Long and lean

So we had a fun day today... taking Avery to the endocrinologist if you can believe that. For awhile, we had some worries about Av's growth because she was declining on how fast she grew -- I think it's because she wouldn't eat any meat and only veggies and bread. But today, holy mackerel (I've been made fun of lately for saying that - a very dad thing to say) Av has shot up like a weed! She's 38 inches and in the 50th percentile after falling to the 10th. So cool! All that testing she made us go through, again made us worry our heads off, and then she says "don't worry mama, dadda -- okay I'll grow".  And yes, dad was also very proud of the big girl swimming in the lake "all by myself". She literally swam after the boat almost as fast as I did. strong girl.

Cute girls

momma's girl

Av is still a momma’s girl. Instead of it getting better it is just getting worse. It is frustrating to John. The whole time he has her and they are having fun together she sporadically says, “momma.” It makes him sad. It is just as frustrating for me though. If John tries to let me sleep in on a Sat or Sun she is upset the whole time and just wants me. Then I feel guilty when I hear her and can’t get the extra rest I need. Yesterday when we got home from the lake I got her dinner ready first. John sat down to keep her company while she ate but the whole time she was whining because I was not sitting down with her. I know I need to just take the time to sit down with her when she needs it, but it is hard. We had spent the whole weekend having fun but then last night I needed to get a lot done so we could start our week. Dinner needed made, lunches needed packed, both girls needed their bags packed for camp the next day, Camille needed milk defrosted and made into bottles, I had to get my pump stuff together and all the leftover food from the weekend needed put away. I keep reminding myself though embrace this time because soon she will be 13 and want nothing to do with me.

eating

Camille is a crazy eater. She wants nothing to do with me spoon feeding her bland baby food. She is all about using her newly found pincher grasp and picking everything up herself. She is all about taste too. She is the only baby in the history of the world (okay maybe a stretch but seriously) that does not like Cheerios. Last night we were just getting home from the lake and I knew she would be hungry. I mixed up some baby food and gave her some cut up strawberries, blueberries, broccoli, cooked red pepper and cheese. She ate it up and only let me get about 4 bites of the baby food in. While she was eating I cooked us a quick dinner. I pulled out some spinach/pesto/parmesan cheese ravioli I had in the freezer and warmed up some tomato sauce. I cut one up to give to Camille. She loved it. She ended up eating 3 of these big things. The edges of the ravioli were thick so some pieces were just noodle. She didn’t like just the plain noodle, those bites she would scream and spit out. She had pesto everywhere. Instead of even attempting to clean her up we just threw her right in the bathtub.

lake

We took the girls to the lake this weekend. Matt’s (one of John’s best friends from high school) parents own it. They have been very generous and have let us use it numerous times. We love it there. So peaceful and pretty. Sam, Melissa, Caroline and Max joined us. We really had a nice time. Av and Caroline are BFFs from their preschool class. They are very rowdy together. Squeals are pretty constant. We got them each a new life jacket for the trip. First thing in the morning they were ready to jump in the lake and swim. They could not get enough of going fast on the boat, swimming and tubing. They are brave little girls. Max and Camille on the other hand didn’t appreciate their life jackets too much. They did get in the water a little bit but where otherwise happy to crawl around the boat picking up any spare crumb they could find. Avery is usually a very good sleeper but for some reason we had sleep problems there so other than not getting much sleep the trip was very fun. Good food, good drinks and good friends. Recipe for a fun weekend.

Camille's dinner

She is done with baby food.  She hates it and wants to be eating what we are.  She is not yet 9 months.  For dinner she had shredded chicken, black beans, carrots, peas, corn, strawberries and blueberries.  She loved it!

They told me at camp she ate an entire grilled cheese.  Hopefully she is going to be a good eater.  

life is changing

Avery’s world just changed big-time. Now that Camille is mobile she is after everything Avery is doing. Everything that Av has arranged is messed up. Puzzle pieces and game pieces are snatched up as soon as she puts them down. Lego towers are knocked over. Moving or turning her back to her baby sister does not help. So far Av is coping okay. Just another change she will learn to live with and grow to love when she learns Camille will soon be able to play with her.

differences

It is amazing to watch Camille transition from a baby that just lays there, to a sitter, to a crawler and then to a baby that starts to pull up on things. She just does it and figures it out herself. With Avery we had to work so hard to get to the next step. We had constant exercises that we would be doing with her. 3 different therapists visited (PT and speech weekly and OT monthly) her and helped us a long. It all paid off and was so worth it but it is nice to not have to work as hard this time around. Av is amazing and going through that has helped us know small ways to help Camille along.
I find myself thinking a lot “Avery didn’t do that.” Like lately Camille does not want me out of her sight. The minute I leave a room she cries. She also starts to crawl after me and once she gets to my feet she lunges at me so I can pick her up. If I don’t and I walk away she gets so mad and comes at me again. I don’t remember Av doing that. Not sure if she really didn’t or if I was just too consumed with worry to really notice. That makes me really sad to think about. Or maybe I just had more time (only having one kid to take care of) that I would indulge her every whim and not walk away to finish dinner or whatever I was doing. Yeah that has got to be it. I will just remember it that way.

blankets

Av’s new favorite game is to put us “night-night.” We lay on the floor and she covers us up with her many many blankets. As I was putting Camille to bed the other night John and Av were playing. I came in and she had him covered from head to toe with 8 blankets. They were lined up and arranged perfectly over John. Covering his head as well. Under the blankets she had given him a pillow and a stuffed animal to cuddle with. The whole time she is covering him up she says, “go night-night dada.” Then when all the blankets are arranged perfectly she pulls them off and does it all over again.

fathers day

Started off a little rocky. Camille is teething and really really has a short temper. If something is not going how she wants it she lets you know. She is a very vocal child. Way more then Av ever was. Avery also has been kind of whiny lately. Just normal 3-year-old stuff but annoying. She whines instead of talking. Anyway, I was trying to let John sleep in but it just didn’t happen. I have to nurse Camille alone in her bedroom. That is the only way she will nurse. Otherwise she is very distracted. So before her nap I wanted to nurse her. Av spent the entire 10 minutes crying in her room because she could not be in there with us. We go through this ALL THE TIME it is nothing new. I wish she would just get over it. I always make a point to come in and cuddle or spend some alone time with Av after I nurse Camille but she just still makes it very difficult. So that woke John up. The rest of the day ended up being good. We spent some good quality family time together and then had John’s Dad’s family over for dinner. We always have a good time with them and this time was no different.

camp update

They both did great on Monday. As soon as I was gone they both perked up and had a good day. I am not going to be fooled by the tears anymore. Av’s teachers said it was her best day yet. She talked a lot and had a great time with her friends.

The playroom at camp and Camille's room share a wall that has a window in it. So when Av is in the playroom she can see her sister. I think she stands there the whole time and watches her. At 4:30 when I pick the girls up, Avery's class is in the playroom (if the weather is not good outside or too hot). Avery is always standing there and sees me come in. Monday I saw Av as soon as I walked in and laughed. I said to Camille's teachers that is her big sis. They said they were wondering because she was there most of the time. It is so cute. The girls were smiling and laughing at each other. From that window Av can also see Camille's crib. That morning I had borrowed a blanket from Av to bring with Camille to camp. I had to hide it so Av would not see it. When I picked the girls up I tried to just leave it in Camille's crib for today but Av saw me try to leave without it and started a fit. It took me a minute to figure out what was upsetting her. The blanket came home with us. She loves her blankets.

camp

Dropping the girls off at camp has gotten harder instead of easier. Today as I was trying to leave Camille was crying these big huge tears and her eyes were just pleading with me not to leave her. It just broke my heart. Av does not cry but she tells me she gets sad at camp because she misses me. After dropping Camille off I have to walk by Av’s room so I peek in to see what she is doing. Today she was sitting in a chair by herself watching the other kids. It just kills me to leave them. As hard as it is, I just know it is the best thing for them. They have to know they are just fine and do not need me by their side all the time. Plus it is fun, way more fun than I could ever be.

Pad Thai

The entire family ate chicken Pad Thai for dinner last week. It was so wonderful! Avery has never been that great of an eater although she is getting better. I didn’t start young enough just giving her whatever I was eating. I am sure not making that mistake with Camille. For dinner I make something for Av, something for John and I and baby food for Camille. What a pain in the rear that is. Av has always liked Pad Thai though. So on Thursday I decided to cut the noodles really small and put some on Camille’s tray. To my surprise she loved them. She would much rather be eating what I am anyway, she is so over baby food fed to her on a spoon. She wants to finger feed so I might as well let her. I hope that as Av sees Camille eat food right off my plate she will too. One can only hope.

crawling

Camille is crawling. Boy does a mobile child change things. Av still is not grasping it. This weekend she would move something away from Camille that she didn’t want her to have and Camille would just go get it. It was frustrating to Av. Av was used to Camille pretty much just sitting there. Now Camille can go after what she wants. Camille is still not crawling from room to room or anything but if you sit her down in one spot she will not be there when you come back. It is pretty cute to see her figuring it out. At first she did not have the coordination to get her arms and legs to work together. Now I think it is a strength/just unsure of it situation. She takes about 4 crawls and then stops herself to sit up and check things out. She is pretty proud of herself.

amusement park fun

This past weekend we took the kids to Holiday World. It is an amusement park about an hour north of our house and it is totally geared to kids. We went with all of John’s old buddies and their families. That morning we got Av up and again made the mistake of telling her too soon what we were doing. All morning and the hour drive there all she wanted to do was go to the amusement park. She really didn’t even know what an amusement park was but she knew it had a splash park and that was enough for her. She was so excited. They have small kid rides, bigger kid rides, a few adult rides and a big water park. Av is tall enough to ride most of it but we didn't really ride much. The lines were long, it was HOT and the first ride she rode was the spider ride. She liked it at first but then it really started going and it scared her. When they stopped the ride she was crying so they got her off first. Plus Camille is really moving around a lot and does not like to be held captive much. So we headed to the water park. It is a very nice, clean water park. They have 2 wave pools, 2 lazy rivers, 3 kids splash areas and then some really fun looking water slides. We could have taken Av on the water slides but the lines were just so long. So we stayed in the different pools most of the day. Before we could leave though we promised Av that she could ride the carousel. She loves the one at the zoo. After that we decided to check out one more part of the park. It was another playground/water park with small rides. There was a little kid roller coaster. John took Av on that but again she was scared. They usually go around twice but let John and Av off after one trip around. We ended the day with big ice cream cones with sprinkles. All and all it was a great day!

bag lady

Some kids play doctor and then grow up and become a doctor. I hope Av and her love of bags means she is going to grow up and become a famous bag designer like Kate Spade and not a bag lady. She still loves her bags. She plays with backpacks, small kids purses, my old purses, used gift bags and store bags. Pretty much any bag will do for her. I love checking out what treasures she has picked to pack them with. Yesterday she took her lovely pink princess purse (a gift from G) to the mall. Inside it she had a wooden phone like thing that came with her kitchen, 2 bracelets and a set of princess car keys (a gift from Aunt Anne). Yesterday I asked her to pack her backpack for camp. After she went to bed I checked it out. Inside she had Elmo, a blanket that is not on her top 10 favorite blanket list and her princess purse still filled with her treasures she took to the mall. I knew for camp the next day she would actually want her “school blanket” and monkey so I unpacked the other items. I would love to be able to get inside her head and see what she is thinking sometimes.

new do

Av got her hair cut this weekend. It is too cute on her.  She had her sunglasses on before I took this pic.  She heard me turn the camera on and took her glasses off and started running.  This was all I got.   She still loves pictures.  

true male

So John beat me to the punch. He doesn’t post often but of course he stole “proud” from me. After all the countless weeks I spent worrying and debating my summer childcare situation. He sweeps in and posts while he is supposed to be working one night. Grrrr.

Avery had a GREAT first week. I am so proud of her. I was so worried and she just came in and made herself at home and had a great time. Her new teachers said she is “very smart” and “you can tell she is a 3 year old”(in a good way). They also said she talks well and fits right in. On Friday when I picked her up the teacher was holding her. I thought “oh no” but the teacher told me she was great. They were just talking and hanging out together. All that worrying I did for nothing. The verdict is still out on Camille. This morning when I dropped her off she knew what was going on. She started to come after me (kind of crawling/army crawl) fussing. The teacher distracted her nicely. Hopefully she sleeps some today. I am sure that will help a lot.

Proud

So many of you probably read Melissa's post about the trepidation of dropping Av and Camille off at "camp" today.... I'm so glad I get to write about the result! I am soooooo (not enough o's for the word) proud of Avery. I've always known since she was a baby how strong she is as a person - and not just from a perseverance standpoint, but the strong willed, confident personality that she is given all the things she's been through. Today was no different. And I quote "Really, really great first day! Welcome!" - and then for those of you preschool folks out there, you know there's a daily "Overall, My day was: Excellent - Good - Fair - Poor - I Bit my Friend".... ok, so the last one isn't on the slip, but the circle was all around 'Excellent'. So, brings me to the title - I am so PROUD of Av for being the strong, independent, confident little girl that she is. She's just flat out COOL.

OK, so Cami, hmmmmm..... let's give it a week (two more visits) and leave it at that. Can any of you sleep with lights on and babies playing and crying? Nuf said.

2 girls and mom + first day of school + no tears = miracle

Today is the girls first day at the new school/daycare/camp. We are calling it camp in our house for Av. All her friends are in camp this summer, which is basically the same thing she is in, so camp it is. I have been dreading this day for weeks now but then somehow yesterday this peace came over me and I stopped worrying about it. I just had a good feeling about it. Now I can’t say that I was totally done worrying, I have been up since 5:30 am dreading it. I knew though the minute Av got up I had to pull myself together and not let her pick up on my worry. I did well. I surprised myself at how nonchalant I was able to be and I did not let her see how nervous I was. Inside my stomach was full of butterflies, but outside I was calm, cool and collective. Av was very excited about camp until we got there. Then she just kind of froze up. The 3 teachers all made her feel welcome and the kids all crowded around her wanting to play. I just told her I loved her and I would be back and to have fun. I didn’t want to drag out the good bye so with that I left to take Camille to the infant room. Dropping Camille off was fine too. She was playing with a toy before I left. I know she had no idea what was going on. I hope she was fine when she realized I was not there and she was staying for a bit. As I was leaving I walked by Av’s room again. She looked like she was getting ready to play. I think she looked good. I am sure it will be a rough day for all of us but not nearly as rough as I had anticipated and it will just get better and better. I know this is good for them and the right thing. The drop off really could not have gone better; I hope the rest of the day is the same way.

pool

I took the girls to the pool for the first time this summer. Av loved it as usual and Camille had a great time too. I put her in a float and in it she was able to walk around the baby pool. She just thought she was so cool walking around and having that independence. Both the girls loved it so much we all went back in the evening with John. After swimming John, Camille and I ate dinner there. Camille was all wrapped up from head to toe in a towel sitting on John’s lap eating black beans from my nachos. It was about the cutest thing I have ever seen. We could not get Av out of the pool long enough to eat, so she had her dinner on the way home.

8 months

Camille is getting big. Too big. She started army crawling about 2 weeks ago. She drags her body along with her. Now she is starting to get her legs up under her. Either her weight is up on her arms or legs. Not both yet. If you help her get to a crawling position she rocks and rocks. She can pivot 360 degrees on her belly or her bum-bum. If she is sitting and sees a toy she wants she gets to her belly and army crawls for it. She is just all over the place. She also has gotten herself to a sitting position from her belly about 7 times now. Once even in the middle of the night. She gets so proud of herself and just claps and claps. The other day I put her down for a nap and she was fussing kind of. Just protesting. Finally after about 10 minutes she was quiet. I peaked in expecting to find her sleeping but no, she was sitting up playing with her giraffe. That was the first time I found her like that. It was really cute. She gave me the biggest smile and I just could not help getting her up. She sleeps on her belly all curled up with her giraffe. I also find her sleeping with her knees tucked up under her and her bum-bum up in the air. She loves non-toys better then real toys. She is getting her top teeth. One has broken through the gums. We are waiting on the other. She will eat any baby veggie and fruit you give her other then peaches. She is also eating cheese, bread, yogurt, cheerios and these dried fruit things I found at Costco (not puffs). She is a piggy; she eats 3 things of baby food a day and she wants to eat everything I do. She just stars at it. I kind of feel bad eating in front of her. I was going to start her on meats last week but she was sick. As soon as she is back to eating normal I will. She still adores her big sis. In the car yesterday they were just laughing at each other. I have no idea what they were laughing at. They were in their own little world that we adults could not understand. She is a good sleeper; we don’t struggle with naps or bedtime at all. She is still up too much at night but we are working on that. As soon as it gets better she starts teething or gets sick or we are in a strange place or something. She bounces to music and she bounces on your hip pretty much all the time when you hold her. She is a happy child.

week at G&PP's

Started off great. We got there late on Friday night. The girls went to bed and slept great. Saturday and Sunday the whole family was together and having fun. I introduced a new drink to my dad (Mojitos) and he loved them. The weather was beautiful and we hung out outside all weekend. Av swam, the boys played some new game, and my mom, sister and I laughed like we had not in a long time. We also celebrated my dad’s birthday with another shrimp boil that everyone loved. Sunday night Camille woke up with a fever. Then the real fun began. She had a fever and was very fussy. Av had a cough that just got worse and worse. By Tuesday we decided it was time for an urgent care doctor. Not sure really how we ended up at the one we did but it was bad. It was back in some industrial park and the awning was dirty and falling off. The inside was just as un-impressive. Not even really sure why we stayed other than I was desperate. The triage nurse was totally not interested in making sure our vitals were correct. She read the scale wrong saying Av was only 24 lbs when really she is about 30. She didn’t know how to take a pulse the old fashioned way and when she realized the paper for the table had dropped behind it she was too lazy to pick it up. She just brushed off the table and said it would be fine. When the doctor came in she immediately fixed it. The doctor was actually really good and gave the girls just what they needed. Av needed a steroid and antibiotic for bronchitis and Camille got an antibiotic too so she didn’t get the bronchitis. We didn’t really think Av needed the steroid and we wanted her to sleep so we got it filled but didn’t give it to her. By morning though she needed it. She was really working hard to breath. It was really scary. The steroid worked though. It had her up and bouncing off the walls in no time. She went from being really energetic to being kind of aggressive. Other then that Av was good. Camille on the other hand was fussy, fussy, fussy. So much so that on Thursday I had about had it and was really to lose it. Back to another urgent care we went. This one was much nicer. They really could not find anything wrong with her so it had to be a virus and teeth. What made it worse too, all week we were kind of in a limbo, debating on whether my mom and I should take the girls back to Louisville so we would have our doctor. Things kind of turned around on Friday though. Of course, just in time for Daddy to question what Mommy had been stressing about all week. Then just when we thought we were over all of it, Av woke up with vomit crusted all over her. She now has a little flu and Camille is back to being really stuffy with a runny nose. Can they just get better please!!! I did have a good week with my parents and sister and I have no idea what I would have done without them. I am just sorry it was not the week for them they wanted. Some highlights of the week were: my Aunt Jenny coming to visit us and the girls, the fondue my sister made us for dinner, watching the girls have fun and interact with G&PP, shopping at the outlets with my sister (we got some great stuff), watching 3 movies and introducing my sister to Twilight, finishing the 3rd book in the Twilight series, watching Av in her new pool, planting flowers with my mom, and getting Starbucks brought to me in the morning from the best dad in the whole wide world!!!!

my big mouth

Av loves her school. It is probably her favorite thing to do. So I was surprised when I told her on Thursday that we were going to G&PP’s after school tomorrow all she wanted to do was leave right then and there. She was so excited and asked me many times when we were leaving. She didn’t want to go to school, not even the end of school party or the trip to the splash park after school was going to change her mind. After listening to me explain it over and over again to her, she finally gave up and said, “I am mad at you momma.” I just had to laugh. I knew I should have waited to tell her we were going.

Memorial Day

My two bestest girlfriends from college came to visit us for Memorial Day. We had a blast and I was so glad to see them. We picked right up and had a great time like we always did in college. Friday night we had a girl’s night out. We danced the night away and just had fun being silly together. Sarah tried to break up a girl bar fight with a shoe. Good times. Saturday we went to the track. Av went with us while Camille stayed home with Miss Linda. Av spent a lot of time with her daddy that day. She remembered last time we went to the track and how PP had taken her down to touch the horses. She wanted to go to the exact spot PP had taken her. John did many times. Right before the race would start they would come back up and join us but each time Av had something new with her. The first time she had a huge piece of pizza which she ate all of, then it was a huge ice cream cone which she again ate the whole thing. Last she came back with a stuffed horse from the gift shop. She was in heaven. A special day for Av and daddy. Christine, Sarah and I started betting on the horses based in tips Sarah’s dad gave her. We finally won about $100 on one race. All and all I think we ended up breaking even but our BIG win was very fun. After the track we headed back to our house for a shrimp boil. That was a huge success too and everyone loved it. After we put the kids to bed we had a bonfire and smores. Yummy. I had the best time and was so touched that Sarah and Christine took the time to come see us. I love you girls!!!