Arielle is six!

My baby girl turned 6 years old earlier this month. She wanted me to pick the theme for her birthday and surprise her so I chose a Pajama Party!  The girls (and one boy) had a pajama fashion show and each one got an award. 

Birthday girl holding her cousin, Flat Ty!

Little sister enjoying the balloons!

Each girl got to decorate pillow cases with strips of ribbon.  This was a great craft and thankfully I had a couple extra set of hands to help me iron them on with no-sew hem tape. There were a lot of little girls running around the house that day...perhaps too many which I will remember in future years. 

It was a lovely birthday party!  A couple of girls left with tears in their eyes because they didn't want to go home.

Averi's First Birthday Party

Averi ~ 6 Months Old

Last Friday Averi turned half a year old! She started the week off with {another} cold but despite that she has been so happy. She also appeared to be cutting a tooth because she kept sticking her toungue out to feel her gums all day but so far nothing has popped through.

Averi has started following the same schedule every day for about the past month and things are getting easier for us as far as adjusting to life with a new baby. The only bump in the road has been her night waking which always gets worse when she is sick. I decided that something needs to be done to get her to sleep through the night now that she is six months old. So for the past week, when she wakes up at 1:30 am every morning like a little alarm clock, I have not fed her. Of course she cries but she doesn't act hungry so I don't feel too bad about my decision. Her crying increments have decreased from 1.5 hours to 40 minutes in the past week...that is progress even if it is still a long period of time. The crazy thing is that she has been so good at falling asleep on her own for the past several months so I don't understand why she cries when she wakes up in the middle of the night. I think it might be a habit for her since just until a week ago I was still feeding her through the night and she may be wanting to be close to me since I work and we are apart during the day. Averi is very good at taking 2-3 naps a day as well. Overall she is a really good sleeper.

Another big accomplishment that Averi has made since she turned six months old is sitting up, quite well, on her own. She still falls over from time to time but at least she has gotten the hang up sitting straight up instead of her back leaning completely horizontally like she was doing before.

The best milestone so far has to be her first words! She says Mama & Dada often now and seems very proud of herself when she does. I swear she has been saying Mama when she cries since she was about two months old. Dada is a new one though and she definitely says it more often than Mama.

Things Averi enjoys doing to pass the time are the Jumparoo, sitting in her high chair playing with toys and eating of course, bath time with lots of kicking and nursing! She hasn't met a food she hasn't like yet...she gobbles it all up as fast as she can. Things she has eaten so far are green beans, applesauce, pears, sweet potatoes, squash and bananas. This next week she'll try peas, carrots and peaches. We have been giving her a sippy cup with water at mealtimes too. A funny {but annoying for me} thing that she does when she is eating is tries to suck on the bib. As of yet I haven't been able to feed her a complete meal with a bib on because it distracts her from eating.


So far we have yet to witness Averi rolling from her belly to her back. Arielle said she saw her do it one time in the crib but there has been no sign that she has done this any other time. Averi still gets a little aggrevated with playtime on her tummy but she is getting more and more used to it. I have a feeling that once she starts being able to roll from her belly to her back she will stop the night waking for good. She is doing a very good job at "standing" and has tremendous leg strength although there has been no sign of her starting to crawl or even scoot. I'm really not in a rush for this to happen anyway because we still need to baby-proof two sets of steps.

Way to go, Bear! We are all looking forward to what the next six months will bring!

~Momma to Bug n' Bear~

Bug is Five!

It's still hard to believe but my first baby girl turned 5 years old today! I could tell when I picked her up after work that she had a very special day at school. For starters, she got to wear her pink sequin tierra headband all day long! I asked her if they did anything special for her since it was her birthday and she told me they served her a cupcake with sprinkles, her class sang the birthday song to her AND she got a goody bag which the "birthday man" hid for her to find. When she got home Daddy surprised her with balloons then off they went to the airport to pick up Gaby. Then it was my turn to surprise her...this time with another sprinkled cupcake! Tonight before she went to bed she told me, "Thank you for the special cupcake, I love you!" It was so sweet and so "big-kid-like".

Arielle has grown up so much in the past year. We are proud of her for so many reasons. She is a kind, caring soul that is very good at making friends. She loves her baby sister with all of her heart and is so good at talking/playing with her. She gets excited to help her Mommy and Daddy and constantly tells us how much she loves us. She truly amazes us with her desire to learn and ability to learn quickly. I'm going to miss the younger years but at the same time I'm looking forward to the next phase of her life....grade school, crushes, best friends. How exciting to share all of this with her!

Happy 5th Birthday...we love you, Bug!

~Momma to Bug n' Bear~

Arielle is Four!

It has been a long time since I posted. We have been busy to say the least. I have not been feeling so great in my first trimester of pregnancy and am hoping that will turn around now that I am into the second. Arielle has been keeping herself busy as usual! She recently learned how to play card games; Crazy Eights, Go Fish and Memory. I can't believe how good she is at these games and she loves to play them! Today we played Candy Land and she tried to get away with a couple of cheats but I didn't let her {not even on her birthday}!

So as I mentioned, Arielle turned FOUR today! We had her Barbie birthday party on Saturday and it was a blast! A lot of her friends showed up despite the snow blizzard that was in the forecast. They had so much making necklaces, getting hairstyle makeovers and decorating picture frames with gems. At one point during the party, Arielle managed to bring her friends upstairs to jump on mommy and daddy's bed. She is just a little devious, don't you think?!?! Opening her presents was her favorite part of the party but isn't that obvious? Tonight Arielle gets to open mommy and daddy's birthday presents to her and she is really looking forward to it. I think I have heard her say it at least five times today!


I think the best part about Arielle's birthday this year for all of us is that Gaby got to visit and join in the festivities. We were sad to see her leave today but we had a wonderful four days with her so nobody is complaining. Thanks for the visit, Gaby! We can't wait for the next one.

~Momma to Bug~

Flowers for my birthday

On Sunday I will officially be "thirty-something".

~Momma to Bug~

Happy Birthday, Daddy!

When I told Arielle that it was Daddy's birthday this morning she said, "It is?" and without hesitation she dropped her blankey, stopped watching her show and ran over to gave him a great big hug! It was so sweet and genuine and I'm glad I was there to witness it. Then when Zak told her he had to go to work she said, "But it's your birthday." I just have to wonder in amazement at how someone her age can even understand what a birthday really is and be able to capture the emotion that goes with it. To her, naps are bedtime and bedtime is really just a nap and everything she talks about happened today or yesterday so she doesn't really have a concept of time. I digress...

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, DADDY...WE LOVE YOU!

Arielle has been a long roll of cuteness for the past few days, it just makes me sad that I don't always have a pen handy to write down all the cute things she says and a camera or video recorder for all the cute things she does. Like this morning when she said, "Mom, do you know who my friend at school is?" I said, who and she said, "Sawyer". But it's not what she said that was so cute it was how she got really shy and put her hands behind her back when she said it...like it was a big secret that was now out of the bag. Then today when I picked her up from school, one little friend told me, "Watch what I can do!" then he rolled around on his hands and knees. Before he could finish five other little friends, including Arielle herself, said and did the same thing all at the same time. They were like little baby birds in the nest all trying to get the worm from their mama. I didn't know what to say and even if I did say something none of them would have heard me because they were all talking at once. Where was the teacher? To make things even better, Arielle gave out hugs and kisses to many of her friends before we left. On the way home she told me that she gave Kayla and Alexa kisses on the cheeks and she gave Anthony a kiss on the lips. I had to explain to her that we should only kiss our friends on the cheeks, not on the lips. She just said, "But why?" I was waiting for her to ask why Daddy & I kissed on the lips but she didn't. Phew...I'm not ready to explain the birds and the bees to her just yet.

Happy Birthday, Bug

Today Arielle turned three. She had a good day at school despite the fact that she cried a lot when I left her this morning (still getting used to change). Her class sang Happy Birthday to her and they ate cupcakes, although Arielle brought hers home and put it in the fridge instead of eating it. She even got a little bag of goodies from the school which totally made her day. Then daddy came home with the new Jasmine Princess doll and she was in heaven.
I just wanted to say how much I love our little Bug and just wish her a lifetime of happiness. If only children didn't need bounderies because I would let her do whatever she wanted whenever she wanted. However, I am attempting to be the best mom I can be and this means putting my foot down even on her birthday and not letting her do whatever her little three year old mind finds pleasing. I just hope that someday soon I can blog about how easy it is to raise a child but today is not the day.