practicing what you preach?

despite having booked his appointment 9 months in advance, when tim's dentist's office called on monday to remind him that he had an appointment the next morning, he realized he wasn't going to be able to make it.  unfortunately, he called too late and they were closed so he couldn't cancel.  instead, my father-in-law came over to babysit while i went in tim's place. 

i threw everyone at the office off a little and my pre-detinst-appointment month of flossing hadn't happened which made me a little nervous but all in all - glad i went.  but i made a joke about drinking too much coffee and it staining my teeth.  the hygenist asked, "do you drink it black?"  nope, definitely not.  she explained that if there's cream and sugar in it, it doesn't stain your teeth that much but the sugar is what's bad for your teeth.  (not new news) she suggested that if i made sure to brush my teeth after i drank coffee, that would be a good idea for preventing tooth decay.  brushing my teeth after every cup of coffee?  seriously?  which would lead you to believe that she also thinks we should brush after all sugar then, right?  i just wanted to ask, "do YOU brush your teeth that much?"  you have to wonder if hygenists or dentists follow all these suggestions themselves or if they just have to say it. 

just a thought. 

the voice

is anyone watching The Voice?  oh man, tim and i were so hooked last season - we had laughed at the selection of judges but they really turned out to be fantastic (christina excluded...we're not her biggest fans) and great chat/jokes back-and-forth between them.

we're loving this season just as much.  the singers are all invited to the show so you only watch talented people during the try-outs which we love love loved.  and the people who are still in it right now - oh man, there are some great ones!  if you're not watching, you don't care who our favourites are but we LOVE jamar rogers.  he's got to win it.  what a life story AND incredible voice.  i personally also like tony lucca.  really, is anyone else watching this?  let's discuss.

oh, life.

i'm loving my new instagram app on my phone (though finding that my camera's phone isn't that awesome)...to the point that i started trying to do my Project Life for the last week and i don't have that many pictures to use!  i haven't had a computer to use very much in the last week, i've been using my phone more, and i've straight up been avoiding my blog.  what to say, what to say?  focus less on my lack of writing and focus more on my two super cute kids.  ;)

2 year old perspective

this morning over breakfast i said to ben, "it's raining out! i thought it would be sunny today."

ben - "it's raining?"

me - "yep."

ben - "yay!"

me - "why yay?"

ben - "mud."

:)

a sign of spring

bike rides in shorts! loving the sunshine this weekend!

an avery first

avery got strapped into the stroller WITHOUT her carseat this past weekend! this made the backseat roomier for ben to sit and a lot more scenery for avery to admire as we walked.

she doesn't look thrilled...but i think she liked it.

hanging out at the park.

avery also checked out the good old zooper and it's superior shocks on a couple bumpier walks this weekend. (again, not so thrilled looking but she never made a peep for the whole walk so we like to take that as a "like")

learning to sit

it felt like avery may never learn to sit. i would "practice" sitting with her by propping her up then holding my hands close to her bottom to catch her if she tipped and it was always constant tipping. then all of a sudden, one day she was sitting! crazy. she is able to sit if she leans fairly far forward over her feet and even then, she sometimes falls backwards. but it's so fun to have a baby who can sit up now! yesterday, we went to winners and she sat in the cart with just a blanket to help prop her. (ben was not happy to be losing his seat in the shopping cart!)

"no biggie"

and then there was no swaddle

after swaddling saved my aching back (in december), i was starting to wonder when swaddling avery was going to stop working and how we would EVER break her from it. i imagined no napping and hours trying to get her to sleep at night.

a couple weeks ago, avery was having a hard time falling asleep at bedtime. wiggling and wiggling out of her swaddle. i would re-wrap and re-wrap until she was so hot from the combo of wiggling and being wrapped in a blanket that we'd have to take her out of bed, cool her down, and then begin again. one night, i suggested to tim that we just not swaddle. maybe swaddling was the problem now. so we put her in bed with just a sleep sack on. it took hours to fall asleep. (let me interject here that during the hours of trying to falling asleep both swaddled and not swaddled, she was mostly happy and smiley when we'd go in - such a funny girl) it didn't seem to be much better. we went back and forth swaddling and not. it occurred to me after about a week of this that we had really slacked off in the "bedtime routine" area with avery. when you wrapped her up, she knew it was bedtime...no routine needed. ben had a very set routine when he was a baby - always had a bath, clean pjs, then a bottle before bed. we did that routine no matter where we were and he always fell asleep so well. after a terrible evening of trying to put avery to bed at my parents and having no luck, i decided that we needed to start a routine for her. late in the game but i hoped it wasn't TOO late.

some days avery's "last" bottle would be at 5ish which didn't make sense to put her down then so if she woke up at 8 or 9, we'd feed her again. it didn't mean that she slept in the next morning - she still woke up between 6:30 - 7:30am. so now, we try to push her an extra hour to 6pm at least, by giving her some baby food at 5pm and then keeping her occupied with ben and then giving her a bath. the routine i've tried all week: bath, clean pjs, bottle, book, bed.

the first night - over an hour to fall asleep with no swaddle. next night - only half an hour or so. the night after that - less. it seems like the routine is taking. or else she's just getting used to not being swaddled and it has nothing to do with routine - who knows? my hope is that after staying home and making sure we have this routine down pat for a few weeks, we will attempt to venture out again and the bath/pjs/bottle/book routine will make falling asleep easier in her playpen too.

we were still swaddling at nap time and it was going fine. then yesterday, twice i noticed that she'd fallen asleep even though her arm had wiggled out of the wrap. today, i didn't swaddle and even though i had to go in a few times to re-insert the soother, she's fallen fast asleep within a few minutes for every nap! (yes, it's 2:15pm and she's on nap #3 - i told you this kid is a huge napper) and there you have it! the swaddle is officially gone! no huge fight, no sleepless nights...just finished! amazing.

***minutes after posting this, avery had only a 20 minute nap and then wouldn't go back to sleep even when swaddled. guess we're not out of the woods yet. way to keep it real, avery! ;)

and i don't even like lego that much...

Say Anything

It was at that moment that Lenny’s dreams of becoming a part of the biker gang faded into oblivion.

i just spent the last 10 minutes scrolling through days and days of lego photos. these are too funny. check them out here.

"my mom was a mom-blogger"

definite food for thought for those of posting our lives for the world to see...HERE.