Saturday, December 5, 2015

Updates on Aviela!

Avi has been a much more independent child the last few months.  She started getting fussy at about 15 months and at times, has continued to be so.  She is at the age that she knows what she wants but doesn't have the words for it, so it leads to frustration.

Her current favorite thing is to go and sit on the potty.  She has yet to actually go on the potty, but it isn't for lack of us going.  We sit on it like 8 times a day.  She will grab my hand and say "go potty!" and walk me to the bathroom and pull her pants down.  We sit there, she "wipes" and then likes to flush the toilet.  Now if we could just actually go potty on the potty.

She is still very skinny.  At her 18 month appointment she weighed 20lbs 3oz. and was in the 16% for weight.  Her height was 32.5 inches tall and was in the 73% for height.  However her BMI was in the 2nd percentile, which worried them.  So they did blood work and it all came back fine.  They told me to try to feed her fatty foods and I laughed because I told them I can make and give her all the fatty foods you want, but she doesn't eat anything sometimes!

She now has 6 teeth on the top and 6 teeth on the bottom.  Oddly, she has the four front on top and bottom and then two back molars on each side.  Those big teeth look like they hurt coming in!

Avi loves to do and have whatever Zuri has or is doing.  She also likes to watch her video player and will tell us she wants to watch "woof woof" which is Clifford.  But she also has liked most anything that Zuri is watching.

Avi loves music and likes to dance.  She dances with one foot down and goes around in a circle.

Avi does not like sitting in the car seat now.  I have to bring a lot of different things from snacks to videos to try to keep her from crying the whole time.

Avi is also our kid that will randomly come up and give us hugs or kisses.  And when she is crying a good few kisses seems to make her stop.  Her blanket also helps that.

Avi is a bit shy. But it seems to be getting better.  There are times we bring her places and she literally will not move once I put her down and leave.  But the last two weeks she seems to be more social.

She likes to play with the play kitchen, toys that make noise like a police car, stuffed animals, dolls and pretty much anything you can push around toys.

I will post some pictures soon!

Updates on Zuri!


I kept sitting down to do a post on the kids and then something would come up!  They are both such busy little kids.

Zuri has been going to school.  She LOVES her montessori school.  It is actually a school that goes from pk3 all the way till 12th grade.  I like that she will have the same teachers for 3 years and so they will know her and what she needs to work on.  Right now she loves just doing "work" in class.  Work, meaning she likes to water the plants, juice oranges, polish silverware and wood.  She has also been enjoying coloring.  She knows how to trace the letters of her name, but still cannot write them on her own.  She also can tell you how to spell Z-U-R-I.  And definitely can recognize all of the letters and sounds.  The classroom is extremely organized because the kids have to put away each thing before they can take out a new thing.  

Zuri will not nap at school and so she is extremely tired from the minute I pick her up from school until she goes to bed.  Which is a lot of fun for me (not really!).  She likes to pick out her own clothes to wear and will frequently come out in something different each morning and tell me how it matches.  She also likes to make her own breakfast.  For instance she likes to make toast or even pour her own milk into her oatmeal.  She is very proud of herself.

She is also quite difficult some days.  She likes to yell at Avi and grab things from Avi, which then leads to Avi crying. Since she is so opinionated it can be hard to deal with her and convince her of something.  Just an example of her opinionatedness is that I will tell her I love the color blue and red. You would think that most kids would say they like it too, because their parents do.  But not Zuri, she says I don't like those, I like pink and purple.  

Her favorite animal is a Zebra because it starts with a Z.  She wants to wear her hair down, or possibly with a braid.  She wants her clothes to match and wants there to be "something" on her shirt. Something means a flower one day or an animal the next, but I never know what "something" it is that she is adamant about having.  So, now she just takes her chair and goes to her closet and grabs the shirt she wants, since apparently I am no help at all.

Zuri loves to eat pepperoni's.  Her favorite breakfast is cold oatmeal.  Her favorite lunch for school is dumpling soup with cheese, tomatoes, fruit and pepperoni's.  Her favorite take out meal is buffalo wild wings and she loves to eat this as leftovers the next morning.  


Zuri took a sports of all sorts class and loved doing lots of sports.  She has also been in swimming lessons, which I think are not very good, but she likes going.  She also has loved going down the waterslide with us.  

The last week we have taken Zuri to her first movie at the theater, The Good Dinosaur and she was very good and sat there the whole time.  We also took her to go see Disney Frozen on Ice.  Which really confused her that the people were actually alive and right there! 

 Sometimes her maturity surprises me but then the meltdowns remind me that she is 3 years old (almost 4!).

Aviela 14/15 Months!

July was so busy that I didn't have time to post, but she definitely made some strides in the walking category.  The last few days she has really taken off and walks more and more!  It is still not steady walking, but it is walking.  I would say the last two days or so it has been about 50-50, walking and walking on her knees.


Avi has been a bit more crabby.  I really think it is because she has been wanting to walk and hasn't been able to do it well enough.

She is a skinny thing.  We went to the doctor and she was about 32 inches tall and only 19lbs 3oz.

Avi loved going on the airplanes.  She would clap when we started to go fast and take off.  We had one melt down on the flight to San Diego where she cried for about 15 minutes.  It all started when she decided to hit Zuri and I told her no.  Avi likes to hit people and will hit when she gets mad or doesn't get her way.  She will also hit and then just laugh.

Another thing Avi loves to do is feed the dogs food from her high chair.  She thinks it is so hilarious and laughs every time she gives the dog a treat.

My 15 month post update is that she started walking full time at about 15 months and 2 weeks.  She fell a few times and landed on her face and has already had more fat lips than I can imagine!  But she seems to recover rather quickly!




Monday, August 17, 2015

July '15

July is a busy month for me.

We started with the 4th of July, but we were all in bed before the fireworks!

This year Zuri and Pedro came to Chicago with me.  It was a short trip but so much fun.  We stayed out late and went to Navy Pier, where Zuri and I rode the ferris wheel.



We had lots of games but Zuri loved playing with the girls on the team.  She had a lot of fun.

Then we came home for a bit then left for San Diego with both kids.  We figured it would be fun.  Not so much.  Zuri was a lot more crabby having Avi there and I only had one team so when they were playing she didn't have other kids to play with.  Avi was crabby in general, which has been the case recently.  I think she was really wanting to walk and so she was constantly frustrated.

We did do a few fun things.  We went to the pier at night and saw people catching fish.  I have never seen so many fish being caught.  This one family let Zuri hold the fish and touch them.  She was a little nervous at first but then we couldn't get her to stop!



We also went to the beach one morning.  Not with the plan of swimming, but just to walk around.  Of course Zuri had other plans!



She is so friendly and found a boy to play with her running in and out of the water.

We also went down to the outlets that bordered Mexico.  Which was interesting, but they had a lot of shops and it was fun to just walk around.  But Avi decided she wanted to PUSH the stroller instead of sitting in it.



And Pedro was interested in the border fence!


The trip was a bit exhausting.

Zuri also had summer school and her favorite day of the summer was having her face painted!

The month flew by!

Zuri First 5K!




Kory had signed up for the Bubble Run 5k but was unable to go.  So, we decided we would take the entry.  We were not sure how we were going to do it since we were not sure if we wanted to bring our stroller and I wasn't sure how long Zuri would actually sit in a stroller.  Kory let us borrow one and when we arrived at the race start we took it out and quickly decided against bringing it.



I figured we could figure out how to do it without a stroller.  Very happy we went without it!  It was so much fun for Zuri.  She basically ran the entire 5k in search of the Bubble pits.  We spent time trying to guess what color the next pit would be.  Then we would run through the bubbles.  The bubbles were so thick and high that I had to hold her hand for fear she would be lost in them!  She thought it was so fun!  At one point she had to go "potty" so we ran behind a tree and she went pee and we took off again.

She ran it in 44:34!

At the end of the race there was just a foam pit and she played in that for about 30 minutes and was sopping wet!



Luckily I had brought clothes for us all, but a complete fail on forgetting dry socks!

Then we went out to breakfast and I figured with an early morning and a 5k Zuri would be so tired.  But she wasn't even tired at all!  I shouldn't be surprised I guess, 3 year olds have a lot of energy!


 

Wednesday, July 1, 2015

Zuri update 3.5 years!




Zuri has been such a good girl lately.  Could it be that is  because I have changed the way I handle her?  No idea.  But whatever it is thank goodness.  She still has massive fits of anger and tears, but she has been way better.

We have had to remove her bedroom door due to temper tantrums and slamming the door and making a hole in the wall!

She still does not love when Avi get's attention, luckily Avi doesn't mind either way so we just move on and tell Zuri how she has helped Avi do whatever it is we were talking about Avi.  She also likes to take toys from Avi when Avi has them.  However, she has learned to give Avi another toy and then steal the toy she wants.  Followed by telling me "it's ok, she wanted the toy" as Avi is crying.

Zuri now asks if Avi can watch TV with her at night before bed and likes to yell for me when Avi does something like pulls herself up.

Zuri is transitioning into a new school.  She has gone to summer camp at the new school, but not her campus that she will be going to.  We LOVED Goddard school and she learned so much.  We are hoping the new school will be a good one for her.


We are definitely in a do it myself kind of phase.  EVERY SINGLE thing she has to do herself.  Get undressed, get dressed, buckle her seatbelt, shut the door (which is very difficult to do), peel the orange, cook her food, literally everything.  I have just learned to go with it.  A lot of these things often lead to tears of frustration when we cannot figure it out or need help.  I try to tell her to take a breath and try again.  Sometimes this works and sometimes she gets more angry.  Sometimes she asks for help and then I help her and then she is mad that I helped her and starts all over again.  It can be quite an ordeal.

Her language skills have flourished the last few months.  She says things that are so "adult" like.  I told her that she could watch tv before her nap and she told me "momma that is a great idea!".  She actually followed this with "if the tv doesn't work it should take a deep breath and then it will work".  No idea.  But she loves to tell me "momma it is ok!  I won't...lose it, eat it, drink it, want it etc.."  She has a lot of conversations in general now.  However, she still loves to talk to "Anna" and "Let it go".  She has never even seen the whole movie!  But ok.

Zuri has been loving the pool and now wears her life jacket and will jump into the pool on her own and go under the water.  She will even let me dunk her down.  She swims by herself with her life vest on, which is good since she doesn't want any help anyway.  She also loved the ocean because it was shallow.  



 With her friend Jordan (our neighbor)


Zuri claims she doesn't need a nap but sometimes she is rendered passed out in the car!



Zuri loves to walk the dogs and help me all the time.


We also did soccer again.  This time it was very different and very little real soccer.  I think she had fun and got a little better at the concepts of what she is supposed to do.

A picture of her on her way to her first goal ever!





Zuri favorite things are:
Crocodiles
Animals in general
Jumpy castle
swimming pool
school
nana and papa's house
"doing something"
"going somewhere"
Playing with anyone and everyone
"Spicy sausage"
"New mac and cheese"--stouffers
FRUIT
BLANKET

Dislikes:
Being woken up
Sharing
Not "doing something or going somewhere"
Naps



Puerto Rico '15



We decided to take a last minute trip to Puerto Rico for father's day!  It was a long day traveling and we were worried but both kids did very well!  On the way out Zuri even played with some other kids near us.  Everyone is always so surprised when we tell them she is 3 years old, they think she is older.

Avi was a little worried prior to take off but once we started taking off she was so excited!  We lucked out on the way there as our first flight had an open seat between us, it was great!









Both kids had hardly any naps the days we were there (flew in on Thursday and left on Monday).  We had a lot of fun visiting family and there were get together's every day.




We also included a few beach days!









It was a fun trip best told by pictures!






















This one makes me laugh!!!