Friday Pics

Averi is getting so big and really starting to interact a whole lot more with us. She has been holding herself up much better in the high chair and the bath tub but still falls over when sitting on the floor. She has started blowing raspberries, or at least trying, and one of her favorite things to do is kick a lot in the tub! She is slowly beginning to enjoy tummy time a little more and pretty much sleeps on her tummy every time she goes to bed. She has gotten down to waking up to eat only once a night and has been going between 5-6 hours between feedings. We have been letting her "cry it out" if she wakes up less than 5 hours from a feeding and that is working out as well as can be. I can't believe she will be six months one week from today!

~Momma to Bug n' Bear~

7.5 hours

Averi slept through the night again...she went 7.5 hours without eating! She did wake up crying one time and went back to sleep in about half the amount of time compared to the night before. I am so proud of her! She is still rolling over onto her belly about half the time to sleep but she is not enjoying tummy time at all. The second we put her down on her back to play she'll roll right over then start to fuss, a lot! At this point it is hard to imagine her starting to crawl anytime soon. Arielle was just starting to scoot around at this age and she was completely crawling right after she turned six months. Averi is also starting to spread out her feedings during the day to between four and five hours most of the time, especially when she is not around me. Her naps are starting to fall into a pattern as well, although I can say that I haven't done anything as far as putting her on a schedule. She is just such a good baby that I don't have to worry about that with her! We're all enjoying Averi more and more every day. She loves to play with her toys now and bounce on the Jumparoo. She even makes a lot of cute baby noises in the car and hardly ever cries when we are driving anymore. She is still working on sitting up on her own but we have moved her from the Bumbo to a highchair for her cereal feedings.

~Momma to Bug n' Bear~

Why yesterday was a good day

Yesterday was a good day! It all started when I got home from work and almost immediately after I walked through the door Averi started to cry. Why is this a good thing? Because it means that she missed me and she was happy to see me and wanted me to give her attention. I held her tight and felt all warm and fuzzy inside knowing that she feels this way about me.

After that Arielle came out of hiding from her bedroom {which is unusual for her to be alone in there during the day in the first place} and told me to close my eyes because she had a surprise. When I got up to her bedroom door I closed my eyes so she could open it to reveal the surprise. It was a "hair accessory shop" that she set up! She had neatly placed her pretend makeup, hair clips, brushes, mirrors, lip gloss and cell phones around the perimeter of her bench. She also put her "jewel" treasures on it and told me they were different colored hair dyes and asked me if I wanted her to dye my hair. The dye stick was the end of a very large fake flower that she likes to play with. It was too cute and I now wish I had taken a picture of it.

The very best part about yesterday was that Averi {sort of} slept through the night! I had fed her before she went to bed and three hours later just as I was going to bed because she woke up again. This was around 10:30. At about 12:30 she woke up again and I knew she couldn't possibly be hungry so I decided to let her "cry it out" and see what happens. Zak decided to get up and see if she would fall back asleep for him but as usual, this only made her cry harder and the whole time he was holding her she looked around for me. Since holding her didn't make her stop crying he put her back in the crib after a while. She only cried for about five more minutes and then she went back to sleep. Next thing I know I'm waking up to the sound of her crying and I look at the clock to see that it's 5:30 am. She went 7 hours without eating! I'm keeping my fingers crossed that this wasn't a one time thing and she'll start sleeping through the night from now on. If not, I think adding baby food to her diet in a couple of weeks when she turns 6 months old will help do the trick.

~Momma to Bug~

What would you do?

It's ironic that I just found this video after writing my last post.

http://www.cnn.com/video/#/video/bestoftv/2010/03/11/kaye.young.hero.cnn?hpt=C2

What this little boy did to protect himself and his family is truly amazing. Thank goodness nobodywas hurt.

I am rethinking the little white lie that I told Arielle about burglars so she knows how to react if {God forbid} this situation ever happened to us. I've already discussed 9-1-1 with her numerous times but I am thinking that I should go over good hiding places in our home now.
What would you do?

~Momma to Bug n' Bear~

Dissapearing words and warning signs!

I love how the 4 year old minds work...if only I could peek inside and see the wheels spinning! Last night Arielle was reading the label on her kids mouthwash bottle {she reads everything in sight these days} and she asked me "When it gets old will the new go away?". I had absolutely NO IDEA what she was talking about so I said "What?" like three times before I finally understood what she was getting at with her question. The label on the mouthwash bottle had the word "NEW" on it so she thought that once the bottle got old that the word would disappear! I then tried to explain why the word was on the label in the first place and the only way that it could "go away" but sort of gave up because it was rather difficult for her to understand. Plus she got distracted by the fact that the label was removable and all she could think about was getting it off so she could have a new sticker!

A few days ago she also asked me why there was a sign that said "BEWARE OF DOG" on somebodys fence. It wasn't hard to explain why but this came just days after she asked me if burglars are real or pretend {just in books}. I had to lie about this one and there is a good reason for this. When I was a child I had a reoccuring nightmare about somebody breaking into our house. I didn't want this to happen to her. Do you blame me?

~Momma to Bug n'Bear~

Spreading the love

We took these pictures on Valentine's Day but I never ended up doing a post. Today I decided to spread the love!

I may never know what it is like to have a sister but I can feel the love between Arielle and Averi and it amazes me!

~Momma to Bug n' Bear~

Averi ~ 5 Months Old

Here is Averi on the day she turned 5 months old...she is just as smiley as ever! The day after this Averi rolled over on her tummy in her crib and slept that way for most of the night. She doesn't like being on her tummy so much so there was one time that I had to go in her room and roll her onto her back to stop her from crying. Averi is now eating rice cereal twice a day but despite that she is still waking up every 3-5 hours to eat throughout the night. Most of the time Averi is a very happy baby, especially when her older sister is around to entertain her. At home when Averi is not napping spends time in her exersaucer, jumparoo and on her playmats. We try to get her to do tummy time but it never lasts longer than a few minutes and always ends with her soaking the floor from face-planting! Averi is very good about going to sleep on her own and only cries for a few minutes when we put her down unless she is really tired than she doesn't cry at all. She does have a little temper to speak of though and it really shows when you are holding her and she doesn't feel like being held. When this happens she arches her back and grunts and her face turns red. Averi really enjoys getting up on her feet and practicing her stands. When she is laying down and she hears the word "up" she gets a very big smile on her face and knows exactly what is coming next! I just love the pouty face that Averi makes and I can't help but laugh whenever she makes it. One of these days I'll try to get a picture of her making it because it is so cute. We're hoping Averi will be able to sit up on her own in the next few weeks so we can start feeding her in a high chair instead of the Bumbo seat. Zak, Arielle and I are so much in love with this little girl!

~Momma to Bug n' Bear~

A Weekend Full of Firsts

Averi had a lot of Firsts this weekend...

After making a few prior attempts at getting her to eat rice cereal {this time we added some breast milk} she finally took a liking to it and gobbled every last bite and then some. I can't wait to start feeding her baby food in a few weeks. That was one of my favorite things to do with Arielle when she was a baby.

The weather got into the fifties and the sun was out so Averi enjoyed some time on the baby swing in our backyard while Arielle had a playdate with her friend from school.

We also put up the Jumparoo for Averi this weekend {we officially look like we set up a baby store in our living room}. She didn't do any bouncing but she did enoy the activities with lights and sounds that are on it. This was one of Arielle's favorite things to do when she was Averi's age. I think Averi is just more cautious than her older sister but I have no doubt once she discovers bouncing she will love it!

Averi has rolled onto her tummy from her back a couple of times in the past week but once she gets on her tummy she just gets frustrated and fusses. I don't think she enjoys being on her tummy which is why she isn't rolling more. This is completely opposite from Arielle when she was a baby because Arielle started sleeping on her tummy {rolling over on her own will} when she was three months old.

~Momma to Bug n' Bear~