little sis doing just what big sis does

Mickey wins the Derby!!

With jockey Avery Lou riding him.

Avery with her derby hat and horse she made at school. His name is Mickey. She is so proud of it. Then a jealous little sister trying them out. Notice Av's usual smile in the one of just her.

good momma

Avery with her baby that she has with her constantly.

problem child

Camille is starting to become a problem child at school. Makes me want to scream and cry all at the same time. She bit a friend both Monday and Wednesday last week (UGH!!!!!!). That was #2 and #3 for her biting. Thank goodness they do not have a 3 and out bite policy. They told me she was biting but the rest of the day she is really good so it’s not so much of a problem but…then Monday happened. As I am picking her up I always pray there is only one piece of paper in her cubby. If there are 2 she bit someone. Monday there was only one so I did a little happy dance in my head but then when I read it, it said she had a “poor” day. So I knew something else must have went on. Sure enough they told me she had “an aggressive day.” No biting but she was pushing other kids and taking their toys all day long. The only thing that makes me feel a little better is that she is not the only one in her class doing it. I partly wish another child would bite her. Maybe she would learn then. I just don’t know what we are going to do with her. Time outs are not working.

She bites and pulls Avery’s hair all the time. She’s so darn stinking cute but so bad at the same time. She thinks it is funny to run for the street as I am running frantically after her. She just looks at me and smiles. She pushed a chair over to the counter yesterday so she could get something that was put up there out of her reach. She is too smart for my own good.

17 weeks

I think I am starting to feel him. This is what I have been waiting for. I love this time of a pregnancy. So exciting and magical. Just a little reminder from him every so often to say “remember me, I’m still here.”

I have been sleeping better than I ever have before. I swear. I fall asleep without any issues and sleep the whole night through not waking once until the morning. It is the best!! Wish that would carry on forever.

I am still in the in-between stage. Too big for my normal clothes but too small for my maternity stuff. It’s so hard. All I wear is my athletic (code word for fancy stretch pants) stuff when I’m at home. Poor John has seen me in the same outfit over and over again (thanks mom and dad!!! It’s the cool Nike outfit you got me for Christmas). It’s become a joke in our house. He comes home and says “Oh honey you look so nice, you got dressed up for me today!” He’s a total brat.

The mini van is coming soon. We have been looking and it’s just a matter of time. John is really motivated to buy it because then he will get his sporty car back that we have been using as the family car.

science center

Yesterday I took the girls to the science center. They had a blast. The bottom floor is an area for 7 years old and under. There is a big water area where Camille proceeded to get soaked despite the provided raincoat she was wearing. That’s all she wanted to do. Avery and I finally got her away from the water area to run and play and slide down the slide. They went grocery shopping and rang up their purchases, loaded buckets with foam blocks and used pulleys to hoist them to the ceiling and then visited the lab to see all the bugs. It was a rainy day so a perfect day for the science center. Av and Camille are really starting to enjoy playing together. Av didn’t ask once if any of her friends were going. She was very happy to play with her “sissy.”

I'm poopy

Yesterday I woke up to the words “I’m poopy” being happily sung from Camille’s room. I thought no way. First of all she does not tell us when she’s poopy and has never said those words before, even repeating me when I ask her. Secondly we only understand about half of what she says and thirdly she does not wake up poopy. She was though. She went on to poop at least 7 more times yesterday. Every time I turned around she was telling me she was poopy. Av had a little poopy bug over the weekend and Camille had it yesterday. What a good day for her to learn that phrase.

hbr

Av has switched from PT to OT for her hbr. She has been pretty good with the switch. It’s not the switch in activities that bother her but the switch in therapist. I just explained to her each year, as she got older she would get a new teacher in school and this was kind of the same thing. As she gets better and better at riding she would need new “teachers.” That seemed to do the trick. They are working on increasing her upper body strength. Your upper body has to be stable and strong to be able to have the hand/finger strength to write. They are so smart! In the clinic they have her stringing beads, molding clay, picking small beads out of the clay, writing/coloring on a chalkboard, climbing up a slide, and tracing objects. As for on the horse a lot of that is the same. One exercise they wanted her to do was to ride with her hands on her head. She totally refused. 3 adults and myself could not talk her into it. They compromised with her hands on her hips. Hopefully she stays that strong in the future to peer pressure. Another exercise was for her to ride on her hands and knees. She hopped up and did that without any hesitation. I am so so so thankful we started this therapy for her and that we live in a town with recourses like it. It has helped her so much, she is stronger and more confident and it just makes me so proud of her.

oaks

We get to go to Oaks again this year. I love Oaks. It used to be more of the locals day at the track before the big Derby event the next day but everyone has started to figure out that the Oaks is even cooler (in my opinion) and now it is almost as big as the Derby. We are going with our old neighbors! Our fav sitter Heidi is watching all 4 kids at our house. They should have a good day as well. I am wearing a dress I wore when I was prego with Camille. It’s not a maternity dress but works well in my in-between state. Since I am re-using a dress I decided to go all out on my hat this year. There is a locally owned craft store around here that helps you design your hat and will either make it for you are show you how. Marci and I went last week to have ours designed. It is big business here. We got to the store 10 minutes before it opened and were still #6 in line. When you get into the store you put your name on a list kind of like at a restaurant and then wait your turn. They take your dress and the hat you picked out and match ribbons, flowers, feathers and everything else to it and show you many options. It’s an extra $60 to have them do it so we decided we could do it. They have an instructional video on You Tube so that was our homework the night before we met to make them. We had Camille and Stella with us the morning we made them but luckily they were good as gold. The hats turned out so well. Mine is pretty big, tacky and obnoxious but that is what I was going for this year. That’s just how Derby hats are so I wanted one too. It’s a lot harder to make than it looks. Once you have the main stuff on it you need to make sure there are not gaps in stuff on the sides or that where you glued it all together is showing. Now we just have to hope the weather is good!

bike ride

Daddy took the girls on a bike ride to the park while I went grocery shopping. The girls had a blast! As you can see from the pics Camille was so ready to go she didn't want any part in posing for the picutres.

daddy-daughter date

Off to see Charlie Brown. Av was so excited and daddy was so proud! Avery packed her own snacks and gum in her purse. What a big girl!

sleep

Since having kids I have not been a good sleeper. I do okay falling asleep but if I get woken up in the middle of the night I have a heck of a time falling back to sleep. It’s horrible. The minute my mind wakes up enough to think it just starts going and going. Poor John. He knows not to talk to me during the night unless it’s an emergency. This pregnancy has changed that though. I’m not so tired during the day but about 9:30 I hit this huge wall and am about done for. I can and do a lot of nights go to bed then and am able to sleep straight through until 6:30 when John’s alarm goes off. It’s wonderful. That’s a lot of sleep and I love it. Even if I do get woken up going back to sleep is not much of a problem as long as it is earlier then about 4am or so. The girls are still good sleepers. We only get woken up by the girls maybe one night out of 7. Can we get lucky one more time and get a good sleeper? I so hope so!

petting zoo

I took the girls to a petting zoo yesterday. Not much petting went on though. The animals were used to being fed carrots and that’s about all they wanted from us. Which was fine. Camille LOVED feeding them and watching the animals eat. Avery is kind of afraid of animals right now so she just threw her carrots through the fence and hid behind me every time an animal would come close. We fed goats, deer, zebras, camels, lamas and ducks. Then we went to have a picnic in the park. It was a very nice relaxing day.

camille

Look at this cute baby body. This was after a spaghetti dinner. I had taken off her clothes so she didn't get dinner all over them. She didn't care that she was not wearing clothes but had shoes on. She was just happy to have her St. Patty's beads.

16 weeks

This pregnancy has been so different. It was quite the shock first of all. We always saw ourselves with 3 kids but later. We are very fortunate we get pregnant easily or without even trying. For some reason I had a suspicion I was pregnant. I was up most of the night the Monday of the week I was supposed to start my period worrying. John was out of town and the next day I told Marci I was worried. She talked me down, and all week I waited for my period although I was not supposed to start until Friday. Friday morning I could not take it any longer and I took a test. It was about as positive as it could be. I just could not believe it. John took it better than I did and from the very start he has been very positive. Parenting Av and Camille sometimes takes all the time and energy I have. It took me awhile to get used to the idea of a 3rd. With Avery and Camille, I spent time planning the pregnancy, reading about it, trying to eat healthy and take care of myself. This time has been different. Pregnancy is very much an afterthought. No time to read “What to Expect” and Babycenter. I starting enjoying this pregnancy just a few weeks ago and I hope I didn’t spend too much time doubting instead of enjoying this sweet little ncb. Being pregnant is so fulfilling to me. I love it. I can’t wait until I can feel him move! I can’t believe I have less than 5 months to go. This is def our last so I need to enjoy every minute of it. I just love him so much already. So glad he took things into his own hands and knew when the right time for him to join us was.

leave it to Camille

…to destroy a virtually indestructible water bottle. She has already destroyed the water bottle she got for Easter. The same kind of water bottle Av has had for 2 years. The same kind of water bottle all our friend’s kids have had for years. It is a nice strong, rugged, BPA free water bottle that she has already destroyed. I was holding her and she was holding it and dropped it in a parking lot. It cracked. She was devastated and it was annoying bc we were just getting to Thunder and so therefore didn’t have anything for her to drink. She ended up sharing with sissy and they ended up fighting over it.

thunder

This weekend was Thunder. It is a very big deal in Louisville. It is one of the largest fireworks displays in the world. It is always two weeks before Derby and kicks off the Derby festival. It is an all day event. If the weather is nice people start arriving on the waterfront in the morning to set up their spot and to watch the air show. The air show is pretty cool and seeing how Camille loves airplanes I thought she would love it. Nope (her personality surprising me again). She liked watching the planes but didn’t like the loud noise that the planes made. She spent most of the air show with her head buried in John or I. This year we parked at a friend’s building and walked to the waterfront. We went with the Tasmans, Shumans, Masons, Woodcocks and St. Johns. All Av’s best friends where there (Blake, Jackson, Caroline and Sayree) so she was in heaven. We set up camp right by a nice park and had a picnic dinner. There was a small but tall hill right by us and the kids climbed that hill and then rolled down it at least a hundred times. This was the first time with the girls at an event like this that I was kind of stressed. It was so crowded at the park that each parent needed to watch only one kid. Not sure what we will do when we are out numbered. By 9 Av was done for. She had a melt down and it was time to go. We didn’t get to see the fireworks but it was cold by that time so I was not too disappointed. We got home and got the girls in bed to catch as much of them as we wanted to watch.

Charlie Brown

Av went on her first field trip this week. She loved it. It was to see “You’re a good Man Charlie Brown.” It was on a Thursday. Not a usual school day for her but everyone was invited. It was perfect bc Camille was in school already that day so I could go. They even got to ride buses! That was the best part for the kids. The director of the school said next time they are just going to rent buses and have the kids ride around the city for a while. Most of the parents went so the kids could have left with the parents but nope, they wanted to ride the buses back. The play was kind of strange. The characters didn’t really look like they do on the specials. Snoopy didn’t even have anything on him that made him look like a dog. Av kept asking me who was who. Hehehehe Avery and Camille’s snoopy and Charlie Brown Halloween costumes were much better.

singing

Camille has started singing. It is one of the sweetest things ever. Her fav is “twinkle twinkle little star.” Anytime she starts jabbering away that is what she is saying. We have started to catch/understand parts of it. Mostly the “up above the world so high” part. It’s not all clear but you can def pick up parts of it. She goes on to sing most of the rest of it. She also does her “ABC’s.” They are not right or clear but she gets some of them and has the tone of the song down. Av was not a big singer but has recently started too. She will sing in the car along to her CDs. It’s just too cute.

stuff

Camille has always loved her “naffe.” She is starting to add to the list though. Her blanket has joined her obsession. She wants to carry/take her giraffe and blanket everywhere she goes. It’s a constant struggle bc I do not want them brought in public places. Recently she has added an Elmo doll to her collection. Carrying the giraffe and esp the blanket was hard enough but add in her Elmo and it almost pushes her over the edge. So I thought. This weekend she added the Elmo helium balloon that Avery got at Sesame Street Live. She looks so funny carrying it all. It’s such a hassle for her but she insists. If I hand her something like her milk instead of putting all her stuff down and drinking her milk there she insists on carrying it all somewhere including the milk. She just can’t carry it all and it makes her so mad. She is smart though and got out a stroller for it all. The blanket, giraffe and Elmo all sleep with her as well. There are a few other things in her bed but she recently decided she didn’t want the rest of the stuff and started throwing it out. Last night right after putting her to bed I heard this hysterical cry and knew something important had accidentally went overboard. Upstairs I went to find her standing on her tiptoes reaching down as far as she could with a bright red face and Elmo lying on the floor. She was heartbroken. I gave him back to her and calmed her down. It was kind of cute.

gum

Av has discovered gum. Usually stuff like candy, cookies or any kind of treat like that Av will have one here or there (we still have some of her Halloween candy) but they are not usual staples in her life. Gum has become one though. I am surprised bc I thought I would hate gum being in her life but it’s actually been really good. She knows she’s only allowed one or two pieces a day and so she is responsible with them. She has cut way back on snacking (not wanting to give up her piece of gum), which means she eats more at meal times (so nice)!!!!!!! That alone is enough to make gum my friend. Another benefit is that with her low tone her Speech therapist has told us gum is a good tool for strengthening her muscles in her mouth and tongue. Av has always been an oral kid, still putting stuff in her mouth, but with gum that cuts that out as well. So it taught me to “not knock it before you try it!”

personality

Camille’s personality surprises me a lot. For as bad/aggressive (climbing on the coffee table, pushing the screen out of the window, breaking the wood on the window, still constantly biting her sister) as she can be she is also very shy and cuddly too. When I go into her room in the morning she is usually playing and just lights up when she sees me. So glad someone is there to rescue her. When I pick her up she just grabs me tightly and hugs. Then we go downstairs and cuddle for a few minutes before she is ready to start her morning. Those are the best few minutes of my day. She just loves to sit on my lap or be held when she has not seen me all day. When I drop her off at daycare as soon as we walk into the building she drops her head to my shoulder and that’s when she stays until I hand her over to a teacher. She wants the teacher to hold her for a few minutes. I know she must love it though bc they tell me she has a great day all the time. I know she is still young and will still change a lot and she is still figuring out her own little personality. It just surprises me how she can be so independent one minute and dependant the next.

growing up

I just can’t believe Av is 4.5 and Camille is 1.5. How did that happen? They are getting so big. It’s partly nice. Av can pretty much help herself to a snack when she needs one, including water, but it still makes me sad. She has one more year left of preschool thank goodness. I still call Camille baby, trying to make it true a little while longer. I know all parents think this but everything she does is just too cute. Just seeing her running around our house and the things she does. Just wish I could videotape their lives so I could watch them over and over again. Yesterday she put on some of sis’s high heals and was pushing her very full (stuffed animals) grocery cart around. She certainly does not see me grocery shopping in heals. I just really wish I could stop time and enjoy them at this age a little while longer.

scare

I had a slight scare last Wednesday. I woke up and out of the blue started bleeding a little. I bleed with both girls but it was much earlier. We thought we had escaped it this time. Guess not. After a few calls to my doctor with them trying to reassure me I finally convinced them to bring me in to be checked out. Everything with ncb is fine. I was also able to see his “boy parts!” First time I had an ultrasound like that! So now that we have seen his parts via an ultrasound we felt comfortable telling everyone it’s a NCB!!!

"ncb"

This poor little boy has been nicknamed that for a while now. So much so that I almost call him that to people it’s not really appropriate for. My friend Marci and I came up with it. I was supposed to text her “ncb” for boy or “cb” for girl when I found out the sex. Why you ask. Well, girls are actually much easier to spot on ultrasounds. They have 3 very distinct lines down below. For slang that equals a cheeseburger. So a girl is a cheeseburger and so to us a boy became a non-cheeseburger or ncb. I know, it's horrible but it has just kind of stuck.

15 weeks

Everything is going well. I still have at least one real intense period of nausea a day but it seems to be more that I get air trapped in my belly and need to burp very badly. As soon as I do I feel better. It is really weird. We have not told most people it’s a boy so that has been a little confusing remembering who knows and who doesn’t. We find out for real April 28th so that will be fun. I’m starting to wear my maternity clothes but really they are still big. This part is hard, to big for normal clothes but too small for maternity. I finally told work this past week. This was a little bit of a surprise and a big shock but I’m so glad and blessed. I look at Avery and Camille and they are just growing up so fast. I’m so glad I will have one more little baby and child to hold and love and teach. Life will be crazy for sure but it will be a good crazy and John is the perfect partner to get through the craziness with. The 4 of us really have a good time together and I know sweet little baby boy in my belly will just add to the fun.

“Conversation” I had with Camille this morning

She was running around the house eating a plain bagel. I asked, “would you like to get up into your high chair and have peanut butter on that?” “NOOOOOOO!” was her response. I could see her thinking why would I give up freedom for peanut butter. I had to go upstairs to get dressed so I asked her if she wanted to come with me. I got another NO. So then I asked if she would be a good girl while I went upstairs. To that she shook her head yes. She changed her mind though and came running after me.

WI

This past weekend we took our annual trip to WI to see John’s mom and his grandparents. It was a short trip but we all had a great time. We left on Thursday late afternoon and the girls were so good. They watched movies and played. Camille has discovered Elmo and is obsessed. That is all she wants to watch and she will not fall asleep if it’s on. Poor Av got slighted on the movies and let her sis watch Elmo a lot more than she got to watch her two favs (strawberry shortcake or the care bear movie AA and UM got her). Camille stayed up all the way past Chicago watching Elmo. Av gave up and fell asleep about 9:30.

We stayed in a hotel that night. The girls were real excited and were running around that room like crazy. We all settled down and were fast asleep by midnight. Camille had us up bight and early at 7 but it was a nice solid 7 hours. From there it was just a quick 2-hour drive to great grandma and great grandpa’s house. We had a wonderful time there. Had lunch and just played. The girls ate up the special attention from their ggma&ggpa. It was so nice to see them. We stayed until close to dinner and then headed to John’s mom’s house. There we had a yummy dinner (pot roast which Camille could not get enough of) and then took a nice walk to a neighborhood zoo. Such a cute little zoo that had monkeys, goats, prairie dogs, deer, ducks, and a bear!! It was pretty neat. At bedtime Camille of course fought it. I think she was a little scared being in a new place. Av was in the room with her and we could hear Av trying to comfort her, she was saying, “it’s okay sissy, go night night.” So sweet. Finally Camille settled but had a restless night and so we were up a lot but poor Av had to sleep in the same room with her.

The next day we went on a nice hike at Devil’s lake and then headed back over to ggma&ggpa’s. The rest of the family came over and we had a nice dinner with them. We stayed until about 8 and then it was time for us to get back on the road again. More Elmo until we got to the north side of Chicago where we had decided to stop. Again the girls were so excited by the hotel room. This one was big with 2 rooms and a big couch they could run and jump on. Camille slept in the couch room but had a coughing fit from 12am-1. I felt so helpless. She was coughing in her sleep. I didn’t know what to do for her and all I wanted to do was sleep. We kept giving her drinks of water and at one point I thought a bite of bread/bagel would help the tickle in her throat so I pulled her out of her bed but in her sleep I could not get her to eat the bread. She finally stopped though and we all slept till 8:30!

The next day we got up and had a nice drive back. We stopped to get a Starbucks for me (WI has NO starbucks. One had a broken espresso machine and so she told us of another we couldn’t find, I was starting to have bad withdrawals), then we stopped at a park on Purdue’s campus (very pretty campus) to play, then lunch, then at the outlets. No I didn’t get anything fun, J got a new Puma jacket because he “lost” his old one. Guess I need to start “losing” stuff. Again the girls did not sleep at all until about the last hour they wanted to. By that time it was 6 pm and we could not let them sleep. Av tired first. It was so hard to wake her. Then after telling Camille to go “night night” all day she finally wanted to 10 minutes from home. Poor thing was so tired she could just not stay awake. At home I got her out of the car and brought her into the house and set her down on the floor and she laid right down and was out. Even with us laughing at her and Jack saying hi she was out. Finally John made me stand her up. She took a few steps and fell. She was mad but woke up to eat her dinner.

Easter Pics

The first 2 pics are of the girls with the baskets UM and AA sent. The next few are of their baskets, then the egg hunt (including C sampling her findings) and the last are of the egg dying. Don't you just love the look on the mad scientist's face in the last one. Notice the drops of blue dye on her check. And yes, I know those are Christmas PJ's they are wearing. hehehhe

Av's smile

She thinks she is smiling but this is what she is doing. When asked to smile this is the face. So cute.

Sesame Street Live

Av and her friend Caroline at SSL

spring break week

Avery did not have school this week. My friend Marci and I decided to swap kid watching. She had Av for me on Monday. Avery had the best time. Marci has just recently gotten a mini van and the kids think it’s the best thing ever. Av and Jackson get to rid in the way back of it in boosters (special treat as they are still in car seats and will be for awhile). Jackson helps Av click her seatbelt in and out of place. That alone made her day. They ran a few errands, went to the park and got charms for their crocs. Av was almost giddy when she was telling me about it. On Tuesday Stella and Jackson came to our house. It was very hot so we got out the sprinkler and had a picnic in the back yard. By naptime everyone was worn out. The big kids settled in for a movie and the babies went down for their naps easily. Today Heidi (Av’s fav babysitter) is at Marci’s house watching them. I am sure she is having a great time. Tomorrow we leave for WI to see John’s mom and grandparents. It’s been a pretty nice week for Av. Poor Camille didn’t get much of a ‘spring break’ but she didn’t seem to care.

sausage

We have started calling Camille the sausage. Or we say, “we are stuffing the sausage” when we are getting her dressed. She is so chunky and it is sooooooo cute. When Av was Camille’s age she was still wearing 12-month clothes so our clothes and seasons are not matching up. Av has 18-month winter clothes and 2T summer stuff. I was thinking since Camille is 18 months she needed 18-month summer clothes and so Av’s would not work. I pulled them out anyway to check them. Well Camille can wear them. They do not look anything like they did on Avery though. Camille fills out those 2T’s very well. Hehehehhe in her defense though they have been washed a few times. At least that’s what we are telling her to make her feel better.

daddy's girl

John has been traveling again so the girls and I get a lot of alone time. I guess Camille gets enough of me because when John is around he is all she wants. I can’t hold her, get her anything, or sometimes even talk/look at her. She is such a stinker and a daddy’s girl. She thinks Daddy hung the moon. Av does too of course. He is the funny one. He comes in and starts his silliness and the giggles follow quickly. It is music to my ears.

Easter

We had such a nice Easter. We were supposed to have brunch and an Easter egg hunt with friends but I was sick on Sat so that got canceled. We got up and Av spotted her basket right away. It was under the dinning room table and we were standing in the kitchen. Camille’s was right with hers. They were really excited. Camille’s basket was a little lacking (she does not need anything) but she didn’t seem to care. She had a big girl water bottle like her sister’s and a few eggs filled with money and that made her very happy. She carried the water bottle around with her all day. Av got a horse, letter workbook, princess underwear and princess car keys. She was in heaven too. After that we went out to the back yard for an Easter egg hunt. The girls really got into that too. Camille was dragging her basket behind her the whole time. It was a pretty cute sight. Then we died Easter eggs. Camille really thought that was pretty cool too. After that we walked to the park, went to the grocery and grilled out. It was a very nice day with my little family.

The day before I had some sort of stomach bug. I felt terrible. Aunt Anne had sent the girls Eater baskets and they could not have arrived at a better time. AA and UM sure do really spoil them. The baskets they sent were way better than ours. The baskets alone were too cute. One purple and one pink they had little tutus on them that could be taken off and worn. The girls got outfits, stickers, a horse and barbi for Av, purse for C, stamps for av, bows for c, stuffed animals, a movie, a cd, a book, I could just go on and on. They played with those baskets for hours. It was so thoughtful of them. There was no candy and everything that was picked out was really thought out and excatly what the girls are into.