Watch Ava Grow - 10 months old!!T

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Oh. My. Goodness. 10 months old!! All the heart eyes for this chubby little happy girl! This little baby has just stolen my heart in the last 10 months, and honestly, she just gets more and more fun each month that she's in our family. I'll admit, when I first found out that I was pregnant, I was scared. How would I love another child like I did Audrey? Audrey was such a good and easy baby, and child. I was TERRIFIED when Michel went back to work and I had to keep Audrey and Ava by myself. I look back at that now and think why????? Ava is seriously the best baby ever! If she cries, there is a reason, and once fixed, she stops crying. Usually the main reason for crying means she's hungry. Once fed, she's happy again!

As she's gotten older, I have so enjoyed watching the relationship between Ava and Audrey flourish. They really play so well together, and Audrey is always willing to entertain Ava. Audrey loves "performing" for Ava to get her to laugh!

Her gross motor skills are WAAAAAY behind. Around New Year's is when she really started sitting up with a straight back. She's very weak in her upper body; her lower body is pretty good. She's been in physical therapy with the same therapist since she was 3 months old, and her physical therapist  is very proud of her progress. She progresses each time we go to therapy; it's just slower-than-most progress. We're now bumping up to weekly therapy (right now we go every other week) because her doctor feels it's so beneficial for her. This is where her laid-back personality works against her. She's totally fine sitting in one spot as long as she can reach some toys. If she can't, she has a specific yell that she uses, and Audrey always runs to her saying, "Here Ava! Here's your favorite toy!" Audrey does not like hearing her fuss (it's so sweet).

Everything else (developmental-wise) is right on track. She talks and babbles all. the. time! She says bababa, mamama, nanana, dadada, gagaga, and has recently added the /p/ sound (puhpuhpuh). She loves growling, spitting, blowing, and patting herself on the mouth to make fun baby noises. She is also very good at feeding herself, but honestly, really only wants Cheerios or Puffs. She'll eat baby purees, but doesn't love them unless they contain fruit (for added sweetness).

She gives me a big baby hug every morning when I get her out of bed (when I pick her up, she squeezes my neck and pulls her little legs up to cuddle into me!), and she just makes me melt with how loving she is. This morning I was holding her, and she looked right at my face and said, "mama." Not mamamama babble, but just one "mama." Melt. My. Heart!!!

She's got the best facial expressions ever, and sometimes I feel like she's looking at us thinking, "What kind of family was I born into??" :)

If you can't tell from this long post, she is just the best second daughter I could have ever prayed for, and our family is blessed to have her in our lives. Here's the stats:

Length: 26 3/4"

Weight: 17 lbs 8 oz

Head Circ: 18 1/2"

Sleep: She naps about 45 minutes to an hour in the morning (usually 9:45-10:30/10:45) and again from about 2-4. If her second nap was bad (an hour or less), she goes to bed around 6:30; if her afternoon nap was good, she's in bed closer to 7. She's gotten really good about not waking much before 7am (for awhile it was closer to 5:45 or 6am).

Eating: This girl still takes 5 bottles a day! I know at this age Audrey only drank 3 bottles a day, and was more into real food. Ava would rather have a bottle, and just a little real food thrown in there. I'm fairly confident she'll still be on formula by a year old.

Clothes: She can still wear 6-9m clothing, and it usually fits pretty well. Some 6m onesies fit really well depending on the brand, and sometimes she needs 9m clothes.

New achievements of the month:
1. Can sit all the way up
2. She got her 2 bottom teeth around 9 months, and they are soooo cute!!!
3. She got so spoiled with all the holding at Christmas! She really doesn't like not having constant attention on her now lol (this sounds like Audrey!)

Things she likes:
1. Being held while I scoop formula into her bottle and watching me scoop and hearing me count it out - it brings a huge smile to her face
2. Hearing the door open every morning or after a nap - she knows it means she gets out of bed!
3. Loud noises (weird, huh??) - the blender, the food processor, anything loud makes her laugh
4. Petting Ninja
5. When Audrey plays with her

Things she doesn't like:
1. Being hungry

Watch Ava Grow - 7 Months!!

I did terribly at doing a 6, and/or 7-month photo shoot, so I just pulled some of my most recent pictures of Ava from FB and my phone. I like documenting what she's doing, so I can go back and read it in the future. 

This girl. She is normally the happiest baby ever. This week, she's been fussy, not as easy-going, and just not her normal self. We're not sure if teeth are trying to break through, or if she's just not feeling herself. Yesterday, her 2 naps together only equaled an hour - MAYBE an hour and a half - and I'm sure that contributed to her crankiness. I guess she decided she'd been too easy on us up until this week! Either way, we love this little girl, and she is still happy and easy most of the time - just any amount of fussing for her that isn't hunger-related is unusual for her. 

Weight: 16lbs (as of 10/3/16) 25th %ile

Length: I'll have to look it up

Head Circumference: I'll have to look it up, but I know it was in the 97th %ile!!

Sleep: I have no idea. Sometimes she naps 2 times; sometimes 3 times. Her first nap always seems to be 30 minutes on the dot, no matter what time I put her down. Her second nap is almost always on the go, and is 45-60 minutes (one day it was completely refused!); and her 3rd nap is usually an hour and a half to two hours long. Every once in awhile, it's 45 minutes. Not only do I hate a short 3rd nap because she has a hard time making it until bedtime, but her last nap coincides with Audrey's nap/quiet time, so when Ava short-naps me in the afternoon, I lose any Mommy time I had counted on. She sleeps through the night, though, so that's all I care about!! She starts fussing/crying around 6:40ish, and that means she is ready for that bedtime bottle, and then wants to go to bed. There have even been a couple times she has been so tired by 6:45 that she's only drank 1.5-2oz, and was just melting down so bad that I just gave up trying to feed her a full bottle, and put her to bed, and she just rolled over and went right to sleep. I can't complain about having a baby that WANTS to be put to bed at night! She's almost always up by 6:30, but usually is content in her bed. I try to wait until 7 to get her up. Sometimes, even her happy sounds, though are SOOOO loud that I get her up as soon as she wakes up because I don't want her waking Audrey. Ava can handle a 6am wakeup; Audrey most definitely can NOT! 

Eating: She went through a big growth spurt about a week or so ago because she was easily eating 30oz of formula a day. Lately, she's back to only eating about 22-26oz a day. One of our new developments in the last month is how picky she is in the temperature of her bottle. Oh. My. Goodness. We had to buy a travel bottle warmer because she will ONLY take it at a specific temperature. If it's too cold, she'll spit it out....and then cry because she's hungry! It's a good thing she's cute! 

Clothes: Still in 3-6m/6m outfits. They're starting to get too snug, though. 

New Achievements of the month: 

1. Can kind of sit in a tripod stance

2. Saying "dadada" and "nanana" and occasionally I hear "gagaga"

3. Fake coughs for attention!

Things she likes:

1. A very warm bottle!

2. Textures

3. Standing in front of the mirror with Mommy and waving/looking at the cute baby in the mirror

4. Her bouncy seat! She could live in this contraption. This week while she has been fussier than normal, she's wanted to be held more than normal. If I need to put her down, though, the bouncy seat is always a hit. 

5. Anything Audrey does - this will probably never change!

6. Bubbles - Audrey, Ava, and I went outside one day to enjoy our beautiful fall weather we're having, and Audrey still had some bubbles left over from the summer, so we were blowing them, and Ava was mesmerized by them. The look on her face was priceless like, "ooooohh....what is this??"

Things she doesn't like:

1. Naps, apparently

2. Too hot of a bottle

3. Too cold of a bottle 

4. Being tired

5. Not being fed by 6:45pm!

Other random information:

At her 6-month check-up, the pediatrician detected a heart murmur that hadn't ever been heard before. I had also mentioned that sometimes her hands and feet are purple immediately after she wakes from a nap for a few minutes, so we were referred to a pediatric cardiologist. We found out she does have a small hole in her heart, but it's very small, and it's not causing her any issues (she can eat fine, she's gaining weight fine, she's got a normal energy level for her age), so it's nothing to be concerned about. If we ever feel it is affecting her daily living, we'll go back to the cardiologist to have a small catheter inserted. It would only be a day surgery (nothing major like open heart surgery), and apparently this is very common. It's very possible that we'll never have to do anything about this hole, so we were very thankful to hear this news!

Watch Ava Grow - 5 months!!

Precious smiles!!

Audrey has to take over and be the big ham!

While taking pictures of Ava, I turned the phone to take pics of us. You can't tell from the picture, but Audrey is climbing on my back while I was playing photographer!

My favorite picture I've taken of the two of them! I got them to BOTH look at the camera AND smile!! I'm impressed with myself :)

FIVE MONTHS OLD!!!! When did this girl become five months old?? My babies aren't babies anymore. Audrey will be 3 in less than a month, and Ava is nowhere close to being a newborn anymore. Audrey absolutely LOVES her little baby sister especially now that Ava is able to do more stuff and be more interactive. Audrey likes doing anything and everything to make Ava smile and laugh. She loves playing with Ava and bringing her toys, and Ava pretty much loves everything that Audrey does!! They are so incredibly precious together! Audrey isn't always the most gentle with Ava, but Ava never makes a fuss about it. In fact, usually Ava is all smiles and laughs whether Audrey knees her in the head (which has been done, unintentionally), or practically lays on top of her. Oh, I did have to intervene the other day when I heard Audrey ask Ava, "Do you want me to pick you up? You do? OK." HAHAHA!!! I looked over to see Audrey seriously trying to pick Ava up off the floor. I'm sure one day it will happen whether I like it or not, but not yet. Oh, speaking of Audrey, she expects big things out of Ava. If she's trying to give Ava a toy, or if she's reading a touch-and-feel book, she'll tell Ava, "Can you touch this?" If Ava doesn't reach to try and touch it (sometimes she does, sometimes she doesn't), Audrey will immediately look at me, and say, "Mommy, she's not listening." :) Other times, she'll see Ava putting a toy in her mouth and Audrey will take it out of her mouth and say, "No, we don't eat toys. Toys aren't food." At least I know she's listening to me (even though Audrey still puts things in her mouth that she knows she shouldn't). I try to explain that Ava is allowed to put toys in her mouth because she's a baby and that's what babies do, but I don't think she quite gets it. In fact, I feel like Audrey is starting to revert back to babyhood and put more things in her mouth when she hadn't been doing it quite as much.

Ava is excelling in physical therapy. We're down to only going every other week because she's getting so much stronger. She tries SOOOO hard to roll from back to belly. Last night, I heard a lot of fussing after we put her to bed which is really unusual. I looked at her on the monitor, and she was really just trying to roll over. It sounded like fussing, but she was just working so hard and being very vocal about it. She's sooo close, but not there yet. If she's motivated enough to sleep on her tummy, maybe that will inspire her to roll quicker, or at least keep trying.

I don't know any of her measurements for this month.

Sleep: This girl is just like her big sister and fighting naps like crazy. I know she needs to be on 3 naps; I just can't figure out when those 3 naps should happen. Plus, most mornings when she should be napping, we're out running errands, so nap 1 is usually just car naps on the go. So far her afternoon nap is her really good, long nap and usually goes from about 1:30-4. I LOVE this naptime because Audrey goes down for a nap/quiet time from 2:00-3:30, so their naps coincide and I can get some stuff done (or choose to get nothing done and rest myself). She's usually in bed right at, or a little after 7pm and has been consistenly sleeping through the night for the last 2 months!! She is a bit of an early bird, and I generally hear her wake up around 6:30 or 6:45. Sometimes, she'll sleep in until 7:15 (you know you're a mom when 7:15 is "sleeping in"!).

Eating: Her eating has slowed down quite a bit as of lately. She eats 5 times a day - around 7, 10, 1, 4, and 7 or right before. Lately, she's had no interest in eating her 10am bottle, but takes the other ones just fine. Lately she's been consuming about 24oz of formula in a 24 hour period.

Clothes: She literally outgrew all of her 0-3m/3m outfits and pj's overnight!! I have a few 3-6m pieces that are the right season, but I really need to make a mad dash to the store and pick her up some new clothes.

New Achievements of the Month:
1. Mimicking our tones of voice - I say "hi" to her in a really high, soft voice and she always tries to mimic it using an "ah" sound. Well, sometimes, it really sounds like she's trying to say "hi" back to me.
2. She's showing a preference for sitting up rather than laying. Even propped on the boppy, she usually fusses until I sit her up. She can hold a sitting position for about 0.2 seconds, but I know that she likes sitting because she can see much more than while laying.

Things she likes:
1. Ceiling fans! They provide great entertainment for her!
2. Her changing table - I've never written this, but she's loved her changing table for a long time. She smiles big time at the sign that's above her changing table.
3. Anything Audrey does! That girl loves her big sister, and Audrey loves her little sister because she always has a captive audience!
4. She still loves her swing - it's by far her favorite toy.

Things she doesn't like:
1. Being hungry - she still goes from being just fine to HANGRY in about 0.1 seconds.
2. This kind of goes along with #1, but she doesn't like it if that bedtime bottle isn't given at 7:00 on the dot. She's seriously crying by 7:04. The rest of the day, she doesn't seem to get hungry, but seriously, 7:04 rolls around and she's ready to eat and go straight to bed. Yesterday, I put Audrey to bed first (because she needed it and I was by myself), and Ava was laying in bed with Audrey, and Ava was totally fine until I turned off Audrey's light. Then she lost it. I'm not sure if she was crying because it was past 7 and she was hungry, or if it was because she associates the lights going out with going to bed and knew she hadn't been fed yet. Either way, she wasn't happy until that bottle was in her mouth!

We just love this precious baby so much!!

Watch Ava Grow - 4 Months!

This picture is my favorite!!

First, thank you Nana, for all of our adorable outfits! I get lots of compliments every time I take her out in one of them! 

How in the world is this baby 4 months old already?? While I am LOVING how interactive she is, it makes me sad in seeing how quickly time is flying. Time really does fly when you're having fun! Ava has so many similarities to Audrey when she was this age (awesome sleeper, thank you Baby Wise!), but in some ways she is completely different. While Ava does use her voice, she's not nearly as loud and talkative as Audrey. Ava will usually flash lots of sweet gummy grins, but there are times you have to work for it. If you want to make her laugh, you better be prepared to work hard!! Sometimes she'll give you a pity laugh :) I think Ava looks at us and thinks, "Well, she looks really stupid right now...I'll humor her." She is still the most easy-going baby EVER! In that way, she's totally different than Audrey. Audrey was happy and easy-going....as long as all eyes and attention were on her. At 4 months, Ava can entertain herself better than Audrey can at almost 3 years! 

Anyways, I am a few days late on this. Part of it was because I was waiting on her 4-month well-check, and also because well, I've been a little lazy! 

Length: 22 1/2 inches (20th %ile)

Weight: 12lbs 9oz (15th %ile)

Head Circumference: 43cm (<95th %ile!!) It's no wonder she has trouble holding her head up when the rest of her is in the 20th %ile and below, and her head is greater than 95%!! Poor girl...when I look at her, though, I don't think her head looks THAT big. Oh well...she's adorable!

Sleep: She still takes 4 naps a day - her first 3 naps are about 1.5-2 hours long, her last nap is about 45 minutes. She sleeps through the night!! Every night! At 3 months, she would still wake every few nights to eat, but it's been about a month since she woke. She is my early riser, though. Audrey would always wake in the 7:30-8 range, but not Ava!! This morning she was awake at 5:45, and she doesn't hang out quietly....she goes from being totally asleep to yelling (not crying, just yelling). Luckily, I've been able to flip her over to her tummy and pop a paci in her mouth, and get her to go back to sleep until 7. I try to keep her in bed as close to 7am as possible. If she keeps spitting the paci out and yelling, then I know she's actually hungry. Usually, though, I can put her on her tummy and give her the paci and she'll go back to sleep pretty quickly. Then I know she didn't wake up out of hunger - she just woke up, and needed help getting back to sleep. I can't complain, though.

Eating: That girl has a big appetite! Although, she is proving to be longer and leaner than Audrey at this age (she's 1/2" longer and one pound lighter), she eats way more than Audrey did ever. She eats 5 bottles a day (7am, 10am, 1pm, 4pm, 7pm), and she usually does 3 big bottles (6-8oz each), and 2 small bottles (2-4oz each). On her "not-so-hungry" days, she eats about 20-24oz of formula; on her HANGRY days, she'll easily put away 30oz. The pediatrician told me I could start rice cereal, but I don't see the need. I didn't start food with Audrey until somewhere between 7-8 months. Since Ava is sleeping well, and is satisfied on formula, I'll be sticking with just formula for awhile longer. 

Clothes: Still comfortably fits in 0-3 month/3m clothes

New Achievements of the Month:

1. Reaching for toys above her head!! This is a goal she's working on in her physical therapy (which she's doing VERY well, by the way). The therapist said that reaching is a sign of her pectoral muscles strengthening. OK, so I realize we all have the same muscles, but it always makes me laugh when I hear the therapist talk about Ava needing to strengthen her pectoral muscles and abs. I don't think about babies needing to "work out" those muscles, but all their playing is what they're doing - strengthening all of their little muscles!

She pulled the lion string several times and made it play music - she loves this bouncy seat!

2. She's found her thumb!! She still sucks on a paci, too, but I have no problem with her sucking her thumb. I really think it's adorable...especially when she doesn't know where to put her other fingers, so they just lay on her nose. 

3. I need to start writing stuff down because now I can't think of anything... #secondchildproblems!

Things she likes:

1. The swing! She gives it the biggest smiles and they have great conversations!

2. Hanging out with the family 

3. Being "loved on" by Audrey - I think it looks like she's being smothered, but Ava is always all grins! 

Things she doesn't like:

1. Being hungry! She goes from being totally fine to being super "hangry" in about 0.3 seconds!

I just can't express enough how much we love, love, love this sweet baby!! While it does sadden me to see how quickly time is flying, and how quickly she's growing up, I can't wait until she's older and we can really do lots of family things, and she and Audrey can play more together.

Watch Ava Grow!!

Another month older??!! Slow down, time! This sweet baby brings us so much joy and laughter. This month she definitely has found her voice (a mini-Audrey maybe??), she smiles much more easily, and she has started beginning baby laughs. She is seriously the most easy-going baby EVER!! I used to think that Audrey was an easy baby, but not compared to Ava. As long as Ava has a full tummy, and it's not close to nap time, it's unlikely that you'll hear anything other than happy baby noises and squeals from this sweet girl.

Oops...I don't know any of her length, height, or head circumference. I'll find out at her 4 month appointment.

Sleep: So far, we've been doing well this week with 4 naps a day. The first 3 are her long ones which are each about 1.5-2 hours long. Her 4th nap is usually just 30ish minutes. Her night sleep is still rocking! She still doesn't sleep through the night every night, but she'll usually sleep 12 hours for 2-3 nights in a row, and then have a wake-up anywhere from 2:30-5 in the morning needing to eat. It's like she's just not quite ready to give up that middle of the night fully, but she doesn't need it all the time. She drinks down her bottle very quickly and is usually asleep, or very close to it, by the end of the bottle, so I'm only up with her in the middle of the night for 20-30 minutes a couple times a week. Nothing to complain about!!

Eating: If she's up in the night, she wants 6oz. If you don't make enough and have to put her down to make more, she'll let you know how displeased she is that she has to wait for more! If she didn't eat in the middle of the night, then her first morning bottle is 6oz. Usually the rest of her bottles are 4-6oz each.

Clothes: She still comfortably fits in a 0-3m size.

New Achievements of the Month:
1. She's found her voice! She loves singing (it's how I'm woken at 6:30-7 every morning, but it's so precious sounding that I don't even care that it's 6:30!), and she loves talking to the toys on the tray of her swing.
2. She smiles big gummy grins all the time! We took her to Parents' Night Out at church yesterday, and she was asleep when we went back to pick her up. I was buckling her in her car seat and she woke up, and just gave me the biggest, happiest smiles! Like she was saying, "Hi, Mommy!" Oh, she melts my heart!
3. Baby laughs!!! I've made her laugh a couple times, and Audrey has made her laugh a couple times. I love beginning baby laughter. It's not a fully belly laugh yet; but I know it's coming.
4. Securing her paci with her hand. She doesn't take a paci all the time, but it is my go-to when she's having a hard time settling herself for a nap, or if she wakes early from a nap and can't get herself back to sleep. As soon as I pop it in her mouth, she puts her hand right beside of it so that it won't roll away if it falls out.
5.

Things she likes:
1. The car - believe it or not! I used to dread car rides with her because she would just scream the whole time. Now, she falls asleep as soon as we pull out of the driveway!
2. Her big sister
3. The toys on her tray
4. The lights and music that are on her play mat
5. Taking a bath - another thing she used to hate and now loves
6. Singing/talking

Things she doesn't like:
1. Being hungry - but really, who does??

Other randomness:
1. We got her head checked out by a cranial specialist to make sure the bones in her skull weren't fusing together prematurely, and everything looked perfect. She just has a weird-shaped head (which she inherited from her mother - I can't wear hats because my head is narrow and long which is exactly what her head looks like. Poor girl)
2. She is in physical therapy once a week for having low tone (her head is still really wobbly and I have to carry her while supporting her head so it doesn't flail around). She's doing great with it, and we do exercises with her at home. The therapists love her because she's pretty cooperative. At worst, she'll fuss a few times if they're making her stretch or "work out" in a way that is hard/uncomfortable for her. Audrey LOVES going to physical therapy because the therapist gets special toys for Audrey to play with. I love physical therapy because they work Ava really hard and she's so exhausted from it that she naps the very best on physical therapy days.

I just love this sweet baby and can't wait to see what kind of firsts and new developments this next month brings us!

A video of her love of the giraffe on the swing....just to make you smile!

Watch Ava Grow - 2 Months Old!!

This sweet baby is already 2 months old!! How is that even possible? Before I know it, I'll be planning her first birthday party....but I'm not ready to think about that yet. I want to keep her a baby for a little while longer. 

Weight: 9lbs 9oz (9th %ile) 

Length: 22 1/2 inches (50th %ile)

Head Circumference: 40cm (91st %ile!!!) 

Sleep: Nap? What's a nap? That seems to be her motto today as I'm writing this. I always tell Michel he's the baby whisperer. He puts her in bed, and she falls asleep without a peep and sleeps for 2 1/2 hours! I put her in bed, and she yells, and is awake 30 minutes later.... 

On a normal day, she naps 4 times a day for about 1 1/2-2 hours between feedings. She sleeps great at night, though! She's up once for about 20 minutes, eats, and goes right back down. I usually have her in bed by 7:30 and she's up for the day between 7-7:30 the next morning. (Edit: as of 5/16/16 when I'm writing this, she's done 2 nights in a row of sleeping for 11 hours straight, eats quickly, back in bed for about an hour to an hour and a half, and up around 7:30 or 7:45!!)

Eating: She generally eats 3-4oz every 3 hours during the day; 4oz when she's up at night.

Clothes: She comfortably fits into 0-3 month clothes

New Achievements of the Month:
1. She smiles at us!! She's not nearly as free with her smiles as what Audrey was (especially at this age), and sometimes you have to work hard to get one, but when she smiles at you, it takes up her entire face and is the most precious thing EVER!!!
2. She's found her fist to suck on. I still can't decide if she'll be a thumb-sucker like Audrey, or need a pacifier (or maybe neither!), but she can get her fist in her mouth and will chew/suck on that when needed. 
3. She's getting better at riding in the car. It's more common now for her to ride quietly in the car than cry/scream! I'll usually ask Audrey if she's asleep or awake, and most of the time, Audrey tells me that Ava is asleep. I love having my little toddler babysitter back there to tell me what's going on!
4. She has discovered that she can control her hands! It's hilarious!! She'll sit there and watch her hand move and the expression on her face is just like, "Whoa......"
5. She can put herself to sleep from completely awake. I taught Audrey this skill early on, and I think it helped her to stay a good sleeper! Hopefully the same is true for Ava!
6. She can track things really well

Things She Likes:
1. Being held - if she fusses or cries while being held, it means she needs something (usually to eat). Otherwise, being held pretty much fixes everything for her. 
2. Audrey - she cranes her neck to find Audrey when she hears her voice
3. Sleeping on Daddy's chest - I call Michel the "baby whisperer". He lays her on his chest and she's out in like 3 seconds!

Things She Doesn't Like:
Napping - :-(

Other Randomness:
She's having the same head issues that Audrey did - torticollis (stiff neck), only looking one direction, etc. We're being referred to a plastic surgeon to make sure that the sutures in her head aren't closing too early because her head is taking on an elongated look (again....just like Audrey), and we'll likely be starting physical therapy for her torticollis. I've already started doing the neck exercises like I did for Audrey. Good grief - we seriously just had the exact same baby!

Watch Ava Grow - 1 Month!

I'm a couple of weeks late in posting, but I'm finding myself a little busy most days! In all honesty, Ava is really a very easy-going baby. She's a pretty happy little girl, and it's so fun watching her little personality start coming out.

Length: 22 inches (as of 4/5/16)

Weight: 7lbs 10oz (as of 4/5/16)

Head Circumference: Not sure

Sleep: She generally sleeps 2+ hours in between feedings during the day. At 1 month, she was going about 4-5 hours without waking to eat at night. As of the last 4 nights (I'm typing this on 4/19), she's been doing more like 6 hours at night without waking to eat. Daytime naps are lately starting to shape up much like Audrey at this age - it is getting harder to put her down and keep her down; however, at night, she drinks her bottle and is ready to go back to bed. Michel always helps out with night feedings, too, and we're generally back in bed within 30 minutes of getting up to feed her, so I can't complain there. This was around the time that I started implementing a Baby Wise-inspired schedule with Audrey, and I see us starting this in the very near future with Ava.

Eating: She generally eats 2-4oz every 2 1/2-3 hours

Clothes: She's still wearing a NB size in clothes, but they are getting snug throughout the length. She is wearing a size 1 in diapers, but only because we ran out of NB diapers, and had a TON of size 1's. She was still fitting into a NB diaper, though.

New Achievements of the Month: 
1. This girl has found her voice!! I seriously feel like she's a mini-me of Audrey! I had Ava lying on the couch (don't worry, I was sitting right beside her), and she was watching the shadows on the couch cushion as her arm moved back and forth, and she was making the SWEETEST noises. I wish I could have gotten it on video...it was soooo cute!
2. When she's in her bed fussing (waiting for someone to come in and feed her), she stops as soon as she hears me start talking, or as soon as she sees me (or Michel). She knows we're going to take care of her! Of course, if you don't get that bottle in her mouth in a timely manner, she will let you know that you're taking too long :)

Things she likes:
1. Hanging out in her boppy - usually while swaddled
2. Being held - she'll gladly let anybody hold her for as long as they want (and will probably start talking to you!)
3. Sucking on her paci
4. Her big sister :)

Things she doesn't like:
1. The car/car seat - ugh....again, just like Audrey! Audrey didn't hate the car ride as much as Ava. Sometimes we have a quiet car ride; sometimes we have just a fussy baby, and sometimes we have a screaming baby. It's very unpredictable, and I can't ever tell what it is that she doesn't like about the car ride. Ava also isn't a big fan of her car seat in the stroller either, so whenever I take her places, I just have to push her to our location and know that I'll have to take her out and hold her. Once she's out of the car seat, the tears pretty much turn off immediately.
2. Being hungry...but really, who likes feeling hungry?? :)

Other random facts:
1. Audrey LOVES Ava, and hates hearing her cry/fuss. If Ava does start crying and we're at home, Audrey usually gets a book to read to her while I make a bottle (most of the time if Ava starts crying it's because she's hungry). If we're in the car, Audrey will be in the back seat going "Shhhh Ava" (in a sweet voice), or sometimes Audrey will just inform me, "Mommy, Ava cwying." LOL....yes. I hear it, too. One time, the thing that cracked me up the most was when Audrey told Ava, "I know. It rough being a baby." Hahahaha!!! Can you tell that I've said this before?
2. Ninja seems to feel a sense of responsibility for Ava. I had her lying on her boppy on the floor, and Ninja walked over, sniffed her a little bit, and then laid down beside her. If she's on the floor and starts crying, he has sat down beside her and then stares at me like, "Ummm...this thing is crying. Aren't you going to do something?" Also, when I go in to feed her at night, he usually follows me in there and curls up inside her crib!! He will jump out when I put Ava back in there, though. :)

Welcome to the world, Ava Noelle!

I haven't touched this blog in 7 whole months!!! I got annoyed with my pictures disappearing, and just thought about stopping the blog altogether. However, this is the only way I keep track of my kids' milestones, and since I did so well with Audrey's month-ivesary series, I have to do the same with Ava. As the younger child, I always said I wasn't going to do more for the older child than the younger, but now I see how it just happens. Some days, we have our hands FULL! Yesterday, I got about 30 minutes of down time the entire day. I was absolutely EXHAUSTED by bedtime. I digress.

Today, the day that Ava turns 1 month old, I decided that I should go back to the day that she was actually born.

On March 8th, I had my regular 39 week appointment with my OB. When she did the cervical check, she found that I was 3 1/2 cm dilated, baby was REALLY low (which I already knew thanks to my trips to the bathroom every 30 min!), and my water bag was bulging to the point she was surprised that it hadn't broken yet. She told me if I had been 4 cm dilated, she could have admitted me to the hospital in active labor, and asked if I was having a lot of contractions. I told her I had them all the time, but they were only 15-20 min apart, lasted about 30 seconds, and pretty much painless. She asked if I could come back the next day because she was certain I would be dilated to at least a 4, and that we would have a baby that day! Michel and I called our family, and Michel's dad came and stayed with Audrey while we went to the hospital. We were also told to go ahead and bring our bags as my OB was really certain that March 9th would be baby day! So we got to the OB's office, and found out I was 5 cm dilated!! Also, when my OB checked me, my water bag sprung a small leak, so now it was definitely baby day! I was 39 weeks and 4 days along, and soooo uncomfortable, so I was so happy to hear that we were going to meet Ava that day!

My OB's office is at Medical City, so we just had to drive around to a different building, and went up to L&D to get checked in. We arrived there around 1:30, and I was asked if I wanted an epidural. I declined it at the time because, again, my contractions were virtually painless. My OB was going to come over soon and break my water, and my nurse warned me that would likely cause the intensity of the contractions to pick up, and an anesthesiologist may not be available right away. I still declined. Around 3:00, my OB came over and broke my water. Um, the nurse wasn't lying. My contractions sped up from every 15-20 minutes and virtually painless to every 2-3 minutes and they HURT! Needless to say, I asked for the epidural not long after. Luckily, I got it within 20-30 minutes of when I requested it, and life was good again. Michel and i got to enjoy some calm before the storm by hanging out, watching TV, and updating Facebook lol. Around 6pm, I was fully dilated, and ready to push! Because I only pushed for about 20 minutes with Audrey, the nurse had me wait to push (no practice pushes) until my OB got there. Good thing she decided to have me wait because I only pushed 3 times and Ava was out!!

March 9, 2016 at 6:21pm our sweet Ava Noelle Zoutendam was born weighing 7lbs 2oz and measuring 20" long - the EXACT measurements of Audrey when she was born! She was healthy and absolutely perfect in every way!

Look Whooo Is 23 Months Old!

I have so neglected this poor little blog! I forgot to do a 22-month thing for Audrey, and even though I'm almost 2 weeks late with her 23-month post, I figure better late than never! Besides, she's changed so much and learned so much in the last 2 months, I want to document it!

I didn't do a picture for this month...I promise, I tried. Little turkey wouldn't hold still for a picture! Plus, there's something wrong with my blog, and my pictures don't show up after awhile. I really need to look into fixing this because I have such great memories on here. It's basically my scrapbook. Plus, I want to start a pregnancy post for baby #2. I've gotten lazy....

Anyways...as Michel and I already knew, Audrey is one smart cookie! In June, right after she turned 21 months old, she was assessed for a speech delay, and didn't qualify. Her expressive language was 3 months behind, but her receptive language (what she understands) was measured at that of a 29-month-old! Anyways, in the last couple of months, her expressive language has really caught up with her receptive language. In June, she was still mainly using one word at a time to express herself. Now she uses more 2-3 word phrases, and a wide variety of phrases. The biggest change we've seen in the way she speaks is that she's adding all parts of the word to it (she did a lot of syllable deletion...all of her "b" words were just "buh" like book, ball, bug, big all sounded like "buh"). She also used to count by changing her intonation, but the word was just "uh" for every number. Now she can say 1-10 fairly understandably. Some of her numbers are much clearer than others (two, three, five, six, eight are easiest to understand). She's still my social butterfly and will say hello to anybody she sees, wave at everybody, and do anything for a laugh! I LOVE this sweet little girl and her silly personality!

Weight/Height: I don't know. We go for her 2-year-old check-up in a couple of weeks. I'd guess 25-26 pounds. No idea on her height other than she's not tall! Who does she get that from???

Clothes: Still mainly in 18m clothes. For pants, she really needs a 24m to accommodate her chubby little thighs (again...who does she get that from??), but 18m are the perfect length for her. She's kind of in that awkward in-between stage of what fits.

Sleep: Her night sleep almost never changes. She goes to bed at 8 and hasn't been waking up until 8 or later in the morning! The last two days, she woke up closer to 8:30, but one day she slept in until 9:30!!! She naps around 1 or 1:30 and only sleeps for about an hour or an hour and fifteen minutes. It's not a long nap, but I really can't expect a long nap since she sleeps such long hours at night.

Eating: She's still a great eater! She still doesn't like a cheeseburger. Seriously....what American doesn't love a cheeseburger??? That's about the only food she rejects, though. She loves her fruits and vegetables, and eats them without a complain. Oh, and she's recently developed a love of smoothies. She doesn't drink as much milk as we would like, so this is a great and easy way to get some milk in her.

New Achievements of the Month:
1. Can correctly name her colors (white, black, purple, red, green, orange, yellow, blue, purple, pink)
2. Can count 1-10 fairly understandably
3. Says most all of her words very clearly!
4. Has figured out how to climb (eeek!). Luckily, nothing very dangerous. She's not trying to climb out of her crib or anything, but she's figured out how to climb onto our bed by herself, and she's starting to climb onto the couch by herself. I guess I should count my blessings that she's a bit timid, or maybe lazy, about climbing, and still prefers to have someone put her where she wants to be!
5. I'm sure I'm missing a lot of stuff that she's just started doing, but I can't think of everything!

Likes:
1. "Anna Elsa" (a.k.a. Frozen!). I bought her some little Tupperware containers that have Anna, Elsa, and Olaf on them, and I showed her how Anna and Elsa are on her flip-flops, too. Now, she talks about "Anna Elsa" all the time, and gets so excited when we see clothes, backpacks, etc. in Wal-Mart with Frozen on it!
2. Bubble Guppies
3. Daniel Tiger's Neighborhood
4. Running in the grass
5. Being outside
6. Music

Dislikes:
1. Having anything yucky on her hands
2. Having a boo-boo (she'll randomly point out where she used to have a boo-boo and say "boo-boo ow")

I can't believe we're less than a month away from celebrating this sweet girl's 2nd birthday!!!!

Look Whooo Is 21 Months Old!

I have done a horrible job at keeping up with my blog. It's just kind of fallen to the bottom of my priority list. Also, I can't upload photos from my phone. It shows the last pictures that I took to be on July 4, 2014! I don't know why new ones won't pop up. I've gotten a new phone and a new computer since then, so I'm not sure what's going on there...

Anyways, I really can't believe that Audrey is 21 months old! I seriously feel like she should still be a baby, but she is such a big girl! She's my super social butterfly, loves to wave/say hi/bye as we're entering/exiting the grocery store, loves being the center of attention, loves making people laugh at her, loves her family (could seriously care less if Mommy and Daddy are around if she has grandparents, aunts, uncles, and cousins around!), and loves sleeping really long hours at night in order to avoid taking a nap at any and all costs. Sometimes it's nice that she can suffice on such little day sleep (Six Flags, for example), but most of the time it's a bit frustrating (like today when she played in her crib for 30 minutes only to lay down for a 45 minute nap). I'm already thinking that she'll just stop taking naps altogether by age 2 (nooooo!!!)....but her night sleep remains at 11 1/2-12 hours (12 1/2-13 hours if she needs to catch up on sleep), so should I really be complaining????

We had a speech evaluation done on her. I expressed some concerns to her pediatrician around 18 months old that, though she has a lot of words (or at least a lot of sounds for words), nobody can understand her. Also, she knows/can say most of her letter sounds. Yet when she puts those sounds together in a word, it's completely jibberish. Example: if you ask her what a snake says, or what the letter "S" says, she'll say "sssss", but when she tries to say the word "shoe", it's "ga." She says the word "mama" very clearly, but the word "milk" is also "ga." So I don't totally understand why "milk" doesn't at least start with an "m" when she says it because I know she can make that sound. Anyways, she didn't qualify for speech therapy. She had to have a 25% delay across all areas (cognition, expressive communication, receptive communication - how she understands the language, gross motor, fine motor, and social-emotional) OR a 33% delay in one specific area. Everything but receptive and expressive communication measured as a 20-21 month-old (no delay); her expressive communication skills were measured as an 18-month-old (14% delay), but her receptive communication skills measured as a 29-month-old!!! I knew that she understood a LOT, but I didn't know that she understood around the level of a 2 1/2 year-old! I was pretty impressed with that. I got lots of compliments on how personable she is (no surprise there), how well she attends to, and engages with adults, and how she separates from me easily. OK, now this turned into a shameless Mommy brag, but still, I was very proud of how well she did for the evaluation! I was told that we need to focus on her using more 2-word phrases (which was one of my concerns about her speech going into the eval), and not using her middle finger to point, but making her use her index finger more.

Anyways....

Weight: I really don't know. I'm guessing around 25 pounds. She usually gains about a pound per month.

Length/Head circ.: ??? If I remember correctly, they don't measure head circumference after 18 months. We don't go back for a well-check until age 2.

Clothes: Still fits comfortably in 18m clothes. Some are getting a bit snug, but they should last all summer. We'll probably have to find 24m/2T (not sure which one we'll go to) this fall...around her 2nd birthday

Sleep: Goes to bed at 8pm and wakes up between 7:30 and 8 (8:30 if she's really tired) the next morning. Naps....ha! What 21-month-old needs a nap (this seems to be Audrey's mindset as of lately)

Eating: This girl is such a great eater! She just discovered a new food that she loves: Veggie Straws! I've tried them; they really are pretty good. The one food I've seen her reject over and over is a hamburger/cheeseburger. How can you not love a cheeseburger? I made some last night, and I heated up some macaroni for her, but I broke off pieces of a hamburger patty in her macaroni to make it kind of like a goulash. I noticed she wasn't eating the meat, so I asked her to eat some meat. She put it in her mouth, chewed it, shook her head "no", and gave it back to me. :-/ I guess I can't ask for more than that...she did try it! :)

New Achievements of the Month: 
1. Can say "help" really clearly
2. Has learned a few colors: blue, red, and green. She knows blue receptively (can you find me a blue Lego?) and expressively (What color is that? Blue) and says blue like "boooooo!" with a really long ending.
3. We had lunch with my parents on Wednesday for my dad's birthday and something happened and I said, "Oh, Nana," to my mom. She copied me saying that (very clearly, too) and now she says it all the time, only names will change (Oh, Nana; Oh, Mama; Oh, Dada; Oh, Karys)
4. She loves copying me when I say, "Oh, bummer!"
5. She says "thank you" very clearly, with the exact same inflection in her voice that I use when I say it to her, and uses it spontaneously/without me having to prompt her when I give her something. I love her sweet manners!
6. When I tell her we're going bye-bye, she'll say bye to everything we pass: Bye Ninja, bye floor, bye chair....not all the time, but quite a bit!

Likes:
1. Tickling everyone/everything - Mama, Dada, Ninja (we don't let her, but she always asks to), ants, the floor....apparently she doesn't quite "get" who/what can be tickled :)
2. Pushing her baby stroller around that Karys gave her
3. Ducks! She has suddenly developed a love for ducks. I made the mistake of finding a duck video on Youtube, and now she wants to watch it all. the. time. It has a weird song that plays in the background that gets stuck in my head, but she loves it!
4. Singing - put anything to music for her and she'll love it!
5. Dancing
6. Clapping for herself for a job well-done

Dislikes:
1. NAPS!!!
2. Not getting her way - I fear we're approaching the "terrible 2's"!

In all seriousness, though, she really has a sweet, easy-going disposition about 95% of the time. I think we'll keep her around for a bit longer!

Look Whooo Is 19 Months Old!!

I'm a bit late on this, but this last week has been soooooo busy! Plus, I've gotten really into Parenthood during naps/bedtime, and it's hard for me to focus on the show and type a blog (even though I'm now doing it as I type!).

Lots of things have changed since 18 months! First, last Friday we went to Scottish Rite for her walking eval. After having a PA (physician's assistant), a physical therapist, and an orthopedic surgeon watch Audrey walk, go from a sitting to standing position, and flex/stretch her legs, feet, and hips, they determined that there's nothing wrong with her! That was a total "praise the Lord!" moment. I was really fearing she would need weekly physical therapy, orthodics, or both.

Second thing that's changed is that, after being around other friends with kids' around Audrey's same age, Michel and I have become very aware that Audrey's speech is definitely behind for her age. She has a TON of words that she knows, but she just doesn't say them clearly. As she's getting older, she's really trying to string words and thoughts together, but it really just comes out gibberish. We went to the pediatrician today (for a sick visit...poor girl's been running fever since Wednesday, we decided to get it checked out, and found out that it's just a virus and keep giving Tylenol and Motrin...$25 down the drain to find out we need to keep doing what we've been doing lol!), but anyways, I told the pediatrician some of my concerns and she's submitting our names to Early Intervention and someone should call us next week to schedule an evaluation for her.

Anyways, this girl is crazy fun, sweet, loves to be the center of attention, and a major FLIRT!! We were at Target this evening just picking up a few necessities, and there was a boy about 13 years old in the same aisle as us that Audrey immediately started waving at. He actually looked at her, and said "hi" and she got the biggest smile on her face! Uh-oh. We have trouble on our hands! I also jinxed myself tonight when I was talking to Michel on the phone and told him that she's been in a great mood, obeying, etc. Then it came time to pick up all the toys (as we do every. single. night) before bedtime and this girl stinker acted like she had no idea how to pick up her toys. You would think that this was a new concept to her. I started picking up toys and she sits down to play with her Legos, got a drink of water, you name it, she did it. So finally I made her look me in the eye and told her if she didn't pick up her Legos by the time I got to 3, she was going to time-out. She ended up in time-out....and she made sure to let me know that she was NOT at all happy about it. One minute later (when time-out was all done) she suddenly remembered how to clean up her toys. Can I just state the obvious? Being the mother to a toddler is hard. I don't even have a strong-willed child (most of the time) and it's hard. Luckily, more often than not, I see her sweet little heart and kind spirit more than I see her defiant side (I'm probably jinxing myself again by saying this)!

OK, onto her stats:

Weight: 22lbs 6oz (as of today's dr appt)

Length/Head circ.: ??

Sleep: Ohhhh....the sleep. I read online that there is an 18 month sleep regression (actually there's one every few months), but man we felt this one! It was taking her 30 minutes to an hour+ to fall asleep at her naptime and bedtime for two weeks straight! I thought I was going to lose my mind. Luckily, she's back to falling asleep almost instantly, or at least within 10 minutes. This week she hasn't napped longer than an hour, but she's sleeping 12-13 hours at night, so she's getting plenty of sleep. She's been waking up from her nap and bedtime this week whining and fussing whereas she usually wakes up happy, so I'm guessing that's from her virus she caught.

Eating: Still a great eater! I've discovered she likes to dip her food. If we're having something where ketchup would be an appropriate dip she loves ketchup (and sometimes she just sticks her fork, or finger, in ketchup and licks it off!). Tonight we were having black bean burgers with apples and I made a little apple dip out of peanut butter, Greek yogurt, and caramel extract (it was delicious!) and she loved dipping her apples in it...though I'm pretty sure much more dip was consumed than apples!

Clothes: She's in all 18m now. Thanks to Aunt Janette, we are well-stocked for summer!!

New Achievements of the Month:
1. Says the word "up" very clearly, but in the most pitiful way possible. It's very drawn out with her arms up (she usually only uses it when she wants to be picked up), but it's like "uuuuuuup". It's pretty cute actually....except when I can't pick her up and it becomes a cry. Then it's sad/annoying!
2. Has gotten fast enough/good enough at walking that I can let her walk into a building (church mainly) without me always having to carry her. This is sad and exciting for Mommy! She's still having to learn that she has to hold my hand if we're in a parking lot because she doesn't always want to
3. Can follow directions very well (well...when she wants). It's nice that I can tell her something like "go get your water and walk to the garage" and she does it. It's sooo cute to see how much she understands even though she can't say as much back!

Likes:
1. Eating - she would probably snack all the time if I let her
2. Her little friend, Campbell. My BFF/college roommate lives in Frisco and we try to get together every other week, and sometimes every week. Her son is 6 weeks younger than Audrey, and Audrey LOVES him!! Other than her cousins, it's the only little kid whose name she knows just when she hears it, and gets really excited when she sees him. They play really well together, too, it's a win-win for everyone!

Dislikes:
1. Timeout!

Look Whooo Is 18 Months Old!!

18 months??!! We're 6 months away from planning her 2nd birthday! How in the world is that possible? I know...I say this every month, but time is seriously just flying by with this sweet girl.

We had her 18 month well-check earlier this morning, and I am proud to say (and not at all surprised) that she is right where she should be. Some of the questions we were asked were: can she use a spoon and a cup? (yes); can she stack blocks (she stacks Legos); can she run and climb (climb - yes; run - we're getting there!); does she eat table food at least 3x a day plus snacks (most definitely); does she mimic facial expressions, hand gestures, and/or words (haha! all. the. time!); does she point with her index finger (well...she uses her middle finger, but yes, she does point); does she say at least 15 words understandably (yes); does she have an expressive vocabulary of at least 20 words (yes); can she scribble correctly with colors? (yes).  That's all I can think of for the moment. At the start of each well-check, our nurse always asks us if we have any questions/concerns for the doctor. Michel and I brought up how Audrey walks with her left foot turned out much further than normal. Her right food is fine, but her left foot is turned out almost completely perpendicular to her right foot. Her pediatrician watched Audrey walk throughout the room and in the back hallway for a bit (Audrey was more than happy to have all eyes on her, too!) and thinks it's pretty normal, but did notice that she also walks heavily on the inside of her left foot, so she is sending us to Scottish Rite Hospital to have someone with more expertise watch Audrey walk and see if this is just out-toeing (which is apparently very common in toddlers who are just starting out walking). Our pediatrician asked another doctor to watch Audrey walk, too, and the other doctor also said she thinks it's just because Audrey is a new walker. I'd rather go to Scottish Rite and find out it's nothing than to do nothing about it and later find out that it's something. This girl! For a child who is perfectly healthy, we have had more therapy and specialized appointments than I ever dreamed possible (her PT and helmet). Oh well...I'm glad to fix all these little things while she's young and they can be fixed!

Anyways, on to her stats:

Weight: 21lbs 12oz (10th - 25th%ile)

Length: 30 1/2" (10th - 25th%ile)

Head Circumference: 18" (25th %ile) - it only grew 1/4" since her 15 month appointment. If you remember from her 15 month appt., we had to go back at 16 months for head measurement b/c it looked like her head grew a lot between 12 and 15 months. Today the dr said her head is on her normal growth curve and is chalking up the "rapid head growth" measurement to an incorrect measurement at some point along the way. Phew!)

Sleep: I feel like she's sleeping MORE than she used to (but not in a worrisome way)! Lately she's been sleeping about 12 - 13 hours at night (usually 7:45/8p - 8:30a!). Her night sleep hasn't changed much, but the last couple weeks her normal 1 1/2 hour long nap has extended to closer to 2 1/2 hours! This makes Mommy happy :) Now that I say that, she'll probably go back to taking crazy short naps, but at least I got a couple of weeks of nice long naps!

Eating: She is a great eater! She doesn't normally eat much at breakfast (sometimes she literally takes 5 bites or less and then is signing "all done"), but she always eats a great lunch and dinner. A typical breakfast for her is either a cereal bar, a bowl of Cheerios with milk, or some oatmeal. Lunch is usually ham or tuna salad (sometimes she gets Spaghettios instead), cheese (always have to have cheese!), sauteed bell peppers (her absolute favorite) and apple slices. Dinner is whatever Michel and I are eating. There's a couple of exceptions where I fix her something different, but that's because there are very few foods that she doesn't eat, so when it's a food that she's shown me multiple times that she doesn't like I will heat up some macaroni for her. She also is offered a snack when she wakes up from her nap, but usually doesn't eat it. Apparently she likes her 3 square meals a day.

Clothes: All of her 9m/9-12m are definitely too small now. She can comfortably wear 12m, but they're getting too small in the length (mainly pj's). 12m pants don't fit her b/c, for as small as she is, she still has some nice, chunky baby thighs! So pants are always 18m; shirts can be 12m or 12-18m.

New Achievements of the Month:
1. She can walk!!!!! Finally! 17m 3w she took about 3 very independent, tentative steps. Then she got sick and it seemed that her walking was all done. 4 days before turning 18 months, AND her appointment she started walking all over the place! I was able to capture it on video, too!
2. Can correctly name 3 out of 6 Bubble Guppies (is this something I should brag about???) :)
3. Can tell you what sounds the following letters make (in addition to the ones she knew at 17 months): R, W, Y, S, A, B, F, G, J, K, L, M, N
4. She can also identify the following letters when she sees them in writing: A, B, F, J, K, L, M, N, R, S, W, Y (in addition to H, P, T that she knew at 17 months). I promise I don't sit and tutor her and do flashcards or something! Michel jokes that she used all of her energy that should have gone towards learning to walk into learning to read and talking!
5. She will tell you when she's pooping! It's usually pretty obvious, but when her face is red, and I ask her, "Are you pooping?" she'll either answer with "no" (shakes her head) or if she's actually pooping, she'll say, "pooping"!
6. She tries to dress herself. It doesn't work at all because she just lays her socks on the tops of her feet and puts her shirt on her head, so she doesn't understand how to get her clothes ON; she just knows where each article of clothing goes.
7. She says "yucky" very clearly. Usually it's when she finds something on the floor (food from the previous meal that I missed while sweeping, or if we're walking in the parking lot of a store and she finds trash, she'll point and say, "yucky!" It's pretty cute :)
8. Says "whoa!" very clearly. Usually when she falls down :)
9. Shakes her head "no" and usually means it. Sometimes she nods "yes", but "no" is what I see most often.
10. She's getting pretty good at puzzles. As I'm typing this, we're in her room, and she did 2 puzzles - each with 10 independent pieces completely on her own!
11. Always tells me my hands are cold (which they probably are), so I blew on my hands one time, and now when she tells me that my hands are cold I tell her to blow on them and warm them up. This usually turns into her licking my hands...but it's hilarious!
12. Eats *very* well off of a plate and can use a fork and a spoon with very little help from Mommy or Daddy (oh, and right after I typed this the turkey dumped all the food off of her plate not once, but twice...normally she eats off the plate with no problem, but had to dump food only because I wrote that she does so well with a plate)
13. After a few days of having a stand-off with her when I told her to clean up a mess she purposely made and she pretended like she either a.) didn't understand what I was asking; b.) didn't want to do it, and seeing that Mommy was going to make her obey she now cleans up with no problem - usually after I ask her once. When I tell her it's time to go to bed she immediately starts picking up her Legos and putting them away without me having to ask! She really has such a sweet, helpful heart :)


Likes:
1. Chocolate milk - the only way I can get her to drink milk well is if I do 1/2-3/4 white milk and fill the rest of the cup with chocolate milk. Even then, there are some days that she only drinks like 4oz of milk.
2. Ice cream - we went to Jason's Deli after her dr's appointment this morning, and she was adamant that she was done eating when we offered her different food....until I went and got my free frozen yogurt. Suddenly, she was ready to eat again! (she is seriously my mini-me!)
3. Grocery shopping - this used to be the activity that I would NEVER do with her, and now it's so fun! She loves putting apples and bell peppers into produce bags for me, and whenever we pass a food she knows she'll point to it, say whatever it is, and ask "Please?" You would think we never feed this girl!

Dislikes: 
1. Not getting exactly what she wants when she wants it - that's pretty much every toddler though, right? :)

This girl is just soooo easy-going and happy! I don't know why God chose me to be her mommy, but my life is so blessed because of it!

Look Whooo Is 17 Months Old!!!

I know that I say this every month, but how in the world is this sweet girl already 17 months old??? There are days that I feel like I blinked and she went from an infant to a toddler overnight!

Let me just start by saying that Audrey is so blessed to have such a loving daddy! There was one day last week I really, really, really needed a Mommy "time-out" (lol). Audrey was getting over croup and fussy, clingy, crabby, etc. On top of that, I was really disappointed that a special date night that Michel and I had planned had to be cancelled. So, last Thursday Michel saw that I needed a break, and took Audrey out to do a couple of errands that he was already planning on doing, then took her to Cabella's to look around and see the big fish tank, and ended with a special Daddy/daughter lunch at Chipotle (since she loves any and all Mexican food). Not only was it a special time for me to have 3 hours at home by myself, but I know that it was a special time for Michel, and most definitely a special time for Audrey. To make it even better, she took a 3 hour nap that afternoon! Daddy/daughter dates apparently wear her out! I told Michel he was going to be responsible for taking her out daily if we get those long naps from her :)

She's still not walking independently, but we are getting there.....slowly, but surely. She has a push car that she loves pushing up and down our hallway. On days that it's been nice outside, I've taken her outside and let her push it up and down the sidewalk. She cruises furniture all the time, and she always asks for someone to walk with her (holding her hands). I also have a little "gym" in my bedroom with some step benches, weights, a weighted ball, and treadmill, and she loves crawling up and down off the treadmill and step benches, so she's definitely working on strengthening up those weak little legs of hers. Maybe she'll be a true walker before her 2nd birthday???!!

She went through a period of time where she did NOT want to go into the church nursery which is so unusual for her. I've never had her not want to go to the nursery. She would hold onto my shirt and cry, and sometimes just start crying as I walked down the hallway going to the nursery. She sure did know how to tug on my heartstrings. I kept putting her in the nursery and the workers always told me she stopped within 5-10 minutes of me leaving, but it still wasn't my favorite way to leave her. Then, just as quickly as it started, it stopped! Last week the worker just held out her arms to Audrey and said, "Do you want to come play?" and Audrey just leaned right over to her....and then proceeded to look at me, wave, and say, "bye, bye." Turkey.

Waving and saying "bye bye" has definitely become a new favorite. As I was putting her in bed for her nap the other day, she usually rolls over to her tummy and starts sucking her thumb, but this time she stayed on her back, smiled at me, waved (and her wave is like a beauty pageant wave!) and said, "bye bye." Haha! I am glad she's not a kid who cries when I put her in bed, but is happy in bed and can put herself to sleep without an issue. Even though I complain about her short naps I am happy that she never protests being put in bed, and if she's not quite tired enough to fall asleep right away she'll talk and play with her crib toys. If she really wants to be mischievous, she'll throw her toys out of her crib, and I can hear them hit the floor followed by the cutest little "uh-oh." :)

One of her favorite things to do is be a "helper", and honestly she actually is a pretty good helper most of the time. The one chore I really try to get done before I get her out of bed is unloading the dishwasher. She likes helping with this....and that's why I try to do it first thing in the morning before she's awake. There's lots of interesting-looking knives, plates, and forks that she doesn't understand why she can't have! She loves helping me with laundry. She'll sit on the couch and hand me clothing items one at a time while I'm folding; if I'm loading the washing machine she sits on the floor outside of the laundry room with the pile of dirty clothes and hands me dirty clothes one at a time....and it's always with a big smile. She's very proud of herself! She's really such a sweet girl.

Weight: 21lbs 2oz

Length/Head circ.: Don't know - will find out at 18 month appointment

Sleep: Usually in bed between 7:45 and 8:00 and generally falls asleep within 15 minutes. She wakes up between 7:30 and 8am and goes down for a nap by 1 (earlier if she's being super cranky). She usually only naps for an hour and a half.

Eating: She's a great eater! I really couldn't tell you a food that she doesn't like other than tough meat (chicken breast, pork chops, etc). If we're having a meal with a meat that I know she won't eat I'll either heat her up some macaroni and cheese or Spaghettios. She eats all the same side dishes we do, and generally eats the same dinner we do. For breakfast she used to eat a cereal bar or oatmeal, but I guess she got burnt out on that because she had stopped eating a good breakfast. I didn't put much thought into it because she ate a great lunch and dinner, but this week, I've been on a scrambled egg kick and she keeps eating my eggs at breakfast! She also likes sausage (I just toss some pre-cooked sausage crumbles into my eggs as they're cooking) and Greek yogurt. Pretty much if Michel or me are eating it she wants it....and a lot of it! For lunch she usually gets either Spaghettios (rare, but a good quick lunch), ham, or tuna salad (her absolute favorite at the moment) and she usually eats a pouch food, apple sticks, red and green bell peppers (sauteed), a couple of crackers, and some cheese with her main course.

Clothes: 12m/12-18m. I actually feel like some of her 12-18m clothes look too big now! She's slimmed up a lot in the last month since her walking has increased so much!

New achievements of the month:
1. Some of her words are getting much clearer to understand
2. Can correctly say the sound when she sees "H", "B", "P", "T", "D". "T" is her favorite letter and she looks for it on her pouches...and can usually find one!
3. Can correctly name heart, star, circle, square
4. Has figured out that Ninja has similar body parts to her: (eyes, nose, mouth) and likes to touch those parts of his and then touch her own eye/nose/mouth. He (surprisingly) sits there and lets her do it and when he's had enough he just walks away. He's very good with her, and much more tolerant of things she does to him than I thought he might be.
5. Loves pointing out hats and glasses that people are wearing
6. "Counts" - her "counting" is not understandable. I just recognize her sound that she makes and she's either touching an object while "counting" or moving things one at a time over to one side of her - she's at least showing me she's starting to understand 1:1 correspondence)
7. Can correctly tell you the noises the following animals make: owls, goat, sheep, cow, cat, dog, pig, frog, bunny (it goes "hop, hop, hop"), bear, bird, pig, and duck
8. Has discovered my wedding scrapbook and asks for "book" every day. Apparently when I show her the first page (it has a copy of our wedding invitation on it) there's not really anything on there that she would recognize, so I guess I say "ooooh!" because when she wants to look at the book she asks for it by saying "book ooooh" LOL :) - also loves pointing out all of her family members that she sees (which is why she likes looking at the book so much) and now when she sees the page with our cakes on it she says "nom nom nom" Hahaha....I'm proud of this!
9. Pooped in the bathtub! OK this isn't an achievement, but a first for her! We had a lot of fun sterilizing the tub and all of her toys that were in it (insert sarcasm)
10. Really tries to copy the dance moves on Bubble Guppies! Her favorite is "Build Me a Building" in which they talk about a hammer says "bam bam bam"; a saw says "zip zip zip" and a wrench says "crank crank crank" so they have cute hand motions to go with each tool in the song. She will now bust out at any time hitting her fist like a hammer while saying, "bam bam bam" and will follow with the wrench and saw. It's soooo cute!! Today we watched one about brushing your teeth and they had toothbrush hand motions in which she really tried copying that song, too. I love seeing how much she understands!
11. I finally remembered to pull her Duplos out of her closet and get them down for her (they were given to her when she was about 3 months old with the idea that it would be a good toy for her to grow into, and since she was way too young at 3 months we put them in her closet and forgot about them. I remembered to get them out this week and they have been such a fun new toy for her. She played with them with Michel for over an hour tonight!
12. Can correctly name her shoes, socks, pants, and shirt (as well as anybody's clothes for that matter)

Likes:
1. Bubble Guppies
2. Puppies
3. Hats - grandparents gave her a Hello Kitty beach/sun hat this last summer and she's just now taken an interest in it, but she loves it! Tonight she was building with her Duplos while wearing her HK beach hat! I wish I had gotten a picture :)
4. Being outside - we could seriously spend all day outside doing nothing and she would love it
5. Looking at pictures of her family

Dislikes:
1. Not getting her way - I've used this before, but it's true; this is really the only time I see any sort of displeasure from her. We're lucky that she's never had a full-on meltdown, and when she is upset she's pretty easy to distract with something else and she's totally over whatever she was upset about in about 5 seconds....but she definitely lets you know when she's not happy!

Look Whooo Is 16 Months Old!

I completely forgot to do a 16 month post closer to the time that Audrey actually turned 16 months old. Oops!! Better late than never, though!

Our sweet girl is being a complete turkey with her sleep this week! If you're on FB, you saw that on Monday she and I were at MOPS. The worker told me she fell asleep while being rocked around 11:45 for about 10 minutes. TEN minutes. That led to complete nap refusal at home when I put her down at 1:30. She was in bed from 1:30-3:30 happily playing with crib toys, pulling dirty clothes out of her laundry basket and in her bed through the crib slats (that basket has now been moved away from her bed!), we've had 45 minute naps, 11 hours of sleep at night rather than her usual 12-13.....ahhhh!!! OK, vent over. She still wakes up at 7:30 or later so I shouldn't complain. I don't mind the 11 hour night if that would mean a 2-3 hour nap, but an 11 hour night and only a 45 minute nap just is not enough sleep for her. Hopefully she figures out her schedule again very soon. Luckily, she's not overly fussy or tired, so maybe she just doesn't need a ton of sleep...but Mommy needs a good nap time and some evening quiet time!

Between 15 and 16 months she learned how to crawl up the stairs (and excitedly tried to go upstairs at Christmas at my parents' house because Zane and Karys were going upstairs), pulls up to standing on EVERYTHING, can stand without holding onto anything for 2-3 seconds, can take steps while holding onto something (a push toy, our hands, etc), and she cruises really well. One day she will walk independently :)

Weight: 21lbs 1oz (has not gained a single oz since 15 months....this girl is on the move!)

Length: probably the same as 15 months, but I'm not positive

Head circumference: I don't know the exact number, but if you remember in her 15 month post, I mentioned how we had to go back in January to get it re-measured because it looked like there was a big jump in her head size from 12-15 months. Our regular pediatrician was back from maternity leave and showed us that Audrey's head originally measured in the 25th %ile at 2 months, fell to the 10th %ile around 9 months, and now is back in the 25th %ile, so our regular ped. thinks that there was an inaccurate measurement at some point. She isn't concerned about Audrey's head size, and said that we shouldn't be either!

Sleep: Generally in bed by 8, but isn't falling asleep until closer to 8:30 (she used to fall asleep very quickly), wakes between 7:30 and 8am; naps around 1:00. This can seriously last 45 minutes - 2 1/2 hours. She stays in bed for a minimum of an hour and a half regardless of how long she actually sleeps.

Eating: Haha, I read what I put at 15 months and it's pretty similar: her favorite food one day may not get eaten at all the next day! Lately she hasn't been eating cheese. She used to LOVE cheese! And she's not eating foods from a pouch as excitedly either. I made a knock-off/clean-eating Hamburger Helper type meal one night that she absolute LOVED and gobbled up! The next night she ate about 1/4 of what I portioned out for her. Stinker. She loves any color of bell peppers, peas, green beans, broccoli, mac and cheese, Spaghettios, tuna salad, apple slices, apple sauce, pizza, chocolate chip cookie, Cheerios (plain, and in milk), pasta, crackers, puffs....that's all I can think of for now.

Clothes: She's definitely outgrowing 9-12m clothes. 12m still fits pretty well depending on the brand. Some things (shirts especially) are already 18m. Some fit really well; others are too big - again, it depends on the brand.

New Achievements of the Month:
1. Taking steps while assisted
2. Cruising furniture
3. Labels Mommy and Daddy's eyes and nose with a word approximation - yet when you ask her "Where is Audrey's eye (or nose)?" she points to her ear. Every time!
4. I can't think of new words she's learned, but I'm sure she has some! She learns so quickly!
5. "Sings" Bubble Guppies theme song (a.k.a. says "bububububu" repeatedly!)
6. Does the hand motions to dance along with Bubble Guppies during their dance scene. It's soooo cute!

Likes:
1. Bubble Guppies
2. Puppies
3. Balls
4. Walking around the house
5. Santa - she will still say "ho ho ho" and then say "Santa please" like he's around our house somewhere! She's depressed that Christmas is over :)

Dislikes:
1. Clothes/diaper changes
2. Naps (at least this month!)

I still can't believe how old she is! I feel like she should still be an infant. Time really does fly by!