Avi pix by month

Avi 3 Months!

I feel like she has been here forever!  We have gotten in to our groove of how to get things done without much help.  I am thankful she has been a pretty happy baby.

We spent her 3 month birthday lounging at the pool today!

This month she has practiced her belly time and has good strength.  I think rolling over will happen soon but I am usually wrong.  She likes to look at herself in a mirror or on the phone.

Laughing

Her day has been going something like this:

Wake up 8:00am
Eats and watches sister play
Nap time 9:15am-The best naps are happening in the swing and she can nap for hours this way.  In her crib the nap only lasts in increments of about 40 minutes.
Awake around 12:00 to eat
Watch sister play and hang out for a bit
Nap time 2:30ish--usually after I lay Zuri down for her nap
Wake up around 5:00pm to eat and play
Cranky around 7pm- I would lay her down but instead I give her a bath, usually with Zuri and then a bottle while Zuri finishes up her bath.

Avi sleeping on the bathroom floor while waiting for Zuri to finish her bath

 I then take Avi to Zuri's room to read books and finish the bottle.  Sometime during this point she finishes her bottle and I take her and swaddle her and lay her down.  I then go back and sing to Zuri and they are both in bed around 8:30pm.
Avi has been waking random times at night anywhere between 1 and 5.  After she eats it is usually 3 or 4 hours before she wakes again to eat.  Sometimes she is having rough/loud sleep after she eats if it is early in the morning when she eats, which makes me super tired.
Day starts all over again.

She is still sleeping in the cradle.  It has been easier to feed her and keep her happy when I am in the room with her.  I mainly keep her in our room right now because her room is really close to Zuri's and I don't want to take the chance of her waking Zuri up.

She has gone to the gym a few times and has done well there.  She takes a nap while she is there because we go in the morning.  With two naps and a sister that likes to be home to eat lunch there is a limited window for me to go to the gym right now.

Avi has also been sitting in her jumper but she is a little short for it right now, so we have a box under her feet.  Right after I took this picture Zuri decided to help Avi jump and play.  She shook the seat really hard and Avi was not happy about it!

She likes to hold blankets or the baby blankets with a rattle while laying down.  She also likes to pull them up over her face while she is napping if she hasn't been swaddled.  I give her a pacifier but I am not sure she really needs it.  Here she is holding a lady bug and pulling it up to her face while she is about to fall asleep.  Although it looks like she is being attacked by a giant lady bug!

3 month stats:
Guessing about 11 lbs?
Height: not sure
Milestones: lifting head while on belly, big smiles and laughing

Watching basketball

She likes sitting up

Zuri 2.5 Years Old!

Zuri is 2 years and 7 months old.  The "terrible two's" have definitely been terrible.  She is stubborn, loud and opinionated.  Not much different than any other time in her life, but now she likes to disagree with me with any thing that I want her to do.  She has had a lot of changes (which I mentioned before) so I know some of her issues are because of those big changes.  Literally in 4 months she moved twice, started school, got a baby sister, potty trained and moved to a big girl bed.  During that time she has traveled out of state, stayed in a hotel and been without me for a few days while I coached locally and out of state.  I don't mean to give her any excuses but I know it has been a lot for her.

She has handled the large changes very well.  Better than I expected.  It's the little things she has been doing that show that she is struggling with some of the changes.  Things like wanting to carry her blanket around, being scared by random things (and telling me that she is scared).  Her biggest issue happened at school when they had a fire drill.  She now equates school with "fire drill" said in a whiney voice and cries about going to school, but when I pick her up she is having a lot of fun there.

Zuri has been really good with Avi.  She likes to ask where baby sister is.  One of my favorite things is she will ask me "what's baby sister name?" then she will answer "AviELLLA"  She way over emphasizes the ella part.  She likes to pretend to share with Avi by giving her something and then immediately taking it away.

The big thing since we moved in to the new house has been her adjustment to a big girl bed.  I was really worried she wouldn't want a new bed.  But I kept building it up telling her that she was getting a big girl bed at the new house.  Showing her where it would go and getting her excited.  I wasn't sure how to do it, if we should let her sleep in the crib when we first moved or if I should make her sleep in the new bed.  I brought her over with the bed setup before we moved in and she was so excited for it that I decided we should just try it!

She LOVED IT!!

She has fallen out of bed twice because she is such a wild sleeper, but I have just gone in and picked her up and put her back in to bed. She has really surprised me with her like of her new bed.  I should definitely give her some credit.

Our issues have been more of a power struggle with things like she wants to read 10 books and I say we can read 3 books and so she throws a wild temper tantrum.  She definitely throws multiple tantrums a day.  Hoping this is just the "terrible two's" and not something that will continue on.  Luckily I have had a pretty easy going baby so it has balanced things out well.

Some of the things I have had a harder time dealing with because I know she has had a lot of major milestone changes and so I know some of her issues are related to that but most of them are just her trying to learn her limits.

First meal at the new house.

Aviela is 2 Months Old!

Avi is a 2 months old!  In her short two months she has been on three flights already (6 legs) and has slept in a hotel 12 days.  Every where we went people were commenting on it being her first flight and how she was so young and so they were surprised when I said her first flight was when she was a month old.  She has been a great traveler and of course it is much easier than a toddler traveling!

We had her two month appointment yesterday and her measurements were:
9lbs 14oz 15%
22.5 inches tall 53%
Her head was in the 26% (can't remember the measurement)

She has grown and gained really well.  She is up 3 lbs from her birth weight and grown 2.25 inches.  I don't want to jinx it but she has been such a great baby.  She usually cries when she is hungry or tired.  She does like to be entertained or have someone around her while she is awake but besides that she has been great.

I have been feeding her before bed around 10pm and she usually wakes up around 5:30am for a snack and then 8:30ish for the morning.  Our days have been starting later and going to bed later with the summer and the sun being out for so long.

She doesn't love to be out in the sun.  I call her my vampire baby.  Zuri was born in the winter so the sun wasn't very strong.  Avi squints and squirms as soon as we are in the sun so I quickly take her to shaded areas.

Zuri has adjusted well to her.  She likes to give her love and "huggies".  Our transition will really begin when we move into our new house next week and I have a lot of alone time with both kids.

Here is how Zuri "hold baby sista"

Avi likes to take baths and lately I have managed both at the same time.  Zuri likes Avi to take a bath in her "boat."  She also likes to "wash" baby sister.

Avi doesn't like to be swaddled but I find she sleeps much better when she is swaddled.  She takes one bottle a night around 8pm and she use to dislike it but she has now adjusted to taking this once a night.  She started smiling around 5 weeks and likes to smile and laugh a little.  She also likes cooing when you talk to her or when she is in a happy mood.  I have been laying her down for naps in her cradle unless Pedro is sleeping. If he is sleeping I lay her in the swing and she seems to like the swing pretty well.



All in all things have been going pretty well.

It was cold in one of the gyms where we played!

Avi doesn't understand the playing on the playmat so Zuri was trying to teach her!

Aviela the first month!

A one month update for Aviela!  Avi pretty much spends most of her days sleeping.  I wake her during the day when she needs to eat but otherwise let her sleep.  She has had some fun adventures already in her first month!  We took her to the movies while Zuri was taking a nap and she slept the whole movie. We took her to the zoo and she woke to eat but otherwise slept most of the time.  She has accompanied me to the gym and sat by and watched me workout at the community gym in my new neighborhood, which is nice because she can't go to my regular gym until 3 months.

She has been on her first official flight, so two legs of flights, from Denver to Wichita and back.  She was at her first tournament and was a pretty good girl, sleeping most of the time!

Sleeping wise at night it has gone pretty well so far but I know it can all change quickly so I don't want to be too excited.  She usually sleeps for 4-5 hours at night then 3 more and then is up for a bit in the morning.  Which is kind of hard because then Zuri wakes up and I have to try to manage both kids at once and I want to give Zuri her alone time too.  

Zuri has been excellent with Avi.  She loves to say "Baby Sister!!" and gives her kisses.  This morning she kicked her in the head (on purpose) when she "Baby Sister cryin'".  Then of course Avi was really crying and then so was Zuri because I told her to not kick people.  Great fun!  

Zuri wants to "hold baby sista" and have her sit next to her a lot...

Zuri sitting in Avi's chair and trying out the pacifier..

She is just starting to coo but has only smiled a few times.  She does like a pacifier and a lot of times it will help stop a crying spell.  She also seems to currently like riding in the car.

Staying at my parents house is definitely been helpful with adjusting to two kids because I can have help if she is screaming while I am trying to help Zuri with something. 

One month has flown by!!

Here are some pictures from Aviela's early days!

Here she is at her 2 week doctors visit!  She was up to 7lbs and 8oz and still the same length.

Grandma Topper holding Avi at about a month old!

Potty Training Zuri

A little delayed posting about potty training but definitely a major milestone has been met!  Last year I attempted potty training Zuri, prior to her second birthday.  I followed the 3 days stay at home and have her go around naked.  She would hold her pee and was not interested in going to the potty despite having a lot of success getting her to go on the potty.  It was definitely too early and her communication wasn't great either.

Fast forward to May of this year.  There were a lot of changes going on with moving and starting school.  At school they sit them on the potty quite frequently.  The potty is low and easy for her to get on and off.  I decided that we would go ahead and try to potty train her since she was starting to like sitting on the potty (again-she had gone through a time where she would not sit on the potty).  We had talked a lot about it and how she could wear underwear and she was starting to be very interested in wearing underwear.  I told her to wear it she had to go pee on the potty.

Monday she goes to school so I started potty training on Tuesday.  I figured it would give us three good days before she went to school again on Friday.  Day 1 I let her pick out her underwear.  She was excited.  She wore them but continued to hold it as long as she could and then pee in her underwear and didn't seem to be too bothered by doing it.  The same thing happened day 2 and day 3.  I was unsure of what to do.  Everything and everyone says do it for 3 days.  Friday she had school and I was wondering what I should do since she was obviously not potty trained.  But the school had told me to "not turn back once I start."  So I packed a lot of clothes for her and was prepared for lots of messes.  It was also a day where I was to come back a bit later for a Mother's day party.  I came back and she was still in her same pants because she was holding her pee.  While reading a book together at school she peed in her pants.   But low and behold the rest of the day she started peeing in the potty and telling me "mama pee potty!"  We would run to the potty and she would go!  Then we went out to dinner that night and she peed on the potty and then needed to poop.  UGH!  She screamed and screamed but eventually went.

From day 4 on she would always pee on the potty.  It was like a flip was switched and voila!  Pooping on the potty was a different story.  She would hold it and tell me she needed to poop but would go days without pooping.  Then she would go in her diaper (nap time or bed time) or she would go in her underwear but this upset her or she would sit and SCREAM on the potty and I would have to hold her until she went.  And after a month of this she now is fascinated by going poop in the potty.  She is still a little scared of going to the bathroom in public places, but of course she has to go every time we are out!  She has done a great job of using the potty and telling us even while she is playing that she needs to go!

Very glad we didn't stop after day 3!  I really think going to school the two half days a week helped her see other kids doing it and realize she was supposed to go too!

We used a reward system of candy the first few days and then only offered her something if she took a poop.  Now we don't have to reward her, although she still wants a cookie sometimes after pooping, but she really wants cookies all the time anyway!