Shooting out the boo in the Parking Lot

Video of a Video

2012-02-11T06:33:00.000-08:00

Now Audrey Watching herself

Poor Celia

2012-02-07T16:53:00.000-08:00

Well we are on our second round of the stomach bug since I started back to work, it is not fun. Audrey had it a few weeks ago, then Celia got it, then I got it. That one was not horrible, although I would have preferred to skip it. So this past Thursday evening/Friday evening Audrey surprised us with throwing up in her crib and then a few hours later all over me. The first round she also threw up all over me. I am not fond of that. In anycase we questioned this time if perhaps it was reflux related. I questioned that until Sunday morning when I started to feel bad and then when I felt, very, very, very bad, and then when I felt as if someone just needed to knock me out until this thing was over. In years I have not just laid in my bed. I wish I could have enjoyed it! If we had to question it even further, poor Celia got sick this afternoon. She only was sick once then Pete brought her home and she watched movies. She seemed to be fairing okay until I noticed that she was asleep. She woke up a few times and it was clear she felt crummy. But at least she can sleep. I am hoping she kicks this thing by morning.
There is a lot of othe things going on, keeping me from updating the blog. I have some cute pictures and hopefully this weekend I will get some time to upload them and schedule some posts. For now here is Ms. Celia acting very cute and then acting very sick.

Check out the bucket, the school let us keep it! Don't worry, it was never used. She is sacked out on the couch.

Notice anything odd?

2012-02-03T09:00:00.000-08:00

Audrey sometimes helps me load the dishwasher

I do not know which girl I am linking this for

2012-01-30T17:33:00.000-08:00

http://lysaterkeurst.com/2012/01/i-dont-want-to-raise-a-good-child/

So am I reading this for my hyper and smart Celia or my stubborn and quiet Audrey?

We have been targeted

2012-01-22T07:03:00.000-08:00

We have been hit by the "bug" the lovely stomach bug. On Tuesday I picked up Audrey from school and was surprised to find out that she was lethargic and just wanted to lie around all day. That is not Audrey. So I thought her awful cold certainly had turned into an infection. I got an evening dr's appointment and the dr thought that she might be getting an ear infection. Her ear was slightly pink. That surprised me as she had no signs, no fever, no tugging at her ear. She gave me a script for an antibiotic but suggested that we hold off for a couple days to see if she was getting better or worse. So I got her home, attempted to nurse her and I should have taken clues from her. She had not asked to nurse and kept popping off. I was frustrated because I did not want to be woken up multiple times at night because she was suddenly hungry. Well... She nursed some more and then vomited all over me and by all over me, I mean really all over me. I thought it was just the congestion and her reflux. Pete stayed home with her the next day and I decided that 10 days with the cold and vomiting warranted the start of an antibiotic. I did not even think that she had the bug on top of her cold. I did not even think about it until I picked up the girls on Thursday afternoon and arrived just as Celia had thrown up all over their little hideaway cube in her classroom. I found 3 of the afternoon girls distraught because no one was there to help clean up. But in their credit they did an awesome job, honestly they had my little girl changed and clean in no time and the rest of the kids were lined up away from it waiting to go to their indoor playground. Then I knew that Audrey likely had the bug too.
So Celia had a rough evening but slept well through the night. Around midnight I got hit, not as bad as Celia but certainly had it. So Celia and I cuddled and watched tv all day on Friday. She and I are still not 100% but should be set to go back to work and school tomorrow. Pete has not been hit yet and may not, he is very worried though! Celia has not been sick in so long that it was very hard to explain to her on Friday why she could not be around others or go to school. When she learned she could watch tv all day she was okay with staying home!

Thinking of Him

2012-01-16T18:44:00.000-08:00

I followed Tripp's blog from the beginning. He touched my life and he touched many lives. I honestly have been thinking about his Mother since I read her last post on Saturday that her precious angel received his wings. In this circumstance Tripp is certainly in the place where he needs to be, has needed for awhile. He is finally pain free. But looking at my girls and holding them makes me realize that no matter what, his poor mother is crippled right now. It is impossible not to be. Please have her in your thoughts as she says her final goodbye to her little boy on Wednesday. He was by far the bravest little one I have ever known. EB is certainly the worst disease I can ever imagine.

The Week

2012-01-13T17:24:00.000-08:00

It has been a long week. Audrey started daycare last week and even though she only went for one full day, the rest were half days, she caught a cold. Every time in the past when we thought she had a cold it became clear that it was not a cold but a tooth. I assumed Monday that it was her tooth however it was clear by Tuesday morning that this was a nasty cold. If it were not just her second week I think I would have called out and curled up with her. She had no fever to speak of. So I just wrote a note for the school to call if she was fussy. I received no call all week and they said she was fine every day. But each morning and evening I had a do not put me down, crying, exhausted, snot covered Audrey. I have eaten my breakfast while juggling Audrey almost every morning. In the afternoon she has been attached to me. My shirts have snot stains, fun times. Celia has not been bad, in fact she has gone with the flow, knowing that Mommy is preoccupied a bit. Yesterday Audrey went down for a nap when we came home and she and I played dolls. She was ecstatic about that. Then I went to check on dinner and she decided to play in Audrey's room. No reason why, but of course Audrey woke up!
School.... Well lots of things happening. Honestly I do not remember ever having this much on my plate while teaching. I can not say that I am overly stressed, I should be, but I am not. I am frustrated more or less. I would love to just plan fun lessons, creative teaching activities, etc but paperwork, meetings, data collection, etc are all the priority. Somewhere along the way in Special Education, teaching has been forgotten. Honestly. The requirements are such that if you followed them your actual instruction would come last. Craziness.

In any case I am glad the week is done and I have an extra day with my girls. I have lots of school work to get done too but I will see what happens.

Women in Training

2012-01-08T06:40:00.000-08:00

Celia is cleaning and evidently Audrey is supervisor.

Do you notice the purse in her hand?

There Mom does not wear make up and rarely carries a purse. So both of them will have to rely on others for that model. The cleaning however, as you can see, I must do at least a little as Celia is pretty good!!

Pretend Play

2012-01-06T06:38:00.000-08:00

Audrey is very into pretend play lately and I think it is sweet. She loves to pretend to feed someone and has even been trying to feed her baby dolls.

By the way that is Celia's "pink" baby. She gave it to Audrey.

I never thought I would see a time where Celia didn't have

either pink or blue baby in her possession. But they are now

Audrey's favorite dolls, with the exception of her soft baby doll that she

sleeps with. She has received many new dolls, but nothing competes

with Celia's dolls. Maybe she feels the love!

Things I'm in Love with Today

2012-01-04T18:31:00.000-08:00

My Sister's gifts to the girls arrived today. I requested a Matilda Jane type dress for Celia.

Well she made one for each of them. I would never pay the price for a Matilda Jane Dress. Julie, if you read this, some of them go for $130 each- no kidding. Have we spent that much total on our kid's clothes??

Can you say amazing??? I am going to have to take pictures with it on Celia.

She loves the dress but there is no way she is wearing this to school. This will be a you wear when Mommy can watch what you are doing and hit you with the stain stick the minute something gets on you dress. Okay, I will relax on that after a bit, eventually.

Can you say Cute!!! Celia did this in school and was very proud, as she should be

Oh and today I also got Audrey's flips trainers. Aren't these sweet?

They are going to be put away in her room until the summer when I attempt potty training.

Celia was so easy to train, she started the process her self around 17 months.

We will see with Ms. Audrey!

Audrey loves to sit in laps. She loves it!

On Christmas day, Pete and I were in the kitchen cleaning up

and Audrey toddled into the living room and found a lap to sit!

Celia thought it was hilarious.

A Year in Pictures

2012-01-02T17:41:00.000-08:00

January

Highlights, I am getting about 2 hours of sleep

Celia is enjoying a lot of tv time as Mommy is barely coherent

Audrey is rolling over

February

Celia is having a blast in Ms Donna's room and Mommy is still not sleeping more then two hours

Audrey is becoming more mobile, however she is handful x 2

We take a trip to Virginia to celebrate Emmett and Katie's birthday

March

So still no sleep

Celia switches to 3 half days a week at school

April

Mommy and Celia are having a good time with crafts and preschool activities

Audrey is still a mega handful and not sleeping very well

May

Audrey is sitting up very well and we see more personality from her this month

Celia is her crazy little self and enjoying the unseasonably warm weather

June

They start to play together and Audrey

Audrey is army crawling all over but the reflux picks up again this month and we have some rough weeks

July

The cousins get together

Katie comes for a visit

Celia has her swimming bootcamp and Audrey and I bake in the pool area!!

August

Celia goes to vacation bible school

We have a blast at the beach until we are evacuated the second week due to the Hurricane

We also felt the earthquake

We road out the Hurricane at Mom Mom's house

September

Celia turned 4

We had fun with some messy crafts!

She had a great but small birthday party

Audrey takes her first steps this month

October

Audrey was a turtle and Celia was a ballerina for Halloween

Audrey is sleeping much better, about time!!

November

My baby girl turns one!

We have a good last few weeks of Mommy home, lots of Longwood visits

Mommy goes back to work at the end of the Month

December

Mom Mom comes to help us out, she is a huge help!

Audrey enjoys her time with Mom Mom

Celia tests the water a bit this month and is over the top excited for Christmas

Our Christmas is very nice and Celia is very grateful for her gifts

Merry Christmas

2011-12-25T02:00:00.000-08:00

Merry Christmas, from our family to yours.

As Celia has also been saying

Happy Birthday Jesus.

Christmas

2011-12-19T03:10:00.000-08:00

I am not into the holidays at work this year. It is odd, coming into the classroom during the holidays is not as great as I thought. We have play practice and chorus practice, special holiday shows, special holiday craft events, etc. I have no idea at this point what our normal schedule is going to look like, not to mention some other stressers going on. Actually I still live by my Dad's philosophy of "nothing in education is an emergency". Truely it is not. This week should fly by fast with Dress rehearsal Tuesday, my own Polar Express fun day on Wednesday for the class, and then our show on Thursday. Then I have a nice vacation with my two girls the following week but sadly Mom Mom is going home. She has been such an amazing help over the past month and we will all miss her. Celia and I talked about it on the car ride one day and she was very sad. I am not looking forward to Audrey going to daycare. I love our daycare and I know she will be in good hands but it can not compare to the attention my Mom has been giving her. According to my Mom though, she really enjoys her classroom. So I think she will have fun and then she is all mine in June. Celia too, but Celia would rather be at school, so that is a different story!!

Last weekend Celia helped me make my main holiday treat this year. I decided that instead of the various sweets I was going to make that I would go with something simple, so I made a hot cocoa mix. It is likely the only chocolate treat that I do eat/drink on occassion. I am not a chocolate fan, I gag on dark chocolate. So we filled over a dozen mason jars and I put the labels on. I still have to make my infamous cheerios mix. I struggled with whether to make it this year because Audrey can not have cheerios. But I decided I would give it a try and make sure that everything is wiped down and the floor is inspected for stray cheerios.

On Friday Celia has school and I do plan on sending her. I plan on spending some quality time with just Audrey and I then tackling some house cleaning and maybe some cooking so I will not have to stress over it during the break. At this point my Mom is saying two things, well she is laughing at the fact that I think I can get things done with Audrey and she is also saying "well I cleaned for you". Yes she did, a lot, but the bedrooms upstairs need some TLC. Audrey may spend some time in my Ergo or Moby wrap so I can get some things done! Or I may just decide to scrap everything and play, play, play!! I am excited that this year we have found a children's church service that starts at 4:30. Every year we spend Christmas eve dinner with our neighbors/good friends and we are always very late getting there as our church service does not start until 6 pm. This year we should be at their house by 6 pm! We get to go with my friend and Celia's little friends too. Of course Celia is irritated because she found out that some of her friends go to our church and she will not be there. She will get over it. But really, 6 pm for a children's service is wonky. Kids eat at 6 pm, little ones need to be in bed at a decent hour. Just my opinion!

Okay, a wordy post.

Longwood

2011-12-18T03:01:00.000-08:00

It's All Fun and Games Until Someone Loses a Green Bean

2011-12-17T03:08:00.000-08:00

Natural Consequences

2011-12-12T09:50:00.000-08:00

My Mom and I took the girls to Longwood Gardens last Monday evening for a members only night. Their Christmas display is amazing. Celia was very good despite being tired and a bit hungry, but towards the end she started whining more and more. We came to one tree and she wanted me to take her picture. She backed up to the tree and did not take notice of the small fencing around it and backwards she went, right into the dirt.

My Mom and I lost it. Celia was not happy that we laughed at her expense. I did snap the picture and Celia demanded that I erased it. I promptly did not erase it! It is dark but you can see her in the dirt.

Teaching Giving

2011-12-11T09:49:00.000-08:00

Celia is old enough this Christmas to understand the giving part of Christmas a little bit. It is very important for my girls to value giving more then getting. I am not sure if I will win that battle until they are past the teenage years, but I will try. Last weekend I took Celia to 5 Below to use some of her piggy bank money to buy some gifts to put in the Salvation Army stocking her school gave us. I do this every year but I have never included her. To my surprise she was not interested in buying things for herself and she was very into buying something for that special girl. What was funny was that the 4 year old, I am number one philosophy, came through in another way.

"Mommy, do you think that when she opens her gifts she will say Celia is just the greatest?"

"Mommy, do you think that she will want to meet me to say thank you?"

I am not sure how I answered those questions but I figure that we will take baby steps

On a more pressing topic. Pete's Grandmother needs some prayers. She is in the hosptal and having a very hard time. So if you are inclined to prayers, please say a prayer for her and for Pete's parents as they are certainly going through this with her.

Touching Base

2011-12-03T07:49:00.000-08:00

Updating my blog since going back to work is hard. I am not going to write very much about work, for a few reasons. I am a teacher and honestly there have been some issues with other teachers blogging or going onto facebook about their jobs. I am an Autistic Support teacher, my students have behavioral issues, that is why they are in my classroom. So my job as a teacher is a bit more complicated then the norm. I can not say that I am happy to be back to work, I wish I had made another decision. That said, I also can not say that I am unhappy being back in the classroom. I do enjoy working with my students and interacting with adults. The time away from my little girls is hard on me and I think that I do not want to make working full time permanent.
Audrey has given my Mom a rough time this past week. We think she caught my cold and unfortunately on the first day she was left with my Mom I forgot about her reflux meds. That did not create a happy baby! Audrey is communicating very well now, but it is not with words. She is pointing and saying "Ah ah ah", it is annoying. Yes, I said it, it is very annoying. She hands me the boppy when she wants to nurse and yesterday she tried to hand my Mom the boppy! When someone leaves she waves bye bye and goes to get her own coat and shoes, very cute. Hopefully Audrey will give my Mom an easier time next week!
Celia has enjoyed her first full week of school. On Monday when I picked her up we talked about the next day and she said, "Wait, you mean I am going tomorrow?" I actually thought for a split second that she was upset and was going to say that she missed me and wanted to be home with me. So then I checked my ego as she says "That is so cool, I love school so much, I am so glad I get to go there all day instead of with you". Thanks sweety, love you too. Picking her up this week has been interesting. One day I was yelled at because I picked her up in Splash room. The next day she threw a fit because I would not buy her the same book her friend received at the school's book fair. It was a $20 radio playing barbie book, no way. On Friday, she was actually okay, even when we did go to the book fair and I purchased a book for her classroom and not for her!
I have been surprised that getting out of the house in the morning has been fairly easy. Now when I throw in making sure Audrey has breakfast before we leave, that might be complicated. She may have to eat breakfast at school, which I do not want. But we will see. Celia typically gets up so freaking early that getting out of the house on time seems to be the least of our worries. I am not happy with making lunches again. I detest that. Ugh, I do not know why, but making lunches just kills me. In January I will have 3 to make, ugh. Luckily I could start making mine ahead and just leaving them at work. Our classroom has a full size fridge, go figure.

Happy Birthday Audrey

2011-11-26T06:33:00.000-08:00

I can not believe that my baby is one! We had her party on Thanksgiving day, since everyone was together. I really did not make a big deal about it. We had cake, a banner, and presents. She received a busy box from us, and she still needs to open a pull toy/ ring sort dinosaur, and some clothes. Mom Mom gave her clothes and a new baby doll with accessories. Grandma and Grandpa gave her a Leapfrog my first radio and her Aunt Susie, Uncle Jon, and Cousin gave her a collection of zoo animal and farm animal puzzles.

We went to the doctor yesterday and overall she is doing well. The doctor is not concerned about her speech and expects that she will have a big jump in expressive language in the next few months. But really, it is receptive language that is the key. She follows everything and points to a ton. She has even started bringing me the boppy to indicate that she wants to nurse! We have an allergist appointment at 18 months that I have to make to see if she is still allergic to oats, until then absolutely no oat products. So far it has not been a big deal. We also have to make a GI appointment for 3 months from now if she still shows reflux symptoms. The doctor does not think they will do anything different but reflux past age one is not as typical.

She is walking full time now and rarely crawls. She has also mastered walking with shoes on! But she still dislikes socks! She loves to climb and has recently taken an interest in climbing inside of things. Audrey loves to eat, she really, really loves to eat!! Her favorite foods include peas, kix, dehydrated fruit, applesauce, bread, cheese, bananas, apple chicken sausage, yogurt, and calzones. She also loves Trader Joe's multigrain mix and quinoa. It was interesting to see her eat her birthday cake as she was not super into it! She took one or two bites and then was done and refused a taste the next day! She still chokes when she drinks but that is slowly getting better. Amazingly she chokes less from an open cup. She is very silly and loves to laugh with her sister. Audrey loves to be spun around or swung. She also loves playing with her baby dolls and our phone, the play phones will not do.

She is wearing 6 to 9 months clothes and some 9 to 12 month clothes. She fits perfectly in Old Navy 6 to 12 month clothes right now, okay so some of their pants are a tad long, but overall they fit very well. She weighed in at a little over 19 lbs and around 29 inches. She is hanging in with only 2 teeth right now.

Short clip of her walking

2011-11-17T05:05:00.000-08:00

Audrey is walking full time now, she never really crawls. I thought I would share a short clip. She is picking up speed at times. She needs to learn/accept walking with shoes. That is our main issue right now!

Happy and Grumpy

2011-11-16T11:03:00.000-08:00

I was having fun with Audrey, playing boo with her. In the background Celia was acting a bit grumpy.

Halloween

2011-11-10T08:00:00.000-08:00

So my turtle was not upset about the costume in this picture. Guess what ticked her off?? A clue, they are the things in her hand.

Crying in the above picture because I put socks on her feet. I am a horrible mother.

Her ballerina costume, from the dress up bin and baby legs as leg warmers, patin leathers on her toes (hand me downs with tags on from Janie and Jack!!)

where we did not get Celia's pumpkin, pick your own pumpkins were slim picking this year!

Can you believe this bag is only half full in this picture!!! These were seconds (50% off then), they lasted awhile and were fine. I am not sure why they were seconds but they were awesome for eating, applesauce, and pie!!

Super Audrey

2011-11-09T08:00:00.000-08:00

Doesn't it look like she is flying out of the carseat? She probably was trying to. I thought Celia was a climber, Audrey wins the award. She is constantly trying to sit on the edge of anything and stand up on anything. The other day she pushed a little child's chair up to our kitchen table and was going to climb on top of the table. Goodness Gracious!!

Decorating her Pumpkin

2011-11-08T13:36:00.000-08:00

No Mom I can not style her hair that way everyday, yes it is out of her face, yes she looks great, it took me forever. It was part of her ballet costume.

Pumpkin

2011-11-01T14:28:00.000-07:00

Should I be disturbed that Celia is treating a pumpkin like a baby? Seriously she has kept it in her room on a pillow on her dresser for over a week. If we had not set limitations she would have slept with it. She actually had it go potty on the infamous pink potty. I could not carve it, I am sorry her not it, she painted her.

Washing Machine with update!

2011-10-30T18:35:00.000-07:00

Update! The washing machine is fixed! The installers took the shipping bar out prior to putting it in the house. They are not supposed to do that. So the tub slid to one side and was caught. The GE guy fixed it, it took 1 min. I now really like the machine! It cleans fast and it seems to do a good job. Of course it did not get all of the gunk out of Celia's white shirt that had been sitting in our laundry basket since Friday. I think that she sometimes uses her shirts as plates...

2 months ago our washing machine stopped spinning, rendering it basically useless. I found myself hand washing my cloth diapers that day as I was in the middle of a wash. It took us 3 or 4 days to get someone to take a look at it. We have a home warranty so it was not that expensive to have someone look at it at least. The repairman determined it was the motor and unfortunately it would take 7 to 10 days to get it. 10 days later, many trips back and forth to our amazing neighbor's house to do laundry, our new motor arrived. A few days later I noticed leaking under our utility sink. I blamed it on Pete as he had just cleaned out his fishing cooler in the sink and admitted that he spilled a lot of water. I cleaned up and then later in the day the water returned. So not the sink, it was leaking from the washing machine. So... Another phone call to the warranty company, another service call. The tub was cracked, apparently the new motor was too powerful.
Okay.... So now we move on to getting a new washer, completely covered by the warranty company. The model they offered me was a top loader but very energy efficient and even took HE detergent. I looked at the reviews and the fact that it takes more time to actually wash clothes in these type of machines and was not impressed. Having to spend more time with wash was not appealing. So I found a washing machine that seemed to have good reviews, did not take the extra wash time and had a second rinse feature which is awesome for cloth diapers. The problem, because my warranty company viewed it is a downgrade ( technically it was not as the one they offered was most certainly a more energy efficient model then we had) I had to sign a special letter. So frustrated at this situation, I found a solution to having to find a way to fax or scan the emailed letter back. I took a picture of the signed letter, loaded it to a word document, and sent it off. No problem. The washing machine was ordered and delivered this past Monday.
The washing machine looked fine but unfortunately the outlet we needed to use, the one that was working an hour prior to the installation was no longer working. So we used an extension cord and plugged it in somewhere else. It appeared to work fine. 5 minutes after the installers left I started with my mountain of laundry, only to find that the machine went bananas every time it spun. I looked at the features and laughed at all of the "machine is whisper quiet during this mode". Finally I decided this was not normal and called GE. I was told that the only reason for this would be if the machine was not leveled or if the shipping bar was kept on. So more waiting for a repairman to come and deal with it. By the way GE was not willing to send anyone to look at it, they finally got rid of me by giving me a number to call. It was the home depot... I had to call my warranty company who told me it was the same service company we had been dealing with who installed the machine. So they sent them back, no charge of course, but another day waiting for repairmen between 1 and 5 who always came after 5. That repairman determined that it was not a leveling issue, it was missing bolts that hold the tub in place. We were told not to use it. So I called GE again on Thursday and was told that they could not send anyone out until Monday and that if it was not covered by warranty then there would be a service fee. What?? I sort of lost it at that point. Our warranty company did tell me that they will deal with it if that is the case.

So tomorrow for the umpteenth time I am stuck waiting for a repairman between 1 and 5. It is Halloween and I really do not want to wait past 5! If the guy does not have the bolts with him then he is likely going to see me throw a mini tantrum because I am done having laundry piled all over and waiting for repairmen.

11 Months

2011-10-25T11:48:00.000-07:00

It pains me to know that Audrey is 11 months, 4 weeks from now I will be leaving her during the day. It is only for 6 months and of course it is not like I will be going to Siberia and not seeing her for literally 6 months, I will see her! But still... she is my baby, my last baby. Of course the funny thing is that Audrey will actually get more attention then she has now for the first month. She will have one on one attention from Mom Mom! Right now she sort of takes second to big sister who is a bit more demanding.

In anycase, I do not know how big she is. I know that she eats like she is training for the food olympics but yet she still seems to stay short and narrow! She is sleeping okay at night, well, okay, great for what she put me through for so many months. She gets up around 5 am to nurse and then wakes up for the day between 6 and 6:30. Lately she is having some teething/reflux issues and we are having some wake up times during the night but I have only had to go in once. She is wearing size 6 to 9 month clothes, 9 to 12 month pants are super long on her. Today I needed to change her shirt after one of her champion eating sessions and I grabbed a 3 to 6 month Carters onesie and go figure, it still fits.

She loves baby dolls and she will hug and pat her babies. I pulled out Celia's infamous pink potty that she trained in so that Audrey could get used to it. I let her play with it using the dolly. She had a great time, baby sat in it, then Audrey sat in it, then baby, then it went on Audrey's head... In anycase, fun times. The baby has also been in a little high chair and driven around in the stroller. She is a proud Mommy. Of course the babies are really Celia's pink baby and blue baby, but she is sharing. She is also very, very proud of her walking accomplishment. She gets this big grin on her face, raises her arms high in the air and walks. I am trying to push the arms down as really walking with your arms up high puts a person a bit off balance.

Audrey's speech is still hit or miss. She babbles frequently one day and then I do not hear a peep for a few days. She is signing though, so at least she is communicating. It will all come in time and if not then of course there are people to help her! She is very curious though and investigates everything, so maybe she is just taking it all in.

Is there anything cuter?

Oh wait there is, two of them!!

Look at what she can do

2011-10-21T17:14:00.000-07:00

Fall

2011-10-19T18:43:00.000-07:00

It has been awhile

2011-10-18T18:43:00.000-07:00

I have not wanted to blog in awhile because honestly this past week or almost two has been awful for me. I have been trying to make the decision to return to work or stay home. It took me a lot of very sleepless nights, a lot of picking at my food, and a lot of conversations with anyone that would listen to come up with the decision to return to work until June and then revisit the decision. It is not the perfect solution. I would love to stay home but at the same time I do like my job. I am a special education teacher and unfortunately leaving my job means that I will likely have to go back to school in order to teach again. I do not have both elementary and special education certifications and most school districts are requiring special education teachers to have both. I am grandfathered in and the state has no issues with my certification it is really confusion by districts according to the pennsylvania department of ed. But when someone tells me, oh you can always go back to teaching if you resign. Well.... hmm... perhaps, but maybe not! I thought about the fact that maybe it was ok. Maybe I will never teach again. But then I know that even if I stay home eventually I want to go back to work and the truth is, I can not imagine doing anything else. Financially we are just on the edge, so really it will help us not dip into savings.
I was almost manic over the past two weeks, excited about the prospect of just staying home and taking care of my girls. But then something just didn't sit right with that idea either. I looked into part time options and they really were not panning out. That is something that I need to look in over the course of a few months, not over a few weeks. There are possibilities and believe me, I am going to explore them! But at the same point, I might just decide that I will go back to teaching for 6 months and then just be a Mom without any outside worries for another year. I realize that I am going to miss out on Audrey's daily milestones, that hits me in the heart. She will never be a baby again and I am going to miss a good chunk of it. But someone told me that I am going to be here Mom forever and 6 months of it is simply that. She also said that it is not quantity, it is quality time. That hit me. The truth is that lately I feel like I need something different. I am not sure if that something is teaching, goodness this could be the wrong decision! I am not perfect, I make the wrong choices. But my plan is that I will go to work and when I am home, I am home. If I have to let exercise go to spend time with my girls during these next 6 months, then big huge gulp, I will! I am going to try to take minimal work home with me, maybe limiting it to one time during the week and then just on the weekend. It will be a learning process.
My Mom, my amazing Mom, is going to watch Audrey through the end of December and then Audrey will start at Celia's daycare in January. I am fine with December, Mom Mom will spoil her and she will get all the care she needs. In January she goes into the big girl classroom, with 3 other little buddies. In the past week though Audrey has been playing more with me. She is interacted with me and her sister and taking turns. She wants to play now and that makes me feel a bit better. She is showing me that really she needs some play mates soon and so perhaps being in that situation when she is 13 months will be good for her. Oh and she is finally babbling!! I have been worried about her speech because for the most part Audrey has made little sounds, she is very quiet. But all of a sudden we are getting a ton of babbling. Oh and she is signing more, very hit or miss but today she signed help and then hit her chin. I have been trying to teach her help, Mommy. I think the hitting her chin was her approximation of Mommy!!
So I do feel super guilty about leaving Audrey and the week I go back I am going to miss her so much. I have not mentioned Celia. Yes, I will miss Celia but leaving Celia at school is familiar and she loves it there. She does not want me to go back to school but when I mention that she will get to nap at school again she gets super excited. I have enjoyed my year with Celia but honestly she thrives on the structure of school. She has also been very trying lately and some days, ugh, some days I just think it would be okay to spend the three or four quality hours with her vs the quantity. Sorry Celia, I love you to bits but when you chew me out because I would not wait for you in the hallway for the 20 minutes it took you to get dressed while holding Audrey and a laundry basket, it sort of rubs me the wrong way.... Again, love you to bits, but I am looking for the "4 is my favorite age" stage that everyone talks about.

Celia's Birthday Party

2011-10-05T12:25:00.000-07:00

My baby girl turned four a month ago and we had her party on September 10th. We just had family and our neighbors that are as close to family over for the party. Next year I think I may skip the party and try for a special event of some sort, taking her to an amusement park or something of that nature. I am not sure, Celia may have her own preference at that age!!

For her actual birthday, Labor day, we went to my friend's house for a picnic with her family. She was so incredibly sweet and put candles in the angel food cake for Celia to blow out. Celia thought it was fantastic. Pete and I thought it was great that minutes after we drove out of her driveway, both girls were asleep. Ok, until we got home and Celia was not happy to be woken up!!

I made a birthday banner for her birthday, hopefully one that will be used again and again for a bit.

I made the cake this year again, it was flowers, a girly cake.

Celia enjoyed the party and all of her gifts. She received everything she wanted. Mommy and Daddy got her a scooter as her main gift this year. Mom Mom gave her Blue Berry Muffin, a nail polish kit, and some clothes. Grandma and Grandpa, Paw Paw, her Great Granny, and her Aunt Susie gave her a lot of goodies. She has Repunzel, Ariel, bride ariel and prince eric, and a pretty dress. She also has a sticker book, Mercy Watson books and I really forget now!! Honestly she made out very well this year! She also has a talking piggy bank, a build a bear, a bracelet, and new kitties for her dollhouse. Our neighbors went way overboard for her, and I mean way over board!! My Celia needs to know she is very loved! Oh and if you want to see what my sister gave her, go to the My Red Truck blog. She also received a cute new monogrammed lunch box from my sister and her cousins.

It was a fun time!!

10 Months

2011-09-25T11:56:00.000-07:00

Audrey is 10 months, sob, less then 2 months as a stay at home Mom with my two girls. Ugh... In anycase, this month has shown as that Audrey is a bit of a trouble maker. She gets into a lot, more so then Celia ever did. She gets this little grin on her face before she touches something that she really should not touch. A few times she has started laughing prior to snatching the tv remote off of the coffee table. She really likes to test the boundaries when Pete watches her, he has learned that it does not always work to multitask. Twice now I have caught her playing in the toilet, fun times!!

She really wants to walk and I think if she realized that while standing up she could just take a few steps, then we would be in trouble. She can stand on her own for a bit and she can walk while holding my one hand most of the time. Celia did that for awhile though prior to walking so I am thinking that she will walk right around the time that Celia did. Audrey is slowly sleeping better. Lately she has bypassed her normal wake up at 2:30 for 4 or 4:30, this week I am going to insist upon the 4:30 time and then push her the following week to 5 am. Once she reaches 5 am, I am okay with that. I will have to get up around that time anyhow for work so i might as well get used to it!!

She is wearing primarily 6 to 9 month clothes, but can still fit into some of her 3 to 6 month clothes. I can even put some 6 to 12 month clothes on her. Pants are still big in 6 to 9 month sizes, especially if they are carters 9 month pants (really the same as 6 to 9 months). I have to keep pulling them up during the day, even with her cloth diaper butt.

Audrey loves to eat and she is able to sign more and eat and a few times I think she has tried to approximate the sign for peas, her current favorite food. She recently tried my homemade calzones and really loved them too. The sign for more lately seems to just mean "I want that" because last week she was in the hallway upstairs and signed more to me. I asked her if she was hungry and she looked at me and signed more, then crawled into the bathroom and stood by the tub and signed more and then looked at it. She wanted to take a tubby, she loves her tubby. She loves to cuddle too, she can give you the biggest hugs.

Look close because our biggest surprise this month was a shiney new tooth!!

As I said, she gets into trouble a lot. She loves to make messes!!!

Doing the laundry can be fun

2011-09-22T18:14:00.000-07:00

Audrey loves to help with laundry. She is funny, she will lean way in there now and try to find certain items. Sometimes if she picks the wrong ones she will hand them to me. One day we actually had a good system going, she would search, hand it to me, I would fold it and by the time I had the item folded she would hand me another. It was nice. Then she decided to go searching through the folded clothes and I was not so happy. It involved me saying no, a certain baby also shaking her head and saying no, and then a certain baby being plopped far away from the laundry basket.

Of course right now laundry is a big pain for us as our washing machine is awaiting a brand new motor that should be here in 2 to 10 days. Thank goodness for neighbors, otherwise I would be handwashing those diapers which I basically did on the day that the washer broke. Can you stand the bubble butt in the picture? I love the cloth diaper butt.

Vacation part 2

2011-09-21T17:48:00.000-07:00

The pictures do not match up with the paragraphs, just highlights from the trip!

So... the second week we were watching Irene. My Mom and I suspected that on Friday we would be asked to evacuate. Wednesday evening I took Celia to the pool and I talked to one of the staff members who indicated that we would have plenty of notice and that no one was meeting to discuss it until the next day. Ok, sounds good. Well... my Mom received a text from my sister around midnight tell her that all non locals on Duck (where we were staying) were being evacuated Thursday morning. She woke me up at 12:30, about an hour after I had gone to sleep due to Ms. Audrey and a good book. My Mom decided that we should leave then and not risk getting caught in major evacuation traffic. Okey Dokey... So I rushed off to return the double stroller I rented, rushed back, packed the car, woke the kids, and by 2 am we were on our way back to my Mom's house.

Celia thought this experience was the greatest thing on earth. She listened to her CD player, talked to us, at snacks and slept for all of 20 minutes. Audrey was out after an hour. Honestly they both did not seem that phased by the experience. About an hour from my Mom's house I could not drive anymore and my Mom had to take over. I was so tired. When we got back to the house I decided to have Audrey sleep in her own room and Celia and I would sleep together. For some reason Celia back very angry and ended up sleeping on the floor. I am still trying to figure out how that was a punishment to me. We slept for a little over an hour. Yes.. A little over an hour is all it took for Celia to be energized. Needless to say she had some extra tv time that day.

We hung out at my Mom's house for Irene. Celia and I actually went out to hobby lobby just to check it out the morning Irene came to Richmond. We did lose power that evening but it returned midmorning the next day. Celia thought that was great also. We had a great time visiting with my Mom and Monday morning we headed home. It was a good vacation, but I still want my 2 missed days from the beach. I did not get to say goodbye to the beach. The water was even nice this year!! We will be back next year.

It was nice to see Celia have so much fun this year. She was very confused when we got there because we chose a different house. She told me many times that she liked the other house better, primarily because this house had some freaky clowns hanging in the dining area. But the owners of the house actually sent us 2 cheese cakes. One of those cheesecakes was left behind when we evacuated.

Audrey for some odd reason fell asleep quite a few times on my Mom. She is the only one that Audrey does this too. She never falls asleep on me anymore!

Our Vacation Pics Etc Part 1, a bit late

2011-09-20T18:00:00.000-07:00

It seems like since we came home from vacatio things have just been so busy. Audrey still does not seem to be back on track and I can not say it is from vacation, I just think she is adjusting her sleep pattern. Naps have been somewhat short and we are still, still, still working on getting her to sleep through the night. She is tough. During vacation she woke up as much as 4 or 5 x some nights and at the least 2x. It was not fun, being at the beach was a blast, being sleep deprived was not so great.

It is a good thing she is so cute!

So here are the highlights.
Celia, Audrey and I arrived at my Mom's house in Virginia on a Wednesday and we enjoyed the pool, a short visit to Lewis Ginter gardens, and just fun times with Mom Mom. Pete came down Thursday and left early Saturday morning for the beach. We arrived on Monday. This works out well for us because Pete gets some groceries, makes beds, and gets some time to himself. We go down with no traffic!! So we had a great time the first week. Celia was a little fish in the pool and had some fun playing with a little girl named Madeline at the beach. Audrey loved her peapod tent and had some fun in the sand too. We had amazing weather, not too hot and it never rained that first week. Pete left on Sunday to go home. The next day was the worst weather day, but really it was not bad weather. It was overcast in the morning that is what I mean by bad weather!! That was not a great day though as Celia was not in a good mood, throw a major fit in the car as my Mom and I were trying to figure out why my check engine light was on. I later found out after stressing greatly about it that I just need a new gas gap.

Audrey in her peapod

Celia enjoying the rocking chair on a Mommy and Celia night out. I took her to get icecream then we picked out a treasure, the treasured little turtles are no where to be found now!

Celia have an attitude? Nah...

Pete with the girls!

In anycase the next day we had the earthquake, I believe that was on Tuesday. My Mom was at the beach at the time and the two girls were taking a nap. I was reading on a chair and I felt the house shake a bit but what I really noticed was the deck shifting from side to side. I called my Mom and asked if there had been a very bad gust of wind. She indicated that there had been a slight wind but nothing bad. I then thought that perhaps Celia was jumping from the windows or something insane. I was surprised to find that her room was very quiet, she was actually asleep. A few minutes later, Pete called to tell me that they had an earthquake. Oh... I was a bit glad to hear that as at the moment I was contemplating grabbing the kids and leaving the house because evidently a slight gust of wind can move the deck.

I never post pictures of myself, but here I am in all my glory, in my workout gear. But see how calm the bay was? Isn't that pretty?

Infant see

2011-09-14T08:14:00.000-07:00

I am not sure if I have written about this in the past but today we took advantage of the infantsee program for Audrey.

http://www.infantsee.org/

This program provides a free eye exam to babies under the age of one. It is a full eye exam, they even dilate the pupils. It does not sound like fun but in my opinion it is worth it. I learned about the program years ago when a Mom on baby center who posted about it. Her little girl was diagnosed with a serious eye disease that if not treated could lead to loss of vision. Pete has poor vision and part of his vision issues can be hereditary. So Audrey and Celia need to be followed.

Audrey did very well and actually had fun except for the eye drops part! The doctor was very good with her and had some neat toys. I would suggest taking a baby after 7 or 8 months because they are able to sit up more and pay attention more to the toys used in the exam. I did learn that Audrey's eyes are healthy except that she is nearsighted, so more then likely by the time she goes to school or earlier, she will need glasses. He wants to see her in 2 years. At this time it is not bad enough to correct it but he seemed to think that basically correction would be needed in the next few years. It is something to watch closely as she could need them earlier, he said that the condition in her case will not get better but could stay the same or get worse fast or slowly.

Celia is due for another exam and we are going to get her in soon. We will see how she cooperates with getting the eye drops!

Carrie

The real story

2011-09-07T09:17:00.000-07:00

In Celia's parking lot picture, she looks so sweet and so smiley. Well.... if you can believe it, seconds before the smiley photo she was screaming at me and sobbing. Celia has been not sleeping during her nap time, which is fine with me as long as she stays in her room. But the problem is that Celia needs her nap time. She fell asleep when we got in the car and was not happy to be woken up when we arrived at the birthcenter.

Prior to the picture being taken we had experienced a time out and numerous fits. We were just about to give up when Celia turned to me and said "Momma, I will let you take a picture of me and I will smile". What??? But she did it!

Parking Lot

2011-09-06T04:49:00.000-07:00

2007

2008

2009

2010

2011

4 Years Old

2011-09-05T04:09:00.000-07:00

I took this picture of your little legs, look at those muscles! You are so strong. They help you swim, which you learned how to do this year.

You love going to Longwood Gardens, especially the tree houses and the childrens indoor garden

Yes you are cute, very cute but you have an attitude

A big attitude

You are a bit silly and crazy. In this picture, you pulled a bean bag onto Mom Mom's guest bed to take a nap.

You are so pretty

You are so smart. You use words like hydrated and enthusiastic. You know all your letters and sounds. You can write all your letters and most numbers now. You even draw peoples and they are not always stick figures. You love to read chapter books now, but they do have to have some pictures. Right now, Mercy Watson is your favorite.

You loved the beach this year, you could not get enough of the pool.

Perhaps, this person is your favorite right now. The two of you share a mutual love and right now that is great. I am not expecting it to last, hopefully it will. But for now you announce proudly that "I am Audrey's favorite" and that is probably the truth. The two of you laugh and play together. Of course both of you get a little too rough, one more then the other, but that will work itself out soon, hopefully.

Happy 4th Birthday Baby Girl

2011-09-03T10:46:00.001-07:00

Make a video - it's fun, easy and free!
www.onetruemedia.com

School Days

2011-09-02T08:09:00.000-07:00

School Days have begun for Celia and I am going to miss my little second in command while she is in school (just 3, 1/2 days a week). Audrey and I will have some bonding time, just the two of us and that will be good. You know, like right now when I am watching Hoda and Kathy Lee and she is talking to the tv... Don't judge me, this is the first time I have really been able to watch this in a long time and Audrey is having a blast. I am also exhausted, Audrey has been getting up 2 to 5 times a night for over 3 weeks. I am done.

So onto Celia. Today was her first day in Ms. Anna's classroom. She was a it nervous and we had some rough points this morning as no one slept well in our house. Celia got up at 11 pm, due to Audrey, and one time on her own around 4 am. We had picked out her dress the day before however I guess that we should have also picked out her shoes...

So here was little Miss Celia last year

And here was Celia today

She will turn 4 on Monday and I can not believe it. I am okay with it though. I enjoyed her cute little three year oldness but I am ready for it to be done and to see what 4 brings. Ms. Anna's classroom is a center based preschool classroom and Celia will have lots of fun I am sure. They follow the creative curriculum, I am not a fan of that particular curriculum but I think that the school does not follow it to the T and the activites seem like fun. I do love centers in a classroom though, personally I think that is the way to go until you hit upper elementary school. But that is just my teaching style.

And there once was a vacation day

2011-08-28T17:04:00.000-07:00

In which stress was supposed to be gone but

The car had it's service engine on

And the 4 year old's tantrums had just begun

And the mom and her mom just wanted the day to be done

But all was okay

The service engine was all for none, just a faulty gas cap that could be dealt with later on

And that 4 year old is in bed and has a lot to sleep on.

And be the time you read this we will be home and have wanted this vacation day to stay so that we still had a beach to play...

Mommy check my....

2011-08-27T04:21:00.000-07:00

This is perhaps a more gross post but it has had our family laughing so I thought I would share. My Mom watched both girls one night while were at the beach so that Pete and I could go out to eat. Audrey pooped and Mom dumped it in the toilet but forgot to flush it.

The next morning I was up with Celia and she ran into me, sort of in a panic.

"Mommy, check my butt to see if I pooped"

"What? You don't know if you did?"

I follow her in the bathroom and determine that her butt is okay. She then shrugs and says "Oh, that must just be from Audrey"

I can not imagine what went on in her 3 year old brain when she went to pee and well.... thought she did something else.

Celisms

2011-08-26T17:52:00.000-07:00

When she will do many impressive things like wipe her own tushy = when she is 4

Last day = yesterday

3 min= 3 hours

No, No I just want to do one more = 1, 001 more

Mommy, when I was a little boy= I have yet to figure that one out

Some of her additions to her impressive vocabulary

Well it really was not that exciting when asked about her day.

Interesting, respectfully, awesome, redundant (really, my 3 year old used reduntant), actually, and not a fan of

A favorite of mine. Pete threw her in the pool a little too rough and I got her and put her on the side of the pool. As she is rubbing her eyes she says "So, Daddy, don't you never do that to me again".
Since Audrey is feeding herself now, she spills a lot. She had a bunch of peas gathered in her chair and Celia declared (while giggling) that she "pead herself"

9 Months

2011-08-24T04:29:00.000-07:00

Audrey Marie, you are 9 months today. You are also amazing. For the first 6 to 7 months of your life you fussed and cried 80 to 90% of the time, honestly. I admit, some of it was likely due to reflux that was hard to diagnose. Some of it though was just you. But know you grin so often, we hear lots of giggles, and you are just content. Admittedly, you prefer to still be very close to me and you are alwas eager to be in someone's arms. Latedly it does not matter who that someone is. At your sister's school's family night, you let two teachers carry you around the room. One of them was Celia's teacher from last year, Ms. Donna, who you have always liked. That is amazing to me as you turned your nose up at most people for many, many months. But now we can honestly say that you are a sweety. You love to give hugs and to cuddle. You have warmed up to your Grandparents and to your Mom Mom too.

So what are you up to? You are cruising furniture and crawling everywhere. You can also travel between furniture (coffee table to couch, etc). You can push an walker around the room very slowly. You like to push your leapfrog table around the room. A couple weeks ago you pushed it from the living room to the kitchen. You like to climb and you are able to climb stairs, so the baby gate is up! Last week you were able to get over your aversion of picking food up and putting it in your mouth. For awhile there you thought I was crazy when I tried to put food in your hands to feed yourself. The texture and feel of it just was not for you! You are able to say no with your head, you shake it back and forth and it is very cute.

Clothes and Diapers. Well diapers are the same. You still can wear all of your 3 to 6 month clothes but we are able to put on some 6 to 9 month clothes now, yeah!! I think you weigh around 17 lbs. We will see at your doctors appointment next week.

Things you have done. You have been swimming a few times, gone to the beach, visited a few gardens, and had some fun times with Grandma, Grandpa, and Mom Mom.

As far as food goes, I have been giving you most foods except for those on the high allergen list and of course oats and butternut squash which you are allergic to. You loved applesauce muffins Mom Mom made and you still love green and yellow squash and cantaloupe. You are also enjoying yogurt and love peas. For breakfast you eat the whole milk plain yogurt with some fruit and quinoa.

So I am happy that you are enjoying life a lot more lately but I am sad because 9 months marks only 3 months left for Mommy. I start back to work the week of Thanksgiving and it is breaking my heart little girl.

It is hard to believe

2011-08-21T17:23:00.000-07:00

that this little one

will turn 9 months in a 3 days... I am very excitedto share her accomplishments, especially that she is now picking up some of her own food!!

Sisters

2011-08-19T17:21:00.000-07:00

The dollhouse playing is still a love hate relationship between Audrey and Celia. Honestly it is that way for a lot of people....

Oldie But Goodie

2011-08-18T17:15:00.000-07:00

reposted from January 2010 when Celia was 2. Her personality has become even stronger!!

Yes that is right. This wasn't at home, this was at school and yes she has done this before!! I arrived to pick Celia up today and I saw her in a different shirt, I sort of knew that wasn't a good sign. So Miss. Maryanne- the college girl that takes care of Celia in the afternoon- told me that Celia put her dress in the toilet as she was pooping in the toilet/after she did it. She wasn't sure why, she knew it wasn't an accident. The note from Celia's teacher didn't indicate that it was an accident. Celia's explanation to me later indicated that she didn't like what Miss. Holli said to her. She also evidently did not want to help to clean up so they wouldn't let her eat her yogurt (they use that as a reward sometimes with her, don't worry I pack her plenty for lunch). She evidently didn't care about consequences today. That is my sweet, sweet, little girl. This one..

She isn't always perfect for us, but she sure doesn't act like that at home. I am sorry for her teacher and I do follow through at home when she has days like this. I work with students who all have behavior issues and I am trained to deal with these issues. So my daughter should be perfectly behaved at school, that is my theory. On days like this I think that I should make her a picture schedule for school, get her a reward chart, and track her progress. But... you don't do that with a normal 2 year old do you?

Look at her, she is so cute, so much easier when she didn't think that she could do everything.

So she is mine, all mine. I love her spunk. I love that when I asked her if she made good choices today, her response was "Well, probably, no". But she was still happy as could be. I let her know that we were not watching Handy Manny today because of her behavior- she already knew that. Her response was "Cause I put my dress in the toilet?" Oh and the dress, the dress. My Mom can guess which dress it was. It is a dress that I liked when I picked it out for $1 at a church sale but as Celia wanted to wear it every chance she can, I don't like it as much. So that dress might be hidden for awhile. When we came home, we practiced her cutting. She is doing amazingly at cutting, without very much practice. Her little hand was getting tired by the evening but she made Daddy some book marks. She made Miss. Donna a house and cut on the lines, almost perfectly. She loves it. Amazing. But my little arts and crafts diva will not be using her scissors tomorrow if she has another day like this...

Amazing. But she stuck her dress down the toilet- again.

Splash Fun

2011-08-17T04:23:00.000-07:00

We went to a garden with my Mom the other day that had a very cool splash park for kids. Celia had a blast, Audrey was a bit unsure. At one point my Mom and I thought that the sprinklers were really spreading the water far away from the actual splash park. No it was the rain downpour that was arriving. Buckets came down and we were soaked. The girls were fine because we brought the BOB Duallie and it is water proof and it protects them.

Audrey saying no

2011-08-15T13:20:00.000-07:00

Walking on Water

2011-08-14T04:51:00.000-07:00

It looks like she is walking on in this picture!

Sunscreens

2011-08-13T04:46:00.000-07:00

updated: This was the first year that I did not have little bubbly hives and a red rash head to toe. The winner was the think baby sunscreen and a close second was badger. The beyond coastal, Pete liked it but I did start to get a small version of my rash with it. But for the first year Pete could not call me his little iguana ( what he called me on our honeymoon due to my head to toe rash)

I posted last year about my search for the perfect sunscreen. I am basically allergic to sunscreen, actually the combo of sunscreen and sun. Yes, I am a bowl full of fun. On our honeymoon, Pete called me his little iguana because I had a head to toe rash and I was scaly.

In anycase, this summer I decided to just spend some money and go for the good stuff. I looked at a website dedicated to outlining the least toxic sunscreens. So far, I am impressed. I often get a tingling/burning feeling when I wear sunscreen. This summer that has not happened and so far I have not had the rash. A few spots here and there but nothing compared to what I have experienced in the past. The biggest test will be at the beach.

So here is what I have purchased.

This has a light scent of lavendar, which has been okay. I think next time, I would prefer the unscented. The reviews indicate that it is hard to spread out, but really I have not had major issues with this. At least I can see where I have put it on. The main thing I have learned is that you do have to reapply it after swimming for 30 to 40 min. Honestly though, I think that we are supposed to do that with other sunscreens. This is not the greatest for the face as if it gets in your eyes, it burns. I ordered all of my sunscreen on amazon but I did find out that our local Wegmans carries this.

I purchased his for Audrey but I put it on my face and on Celia's face. I really, really love this sunscreen but it is the most expensive. The bonus is that it is a livestrong product so some of the proceeds go to the charity. It is a very low toxin sunscreen that goes on very smoothly and it smells great. Next year, I might consider just getting this our trying out their adult sunscreens. As Audrey does not spend a huge amount of time in the water, I have not been able to see how water resistant it is. It says it is very water resistant.

This is what I purchased, hoping that Pete would use it. It is the cheapest and I like it. I can not see any problems with it, I believe that it did score a 2 instead of a 1 on the low toxin level. But I like the smell and it spreads very well. Unfortunately, Pete went out and bought himself spray on sunscreen. I know it is full of toxins, etc. But he will not get a sun burn, Pete tends to cover every single little inch of his body with sunscreen, he sometimes does a second coat. But maybe I can convince him to try this out a few times.

Back to School

2011-08-11T04:31:00.000-07:00

I can not believe that my niece is going to start 3rd grade today! Have a great day Katie!

The above photo is the same look I would get from my sister when I was little and I did something that was totally obnoxious. Honestly, the same facial expression.

Mornings at our House

2011-08-09T04:31:00.000-07:00

We are a typical family, we get up, have breakfast, put on our goggles...

The Rain Stomper

2011-08-07T05:50:00.000-07:00

Celia and I like the book The Rain Stomper. I read it to her for the first time last summer and we read it again earlier this summer. We do not own it, we get it from the Library. I love the library, honestly. I am not into accumulating clutter and that includes books. So the library is perfect. Celia often gets excited over her new books too, so it works out perfectly.

In anycase, the other day it was raining out. It was warm and the rain was coming down very softly and Celia wanted to go out. So I decided, why not. She looked at me like I was crazy. I told her, that she needed to take a shower anyway, so she might as well get wet and then we will just clean her up in the shower. Well I guess she could not let herself go all crazy. I was going to send her out in her clothes and barefeet or flip flops. Nope. She had other ideas. We had to get on the rain boots and the rain coat. I was amazed that her size 24 month rain coat still fit, actualy I think it is getting snug around the arm pits. That $2 consignment sale raincoat has held up well. The pockets are starting to tear so I am not sure it was last for Audrey. But she had a blast. Audrey and I did venture out with her, underneath an umbrella. Normally I would have joined Celia but I did not think Audrey would appreciate it.

I even let her play in the parking lot a bit because that is where the best puddles were! So maybe we will get another chance this summer to be a rain stomper.

Celia's vacation bible school show

2011-08-06T05:22:00.001-07:00

Photo and video editing at www.OneTrueMedia.com

Haircuts at our House

2011-08-01T18:22:00.000-07:00

I think that Audrey is already aware of the fun of getting a pretend haircut from her sister, can you see her enthusiasm??

Yep, it involves the hammer first

Ha ha, but this time Audrey kept taking it!

Trying to escape

Now the scissors/ pliers

Then the saw (Dusty is his name)

Here is the fabulous hair dresser, hmm, looks like she is in need of some help.

Bring out the hammer, nails, or whatever we have in the toolbox

Sportsmanship

2011-07-31T18:06:00.000-07:00

My father really believed in the true spirit of sportsmanship. He was president of our swim league for awhile and he really wanted everyone to work together as a team and have fun. Winning something was great, but it was not everything. I have tried to live in that philosophy but really it is hard. I am slightly competitive, more so then when I was younger, so it is hard.

I spent most of my childhood involved in swimming, literally most of my life surrounded the sport. By the time I was in middle school I was involved in swimming year round, I think I had about a 6 week break time in the Spring and that was it. I can not say that I always enjoyed it but in order to keep up, really you had to do it all year. I loved it 90% of the time, but I think that I sometimes wished that it was a sport that had a beginning and end to the season. Most people do not know that about swimming, if you are serious about it, it is year round. I spent my summer swimming for Wedgewood swim team, during the school year I swam for our local YMCA and sometimes took a longcourse clinic with them in the summer. Of course during highschool I did both the YMCA and highschool swimming, fun times for my Mom when I did not have my license yet!! I started swimming on the summer team when I was 4, no I was not this incredible swimmer at age 4, I could make it to the other end. At that time, the team was very small (now not so much) and they needed bodies basically. I stopped swimming for them when I was 18, a lot of years! A lot of memories.

Yesterday I was asked to come back to help present an award that has been given in my Dad's name for the past 22 years. It is a sportsmanship award, this year a sweet 10 year old girl won. I was not sure what I would feel when I came back to the pool. I am not sure when the last time was that I was at the pool honestly, it has likely been 15 years. This was during their end of the season swim championships. Funny thing, I always hated championships. I do not know if my Mom knows that but, I really hated it! It was just very stressful for me, I liked hanging out with my friends and the cheering but I honestly relaxed on some of the years that I did not qualify for finals. But when I was there last night, I really wanted to get back into that water. When you swim for that many years, you go through chlorine withdrawal when you stop. Your body simply craves to be streaming through that water. I miss it I guess. I am contemplating whether I should introduce Celia to a summer of swim team and see what she thinks, but I am not sure if I am willing to give up my summer to the sport yet!

Here is the little girl that won, I normally do not post pictures of other children, however really, I do not think there is any harm with the amount of traffic that this blog gets!

I love this photo because it shows over her pigtails, she actually let me put her hair up!! Miss. Celia was not feeling great yesterday as she had a bad case of swimmers ear.

Thank you to my new follower

2011-07-29T10:57:00.000-07:00

So when I started this blog, I did it to keep track of memories and share things with friends and families. It was never my intention to make it popular but I thought that if I gathered a few readers then that would be cool. I noticed one day that I had followers and they were primarily not my friend's and family, they read the blog though! I was psyched, I had 11 followers, wow! Then one day for no apparent reason, I had 10 followers. I checked my recent posts and could not find anything offensive, I wondered what on earth I had done wrong to lose my follower. Then recently I noticed that I was up to 11 again. Seriously, thank you to my new follower for giving me that invisible fist pump.

For those of you unaware, you can follow a blog on blogger. I am ashamed to say that I do not know all the ins and outs of following blogs. I should though, perhaps that is a goal!

swimming in the deep end

2011-07-29T05:47:00.001-07:00

This is Celia jumping in and swimming on her back in the deep end. When she turns around she told me that her instructor did not turn her around, she just told her to. I am not sure, but she has turned around by herself in the shallow end. Keep in mind that while videoing I am batting off Audrey who believes that the camera is hers.

Photo and video editing at www.OneTrueMedia.com

8 Months

2011-07-26T11:49:00.000-07:00

I can not believe that you are 8 months old baby girl! The end of this month has brought some promise. You have really been fun this last week + and you are finally less fussy!! You have your moments but your personality is coming through now. I think that now that you can crawl and pull yourself up and just about cruise, that you are happier. You know longer have to wait on us to second guess what you might want, you just get it. You most certainly have a sense of humor and you are a sweety when you want to be. Sometimes when you are playing, you come over just for a little cuddle. When I am sitting near you and you are standing up, you have to check in with Mommy every once in awhile and give me a hug. Of course when you do not get your way, watch out, really watch out.

Food: Wow, the past 2 weeks you have been doing awesome with your food. Once I decided to not push puree, you have taken off with some new foods. You like green and yellow squash, cantaloupe, mango, quinoa, watermelon, prunes (helped a little issue), yams, and now peaches. I may be forgetting something. Oh and you will eat carrot puree. The fact that you have had no more vomiting with solids may mean that you are actually allergic to oatmeal and butternut squash, go figure. You are drinking out of a straw cup and doing very well with it.

Clothes: I am tired of writing 3 to 6 months. Yes, 3 to 6 month clothes and they fit well. I can put you in 6 to 9 months, some you are swimming in and some fit okay. I seem to be putting you just in a t shirt and your cute little diapers often!

You are sleeping alright now, getting up at least 1 x a night but no more then 3 times. I am trying to get you down to just 1 x a night consistently but that might take awhile. I have stressed to you that the dairy bar is closed until 2 am, and if you take advantage of those services, then you can not revisit for at least 3 hours! You seem to be getting the message a bit. You are taking 2 naps a day. The morning nap happens usually when you start to get tired, we unfortunately are often out doing things then so you nap in the car or in the ergo. In the afternoon, you nap at the same time as your sister. That is awesome!! Sometimes you do end up taking 3 naps, but one is very short.

Right now you really love water play. The other day you found water on the openned dishwasher and went to town. I stopped things when you climbed into the dishwasher!! You love to play with Celia's dolls. You also still love the handy manny tools, especially Philleppe. You love my keys and cell phone. I can not say that you find your toys very interesting, except for the leap frog table. You really do love interacting with people too and you often search for a reaction.

So Audrey, keep it up baby. We are having such a good time with happy Audrey.

Hot Audrey

2011-07-23T05:58:00.000-07:00

Okay, I gave her plenty of water and even put some water on her but this is an example of how very hot the pool area is...

Swimming

2011-07-23T05:39:00.000-07:00

Celia started a new swimming program on Monday and Audrey and I just about passed out. I grew up as a competitive swimmer and I know how hot it typically is on the stands in an indoor swimming pool, it was never that hot. It was literally over 100 degrees. Audrey and I had sweat pouring down with in 5 minutes, no kidding. Celia was in her swim suit and seemed to be doing okay. The person in charge of the program decided to talk for almost 30 minutes. Honestly. 100s of kids were sitting with their parents in the stands and he thinks that talking for 30 minutes in that heat is ok. I barely survived it, honestly. I was contemplating taking Celia outside and coming back the next day when he would likely have less to say. There was a woman with a baby sitting near me and the baby's face was beat red and he was screaming.

Not to mention I was only half paying attention to the guy in charge who as a reminder decided to talk for 30 minutes in 100 or more degrees. When the talk was over I had to ask all these questions to the lady sitting next to me who had no idea either because she was also pouring sweat and could not pay attention.

In anycase, Celia was eventually taken by her swim instructor and had a blast the first day. The first day evidently was just getting to know the kids and testing things out. I thought everything was great, she had fun and wanted to go back the next day. Well... the next day after practice Celia greeted me with "Why did you sign me up for this, I told my teacher that I wished that you had not signed me up". Oh.. They evidently let her go when she was floating on her back. So the next day, same story, came in to the pool, a bit more hot and we are pouring sweat in 2 min. But today, my child cried throughout the whole lesson, so did every other kid in her group. But.... Celia floated on her back, moved her arms (like little birdy wings according to her) by herself. Her teacher let her go and she made it across the width of the pool. In 3 days of lessons, Celia was cautiously water safe. At least safe enough to wait for someone to get to her.

On Day 4 she started off the lesson crying but stopped once she got to the pool. This time she jumped into the pool, flipped on her back and floated with moving her arms. I was glad that Celia jumped in by herself because these lessons are very hard core. If the child will not jump in by themselves, they drop them in the water. I am not kidding. Oh and randomly while the instructors are having the kids float on their backs, or teaching them things they will pick them up and drop them in the water. My guess is that this is to see if they can get themselves in a safe position. I am so very glad that I did not actually see Celia's instructor do that to her until day 5. I know it happened on day 2, but I personally did not see it. It is hard to see Celia's group from the stands.

I will post pictures/videos soon. Friday Pete has a half day so I will not have Audrey who pitches a fit because she wants, wants, wants the camera. So I might be able to get some better pictures.

So Celia may need therapy after these swimming lessons, but after 5 days of lessons, if Celia falls in a pool, she is water safe. There is a lot to be said of that.

Carrie

Capturing her

2011-07-21T05:00:00.000-07:00

She has less then 2 months of being three left.

I have had fun with that age, but I am ready to move on.

Three has been filled with silliness that goes into out of control hyper at times.

Three is also stubbornness, pouting, crying, and back talk on occassion.

But three is also excitement and curiosity.

She is easily motivated and loves Clifford, Arthur, and Curious George.

It is the 4 year old coming out that I fear likes Word Girl and Jake and the Neverland Pirates.

But have no fear, she only gets 15 to 20 min. of tv time so we never have to suffer that long.

It is also the 4 year old I think that is coming out that tears up during sad parts in stories, tv shows or movies. It is adorable but hard on her.

So less then 2 months left to be 3 my dear. We have vacation bible school, a visit with Mom Mom at the beach, two weeks at the beach, and the start of another school year. Time will fly. I sure hope 4 is not as trying but I really hope it is just as fun. Every age has been more fun, so I know it will!

The Day

2011-07-19T12:17:00.000-07:00

It is the day that always comes around every year, a day that puts a little gray in my family's lives.

I have written about it here and here and here

In the first posting, check out the picture of my Dad because even though Audrey basically has my husband's face in miniature, I have seen that same expression or something in her.

For some reason I can not think of very much to say this year. I still think a great deal about what life would be if Dad was still around. I know he would very much enjoy his grandchildren and they would have a blast in him.

Recently I am seeing some promise of an artistic talent in Celia and most certainly my niece Katie has some talent. That is from my Dad. My sister and I both inherited that talent, my sister uses it more then me right now! Audrey I think is going to have a sense of humor, which Dad was all about. I know Audrey is fussy almost 24/7 but in between that she really wants to smile and laugh, Celia really makes her laugh.

I have thought of my Dad a lot lately because Celia has been interested in death, since her school talked about Jesus's death at Easter. She has had questions and they have lead to my Dad. I answer the questions as honestly as I can but it is hard because I do not want to put unneeded fear in her little mind but at the same point I want to be honest with her. The other day she wanted to know why he died and I told her that his heart stopped and I explained that at a certain time in his life he did not eat very well and that clogged up his heart. That is the best I could explain it to a 3 year old. My Dad's cardiac arrest could also have been due to genetic factors but the truth is that his diet was full of fat for many years. I wanted to tell her something that was tangible really so that I could then tell her that Mommy and Daddy were doing their best to stay healthy so that this would not happen to them. She knows about her Pop Pop now though, not just his death, but how he was as a father. She will know more as she grows older.

And so Daddy, I leave you with your Grandkids

This last photo is one of those expressions that reminds me of that baby picture of my Dad, but really, my husband can never, ever deny that he is related to Audrey (not that he would want to, no matter how much she cries)

Timing

2011-07-19T11:13:00.000-07:00

Yesterday I told my Mother in law that my Mom thought that Audrey might be as smart or smarter then Celia

Audrey picked this moment to crawl into the closed cabinet door underneath our kitchen sink, she banged her head

That would not be entirely bad if she had not repeated this several times until we stopped her.

Timing is everything...

What is she thinking?

2011-07-11T04:34:00.000-07:00

We were so close

2011-07-10T05:10:00.000-07:00

A few weeks ago I was at our friend's beach house. We were hanging out at the pool and talking about various things. Suddenly her 9 year old daughter and Celia's best buddy came up to us and said "Do you know Celia wants to be a pirate when she grows up?" I just shrugged and sadly admitted that I did indeed.

We talked about various things awhile later, after finding out that at one point that daughter wanted to be a vet by day and a part time balloon animal clown at night. She still wants to be a vet. We started talking about school and the fact that my friend has told her daughter that if she wants to be a vet and get into a good college then she really needs to study and learn as much as she can. At 9, she is more then willing to do that.

I was quick to respond that Celia is hit or miss with doing "school work" but that I really have nothing to be worried about, since she is going to be a pirate. In fact it is a big relief because there is no cost to educating a pirate really.

We were so close to that financial freedom until today.... Celia and I were talking about the last space shuttle launch and I had to get into great detail about some things and we talked about scientists. Well my pirate now wants to be a Scientist. With her math genetics, she needs to get going on studying now!

Released from the Army, on to Civilian Crawling

2011-07-08T17:36:00.001-07:00

I will have to say that the army crawling seemed faster but I am sure that once she practices more then she will be faster. The motivation has to be very high, as you can see by the ipad as the goal. She has really been able to do this for awhile, just really has not been into it!

Make video montages at www.OneTrueMedia.com

Happy Birthday Daddy and Cole

2011-07-08T17:25:00.000-07:00

Happy ~~55 th~~ 35th Birthday Daddy

Happy FIRST Birthday Baby Cole!!

Pete turned 35 today and tomorrow our nephew, Pete's Sister's little boy turns one. He is a sweety and hopefully Audrey and Cole will be best buds soon as they are only 4 1/2 months apart. It is hard to see here but Audrey is grinning ear to ear at Cole. He is not quite sure what to make of her.

So both of you enjoy your days, even though Pete does not want to share his birthday. I suppose he is entitled to it though, you only have a birthday once a year and you shouldn't have to share it! We will be spending the weekend apart as he is going to the party 5 hours away and the girls and I are trying to entertain ourselves here.

Susie- celebrate and eat some pizza, icecream, hunk of cheese, butter, etc.

Lesson gone bad

2011-07-07T11:43:00.000-07:00

My niece was trying to play school with my 3 year old

Katie: so do you know what forgive means?
Celia: yes
Katie: oh, you do not, forgiveness is like if you kill your mother, you ask god for forgiveness and he says ok you are forgiven

Me thinking WTF? Me saying: no, no, he would not!

Katie: well my teacher last year said that
Celia: okay Katie

Vickie, where on earth are your kids going to Sunday school and when you are asleep lock your bedroom door.

Flower Power

2011-07-06T04:00:00.000-07:00

Can you handle the cuteness...

The Good Neighbor Day Fair

2011-07-05T04:00:00.000-07:00

The older one wanted to go on the boats, not too fast, not too high, perfect for her. She has a bit of fear in her, somewhat like her mother (my sister).

The younger one really wanted to go on things that were fast and high, the ones that she

is too short for, but this satisified her. It was too fast and too high for the older one.

Ahh... but they both wanted the bikes

If you zoom in, you can see the expression on the younger one, it says you have passed that time. It says I am beyond tired and if you look at me the wrong way I most certainly am going to explode. She napped well.

Yes, Vickie, Katie has one too

Ahh.. and the itty bitty one loved the swings. She did not appreciate the humidity so much, but she loved the swing.

Fourth of July evening

2011-07-04T16:23:00.000-07:00

What he was doing

What they were doing

What she was doing

What was going on

Productivity

2011-07-02T09:57:00.000-07:00

PreAudrey, summers were always filled with various projects. I always had productive summers, something major was accomplished. Last summer I organized the whole house, literally sorted through all the closets and drawers. Funny, you would never know that now! I painted Celias room and my neighbor helped me (okay, I basically watched) put a chair rail up.

I thought that this summer, or prior to it that I would have been able to get other projects done. I atleast wanted to finish Celia's room- put some shelves up,pictures, etc. That has not happened. I am lucky to get time to wipe a counter top down or dust for 5 seconds some days. Audrey is 24/7 and when she isn't, I am so tired that I need to rest. Don't get me wrong, the things that need to get done get done, but beyond that it does not happen. I have actually begun to love my cloth diaper laundry, for the simple fact that I feel like I accomplished something! With regular laundry, sometimes I do not get to the folding part until the last moment it seems, it gets done in the same day, but it just becomes such a chore. Sometimes that laundry is put away with a screaming baby hanging out beside me. But my diapers, well, they require less time and they go in one drawer, much less complicated... I am crazy.

But I have been finding that I am changing a bit. Audrey likes to go out, she has made that very clear. So if I plan trips to places each day, I save my sanity, Audrey is happy, and Celia has fun. The main thing that I enjoy is spending time with my girls and not having to worry about what needs to be done around the house. For now, my house is just going to have to be. Soon I will be able to focus on it more, but it isn't worth the stress. Of course, when it does get clean I feel this wave of relief wash over me. My husband does not understand. Honestly. Is it a guy thing?? He seems to be blind to messes or dirt. But yesterday he did clean the bathrooms for me and oh my goodness, that was awesome. If he could do that on a regular basis, that would eliminate so much stress.

So as far as productivity goes, right now it is making the two girls happy and surviving. Audrey is throwing in longer naps here and there so things might be looking up. The poor girl now has some more GI issues (a constipation related issue) related to solids and her reflux meds, so we are off them for a few days and then will start back with lots of water to go with the solids. She has it rough.

Oh a bright note my niece is here for the week and Celia is very much enjoying the company and I am enjoying someone else to entertain her! We have some fun places to take Katie while she is here.

Carrie

Celia

2011-06-30T06:46:00.001-07:00

Miss Celia

2011-06-28T16:00:00.000-07:00

Celia with her teachers, Miss Donna and Miss Lauren on her last day in the 2/3 room. I cropped out the other little girl in the picture, that is what the white spot is from! Miss Donna told us at the beginning of the school year that we would not have the same kids at the end of the year. Basically it was said that we were leaving our toddlers and picking up preschoolers. Ugh, makes me so sad but so proud.

Celia has had an eventful school year. She became a big sister and boy was that a transition, but so far she has handled it like a champion. She also had to adjust to going to school less days and for less time, which she only had some slight issues with. Change is hard for everyone, but really hard when you are 3. Celia took soccer shots this year and did very well, however I do not know if she was really blown away by the activity!

She learned a great deal about religion this year. Pastor Cory taught her the Easter story and Celia told us about it many times and asked and it sparked her interest in death which freaked her Daddy out a bit. She also learned some awesome songs that I have heard 5,006 times. She colored a ton in school and made lots of awesome crafts. She certainly felt loved in her classroom, and it she got her share of hugs from Miss. Donna and Office Donna.

When I first dropped my peanut off at daycare when she was 1, I hated it. My plan was to put her in school until the end of the school year and then stay home. We would save money, I would get pregnant again, and then stay home. I knew I would not like this situation. Well.... things really changed. I honestly did not worry about Celia while I was at work. She absolutely fell in love with her classroom, her teacher, and her friends. School really matched Celia's personality. This school genuinely cares for the babies and big kids. It has become part of our extended family. It is a big part of the reason why Celia is so very bright.

So this school year, Celia also learned to write. She can basically write anything now and often asks "Mommy, how do you write _________ or ________" I can just tell her the letters and she will write them. She is starting to get more and more interested with spelling words and i hope that sparks a desire to learn how to read more words. She was doing great with her reading, she can read the at and an family, but is not as into it right now. I am not going to push her. She is into numbers now and that is great because she needs work in that area. But she is able to match numbers up to 8 with quantities and can add quantities. She knows before, after, few, and less too. She loves having pretend homework. She is also getting to be a very good little artist.

She might not have loved soccer but she really does love to swim. She has told me that she wished Ms. Hayley her swim teacher was her mother so that she could swim all day. I did not take that to heart at all, I knew what she meant. Celia also told me that she is smart, that even when she isn't smart, she is still smart. Funny thing, I also knew what she meant!! She is going to have intensive swim lessons at the end of July, every day at 4:30 for 2 weeks. I decided that I really wanted to wear her out at the end of the day. They are an hour long. So hopefully Celia will be able to swim more by the time we go to the beach the last two weeks in August.

She really does still look my little baby when she is asleep. Poor kid, she really does still need her naps!

This was on the day of her school show. I tried to get pictures of teh two of them, neither one was cooperating very well!!

7 months

2011-06-27T18:11:00.000-07:00

So Audrey is 7 months. It has been a rough month. I almost feel like we are back to her personality a few months ago. The good news is that she is sleeping better at night, naps are hit or miss. But she still cries a lot and this past month it has escalated. We just upped her reflux meds and there have been a few better days. Shortly after her 6 month appointment she had a very bad reaction to oatmeal and so we have been slow to introduce solids. She is doing okay with solids, eats them sometimes and won't have anything to do with them on other days. She does like to drink water out of an open cup though!

She will not have a check up until she is 9 months old, although I am debating on taking her in sooner if she doesn't change her attitude! I do think that she just does not appreciate us because if we take her anywhere she turns on the charm and is as happy as can be- as long as I am around. At home it often does not matter if I am around, I will sit right beside her and entertain her and sometimes it still is not enough. Actually she can go from screaming to giggling in a second. Tonight she was screaming so much that Pete kept asking if she was in pain. I took off her diaper, turned on Elmo, gave her Philleppe and she was all smiles. Honestly.

So what is she up to? Well since we upped the reflux meds she is back to working on crawling more. We went to the beach last week and she did very well army crawling on their carpet. We have hardwood laminate on our main floor so perhaps that is more trick. She can definately army crawl but she often will not tolerate being put down so therefore she does not always get to practice!! She loves to stand and can stand while holding onto something. I never walk away, but really she is very steady as long as she remembers that she should not let go! She has pulled herself up to standing many times, but somedays I think her little body is just too tired as she gets half way and just drops!!

She loves to have someone clap for her. Her favorite toys include Philleppe the Handy Manny Screw driver, real keys, and the leapfrog table- oh and Elmo. We also discovered that she loves puzzle pieces! She also really enjoys playing in water and loved floating around in the baby pool when we were at the beach.

Clothes and diapers: Nothing really has changed here. 3 to 6 month clothing is fitting her very well with no real signs of growing out of it. But I do sometimes put some 6 to 9 month/6 to 12 month stuff on her. It is big, but with the fluffy butt, it works. She is slimming out in the tummy a bit so all of her diapers still fit well, and I am evening having to tighten the waist!

So Miss. Audrey, here's to a hopefully, calmer next month!!!

Look what I can do

2011-06-18T06:00:00.000-07:00

So do you know what I have been doing lately?

Yep, I can pull my self up! It is hardwork but I love it.

And folks, here is my fan club. They cheer for me everyday.

Beauty

2011-06-17T17:18:00.000-07:00

Apology to my daughters

2011-06-16T08:07:00.000-07:00

Dear Celia,

I am so sorry about the other day. I walked down the stairs and did not look to see if you were following or even going to go down the stairs. I should always do that because I know that you have to be first so that you can win. I am sorry that I caused an off and on 20 minute rant about how rude that was and that you should always win.

Oh and I will also see about moving the load bearing wall near my bedroom so that you do not accidentally walk into it again and scrape your hand. That was totally Mommy and Daddy's fault for buying this house.

Love you always,
Mommy

Dear Audrey,

I apologize for thinking that the big hunk of whatever should have been wiped from below your nose. I thought that perhaps you wanted it off of your face. I was wrong. I realize that in the future it is not needed to wipe anything off of your face and if I do I risk a tantrum and telling off for at least 5 minutes.

I also apologize for not being available at all times to have you hold my hands and stand. It is totally my fault for wanting to do the selfish things like pee or eat.

Love Mommy

More laughter

2011-06-15T12:14:00.000-07:00

Audrey Pics

2011-06-08T07:03:00.000-07:00

Okay, so the first picture is the exact expression that Pete makes when he is awake. He does not appreciate being awake. My poor sweety.

My sister made this outfit for Celia and I just loved it when she was a baby. I wanted to get it on Audrey even though it is a bit big for her now. I did not think that if I waited until the weather got cooler again that it would fit her. Luckily last Friday was a cooler day and the outfit survived without getting anything on it!

She is just cute here..

Do you see what is in her hand? It is Philleppe from Handy Manny. She loves that play screw driver. Maybe she will actually be Mommy's girl! For those that don't know, I am not a lipstick and high heels girl, I am a power drill, fix what I can, tennis shoes and no make up kind of girl. Celia on the other hand.... Well somehow she knows what lipstick, perfume, and nail polish is. She is a girly girl... with a bit of an edge though. Perhaps she needs to spend sometime with her Aunt Vickie, she knows about the girly girl stuff.

Oh and here is Celia wearing the same overalls. They really don't look alike! But I think they have the same eyes and some of the same expressions. Celias face is definately more round. Oh and the ears are the same, I think they both have my ears...

Australia craigslist

2011-06-04T11:21:00.000-07:00

I guess they do things differently there

Take a look here

Girls with Different Moods

2011-06-01T12:29:00.000-07:00

My Yogi

2011-05-26T04:17:00.000-07:00

Isn't that the perfect tree pose?

6 months

2011-05-25T14:00:00.000-07:00

Stats:
weight 15.4 lbs, 25 to 30%
height 25.5 inches 25 to 30%
head big

Well the first thing you can see is that I can sit up all by myself and I am pretty stable. I also have plumped up the body a bit. See my squishable legs. I am still petite but definately not skinny. I still love music just as much and I crack up for my big sis all the time. I am grabbing things more and tranferring them between hands. I am so close to crawling but since I don't practice that often, Mommy thinks it will be a few weekd. I tried food and my tummy did not appreciate it so we will give it a try again soon. I am sleeping in my crib every night now and I get up anywhere between 2 and 100 x a night ( i think Mom exaggerates on the 100).

Clothes and Diapers: I am in 3 to 6 month clothing and that fits me well. Mommy has said I am going to wear whatever we have in the closet even if it is big for the summer. I am wearing my best bottom diapers the most and have outgrown some small pocket diapers and covers. Newborn prefolds trifolded still work well.

I think my favorite toys right now are keys and paper. I also love elmo and the leapfrog learning table. I look longingly at my swing but Mommy does not let me in there very often. You try to turn over in there one too many times, almost doing a flip and she gets a little nervous, sheese. I am hanging out in the Ergo and Moby now and loving them. I like to face in the most and not out in the Moby mom has found because if I get overstimulated I like to hide my face. I am a bit shy too.

Oh and aren't I unbelievably cute???

Swim Class

2011-05-24T17:36:00.000-07:00

Celia was over the top excited for her swim class. I thought that would allow us to get out of the house on time, wrong. Celia, get on your flip flops. Okay Mommy, so we can go. Yes, Celia. I go back to changing Audrey's diaper and look up at Celia who is hanging out in her toy area withou the flip flops. Celia, you need to get your flip flops on. Oh, you mean now. I give her "that" look and she goes to get on her flip flops. I think we are good. I tell her that I am going to put Audrey in her carseat and to come out when she has them on. Audrey is all belted in, but where is Celia? We wait, and wait, and wait. I go to check, she is playing. Celia, we are late, come on. Oh, it's time!! She gets all excited. Yes, get in the car!!! Drive at granny speed due to the delivery truck in front of us that basically goes all the way to the fitness center. Ugh.. We get there 5 min. late and Celia announces that she definately has to use the bathroom. Okay... do that, as she has to notice and talk about everything we are seeing. It was her first time in a ladies locker room, yes imagine those questions.

Then we finally get to the lesson. She does awesome except she does not stop talking. She is one of two kids in the lesson, not bad for $10 a lesson!! The instructor seemed good, I guess I am an okay judge as I was a competitive swimmer for many years. She even had them go under water and Celia was great.

Now my overtired 3 yearold had a complete meltdown as we left the center. She did not want to leave. She screamed for about 5 min of the ride home and then just fell asleep, basically mid scream. She awoke when I got home and did not nap, we did have quiet time though. She did act like an overtired hyper nut the rest of the evening.

Seriously, if someone dove in that thing they really should not be surprised by an injury!

Swimming

2011-05-24T04:44:00.000-07:00

Celia has her first swim lessons today. I found a very good deal at a place that has a very tiny pool but very good ratings. I knew she was excited but I did not know how excited until she woke me up at 11 pm last night. No.. she did not wake me up asking me when she was going, it was a request for water. So I got up and got her water. The whole time, half awake I am trying to figure what it is that she does not look right on her. Then it hit me.

Me: Celia, what are you wearing
Celia: My swimsuit
Me: Why?
Celia: So I will be already for swimming
Me: Oh. Well it is not for a long time, let's change back into your pjs
Celia: Ooookay (if she had said no I would have gone with that option too)

I will let you know how the lesson goes!!

Playing Dolls

2011-05-23T04:44:00.000-07:00

Celia gets me or Pete or sometimes Audrey to play dolls with her at least 1x a day, okay I get the pleasure now about 10x.

No Mom, her hair isn't all in her face, we just were overdue for a hair wash! Okay, maybe it is slightly getting in her face again but we have not made it to the hair dresser yet. If she would let me stick some clippys in that hair for more then 5 min. then we would not have this issue.

Happy Girl

2011-05-22T06:44:00.001-07:00

What? Your 6 month old didn't watch the horse race?

Audrey's new things

2011-05-21T04:28:00.000-07:00

I think this is sort of her mad face, she started doing it last week and it was related to when she was mad at times. However she does it at other times and breathes heavily while doing it.

For those of you that know the layout of my house, you will really understand this. We came home from the library on Thursday and I set Audrey down near our coffee table, on the side closest to the front door. I started making lunch for Celia and turned around to find Audrey in the pantry area right near the kitchen. She rolled to get there, she rolls on our hard floor! She doesn't seem to mind it, but I would think it hurts. So now the basement door is closed since she really can roll to get to anywhere. She is close to crawling but honestly she doesn't work on it a huge amount because she often cries if she is put down! She is getting better though, a few days ago she actualy played with her toys for 20 to 30 min, while I was cleaning and not in the room the whole time!

She is doing a very good job sitting up. She does topple over sometimes, so I just have to protect the area. See Elmo in the background, besides Celia, he is her best buddy. She smiles at him and flirts with him in the morning. Honestly, she adores him.

Sleep.... well we have gone downhill again in that area. Ugh... I could blame it on a decrease in reflux meds, I wish it was that simple however this decline started prior to the decrease and she shows no signs of pain, she wants to eat. It is not as bad as a month ago, nowhere near. But some nights she is up every 2 hrs. She could be going through a growth spurt as she is so hungry at some points. I went in there one time and I swore her little tummy growled, it was making some kind of noise. So perhaps she is truely hungry!! She also does not necessarily nurse herself to sleep. It will get better!! Food was a no go. We tried it for a week and she was ultra, ultra fussy. We even tried avocado and she hated it. So we decided to give it a break and try again maybe sometime next week. But she was a complete wreck on the days that I gave her food!

My Little Artist

2011-05-20T06:27:00.000-07:00

Celia has started taking an interest in drawing more and more. I love this because it is an easy way to entertain her. She is also getting really great in handwriting. Basically she can write most all letters except for the very hard ones, S, Y, and Z are giving her issues. Of course this all depends on her mood. We still like to build mat man and now she is drawing him, and adding details. Celia really likes to send mail to her Aunt Susie and her Grandparents. Yes, Aunt Vickie and Mom Mom, I will try to get you included in her correspondence!

See the small CELIA on the first one, she did that all by herself. We tried to right very, very, tiny. Julie- that is advanced, right??? Do you notice the bow in the second picture.

A conversation with Celia

2011-05-17T04:13:00.000-07:00

Photo and video editing at www.OneTrueMedia.com

Not a morning person

2011-05-16T05:48:00.000-07:00

We have discovered that Audrey may not exactly be a morning person, as pictured above..

Laughter

2011-05-11T17:47:00.000-07:00

First Food

2011-05-09T07:49:00.001-07:00

Make photo slide shows at www.OneTrueMedia.com

Guess what I got to do?

2011-05-09T07:48:00.000-07:00

Guess what they did to me on Mothers Day!

They strapped me into this contraption

I checked to make sure it was secure, yep it was

I read about Barbie

They then gave me this stuff, pretty good

My fingers tasted great too

Whose genius idea was it to let Big Sis try, I did not enjoy the spoon in the back of my throat

I think I am going to like this stuff

Happy Mothers Day

2011-05-08T18:45:00.000-07:00

I have a better post for this day but yet again our 3+ year old laptop has decided not to connect to the Internet and typing on the iPad is a pain.

In any case, I am not with my Mom on mothers day this year. Typically she is here for Mothers Day but she is with my sister who has recently moved near Nashville. It has been a good mothers day with a photo album filled with Audrey and Celia pictures as the perfect gift. My favorite gift I think from my hubby. We had a great dinner with our neighbor and Celia was very well behaved until we put her to bed. Sunday nights are awful for bedtime for her.

I am 2

2011-05-05T04:57:00.000-07:00

The other day I found myself begging my 3 1/2 year old in a very whiney voice "Please, please, please just go down and see Daddy and let me go back to sleep". It is almost humiliating to have to do such a thing. Audrey is getting better at sleeping but my body is so sleep deprived that the few nights that I am now getting 6 total hours is just not enough. I need at least a week of 8 hour nights. I have spent nearly 6 months getting more nights with less then 4 hrs of sleep then not. I find myself forgetful, dizzy, blurry eyed, and irritable on more days then not.

So... when Celia pops into my room at 6 am when I just fell asleep again at 5:30 I wake up feeling as if I have the flu, honestly. My body is screaming at me, go back to sleep, go back. But Celia is screaming at me "Mommy, mommy, where's my balloon, hey Mommy I have to go potty". She leaves, I sigh, then she returns and I find myself actualy whining again, me, I am a grown up and I am whining like a little kid. "Celia, please go and see Daddy, I need to go back to sleep". Of course I know at this point it really doesn't matter, I am up. It takes me a good 30 min. to fall back to sleep and I have to be up at 7 am anyhow. So she has returned to go potty in my bathroom, why, I have no clue, but she does. I get the pleasure of wiping her tushey.. Fun times. Then she decides to go down and visit Daddy. Ahh... I settle back into my comfy bed, thinking I can just relax for 20 min and maybe that well help. Audrey decides to wake up exactly 2 seconds after my head hits the pillow. Is this some cruel joke? Really???

I also have enjoyed my almost daily wake up calls around 2 or 3 am by Celia yelling at me that I did not check on her prior to going to bed. She is asleep when I do but even if she is not, she doesn't remember me checking on me. So I get the pleasure of being yelled at in the middle of the night. This particular night she did not get up at all, I guess she had to make up for it in the morning.

I have decoded that the next time she wakes me up I am going to throw a tantrum. I an going to scream and kick my legs in the middle of the night. Perhaps that will shock her enough to just trust that I do check on her.