NYE 2016

LOL! I'm so glad I blog, or I would never have remembered that NYE 2014 we spent watching Family Feud and Baggage! That actually sounds more exciting than what NYE 2016 will be.

Last year we made tortilla pizzas for dinner, Avery was a snotty mess, and I wasn't sure I'd make it to midnight.

Last night was a good-ish night. Randall got home around midnight, and I was crashed out on the couch with Deuce. I'd apparently managed to get him to a good sleep state because Randall moved him to his crib, I moved to my bed, and Deuce wasn't up until almost 4:30. I was up at 2, though, to pump. When I got back in bed, Deuce was making a noise here and there, and Avery was coughing :( I ended up moving to the couch where I mostly slept until he woke up. I was in a semi-sleep state where I could here Avery coughing and was dreaming/imagining going in her room to give her water and more medicine. Never happened, though. Whew.

Deuce fell back asleep pretty easily after his feeding. I woke up around 7:15, and the rest of the house was sleeping. They all made it until almost 8, when Avery woke up. I moved Deuce to his chair, but he woke up pretty quickly after. This led to me letting Avery go wake Randall up to take a kid ;)

When Avery came out and saw Deuce, she kept saying, "Hi, brother!" It was really cute ♥

It was a busy morning because we were getting ready for gymnastics. She was mostly ready and eating breakfast when I told her I was going to brush my teeth. I was halfway out the gate and her in her chair when she turned to me and declared "KISS!" I went back through the gate and met her halfway to get my kiss when she announced, "Hug, too!" Ok, I will take that all day, every day!

When we were leaving for gymnastics, she was leading out way to the garage door. She looked up at me and said, "Follow me." It's the first time I've ever heard her use this phrase/concept. When we got to the car, I was telling her that Tatum wasn't going to be there because she was sick. Avery said that Tatum should sit in the seat next to her. This led to a conversation about picking Tatum up and how they would go to school together in the summer. To that, Avery replied, "SO excited!" lol

First station at gymnastics was the trampolines. Avery just had this huge grin on her face throughout. I tried to capture it, but I don't even know that video does it justice. 

Second station was floor stuff. This led to our worst moment of the outing - she totally just took off in a mad dash from one side of the gym to the other. I let her know (once I caught her) that if it happened again, we would be leaving IMMEDIATELY. I'm too slow to catch her! She loved the tunnel, though....

....and when she went down the slide, she would have this dramatic finish.

The best moment at gymnastics was when we were at the foam pit. All the kids were excited to do the rope, and each kid kept running right up to it. I told Avery she needed to stand in line, and she immediately went and stood against the wall. I don't know how she knows how to do that, but I was proud!

 While we were gone, Deuce and Randall were home having a lazy day of football watching ;)

This is where the day took a disappointing turn. Avery totally boycotted her nap and made an escape attempt. In her defense she had pooped, but it still wasn't a great part of the day. I tried to take a nap when she went down but ended up with about a 12 minute power nap :( So.... I don't think I'll see midnight tonight.

When she was busted loose from the failed nap attempt, she made sure Deuce had plenty of entertainment for his nap...

 Randall made his weekly weekend Lowes trip, and when he got home he and Avery went outside to play. When they came in, Avery announced that she hadn't needed his help AT ALL.....

 ....and she wanted to hold her brother. This went on for quite awhile.

 After a brief time inside, they went back out for some bike riding. First, the Frozen quad (although she seemed to have her own storyline going)...

..... and when she'd fallen down enough, she pushed it home ;)

After that, it was time for her bike. She really got going as they headed down the front walkway, and this apparently ended with cries of "Help, please!"

If you haven't seen her on her bike lately, she really gets going!

The fire hydrant is always a photo op

 As always on no-nap days, the evening gets difficult. She actually did a pretty good job of hanging out and not getting into too much trouble. Her spot lately has been near Alexas ;) She also had quite a game of throwing away imaginary trash. 

Deuce was not settled as we headed into dinner, and he was wailing for a bit. Avery rushed over to him, put his pacifier in and worriedly repeated, "don't cry, Deucey." It was really sweet. She is such a loving sister ♥

We made it through bath and bedtime, and she fell right to sleep. Hoping for a great now! We were actually just talking this morning about how different her personality is when she's well-rested. Her cold did seem to be better, too. 

12.30.16 Recap

2 years ago we were having Christmas with my family

1 year ago Avery was having a great time at Aunt Jeni's and pushing boundaries at home. Sounds familiar!

UGH. This is going to be a super speed blog :( Deuce is wailing, Avery is coughing, Randall is out watching the UFC fights, and I still need to wash bottles and baby dishes + try to get ready for bed before the next feeding.... in 20 minutes. sigh.

Last night was rough with him. He was up every 3 hours to eat. The saving grace was that Avery spent the night at my parents' house, so I was able to go back to sleep from 6:45-8:15am. That pushed me over the 6 hour mark for the first time in a few days.

The big plan for today was to go see Star Wars. We dropped Deuce off at Jeni's, so he could be loved on by the bonus bunch :) They even gave him a bath!

Meanwhile, GigiM and Papa were taking great care of Avery. Report was that she'd had a trip to McDonald's to play on the playground last night, conked out around 7:15pm, slept without a peep until 6:15 this morning. From there, she started coughing every 5 minutes or so and finally sat up at 6:45. I'll take it...but hoping for a later morning tomorrow. They spent this morning at the mall...

Climbing on the bucking bronco? ;)

Slides

 I loved seeing all the smiles

Exploring the waterfall

 Slide!

 More pretty smiles

 Rocketship!

Train! Seriously, with how much she talks about rocketships and trains lately, she had to have been on cloud 9.

 Riding the carousel with GigiM

 This one cracks me up. Is she waving? Going for 8 seconds?

 Smiles!

 After a visit to the food court, she headed back to their house for an 80 minute nap. A good nap earns her a ring pop at GiPa's apparently ;)

 Papa was apparently prepared for the mess that comes with lollipops

 This afternoon, she helped GigiM put away Christmas decorations. Maybe she'll help me this week!

 When she got home, she helped me make dinner. She stood on her stool and handed me potatoes to cut. Then, she helped sprinkle them with salt :) She opted for mac n cheese, though. 

She was still a bit of a little zombie, so there wasn't a lot of playtime after dinner. She did have time to draw this "cross" on her Minnie pad. She was SO excited about it, declaring, "drew a cross! drew a cross!"

We had a good time through bath time and bedtime prep. She's still being a bit of an emotional rollercoaster. Sometimes she gets teary for seemingly no reason. It makes me sad! She'll declare she's happy, though, so who knows what is going on. 

My evening with Deuce started out great. He was being a chatty little guy as we watched bowl games.

He conked out right on time around 8pm.....but then woke up at 8:30. He was not happy to be awake but we could not get him back to sleep. So.... it was a difficult hour. Hoping he drifts off after the feeding. I will be praying for a great night for everyone in this house!

12.29.16 Recap

2 years ago A&M and Arkansas were both winning their bowl games. We were there to watch the Arkansas one, and Avery was back home with my parents. 

1 year ago Avery was having a sleepover while I hosted the PDF reunion

As I mentioned, last night was a rough night...and mostly because of Avery's cough :( She was up around 7:30 this morning, and she was definitely congested. I called the pediatrician's office and got a good rundown on her situation. She doesn't have a fever, so they said it's probably a bad cold and we should..... use a cold mist humidifier (doing), give her Zarbees cough syrup (doing), use saline spray and suction (doing), make sure she's getting plenty of fluids and use Vick's vapor rub. Those last two we weren't really doing, so those were today's additions. She's so cute in the mornings... she'll only let me do the nose frida if Alexa is playing "Avery songs."

We had a quick start to our day when Paige pinged me about coming over with Nolan in the morning vs the afternoon. I had my long to-do list, but this sounded like a good plan. The kids played around for awhile, met baby Deuce and had lunch.

Paige and Nolan meeting Deuce

 Avery showing what a great big sister she is ♥

Avery went down for a nap fairly easy. She finally slept for over an hour, and she woke up sounding a lot better. I worked on getting some of my to-do list accomplished, and I got to go out with her, Carson, and the Frozen quad this afternoon.

This is what Avery calls "Deucey talking" :)

My parents picked Avery up for a sleepover on their way back in town from the disappointing A&M bowl game. She packed up her new Minnie Mouse overnight bag (which she was SO excited to use) and headed off with them. Praying for a great night for them!

When she left, Randall and I talked about what we would do for the Arkansas game and dinner. The answer was we ordered pizza, and I snoozed through the first quarter. It was a good nap ;)

Deuce liked my way of thinking

 He was hard to wake up ;)

Yay! Videos are working again :) Here are the two missing from the Dec 27th post....

Avery making Alexas requests

Vroom! Vroom!

12.28.16 Recap

1 year ago I was prepping for a PDF reunion party at our house, and Avery was being well taken care of....

I hate how foggy my sleep-deprived memory is :( I know there are a thousand cute moments of the day that I'm forgetting to capture. Like I mentioned, the nighttime sleep is not nearly as good as it was a few weeks ago. I'm pretty much getting 5 hours in 3-4 stretches now. UGH. 

When Avery woke up yesterday, she wanted to wear the other outfit that GigiW had bought her. It also had a vest with it, so we talked about the difference between jackets and vests. She was very proud of her "VEST!"

I had my very long list of to-dos yesterday.... there is still much to be done! While I was staying busy, Bitty Girl was playing with Carson and Deuce was sleeping. 

He actually seemed a lot calmer yesterday, so I am hoping that we can see the return of smoother nights here soon.... especially considering how last night went. We will get to that. 

Avery has been such a sweet little mommy's girl. The way she says, "mommy," absolutely lights me up, too. I just love how she's using it a lot lately... like the "Be careful, mommy" and such. Saddest moment of the day was when she was turning around to see if I was joining her for lunch. She fell out of her chair and bonked her head :(

 Baby's blues

Naptime was a wee bit difficult. She chatted and rolled around in her bed for about 40 mins. Early on, she was playing with Dolly and making her jump around. Suddenly, Avery stood up and started jumping in her bed. I got on the monitor and said, "AVERY!" She hit the sheets so fast! I had to do that 3 more times, as she started exploring the railing and looking like she was attempting to get out. So far this has been effective at keeping her in.... but it means I have to keep my eyes on the monitor until I'm sure she's asleep :( She finally conked out but only slept about 35 minutes before having a coughing fit and calling out for mommy. SIGH. 

The plan with the short nap was an early bedtime. She was actually super sweet, cuddly, and played well by herself while Randall and I worked on dinner. She spent part of the time standing on the stepstool, munching on a cracker and jamming to Alexa's tunes :)

She refused to eat dinner, though. After she boycotted our pasta, I gave her other options. She picked nuggets but then wouldn't eat them either. I don't know if she wasn't hungry or just more interested in wandering around the living room :( She was told if she didn't eat, she couldn't take her quad out for a ride. She was fine with that. When I asked her if she just wanted to go straight to bathtime (at 5:57pm), she said yes. Hmmmm. Bathtime was a rollercoaster. She was super happy but then super defiant. I was SO done by the time she was in her pjs, but she was being so sweet. She conked out by 7pm. Hmmm. 

She was then up around 12:30 in a major coughing fit. Randall had Deuce in bed and took the monitor. It ended up being so bad that she called out for mommy, and he took her some water. She was up and down from then until about 2am just trying to get resettled :( Rough night.... although Deuce went from a 9:30 feeding to about 5:15. 

12.27.16 Recap

2 years ago we were working on getting back to routines :) + we had a visit from J, Paige, and Nolan.

1 year ago we also had a visit from J, Paige, and Nolan. That did not happen until Dec 29th this year :)

Oh my goodness. I can't believe I forgot how Monday went with her trying to escape at naptimes! I had taken away her Mickey Mouse Clubhouse Sunday night and declared she would only get it back if she had no escapes at nap or bedtime. So... Tuesday morning she got them back. Good girl! Could it be that simple?!

First, some catch-up pics....

The final product from Avery's gingerbread man cookie creation on Dec 20th

 Deucey sleeping through us getting ready on the morning of the 23rd

 Santa's delivery (Dec 25th)

 Now I remember that we spent a good bit of time on Monday getting Christmas presents taken out of boxes and setup. One item was Avery's new toy chest. While Randall assembled it, she was laying out the storage pieces. Busy bee.

Ok.... on to Tuesday. One of the things I'd gotten setup was Alexa. Tuesday morning after breakfast, I decided to blow Avery's mind. I really wish I had a video of the first time I did it, but this is the second....

The main difference between the first time and the second was that when I made the first request to Alexa, Avery turned and lit up when Alexa talked back... even before she started playing Wheels on the Bus  :)

Avery was quick to get onboard with bossing Alexa around...

We try to be super polite to her, though ;)

--- ARGH! Blogger is not letting me upload any videos now. I'll have to post the last two at a future date ----

Randall and I had decided Monday night that Friday afternoon would be our best chance to FINALLY go see Star Wars. The only thing standing in our way was my doctor appointment. I called early, and the only option they had was for Tuesday afternoon. Plans for productivity mostly went out the window because I needed to get ready for that, go, and go to Walmart after. Deucey was on board for abandoning plans of productivity...

 He tolerated our Walmart trip

There was a little bit of excitement around Avery's naptime on Tuesday. The Hello Kitty car that Santa had brought her on Christmas morning did not work, so Santa had notified us he would be stopping by after her nap to swap it out - provided she did NOT get out of her bed. She held up her part of the bargain, and Santa brought her a Frozen quad. I was at the doctor's when she woke up, and Randall said when she saw it she lit up and declared "SO EXCITED!" I so love her enthusiasm.

Avery out for a drive  

Vroom vroom!

---video to come :( -----

Nothing sweeter than sleeping babies (5:30pm)....

....so we take lots of pictures (9:30pm)

 We've kind of lost our miracles of good nighttime sleep, though. He's still going pretty far between feedings at night, but he is not settling into his crib. He seems to have a strong preference for sleeping on his tummy, which he doesn't get to do at night. I'm a little tired and cranky :(