Ava's First Trip To The Dentist

Yup! My little girl is growing up and we FINALLY took her for her first appointment to the dentist. I put it off for so long because Ava used to be so shy. I didn't think there was any way she would sit still with someone and get her teeth cleaned. My sister-in-law, Melissa, is a hygienist. Even though she is family, Ava really used to be THAT shy.

The past week or so Ava had been complaining about her teeth hurting. I had brushed it off thinking it was the new toothbrush we bought. I thought maybe it was too hard on her gums. After this going on for a week, I thought no time better than the present to get her into the dentist. She has become less shy over the last year too, especially with family.

On Friday, we went to the dentist.

She looks half scared

Sophie came along for support!

Turns out Ava has a raging canker sore. Poor thing. I guess acidic foods make it worse. Ummm, we give her 1-2 huge glasses of orange juice every morning! mom fail! Well, at least we know now. Other than that, she looked great. Lots of space in between her teeth, so she should be good when those last molars come in.

She got to "ride" up and down on the chair and check out all the cleaning tools.

She got some stickers and a prize after she was done. Mama was so proud of her. She did everything she was told to do and didn't cry at all. We'll be back in 6 months!

A Little Of This And A Little Of That

I really haven't blogged in a while, so here it is 5:15 am on a Saturday morning and I am blogging.(Then again Sunday morning to finish this post!) I have to find more hours in the day. I think I am going to try to get up by 5am two days a week and just get 30 minutes of computer time done each week. It is where I struggle the most in terms of finding the time. I am just trying to find my "groove".

Any whoo.... Here are some things that I have been wanting to blog about.

When I put Ava to bed, either at nap time or bed time, I always tell her that she can talk to Bobo, sing to Bobo or do whatever she needs to to fall asleep, but not to call for mommy and daddy. Lately it has been the singing. She will sing all her songs to Bobo and Mike and I will sit and just listen to her on the monitor. It is so stinkin' cute.

I think Ava is a Hoarder. Mike doesn't like me call her that, but see for yourself. Call it whatever you want, but we have Whimzy toy gatherings ALL.AROUND.THE.HOUSE...

We went to the zoo last weekend and I was a bit disappointed because most of the animals were asleep. We did manage to get a close up of a peacock.

Ava is sleeping much better with the Monkey clock. She still calls for us when she wakes up and can be a bit relentless some days, but for the most part, it is a quite call and not until the monkey opens her eyes, does she get louder. She used to cry really loud until we came in. I guess you could say it is working. Yay!

Noah must be teething and finally getting in the last bit of teeth. He has been teething since December when he got is first one year molar. We now have all the molars and two top eye teeth. He gets one right after another with very little breaks in between.

We are trying to find our groove around here. The kids are on different napping schedules, which makes it hard to do things. I am hoping that Noah will transition to one nap in the next couple of months. Hopefully sooner than later. Right now we can really only get out between 8-10am, which leaves the grocery store and Target as our go to outings. We had been going to my friend Monique's and her son Kylen's house from 8-10am one day a week, but she is having her second baby on Wednesday, so not sure when she will be up for play dates again. I am hoping she is reading this and will at least let us come over and take Kylen outside, if he will let us or let me run an errand or make her some food. I know what it is like to be a new mom of 2 and I was lucky to have a lot of help. She will not be as lucky. It is overwhelming and tiring. 

Noah loves to color. But, you have to watch him with a close eye. Last week, he put a crayon in the dryer and ruined an entire load of clothes. I was able to get some of it out with some WD40 and dish soap. I didn't attempt it on the clothes that they aren't going to wear again that often and pj's. I decided to pull out the chair for the table so I can buckle him in and let him go at it. He loved it and so do I.

Mike took Ava to church this morning and then off to get a slurpee. Hope it all goes well. I sent him with a coloring book and some crayons.

My mom was down visiting last week during her spring break and she brought her dog Meesha. Noah LOVED her. He would point and make cute noises that eventually turned into a Beavis and Butthead laugh (per my sister Jaclyn). 

We brought out the water table about a week ago and the kids love it. Mostly Noah. We put up the umbrella so he is shaded and putting his hands in the water and spilling it all over himself has kept him cool.

Noah and Ava are really into the Baby Einsteins videos. We watch them once a day!

Ava has hit the "no" stage and the "don't do that" stage. Fun stage!!!

That is about it. Looking forward to a rainy lazy Sunday!!

Dancing Queen and King

As I have mentioned before, we have a lot of dance parties at our house. I always turn the music station on the TV in the morning to workout and to just have as background noise. I also want them to enjoy music.
They even have certain songs that they like. Ava really likes any Katy Perry song or as she says "Paty Kerry". Her favorite song is "Last Friday Night." I know, mom fail on that one. Couldn't she pick a more "PC" song. She always tells me to sing the songs. I think it is so she can learn the words. Needless to say, I flub all the words in that song so she won't learn them. They both love Rhianna's "We found Love." Ava will say "mama, it's our song, let's dance." Noah even gets in on that action and can hear certain songs and he will dance soon. Now when I say dance, I mean run in circles, because that is what Ava does and now that is what Noah does. I will have to post a video soon because it is so fun to watch, but here are some pictures.

Ava has to clear the entire floor area first. Noah usually likes to carry something in his hands. Ava just happened to grab Bobo this time.

I love to watch them. They are just so cute.

Noah Is 14 Months Old

Yup, that's right, my little boys is already 14 months old.

Dear Noah Boy,

I can't believe that you are 14 months old. It makes me a little sad. I know that growing up is just what you are going to do, but if you could just slow it down, that would be awesome!!

You love to put stuff on your head. Yesterday it was 2 of Ava's headbands. You would really make a cute girl. You just put it on and walked around with a smirk on your face because you knew you were hot stuff..

You have quite a personality. You are very strong willed. You have started throwing a fit when you don't get your way, which is a lot these days because you have an older sister that wants what you have. You like to walk around like a mad drunken sailor when you are mad looking for the perfect place to throw yourself to the ground. Sissy and I just sit and watch this all go down and giggle loudly to ourselves.

You just started disobeying me. When I say "no", you do whatever it is that your not supposed to be doing even faster. You also just started wanting to throw things in the toilet. Yikes! Your sister never did that. We have to keep the toilet lid shut now!

You still love to be outside or going places. Whenever I put your shoes on you immediately walk to the back door. Oh the tears that will come this summer when it is too hot to go outside!!

You really want to be a climber. You try to climb everything, but can't quite get your little legs up enough to do it. It will only be a matter of time.

You have grown to love buddy. You love him!

You love to watch Baby Einsteins videos. 

You have really gotten into books this past month. You especially love ones with animals. You really won't sit still for long stories.

You haven't really added any new words to your vocabulary this month. You still just point and grunt. You make the panting noise for dog, say "meow" for cat, make a noise with your lips for horse and make a roar for lion.

You love to color!

You can point to your belly button and toes.

You are a picky eater, but you eat a lot when you like something. You love sweets ( You get that from me) You have stopped eating veggies. I am going to have to get creative. You still don't like milk, but LOVE water. We haven't introduced juice to you yet, because we know that you will love it and then not drink your water.

You are still taking 2 naps a day. One at 10am and one at 3pm. You sleep through the night. You go to bed at 7pm and sleep until 6am. You just started crying every time you wake up. You used to play in your crib more when you woke up in the morning, but it is now about 15 minutes max and then you start to cry. I know that this is how it will be for a while. You take after your sister. You are usually in a good mood though.

You now have all your 1 year molars. You got your top 2 "eye" teeth this month too. I can't wait until they are all in because you don't nap well when you are teething!

You are much more outgoing than your sister was. 

You have such long hair and I don't want to cut it because it will have to be a big boy hair style and I love the long, whispy, curly q's!!

You are in size 18-24 month clothes and size 5 diapers. 

Mommy and daddy love you so much as does your sister! I love watching you grow and discover new things.

Buddy

Noah has taken a liking to a dog that we have named Buddy! 

I really didn't want him to have a "bobo", but he was showing an attachment to him. 

We now have 4 kids: Ava, Noah, Bobo and Buddy.

Now I have to keep track of all 4 of them!

Noah likes to put buddy in his crib when he goes in his room to go to bed. I put Noah in his bed and he gets up, turns to see if Buddy is still in bed, and then goes to sleep.It is cute. I guess I should head out to Target Stat to find Buddy 2.0 so we will have a backup!!

Welcome to the family Buddy! Try to keep track of your owner so we don't have to replace you!

Monkey Clock

It is no surprise that Ava isn't a great sleeper. She is an early riser too! She usually wakes up between 5:20-5:40am every.single.morning!

I am an early riser too, but not that early. My coffee is done at 5:14 am and I need a cup before I can really deal in the morning. I was at my wits end and looking for ways to get her to at least stay in bed until 6am. That gives me enough time to at least have some coffee and get showered and dressed. After researching around on the Internet, I found someone post about a Monkey clock that opens his eyes when it is time to get up. I debated it for a while. I was trying to teach Ava to read the clock, but that was slow going. I finally bit the bullet and ordered it at mybabyzoo.com

Here is the clock.

Eyes Open

Eyes Closed

So it took it while for her to get the idea. He does sit on the other side of the room, but it lights up and his eyes open at 6am. We have had 2 successful mornings in a row where I have heard her wake up, but she hasn't called for us until after the monkey opens his eyes. She says "mommy, daddy the monkey opened his eyes, come and get me up!" It is so cute. She is also in a better mood because she has a little bit of time to wake up.  I hope this well continue and maybe I can move it out little by little.Oh yeah, she also gets stickers when she waits, so there is incentive.

I would do anything to have my mornings to get stuff done, like working out, getting breakfast ready, and a couple of things on the computer, but for now I will take a shower and getting dressed without interruptions.

Weekend in Prescott

This past weekend, we went up to Prescott to celebrate my grandpa's 92nd birthday.

This is the first time we have traveled in a while. I was nervous because my kids don't travel well. They don't sleep well and don't eat well either. Ava gets a little overwhelmed and then when we get home is cranky from being so busy.

It was nice to escape though. It was quite cold!! I had to pull out the sweaters again.

Noah loved playing outside. 

Mike, Noah and Grandpa

Ava, grandma and I

Noah loved going up and down the stair to my moms Living Room. We had to keep an eye on him all.the.time. By the time we left, he was sorta getting the hang of going down the stair by sitting and he would crawl down face forward.

As I mentioned, I was nervous about the sleeping situation. I slept in the same room with Noah and Mike slept in the same room as Ava. I was always curious about how Noah slept and let me tell you, he tosses and moves around a lot. I am such a light sleeper, so I didn't sleep great. Mike shared a room with Ava. Mike told me that he read her books and then laid down to fall asleep and about 15 mins later, Ava sat up from her mattress and started tickling his feet that were hanging over the edge. Ha! ha!. Then she woke up for an hour in the middle of the night. I guess this is just how it goes.

I was so happy to be able to celebrate my grandpa's 92nd birthday. I hope there are many more to come.