Random cuteness

I haven't accosted you with photos lately, so here are a few from the past few weeks. 

 

Avery is the queen of the half-awake, half-asleep eyes. With the brothers she has, you can't blame her for staying alert, even when she's sleeping.

 

 

 

 

She also likes the side-eye.  And seriously, those lips.

 

 

Who said it was hard to walk in heels?  Jackson nailed it.

 

Avery's first day wearing a dress.  I think she is happy about it.

 

 

Avery's two month checkup in a picture taken by her brother.

 

The boys continue to snuggle nightly.  They both love to be touching another body while sleeping (which I can attest to, as I get accosted when they visit our bed), so they are a good sleeping pair.

 

First game of the season.  Someone is pretty serious.

 

 

 

Jackson's preschool class.  He loves it.  Where did my baby go?

This would be.me blasting Lauren Daigle into Avery's ear. 

 

Brady and Jackson have a new cousin, Arianna, who they got to meet last weekend.  Eric's brother, Dave, and his wife, Claire, had their first baby and she is a doll!  I can't wait to hold her for the first time in the next few days.  Brady and Jackson pretty much nailed it.

 

And I leave you with two videos.  One of Avery's first laugh, which was yesterday.  And the boys playing football before bedtime a few nights ago.  Proof of how good of a big brother Brady is, and how much of a bruiser Jackson is!  These boys can be exhausting but them playing well together more than I can ask for, especially during single parenthood basketball season.  Eric has been gone since Friday and will get home at 4 am Wednesday morning, so we will be happy to have him back!!!

 

 

Sleep... a happy update.

Let's talk about one of the most talked-about and boring subjects in the mothering community.... sleep!  If you are a non-parent reading this blog, thank you for still reading, because I don't think there is anything that would have made my eyes glaze over more pre-children than hearing about a baby's sleep patterns.  I mean, no matter how you dress it up, its just not that interesting.

But, I feel it is my duty to set the record straight about Avery and her sleep patterns.  Because frankly, she's gotten a bad wrap.  I'm not sure where her bad rep came from, but she's not too pleased and I am here to act as her voice to tell you that Avery is not a bad sleeper.  She wanted me to write that she is a good sleeper, but I told her to pump the breaks because nobody is going to believe that for a second.

 But here I am, her mother, defending her assessment that she is no longer a bad sleeper.  Its true!  Of course, I realize that as soon as that goes down on paper (or the Internet), all hell can break loose, but I feel it is my motherly duty to tell you how great she has been doing lately.

Two nights ago, she slept for 4.5 hours straight from about 9-1:30.  I remember going to the bathroom at 1:30, proud of her accomplishment and thinking, "this girl gets a bad rap, I need to blog about how good she has been doing.". She then woke up at 2:30, 3:30, 4:30, and 5:30.

BUT this blog is about how good she is going, so I will tell you last night she slept a record 5 hours from 9:30 - 2:30 and then slept 3 more hours until 5:30.  This was the best night of her 2-month life.  And sleeping at night is only half of the equation.  Lately, she has been napping like a rockstar.  Like a rockstar who needs to sleep off last night's hangover.  I mean, I seem to remember Jackson and Brady cat-napping their first few months away.  It wasn't until much later that they'd sleep for 2 or 3 hours at a time.  Avery cat naps in the morning, which is fine and good with our schedule since she is in and out of corsets.  But in the afternoon, she knows she is staying put and knocks out fairly consistently.  And she loves the swing.  I didn't utilize it much with the boys, except to use it as a place to put them when I wasn't holding them, but she really seems to like it.  I have a feeling we will be replacing the D batteries in their shortly.  Several times, she's been napping and I'll hear her wake up.  She won't be crying, so I'll let her rock there and on many occasions, she'll fall back asleep.  I finally know what parents are talking about when they say their child loved the swing.  Ironic, of course, for the child who hates the car.

Sleep on, Avery, sleep on.

Letters to Avery: 2 months

Dear Avery,

What a difference a month makes.  I don't even remember what I wrote to you last month, but if it was anything less than, "wow, you're a tough baby," it was probably a lie.  But I am happy to report that an additional month in the world has done your body good!  And mine, too!  You're starting to adjust to this whole "living" thing and it is fun to watch!

We experienced your first smiles this past month, which has been a delight!  You were pretty stingy with them early on, and you seem to be a bit on the serious side, but you're becoming more generous with them and when they come, they are so wonderful.  Smiles are babies form of payment for lots of hard work by parents.  And giggles, which I am excited to hear.  Nothing is better than the sound of my children's laughs and I can't wait to hear what yours sounds like.

I finally seem to have you figured out in this second month of life, and that is a blessing.  Hungry cry is different than tired cry which is different from upset-tummy cry.  Those pretty much sum it up.  Except I forgot the I'm-in-a-car cry, which even Jackson can label.

I don't go to bed anymore with a feeling of dread. We had some rough nights together early on and now waking up a few times each night with you seems like a walk in the park.  Keep it up...please.

Ok, confession time.  Up until this point, this letter was written yesterday.  I mentioned how much difference a month makes...how much difference a day makes.  Last night might have been your worst night yet.  Basically, you were up from 2-4 am and didn't sleep longer than 20 minutes at a time after that.  And daddy is out of town, so I was battling by myself.  You had some major tummy troubles and I'm hoping it was fluke.  Today was rough, too.  We were outside playing this morning, and I was rocking you in my arms, trying to calm your crying self.  I turned on music from your favorite artist, Lauren Daigle, and put my phone up to your ear.  It is the most consistent way to calm you (thank you daddy for discovering this).  I dropped my phone, face down, on the pavement.  My screen was shattered.  You were still crying.  Daddy was still gone.  I still had three kids.  Did I mention it is Friday the 13th?

 

 

Avery, some days are rough.  Today was one of those days.  But at the end of the day, I still have joy in my heart because I have you...a healthy baby who has brothers who adore her and a father who loves her.  So I'll take the rough days because without them, there is no you.

Bring on tomorrow!

Love,

Mom
 

Grandma and Grandpa visit

Grandma and Grandpa Howe came to vit us last week.  It was Grandmas second visit and Grandpa's first.  Grandma noticed a big change in Avery from the month before.  Basically, she was less of a baby terrorist.

That's right, Avery is becoming more human, which in turn, is making me feel more human.  She's not sleeping through the night, but she's not screaming through it either.  She's not loving the car, but she doesn't act like she's being tortured every time she gets in it.  Her tummy still gets upset on occasion, but I no longer feel like I'm poisoning her with my milk.

So, we will keep her.

The boys were thrilled to have the attention of their grandparents, especially Grandpa who they couldn't get enough of.  Perhaps because he does things like put the children in the garbage can.  Which I've thought of doing many times, but haven't actually pulled the trigger.

My parents planned their trip last week because I was in charge of running a silent auction on Friday night.  It was super helpful to have help with the kids, and help with the auction itself as I recruited my mom to help set up.  My mom helped with my other jobs, too, which are raising kids and making signs.  Today I celebrated sales from my new Etsy store reaching double digits.  Free labor sure is nice.  She also did yard work for hours.

Avery got to spend some mom-free time while I worked and I'd like to say she was an angel, but that would be lying.  I guess it should make me feel good that she prefers her mom?  But sometimes I wouldn't mind playing second fiddle.

This picture sums up life pretty well...

 

Brady and Jackson running circles around Avery, while she sits there shell-shocked.

Happy Halloween

 

Happy November! At one point in the writing of this blog, I would have written a thoughtful post and uploaded pictures on Halloween night itself. Nowadays, I collapse in a heap at the conclusion of about every night.  So I would say a two-day-after post should be considered a success.

 

We had a ton of fun on Halloween. The plan was to have two Spider-Men, but in a last minute change-of-heart, we got a football player and a Spiderman.  This is the reason I will never spend much time or money on my children's Halloween outfits (if 4 outfit changes a day have taught me one thing...).

 

 

 

Spider-Man has an identity crisis

 

We had dinner with the Davis family next door, which itself would qualify as a wonderful evening by my children.  They got the bonus of trick-or-treating.  Last year, Brady's little legs had a hard time keeping up, and I remember sweet Micah (age 9) was so good about waiting for Brady.  This year, Brady had no such trouble.  Jackson held his own pretty well too, and never required holding.  Probably because he was very motivated by the things that went into his basket.  There was a clear difference between Jackson trick-or-treating as a two-year-old and Brady doing the same.  I'm not sure if its a second child thing, or just a Jackson thing, but when Brady was two, I remember him filling his bucket around the neighborhood, coming home and him having absolutely not interest (or clue) about what was in his pumpkin.  Jackson, by contrast, both knew and cared.  In fact, he seemed to be mad after our first house on the street gave him toys (they were a teal pumpkin, allergy house).  And after the first candy got dropped in his bucket, he wanted to eat it immediately.

 

I made the mistake of not hiding the buckets the morning after.  What ever the opposite phrase of "out of site, out of mind" is, that describes the day after Halloween.  I told him he could have a piece of candy after lunch.... about 1000 times.  He'd even repeat it back to me, right before asking if he could eat it right now.

 

Last night, after dinner, I told him he could pick out one piece of candy.  He did, but Brady was slower with his dinner, so Jackson had to get tortured watching Brady eat his piece of candy after Jackson was done.  Jackson actually asked me if I could take the candy out of his stomach, presumably to get around the "one-piece" rule.  He is quite the piece of work.

 

Not much to report about Avery in regards to Halloween, except the candy that she did not ingest seemed to keep her up all night.  Halloween night was particularly rough, though in general, she has been doing better!  Here's hoping to an even better November!