and boxes for all their stuff...

because it's monday...

...and i needed an excuse to download this pictures.

but now, since i'm 8,000 steps behind in just about everything to do with this house, i'm off.

*cue the angels*

the sun is back. and better than ever. and nola loves it.


correction-nola, avery, and mama love it. at the park.


correction-dada loves it and it wears avery out quickly ;)


good times.