more pumpkin patching

this weekend, we tried out Maan Farms - you have to pay to get in (we had a groupon) and it wasn't that great in comparison to my fav, Willowview Farm. but maybe it's just because my expectations were higher because it cost money. here are our highlights.

we were the only family without some kind of baby carrier...they hurt my neck/shoulders and tim refuses to wear one. haha.

bunnies at the petting zoo

ben loved being in the duck/chicken pen though he didn't want to get too close to any of the birds. in this pic, i said, "ben, go close to the ducks and i'll take your picture." that's as close as he got - and you can see the wary look on his face.

the giant sandbox is definitely a highlight of Maan Farms...though they just had this one shovel which ben monopolized.

avery never woke up.

the only pumpkin we went near - we were really there for the animals and the good times.

back to the bird pen.

(we've switched computers here at home so normally i would have cropped a couple of these pics so you could the see the facial expressions better but i can't figure out the software on this computer.)

sentences

here's ben's longest sentence so far:

he was looking at a guy who was standing in the back of a pick up truck and said, "a tat man doing up there?"

i love this learning to talk stage.

on the rare occasion...

avery dislikes her swing but will sit contently in her bouncy chair sometimes. two or three times, she's even fallen asleep in it. gotta love those rare occasions... quick, rebecca! go nap! ;)

$1.50 well spent

a month or so ago, i went to the new local dollar store. i'm always surprised that different dollar stores can have that many different things from each other. this one that i went to is a dollar plus store so there are more expensive things...but really, much better selection. i bought a bunch of random things. one of them was a bag of foam letters and numbers for the bath.

turns out - these were the best $1.50 investment ever. ben loves them. they stick to the walls so well with just water. i would spell out "ben" for him every night in the tub and pretty soon, he started spotting the letters b, e, and n in other places - books, signs, etc. i was so surprised and realized i should be telling him the whole alphabet! now, we line up the letters and sing our ABCs. we also organize the letters into colour piles. ben also likes to pretend they are pizza and pretend to eat them. they're a very versatile toy. if you have a kid, i'd highly recommend some foam letters for your tub.

cleaning up

i get ben to clean up toys here and there throughout the day. i don't want to have a stand off so i try to suggest we better clean up in a nonchalant way to ward off the "no"s. "ben - we better pick up these cars so we have room for playing in the ball pit - quick, let's clean them up!" then we both put them away together. for the most part, he's a great helper but i think it's key that i pitch in as well.

yesterday, tim had to work from 7:30am - 7:30pm. avery would not sleep. i had to hold her and walk around bouncing her to put her to sleep and then if i laid her down, she was awake again. i'm sure i accidentally overfed her because the crying sometimes seemed like hungry crying but it was actually tired crying. we didn't have a car to get out to have her sleep in her carseat and do something to entertain ben AND it poured rain all day so no walks. it was a very, very long day.

ben was a doll. he played and played and even though he has come down with a cold, was in a pretty good mood. but there was no cleaning up yesterday. i didn't want to tell him to clean up and have to hold him to it if he said no. i couldn't really help him clean up because i was always holding avery. so i let the house fall to pieces. i was surprised at how unsettling i found it to have toys everywhere. and my poor feet stepped on many a tiny, sharp toy. haha.

BUT we made it through the day, of course. i had to take a couple photos of the clutter for memory's sake. (though they're a little dark as it was nearing the end of the day and i'm not a big flash fan.)

today, avery slept a little better and we did much better to pick up one activity before starting the next. plus, i cleaned off that little green table so that there was room for colouring, painting, and play dough (all things that we did today). it's so much easier to enjoy toys when they're easy to find and there'a a space to play with them in.

getting me through...

looks like post-baby weight-loss will have to wait...

at one month

avery is already one month and it feels like we just got her. when ben was a month old, it felt we'd had him forever because he was my only focus all day, everyday whereas i'm still looking at this wee girlie and asking, "who are you?".

here are some things that i know about avery:

> she's not a fan of swaddling and likes to sleep with her arms out or up.

> she is definitely going to be a soother baby like ben.

> she does not like the swing.

> she loves the bath.

> she hasn't been liking wearing hats but hopefully that will change.

> she loves to sleep...during the day.

> in the evenings, she needs to sleep but can't do it alone - she wants to be held close.

it may not be a long list but remember, babies don't do much other than eat, sleep, and dirty their diapers. just seeing this list makes me feel like i know avery better than i realize.

one month old mother of two

what's your level?

i think everyone has different levels of tolerance when it comes to their babies. a friend was telling me today that she'd told her husband that her son was good during the day. then her husband spent all morning with the baby and informed her that he was fussy, cried, pooped, fussy some more etc. etc. and asked her, "is this normal?" she was like, "yeah. that's a good day."

when it comes to avery, i think she's probably a pretty content baby overall...but it's looking like the problem is that i have a low tolerance level. i want to feed her, burp her, let her fall asleep in my arms, then lay her down and have her sleep for a solid few hours. in fact, stay and awake and be happy if you'd like. once in awhile this is what happens. i think to myself, "this is it! we've passed the weird newborn stage and life is going to be normal and happy now!" then we have a day like today where avery has slept only 30 minutes about three times between 3pm to now (9pm) and all the rest of that time has been spent crying. oh. my. goodness. it's a ton of crying. (thankfully, tim's taken a ton of time with her and we've been watching hockey with my dad so you don't really have to hear what's happening.) the crying makes me crazy. we try everything we know...which is feed her and change her diaper. these things are not working. i find it very "you don't know how to look after a baby!" which is stressful.

but you know? it's one day. tomorrow will be different and it will be a day of perfect naps, bottles, and quiet, happy awake time which will be very "you are the best mother ever!" and that will make me feel better. today will have increased my tolerance level a bit and any crying that happens tomorrow will seem like nothing.

not so sleepy

avery seems to be beginning to spend more time awake these days. i guess that was bound to happen, right? a couple weeks ago, all awake time was spent either trying to get her to stop crying or worrying that she was about to cry. now, we're vaguely remembering that babies are able to spend time awake and be content - it's been much nicer.

(an iphone photo of avery dressed in something other than a sleeper for the first time)

pumpkin patch trial run

ahh yes - i found my camera. i found it on saturday morning before we left for the pumpkin patch - i was on the verge of insisting we go and buy a new one...good thing we found it.

we actually have a groupon for a local pumpkin patch and we were going to use it but we realized that we were going to be a little rushed because it takes us forever to leave the house nowadays AND we were planning on driving to Hope (an hour and a half away) to see tim's grandparents that afternoon. instead of going to the pumpkin patch that we'd PAID for, we went to the free one that we went to last year so we wouldn't feel ike we hadn't gotten our money's worth. haha. my photos from last year are so cute and i want some good family photos this year. BUT since this was our "trial run" of the pumpkin patch, i wasn't worried that i was wearing tim's big spit-up stained hoodie, and that i couldn't find ben's jeans that morning. also, looking back at last year's picks, i'd like to get another plaid shirt for ben this fall. but the kids are always cute so i took a few photos of them of course...

what a big boy!

my b-boy

a common question that people ask once you have a second kid: "how is _____ [insert first child's name] adjusting?" maybe you are wondering also.

ben is doing pretty good. he definitely loves avery and asks to have her come read books at bedtime or he lays down on the floor beside her when we're changing her diaper. he looks concerned when she's crying and he calls her squeaky mouse.

in the past few days though, the "helping" has definitely increased - i don't know if it's that avery is awake a little more which means mommy is holding her more but if i'm holding avery, chances are that ben is trying to sit on my lap. if i'm giving her a bottle, ben is sitting on me and trying to hold the bottle. we were at the beach on sunday and i was walking and holding avery because she'd been screaming in her carseat - ben HAD to hold my hand and not daddy's hand. good thing avery is so light, i can carry her with one arm.

but overall, he's doing well. i'm so happy that he likes her at this stage because as she gets older and more communicative, i imagine that will be more fun for him to entertain her.

at my parents' place on sunday, ben placed his cars around avery so that she could see them.

then he laid beside her for a few minutes.

then he tried playing in this position - it didn't last long.

he'll love it when she can sit in her bumbo.

avery. avery. avery. i'm still getting used to this name. sometimes tim or i will accidently call her the other name we'd had picked for her (which was allie) or after hanging out with our friend's daughter, we both kept calling her that name. and the fact that we picked the name, avery, goes against my strong opinions on nicknames. but we're glad we picked this name. we'll stop calling her "the baby" soon. ;)

augh

when i can't find my camera, i try not to think about it very hard. i'll casually look through a bag here or there but i don't want to actually LOOK for it. that would be admitting that it is lost. and then when you look for it and can't find it, you feel a bit panicked. but if it's not lost, you just don't know where it is, there's no panic. you feel like, "i'll see that camera one of these days."

but in case you're wondering why i haven't been posting any pics of my kids in the past week...umm...i haven't seen my camera around lately.

2 years olds get it

this morning, i was so tired. then ben was up earlier than i'd hoped he'd be. after he ate breakfast, i realized that he'd just dirtied the diaper i'd just put on him. i said, "oh dear - maybe you could change your own diaper today." he walked away and two seconds later i heard a velcro ripping sound and an "uh oh. poop." ben had walked down the hall, taken off his pj pants, and ripped off his diaper. thankfully, it wasn't messy and everything stayed in the diaper when it fell to the floor. what an obedient little boy! too funny.

reminder to self: two year olds understand what you're saying to them - don't make jokes.

jeepers creepers...

tim and i recently learned that you are born with your eyes full sized - they don't grow. the other day we were looking at avery and tim said, "you can tell that her eyes are huge in there." pause as we continue looking at her. "it's a bit freaky."

relearning

after a week of having avery scream her heart out each evening between 9pm - 12am, we slowly began to figure out that she was hungry. it seemed crazy when she'd just eaten an hour and a half earlier so we kept assuming it was gas or something. i guess because she'll go 4 and 5 hour stints without eating during the day, eating every 1.5 - 2hrs in the evening isn't that weird...unfortunately, it took me a week to figure this out. the last three nights though, we've barely had any crazy crying. night time periods of sleep are lengthening but i have not yet figured out that i need to get into bed as soon as possible in order to maximize the first long "nap" from 9pm-ish to 1:30am. and i'm sure this will change any moment anyways, right? that's something i DO remember about babies. avery is spending more and more time awake with her eyes open which is nice but it always feels just one step away from a meltdown so i'm always a little fearful of the awake times...but i'll get over it soon. you feel a little bit zombie-ish that first week and you're not quite sure of this new person in your life but the second week brought a little normalcy back and i actually spent a lot more time enjoying this little girl. it was a good feeling. now if we can just get the napping schedules coordinated and remember that i should go to bed at 9pm, we'll be out of the first month in no time.