Avery Turns Two!

Oh how we love our funny Avey Baby!She turned two in November, a week after Chloe turned four, so this post has been a work in process for a while now!  She has such a big, fun personality!  Avery is our morning baby and wakes up happy and energetic every morning!  It probably has something to do with the fact that she likes to go to bed early, and will even beg to go to sleep if we don't get her in soon enough.  She still takes 3 hour naps every day and has to sleep with her "Ribbit Blankey".  She still loves stuffed animals and will hug and cuddle them.  Her favorite stuffed animal is her puppy, which was mine when I was little :)  When we put her to bed we'll say "I love you Avery!" and she'll respond, "I love you MOST!"

Avery is obsessed with her shoes and wants to wear them all the time.  She will run in with her shoes and say "Soos on!" and if you don't comply, she'll throw a huge fit and throw herself on the floor.  She has turned into a little parrot and most everything she says is understandable, but if you can't figure out what she is saying, she gets REALLY frustrated and will, you guessed it, throw herself on the floor and have a huge crying fit.  She also likes to be dressed for the day and will say "My need my pants on mom!" or right after she gets out of the bath, she'll bring me a diaper and say "My need my diaper on mom!"  On the other hand, when we strip her down for shower time, she'll point to herself and squeal "My NAKED mom!!!" and do a funny little naked dance or run around like a crazy head.

Her favorite shows are Jake and the Neverland Pirates and Dora.  She'll run to me each morning and say"Show mom?  Jake Ne-land Pi-ates an Me???"  She knows the names of all the characters and tries to sing along with the songs.  Her and Chloe also love the new movie Frozen and like me to pull up the song "Let it Go" on Youtube and sing at the top of their lungs.

 She is still a major thumb sucker and is absolutely not interested in using the toilet.  In an effort to gain her interest, I bought her new princess undies, which she was excited about for a day, then asked to have her diapers back.  Every time we change her, we tell her she needs to poop in the toilet, and she'll pout her lips out and say nooooooo.

Avey loves to line things up in a row and have everything in it's place.  She lines her tub toys up on the edge of the tub and likes to put cars in a perfect row and just leave them there.  She's also a very good helper and likes to put things back, right where they belong.  She is also very sneaky and will find candy or snacks and go hide to eat them.  When I find her, she'll quickly hide her hands and give me an innocent look, or hug whatever it is to her chest and give a mischievous giggle.  She just has one of those faces that looks like she's always up to something, but is so dang cute and clever, it's hard to get mad at her!  She loves candy, but doesn't like most chocolate.  She'll put it in her mouth once and then hand it back and say "My don't like it".

Baby LeBaron Version 3.0

Well folks (or Mom, since you're the only one that reads this), it's official!  We've got another bun in the oven!!!  As of Tuesday (the 18th) I will be 18 weeks along and baby is due July 22nd!  I just wanted to jot down some things about this pregnancy before I forget!

• I started wearing maternity pants around 5 weeks along (yikes)
• I've started out heavier with this pregnancy than I've ever been :( Which might explain the maternity pants...
• No throwing up, just all day blah-ness
• I craved a lot of meat and salty things in my first trimester
• A symptom I didn't have with my girls but have really bad this time is (painful) gas and constipation.  Sorry about the tmi, but I get so bloated and it makes my back ache.  No fun!
• I had my first ultrasound at 9 weeks and got to see our little nugget and it's heartbeat
• Heard the heartbeat for the first time at 13 weeks
• We told the girls on Christmas day and they're both hoping for a brother :)
• Chloe is so sweet about the whole thing and can't wait for my belly to get big.
• I've been sleeping with a gazillion pillows since we found out.  I'm already pretty uncomfortable and that freaks me out for what's coming with the next 6 months! Number three is killer!
• Since my second trimester started I've been having sciatic and back pain.
• Of course I've been an emotional, moody wreck (more so in my first trimester) and Ronnie has said more than once "Geez!  This is the last time I'm getting you pregnant!"
• I am hungry ALL THE TIME.  I feel like a hobbit;  first breakfast, second breakfast, elevensies, lunch, supper, dinner, and a snack.  It's bad. I'm getting to the point where I'm sick of eating, it's become a chore! A lot of cold cereal is feeding this baby!
• To announce to our families I made a calender with family pictures on each month and for July I put a picture of the ultrasound and wrote on the 22nd "Baby LeBaron due!".  We gave it to Ronnie's mom to look at and as she looked at each page she would say "Cute!  Oh how cute!".  When she got to July she said "Oh an ultrasound picture, how cute!" and kept on looking through.  My sister in law Andrea was behind her and got huge eyes and said, "SAM!  AN ULTRASOUND PICTURE!" which stopped Bonnie in her tracks and gave her big saucer eyes too as she realized what it meant.  It was hilarious!  We told my parents the same way and all my Dad said was, "I thought you were looking a little pouchy".  Haha, gotta love Dads!
• This baby must be a bit of a food snob, because I can only eat Tillamook cheese and Wild Coyote ranch dressing.  Any other brand makes me gag!
• I am cold most of the time!  I thought winter would be the perfect time to be pregnant because you're supposed to be so warm all the time, but I am constantly turning up the heat and wearing my frumpy house sweater.
• Chloe just yelled to me from the other room "Mom!  If our baby is a sister, I want to name her Carla!"  Haha and if it's a brother it's Tyson.  I'll have to take those into consideration....
• As with my girls, I was a grumpy butt in my first trimester.  I totally become an introvert and don't want to leave my house.  Since I've started my second trimester I've had more motivation to be friendly and happy, but I've become a total emotional mess!  There are days where I just want to (and usually do) cry all day!  It's killing me!!!
• Heard baby's heartbeat at 17. 2 weeks!  We'll find out what we're having on the 26th!!!

Adventures in Motherhood

I just have to take a minute and record my comically horrible doctor's appointment I had with the girls today.  For the past few months I've been seeing the chiropractor for my dizzy spells and vertigo and I've had to drag the girls along.  It's been a pretty rigorous schedule, going three times a week and now recently, twice a week, and well....my kids are 4 and 2.  It doesn't always work out very well.  Luckily, the doc has his own kid and a great sense of humor, so I don't feel the usual mommy embarrassment that goes with public tantrums and fights.  Today we had already been to a funeral and Nana's house, without going home inbetween and Avery was beyond tired and feisty. 

When I get there, I have to go to the exercise room and run through some exercises to help my spine.  For part of it, I have to lay down on a table that has an electronic massage.  While down, the girls start playing "hop scotch" on the chairs, Chloe spills her sippy cup, and Avery starts pushing Chloe around. Ugh.  I push through and head to the appointment room. 

 The girls grab the blocks from the toy room and start playing while the doctor gets to work on me.  Avery starts hording blocks, so Chloe gets all whiny, then starts to play jungle gym on me while telling me "Avery called me a stinker bum!!!".  I try to tell her Avery couldn't call her that, when Avery starts yelling "ARE YOU KIDDING ME?  ARE YOU KIDDING ME?" whether at Chloe or her blocks I don't know.  After that outburst, I figure stinker bum wouldn't be that hard, so I ask her if she did, to which she replies a defiant Yeth.  She finally apologizes and Chloe jumps down to play again, all the while the doctor can't stop laughing.  Suddenly Avery starts yelling again "THANK YOU SO MUCH!  THANK YOU SOOO MUCH!" out of nowhere and apparently to no one.  So I ask her to please talk quietly, to which she whispers "ok", then two seconds later screams "THANK YOU SOOOO MUCH!"

The doctor finishes and just as I stand up, Chloe starts grabbing herself and doing the potty dance.  Arg!  Worst bladder ever!  So I tell her to go to the restroom while I make my next appointment and I'll check on her when I'm done.  I finish up front and head toward the back when the stink hits me.  Of course she has to poop, we're in a public place!  Always!  I open the door to check her and her bum is half way in the toilet and her hands firmly planted on the seat (yuck!) and she says "I gotta poop Mom".  Knew it.  I head back to the front to check on Avery and as I walk into the play room, an even worse stink bombards me.  It's like my kids have an internal clock that says "Quick!  We're out in public, lets poop!"  So after a quick trip to the car, we head to the other bathroom to change Avery. No changing table, so hard, germy linoleum it is!  I lay out some paper towels and get to work on an exceptionally reisty batch and am wrapping up her diaper, when somehow, my finger goes first knuckle deep in her poopy.  EW EW EW!  And on top of that, my finger nails are long, so a good amount is stuck under my nail.  Dry heaving and silently swearing.  I take a couple deep breaths, remind Avery it's time to start pooping in the toilet and make our way up to the front.  Thankfully, Chloe is done with her duty, but I need a bag to put the haphazardly wrapped diaper in so I don't get more poop on me, so I have to ask the front desk lady while trying to conceal said diaper.  It's always such a relief when people are kind and understanding, and when she she says "No problem!  We've all had days like this!"  I feel some of the stress drain out of me.  Finally we are out the door and in the car!  Thankfully today I could see the humor in the situation as soon as it was over; I wish it was always this way.  On days like these, I always try to sing the country song "You're Gonna Miss This", but I gotta admit, I am SO not going to miss poopy diapers :P

Birthday Girls!

I love these two crazy hooligans so much and had so much fun celebrating them for their birthdays!  We decided to keep it simple this year and head to McDonald's!  The girls were thrilled and I didn't even have to clean my house!  Win win!  All Chloe wanted for her birthday this year was makeup, earring and fancy nails!  She is such a girly girl and loved dressing up for her special day at preschool! Little miss Avery was very easy to please!  I could've just given her the Boots and Dora socks and she would've been over the moon!  She also got some earrings and a cell phone she had wanted that I secretly bought :)  They were so excited for their actual birthday party (their birthdays are a week apart, in November) and Chloe kept asking when her real birthday was and when party day was, just to keep things clear.  We invited Chloe's two best friends Parlee and Lucie, and Lucie awesome siblings came along to keep us company!  At this stage, Avery loves just being around Chloe and her friends, and really, just doing her own thing.  I hope they can always be friends and share friends, though I know it's not likely.  A Mama can dream!  Cupcakes, happy meals and presents later, all were happy and content and the party was a success!

Time Out for Women

As part of our Christmas gifts this year, my sweet Mom got us tickets to Time Out for Women.  I wish I would've taken a picture when my Grandma was with us, but she could only come to the evening session, due to a hurt back.  It was really fun hanging out together, shopping and being spiritually uplifted.  My very favorite part was when Jericho Road performed a boy band medley and all the ladies went bezerck!