Our Fiesta of Five

Thursday, February 10, 2011

My Review of Safety 1st Prism Color Video Camera

Expand your existing Prism Video Monitoring System with an additional camera! Watch your little one in the nursery and living room without having to move the camera units around or even watch two children in different rooms at the same time. This add-on camera allows you to see it all from one conv...

WASTE OF $$$$$$$$$

By CALI NEW MOM from CARLSBAD ,CA on 2/10/2011

Pros: Clear Signal, Simple, User Friendly

Cons: Glitchy, Parent unit stops working, Poor Battery Life, Bad Range

Describe Yourself: First Time Parent

Not only has my monitor completely stopped working TWICE in less than 6 months of ownership, but both times I called to notify customer service, I was treated as if I was inconveniencing the people I was speaking to. NOT ONCE was I apologized to for the fact that I had no way of monitoring my baby sleeping for almost 2 weeks while waiting for paperwork and a new unit being shipped to me. No one said, "Sorry your monitor broke after only owning it for 2 months" This complete and utter lack of customer service coupled with the fact that this product is not worth even half what I paid for it, I am asking for a refund and taking my business elsewhere. Do not make the mistake I did in purchasing a Safety First Prism Color Video monitor.

(legalese)

Wednesday, February 2, 2011

My Baby Girl is 7 Months!!

Hard to believe it has been more than half a year since our little girl joined the world. Every month just gets better and better as we share things with Avery and watch her grow and change. Here are her stats as of February 2, 2011:

Avery weighs 20 lbs, 5 oz and is 28 inches long (she has come a long way from her 7lb 7oz birth weight!)
She is wearing size 3 diapers and is in 6-12 month and 9 month clothes.
We are upgrading her car seat to a *convertible one this month, her little feet hang off the infant seat and she is too heavy to carry in it anyway! She will have this car seat until she is 65 pounds!
Avery is rolling allllll over the house! She will scoot on her belly by pushing her feet into the carpet and then when she really wants to move, she will just roll over and over to get where she wants to go. We think she will officially crawl this month!
She loves to sit on the floor and play with toys in front of her, especially ones that make noise
Avery LOVES music and singing! A sure-fire way to get her to smile at you is to sing Wheels on the Bus, Ants Marching or Hush Little Baby
She is an eating machine! She gobbles down sweet potatoes, squash, carrots, apples, pears and bananas. I made some baby food for her and she isn't a fan, but I am going to keep trying!
Avery is getting the hang of her sippy cup, and we keep giving it to her to practice with
We took her to the beach last week, and she took a nap most of the time. I am going to have to get over my intense dislike of sand pretty soon...
Avery is still getting over her first cold and ear infection, poor baby
She says "mama" "dada" and "baba" pretty regularly but doesn't seem to be associating them with me, Alex or her bottle yet.

Enjoy the pictures!
*The convertible car seat we chose (after MUCH research and mommy-friend advice, is the Britax Boulevard CS

The sign is back!

Happy cutie

A is for Avery

Pretty in pink

Yum, teething toy

Losing her patience with mama

All smiles!

Cute poser

We have MOVED (again)!

Alex and I moved to Carlsbad from San Juan Capistrano last February when I was a few months pregnant, and we have never looked back! We love the community, weather, people, convenience, schools, EVERYTHING about Carlsbad. We have definitely found the city we would be so fortunate enough to raise our family in.
But, we were in a little condo for the last year and quickly outgrew the space with all the baby stuff that Avery came along with. So we upgraded!
We found an amazing house in a community directly behind where we were already living, talk about an easy move! We are finally settled in and are definitely in love with this house and hope we can stay here for a long long time. Come visit us anytime! We have 5 bedrooms, 3 baths, 2900 sq feet and an ocean view from the yard and master bedroom! The gorgeous sunsets flood our kitchen and living area every evening and I feel like I am making dinner on a tropical island. We feel like we are kids playing house, as neither of us have lived in a house since we were home with our parents! So fun :)
Enjoy some pictures of our pad (from my cell, poor quality), more to come as we (slowly) unpack.

Peekaboo! One of the best parts about moving is I get to do Avery's nusery all over again!

She got new bedding and we are going to paint a new tree! Stay tuned for pics of that

Toasting in our new backyard

Best. Sunsets. Ever.

Huge palms in our backyard!

Kitchen

Living room (attached to kitchen)

Sitting area and (empty) formal dining from top of stairs

Monday, January 31, 2011

My 30th Birthday!

I know, I know, I don't look a day over 29 :) Hard as it is to believe (to me most of all!) I am 30 YEARS OLD! What better way to celebrate the big Three Oh by drinking yummy beer at Stone Brew with 30 of my favorite people on a beautiful day in January!
Huge thanks to my honey Alex for arranging everything and for taking care of my little munchkin so I could spend the day catching up with my friends and not changing diapers or making bottles (Although, I did miss it a little bit, ha! Guess I am old :). As a rule, I am not much of a birthday-party person but he and everyone made it a super fun and special day. I am SO BEYOND lucky to have such an amazing husband and a beautiful and sweet baby and so many people that love me enough to drive to Escondido!
The next day, my wonderful family gathered at Wind N Sea in Dana Point to help me (and Solange, who's birthday is on January 15th!) celebrate with a delicious brunch and yummy cakes provided by my fabulous momma.
Enjoy the pics!

Sneaky honey had a custom menu made for me :)

My baby girl!

3 of my favorite people and their adorable offspring

Happy birthday to ME!

Court and me

Hailey and Brayden with Avery and me

Thanks for rubbing it in, mom :)

The 2 birthday girls and the real star of the show

Great-grandmas love little Avery!

Wednesday, January 26, 2011

Gymboree Music Class

(I realize I am a little out of order here, the 30th Birthday blog will follow this one!)
I have recently joined a few Meet Up mommy groups in my area and we do lots of free activities around North County. Today, Avery and I went to a free trial for a baby music class at Gymboree in Solana Beach. We both had lots of fun and it was great seeing Avery interact with other babies her age. She was only one of two girls in the class of 8 kids (and the cutest of both genders, of course) and did a great job interacting with the other babies and paying attention to the instructor. I learned a few new songs to add to my (meager) reptoire and it was a great time!
Enjoy the pictures (from my cell phone, thus the not so great quality)!

She loved to put all the props in her mouth! Thank goodness she is vaccinated!

Avery and the boys

Music class cutie!

Playing the drum

Inspecting the poor Pergo job...nothing gets by this one! Haha!

Little name tag :)

Sunday, January 9, 2011

Avery is 6 months!

After Avery's 6 month pediatrician appointment we decided to go ahead with feeding her "real" food (if liquidy, un-seasoned and pretty unappetizing peas and water can even be called food) for the first time. Carrots went over much better the following day. Next is string beans, then sweet potatoes and then we will give peas another shot.

At 6 months, Avery is 19 pounds, 27.5 inches long and is reaching all the developmental milestones right on schedule (rolling both ways, recognizing her name, passing objects from hand to hand, sitting up unassisted, holding her own bottle...)

We went on a bike ride with her new bike seat that fits on my bike, and we had a great time! She spent most of the time reaching for her feet but that might have been because the helmet blocks some of her view. We are looking forward to using it all the time as the weather gets warmer.

True to form, we are moving again, haha! This time last year I was 4 months pregnant so I wasn't able to help very much (which was awesome). We found a big house just up the street from where we have been living in Carlsbad this past year, and we are looking forward to the space and having EVERYONE over soon!

Enjoy some pictures!

Pre-pea excitement

sippy cup attempt #1, didn't really get it!

Cutie in a box

Avery is packed! Let's go!

Don't forget Roo!!

Little robe

Cutie pie wearing 6-12 months clothes

Family bike ride

Friday, January 7, 2011

Christmas 2010

We had so much fun sharing our Christmas traditions with our sweet baby girl. Experiencing the holidays with a little one is one of the many things I fantasized about when I was pregnant with Avery. Decorating the tree at home, walking around the neighborhood to see the decorated houses and visiting Santa for the first time, were some of the things I was looking forward to.
Blending mine and Alex's family traditions has been fairly simple and has worked well for us over the years. We spend Christmas Eve at my Oma's house in Carson with my dad's family, then Christmas morning we have breakfast at Alex's parent's house in San Juan and head up to Newport for Christmas dinner with Pat and Al and Ken's family.
Lots of places to go means lots of good food, wine and PRESENTS!! Avery had a great time being involved in the gift opening and got some really great stuff. We can't wait until next year when she can rip open paper and cause a little bit more trouble :)
Enjoy the pictures!