The Usticks

nothing much

2012-02-06T15:15:00.000-05:00

Here's Avery in February of 2010.. at Riley's age now. Crazy!

christmas past and christmas present

2011-12-02T15:27:00.000-05:00

December 2009


December 2011

aaaand, this is why I'm glad I kept Avery's old clothes =)

a little DIY

2011-11-15T15:16:00.000-05:00

We've almost been in our house 2 years. Just yesterday I hung the first curtain downstairs. The girls' rooms were done right away .. dark rooms for naptime are a must, right? Anyway, I have had MAJOR issues deciding on how to decorate our house. I just can't ever decide on anything! I know what I like, but finding it (and finding it at the right price) and putting it up are so hard. So yes.. without further ado... our new kitchen eating area curtain! And I had a little extra fabric that I used to create these little things up. Black hand towels for 50 cents? Yes, please. I like how the curtain came out. I just hope I'm not the only one =)

BEFORE

AFTER

Happy Halloween!

2011-10-31T07:38:00.000-04:00

miss riley in oct

2011-10-27T14:19:00.000-04:00

Any takers to clean miss riley?? she is SO messy!

What a difference a year makes!

October 2011

October 2010

Riley is 15 months old!

2011-09-15T14:09:00.000-04:00

Update time again! Riley is 15 months old today! She is SUCH a happy girl. She is constantly on the move. Girl doesn't stop. She can understand so much now and communicate with us. She nods yes and no to things we ask, and says "yea" and "no" too. She's learning lots of new words. We can understand her saying cracker, cookie, cheese, bite, wawa (for water), up, help (which sounds just like up), more (which she says a lot =), car, dada, mama (finally!), Avery (sounds like "a-wee", "buh" for book, ball, and "craw" for crawl. And she does lots of jabbering. She can clap and wave and say "hi" and "bye bye". She can point to her nose when asked. And she recognizes lots of things we talk about... like she knows what it means when we say "go outside".. she runs for the door. She is branching out a little more these days on what she eats. Not crazy variety, but she won't throw a fit when we show her a new food. She just will drop it off her tray or fuss until I take it away if she thinks she won't like it. Milk is still on her "no" list. Luckily she eats yogurt and cheese easily. She's getting better at using a spoon. Probably from all her playing with it in the tub drinking bath water! She still sits backwards in the car since she couldn't handle facing front and seeing me in the front seat! I am in NO rush to turn her around. She's been walking for a while, but she can walk really fast now. She usually trips all over the place if she gains too much momentum... most likely from trying to keep up with big sis.

She still takes 2 naps most days. Always a morning nap, but doesn't always fall asleep for her afternoon nap. She handles being tired SO much better than Avery did at this age! (knock on wood). Avery would just meltdown like crazy if she was even remotely overtired. I love how Riley is different than Avery in a lot of ways, but they are similar, too. Riley is such a cuddlebug. I can honestly never remember Avery resting her head on my shoulder EVER.. even when sick. But Riley does it a lot. I like it =)

We're loving every day with Riley. She's turned into such a happy girl. Makes the memories of the hard first 10 months of her life fade away. Happy 15 months RyRy!

sweet, clean baby

anyone want a wipe?!

trying on avery's leotard.. she started spinning right away

happy 14 months Riley

2011-08-16T15:28:00.000-04:00

Just a little update on Riley. She's now 14 months old! This is a random, unordered list of things you're doing lately.

Babbling and walking all over the place. It's rare to see her crawl now. She's getting super fast at walking. She often tumbles because she gains so much momentum or she fails to see obstacles on the ground and topples right over. You've turned the corner for sure on napping. What a long journey that's been =) 2 decent naps a day (usually around an hour maybe an hour and a half) Occasionally you'll do a classic 30 min cat nap, but you can handle it pretty well now.. I'll take it! And you sleep from like 8pm to 6am each night. You LOVE water. You enjoy the pool and love taking baths. You are headstrong just like your sis. You are pretty fiesty if you don't get what you want ;) You wish milk didn't even exist and you would live on pouch baby food if we let you (sorry girl, those things are too pricey to become habit!) There's only a handful of things you'll eat. Miss picky eater. You'll get better, we're sure. right?! You cry when there's new food on your tray you haven't tried before. And won't stop until we take it away. Luckily you seem to enjoy fruit (applesauce and bananas) and cheese. Haha. Today you ate some yogurt! woo hoo.
You say "Dada" ALL THE TIME. Whenever you hear a noise outside you perk up and say "dada? dada?" You understand a lot of what we say to you. You can answer yes or no to questions and it's usually right. You love to be outside and walk around. Just the other night you chased some dogs down the street. You can bark and babble some word for puppy. Stranger anxiety? yep. still there! You love your sis. You perk up when she wakes up in the mornings and comes down to play "with" you.
You enjoy going out in the car and going to the mall to play, or to parks when it's cool enough. Maybe in a few more months you'll walk on the mulch at the parks =) You love the playground areas and think you're a big girl like Avery and head right for the slides.
Each new month is more fun than the next. You love being able to move around and do things. I love being able to communicate with you now, love learning your likes and dislikes, and love having another buddy around during the day to play with. Oh, and I love you not crying and fussing all hours of the day. =) Here's to being 1 and growing up!

sisters!

a rare, calm side-by-side playtime

morning person? i think not!

what a difference a year makes... (sisterly couch time)

2011-08-12T14:35:00.000-04:00

August 2010

August 2011

sleeping beauty or cinderella?!

2011-08-02T15:43:00.000-04:00

silly faces

2011-08-02T15:38:00.000-04:00

need I say more?

Riley's ramblings

2011-07-07T15:50:00.002-04:00

silly face

Some days I can't believe Riley is old enough to be talking and understanding what I'm saying to her. She's starting to say a few more words. I swear I heard her say "apple" yesterday! She loves eating those dried apple bites. She saw the bag and said, "apple." She said "hi" to a lady walking by her in the shopping cart yesterday. The lady stopped in her tracks and was like, "hi sweetie!" Haha.. moments like that make me smile. I really have no clue if she actually knows the word "hi" ... but she babbled it at the right moment. She will say "hello" when she plays with a phone. And will hold it up to her ear. I think she's learning the word "crawl." Everytime she goes to the stairs either Avery or I will say the word crawl. A few times yesterday, Riley said "CRA!" when she reached the stairs. Oh, and she's saying "yea" for yes and nodding her head when I say or show her something she wants. And she vigorously shakes her head no when it's not what she wants =)

Riley LOVES to push her little walker toy around. But beware of her bumping into a wall. She will scream immediately! I can't wait until she learns to move it herself. And if Avery ever so slightly even comes near it or touches it while she's walking with it, she'll turn on the water works and just lose it. It's hard not to laugh. Poor girly wants to play with it so bad, and can't stand the thought of sharing it!

how to... wash a car

2011-06-26T15:51:00.000-04:00

This post is inspired by THIS ONE of Avery getting ready for baby sis back in March 2010.

How to wash a car. Step by step ... by Avery

Step 1: Take off your shoes and get out bucket, soap, and any and all sponges you see (3 is way better than 1). Fill up bucket with sudsy water. Sponge your feet off. Must have clean feet to wash a car.

Step 2: Examine the soapy sponge

Step 3: Smile because washing cars is so much fun!

Step 4: Examine the suds on your finger, too

Step 5: Walk on the sponge to make soapy footprints on driveway

Step 6: Step into the bucket to maximize the amount of soap you can get on your feet

Step 7: Smile because you forgot you are actually supposed to be washing a car and not playing with soapy water ;)

Step 8: Step on the sponge yet again... they are very squishy and soap squirts out when you jump on them

Step 9: must.run.in.puddles

Step 10: Show mommy your soapy hands. You are hard at work

Step 11: Empty bucket because it's way more fun to play in water than to use it for washing cars

Step 12: Go swimming in the bathtub. Washing cars is dirty work!

words

2011-06-26T15:09:00.000-04:00

Riley, 1 year old (June 15, 2011)

Avery, 1 year old (June 17th, 2009)

I always hoped I could use this dress again after Avery wore it for her 1st birthday. And lo and behold, we were able to! And of course we busted out the lovely pink blanket, compliments of Aunt Krista. Seriously.. Riley's one now? Crazy.
She's picking up a few more words. She can say "up" and "cracker" and she babbles mama and dada (but not using them as our names yet). She makes the "ma" sound for more and "wa" when she wants water. Oh, and she has the head shake down for "no." Haha. She's cruising all around. Just today she walked across the floor holding on to the shopping cart. First time for that. And a few days ago she took one step while standing up not holding on to anything. She is NOT into having her arms held so she can walk, or anything of the sort. She does it when she wants to. Hmmm... sounds like someone else around here...

Avery's THREE! ~June 17th

2011-06-18T10:58:00.000-04:00

As you can see Avery and I had lots of fun outside in the morning. We played with water and bubbles (her personal favorite). Went to the play area at MacArthur later. Had lunch at the mall! Then went to the pool later in the afternoon. All topped off with froyo at Skinny Dip! What a great day =) Happy Birthday, Avery!

june 15th ... 1st birthday

2011-06-16T14:30:00.000-04:00

I cannot believe Riley is ONE! What a big year this has been. A lot of the first few months are quite a blur. It's been fun to watch Riley grow and develop (especially from months 10 and up ;) You spent quite a big chunk of your first year awake... can't blame you though.. we're super exciting people! Ha ha! You really began crawling a day before you turned 10 months old, and wow.. that milestone really just did wonders for you. You started napping longer than 30 minutes at a time and you started sleeping all night about a month ago. And you've been SO much happier in general. We always said you just didn't like that "baby stuff." You wanted to move around and have fun. So with that, I'll start the recap of the last month!

12 months old!

you're still in the same size clothes and diapers (23 pounds 7 oz~80%ile and 27.75" tall~50%ile)
you take two naps a day (anywhere from 30 minutes to over an hour)
you sleep all night (woo hoo!) You go to bed around 730 and usually crawl around your crib for 30 minutes or so.. and wake up anywhere from 645am on. I'll take it! I remember the days quite well where anytime I would set you in your crib you'd just cry and cry and cry and only sleep for 30 minutes.. and then wake up crying again. And wake up 3-5 times a night until month 9. Phew! Makes me tired just thinking about it.
you can wave when you hear the words "hi" and "bye bye"
you can clap
you LOVE LOVE LOVE dancing to music.. you get the biggest grin on your face and your eyes get all squinty and you start bouncing up and down. Avery has even joined in the fun when she sees you "dancing"
you love the stairs. you know that when mommy's in the kitchen, a good way to get her attention is to crawl up the stairs!
you've taken notes from Avery about water. you love it. drinking it, playing in it, it doesn't matter.
you're getting more adventurous with food.. especially when you aren't sitting in your highchair.
you're starting to recognize the words "water" and "cracker" .. in that when you hear me say them you go over and grab your sippy of water, or grab your crackers. It's so fun to watch you learn things.
you know your first word: "ball" .. you say it when you see a ball, so you definitely know what it is.
you know to shake your head "no".. you do it a lot.. especially when Avery's trying to pretend feed you things =)
you don't immediately cry when strangers look at you! We're making progress in that area. You're getting more adventurous with other kids around. You like to crawl around and play, too.
you're starting to stand up without holding on. you always get a huge grin on your face. and you're cruising furniture
i'll add more when I think of it. We've just really enjoyed watching Riley grow up the past year.. can't wait for the next year! By 2 you'll be talking away with your sis. I think you two are going to be trouble. We can already sense it. You two already can crack each other up and act goofy together. Oh boy oh boy!

Here's a few pictures from all the fun we had on Riley's birthday:

good morning, birthday girl!

ready to rock and roll

early morning bike ride

happy girl

playing with water

happy girl #2

watering the grass, avery-style

trying to get riley to sit still for her picture

loving the photo op ;)


riley didn't want birthday cake, just leaves

ready to ride

2011-06-14T16:02:00.000-04:00

Avery's cousin Addy lent us her old bike. I think we have one VERY satisfied customer. Avery loves it! Each day she makes progress with pedaling and steering. Brent's even trying to teach her "left" and "right" ... they come in contact with the curb quite a bit ;) Avery does take numerous riding breaks to check out the tassels and horn. It's quite a sight. "Avery! Look forward! Watch where you're going!" In her defense, the pink and purple iridescent tassels look mighty pretty when blowing in the wind. I'd probably stop and check them out too.

And Riley is taking major strides in the "standing" department. She was letting go for more than a second or two today. She had a few instances where she would stand on her own for like 10 seconds! She always has a huge grin on her face when she does it. I think she knows she's hot stuff. Haha.

whatcha doin' mommy??

birthday fun

2011-06-12T14:46:00.000-04:00

We had a little family birthday party for Avery and Riley yesterday. It was lots of fun! These are about all the pictures I was able to take. Riley turns 1 on Wednesday and Avery turns 3 on Friday. It's going to be a fun-filled week of birthdays!

sometimes you just gotta relax while opening gifts =)

sisterly love

2011-06-06T15:10:00.000-04:00

peek a boo!

don't be fooled by the smiles... Avery was scooting Riley back to her side of the tub

avery gives riley the royal treatment now that they share the big tub ;)

operation zoysia PT 2

2011-06-05T19:32:00.000-04:00

I first posted about Operation Zoysia in April. Now it's June and here's the growth! It's so exciting to see our (mostly Brent's) hard work pay off! Obviously there is some fescue grass that has grown back in, so what you're seeing isn't 100% zoysia. But hey, it makes it look even fuller! Without further ado, here are the pictures:

one more of the front yard

it's june!

2011-06-03T14:37:00.000-04:00

Summer is upon us and we've been keeping quite busy. Most days we go the pool in the afternoons after naps. If it's hot out and not raining, chances are we're thinking about going! Avery asks everyday just to make sure I don't forget =) Riley is warming up to the pool. She enjoys herself there. And Avery is just so incredibly happy in the water. Riley's taking notes from her big sis. She loves to sit under the tub faucet as it's filling up and tries to eat the water as it comes out. Avery was dumping little cups of water over Riley's head today and she loved it. Giggled every time. I don't seem to get the same response from her when I do it! She sure loves her sis. It's so fun to watch them laugh with each other. Riley's on the move all the time. She is so happy these days. She's sleeping great at night and napping much better during the day overall. *knock on wood* It's helped out her mood SIGnificantly! We're so happy for her. Definitely an answer to prayer! Just a quick update.

silly face

riley

avery

and another comparison

riley

avery

skillz

2011-05-23T15:15:00.000-04:00

ready to swim!

I realized I didn't mention in her update the things Riley is starting to do. Riley is learning to wave. She loves waving at her daddy most of all. I'm going to say she "can" do all these things. Doesn't mean she ALWAYS will do it.. but she's working on it. She can wave when you say "hi riley" or "bye bye." She can clap when asked to. She can climb the stairs. Gotta be right there because she often likes to take a break and sit down and want to go back down the stairs. Silly Riley. She can pull up and stand against things. Anything. She is starting to cruise things. A few times she's stood up and let go and stood for a few seconds. Nothing big though. She had a blast at the pool yesterday. Third time to the pool this summer and she got in and crawled ALL around. She especially enjoyed splashing with Avery. I was joking that Avery goes to the pool to get in the water, but Riley goes to snack. I think she managed to snack her entire way through the last trip to the pool. =) Ok, I'm sure there's lots more things Riley can do, but I've run out of them right now.

We're excited for the summer. Hoping it's full of lots of days at the pool. In years past, we've always frequented the park mostly. I'm stumped this year though.. any tips on what to do with an 11 month old at the park?! It's too dangerous to let her crawl on the equipment since she would seriously crawl right off it. I can't set her down on the mulch because she'd try to eat it. She's not into the swings for more than a few minutes. And I can't carry her around the whole time while Avery plays! Maybe I'm missing something totally obvious because I know I'm not the first person to have a baby and a toddler at the park. =) Help, please!

Riley's 11 months old

2011-05-17T14:10:00.001-04:00

Here's the latest and greatest from the last month in the life of Riley:

you have mastered crawling
you started pulling up on things this past week.. you even stood for a good 5 minutes today while watching Avery play
you spent much of the last few weeks sick and pretty miserable. Poor girly. it's no fun to have your ear infections come back... ALTHOUGH you've been sleeping SO GOOD at night the past week. **knock on wood** We've finally had about 2 or 3 good days in a row. I think the meds have kicked in and you're feeling better. And the doc said you're teething, too. When is a baby NOT teething? =) You're working on #6 now. If you picked up the pace a little, I'd be okay with that!
you moved into the convertible car seat. finally. even napped once in it. you've gone where your sis never went before... napping in the car past 7 months old.
you still love tubby time... in the baby tub
your eating habits are quite amusing. shredded cheese is awesome in your book. you'll eat puffs and cheerios (as long as you aren't in your highchair). you like little bits of cheese quesadilla. you enjoy drinking water. juice? no thank you. not yet. you'll eat oatmeal and pureed fruit if you feel like it. YOu like guacamole, too. Hmm.. yeah that's about it! I think being sick + teething for like 2 months has made your appetite weird. You always eat good at grandma's house though!
You're up to just over 22 pounds. You've gained about a half pound in 2 months.
You're still SUPER shy and bashful. As long as strangers don't get up in your face, you're okay =) But hey, who does like that?
You still do your 30 min naps, but you also do 40 min ones and hour and 15 min ones. you're kinda all over the map. But we're thankful you can nap longer these days if you want to. I'm guessing the crawling and standing up is helping wear you out.
you're mostly in 12-18mo clothes and still a size 5 diap. love those chunky legs!

11 months old

silly girl

what's cookin'??

they hatched!

2011-05-06T15:58:00.000-04:00

If you read my blog, you may remember a week or so ago I posted some pictures of the blue eggs I found in this nest right outside our house in the front yard. The eggs have hatched! And quite recently it looks like.

Riley helped me take pictures

Avery's first 'do

2011-05-02T14:12:00.001-04:00

The "BEFORE"

Brent was a brave soul on Saturday and volunteered to take Avery to get her hair cut for the first time ever. I had done a few trims here and there, but her very fine, yet curly hair is SO hard to cut (in my very unprofessional opinion). Plus I never did anything drastic in fear that I might cut too much off, or make it look really funky. And her hair grows SO SLOW. As you can see because this is how long it's gotten in almost 3 years. Not much length got cut off. The ends got cleaned up and a little layering was done. AND she got some super cute bangs. Her once insanely crazy mane of hair looks more tamed and under control now. Thanks to Brent for taking her! He said she kept saying "I don't wanna take a hair cut" over and over while the lady was cutting her hair. Poor girly! Hopefully next time won't be so tough.

The "AFTER"

Ahhh.. Much better Miss Bee ;)

bubbles are the best

2011-05-01T10:49:00.000-04:00

getting ready for some bubble fun

I think it's safe to say Avery enjoyed the bubbles =)

stay tuned for a post about Avery's first haircut!

operation zoysia

2011-04-26T13:19:00.001-04:00

Brent took the work van last week to pick up his grass. Here's what it looked like:

These are the before pictures of our "lawn"

And these are the after pictures! Brent made every single one of those holes in the lawn where you see a dot of grass. It was well over 3000 plugs. Riley took a few long naps over the course of the 4 days we worked on the lawn, so I was able to help Brent out and fill in over half of the holes.

Phew. What a project. We're happy with it! And now we pray for rain. And lots of it =)

I'll post some updated pictures in a few weeks once the grass starts growing and filling in.

catching up

2011-04-25T15:03:00.000-04:00

We've been super busy lately. I feel like I don't stop moving until both girls are in bed for the night! Here's a few pictures to show what we've been up to. A post about our super duper yard project is coming soon.

ready for the pool

love these two!

riley's crawling all over the place now

Easter morning

Gotta do bubbles bright and early in the morning!

Riley learned to suck food from the pouches

Happy Easter!

toothy grin

rough-housing.. riley loved it

Riley kept leaning back for Avery to catch her in her lap

Riley's starting to pull up to her knees on things. She's pulled up to stand twice at the stairs. baby gate time?!

Birds Nest

2011-04-24T20:03:00.000-04:00

Found this in a bush out front:

knock-off take out

2011-04-18T20:35:00.000-04:00

Wow. I think I found a new way to make Chinese food at home. I've always just cooked up some chicken and poured a jar of General Tso's sauce or thai peanut sauce on and added rice. Well THIS will top those old meals. I wouldn't say I'm awesome in the kitchen. I can whip up some mean quesadillas and I have a few good meals in my repertoire. I'm no Rachael Ray. (by the way, who is? I suppose I, too, could make a meal her size and complexity if I had someone prep my ingredients, and organize my refridgerator and pantry so I didn't have to look for a single thing for more than .2 seconds). I digress. Your kitchen will seriously smell like PF Changs once you start cooking this jem. Ok, well maybe not quite that good... but at least it'll smell as good as your favorite take-out place!


Sun Bird... I found it at Wal-Mart

Yes, this meal is in our general rotation now for meals. Speaking of meals, I'm on week 2 of meal planning (and actually following through with it). I only went to the grocery ONCE last week!!! It was awesome. I planned ahead. Made 1 trip to the grocery and had everything I needed for our meals all week long. Even milk =) Here's hoping week 2 goes as smoothly as week 1. I even did our shopping for this week in about 20 minutes. Love that. Anyone reading have any good meals they like to make a lot? I'm open to suggestions. I need more meals to pick from! And the less "game time" prep and activity needed, the better!

number five

2011-04-18T14:51:00.000-04:00

The day after I posted Riley's 10 month update post, Brent spotted another tooth coming in! It's another one on the top. That's number 5.
I also failed to mention two skills Riley is working on. She is learning how to wave and clap!

Riley's 10 months old!

2011-04-15T14:36:00.000-04:00

Today we celebrate 10 months of Riley. Here's what you've been up to the past month:

last night you did about 5 crawl steps! you mostly try crawling when you want a toy avery has, or you see a cord you want or something electronic.
you've gained no weight since last month's check-up. The combination of getting teeth and being sick with 2 ear infections over the past 3-4 weeks made you cut WAY back on eating. You've pretty much only eaten oatmeal and applesauce the past month. Seriously.. at least 2 times a day if not 3. Nothing else will do. You've saved us money on buying baby food! hehe =)
You are branching out with your naps. We had a good 2 week stretch where it was fairly common for you to take hour long naps. You can do it, Riley! But you're back to the 30 min naps this week. You average 2-3 of those a day. Depending on how early you rise and shine for the day.
Bedtime is still at 7-715pm. You're still only waking up once a night to eat and go back to sleep. You've even slept through 3 times this past week 'til at least 615. Your mornings start anywhere from 630am on.
you LOVE LOVE LOVE the "cat piano" from Aunt Krista and the boys. It's one of your favorite toys.
you're a happy camper during tubby time.. your daddy and I love watching you and Avery play in the tub. You still use the baby tub.. you and big sis aren't ready for the freedom of being in the big tubby together. =)
You like the infant swings at the park way better than your sis did at this age. You'll stay in it for a little while. It's a big help to me when I take you both to the park! A little hands free time to run around with Avery. I've realized this is a hard stage to take you to the park, though, because i can't set you down on the mulch since you try and eat it. And now that you're learning to crawl, I only set you down on the playground platforms if I'm right there with you so you don't crawl off! I think it'll be great when you walk and we can all run around together at the park. I'm pretty sure Avery is ready to slide with you!
You got your top two middle teeth a few weeks ago. Now your two bottom ones are coming in. 4 total as of today.
I can't think of anything else to write about right now because your big sis keeps needing me for things during her "naptime"... she moved to a big bed on Wednesday and has yet to fall asleep in it for naptime. At least she isn't crying today =) So I'll end with a few pictures!

fussing.. but it's a good shot of her top two teeth!

this is your face when we take something away from you =(

work on that crawling, girl!

10 months old

And a flashback to last month...

9 months old

honesty & solo time with Avery

2011-04-12T13:54:00.000-04:00

I'm not sure if it's because Riley is getting over a 3 week illness and she's feeling better, or the fact that she IS under the weather and on meds, but the girl is actually napping some lately. As in it's not uncommon for her to nap an hour at a time! (knock on wood) She still does her 30 min naps, too. In fact, she just did this morning. I'm thrilled for her that she's getting rest. Back when I just had Avery during the days, I often looked at her naptime as free time for myself to do things for me, or things around the house. Now that I've got 2 kids, when one naps, 98.5% of the time the other one is awake, so that me time is gone. It was definitely an adjustment at first. Riley came out of the womb doing 30 minute naps, so I didn't really get that "newborn stage" where they napped hours at a time, thus giving the mom time to nap and recuperate. I didn't get to ease into life with 2 since Riley was most likely always awake, even when Avery was napping (last summer she'd do 3 hour naps! That was amazing!) And when Riley was awake, I couldn't just lay her down to play (she still to this day loathes being on her back) or sit her in the bouncy seat to play. No, it had to be 100% hands on! As my mom and sister said.. the harder you worked the happier they were. Haha. So I went from a HUGE window of free time during the day to essentially none. All this to say that I had to adjust my expectations for my days.. and fast. I began to realize that the brief moments when Riley WAS napping was time I got solo with Avery. A girl who is growing up so fast before my eyes. A girl who is a total sponge and loves to converse with you and make jokes with you and laugh at your silly jokes. I realized I needed to embrace Riley's napping and learn to enjoy every minute of the 30 minutes a few times a day I got with Avery. And trust me, I had to remind myself of that over and over, many many times. I all too quickly would say, why won't Riley just nap like a normal baby? The baby books say anything under 45 minutes isn't even considered a REAL NAP. What's going on?! I prayed and prayed about it, but realized when Riley continuted to "cat nap" that perhaps it was my heart that needed change. The Lord showed me that I needed to stop focusing on how long Riley napped, and instead focus on how I could make that short time enjoyable with my other daughter! So yes, the past few weeks Riley's been doing longer naps and I've SO ENJOYED the time with Avery. We talk, read books, act goofy, and play all sorts of games Avery comes up with. It's great. And hey... the dishes can wait =)

Just sitting and talking by the window today =) Love it.

super tubby

2011-04-08T14:25:00.000-04:00

The other night we decided to give Avery a super bath and let her use our big tub and have a bubble bath. Wow. She was on cloud 9. She LOVED every second of the 45 minutes she was in there. It's so fun to see her so happy... with something as simple as a super long bubble bath! Safe to say we'll be doing it again sometime!

zoo-tastic

2011-04-06T15:38:00.000-04:00

Our zoo membership ends this month. I wanted to be sure to go one more time before that happens! We took off this morning with my mom who's been visiting and apparently it's Spring Break so the zoo was super crowded. There were SO many strollers there! Haha. We had fun! Riley enjoyed it. And Avery enjoyed it, too. Especially climbing on the benches. =) We did the loop of the zoo and finished with a train ride (I had train tokens saved up from like 6 months ago that we never used). And on the way back home we made a stop at Doumar's for some chocolate ice cream. Thanks for the idea, Mom!!

excited about plants

2011-04-01T13:58:00.000-04:00

Last weekend Brent took Avery to McDonald's Nursery (no, not the fast food place) where they had an event going on to get little strawberry plants for kids. It was basically a thing where you went and potted your plant in a metal collander and were on your way. Avery had been talking about it for weeks leading up to it. She saw the flier Brent had and asked what it was about. So we told her and she thought it sounded fun and really wanted to go. She talked about using her watering can to water the strawberries. So far she's still really excited about it =) She jumps at the chance to water it herself each day. I'm hoping it grows some strawberries! So far it hasn't been sunny but one day since we got it.

Riley's getting quite mobile. She's not crawling yet, but she can move around the room. The past few days have been much kinder to Riley. She is playing some and not crying all day long! And she is starting to eat a little again. It's nice to see her happy again!

Aaaand here's what our family room looks like after a few hours of playtime inside. Phew that'll take a while to clean up!

moving around

2011-03-28T14:51:00.000-04:00

Riley

Avery

It's crazy how different every baby is from one another. I probably think that a zillion times a day. Avery and Riley are SUCH different babies. The list is endless. Riley isn't crawling yet. She can move around though. She does this twisty turn manuever where she almost gets into the crawling position but sits back up and has shifted positions. It's hard to explain. So I looked back at pictures to see what Avery was up to at this very age. She was already crawling and pulling up on things to stand! How crazy is that.

a hard, but good day

2011-03-24T15:14:00.000-04:00

The day started out early with Riley waking up completely inconsolable. As a side note, last week she started getting her two top teeth in and had been handling it quite well. Well Tuesday morning she had woken at 3am and she felt warm. And again at 6am when she woke again. I just figured it was warm in her room or something. The thought of dragging both kids to the doctor for a "false alarm" just is not fun, nor easy. I figured I would try to rock Riley back to sleep since maybe she was crying because she was still tired. Well she fell asleep in my arms and just moaned while doing so! It was so pitiful. She slept about 30 minutes until I figured I needed to rescue Avery from her crib who had been happily awake hanging out in her crib for a good while. Riley was none to pleased about being moved. By 8:30am I was still unsuccessful at keeping Riley consoled. Every time I sat her down so I could do something she would just lose it! Tears were streaming down at a rapid pace. Avery was doing her two-year-old antics in full force that morning, so I quickly decided we needed to get out of the house and head for a park. The outside air might snap Riley out of whatever was bothering her. Avery had a blast! She LOVES slides. Climbing up and sliding down. Riley, on the other hand, wasn't as thrilled about the park. She did have some good moments and did cheer up some.

I finally decided to call the doc (when Brent offered to come home to be with Avery!) .. I felt like I could manage that. After all, I figured it was probably teething, but she had been good with it the past week, and being inconsolable just ISN'T like her.

Long story short, I took Riley to the doctor and did not feel dumb for doing so! The nurse even said "that's why we're here!" When I said I just brought her in to rule out sickness. Everything checked out just fine. Her ears were good. She was just a little stuffy. Seems like she has a little cold. The doctor took one look inside her mouth and said "wow, she has a gazillion teeth coming in, huh?" After waiting over an hour for Riley to go to the bathroom (to rule out an infection) we were free to go. Riley is just having a rough go at it with all her teeth coming in. She's got 3 coming in.. with at least 4-5 more that I see will be coming in the near future.

It was a good day in the end because as we were waiting in the room, Riley was so exhausted she just collapsed in my lap and took a little nap. It was the sweetest thing. I could've stayed like that ALL day. Thank you Lord that Riley is healthy!

my snuggle bug

a natural fence

2011-03-21T15:03:00.000-04:00

Brent did THIS! I love it!! These trees will grow to 10-15 feet. 16 trees in 4 hours. You may now all call him "Mr. Green Thumb."

lots and lots of pictures

2011-03-17T14:06:00.000-04:00

the baby push-up

the classic, drooly, teething baby

strong arms, Riley!

blue duck.. "daisy"

green duck, "donald"

9 months of Riley

2011-03-17T14:00:00.000-04:00

Happy 9 months to my littlest girl. Here's the latest scoop:

you're becoming much more mobile.. you move around the floor by sitting up and leaning over to reach things and rotating and twisting and everything but crawling.. you can get over to your tummy, but you do this plank/push-up move and end up pushing yourself backwards.. not forwards
you like to bop to any music you hear (it first started with the Mickey Mouse Clubhouse "hotdog song")
you FINALLY are getting some teeth! the top two front teeth are coming in
daylight savings wasn't too bad on you! just a few nights of rocking you back to sleep after you woke up after an hour of sleeping.. and a few mornings you slept 'til 8 (and only getting up from 4am or 5am to eat once). you're back to 645/7am wakeups. and only eating once at night! I'll take it because you still go to bed by 7/715pm
everyone comments on your shyness... you always smile and turn your head away when people smile at you
you have recently cut back on how much you eat... those pesky teeth are bothering you, i'm sure! table food is your fav.. i think you're finding pureed baby food boring =) OH and you SHOVEL in the shredded cheese like it's candy
you are able to drink from a sippy cup now! you beat your sis by 3 months on that "milestone"
you love being outside
you still ride in your infant seat in the car (it's got a lovely 30lb weight limit).. although it's pretty near impossible for me to carry you IN it anywhere.
you're down to two naps a day... most days they're 30 minutes each.. a few times a week you'll do a 45 min or hour long nap. A Sunday or two ago you hit a new record.. 1.5 hrs! THAT was crazy.
you love mommy.
you love mommy to hold you
you love mommy to be within arms reach
your 9 month stats: 21 pounds 13 ounces. and 26.75" long (i doubt that's 100% accurate.. you were crooked on the table and crying, so we'll say 27")

9 months old

her expression is so funny

happy girl!

no words

2011-03-13T14:59:00.000-04:00

I have nothing to write about... just love this little girl to pieces.

thoughts from Avery

2011-03-11T15:22:00.000-05:00

riding along in the car we passed a park

Avery: Can we go to that park, mommy? Do they have a potty there? (I had told her a few days earlier that the park we were going to would not have a potty. So we needed to go at home before we left).
Me: Not today, grandma and grandpa are coming to visit! We gotta go home to see them.
Avery: We have a potty at home.
LONG PAUSE
Avery: God made my potty!!
Me: Yep! He sure did..
Avery: Mmm Hmm.. and God made me too!
Me: And He made Riley and Mommy and Daddy too!
Avery: and Wally and Henry... and AUNTIE!
***
I love how her little brain works. It's so fun.

moving backwards

2011-03-09T13:43:00.000-05:00

Look where Riley got stuck! She can now push up on her knees or into the push-up position and she moves herself backwards... not forwards yet :)

Mommy, please stop taking my picture and help me..

riley's a tough cookie

2011-03-04T14:50:00.000-05:00

I'm trying very hard to keep up my blogging resolution for 2011. Riley is down for her vintage 30 minute catnap and I'm choosing to write a post instead of cleaning, straightening, folding clothes, or putting my feet up for a few. I know a few months from now, I'll be glad I did! I had a few things I wanted to write about.

Avery somewhere picked up the word "however." She will now say things like, "HOWEVER am I going to do [so and so]??" It's usually said with an exasperated voice =) I don't think Brent or I say things like that. I love it when Avery picks up a new word from somewhere and ends up using it correctly. I always chuckle. Like a few months ago when she caught on to the word "situated." She had heard Brent saying it whenever he'd help her on the potty. He'd say he was situating her undies so she could get them back on the right way. Then one day she was fixing her twisted socks and I heard her say she was "trying to situate her socks."

In some sad news, Riley has a scratch on her nose! Poor thing. She and I were outside sitting on the porch today and she fell over! Her face broke her fall. She has a tendency to reach for things that are too far our of her reach, thus toppling over and landing on her tummy. She was trying to reach for a leaf to chew on and toppled over and scratched her nose on the way down. She only cried for a minute. She's a tough cookie!

Smile!

Hi miss bee!

Fixing the bouncy seat

A few random things said by Avery that I don't want to forget ..
Avery was excited to drink from my camelbak water bottle in the car today. All of a sudden she cries out, "God made your water bottle, mommy!"
Me: "oh yeah? that's pretty neat"
Avery: "Mmmm Hmmm!"
***
Driving down Millville we passed a little church on the right.
Me: "That's a church right there"
Then we passed a new house right after the church.
Avery: "And that's a house church"
pause
"We're not going to church today... we'll go on Saturday" (first time I heard her say a day of the week in regards to a certain activity... and she almost got the day right =)

games

2011-03-03T09:48:00.000-05:00

Avery loves playing with board games. Not the correct way, obviously. But she loves to play with the pieces and have us tell her what everything is and where it goes. I think she'll like playing games like Candy Land. She already wishes she was old enough to understand our games.

Until then, she's content to throw game pieces up into the air and make huge messes until I hear the words "can we play another game, mommy?".. and then the cycle starts all over. =)

rummikub

2011-02-28T16:08:00.000-05:00

Avery wanted to "play" Rummikub this morning. I've been trying to help her learn the numbers 0-9 for a while now and she's finally catching on. This game is a great way for her to practice.

It was her idea to put all the blue ones together. Notice how the "6's" are upside down? She insisted on having all 9's.. no 6's. Don't know why.

I was trying to get a simple picture of her looking decent while playing... but this is what I ended up with...

Avery found a booklet inside the game box advertising lots of other games. She was super excited about it. She wanted to get more games. I asked her where we needed to go to buy them and she said "the game store!".. Right =)

she did it!

2011-02-26T10:13:00.000-05:00

Here's a picture of Riley after she slept 'til 645am Thursday morning! What a night. She slept from 730pm to 645am. No feedings, no needing mommy at 12, 2 and 4am, no nothing. She was SO HAPPY that day. Girly needed her nighttime sleep. It started Saturday night when I was desperate and decided to see what Riley would do overnight if I wasn't to go in to her room to help her back to sleep everytime she woke up crying. She had a few crying spells that night, but managed to fall back to sleep by herself. Each night since then has been good. I only went in once each night after Saturday night until Wednesday night when I didn't go in at all. She's still been doing great.. usually going until at least 430 or later.
Her naps haven't changed one bit. Three 30-min naps seems to be her thing. If she's sleeping better at night, I don't care about naps! I'm up all day with Avery anyway. She's been markedly happier during the daytimes. This is what we wanted for her. Go Riley! We will continue to pray each night for Riley to get the rest her little body needs!

side by side

2011-02-22T15:38:00.002-05:00

a true sun room & puppy pjs

2011-02-17T13:33:00.000-05:00

I love that our sunroom actually is the room in the house that gets a lot of sun!

Riley's getting good at eating puffs... gotta be quick if Avery the puff stealer is around!

how perfect are these puppy pjs for Avery?? She learned the word "dalmation".. so cute

miss bee makes valentines!

2011-02-15T21:06:00.000-05:00

making valentines!

And yes, I dressed Avery in her heart shirt without even thinking about it being Valentine's Day. Am I good or what? hahaha

Avery LOVES doing crafts. She puts on her focus face and dives right in. We made a trip to Wally World and picked out some construction paper and stickers for our Valentines. The cover to the pack of construction paper had a turtle on it, and for whatever reason Avery kept calling it "the turtle bible." She held on to the pack of heart and flower stickers nice and tight. She was SO excited. We made lots of Valentines today, too. It's all she wanted to do today! My mom nicknamed her Miss CEO.. and in true Avery fashion she was "helping" me make my valentines while she made hers =)

8 months of riley

2011-02-15T20:01:00.000-05:00

Today Riley is 8 months old. Here's the latest and greatest:

you recently went through a major growth spurt because your sleepers fit last week and this week they are really too short for you. maybe that explains the random handful of 1-hour naps you had.
you are a pro at rolling over from back to tummy. this makes naptime loads of fun. you take even longer to settle into sleep and still only give mommy a 30 minute break... 3 times a day
you're starting to get into 12-18 mo clothes.. you need the length in the onesies, and let's face it.. the width, too.
you LOVE bathtime .. you're wanting so bad to crawl out of your tub now
when you roll over to your tummy you can really push up high with your arms (yes yes.. you're a super late bloomer in this dept).. i suppose you made up for it by sitting up solo early at 4 months.
you're still eating 2 meals of solids. breakfast and dinner. if avery doesn't steal your puffs, you get to munch on a few
bedtime is still at 7.. and you wake up 2-3 times between then and morning. you can stop doing that anytime.. i promise i'll be there when you wake up IN.THE.MORNING... i'm not THAT interesting =)
you like chewing on spoons... or ANYTHING.. everything goes in your mouth.
still no teeth
you hate it when mommy leaves the room.. or tries to do anything productive
you still nap in the car (yay!)
you still let mommy (only rarely) hold/rock you while you sleep (just this morning i rocked you for an hour since it was too early to start the day)
you give the BEST smiles.. I love it..

still have those bright, blue eyes

happy valentine's day

2011-02-14T13:28:00.000-05:00

Riley sportin' the hearts

she wants to crawl SO bad

It's SO nice out today. 60's! Avery was bothered by the wind, though. =) Riley was digging the weather. Crazy to think it snowed last week.

I've got Riley's 8 month update coming tomorrow, so I'll write more then.

side by side

2011-02-08T14:11:00.001-05:00

Here's Avery and Riley at EXACTLY the same age:

Feb 8, 2011 (Riley)

Feb 8, 2009 (Avery)

Thoughts from Avery

2011-02-04T12:20:00.000-05:00

A conversation in the car with Avery:
Avery: "we got her at the baby store" (aka babiesRUs)
Me: "who?"
Avery: "Riley"
Me: "oh really?"
A: "yeah we had to put her together"
Me: "oh yeah?"
A: "yeah..." pause. "God made Riley... And mommy... And my carseat"

the progression of a puff

2011-02-03T14:39:00.000-05:00

mommy sticks it on the tongue

"what is this?!"

not so sure about this...

ok, I like it!

a lot!

I think Riley's actually consumed one.. or maybe two puffs total in the week or so I've given them to her. I use it more as a toy/distraction so I can get up and do a few things in the kitchen without her yelling at me =)

when you got it... flaunt it

2011-02-01T15:00:00.000-05:00

and Riley sure does have chubby baby cheeks... i love it

beef stew and big brother

2011-01-28T13:59:00.001-05:00

My cookbook area looks like this: an utter disaster. So when I wanted to make a beef stew in the crockpot, I was forced to make it up from scratch. I did not want to spend hours (which I don't have!) to find my old recipe. I had veggies in the fridge I needed to use up and potatoes in the pantry I needed to finish, too. It was SO simple. Brent said it was the best stew I had made. I'll take that! So here's what I did.

BEEF STEW
1-1.5 pounds of stew beef
1 packet of Lipton Beefy Onion soup mix
a few potatoes (with skins left on)
a large handful of baby carrots (chopped up)
a few stalks of celery (chopped up)
some onion (i had half an onion left over)
a green pepper (chopped up)
1 can of beef stock
1 bay leaf

I put the stew beef on the bottom on the crock pot. Then layer the veggies and potatoes on top. I don't measure or anything. I just fill the pot up. Pour the packet of soup mix on top. Add the can of beef stock over that. Set crockpot on high for a few hours, or on low for all day. I added in a tablespoon of flour later on to thicken the soup up. Once it was done, I served it up with a loaf of white bread from our bread maker.

This was SO easy. And best of all I did it WITHOUT a recipe (I love that!) There was no work being done in the kitchen at dinner time which is key with Riley =) She doesn't so much enjoy me being in the kitchen working at that hour!

I now feel like "Big Brother" with our fancy shmancy video baby monitor. I'm happy I used my birthday money for this... the entertainment value is priceless! Watching Avery in her crib at naptime.. WOW. I wish I had this sooner!

Riley sleeping

Avery doin her thing during "naptime"

one happy customer

2011-01-27T13:27:00.000-05:00

What are purple carrots? I don't know. Riley sure likes them.. mixed with blueberries and pears! Looks like the color of beets.. I NEVER would've fed this to Avery.. with her spitting up, it would've be awful to clean it up!

I've posted about how much I like the Plum Baby Organic food. I wish they made more varieties.. especially vegetable ones. If I see these on sale, I try and snag a few! I first heard about them from my sister and saw them on Amazon before seeing them in the store.

food and car seats

2011-01-26T14:53:00.000-05:00

It's been so fun to feed Riley lately. I like having a baby who seems to enjoy the process of eating baby food! So far she's liked every fruit and vegetable I've given to her. She wasn't into the mixed vegetables at first, but I added in a little applesauce to get her used to the taste, and by the end she was gobbling the veggies up sans applesauce.
This girl has the best smiles. She can be in a super fussy mood, yet will still crack a huge smile. Here she was super happy. Perhaps it was the fact she took a nap that was an hour and a half this morning!! Go Riley! That's triple the length of her normal naps! Granted she's been awake a much longer time since the nap too.. but I'll take it! She was so much happier today because of that nap. The past two nights she's only woken up once.. around 3am to eat.. and then gone back to sleep until 630 or so. C.R.A.Z.Y. I hope I didn't just jinx that.

Avery finally ended her napping hiatus today. She hadn't fallen asleep for a nap since Saturday! I actually missed listening in on her today on the monitor to hear what she was talking about and what songs she was singing. Ok, I digress... SOLIDS.. Doesn't Riley look so grown up in this picture at her booster seat? Brent nearly has a heart attack every time he thinks about the girlies growing up. So, if you're reading this, don't listen to what I just said about Riley =)

I put a few of those Gerber puffs on Riley's tray yesterday. She grabbed them and pulled them to her mouth, but they didn't go inside. She just tucked them away in her hands and let them get all sticky. It's fun to watch them explore new things.

I'm nearing the point of wanting to switch Riley out of her infant car seat to the cow print upright one we have. She is SO HEAVY in that infant seat! I can barely lift her up into the car without throwing my back out. The only plus side to keeping her in it is that it's a convenient place for her to be when we go out places. I set her in the front portion of a shopping cart yesterday and she cried. Not snuggly enough I suppose! We switched Avery out of her infant seat at Christmas. Have I said how I love being able to compare what I did and when with the girls by the calendar dates? Since they were born 2 days shy of 2 years apart it's SO easy to think back and not have to do the math in my head as to what age avery was and then calculate that for riley. Did that make sense? It did to me. Maybe only me! Riley's feet are past the edge of the car seat, so that might be reason enough. OH and the MAIN MAIN MAIN reason I've kept her in it is that she is still able to fall asleep in it!!! I would be up a creek without a paddle if she didn't do that. Avery stopped napping very shortly after we switched her out of her infant seat, so I think I'm paranoid that if we switch Riley she will stop napping in the car, too. Wow. This was a super rambly post. At least there were a few cute pictures to look at.

almost forgot!

2011-01-20T14:41:00.000-05:00

As I was re-reading the last post about Avery I realized I forgot to write about something HUGE! Avery's been potty trained since November! We still put her in a diaper for naps and nighttime, but during the day she's PT! I started very gradually with her over the summer just letting her go potty whenever she'd mention it. By November she was asking to go A LOT. So I decided to ditch the diaper one day and we haven't looked back. She caught on SO quick. What a huge blessing. Potty training with a newborn around is quite the task =)

avery at two and a half

2011-01-20T14:07:00.000-05:00

I haven't updated about Avery in ages. Just thought I'd jot a few things down for posterity.

Having a two year old is SO MUCH FUN. Obviously this age has challeneges, but I love being able to carry on conversations with her and enjoy her own little sense of humor. She's my little buddy and I love it.

Just the other day she started using the word "situated".. and using it correctly. She's been learning songs over the past few months. Her favorite time to practice singing songs is in her crib while she winds down for nap time. She knows the entire "Frosty the Snowman" song. And she started to recognize a few Christmas songs like "O Holy Night." She knows "Jesus Loves Me" and parts of the "B-I-B-L-E". And she knows lots of song portions from her Car Songs CD we play in the car.

She just started the other week putting more complex questions together. How'd that happen! She started putting sentences together probably during the summer sometime. It's SO fun to talk with her. She has quite the imagination.

We got her a "mag doodle" for christmas and she has started to draw fish with eyes and mouths. She says whether they are a happy or sad fish by the way the mouth looks on the drawing. She's also starting to learn how to write a few letters.

She absolutely loves playing football with daddy in the evenings around the kitchen and living room. She would live outside if we let her. Too bad it's been so cold this winter.. and I'm chicken to be out in the cold while carrying around a heavy baby! Come on, Spring! I can't wait to play outside with Avery this Spring. I hope Riley loves being outside as much as Avery does.

Hmm.. I can't think of what else to write down.. A few of her favorite foods lately are oatmeal, spaghetti, applesauce, yogurt, and of course cookies.

I fear typing this out because of jinxing it, but Avery still sleeps AWESOME. She sleeps all night and 95% of the time takes a nap during the afternoon ranging from 1-2.5 hours. It depends on how long she decides to chat in her crib before falling asleep =)

give this girl some ribbons and she has hours of entertainment

now mommy has a huge mess to clean up!

so much fun!

another month has passed us by - 7 month update

2011-01-20T13:45:00.000-05:00

Riley is 7 months old as of January 15th. We were away visiting friends from college over the weekend, so I'm just now getting around to her update post. Here's what Riley's been up to the past month:

you're starting to make "b" and "g" sounds
you came VERY close to rolling over last night! -- still waiting on that one..
you still LOVE your sis.. you LOVE laughing with her.. you LOVE taking tubbies together at night.. you LOVE watching her play.. and you LOVE getting attention from her
you're eating two meals a day.. and loving it more and more
still no teeth!
you average 1-2 hours of nap time TOTAL a day (spread over 2-4 naps)
you're in your crib for 11ish hours a night.. waking up A LOT. I try to only feed you once, though! Hey.. maybe if you'd roll over, you'd enjoy sleeping on your tummy?? =)
bedtime is still 7pm.. mommy loves that since you (and her) are usually so exhausted by evening!
you still take naps in the car (yay!).. your sis last napped in the car at 7 months
you're in size 4 diapers and 6-12 mo clothes
you still love rubbing your feet together when agitated - i'm surprised you haven't rubbed holes in your footy pjs
favorite toys .. things that aren't toys =)

<--- A look back at month 6

i see you

2011-01-12T13:27:00.000-05:00

I think this photo is so funny. Riley was confused by the sunglasses and was trying to grab some mysterious object in the air. She looks good in them, no? Hehe.

Well Riley did not give me the gift of sleep for my birthday. I was hoping she'd decide to sleep through the night for the first time last night.. uhhh, right! Just kidding. I did NOT think that! If she HAD done that, I would've been super grateful. For now, I'll keep waiting and hoping.

I told Avery that it was my birthday today. It only took about 5 times of telling her it was MY birthday and not HERS for her to get it. And then she proceeded to tell me to sing Happy Birthday to myself =) Crazy girl.

Tonight we're all going out to Qdoba for a little birthday dinner. I'm so excited. I LOVE that place. I think it's Avery's most favorite place to go eat, too. She actually eats.. and sits in her chair for the whole meal.

new years resolution?

2011-01-10T15:09:00.000-05:00

So I was thinking about New Years Resolutions.. I have NEVER been one to make a NYR, let alone make one and actually KEEP it. I know it's already January 10th, but I began to think about my poor blog and how it's the only place I ever record things that happen around here! So I thought it would be great to make a resolution to update this WAY more frequently. Time is going so fast.. Riley is almost 7 months old and I can hardly remember anything specific about what happened in the past for EITHER girl! Avery's babyhood is a complete and total blur in my mind. I remember things one way.. and it's 99% of the time wrong. Ha ha! SOoooo if I write things down on my blog, it will never be forgotten! I like that. So here's to my first new year's resolution ever..

Riley's been enjoying her food lately. She's tried mangos, bananas, apples, pears, peas, and sweet potatoes. I'd have to say bananas have been her favorite so far. I love the Plum Baby Organic foods. They come in cool pouches with a twist top. Easy to use a little or a lot and store the rest in the fridge for later. I always end up wasting so much of the foods when they come in the plastic containers.. I don't know why, but I either forget about them or somehow contaminate them with the spoon and then they get forgotten in the fridge because Riley is no where near eating enough to finish one in a single sitting.

I think Riley is starting to get mad when we sit down at the table to eat. She starts fussing and wants to be held up at the table during dinner. I try to feed her while we eat, too. She's seems to enjoy that. Oh, and she loves it when I feed her a little food when Avery is having breakfast in her highchair. I scoot them right next to each other and Avery will chat to Riley and Riley just smiles at her in between bites. I think they really like each other =) I always wondered when Riley was an infant if Avery would ever ask when Riley was going back home. I can't imagine how weird it must be for a little kid to all of a sudden have a new person in their house soaking up SO much mommy and daddy attention! Or maybe it's no biggie at all to kids.. Either way, Avery still hasn't asked when Riley is going home, so I think Riley's here to stay =)

A few new things to note: last Friday Riley took TWO one-hour naps in her crib! And another one Saturday morning, too. Since then, 30 min naps at best! At least it's nice to know she CAN do it. Whether she will or not is another question. Nights are getting a little better too. She'll frequently sleep from 7 until 3/330. Eat and then sleep for another few hours. At this point with Avery we were putting her to bed around 830 i think. I can deal with 7pm as a bedtime! Riley really doesn't give us a choice. She is SO ready for her bath by 630 each night.. and with the little nappage she has during the day she is longing to go to bed for the night by then. Ever since she was a wee little baby, come evening time, she would settle into a deep sleep.. as in she would sleep past her typical 30 minutes.. I used to wake her if it was time to eat, and she'd never settle back into that deep, night sleep. I quickly learned to just LET her sleep if she got into her "night sleep" and that's where her early bedtimes started. As she napped less and less, bedtime became earlier and earlier!

Ok, so I'll just say that this might be dreadfully boring to most of you reading this (if anyone is ..lol =) But these are the things I try and remember down the road and just simply cannot.. so I like writing it all down! I regretfully never did that with Avery. So I usually ask Brent if he remembers what we did! Because we all know what "mom brain" is... and I have it.. bad.

Avery's so excited about my resolution she's jumping up and down!

Hip hip.. hooray!

.. love these two ..

2011-01-07T14:01:00.000-05:00

..love these two..

Avery had Riley in stiches this morning... can you tell?

happy 6 months, riley!

2010-12-15T15:30:00.001-05:00

Today marks 6 months since Riley was born. It's hard to believe. Here's what you were up to this past month:

you sit up all on your own now
you still don't enjoy playing on your back .. or tummy
you've still never even attempted to roll over
you can pick toys up off the ground if they're nearby while you're sitting
you are a pro at putting the paci in your mouth.. and taking it out
you're in 9 month and 12 month clothing, and moved you up to size 4 diapers a week ago (little miss thunder-thighs over here)
you eat a little rice cereal each night at dinner time, and occasionally eat a little oatmeal in the morning (when I think of it!)
you still nurse every 3 hrs during the day and up until a week ago when you got sick you would go upwards of 9 hrs without eating at night
you still do your 30 minute cat naps.. you average 3 of those a day
bedtime moved earlier this month.. baths are at 630/645 and you're in bed by 715ish
until you got sick you were sleeping until 330-430am to nurse and then go back to sleep for another 2 hrs or so.. since you've been sick, let's just not talk about it! you're up 4-7 times a night now
you still LOVE watching your sis play
I haven't picked up on any favorite toys you have.. you will smile at your pink musical bug most often
you will fall asleep and nap in the car.. 30 minutes.. even with Avery chatting away next to you
we moved you to the "sitting up" side of the infant tub this past week.. you love it!
your baby bald spot is disappearing on the back of your head.. your hair is coming in more now and it's very blonde!
you have the CUTEST smile.. you love smiling at mommy, daddy, and avery
you're excited to see your Uncle Travis for the first time next week! He deployed two days before you were born.
you're still in your infant car seat. we're trying to hold out moving you into the next car seat until our road trip in January.. since we know you'll nap in your current seat =)
I'll update with your stats on Friday after your doctor's appointment.. but I'm pretty sure you're topping the charts weight-wise.. love my little chunky monkey!
update: you weigh 19.1 lbs (above 95%ile) and you're 25.25" long (35%ile)

Riley at one month.. we've come a long way, kiddo!

Here's Avery at 6 months to compare!

same place, a year later

2010-11-21T14:42:00.000-05:00

I think I'm starting to realize how quickly time is passing. Maybe that's why I love seeing photos of Avery and comparing them to ones from when she was younger just to see how much she has grown! Here's Avery playing with her farm toys on the same table .. one is from Sept 30, 2009 and the other one is from a week ago:

21st century toddler

2010-11-19T13:40:00.000-05:00

need I say more?

5 months old!

2010-11-16T15:37:00.000-05:00

Yesterday Riley turned 5 months old! So far it's her best month yet ;) What's she up to, you ask?

she is starting to grab toys
tolerates playing on her back longer than a few minutes!
likes jumping in the jumperoo.. especially if Avery is around for her to watch
eats a little rice cereal each evening during dinner time
still not a fan of tummy time
doesn't even know rolling over exists!
still working on sitting up on her own.. she can do it for a little while before tumbling over
one bottom tooth is STILL working it's way in.. has been since she was just under 3 months old
takes 3 or 4 30-minute naps a day
hits a wall around 7pm and all she wants is to take a bath and go to bed
her bedtime is between 730 and 800pm
she now sleeps through 'til 4-530am and then eats and goes back to sleep for another 1-3 hrs
we ditched the swaddle blanket AND paci at night and naps 3 weeks ago today (we did the hotly debated tactic of "cry it out" and lemme tell you... it WORKED. The most she cried was 30 minutes the first few nights and she even stopped waking at her famous "30 min mark") She now just makes some noise and fusses a little or even cries a little and will put herself to sleep. It's the best thing I did for her.. she's been so much more relaxed and happy during the day. Now if only she'd learn how to nap!
but BY FAR her favorite activity of all time is watching her sis =) She sometimes even starts fussing when Avery leaves the room.

5 months

4 months

3 months

2 months

1 month

I'll end the post with a few more pictures..

silly girls

2010-11-12T14:34:00.001-05:00

just playing

2010-10-08T15:03:00.000-04:00

a fun comparison

2010-09-27T14:51:00.001-04:00

Avery, September 27, 2008 (3 months, 10 days old)

Riley, September 27, 2010 (3 months, 12 days old)

ok so I might be the only one who notices this, but this proves how long Riley's torso is! look where her's and avery's right ears hit the bouncy seat! or even just look at the top of their heads! no wonder Riley's shirts are always so short!

3 months

2010-09-16T13:34:00.003-04:00

Riley just turned 3 months old. I thought I'd recap the past 3 months with her "chair picture."

the digital age

2010-08-25T20:09:00.002-04:00

random post:

Avery LOVES talking to cousin Henry over Skype.. how cool! It makes North Dakota seem not so far away. Love you HD!

my poor blog

2010-08-20T12:39:00.001-04:00

these two keep me too busy to blog! hopefully some day i'll update again!

smile!

2010-08-04T22:52:00.001-04:00

the newest arrival

2010-06-30T14:11:00.003-04:00

Better late than never, right?? I think it's time to announce the arrival of

Riley Quinn Ustick!!
7 lbs 14 oz
21 inches long
2:14 pm June 15, 2010

getting closer

2010-05-21T14:31:00.004-04:00

So we've got 27 days to go.. that's LESS than 4 weeks 'til baby #2 comes. Yikes! We had an ultrasound yesterday at the 36 week check-up. She did have her hands and feet in her face, so it was hard to get a good look, but here's what we got. Notice there's a foot lodged in her nose:

ziploc bags and storms

2010-05-15T15:05:00.002-04:00

Sometimes you just gotta put your bowls and lids in ziploc baggies.

Avery learned all about storms the other night. She learned lots of new words... "thunder" "lightning" & "booming". All was safe inside the house perched on Daddy's lap.

I think practice is helping... a few people have actually wanted some!

nothing beats it...

2010-05-08T13:46:00.001-04:00

nothing beats playing football with daddy!

getting crafty

2010-05-07T13:56:00.003-04:00

just a little project I started today:

it definitely takes practice to get good at lining the ribbon up and not making a complete mess of the hot glue, but I'd say for my first trial run, they don't look too shabby, right?

coloring: avery-style

2010-05-04T14:45:00.004-04:00

Here she is drawing a fish... maybe i should put that in quotes: "fish"

and in other exciting news... Avery has finally taken to wearing something in her hair/on her head... we'll see how long it lasts =) and in case you were wondering, her shirt is on backwards.. oops!

a little project

2010-04-15T13:49:00.002-04:00

What can I get done in 15 minutes? I took this:

and made it into this:

We figured the old, "blue" recliner that is quite ancient needed to be tossed and replaced before the baby arrived. As a baby, Avery often woke up when I'd get up out of the chair because it creaked and squeaked so much! So far this one is as quiet as a mouse!

fun with cardboard

2010-04-05T14:48:00.002-04:00

Brent mowed our lawn for the first time on Sunday afternoon... and Avery enjoyed playing with the packaging from the box the lawn mower came in. She played in her "house" and watched Brent mow the lawn. So much fun!

Avery also got her first legitimate facial scratch over the weekend. She gained too much speed running down the driveway and tripped and let her nose break the fall. Oops!

thought it couldn't get any worse!

2010-04-02T08:15:00.000-04:00

but it did! the next day!

Avery loves snuggling up CLOSE to her bumper while sleeping... can you tell?

anyone have a brush?

2010-03-31T15:24:00.000-04:00

Yesterday, for whatever reason, Avery spent the first hour+ in her crib for nap time just chatting away to herself. She eventually got tired enough and fell asleep for a little nap... and fell asleep hard... and woke up looking like THIS:

Wow! That is a serious case of bed-head if I've ever seen it. I had to document it! Oh, and pardon the lack of a shirt... Avery was eating yogurt and, well, that can get messy.

getting ready for baby sis; a play-by-play

2010-03-19T13:30:00.005-04:00

step 1: learn to put a diaper on

step 2: make sure you have a placemat under baby to protect furniture

step 3: get closer to the baby to make the job easier

step 4: hug the baby

step 5: play catch with the baby

step 6: remember to repeat step 5 because it was so fun!

step 7: quickly do something mischievous (i.e. stand up on furniture) to see if mommy is paying attention

step 8: consider repeating step 1 since baby no longer is wearing diaper

step 9: put pacifier in baby's mouth for naptime

step 10: teach little sis how fun empty boxes are!

outside

2010-03-18T08:53:00.003-04:00

** engaged in a favorite activity: watching a puppy down the street **

26 weeks

2010-03-11T13:07:00.005-05:00

Today marks the 26th week of baby #2 (yet to be named). I realized I haven't really done any updates on the baby. My sister just had her second boy last night (so excited!) and it donned on me to do a little blog post update. Well that, and I've had some requests to post a "belly pic." ;) Taking pictures of myself is SOOOO not me! But I figured what the heck... I think I finally took a picture of myself pregnant with Avery around the 36 week mark... and it was never made public .. so who knows what I looked like before that! So here it is.. 26 weeks on the dot:

My main struggle lately? Figuring out where best to perch Avery while holding her.. on my side, in the front, ?! Too bad she still doesn't hold on to me while holding her. I can't for the life of me figure out why she never grasped the "hold-on-to-mommy-with-my-hands" thing. ;)

The little ticker on the right-hand side of the blog says I have 98 days left.. 98 days 'til baby girl's due date AND Avery's second birthday. What a great date! I wonder what Avery's going to think of having a little sister around the house?

So far so good on the diet-front. I've gotten an A+ from the doctor each time I show them my blood sugar numbers. Luckily this time around I've realized I don't have to eat like a rabbit 100% of the time, or be Mr. Atkins' #1 follower.

I recently went through and sorted all of Avery's baby clothes. I can't believe she was ever that tiny. I'm looking forward to seeing the clothes get worn again!

just a few pictures

2010-03-09T15:31:00.001-05:00

swagbucks birthday!

2010-02-25T15:21:00.003-05:00

I just had to repost about one of my favorite search engine sites. You can earn "swagbucks" when you use their search engine. I always redeem my swagbucks for Amazon.com gift cards.

Today is their birthday and there are lots of swagbucks to be won! Check it out! Once you're a member, you can refer other friends and you'll earn equivalent swagbucks when they do! It's kinda fun. I don't think I've gone 1 day without earning at least 1 swagbuck. And you only need 45 to get a $5.00 Amazon.com gift card. (Well, today they switched the swagbucks, so everything is x10 now. 1 old swagbuck = 10 newswagbucks).

It's pretty easy.. I made swagbucks.com my homepage, so instead of typing in gmail.com into the browser, I just take one extra step and type "gmail" into swagbucks and usually earn a "buck"! Sometimes I don't get one 'til the second or third search of the day. It's kinda random.

free 8x10 at Walgreens today!

2010-02-25T15:16:00.002-05:00

Today only (Thursday 2/25 - through 11:59pm CST), is a FREE 8×10 photo print! Use code FREEPHOTO at checkout — one-time use only per account.

No additional purchase necessary. Opt for in-store pickup, and you don’t even have to pay shipping!

Just upload a photo to Walgreens.com and order the 8x10 size and choose the store you want to pick it up at.. and voila! A free photo to hang on the wall. Don't forget to enter the coupon code at checkout.

Our blank walls are just screaming for some decoration!

it's not what you think

2010-02-23T14:24:00.000-05:00

I know what you're thinking! wow.. Liz has lost all self-control!

It was actually the after-math of making these:

You may now start breathing again...

hand ball

2010-02-08T14:20:00.002-05:00

she does know how to kick it.. although running around with the ball is just as fun!

so much fun

2010-02-02T13:44:00.003-05:00

Playing with blocks is one of my current favorite activities with Avery right now. She now understands the concept of building "something" and has fun with it -- especially when it topples over! She usually asks to build either a "barn," "house," "garage," or "tower." Making spaces for cars or horses to go in or through is a MUST. Just because you have a girl does not mean you can't play with blocks and cars!

Snowie!

2010-01-30T13:36:00.004-05:00

Avery woke up this morning to a blanket of snow on the ground. She immediately began to say "snowie!" and "uch!" , which are her words for snow and touch. Snowie, by the way, is a character in one of her current favorite books about a make-believe snowy wonderland. I guess she thinks he might pop up in the snow outside! Brent whipped up waffles for breakfast- what a treat. We needed sustinance for our long trek to River Walk to pick up a shovel! Avery enjoyed seeing the snow all around, although she was slightly concerned since she kept saying "mess!" When we returned home, Avery insisted on watching Daddy shovel the driveway. I lasted all of like 5 minutes. It is SO cold out! 29 degrees is frigid to me (sorry for my wimpiness Krista! I'm sure you'd have a t-shirt on!) So in we went, but not before taking a few quick pictures to document the rare occasion.

Study time

2010-01-30T13:24:00.003-05:00

One of Brent's favorite rooms in the house is definitely the study. After waiting a few extra weeks for a new, unbroken bookshelf to arrive, the room is complete. It's a safe bet to look in here if he's missing!

ahh, a new bookshelf has arrived with all four legs intact!

book chaos

now we're seeing some organized stacks starting to form

finished! complete with bricks for bookends

seriously reading? or just posing.. you decide

it's a ...

2010-01-22T13:09:00.001-05:00

girl!

do a little dance

2010-01-12T14:44:00.004-05:00

Brent had Avery dancing around the room last night to Supertones music. She was having a BLAST!

Her favorite stuffed dog provided accompaniment on the drums.

And, don't forget to dance with a burp cloth under your chin!

just for fun

2010-01-11T14:11:00.000-05:00

... must ... get ... head ... through ... spindles... !!