6 Months of Change

6 Months...

Yikes...

How did I let it go this long??

Hello, welcome back to my blog. I've thought about this place a lot over the past 6 months and to say that there has been nothing to write about would be The Biggest Lie of the Century. But I just never got the writing bug. OR if I did, I just didn't think I should take the time to write when there were a million other things to do.

I decided I needed to stop waiting and provide an update. (Note that I wrote this post about a week ago and waited to post it until I could get some pictures up. In that week we had the most devastating blizzard in South Dakota history and because this post doesn't mention that at all, I wanted to explain why. Hopefully I can post about that mess soon because it would be an interesting one for sure...no electricity for 6 days, living in a cabin with my parents for that period of time, still no running water in our house...interesting eh?)

 

Ava turned One in May! I will try to post pictures because I loved how the party turned out. We did a vintagy tea partyish type thing. A lot of our family members came to Wyoming to celebrate and we had a grand time.

 

 

Jayden turned Three in September! I took almost 0 pictures. I did capture some video though! But the video is on the video camera and I haven't a clue of how to put parts of that on here. Sooo, no bloggy pictures or video but it was also a grand time. We did a Curious George theme and it was our first celebration in our new home.

And on that note, we have moved! Officially we moved at the end of August. That's definitely a blog post of it's own that I hope will get written one day because so much thought and prayer went into this move. I want to remember why we did this. We decided to return to our hometown of Rapid City, South Dakota and it is Awesome!

DJ is no longer working in college football. His last day was July 31. And this is a good thing. This will be covered in the future "Moving" post because it plays a large part in the "Why" aspect of the move. He is now working at a local sporting goods store as a sales associate and loving it. The company is amazing. The people are nice, fun people. And most importantly, the schedule allows a lot of family time. We love it.

Do we miss college football? Yes.

Do we miss the sacrifice that it requires? NO.

We have started a new healthy eating plan that is inspired by the Paleo lifestyle. Ultimately I would like to see us eating strictly Paleo but right now we are a gluten-free household. We are a little over a week into this (and it was admittedly put on the back burner during the Blizzard, but we're ready to get back to it!) and it's an adjustment for sure but not as much as if we were doing Paleo full force right away, i.e. no dairy, no grains of any kind including rice or corn. I tried to do that for the first day of this journey to Health and felt like I was being Tortured. I couldn't handle that much restriction and change to my diet so quickly. So we cut it back to just gluten and that has been much easier because there are so many gluten-free products out there these days. It's pretty awesome actually. I think we have already significantly increased our veggie and fruit consumption. We have definitely decreased the processed foods that we are consuming because, well, they are no longer in our cupboards! We still have a few items that are processed but we purchase them Very Intentionally. In other words, no sugar (or if something IS sweetened then it should be with fruit juice), no gluten, very few ingredients, and organic. So far, we are all doing great and I am excited to see where this journey takes us, both in our health and in our attitude about food.

I am still working for the same company from our new home. To say that this job is a blessing would be an understatement but truly that is what it is. This company has taken care of me for 7 years now, through 3 moves, and I am so grateful that God knew what he was doing when he nudged me in the direction of this company and not another one 7 years ago in my college apartment. I love seeing how God used that decision in my life over these past 7 years.

Jayden started preschool which is a great place for him but it's taking time for him to adjust. Ava is in a new home daycare which is taking time for ME to adjust. We are still looking for a church to call our own but God will lead us there in His own time. I miss my Bible Study ladies and hope to find a new group soon. We still haven't sold our house so we are living amongst rental things (a fully furnished home on my parents' property) and half of our stuff is still sitting in our house's garage in Laramie. We left one of our cars in Wyoming since we didn't want to drive separately to South Dakota while hauling a trailer but my inlaws are gracious enough to let us use one of their vehicles.

So much Change.

So much New.

But let me tell you, Life is Good. We couldn't be happier among family. We couldn't be happier together with DJ around so much. The last 6 months has brought growth, unity, laughter, happiness and faith.

So Thankful.

Parenting Practices - Part 2

And so continues Part 2 of Parenting Practices that "former self" PK (pre-kids) would have raised her eyebrows in wonderment at...

TV Watching and Other Electronics: Rated No Big Deal PK

So this practice has developed in phases...

Phase 1 - Pre-pregnancy - I only know that I thought watching tv, playing video games, etc was no big deal for kids because (1) I love tv and I was a kid once and I turned out fine, (2) I remember having no qualms about letting kids that I babysat watch tv and the big one ---> (3) I never had any reason to research the pros and cons of sitting in front of the tube for hours upon hours.

Now, Phase 2 - Pregnant with child #1 - All of a sudden I was ANTI-TV 1000%. I was reading all sorts of things about the horrible effects of television on children under 2 so of course, child #1 was not going to be watching any tv. (I will say that I didn't really start doing anything about this until I felt he was more aware of his surroundings - maybe around 4-5 months.) With child #1, he did not get to watch tv ever until around the time he turned 1. (Funny story though, he somehow started **miraculously** knowing who Elmo was...so I have always wondered who it was that let him watch Sesame Street...lol)

Phase 3 - See Phase 1, #1 above, specifically the first part. I remember thinking, "Well, he has to know who the Bernstein Bears are! I love the Bernstein Bears! Oh and Little Einsteins is educational! I want him to love music!" And so on and so forth... But I would still limit it to about 1 show every day or so. I also was not keen on other people letting him watch tv since I wouldn't have any say on the type of show it was. I was very intentional about what shows I would let child #1 watch. I wanted (and still do) the shows to be positive with good lessons built into the story line. Also if they were educational that was a big plus.

Phase 4 - Pregnant with child #2, husband is working A LOT and/or I need a shower... - TV has become somewhat of a babysitter, as much as I hate to admit it (seriously, I'm squirming in my chair...). When I need child #1 to be occupied consistently with almost no chance of him moving from his spot on the bed/couch, I put his favorite show on. I am still very intentional about what shows he watches and I try to make sure the messages are all positive but he admittedly watches way more tv then I ever thought he would at this age purely out of convenience. It's still limited to 1-2 shows/day or 1 movie on "special" occasions (special meaning any situation I need a little longer time to complete whatever it is I'm doing...). It's not that I feel like this is somehow making me a bad mother or he's going to have problems but I just want to set a standard of "high activity" in the house and not a standard of "laziness" where we are always sitting in front of the tv. Basically I want to create good habits.

Current Phase - Similar to Phase 4 but now child #2 probably gets more tv viewing in then her older brother did at her age. She's never really just sitting in front of the tv left to watch it and she certainly never watches tv alone (it's always because older brother is watching something). But I feel like overall we have come to a good place - not too extreme in either direction of the tv watching spectrum. We don't just leave the tv on with whatever show is on to let little eyes take in whatever the world has to offer. But we also don't prohibit any and all television which helps this mom get things done, like making dinner. And if I feel like child #1 is becoming too dependent on watching tv then I just leave it off for a few days and "reset his clock" so he's not asking to watch tv out of habit.

The electronics aspect was added to this post later only because I didn't feel it needed a seperate section. It closely relates to the tv watching in that it started out at 1, on a scale where 1 is not allowed at all, and has slowly moved up the scale to where it's at now which is about a 3-4. We let child #1 play on the iPad or my phone which has puzzle and coloring games on it. Again I try to limit this to an hour throughout the day, at most. If I feel like it is becoming a habit to just go to the iPad and play on there instead of choosing other toys or activities to play with, then I scale way back again to get out of the habit. I do notice that if child #1 has had to much tv/electronics time that his mood starts to suffer and he doesn't listen or behave as well. So that's my motivation to turn it off and get us all doing something active and engaging!

Diapering, Babywearing and Solid Foods - Rated as Not Even Thought About because...why???

I decided to cloth diaper when I was about 5-6 months pregnant with child #1. I also discovered babywearing, as in the use of wraps or other sorts of slings to "wear" a baby, when I was at the end of that pregnancy or right at the beginning of the newborn days. And solid foods was something I researched as I got further in my "Womanly Art of Breastfeeding" book and it become more pertinent to life as we knew it. All of these things were decisions that were made almost instinctively - it just felt right. Cloth diapering made financial sense too. Being an accountant, it was kind of hard to ignore that. Babywearing was convenient and a way that I could keep my baby close when out and about and wanted to keep wandering, germy hands away. This was especially nice with child #2 who I had "out and about" much quicker than child #1. With child #1 I just did not like putting him down. Unless he was sound asleep after driving somewhere and looking quite comfy in his carseat, I liked holding him and since he became a fairly large baby quite quickly, this saved my arms when I was holding him at functions/parties. I did try to wear him once when I was walking every day but in that case, I found the stroller to be much more useful. I didn't like huffing and puffing next to the other moms who were otherwise enjoying their walk as they pushed their smooth gliding strollers. With child #2, she lived in the wrap for her earlier months and it was a heaven-sent blessing because I was running around after a 20 month old who needed constant attention and we often went outside to let loose the pent-up energy. As child #2 has gotten older, I've had less of a need for the wrap and will often put her in the stroller and let child #1 walk. Child #1 almost never goes in the stroller anymore but if we're in a situation that requires it, then I just put child #2 in a wrap. I never bought a double stroller.

Solid foods is something that is a little interesting. I assumed baby food bought in a jar was the way to go PK. Wouldn't have had any other reason to believe otherwise. Then I heard about making your own baby food so that became something I was a little interested in. Then I heard about BLW (baby led weaning) and, after attempting to feed child #1 purees, realized this was the way to go. Child #1 did not like purees and I found it to be a bit of an inconvenience. I mean, why go to all the hassle of either (1) making the food or (2) opening a jar only to have the kid spit it all out and not ingest any of it?? Didn't seem worth it to me. PLUS I was reading in "Womanly Art" that solids aren't even necessary for the first year of life so, whoop! there went my motivation right out the window!

Continuously over the first year of life, I had people that appeared to be quite concerned that I wasn't feeding my child. But I learned to just kind of brush off the comments because I knew that it was ok. He LOVED to nurse and was getting all the proper nourishment from breastmilk so I had no reason to worry. When he started trying to pick things up with his little fingers, I started giving him minuscule pieces of food. Now, I will say that I was always very nervous about this because having never done this before nor ever seeing this BLW thing done in person, I had no clue what I was doing. So I just scoured the internet forums that supported this type of thing and hoped and prayed that my child would never need the Heimlich. There were a few instances where I thought my child was surely dying (child #1 was a gagger) and I would curse the day that I ever heard of BLW but once we made it through those earlier days, I loved it. Sure it made quite the mess as he tried to feed himself but I feel like he's such a great eater because of it. And now with child #2, I worry almost never. I'm much more confident and adventurous in what foods and food portions I give her to try. (For the record, I thought she was going to be my puree-eater so I bought a HUGE GIANT box of organic baby food, yes... in jars... but she turned out to hate having anyone put anything in her mouth. She's very much an "I will do this myself thankyouverymuch" type of girl...so the box of jarred food is still in my pantry. But she is also an AMAZING eater, much better than older brother ever was at her age.) IF there is ever a child #3, I will not be buying any baby food, even if the child does love it, because I'm a firm believer in BLW now.

Crying and Sleeping Through the Night (as it relates to an infant less than a year old) - Rated Normal and Necessary PK

This is such a controversial topic among mothers these days but because of that I am addressing it here because I want my children to know how it was for me. And I want to remember how we parented since the years have a funny way of erasing details.

As soon as child #1 was born, there was no way I would have let him cry unnecessarily. If there was something I could do to keep him from crying I would do it. This practice is one of those that was developed purely from instinctual feelings. I feel like a crying infant always has a reason to cry. They're hungry, their clothes are uncomfortable, their tummy hurts, they need to feel secure in the arms of momma, etc etc etc. Crying is an infant's only method of communication and while we as adults may think that they are crying too much, think about how much we talk in any given day! An infant has to communicate somehow and crying is it. Because it felt right in my heart, I did whatever I could to keep the crying to a bare minimum. If I couldn't stop the crying then I would research the dickens out of it trying to figure out what else I could do to help my baby. That included cosleeping (see above, child #1 did not like to be alone!), holding for naps, letting babies nurse whenever they wanted to, and giving up on the notion that they would sleep through the night when I was ready for them to. I feel like it is my responsibility to make an infant's life as stress-free as possible. Children are people and deserve respect. And, yes, they are still children with undeveloped brains (albeit developing at exponential rates!) and they don't understand this world yet. So often when I get frustrated, I try to put myself in their shoes. How would this look to them since they don't know that I still exist even though I left the room? And that has helped me in my attempt for sensitivity and patience as I address their needs.

Now, given the above sentiment, I will say that I may have been extra ultra sensitive as a first time mom to child #1's every whimper and while I don't think it hurt him in anyway, I find that I am less likely to jump at the first sound of child #2 and tend to listen first to what type of cry it is. Child #2 also has a very different temperament and is verrrrry easygoing so I know that if she whimpers a little, she's probably not going to erupt into full scale emergency cry if she's not tended to immediately. And I have found that child #2 will even soothe herself oftentimes if given a few seconds. I still don't let her cry for more than a few minutes and I can usually discern when it is a "need something" cry as opposed to a "just trying to get comfortable" cry. And speaking of "types" of cries, interestingly enough, child #2 also has an "I just got my feelings hurt" cry which is a very high-pitched, shrill cry that makes you want to cover your ears. It has actually temporarily deafened me at times and I am not kidding. Child #1 never had a cry like that although he does have a "pouty lip, giant crocodile eyes" facial expression that does the trick so, once again, to each his own...whatever works! And they have definitely figured out what works!

So that's that...for now. I may have forgotten something and in that case, I'll be back for an epilogue!

Parenting Practices - Part 1

One of the things that no one really tells you before you have kids is how you will question everything you thought you ever knew. It's probably because those people know that whatever they say won't really matter until you have kids of your own. BUT before I had kids, I thought I would do things just. like. this.. 

and I would never do that, *covering your mouth so said parent of child performing heinous deeds can't read your lips*

oh yeah, and what your kid is doing??

Abominable...

until my kid does it every day...and then? Perfectly acceptable.

I am being a bit facetious but seriously, I don't think I'm alone. Even after one becomes a parent it's still pretty common to look at another mother and wonder "what the heck is she thinking??" but then, at least now, I know to quickly remind myself that she is doing what she feels is best and it probably is the best for her child.

That's another reason no one tells you about the great "brain transformation" that occurs after you have your own child -- every kid is different and requires special treatment uniquely suited to their needs, temperament, etc...

So yeah, surprise doesn't adequately describe what "former self" would feel if she were to fast forward to see what "current self" is doing on a daily basis. It makes me wonder what my children will be thinking before they have kids. Will they remember how they were raised? Will they have developed an "oh no she didn't!" mind-set about other parents only to find themselves doing the same thing a few years later? I want to be able to remind them how they were raised and how I, as their mother, used what may seem to be unpopular parenting practices in order to parent them in the best way I knew how.

Also before I get started on my list (which I decided to post as a two part series because the post became rather long), I have to also add that even in the 2.5 short years of parenting, I have already changed my mind about certain mothering "policies". Is that bad? Maybe to former self from 1.5 years ago, but to current self, no. It's about being flexible and adequately changing to the needs of your family.

The Players in this comedy called Parenting:

 The Parents

 

Child #1 aka Jayden Noah - 2.5 years old

 



Child #2 aka Ava Grace - 10 months old

(Photo taken at 9 months old)

 

So without further ado, my current parenting practices - PART 1:
(I will be rating each practice according to what former self felt about such practices PK [pre-kids])

Breastfeeding: Unrated as I hadn't really thought too much about it until I was pregnant with my first child. If anything I would say I would have rated it as "the normal thing to do".

I really can't remember thinking too much about breastfeeding PK other than to think, oh my gosh that woman is feeding her kid right there in the middle of all those people!!!!!!!!!! How uncomfortable...poor thing...

LOL!!

I mean to former self, it was less about feeding a kid and more about the "nudity" aspect. Like, "you better cover that up!" I do remember seeing someone nurse their walking toddler in the middle of the forest once when my family and I were out rock climbing and I just tried not to stare.

As far as nursing older babies/children, I would have definitely rated that a GINORMOUS NO.

Now...I would say to each their own.

For myself, although open to the idea of nursing as long as child #1 wanted to (that is, once I reached the 6-9 month mark, since before that it was a mental, and sometimes physical, challenge to even get to the 6 month mark), I became pregnant with child #2 when child #1 was 11 months old and could only stand it another 4 months before saying "Enough!" I couldn't handle the sensation anymore given the current state of my extremely sensitive everything...i.e. boobs, hormones, personal space...15 months was the end of my son's breastfeeding adventures. Child #2 is now 10 months and I want to at least make it to the 15 month mark so I don't feel that I've given her any less than her older brother and then we'll see how it goes after that. I do think about the fact that there are MANY people out there promoting breastfeeding to at least the age of 2 (current World Health Organization suggestion) but I look at my 2.5 year old and cannot imagine how I could possibly still be breastfeeding him. I mean, ew. I don't know if it would be different if I had never stopped but I can't even really wrap my head around that because all I can think about is "ew". That's just weird to me. (Note that it only became "ew" once I actually had a 2 year old myself who had not been breastfeeding for several months. AND that only applies to ME breastfeeding MY 2 year old. I don't think "ew" when I see other people breastfeeding THEIR 2 year old...or 3 year old. Seriously. I really feel like "to each their own".)

Co-sleeping: Rated a big NO-NO in my pre-children days

This next practice lends itself naturally to breastfeeding so makes a perfect second practice to discuss. Co-sleeping in our family started out as an "accident" but has become something that I am pretty passionate about. Initially it was a way to get. some. sleep. Something that I took for granted just days before my son was born, when my one and only all-nighter in college resulted in me sleeping the entire following day to catch up. Yeah, that doesn't happen once you have kids. So you find other ways to cope. For me, that was co-sleeping. Child #1 was not a good sleeper in terms of being able to (1) go to sleep on his own and (2) stay asleep on his own. So I found nursing him to sleep was easiest and he was often held while he slept. I loved that and everything I was reading was saying that was great. (Granted I was not reading books like "Babywise" or Dr. Ferber's book - the great "cry-it-out" advocate -- or any other books out there that said that you must teach a child to sleep on his own. One of the first books I read was "The Womanly Art of Breastfeeding" produced by La Leche League and I can probably thank them for all these "crunchy" tendencies that have since developed.) So when it came to nighttime sleeping, I couldn't very well hold him because I become rather limp when I sleep so the next natural step was to lay him next to me. He got to eat whenever he wanted to, I didn't have to get myself out of my oh-so-comfy bed to get him when he cried (which would have been all. night. long. since he didn't like being by himself) and I hardly had to wake up to attend to his nourishment needs.

So those were the early days, but since then...I have discovered other great benefits of co-sleeping...

(1) Breastfed babies thrive in the presence of their mother and the risk of SIDS goes waaaay down. The baby's breathing becomes regulated and they often wake more frequently which helps to avoid "failure to rouse" which is theorized to be linked to SIDS. (Failure to rouse is terminology used to describe a very deep sleep when it is difficult to wake the baby - almost like a coma.)
(2) When they make little noises and you're not sure if all is well, you can just peek an eye open and see yep, they're still breathing and go back to sleep.
(3)  When they puke in the middle of the night, you are right there to turn them over and make sure they don't choke. (Yes, this has happened and I was SO glad that we were right there to attend to his needs.)
(4) There is more time to bond with the baby especially when you work full-time, like I do! This one has always eased some of the mother guilt that I have from working full-time. (A mother is always measuring the minutes she spends with her children, as if there is some chart out there that says a certain amount of minutes spent with children equates to being a good vs bad mother...)

And those are just a few of the benefits, there is much more scientific evidence that I've discovered as well but those ones up there ^^^^ are the most important to me.

Part 2 of Parenting Practices will continue mañana...that's tomorrow...

10 Months

My baby girl is 10 months old today! BOO HOOOOO!!! I am seriously very sad about how fast she is growing up because I LOVE having a baby in the house and it certainly doesn't help that she is the easiest baby in the whole wide world! Here are some updated stats on my sweet Ava Grace.

Teeth: 2.5
Ava has the two middle teeth on the bottom in and has for a couple of months but she is just now getting another tooth on the top right in the middle. I'm hoping they don't all take this long to come in because the teething has definitely bothered Ava more than it did for Jayden at this point. Poor baby will wake up crying and I just feel so bad for her!

Mobility: Speed crawler and starting to take steps with the assistance of furniture
Yesterday DJ told me that Ava pushed the kitchen chair from one side of the kitchen to the other which was a first!

Food: Lover of all things edible.
This girl can eat! I haven't found a food that Miss Ava won't eat and although she will have meals where she's not totally into her food, she usually will eat everything we put in front of her. I won't list everything that she's eaten but she has had multiple foods from all the food groups, with the exception of dairy. I have only given her plain greek yogurt once and she did eat that but it's so messy (because she feeds herself) that I haven't given it to her again. Unfortunately because she does gets so much solid food though, it has made her mildly constipated. :-( I have been trying to give her more fiber in the forms of whole grains and fruits and green veggies but it will probably just take time as her body gets used to these new foods. Thankfully it doesn't appear to bother her too much at this point.

Ava continues to refuse a bottle, which she has done since we returned from our Christmas vacation so her weekly nursing schedule goes like this:

8:00 am              Nurse before I take her and Jayden to daycare
12:00-12:30 pm  Nurse her at day care
4:30 - 5:00 pm    Nurse her when I pick her up
6:00 pm              Nurse once before bed
7:30 pm              Nurse to sleep
9:30 pm              Wakes to nurse, goes back to sleep
11:00 pm            Wakes to nurse, goes back to sleep
Will also usually nurse a few times during the night

This schedule may seem abnormal/inconvenient to some but since she doesn't take a bottle during the day and I want to make sure breastmilk continues to be her main form of nutrition at this point (as it should until she turns a year old), I'm ok with the night feedings.

Weight: (Last measurement was at her 9 month appointment) 20 lbs 6 oz.

Height: 28.75 inches
Surprisingly (or not so surprisingly I guess since Jayden was actually bigger), these measurements put her in the 90th percentile!

Sleep: Still a great sleeper!
Although there have been moments in time over the past 10 months where I've wondered if my luck has finally run out and my good sleeper is becoming a not-so-good sleeper, the phase always passes (so far) and my good little sleeper returns. One thing that I find funny/cute about Ava's sleeping habits is how much she rolls around in her sleep. She is all over the place!

Ava's naps have been interesting lately. For awhile over the past 2 weeks, I was thinking that she might be eliminating her morning nap as she was refusing to go down when she normally would in the mornings. But I'm very grateful that we seem to be back on schedule and she's taking two naps again although sometimes they can both be pretty short (around 30-45 minutes each).

Typically her daily sleep schedule goes like this:

7:00-7:30am    Wake up
10:00 am         First nap (Has been lasting anywhere from 30 minutes to 1.5 hours, usually depends on how well she sleeps the night before)
2:00-3:00 pm   Second nap (Again the length varies from anywhere from 30 minutes to 2.5 hours. Her afternoon nap usually is longer than her morning nap unless she's at daycare, then it's never longer than 45 minutes.)
7:00-7:30 pm   Bedtime (Although she goes to bed for the night at this point, she will usually wake up a couple of times to nurse before I go to bed around 11 pm.)

Clothes/Diapers: 12 months and size 4
Wellll, I never did get started on the cloth diapers for Ava. I have to admit that the whole finding-the-perfect-cleaning-routine intimidated me and I didn't want to deal with the diapers not absorbing properly because of our extremely hard water. I just felt like I finally found a good routine where I had time to do laundry, keep the house in order, make meals and spend time with my kids on top of fitting in 40+ hours of work and adding another element of diaper washing would overload the schedule. Now I just want to sell the diapers which means I need to prepare them for that... Disposable have been the best option especially considering the amount of time that Ava spends either at day care or my friend's house while I'm at work

We're phasing out the 9 month clothes because they are all becoming much too tight and stocking up on 12 month clothes. I'm not sure if we'll make it through the summer with just 12 month sizes or not. I'm hoping so because her weight gain has started to plateau but there's always the possibility of a growth spurt!


At the risk of sounding cliche and cheesy, I have to be honest. Ava continues to be such a ray of sunshine in every day to all of us. Even Jayden will randomly decide to give Ava hugs and kisses because I think he just loves having her around. Of course it's not always like that and he is learning to share his toys and be gentle with her but I am so proud of the way Jayden treats his sister. I am starting to think about her first birthday but am not wishing it to be any sooner than it is! I know better than ever at this point that these sweet baby days are such a blessing as the toddler years can be...more challenging...ahem...can you read between the lines there?? So, I am enjoying every moment to the fullest with my girl!!

Belated Post - 6 months

During the weekend of Thanksgiving, I decided to take some photos of my Ava in the same fashion that I had done for Jayden when he turned 6 months old. However, it was not to be nearly as successful as when I did it for Jayden. For whatever reason neither child was in the mood for pictures and that coupled with a very wrinkly sheet and a little girl who decided to start making a rather unattractive new facial expression, we ended up with far more bloopers than frame-worthy photos. But honestly I know I won't care when I look back in 16 years. I will just be glad I took the time to take some photos!

Here are some of the bloopers, er, best shots! (Note that I did not take the time to edit these since they won't be going on the wall. As much as I love them, I'm not sure I want to explain the situation every time I have someone over, which I inevitably will feel like I need to do.)

 (Her new funny face, LOL. She made this so many times and I just had to laugh!)

That's a mouthful

We started Ava on solids officially on her 6 month birthday but, like Jayden, she has not really taken to purees so now that she's able to pick up foods on her own, we offer her foods that she can feed herself. Today, the lady that watches Ava on Tuesdays and Thursdays couldn't watch Ava because her own daughter was sick, so I got to spend the day with my girl. We had lunch together and Ava had carrots and kiwi! She has started to eat puffs really well but up to this point, has only been into playing with "real food". I was so excited that she enjoyed her carrots and kiwi!

Forgive the girl's hair, that's her momma's bad. It's actually remnants of a ponytail from yesterday. Oh, and she just started clapping her hands on Friday when we say "Yay!"; I just think it's the cutest thing!

Winter 2013

We're going back and forth between warm(ish) weather and freezing bitter snowy cold this winter. We had some pretty snow off and on this past week but then it warms up and melts it all off right away. And then we have days like yesterday where the wind just blows and blows and makes us all want to dig a hole and hibernate. But I can't properly enjoy spring until I've had some of this freezing cold so I say, Bring it! 

Besides the weather, here's an update on what's been going on around the Martinez household:

• Ava is over a bout of RSV, praise the Lord! It didn't even last very long although it was very "not fun" while it lasted (about a week). She wheezed something awful and it made my heart sad to hear her breathe like that! This little girl is giving us a lesson in infant illness though. Jayden had his first sickness after he turned a year old and already Ava has been sick probably 7 times. Ugh, I can only hope this means we will have less sickness after she turns a year old!

• Jayden and Ava are adapting to a new daycare facility. Jayden more so than Ava. This is Ava's first time at a day care because fortunately we were able to avoid it for the first 7 months of her life but it came down to necessity and I really needed consistent child care so daycare it was. Because the daycare could only get her in part-time though, she is also still being watched all day on Tuesdays and Thursdays by my neighbor and friend. (It's a longish story about why we have this new system and why they're both in a new daycare, different from the one that Jayden went to from 14 months up until Christmas this year, but I'll possibly get to that story another day.) Anyway, Ava doesn't really eat or sleep while at daycare because there is so much going on and she's quite the social butterfly. However, thankfully, she makes up for both of those things just fine at night. Also currently, she is only at daycare for an entire day on Mondays so that day is quite long for her with the no-sleeping, no-eating thing but the rest of the week is manageable. If we're away from each other for the entire day, I go nurse her at noon. Jayden actually seems to like this new daycare better than the one he attended before so I'm so happy about that!

• Jayden got his two year molars in (or is still getting them in, but they've both popped through) and Ava has gotten her first two teeth in the past month so we have two teething kids but actually it hasn't been too bad!

• Ava crawled for the first time last week and I was there to see it! It actually was way more exciting than I could have anticipated because well, we have anticipated it for so long! She has been on the brink of crawling for months. Also I wasn't there to see Jayden crawl (or walk) for the first time so this was a first for me too! She is getting more and more mobile and we all get a kick out of her moving her legs that way. She also is really enjoying trying to pull herself up on things. She still gets wherever she wants to go mostly by scooting on her tummy or rolling.

• We are getting some good family time in these days which is a VERY nice change from the Cowboy football season. There's been swimming (indoors, of course), walks, basketball games, puzzles, family movies, and lots of toy playing going on. And for DJ and I as a couple, we're also getting to spend more one-on-one time together which is more overdue than one could ever imagine! We started going to a small group at church, and have found time to make some new friends, some of which we got to hang out with a couple of weekends ago (sans kids!). So whereas some people find winter dreary and confining, I actually sort of look forward to it since it means a break for us as a family.

• We have no trips planned which is actually nice for once. We spent the fall going somewhere almost every. single. month and let me tell you, that was fun, but also very exhausting! So for this winter, we've been somewhat intentional about deciding not to go anywhere. Sometimes it's nice to just stay home and enjoy being home!

• Work is going well for both DJ and myself. I am finally truly and completely caught up with my work after taking my maternity leave this summer. Oy vay. If there is a "next time", I think I will work until I have the baby, go have the baby and then return as soon as medically possible. As much as I SO enjoyed taking that time off and spending it with Ava, I'm not sure I can ever do it again. It took me 5 months  to catch up and it was not fun. I am forever grateful for my job though and the fact that I can work from home!
• DJ is splitting his time between football, golf and soccer this winter. One of their trainers had a baby a couple of weeks ago so they are all picking up the slack. Normally DJ would just be overseeing a little bit of golf this time of year in addition to football. He will be headed to California for his annual golf trip with the team and I have no doubt it's a trip he looks forward to every year. The big news at work for DJ is a new water facility room in the UW training room. He and his boss designed this water room, which includes hot and cold tubs (which used to be located outside, by. the. way, brrrrr), and it took several months to finish the project. They spent the entire fall working in only about half of their training room since the other half was closed off while it was being renovated. Even I, as a non-sports minded, non-athlete type, can appreciate how nice this must be for them to have for the use of rehabilitation and performance management for their athletes. 

• A few other noteworthy pieces of news...I am having a much anticipated craft party this coming weekend with a whole bunch of new people that I've never met...at my house...but I'm actually really really looking forward to it. I have really missed crafting and have gotten to do a little bit here and there but am looking forward to meeting some people that are also craft-minded so we can possibly do this on a more consistent basis!

• I am in love with warm boots, wool socks and cozy hats right now and cannot stop buying this stuff for me and my children. I have to admit, I do love living in Wyoming because we can legitimately wear wool-lined well, anything, and have a 'durned' good reason!

•  My mom and in laws made the trek to WYO this past weekend to watch the Super Bowl to play with the kids. We all had a great time and the weekend went incredibly fast. But one aspect that will stand out for me was the church service that my mom went to with me and the kiddos. They performed baptisms during the service and it was unlike any baptism service I had ever been too. We have three services at our church and the first service was the only one that no one had "signed up" to be baptized. So our pastor just said that if anyone felt like God was speaking to them to be baptized right now then they could come up front and "be dunked"! We prayed and I asked God that He would give people courage to come forward if that's what they felt led to do. And guess what?? FIVE people walked forward, in their church clothes, hopped into the water, and were baptized right then and there that morning. It was seriously so amazing to watch these people obey God's calling right in that moment and actively see them walk to the front in courage and announce their desire to obey God because they love Him. We all had tears in our eyes because, if you are a Christian, you know that God can call us to do some scary things and although walking to the front of your church in front of people who love and support you is not one of the scariest things you will do, it is definitely a big step in the Christian faith. And when you allow God to give you the courage to take those scary steps that He will ask you to do, it is a RUSH when you learn that God will indeed walk every step with you! And you will succeed because of it! Awesome.

• During the baptisms, Jayden announced loudly during a quiet moment that those people were "taking a bath." LOL

And that's about it for now! I'll leave you with a video of DJ and Jayden playing the Sesame Street Matching game...

For clarification, "Roweeta" is Rosita...lol...you may notice DJ has trouble remembering the proper pronunciation at one point too.

Where has the time gone??? {5 AND 6 months}

I'm thinking that^^^^^^^^^^^^might be the new title of my blog... Man, oh man, these days I can barely seem to keep myself afloat let alone write a blog post. And that's one of the most important things too, especially when I'm busy, because life is such a blur that I can't even remember the things that I really want to remember! I feel like all I'm going to remember is that life moved very quickly when Ava was a baby. Hopefully I capture more in these posts then I think I am. 

ANYWAY...

Ava is 6 months old! Last time I wrote a post, she was 4 months old and my oh my, she has come a long way since then!

She sits up like a champ now. She doesn't fall over ever except for when she tries to look around behind her or up in the air, then she will sometimes lose her balance. Otherwise I can just plop her on the floor, go get a drink, not worry that she's going to fall over and come back and she's still happy as can be!

She has been making movements lately from the sitting position to what appears might be a crawling position but so far she just flops right to her tummy instead of staying up on her hands and knees.

Ava is still toothless, even after I thought we were going to have an early teether given all the drool she has been making the last 3 months. I am so thankful that no teeth seem to be cutting through though!

We started Ava on some solids this past week and so far, she seems to be enjoying them much more than Jayden did at this stage. She seems to be swallowing some of the food whereas Jayden would just spit it right out. I tried rice cereal a couple of times because I got a "lecture" from the nurse practitioner at her 6 month appointment. 

That's a story in itself... 

First the NP gave me a **look** when I told her we hadn't started solids yet (kind of a mix between sympathy for my ignorance and disappointment that she had to explain something so obvious to a grown woman, bleh, never mind that the American Academy of Pediatrics says no solids till 6 months...) and then told me that it was important to start rice cereal as soon as possible. When I told her that I never did rice cereal with Jayden and I was just going to start her with sweet potatoes the way I did with Jayden, she then gave me another "lecture" about the importance of rice cereal and how breastfed babies don't get enough iron, blah blah blah. I would try to be respectful of this doctor's office's opinions but they always shoot me down and make me feel like I'm some sort of delinquent mother when it comes to the decisions that I've made. It's so annoying but we just have to deal with it for now. I do plenty of research and could probably teach that office a thing or two but unfortunately I just don't have the eloquence to do any justice to the information and so I just sit there and remind myself to keep my mouth shut next time and not ask too many questions! 

So Ava has now tried rice cereal and sweet potatoes...and Jayden finishes her leftovers! Ha! Breastmilk will continue to be Ava's main source of nourishment though until at least a year. I have been pumping pretty consistently this time around and Ava takes a bottle very well so that continues to be a big sanity saver sometimes when someone watches her for me while I work or am gone for more than a couple of hours.

At her 5 month appointment, which was a sick visit because my poor girl had her first ear infection, Ava was about 17 pounds. At her 6 month appointment, which happen to also be a sick visit because she had a horrible cough, Ava had gained another 3 pounds and is now about 20 pounds! Interestingly enough, everyone thinks she is bigger than Jayden was at this stage but we looked at his records and Jayden was a couple inches taller and heavier at each stage so far! I LOVE my chunky babies!!

Ava is currently in size 3 diapers but we are having a heck of a time finding diapers that contain "stuff" very well. We had her in Pampers which were not containing the poo and pretty much every day, you could expect a giant blow-out. Proof of that is the fact that Jayden now asks if Ava has had a blow out when we change her diapers..."blow out Mama??" So we decided to switch brands and I got a box of Huggies but those have actually been worse because now they have started leaking the pee in addition to still having frequent blow outs. I think I need to get my cloth diapers back in working order. I have been putting it off and putting it off because I just don't feel like I have the time to do MORE laundry but we never had blow outs with Jayden. Another nice thing about the cloth diapers is they are better at keeping the bum dry and my little Ava's skin is so sensitive; she is always red it seems although thankfully, we have not had any really bad rashes. I'm sure the redness is still indicative of some soreness though so perhaps that will be my goal next weekend. Get the cloth diapers out!! 

Ava is a little chatterbox, constantly making noises and over the past month or so has started saying "mama" and "dada". We know she doesn't know what she is saying really but my heart doesn't know that and it melts every time I hear her babbling about mama.

Ava's personality could not be contained inside of the Grand Canyon - it is HUGE. She is always smiling and grinning at anyone who will smile at her first. She saves her best smiles for her big brother and Jayden will often elicit big belly laughs out of her. He knows exactly what to do to make her laugh and is usually pretty willing to get her a toy or jump up and down to get a laugh out of her, often without me even asking him to do those things. Ava is always wiggling and grabbing things to put in her mouth. If you lay her down on the floor, she will roll clear to the other side of the room in a matter of minutes. She also makes the best expressions and sounds. She has started laughing to herself, or maybe at herself...she is her mother's daughter you know...That has to be my favorite thing at the moment. She will just be playing with something while I am busy cooking or cleaning and I will hear her make these little laughing sounds like something is just cracking her up to no end. It is hilarious and I laugh every time! I'm really not sure what to expect from this little girl, but I can tell she is going to be tons of fun as she keeps learning and growing!

4.5 Months

 5 Months

Most Recent - 6.5 Months (Firmly planted in the Christmas season)

Four Months

Oh my where as the time gone already?! It would seem that I blinked and my baby girl has done grown up! It doesn't help that she is already about the size of a 9 month old. I don't get to enjoy small babies around here for too long. But I'm not complaining, oh no, most certainly not. Ava has the best baby rolls you could ever ask for. I have been eating on them for days now and they are just so delicious. That, and her baby smell and deliciously soft skin. And Ava is doing so many new fun things these days!

She is a rolling machine! She is perfecting the roll from her back to her tummy but has only gone from her tummy to her back once. Mostly because she doesn't like to hang out long enough on her tummy to give herself time to roll over. But it's just a matter of time I know because each time she rolls to her tummy, it takes her longer and longer before she gets frustrated and uncomfortable in that position.

She loves to laugh! Ava is a quick smiler and a very happy baby overall. It's not too difficult to get a laugh out of her. All you usually have to do is pay a little attention to her and play with her feet or make funny faces. She's a squealer too which is pretty funny as long as you're not trying to be quiet. Thankfully she hasn't embarrassed us by squealing (which is quite shrill by the way) when we're in church yet. I can usually make my getaway to the foyer of the church before she gets too noisy. Ava makes the funniest faces and I have a few that I will post another day. She can always make me smile (and others around us, including Jayden, which is always so fun to see the sibling interaction)!

She has found her feet and hands and is always checking them out. It's so cute because I can just see the wheels turning wondering what these things must be used for. She is most likely to grab a hold of her feet when her clothes are off so I will try to give her a little diaper time each day so she has time to really check those little wonders out!

Miss Ava is a definite chunk although I feel there must be a better way to put it since I'm sure her 14 year old self might not appreciate that term when she's reading this years later. She is right in between a size 2 and a size 3 diaper - one seems a bit small and we always tend to have blowouts when she has the smaller diaper on and the larger diaper just still seems a bit too big so I guess we'll just have to wait another day or two before the larger size starts to fit better. (And I'm not exaggerating too much here, she is definitely growing so fast!) She is fitting better in 9 month clothes than 6 months but I am still putting 6 months on her since she still has outfits in that size she hasn't even gotten to wear yet! (Note to anyone that is wanting to buy her clothes, skip right to 9 and 12 months! At this rate, she will be wearing 12 month clothes by New Years!) At her 4 month appointment, she weighed 14 pounds, 14 ounces but I can't remember how long she was. She wasn't off the charts on either height or weight though - just about average really.

Ava is starting to hold onto things really well, which is handy while I am otherwise occupied and she isn't wanting to just sit and watch. I can usually hand her a toy and she'll hang onto it and chew it for awhile.

Speaking of chewing, I would not be surprised if we see teeth soon! Which is crazy... She has been drooling nonstop for at least a month now and is constantly mouthing things. I have felt around her gums though and there are no teeth yet, thank goodness. I would really appreciate a couple more months at least before we enter that realm again!

Ava Grace is a little traveler these days and I've decided she is a great sidekick on my trips! She has already been on two road trips and two round-trip plane trips and, for the most part, has done amazing. On the plane rides, people always comment on how well she did, except for one ride that had some pretty good turbulence. She wasn't a huge fan of that. This coming weekend, though, I have to leave her at home and I already know I am going to miss her a TON. I love having her along with me, especially after last weekend when we went to Albuquerque, just me and her. Thankfully, it will only be for one night this weekend but it will be the first time that I leave her.

Ava takes a bottle amazingly well and that has helped me a lot, especially since starting back to work and being very behind from the start. I've been able to work for hours at a time, uninterrupted. It's been a new experience for me though and I've had to get used to pumping routinely. In fact, I wasn't sure I would have enough milk for her this weekend (I didn't realize how long it would take me to build up a decent supply) so I gave her formula one time this week (one ounce mixed with even parts of breast milk) to make sure that she didn't have a bad reaction, on the off chance that the freezer stash of milk would run out and my mom would have to give her some formula to hold her over before I got home. Ava did fine and didn't have any adverse side effects, unless you count the aromatic diaper later on (one of the differences between an exclusively breastfed baby and a formula fed baby!).

I tried out a pony tail the other day and was so excited that I could actually get Ava's hair in the elastic band; however, my excitement didn't last long. I left the ponytail in, not thinking anything of it, and later after her first formula feeding, she was very fussy. I could hear her from upstairs while I had someone watching her. I rushed through what I had left to do that day and got downstairs early thinking that the formula had made her gassy. But after trying a couple of different positions that would typically ease the pain for a gassy baby, her cry wasn't changing at all. I immediately locked in on her ponytail and pulled the elastic out (probably not gentle enough either) and almost immediately (after the pain of having the elastic pulled out) she was calmer. SO, lesson learned, she has enough hair to get INTO a ponytail but not enough to LEAVE a ponytail in. Poor little girl had a headache from that dumb beauty experiment!

Here is a funny video that my friend Mandy captured last week when she was watching Ava. Ava is watching Mandy's daughter swing. I love this video!

FALLing back into a routine

As you may remember when I posted back here, I am not really looking forward to fall this year. However, because it IS inevitable, I am trying to find things to keep me looking forward! Pinterest is a great pick-me-up and if you haven't discovered the wonderful world of Pinterest, then allow me to introduce you...

Pinterest, meet fellow blog follower who has never met you... (you will need an invite to actually join and start your own pinning so just let me know and I can send you one!)

Anyway, I spent a good hour finding all sorts of yummy fall foods, decor, crafts and toddler activities associated with a fall theme so I'm sort of, a little more, kind of, ready for fall now. Now I just need to find cute fall outfits and that might boost me over the edge into a teeny more ready for fall!

On another note, fall has brought with it a bunch of work. I started back to work two weeks ago and it's been a whirlwind to say the least. I am forever grateful to the woman who took care of my duties while I was out but it was a little much for her since she was taking care of my work PLUS still doing her own work that gives her a full-time job. So I started out behind and I am still behind but slowly creeping forward day by day. 

On top of my work, I have decided to keep Ava home with me until she is six months old. At six months or so, she will start part-time at the same day care that Jayden goes to but I wanted to wait until she was a little more independent and aware of her surroundings, not to mention she can get a flu shot at that point. Sooo many germs in a day care, especially in November or December when she will start going! But for now, she is with me. I work when she sleeps or when she's happy to stare at a toy or sit on my lap but the rest of the time, I have to wait till everyone has gone to bed and get some work done then. I have also "hired" two girls to come watch her three afternoons a week so that gives me some solid time to get things done which has been a sanity saver for sure!

We're well into football season now too which makes for busy weekends! So far we have either been gone or had company every weekend since September began and that will continue till about mid-October. It's great having the diversions but it sure does make the weekends go by fast! Unfortunately our Cowboys are 0-3 so the football aspect of our weekends haven't been near as much fun as we would like. Here's to hoping that will soon turn around!

Jayden is going to day care full-time now but, to be honest, I haven't missed him as much as I thought I would, only because I have been so extremely busy while he is there. I don't even have time to miss our park visits....yet. As soon as I get caught up on my work though, I know that will change. And as soon as the first snow falls and it's not as easy to make a run to the park, I will definitely be missing him like crazy!! He seems to be handling the transition from part-time to full-time fairly well. He has developed a new little "habit" which shows itself when he doesn't get his way or gets frustrated. He has started hitting. Nothing painful for the one getting hit but definitely a new challenge for us parents as we try to figure out how to change that behavior. He also bit another kid at his school one day - now that was a shocker! He has never been a biter and so far, that was the only instance (and they're not even 100% sure it was him although it's quite likely based on what they told me they saw after the incident - they didn't see the actual incident itself) so I hope that was just a one-time thing!

DJ is busy as ever but I have found that not thinking about when he will get home (usually around 7:30-7:45 pm every day except for Fridays and Sundays which are later and Mondays, which have been earlier) or when he will leave in the morning (6:30 every morning except for Wednesdays and Fridays when he has to be gone by 5:30 am) has helped my mental state. I just get in the groove and determine to get things done without his assistance for the most part. It is much easier than what I had been doing the last couple of seasons. I always expected his help and then would frequently get disappointed when he would be late or unable to be home for something. I think we are both happier this way! He doesn't feel like he's always disappointing me and I don't get constantly frustrated with his ever changing schedule.

Coming up this fall, we have several trips planned, some with the kids and some not. I will be going to Reno, Nevada in a few weeks for the football game and it will be the first time that the kids will stay overnight without me or DJ being there. Crazy to think about but probably time! I also have planned trips to Albuquerque and Phoenix - the former trip, Ava will be going with me and the latter trip, both kids are going with me along with my brother.

So as much as our life right now is NOT a routine, it sort of is. Things are a little more predictable week over week and since I've read that kids like a routine, then I guess I am grateful for that aspect of fall this year.