Baby

11 Months

~ Girlmom ~ 1 Comment

11 months old. I can’t remember Kaili at this age, even going back and looking at her pictures it’s like I lost all memory of what she was doing at this age.

Averi is cruising around the furniture like a pro and has stood on her own for .2 seconds but that’s it for now.

IMG_1925

I can’t tell you how excited I am to get rid of formula and stop washing bottles. I’m like really really excited about that.

IMG_1957

She still puts anything and everything she can grab into her mouth. She is also getting better with eating solids. She loves her carbs, bread, crackers, pasta, pizza, bagels, waffles, veggie chips you name it. She usually takes a bite of her fruit and then drops the rest on the floor, along with anything else healthy.

Not sure how much she weighs but I’m betting she is gaining on her sister.

IMG_1960

She has 4 teeth and two pushing through as we speak. She is getting her own little personality and for the most part is a happy girl. She is easy to take places, she likes to people watch and is happy to be pushed along in her stroller. A friend of ours got her to fall asleep in her stroller at a party. Kaili never did that, as a matter of fact Kaili has never fallen asleep anywhere other than her bed or the carseat and that has only happened about 3 times.

I can’t wait to see what the next few months brings.

Happy almost 1 year baby girl.

IMG_1963

10 Months

~ Girlmom ~ 1 Comment

Averi is 10 months old and I can’t say its been easy. She is waking up at night again and has NOT slept past 6:00 am it seems in weeks. She is whiny, clingy and cries if I put her down, walk away or even look in a different direction.

IMG_1714 IMG_1742 IMG_1720

She looks so cute and happy there doesn’t she. Well really, it’s all a ruse. This is how she usually looks, at least when no one else is around.

IMG_1759

In her defense, she is getting two more teeth, so that probably isn’t helping. She has also mastered pulling herself up on furniture or anything sturdy or not. But she is afraid to sit back down because she has bumped her chin a couple of times. This is a big problem, huge problem. She will be happy and crawling around then she will reach the couch and pull herself up and then cry. Then someone, usually me will go to her and help her sit back down and she will cry even harder. This continues all day long. She does the same thing in her crib, so that’s how that goes.I think she just wants to walk and strut around the house like she owns the place and honestly I will welcome that if it stops the crying.

IMG_1693

She isn’t the best eater. She doesn’t like anything other than purees and yogurt, I am wondering if it’s a texture issue. She turned her nose at avocado and mashed banana, and sweet potato bits. So I haven’t gone out of my way to try much else. She touches the food and then makes a face and wipes her hands on her clothes. Aca-awesome. She does love her baby crackers, puffs and cheerios, probably because they aren’t mushy or sticky, or who the hell knows. I am not going to worry about it until she turns 1.

Kaili is a pretty good big sister but she is super territorial and doesn’t want to share any of her toys with Averi but Averi HAS to share her toys with her because…duh. But when Averi is crying Kaili will bust out singing “Hush little baby” and Averi stops, at least for a minute. I finally googled the rest of the lyrics to that song, and what baby wants cart and bull?

IMG_1706

These two, I love them to the moon but they do a good job keeping me on my toes.

Lately

~ Girlmom ~ 1 Comment

Have you ever had a dream where you knew you were dreaming but couldn’t wake up, and then when you do “wake” up, you’re not actually awake? It’s called False Awakening and it happened for the second time in my life last night. Scary shit. I had gone to bed early to read when I kept hearing weird noises. I used to blame them on my cat but now the cat is dead so….I got up and checked the kids once, twice, and then fell asleep. My dream was vivid and started to get scary when I lost the ability to talk. Somewhere I realized I was dreaming so I willed myself to wake up. My eyes open and I am in my bed, I get up and go out into the front room. I tried turning on the light but the power must have been out, none of the lights worked. I went to open the front door and their were two men rummaging through my car that in the driveway. I tried to scream but nothing… I realized I was still dreaming.
Finally I really wake up and I feel strange, the room is like static, my heart is pounding. That was zero fun and now I in no way wanted to go back to sleep. I read until midnight and must have fallen asleep but this time I was sleeping like a normal person and didn’t wake until the Averi alarm went off at 6 AM.

Remember the swim class Kaili was enjoying? That has taken a 180. The class got a little bigger with a 1:5 ratio and there was a lot of “standing” around. Although the pool is heated she was getting really cold, shivering cold. It wasn’t fun for her and she would get upset and we ended up leaving class early. Along with that her ear started bothering her and with a fever we took her to see the doc. Turns out she had a double ear infection that started with swimmers ear. She is on a 10 day dose of antibiotics and drops but 4 days later she still complains her ears hurt. Not quite sure what to do about swimming, the YMCA has left a bad taste in her mouth. I want to sign her up at another school where the ratio is smaller but she doesn’t seem thrilled about it. Maybe they will let me do a trial run before paying for a full month of classes, what do you think?

Averi had her 9 month baby check. She is 17 lbs, only about 10 lbs lighter than sister. Average in length and head size and got a stamp of approval from the doctor. She only had one vaccine injection and she didn’t even flinch, thats the sign of a good nurse.

Photo courtesy of Brian Kerr
Photo courtesy of Brian Kerr

Kali’s birthday party is this weekend and half of the kids she invited have not RSVP’d. What the hell is wrong with people, these are kids, if you can’t or don’t want to come, let us know. I feel bad because she keeps saying “so and so” is coming because she invited them but doesn’t comprehend that I haven’t heard from their parents. Ugh, I just hope she has a fun day and can the rain please stay away.

April

~ Girlmom ~ 1 Comment

I finally got my computer fixed after I spilled apple juice on it, ironic huh? Apple on Apple? Gah, no more liquids around electronics for this girl. It was really hard to motivate myself to write on my iPad.
So all of the sudden it’s April, birthdays are looming ahead of us. Little Averi turned 9 months, she is moving along with her own unique crawl where she uses her upper body strength to pull herself along while her feet kick about. It doesn’t slow her down. We got a baby jail for her which is great when I need to turn my back, she will find anything and everything on the ground, put it in her mouth and then gag on it. Where there’s a will there is a way, she is a determined little thing.
She is still on purees because she chokes on anything that isn’t and it scares the hell out of me. I didn’t make my own food this time around because it’s so easy to buy and the variety of food available is amazing but it’s not cheap.
IMG_1502
She has been sick the past month AND her two top teeth just poked through so sleep has been a mess, with wake ups sporadic. Like her sister she is an early riser and I have come to the realization that these girls are not late sleepers and I will never sleep in again.

IMG_1563

IMG_1571

IMG_1577

Kaili turns 4 in a couple of weeks, this amazes me. She is doing great in school, can write her name and is working on writing MOM and DAD. I can look at her and say Shane and I have done good. She is compassionate, empathic, funny and relatively a good listener. She is starting to act out a bit which is actually coming later than I expected. Nothing that’s not age appropriate but her baby sister usually gets the brunt of it. This sharing thing is harder than in looks.
IMG_1370

She started swimming lessons twice a week at the Y and she loves it.She is picking it all up really fast.
IMG_1461

IMG_1506

We got her a bunk bed for her birthday with Frozen sheets to go with it, of course. She is excited to share her bed with anyone really, and soon enough Averi will be her roommate. I told Kaili she will be in charge of getting Averi back to sleep once that happens! Good times ahead!

Averi

~ Girlmom ~ 1 Comment

This kid!

She is sitting up on her own, which is great because now she will play with her toys. I no longer have to entertain her all day. She has been sleeping 6:30 to 6:30 straight with the exception of a random wake up on a random day. Her interest in food is growing and she eats more than Kaili ever did. I gave her yogurt for the first time and it went over very well. Her new thing is spitting while eating, makes for an entertaining meal time.

At her last Dr visit she weighed 15 lbs. that is still low percentage wise but she is going to be bigger that her sister, no doubt.

This is a fun age. I’ve got to soak it up because before I know it she will be on the move!

 

A Half a Year

~ Girlmom ~ 4 Comments

It’s been 6 1/2 whole months since Miss Averi has come into the world. This is when time starts to speed up, at least that is when it happened with K.

IMG_0859

At 6 months Averi is is having a bit of sleep regression and I blame it on her last cold. She wakes up around 3 a.m and wants to eat, I have to wean her off of this…sigh. She takes 2 naps a day and  has her two bottom teeth. I don’t even know how much she eats a day but it’s a lot, the girl has an appetite. I started her on oatmeal and some pureed veggies but she’s not sold on them yet. For now it’s just for fun anyhow. I showed her a sippy cup the other day but I think that’s a ways in our future, girls gotta get a tad more motor control first.

She is super sweet natured and just a happy baby. The moms at Kaili’s gymnastics are always commenting how they can’t believe Averi will just chill in her carseat the entire time, I guess we one of the lucky ones because she is just fine in her carseat and stroller.

She is becoming a little football fan. If that sport is on the television she watches. She will even arch her neck to get a better look, it’s funny and a little scary at the same time. I put her on our bed to put clothes away and turned the TV to the NFL network, that gave me almost 1/2 hour.

She is the noisiest baby. She gabs, yells, growls and laughs, all.the.time. I’m pretty sure Kaili didn’t make any noise until 6 months. It’s cute and annoying, the screeching is ear piercing.

We had our first bout of constipation and I will associate that to the squash she was eating. She was getting uncomfortable so I picked up some prune juice. 4 oz and a day later the problem was, lets say unplugged and we have been good since.

She is on the low end of the spectrum in weight at 14 lbs and at the higher end for height. I look forward to watching her change each month, she’s just the cutest. Happy 6 months Monkey butt.

IMG_0853

 

6 Months Stalling

~ Girlmom ~ Leave a comment

I have a 6 month blog post written and waiting but for Averi’s half birthday she was given another bottom tooth and a bad cold. It’s the type of cold that came on really slow and gets worse each day. Yesterday she developed a cough which kept us up most of the night. So before I post about how amazing she is and all, I want to make sure she gets through this and returns to her awesome self and that her wonderful sleep habits return because lately it’s been a tad challenging and I am tired.

FullSizeRender

Right now she is happily playing in her exersaucer allowing me a few minutes to write this because honestly by the time K goes to bed I watch one show and then head to bed, I gotta take what I can get.

Saturday, Kaili  started complaining about her ear hurting. This is new, she has never had an earache before so I was semi-concerned. When it wasn’t gone Monday I took her into the Dr. I assumed it was associated with her cold but it turns out she has Swimmers ear. Must have been all the mermaid action in the bathtub. We have been putting some prescription drops in her ear and three days later it’s already getting better. If you have had Swimmers ear before than you know how painful it can be, poor thing.

"what ear hurts?"
“which ear hurts?”

There ya have it, our exciting life thist past week. Averi has her 6 month well check tomorrow, thankfully and hopefully she will kick this cold sooner than later. Once she is snot free I will take her 6 month photos for all to see. I am off to wipe a nose.

 

 

5 Months

~ Girlmom ~ 2 Comments

Our little monkey butt is 5 months old and I have to say she is a bona fide cutie.

IMG_5994

She eats a lot, at least a lot more than K did and more frequently. She goes through 5 ounces every 2 1/2 hours. I feel like I am perpetually  making or washing bottles.

Sleep, for the most part is great. She takes two naps a day ranging from 1-2 1/2 hours. Bedtime is at 6:30 and if she wakes up its anywhere from 1-4 am. Recently she has mastered rolling onto her tummy, if you put her on her back she WILL roll but she can’t roll back over, so you can guess what that means.  This has thrown a wrench into sleep, I found myself walking into her room a good 5 times early this morning to flip her back over. That was not fun.

IMG_5999

She thinks her sister is hilarious, Kaili just has to make a funny face at her and Averi will crack up. I come in second in the comedy department, apparently my singing is pretty funny, not sure how I feel about that.

I feel really lucky with how easy she is.She does have her moments and they arrive around 4-5 pm or also known as “witching hour”. The hardest part for me is when Shane is gone and I am trying to make dinner. Some days are better than others, like Friday through Sunday. The outcome is that Kali’s weekly dinner menu has really weakened in creativity. Occasionally I beat myself up over it because her palate is getting fussy but honestly as long as she is eating I will not stress over it.

After the holidays I will start Averi on some oatmeal and veg. I would like to say I will make all her food but… ya, probably not going to happen.

Happy 5 months baby girl.

IMG_5981

 

What’s Up?

~ Girlmom ~ Leave a comment

I guess life has gotten in the way of my blogging. Not exactly sure what we have been doing with our free time but it comes and goes and then I realize I haven’t written in days.

A few weeks back Senna, my elderly kitty of 19 years had a stroke and wouldn’t leave the side of the house. I wasn’t sure what was wrong with her but she had no interest in food or water and could barely walk. My neighbor said I should take her to the vet, but I was alone with two kids with no crate, how was I going to manage that? I decided I would wait until the next morning to make a decision, it was all too sudden. But a few hours later I realized she was in misery, so I called the vet and asked what my options were and decided to take her in and have her put down. I am so thankful for my next door neighbors, one of them watched the kids while the other drove me to the vet. The vet confirmed it was most likely a stroke and that it happens in older cats. I stayed with Senna while she was sedated and then I left, not wanting to sit through the end. I was heartbroken and two weeks later I still think I hear her meowing and go to the door to let her in or to offer her chicken. She lived a long life as an indoor and outdoor cat. She traveled through California with me and probably used up many of her 9 lives battling cars, coyotes and possums throughout the years.

Last weekend was our monthly dinner party and the theme was “retro”. My plan was to make beef wellington but when I saw the price of the beef tenderloin at Costco, I decided maybe not -cha-ching! I then went back and forth on what to make and finally settled on Swedish meatballs. After staring and comparing 10 different recipes I went with Alton Browns. It was farely easy to make and it turned out great. The bowl was empty by the end of the night.

I also had my hysterosalpingogram (HSG) test. This is the same test I had when I was trying to get pregnant…oh the irony. After I had Averi the doctors had a hard time actually finding my fallopian tubes due to the mess of scar tissue left from Kaili’s delivery. They weren’t exactly sure if they were successful in their attempt to tie them so I patiently waited 3 months and then had my HSG. Two thumbs up, everything is as I want it.

Speaking of Averi, she turned 4 months a few days ago, can we talk more about that later? Someone hasn’t taken her monthly pictures yet. (points to self)

Is it really two weeks until Thanksgiving?

IMG_5663

 

 

3 Months

~ Girlmom ~ 4 Comments

What can I say? Without sounding like a complete asshole, I have the best baby.

STATS-

Weight- not sure, maybe 12 lbs.?

Length-don’t know but she is getting too long for her rock N play and the bouncer.

Eats- 4 oz every 3 hours during the day.

Sleeps- Like a boss, in her own room.

Okay, she isn’t in the crib at night yet but that’s my own issue. I wanted to transition her out of the swaddle the same time I put her to down at night in the crib. But the awesome Zipadee-zip sold out faster than I expected, thanks to Shark Tank…even though Shane told me so.

Now, she is sleeping, still swaddled in her rock N play at night but napping unswaddled in her crib during the day. She goes to bed around 6:30-7:00 and has been sleeping until 4:00. I can get her back to sleep by 5:isn and then she wakes again about 7:30. Now if I could just get Kaili to sleep until 7:30 we would have a perfect world.

She is just so happy. She goes right down to sleep, she isn’t relying on a pacifier…yet, she is fine in her carseat and stroller and she only cries when she is hungry or tired. She can hang outside in her bouncer while I hot tub it with the sister and she is chill. She is just a content child.

IMG_5373

The second hand clothes thing is working out brilliantly. Averi is fitting into all of Kaili’s 3-6 months clothes at 3 months where as Kaili was fitting into them at 6 months. Which means all the holiday clothes will be able to be used right on schedule. It’s almost like we planned it this way.

Each day with two kids gets easier and easier. I hope I can say the same at next month.