13 Months...only a little late.

Does this count as being in the teens? Because some days I think Ave's practicing. Her new phrase: "Oh man"...and it's used in the right context... I'm not even sure where she got that from.

Here it is, 13 months

*You have 7 3/4 teeth: That 1 is not wanting to come all the way up, and there's no sign of the other 3 that were working last month.
*You're running...'nough said
*You're doing lots of things you're not supposed to
*You fell back down the steps (fortunately you only got up a couple)....she was sneaking around and managed to pry the door open
*You give Hi-Fives.
*You now say "dada", "mama", "do" (dog), "hi", "happy", and "puppy"
*You LOVE dogs....and are always saying "Hi do" every time you see one
*Definitely starting with the temper tantrums: If you don't get what you want, let the hysterical crying begin.
*You have absolutely no fear of anything (we'll see how Santa goes today)
*You fight sleep like nothing I've ever seen before...you're always worried you'll miss something
*You're doing better at night now...back to only once a night being up, but I think we have a growth spurt coming soon


You're just an awesome, wonderful little girl, who no words could ever describe!

Look everyone! It's the incredible shrinking bunny!

ONE YEAR OLD!

A year, how has it already been a year since I first held my beautiful baby girl in my arms? There's no baby here now. They really do grow up too fast; while the days sometimes seemed really, really long this year has just flown by. We managed to keep a helpless child alive for a year, and just not alive, but absolutely thriving and learning.

I can honestly say that while the year wasn't easy, it wasn't as bad as the horror stories. People always say the first year of marriage is the hardest, the same with a child...I haven't found that to be true. I'm sure the teenage years will be MUCH harder than this was.

OK...here's our ONE YEAR UPDATE! How on earth did we get here already?!

*You now have 7 teeth, and at least 3 more hot on the heals of the last one (4 on top and 3 on bottom).
*You're walking all over and are beginning to run (or at least walk faster).
*Your smiles light up a room.
*You now can stand up without pulling up on something.
*You're sleeping through the night, for the most part.
*You weigh 22.5lbs and are 30" long.
*You're wearing 18-24 month clothing.
*You absolutely adore seeing other kids, especially ones your size.
*When you give hugs (whether to us or a stuffed animal/doll) you put your whole heart and body into it, usually knocking them down.
*You blow kisses to anyone that gives air kisses to you.
*You can click your tongue and even do the weird throat scratching thing that mommy and oma do.

Ave we love you more than we ever thought it possible to love anyone. You are absolutely and totally amazing!

Avelyn's First Birthday Party!

Well A's birthday party went off without a hitch...even if we were still cleaning when people started to arrive (it wasn't for lack of trying). A was absolutely wonderful, she took great naps and woke up just as she was supposed to (Thank you Lord). The food was all delicious and we managed to fit everyone in our house...yay!

We had the son of one of my mom's friends be our photographer for the day (he's really great) and I can't tell you how wonderful it was to not have to worry about pictures all day (I had enough on my plate without that). I haven't gotten the pictures from him yet, and it may be a while, but these are a couple of pictures from my camera.

Our menu was smoked ham, mashed potatoes, sweet potato casserole, green bean casserole, rolls, and homemade apple sauce: Dessert was maple bread pudding, apple crisp, pumpkin roll, and birthday cake (homemade vanilla cake with raspberry preserves and butter cream frosting). It was so good. Unfortunately I didn't get much to eat, but you can bet the leftovers will be tomorrow's lunch.

I did a couple of different craft projects for the day. In the first picture you can see the banner I made with MIL's cricut...it says Happy 1st Birthday, then below it are the pictures I took each month of A with a stuffed bunny. My SIL and I also mod-podged tissue paper on baby food jars for candle holders, and we had red balloons, on which we taped leaves to the top to make them apples. I was rather proud of myself that all of my DIY projects actually came together.

I was so grateful that people didn't go crazy with gifts...unfortunately I told people 18 months for clothes. She's fitting comfortable in them now, but give her a month and she'll be out. So I have to take some things back to get them in 24 months/2T sizes (how is she already in 2T?!) She got quite a few books, which is awesome, and only a few toys. Mommy still needs to wrap her presents for Monday though.

All in all, it was a great day. Filled with people we love and care about, and who love and care about us. I couldn't have asked for a nicer 1st birthday party for my amazing daughter.

Cake video

11 Months Old

11 Months: Oy! Less than 31 days until you're a ONE YEAR OLD! (Pardon me while I go cry for a few minutes). So many things have been going on and so many changes for you, our sweet Avelyn.

*You LOVE LOVE LOVE books: You'll pick one up and sit down with it and just look at each page. I'd love to know what you're thinking.
*You have 4 teeth officially, and 4 more coming in.
*You're 21lbs and 29.5" tall: Wearing all 18 month clothes.
*Your first broken bone has healed great and your back on the move...I must say your "crawl" was quite adorable though.
*You're walking...completely and totally walking. You still crawl, but walking is your mode of transport now. You'll walk all over by yourself (max of 10 steps), but when you have someone's finger look out...you're running away!
*Blood curdling screams...oh how we love these! They actually make our ears hurt and are, of course, at the most inopportune times.
*You've been making monkey faces: You purse up your lips and make funny noses or breath like you're doing lamaze.
*You still love boys...or more exactly one boy in particular. You've always got a smile for Dan (works for us).
*This month will be your last "first holiday": Halloween! You just missed it by a few hours.
*Your hair when it's wet is halfway down your back.
*You've started air kisses and it's absolutely adorable...especially when you and daddy get into kissing matches.
*You love your daddy! He may not get home some nights until bed time, but if we're up and you hear the dogs bark, you immediately start looking in the hallway for him to pop up the stairs.

Ave we love you so very much...there aren't any words and there is no way to describe it...you just are everything in our lives :-) We love you!

10 Months Old (A day late)

I don't quite know how to start this post, as I don't want to say all those cliches of "how is it 10 months?", "Our baby is almost a year old!", etc etc....but everyone is true. There is no baby anymore...there's a very independent little girl, who knows exactly what she wants. I'm excited to see who she's going to become, but I miss the baby she was. Everyday I'm just completely awed by some new thing she suddenly does or some little thing I notice.

*You have 2 3/4 teeth now. The top 2 broke through, but only one of them is actually the slightest bit visible without looking.
*You give the most absolute and bestest hugs! You've done this for a while, at bed time, but now you'll just climb in our lap and put your head on our shoulders and your arms around our neck and squeeze...it's heaven!
*You'll sit in our lap while we read a book to you...and actually pay attention to what we're reading.
*Your hair is just getting longer and longer, it's to your shoulder blades when it's wet
*You're standing on your own, but you get over excited and end up throwing yourself off balance.
*You've started walking...so far the most you've taken is 5 steps...but I don't think it will be long now.
*You've climbed the entire flight of stairs...just like a big girl (with mommy right behind you and daddy at the top).
*You growl at everyone and will get into growling matches with people.
*This weekend we're going on our first family "vacation" (just an overnight to Hersh.ey Park).
*You love playing with other kids and think it's tons of fun.
*"da-da" and you know who that is :)
*ETA: First broken bone...your left clavicle...yay! (*note sarcasm*)

Ave, it's hard to believe that in 2 months you're going to be 1...I won't lie...that makes me beyond sad, but you are such an amazing person, and becoming more wonderful and loving every day as your personality comes out and asserts its self. We love you!

(You can see that she's holding that left arm right down by her side and not moving it...that's the injured one).

Ave has a broken clavicle.

Ave has a broken clavicle. will post more when we get home.

~*~UPDATE~*~
After this mornings post Ave woke up at 7am, again she didn't pull herself up to a sit or a stand in her crib and was just laying there kind of mopey on her tummy. I picked her up and she cried a bit, and brought her in bed with me and Matt we looked her over and definitely decided that there was something going on with that left arm. I called the Dr first thing and they had us come in.

We got there and they asked me a few questions...I answered them...telling them that she seemed to be favoring that arm and the whinging every time we picked her up or some how moved that arm. She would hold things in her hand, but wouldn't move them above shoulder height.

A was a trooper with the xrays didn't even phase her...of course they asked me "Is there any possibility that you're pregnant?" since I stayed with her. I immediately could see something on the screen when it popped up. They sent us back to the doctor's office and they confirmed that it was a broken left clavicle. There's nothing to be done for it, just make her comfortable, medicate if needed and let her be low key. She's doing what needs to be done (keeping it still and not using it).

If there is no improvement in a couple of weeks we go back, otherwise they're just going to check her at her 1 year appt in November. Rather uneventful and I kept my cool, and actually (surprisingly) haven't even cried one tear yet...that still may happen.

Prayfully she just has a quick recovery and heals completely. Thanks again for all the support, thoughts, and prayers!

We need prayers for Baby Ave

The past 2 days I've had the neighbor's daughters over to help me with cleaning the house. Yesterday (Wed) the youngest one was helping me out. Ave woke up from her nap and she asked me if she could change her diaper and get her dressed (she's 12/13) and I said yes. I was downstairs doing dishes and I thought to myself "I should tell her to make sure no to leave Ave on the changing table alone: I hope she doesn't fall off"....within seconds of his though I head a loud thump....ran upstairs and Ave had fallen off the changing table.

She was hysterical, the girl felt terrible. I looked her over and Ave seemed ok, just shaken up. I just held her and she stopped crying after a bit. I put her down on the floor and she crawled ok, she rolled over ok, she stood up ok and walked ok....but she would start crying.

I took her over to our store and told Matt, and he and MIL (she's an RN) looked at her and they thought she seemed ok too, but we decided to go to the doctor anyways. Got there in the afternoon and as soon as the doctor walked in Ave was crying, so it was hard for them to tell what was hurting her. We were sent home and just told to keep an eye on her to see if she was favoring anything.

All evening passed and she was fussy (she never got a nap in the afternoon). We ate dinner and she seemed ok, bath and bed...still ok. Now it's 3:30 am, and I've been up with her for an hour...she's just lying in her bed, eyes open, arms and legs straight out. When I pick her up she cries for a few seconds (was doing this all afternoon/evening too), but then she's ok.

She never just lays still like this....EVER! It actually is rather freaking me out....just lying there, eyes open...she is responsive and looks at me and reacts to light and movement etc. Needless to say first thing in the morning we're calling the doctor's office and going in for xrays and whatever else they need to do to rule out that anything is wrong.

She only just now closed her eyes and drifted off to sleep. I feel so absolutely terrible. People give me a hard time about being so protective of Ave and one of the few times I let someone (who is entirely capable) step in she gets hurt. Honestly, I didn't think that the girl changing Ave was that big a deal. Now my poor judgment and neglect in telling someone something I thought they should know as common sense resulted in my daughter getting hurt. I feel beyond absolutely horrible about that.

I just pray that she is ok. That there is no lasting damage...that if something is broken that it's easily fixed and quickly healed and my baby girl is back to herself.

9 Months

NINE MONTHS! Seriously?! Today we had our 9 month well baby visit with our pediatrician. Avelyn is doing well and was given a clean bill of health...no sign even of her slight heart murmur from before: YAY!

Let's recap the conclusion of your 9 month
*You went from army crawling to full out on your hands and knees crawling
*Cruising is your preferred mode of transportation...you get really annoyed if you get cornered and can't go on cruising
*You now make this really cute noise, where you raspberry your lips and hum at the same time
*You've loved having swimming lessons
*There's only a few people that you won't go to, but if there are too many people around you get over excited and won't nap and become a monster
*You love your bedtime bunny
*You occasionally will give hugs and sometimes even kisses, which are the sloppiest most wonderful things
*It looks like you have at least FOUR teeth coming in at once...which explains the misery of sleep for the past month
*You have 1 or 2 good nights, then a slew of bad ones
*You LOVE, LOVE, LOVE animals...it doesn't matter what kind

Ave, you're the light of the world! We love you so very, very much!

"The world is full of music, dreams, and lovers There ain't nothin' like the summer..."

Umm...not sure where the time has gone...but it seems to be going faster the closer we get to the beginning of August...not a fan, not at all! Anyways, we've been busy and I still don't feel like I've gotten caught up on ANYTHING yet! So, here goes...

Saturday, July 24th and Sunday July 25th
We got up very, VERY early on Saturday morning...way too early. We had to drive to NH for our niece's first birthday party. We had decided that when A woke up for the day, or wouldn't go back to sleep, we would get in the car and leave. She woke up at 3am and would NOT go back to sleep. Finally at 3:45 we decided to just pack up and go. We were out the door at 4:30am.

She slept for 1 hour before we stopped for breakfast, then maybe another 40 minutes the rest of the way. It's a 5 hour drive. Needless to say Matt spent a lot of time in the back seat trying to keep her entertained. She's been sleeping terribly and I'm not sure if it's teething or what, but giving her tylenol or motrin doesn't help.

We got to NH late morning and hung out. After a while we tried to get A to go take a nap, but BIL didn't have the pack n play set up for us and told us just to put her in Niece's room for a nap. I don't know how anyone naps in that house, but in our house we have blinds and curtains on the window. There was no way she was going to sleep with the room lit up like a Christmas tree.

The smaller italicized text is just my complaint about how difficult a time we had with A not sleeping: Skip over it if you want.

A got more and more and more and more miserable! Finally I gave up and we went for a drive...she fell asleep...it lasted 40 minutes. Then she didn't go down for the night until 8 (still not wanting to sleep). She slept until 2am, then decided to party until 3:45am. Went back to sleep and whimpered every 15 minutes. Finally at 4:45 she was crying again. I picked her up and she felt warm (the house is AC'd and got very warm during the night), so I stripped her down to her diaper. She was so, so tired...I put her on the bed between us and she flopped over her legs and fell asleep...I repositioned her so she was at least flat and she slept until 6:45. At that point I was exhausted and SIL was up and asked if I wanted her to take A: Yes please! I slept until 8:45...of course Matt came down with something and was throwing up all night and of very little help.

I'd love to tell you how the party was, but I was dealing with A most of the time. I did get some pictures though. It was hot as Hades outside and we spent some of the time outside in the kiddie pool.

We left pretty early on Sunday...after we had breakfast. A was still being miserable and I had wanted to stop in Wilmington, VT to check out a quilt shop and we wanted to break up the trip as much as we could so we stopped here and had lunch. We even made a second stop, which broke up the trip further...my aunt and uncle's for dinner.

My mom had called and said they were heading up there and we figured we'd make it just about dinner time and we did...it was great to see my aunt and uncle and spend time with them. A was in good humor (finally) she had slept the 2 hour drive between our lunch stop and the dinner stop.

Monday July 26
My mom went with A and I to swimming lessons today, so that we could get some pictures and videos. The class isn't anything fancy...it's more or less to get infants into and comfortable with the water. Basically we sit there in the shallow kiddie pool and play with toys and splash about.

A loves the water...there's no question about this. She's even getting adventurous enough that occasionally she will stick part of her face in. Of course it's immediately followed by much spluttering and coughing (she has a flair for the dramatic...wonder where she got that from).



Random Things
We've started to introduce a tooth brush to A...yea, even though she only has 2 and there is absolutely no sign of any others in spite of the terrible nights and fussiness and occasional runny nose. She really enjoys it...probably because it's something that I let her stick in her mouth. She sat still the other day for 20 minutes just chewing on her toothbrush.


The county fair (and our insanity) is coming up soon. They have an annual Cutest Baby contest, the winner gets a savings bond. Every year I've wanted to enter it and this year we are!! YAY! The other day we did an impromput photo shoot to try and get a picture of A (yea, because you know we don't have any *note sarcasm*) Here are the ones we're looking at(haven't edited them yet)

Hope you're all doing well!

8 months old

Four months....that's how far away from a year....that's it!

Avelyn is growing in to an amazing little person! She's so adventurous and crazy...I just know she'll be the one instigating whatever trouble she manages to get into. There is no making this girl do anything...she has a mind of her own.

*You're standing up in your crib
*You're pulling yourself up on whatever is nearby (couch, furniture, toys, people)
*You're slowly starting to cruise the furniture
*Still army crawling, but occasionally you'll get up on your hands and knees
*You're a natural at yoga: Downward facing dog anyone?
*You love making growling and screeching noises, and have been nicknamed Baby-Zilla
*You love boys (already!)...you just are entranced by the guys who work in our store
*Your face just lights up a room when you see someone you love...whether it's mommy or daddy, or Grandma or Grandpa, or Oma or Opa
*You've got a smile for anyone
*You love clicking your tongue and making smacking sounds with your mouth

We love you so very, very much Ave. We're so blessed to get to be your parents and watch you learn and grow first hand.

Time keeps slipping away....

Right now I have 156 unread blog posts in my reader: I've been trying to keep up with ICLW, but I've managed to neglect my regulars. There are quite a few new blogs I found through ICLW, but I'm scared to add them to my reader, because if I did I'd have somewhere near a 1000 posts to read, and that just scares me.

There's so much that I want to say and of course now that I'm sitting down I've forgotten it.

We've been having hellacious nights with A since the contractors arrived. I'm not sure if it's that she's not getting enough sleep during the day and is over tired (the scrapping and banging sometimes wake her up). We had 4 nights in a row in which I slept a combined total of 3 hours: Up at 11pm, up at 1:15am, up at 3am, up at 4:15am, up at 6am (for the day), each time it takes me 30 minutes to get her to go back down.

Saturday night was the last straw. I was just sitting their holding her and crying, begging her to go to sleep...she didn't. I told Matt last night that I couldn't do another night and that we had to, at the very least, split the night. Even if he had to get up and stay up with her a couple of hours, I needed to sleep.

Matt was going to take the wakes up between 11 and 3:30, and I would get 3:30 until the morning. Well, I woke up at 3:30 and she never made a peep (I would have heard her). Of course I didn't fall right back to sleep because I figured she'd be up any minute. I drifted until she woke up at 5:30, took 6 ounces, then went back down until 6:30 when Matt changed her diaper and she went back down until 7:45am. Absolute heaven. I'm hoping for a repeat tonight, but I know that probably won't happen.

BIL, PP, and Niece C came down for a long weekend on Thursday night. On Friday (6/25) we took the girls down to the river to play and I think they enjoyed themselves (BIL hasn't sent me pictures yet).

Saturday I got up early and started setting up for my yard sale. MIL and G-MIL came down to help me with the setup and A...they also donated all their stuff to sell to me :-) It was a much more successful yard sale than the one I had 2 years ago. I managed to clear enough to cover our gas for our trip to NH in July, and to Hershey in Sept, plus a $100 toward my camera (only another $590 needed! Might as well be a million).


Yesterday, Matt and I had to go to Bing. to pick up 47 cases of soda/water for the car show this weekend. Can I just tell you that loading that many cases onto a cart, then into a truck, then off a truck and into a building is a lot of work. We left A with my parents (who don't get to spend much time with her) and managed to sneak in a breakfast date at Cracker Barrel...yum!

I feel like I'm jipping you all with the lack of pictures (it sucks on this end too). Last night we had corn on the cob for dinner. We had A in her highchair on the deck while we ate, giving her pieces of avocado and diced cherries. I decided to hand her a chunk of my ear of corn...OH.MY.GOODNESS! She LOVED IT!

“Freedom is never voluntarily given by the oppressor; it must be demanded by the oppressed.”

I can't believe it's been over a week since my last post, and I just know that if I don't force myself to sit down and post now, it'll be another week...the busy season is upon us. As for another excuse...I got sick (it seems to be going around the blogosphere). It started with a scratchy throat, then a temp (100.5), then aches, cough and blah! feeling, but I'm better now, and it looks as though no one else has caught it.

It's been busy. Today is my sister, Kate's, high school (home school) graduation ceremony and party. We've been busy with getting things done for that. The ceremony was very nice, of course the video camera died half-way through her piano piece (the battery never charged). This afternoon is the party, but for right now I'm home and Avelyn is sleeping.

You're probably wondering about the quote up there. I think Avelyn is feeling oppressed and is starting to demand her freedom. Walking into her room this morning, this is what I saw...
I would love to say that she's been working up to this; that she's been pulling herself up; that she's been sitting up on her own, but I can't. The other day was the first time I found her in her crib sitting. That was the only time I've seen her go from lying down to sitting. I've never seen her pull herself up. Then this.

All I can think is, "Lord, I'm not ready for this." I put her down for a nap after graduation and she immediately sat up. Ummm...now what do we do?

How do I get this kid to go to sleep if she won't stay where I put her? Now we of course have something else to worry about: Is this going to make bed time more difficult? And how soon before she's trying to climb out of the crib and we have to worry about her getting hurt?

Parents, I have a question: How did you deal with this? Was it as big of an "issue" as I'm expecting? I'm not ready for her to grow up yet.

7 Months

I know everyone says it, but I honestly don't know where the past 7 months have gone. It seems like Avelyn has always been a part of our life, but that it was just yesterday that we brought her home from the hospital.

May was an extraordinary month for Ave. I don't think it is possible for their to have been more first in such a short time!
*First and second tooth
*First and second visit with my friend, Sadie, and her twins
*Started "crawling"
*Started pulling yourself up on things (particularly people and the sides of your crib)
*We've had to drop the mattress in your crib
*First time swimming
*First time having fruits

Ave, every day you're growing bigger and it's more and more fun to see what new things you'll discover each day. Even when you're miserable and not sleeping you're still a wonder to behold and more joy than we could ever have hoped for. It's an adventure and I'm so excited for every day. I love you sweet girl!

Earth Momma

Never really thought of myself as an Earth Momma, and I still don't, but I guess by some definitions I am. I don't think I ever intended to go that route either; it was more to save money. I'm talking about cloth diapers and making our own baby food.

Cloth diapers: How do I love thee?! I love thee to the depth and breadth and height...oh sorry. We bought 16 bum genius 3.0 and 24 (12 of 2 sizes) of prefolds with thirstie covers. In the beginning when A was tiny (at 8lbs lol) we used the smallest prefolds because they were small enough on her without being too bulky. We loved them. We thought we'd love them more than the BG3s.

Then we started using the BG3s. I love them more than anything! They're no more difficult to deal with than a regular diaper. It is a bit frustrating that so many of her pants are tight or don't fit when the top does because of the diaper, but we deal.

Before we decided to CD...I had asked a friend of our's how much they spent a month on diapers: $50-60 a month. Over the course of a child's life (assuming in diapers until 3) that's $2,160. Even if we replaced our entire CD wardrobe every 6 months it wouldn't cost that much. With me not working, and having next to no income we need to save money where ever we can.

And honestly the extra laundry isn't that big a deal. During the winter I have a drying rack we place over a heat grate and they dry in a couple of hours, in the summer on the clothes line. If it's rainy or I need them NOW I put them in the dryer for a bit. And I always have some 'sposies on hand in case I run out or have any emergency. Let me tell you those come in really handy for nosebleeds too (yea, I had one at the wedding and didn't have tissues).

It's not for everyone, but for us it's awesome and we love it!

As for baby food. I bought a 12 pack of Earth's Best Organic veggies and one of fruits; just to start A on with solids. From there I realized there wasn't much variety as to the Level 1 food choices. I found an awesome website called Wholesome Baby Food and they are a wealth of information. Everything from what foods at what ages as to recipes on how to prepare it.

I try to buy organic foods whenever we can. So far I've made carrots, butternut and acorn squash, avocados, and apples. I'm planning on making green beans later on this week. It's really not a lot of work and I know what she's actually getting.

One thing that makes it really easy is I have an immersion blender. I just put the steamed foods in a bowl and hit it with the blender. I freeze what we won't use in a couple of days and put the rest in little containers in the fridge. Not for everyone, but it is another way for us to save money

As a child my family's menu consisted of two choices: take it or leave it. ~ Buddy Hackett

Our menu isn't quite as restrictive, yet. We've slowly been adding to the variety of foods that Avelyn is eating. I've also started making some of them myself, which is really rather very easy. So far she has had:

• Sweet Potatoes
• Peas
• Carrots (pureed and "frozen" sticks)
  
• Acorn Squash
• Lettuce (she just mouths the stalky part)
• Cucumbers (more for teething)
• Pears
• Apples
• Prunes
• Avocados

The only FAIL! were the peas, she's not too keen on the avocado, but I think it's growing on her. It probably helps that I sit there with her and if she doesn't eat whats in her bowl, I do...then she gets interested.

Someday I'm sure we'll institute the "take it or leave it" policy, but right now we'll let Avelyn's pickiness slide.

An Unfortunate First....

Today A is 5 months.....I have nothing really to show for that because she is under the weather. It seem that in honor of her 5 month she's gotten a cold....her first. Matt started coming down with one the end of last week and he's stayed away from A, but I guess it wasn't enough. She's not bad....just a little bit of a snotty, runny nose. Hopefully it clears up soon....and she was sleeping so well the past few nights. Last night was crap again.

Oh well...it had to happen some time.

A Whole Lot of Something....

There's a whole lot of little things....the littlest of which is...we have a MOUSE in our HOUSE! I was sitting on the couch with Ave this morning when this furry little critter decided to walk out of the bathroom and into the living room: EEK!

Now before you think..."wow, she's really calm about this". I am SO NOT CALM! I HATE mice, but not as much as I HATE RATS! See, Matt tore the wall down between the cellar hallway and the bathroom[see picture] (our cellar is a cellar in the deepest, dankest sense). I had been wondering whether any critters would decide to enter the upstairs via that opening, but none had...until today.

I immediately called Matt...he told me to "let the dogs back in and put a few traps out"...ummm....the mouse hasn't touched a trap and the dogs are oblivious. I told him he needs to rebuild the wall on the cellar side TONIGHT! My house is trashed, but I refuse to share it with a mouse!

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

The bathroom is c o m i n g a l o n g s l o w l y. . . . Unfortunately there is no way for me to speed the process up. Last Wednesday we made a trip to Lowe.s specifically to return the shower door and get a new one. On Saturday I'm looking at the receipt and think to myself "Why does it say 48" door?" I get home and check...the Lowe.s guy loaded the WRONG door into the cart (and it was 9:15 at night and we didn't think to check). Back the door has to go (just a reminder....Lo.wes is 45 minutes away, one way, from our house).

Well here's some pictures of what has gotten done in the bathroom. We're still no where near me being able to start working in there, but it's coming along.

Ok, here's the layout of the vanity and the shower....at the end of the shower, closest to you, will be a full wall, then the toilet. Unfortunately while doing all these things for layout and spacing we found out that the walls are not square (Surprise! No.) So Matt spent most of yesterday sanding down the 100 year old studs to try and square the wall.

We pulled the toilet out yesterday, can I just say that was disgusting. The floor under it is rotted out and I don't think it was ever installed correctly to begin with. We are re-using the toilet, but it will certainly be getting thoroughly scourged before it goes back in the NEW bathroom. AND, Matt discovered why it wobbled...they failed to attach the toilet to the actually floor on the one side.

The other thing that Matt did get done yesterday was the boxes installed for the electric...the electric was run prior to sheet rocking, but not hooked up. He's hoping that this week one evening he can run all the wires and "plug" them in...hopefully we'll have lights soon!

I somehow don't think this bathroom is going to get done with the only 4 Sundays left before A's christening :-( I guess as long as it's livable by then...oh well. My uncle will just have to deal (he's the one staying here).

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Other things...

Daylight Savings time is working out well for us with Ave's sleeping. She goes down at 8 (was 7 before) and wakes up in the morning at 7:30. Now, before you get all excited...she is still waking up at 12:30am and 4:30am...I can NOT figure out the 12:30 thing. I've tried not giving her a bottle and just soothing back to sleep, but she genuinely wants a bottle and takes 4oz. At least she is going right back to sleep though after her bottles...rather than wanting to play.

We tried the rice cereal again the other day and she actually was eating it. She wasn't doing the pushing the food out with her tongue thing as much and was opening her mouth up for more. Matt got in on the action and fed her for the first time too. We don't have a high chair yet (no room until the bathroom is done and the swing is gone), so we use the exer-saucer as her feeding station.

Tell me that isn't a self-satisfied grin :-)

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I'm still plugging along at my mom's quilt...I have two weeks left. I have all of the star blocks done, but I still need to stitch all of the photo blocks (and finish printing the photo blocks). Here's my goal and time frame: This week...all blocks need to be finished (I'm going to ask MIL to take A for a couple of hours on Thursday); next week the quilt needs to get stitched together. It's not an impossible time frame....hopefully I can manage it.

I'm still waiting on my brother to mail me pictures. I asked him a month ago where his baby album was..."In my closet at home". I looked...it's not there. I finally caved and asked my mother where it was and she said "he has it", so she called him and asked about it. Then I had to call his wife and ask her...she said she'd have them to me this week. I'm praying she does.

I've emailed a couple of times, but I don't want to be a PITA, but if I don't get the pictures by this weekend...there will only be little kid pictures of my brother in the quilt...no baby pictures.

I'd love to show you pictures of what I've got done, but I have absolutely no CLEAN place to lay the blocks out to take a picture...you'll have to wait until next week (I'm planning on finishing the quilt at my MIL's)

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Anyways...I think that brings you all up to speed on some of the things going on :-) I hope everyone is doing well and deep in preparations for St. Patrick's Day!

I H-A-T-E vaccines!

The afternoon/evening was ok: A went to bed a bit earlier than normal (7pm)...she slept fitfully, but not waking up the entire time I was awake. I dreamfed her at 10:30 before I went to bed, but she woke up at midnight anyways. Then it began....every 45 minutes...and I started to notice that she was feeling really warm to me.

I lowered the heat in her room, waited an hour and took her temp: 101.9*...lovely. I look at our paperwork from the doctor's office. Call if they have a fever over 101.5*. I didn't call because I knew the first thing they would ask is whether I had given her tylenol yet and I hadn't. So I gave her the tylenol and waited another hour...100.5*, much better...so I didn't call. Poor kid kept waking up and waking up...I actually fell asleep on the floor of her room...first time ever (I was tired!).

Finally early morning, I can't remember if it was 4:30 or 5:30...she settled down and slept a couple of hours...got back up at 7:30 with her gave her a bit more of a bottle and she went back down for a little bit...I woke up at 8:30 to hear playing in her room...happy as a clam.

I hope that last night was the extent of the vaccines repercussions....

4 Month Well-Baby Visit

Today we had Avelyn's 4 month visit, here's those stats:

She's growing well and the doctor had no concerns. Last time he had found a slight heart murmur and said he wanted to watch it, he wasn't sure if it would be serious or not. This time he didn't think it was serious at all and sounded like it was closing up on it's own: Yay!

She had shots again today...boy she doesn't like them. Matt didn't go with me last time, he did today and I thought HE was going to lose it when she got her shots. I hate it and have to control myself from crying when she's hysterical, but him...he started coughing, I think he was seriously getting choked up.

Other things: I've tried to start working with A at self-soothing at night. On Saturday night we started a firm routine (bath, if needed, books, bottle, prayers, down). I stay in the room with her until she's asleep, but I don't pick her up. I basically put her in the crib awake...she kicks around a bit looks at her sound/light machine on the ceiling, and slowly goes out. It takes about 5-10 minutes until she's asleep.

Every night that I've done this she's slept from 7:30/8:00 until midnight, then down until 4:30/5:00 and out again until 7:00am. Definitely better....I just need to figure out how to get rid of the midnight wake up...it doesn't help me to fall asleep for only an hour, before she wakes up...I might try adding in a dream feeding again.

The other interesting thing is our doctor doesn't see any point in starting solids (even rice cereal) until 6months. I don't feel so strongly either way about starting the solids, so we'll just wait and see. Other than that...he's pleased with how she's growing and says everything looks good.

Now hopefully her sleep routine doesn't get screwed up by her shots...

Interesting....

Matt's grandparents have been away for the past month...yesterday they stopped by the store to pick up a catering order (the massive amounts of cookies I baked on Friday) for my MIL. They brought home a couple of things for us that they had found/gotten: A broken bottle cork with a reindeer on top, a metal heart-shaped cork, and 3 little books.

The books are what I want to talk about. I seriously want to ask Grammy if they were given to me as something funny to read or legitimate guides/advice. May I present to you:

Exhibit A - Date 1952

First off, I looked up what Farex is...according to wikipedia it's flour mixed with vitamins. The book is basically a how-to on introducing foods, along with recipes for baby which incorporate Farex. I think it would be the modern day equivalent of rice cereal.

I haven't read the whole thing cover to cover, I'll admit it, but I did flip through the booklet. The recipes are 'Simple, appetizing Farex recipes for the family'...such things as Farex Meat Loaf, Farex Fruit Flan, Farex Apple Brown Betty, and let us not miss out on Farex Jelly Sponge.

I didn't think this book was too weird, until I saw this (click on them to read them):

If you read through it, the one thing that jumped out at me was the adding SUGAR to everything or the extensive uses of jams, jellies, and juices....all of which contain SUGAR! Hmmm....

Sugar is becoming more well known to be a major cause of obesity (at least I think I read that somewhere). I think I may have discovered the cause of increased obesity in the US...FAREX's Guide to Weaning. The baby boomer parents created an entire GENERATION of SUGAR ADDICTS!

Read over what the suggested things are for weaning...cow's milk, marmalade, jam and bread, honey...Makes me wonder what people will think about our parenting in 60 years.

Exhibit B - No Date
It's basically an advertisement for Dinneford's Magnesia...the pamphlet suggests that it be given to both mother and baby to help with keeping the bowels gently open.

There are two things on this front page that caught my eye:

Under "during pregnancy": "You will win the approval of your doctor if you take an occasional tablespoonful or so of Dinneford's Pure Fluid Magnesia to keep the system gently regular"

(I'm all about pleasing my doctor and winning their approval!)

and under "After Baby is Born": "and you try to settle down to the routine of nursing, not forgetting your home duties as well...."

(Of course, let me pop out a kid and get right back to the house work!)

Ummmmm...........Wow! just WOW!

On the back of the pamphlet it has suggested treatments for which Dinneford's works wonders: Your child is teething....give'em Dinneford's; An infectious disease? "It is wise to keep the bowels gently open with Dinneford's"; Hiccups? Dinneford's! This stuff is magic! I wonder why it's not around anymore ;-)

Exhibit C
The last page of this little beauty is what REALLY caught my eye, "Suggested Articles Required at the Time of the Confinement for Mother and Baby." .....ummm :-|

I know this is a sign of the times, but really? Confinement? Thankfully gone are the days of confinement and laboring alone in a room for days strapped to a bed.

I still want to ask Matt's grandma why she got these for me (I'm assuming at a garage sale), but I have no idea how to do that without seeming rude. If it was for a good laugh...awesome! But if she bought them in ernest and seriously I consider taking their advice....wow!

I thought you would all get a good kick out of reading these.