Harper is 6 months

Wow, how time flies! This has been a BIG month for Harper, so many changes since she turned 5 months. Most important one is she is now officially sleeping through the night, WOOHOO! I never minded waking up with her once or twice to nurse but it is nice to get solid sleep (although my "mama clock" still wakes me up around 2, but I am sure that will stop soon).

She is also eating solid foods twice a day. She gets oatmeal for breakfast and a veggie for dinner. Feeding Harper is a very messy and often loud experience, as we can't seem to feed her fast enough and she yells at us, but she will smile from ear to ear when we do "airplane" with the spoon, SO cute! We have tried avocado (not a fan), squash (LOVES IT) and carrots (hates it). I think we will do peas next and maybe revisit avocado. We still breastfeed the rest of the day and it continues to go very well. She loves it and shows no signs of wanting to stop, thank goodness, since I would like to avoid formula completely and make it to one year when we can introduce cow's milk. So far, so good!

Harper has been sitting up unassisted for about 2 weeks now and gets more solid everyday. Now she rarely falls back when looking up or forward when looking down, unless she intends to roll onto her belly. And she is quite the roller! She is ALL over the place and often scrunches her legs up and pushes with her feet, "scooting" herself around.
She loves to jump in her jumperoo, and enjoys sitting on the ground playing with whatever toys Avery doesn't currently want.

We still aren't on much of a schedule with Harper which has proved challenging when leaving her with a babysitter (which we will have done 4 times this month!) as we sort of wing it most days. She does get tired around 8:30 or 9 in the morning but rarely gets a solid nap as we are always out the door doing something with our friends or Stroller Strides. Sometimes she will fall asleep around noon in the car, other days it is not until 2...but we do have a bit of a routine at night. She eats her dinner around 5:30, and will hang out until we are done eating dinner around 6:30. We give the girls a bath, and Harper is generally asleep by 7 or 7:30. Avery gets to stay up playing and reading books until 8.

Another big milestone for Harper this month...she broke through her first tooth!! Avery's first tooth didn't arrive until 8 months, just after we finished nursing. Harper, true to her second-born status, broke her first tooth through 2 months earlier. So far it hasn't affected nursing and it shouldn't as the tongue covers the bottom gum line during proper latch, but she is sticking her tongue out over it more often which is very cute. In this pic (taken today, 11/14/12) it looks like the one just next to it will pop through soon as well. She hasn't been extra fussy or seem to be in pain, just tired and very oral as always.

 

I swear, I truly didn't think it was possible to love TWO babies as much as I do, but Harper sure does have a special place in my heart and I simply cannot get enough of her these days. She is just the cutest, sweetest, funniest little baby and I am more in love with her with every day that passes.

 

 

 

 



All things Halloween!

While one of my least favorite holidays, this Halloween I was really looking forward to dressing my girls up in matching costumes and taking Avery trick or treating around our neighborhood.
The festivities began on the Saturday before Halloween, when we went to Halloween on Elm in downtown Carlsbad. It is an entirely free festival with all the businesses offering candy to trick or treaters, balloon animal-makers, face painters, bounce houses, slides, crafts, drawings and a costume contest. The downside of free festivals are the CROWDS! But Avery seemed to get the concept of trick or treating better than last year, though she wanted to sit down and eat every piece of candy as she received it...
On Halloween day, we had a big party with my amazing playgroup at our house. We had a great turn-out and the kiddos looked adorable, of course. I got to try a few fun Pinterest party snacks and everyone had a great time!

 

Monster mouths

(apples with peanut butter and almond slices)

"Pumpkin" rice krispie treats

Monster yogurt cups

(tinted vanilla yogurt with mini choco chips on top)

 

15 kids in this pic and there were at least 5 not pictured...

Avery checking out Kathleen's awesome beekeeper costume

(with her bumblebee Rhys in the background!)

Ref Connor playing at the sand table

Some of us moms

"Katy Perry" jumping on the trampoline with Avery, Connor and Karsen

My sweet cupcakes!!

 

Later that night we went to our friends the Labrums house for dinner and treats, then trick or treated all the way home! Avery didn't get to bed until almost 9 and we didn't get to bed until after 11.

What an exhausting but fun day! I think the older the girls get the more "into" this holiday we will become. :)

 

Until next year...

 



 

 

 

Celebrating baby Penny

My brother and his wife Lauren are happily expecting my first niece, Penelope Louise or Penny Lou, in mid-December. The girls and I attended her baby shower hosted by Lauren's mom and other sis-in-law, Ilene this weekend in Agua Dulce. The shower, just like Penny's room, was red white and blue themed. Avery had a great time playing with Ilene's twins Olivia and Emma, and just generally loving all the attention she was getting from the ladies. She "helped" Auntie Lauren open some gifts and dispose of the tissue paper (which, as Lauren recognized, drove me crazy since I love to save tissue paper like the true psycho that I am, haha!) Avery even won a prize in the onesie decorating contest for "most Picasso-ish" (I neglected to get a picture of it, but you can just imagine)!

While we were there, Corey, Alex, my dad and some of Corey's buddies had a "Diapers and Beer" shower at Corey and Lauren's new townhome, which consisted pretty much of lots of beer drinking, football watching and eating of the yummy food Lauren made for them that morning.

Corey and Lauren are going to make the most amazing parents and got a little practice in playing with Avery and Harper for two days. We always love visiting with them and we CANNOT WAIT to meet baby Penny when she arrives in 2 short months!!
As always, enjoy the photos.

 

 

 

We also enjoyed spending a few hours with my BFF and her family, Courtney Coleman. She made a delish dinner for us as well as the kiddos. The girls are having more fun playing together the older they get, it is so cute to see. At the end of the night we put them in their pj's and put on a movie so we could drink wine talk. Had a great time and the visit was not long enough, as always! xoxo

 

Sweet Ressie girl was already in bed, so we missed her in this pic.

 

Pumpkin Patch

We went to Bates Nut Farm out in Valley Center this weekend to get the requisite "adorable kids unnaturally posed in a field of pumpkins" shots for the season (along with seemingly everyone on my Facebook feed!)
Bates is a really neat place with fields of pumpkins actually growing in the ground and TONS of great photo ops with wheelbarrows, cornstalks, hay bales and of course, pumpkins (but no nuts?? Hmm...) They also have lots of activities for kids such as pony rides, inflatables, face painting, hay rides, a hay bale maze and a petting corral.
Last year, I was newly pregnant with Harper and I remember not feeling that great and it being super hot but Avery enjoyed climbing all around the pumpkins and we let her ride the pony.

 

This year, we met up with our pals the Filipovitchs. Their little boy Connor is Avery's BFF (along with Aubrie, who was there for a little bit) and Megan and I feel like we have been friends for years though it has only been a year since we have known them. We had a great time posing the kids and taking a hay ride and letting the kids jump in the bounce house. It was not nearly as hot this year though just as crowded.

 

 

 

Every year these traditions get more fun as Avery grows, and next year we look forward to chasing 2 kids running around the fields of pumpkins.

Fall??

I am not sure when the next season will decide to grace us with its presence, but that didn't stop us from taking a few pics of the girls in a fall-ish setting! Amongst pumpkins and hay bales, we pretended we weren't sweating profusely and dying to head to the beach, as we set up our babes for a little photo shoot.
These were taken at Armstrongs Garden Center by the outlets so it isn't really a pumpkin patch. We do plan to head to Bates Nut Farm again as we did last year with Avery, when I was newly pregnant with Harper. Now, Avery is old enough to enjoy the bounce house and might even get to push her sister in a wheel barrow (yipee! Do I smell an adorable photo op?!)
While you enjoy these fall-ish pics of our cuties...I am off to find matching fall outfits for the real pumpkin patch excursion yet to come (don't tell Alex, heehee!)

 

Why I Want to Be a Lactation Consultant

I just started my LC program at UCSD online, and will soon begin my internship with Nurse Debbie at Scripps Encinitas. By July 2013, I will be an Internationally Board Certified Lactation Consultant! In class, I was asked to write a paragraph about why I want to be an LC...and I came up with a few more than just one. Thought I would share, Enjoy!

Since the first Halloween costume that I could choose what I wanted to be (a Pediatrician) I have always known I wanted to be around and work with babies and children. I babysat a lot growing up. In college, I chose Psychology as a major and Child and Family Development as a minor, with the goal of working with kids and families in a therapeutic setting. That evolved to my earning a multiple subject teaching credential and subbing in elementary schools for a few years. I have always LOVED children, and I have been told by many, that they really seem to enjoy me as well.

In 2010 I had my first daughter, Avery Patricia. I knew I wanted to breastfeed her since all the books I’d read and all the websites I’d visited told me that was the best thing for her. When she was born (after a 12 hour-epidural-2 million cc’s of fluid-2 hours of pushing-vacuum extraction, labor and delivery), I had family waiting in the hallway and didn’t put her to breast immediately. When we finally got around to it, it was hard. She didn’t get it. I didn’t get it. And I cried out of frustration and disappointment in my hospital bed in the middle of the night all by myself. Until a lovely, warm, huge teddy bear of a nurse with an accent came in and helped me get her to latch. She rammed  my baby into my breast and she latched! It was a revelation and a relief. Upon discharge I was still struggling and went to see Nurse Rose at Kaiser San Marcos a few days after she was born. Sweaty, scared and emotional, I drove myself and my screaming, hungry 3 day old to sit in a waiting room, nervously rocking her car seat and apologizing to others. Then I was ushered into another room and told to whip it out. So I did, while 3 (presumably) LC students looked on and smiled knowingly as I tearfully told Rose my nipples were very sore and I couldn’t get her to stay on for longer than 1-2 minutes at a time. She said, “Ok! I can help you!” then she left for about 15 minutes. I remember figuring out later that she had 3 moms lined up in neighboring rooms and she flitted from one of us to another. She told me what bottles I should have, then left again. She told me to get the gel pads and put them in the fridge and left again. She had me weigh her, nurse, then weigh her again and praised me for how much milk I made. At the end of the hurrican, I clearly remember her telling me “I promise you, in a week from today you will be a pro and your sore nipples will be gone.” AND SHE WAS RIGHT. I was in love with the profession then and there, though I didn’t think of it as a career for me until about a year later.

As an “experienced” mom with 1 single, pretty easy-going, through-the-night-sleeping, well-nursing baby, my pregnant and new-mom friends were constantly asking me advice on everything from what to register for, to how many days between poops is acceptable. They would always tell me, after I answered with nothing more than my research and anecdotal experience, “You are so good at this! You should make it a job somehow.” These comments coupled with my experience led me to do some research and I found the UCSD program.

The first few days home with a new baby is the most terrifying and overwhelming experience a woman can ever have. My goal is to work with new moms and put them at ease about breastfeeding and related worries with empathy, humor and current information. I would consider myself fulfilled if I could help just one mom look back on that first week home with her baby as an enjoyable one.

Family Catalina Adventure

We had our first visit to Catalina as a family of 4 and we had an amazing trip! The month of September in Avalon is perfect. Both the air and the water are so warm, the huge summer crowds are gone aside from the Tuesday cruise ships, and we get the condo to ourselves for a week. Both the girls do great on the Flyer, and Pat and Al were nice enough to let us stay at their house the night before. Joe dropped us off at the boat in the morning and kept an eye on the truck for the week, and also picked us up when we returned.
We did so many fun things! We went on a little hike up near the Wrigley Memorial, rented a peddle boat for an hour, went fishingoff the green pier, went on a glass-bottom boat tour and of course spent a lot of time at the beach and pool.
It was a wonderful vacation from reality and so great to all be together as a family for so long. Alex has said he definitely respects me more when he spends so much time with the girls, they are pretty tiring! But also so funny and cute, and while he recognizes I have the best job in the world, he also admits it is the hardest. I love having him around 24/7 to witness the crazy, frustrating, hilarious and sweet moments that make up my days.
Enjoy the pics!

Harper took her first swim in the Sol Vista pool on 9/20 (our 4 year anniversary!)

The heat and lack of water made the deer come down to

the town all over the place! They are very bold

 (she didn't feed it anything or get any closer than this)

Avery LOVED the golf cart! This isn't even ours, just some

nice couple's rental who were kind enough to let her play around in it

Avery and me in the back of our golf cart on our way to a hike

We did the 2.2 mile "Sky High" hike from Wrigley Memorial to the ridge...

VERY hot and dusty and not that exciting, but good exercise

My girls

 

Sisters holding hands while watching Bugs Life

before our lazy day at the beach begins!

(I swear I didn't pose this or ask her to hold

Harper's hand, total spontaneous moment!!)

 

Avery with the mer-people

Pat and Al GENEROUSLY left some money for us to take Avery on a tour

and we chose the glass-bottom boat, my first time too! SO cool!!

 

 

We decided to try our hand at fishing off the green pier one morning...

not a whole lot of luck for us (or the pelican) but Avery enjoyed feeding the fish

food and watching them swarm around to eat it

 

 

Thanks for the memories, Catalina!!

We cannot WAIT to visit again!