cafe kids

Per our tradition, a post-haircut cupcake.

I actually just really like the composition and color of this picture.

Avery actually just likes playing with the cars.

And what does Cafe Vivi do? Eats her fingers!

I truly believe that traditions of all sorts are extremely important to children (and parents too). Well, it's a good thing that there is a cute cafe a few doors down from the hair salon because it was all too easy to develop the tradition of getting a cupcake after Avery's haircuts. I'm thinking this is something he has a good chance of remembering because we certainly do it enough...about every 6 weeks. This kid can grow hair - strike that, my KIDS can grow hair.

*click on any photo compilation to see it larger.

no longer effective

Looks like our child safety locks are no longer effective. At least now he can learn to make my favorite drink at the end of a long day. Shaken, Avery NOT stirred.

chairs!

Attention. For those of you who have come to our house for a) maj b) dinner c) a visit and were forced to sit on a footstool, broken chair, overturned bucket, stack of phone books, tricycle, or the floor - we now have chairs. You are no longer at risk of falling on your backside unless you choose the chair I let Avery put together all by himself, but it's a risk you'll have to take because I'm not telling.

turkey parade

Our little turkey walking in the school parade.

And by parade, I mean "parade." (They walked to the cafeteria while the parents watched.)

Left over pumpkin from Halloween + feathers = Thanksgiving craft project
(the challah was very tasty)

Yup, still more of an observer than a participator.

Listening to the story with Daddy.

He always has time to be a great big brother.

A blessing on your head.

Burning off some energy with friends.

I'd hate to see where the teachers put the kids when the parents aren't looking!

Scott, Vivienne and I went to Avery's school for the Thanksgiving Celebration and parade. It was all pretty cute and just another reminder of how big Avery has gotten. He's big enough to walk in line, big enough to eat lunch relatively on his own, big enough to go to school, and big enough to organize a game with his friends, but small enough to still need his Mama from time to time.

new skills

Look! I can hold my own bottle now.

Elephant ears are good eatin'!

Last week, at Vivi's 4 month appointment I had to answer "not yet" on just a few skills, one of which was being able to hold her own bottle. Well, just a few days later she started doing it. I'm already becoming obsolete. Eating elephant ears wasn't specifically mentioned as a skill but she is quite adept at reaching for toys and maneuvering them into her mouth. Elephants and other wildlife, beware!

vivienne | 4 month stats

Our VERY average baby:

Weight: 13lbs 15oz (55%)
Height: 24.5 in (53%)
Head: 16.25in (55%)

We had Vivi's well baby visit today and mostly planned on talking about her sleeping and teeth buds showing in the back. Lucky us, Dr. Noah says the front bottom teeth are primed and ready to go and the back ones shouldn't progress any further until the fronts come out. Get ready for Cranky Vivi 2.0. Damn you Hylands teething tablets and your recall! Get you shit together because there are many parents out here who have relied on your tablets to help their children through this time. FYI, they also "cure" tummy aches in 2, now 3 year olds, but I guess no longer.

I do feel like we've turned the corner with her sleeping and for 3 of the last 4 days she slept 7-7.5 hours, ate and then slept another 5. Previous to that, I had been reducing her 1am feeding time by 2 minutes each night and by the time I got down to 5 minutes, she was sleeping through it.

In addition, Dr. Noah heard a slight heart murmur and if she hadn't had an echo-cardiogram in the NICU, I might be more concerned than I am right now because it's results showed no reason for concern and Dr. Noah showed a lot of respect for the pediatric cardiologist who interpreted the results. I am thankful every single day that her initial health concerns can be chalked up to transitioning out of the womb rather than to anything more serious. We will continue to monitor the heart murmur but last time, a different Dr. did not hear it, which is a good sign. Murmurs that come and go are less serious or even not serious.

So nothing of too much interest to report but she better move up a few percentiles in height if she ever has a chance of sharing my clothes or being taller than her daddy.

fall fun

Even though these pictures are pretty cute, the entire excursion to the park bordered on an exercise in futility. My current "holy grail" photo is one where both Avery and Vivienne are smiling and the picture is in focus. I might need some help with this one. Vivi was game for the first set of photos, but didn't smile. I had bribed Avery but when he started dropping the baby, I knew it was time to let him go play. He had zero interest in having his picture taken until I started taking pictures of the baby by herself, but then she was cranky when he was willing to pose again, and I ran out of M&Ms. Then, he lost his truck in the sand and cried for 45 minutes. Vivienne was overtired, would not fall asleep and screamed for half an hour of those 45 minutes as well. I had two drinks that night.

avery & vivienne

They love each other. A lot.

vivienne | 4 months

Sorry. I couldn't choose a favorite.

Ah, Vivienne it is so cliche, but please stop growing up so fast. I LOVE have a baby in the house, save for the lack of sleeping and I am trying so hard to savor every moment with you as you grow. Turns out the thing about you not liking to be held was short lived and you are just a fantastic baby. You need to be part of the action and you babble all of the time. Sometimes it gets pretty high pitched, but it's so cute. You've also started to become easily startled. Michigan just scored a touch down and Daddy was thrilled. This however, caused you to start crying, but if your plan was to get Daddy to hold you, then you win.

I feel like we've turned the corner with your sleeping issues even though things still are not that great. I've been cutting out 2 minutes at a time of your 1am feeding and tonight we'll be down to 4-5 minutes. You seem to be adjusting well and go back to sleep immediately. Plus, last night you slept for almost 6 hours! Oh, have a forgotten to mention that you now sleep in the crib, where you seem to be very comfortable. Avery hasn't woken up yet during the middle of the night, but as we approach the time where we're going to let you fuss, we might have to let him have a camping bed in our room. You are still hit and miss from 5-7am but we need to get you off the 1am feeding first before we deal with that. This morning, however you slept soundly.

You love taking baths and have only pooped in the tub once. I love how smiley you are. I love taking care of you. I love your peacock hair. I love your stinky feet. I love your perfect little nose. I love seeing your smiling face when I get you out of bed (yes, even at 1am AND 5am).

I just love you so much.

halloween

It's a good thing I wasn't married to the photo story I was going tell because this was the only picture I could get of the two of them (the story involved convict Vivi stealing Avery's Bebes! It would have been the crime of the century).

That's the cutest policeman I've ever seen!

And there's the cutest convict...Flying Vivi!!!

Oddly, these two costumes go well together.

Each of "Avery's Adults" had a turn taking him up to the houses.

Do you think by next year he'll realize the candy is for eating? He got one pack of M&Ms and the rest ended up at my office.

I think by the time Halloween evening rolled around all of the kids and some of the parents were pretty worn out and a little cranky (the birthday party was the day before). Everyone rallied however, for some trick-or-treating but not so much for the picture taking. Hopefully next year we won't be so worried about the kids tripping down the stairs that were in front of each and every house.

the birthday party

The kids enjoyed the play equipment so much that Scott and I decided we should have just had the party at City Park.

When I wasn't looking, someone convinced Avery to ride a horse. Avery! On a horse! My jaw was on the ground (and he actually looks like he's having fun).

I had to laugh when I downloaded this pic from Cathryn because she took it and it looks like she's calling Scott a "horse's ass."

All the friends: Eli, Hannah, Annabelle, Avery and Ved

We really could have used Aunt Sarah wearing a pig hat to get them to smile, a la last year.

If you look closely, you can see the beautiful mountains in the background.

Hugging time.

In addition to the horse, we got way up high on the straw bales. Who is this kid?

Fun, but not as fun as it looks, at least for the Mamas with long legs.

Avery actually thought he was steering the train.

Avery insisted on letter cupcakes with em-ee-ems on them.

He sang Happy Birthday to himself as well.

Good eatin'

Avery with Grandma Heidi and Papa Mel.

Grandma Carole

Our annual family birthday celebration photo. Love it.

The whole fam damily.

With the exception of some amazing ski days in Steamboat and Aspen, Avery's birthday party was one of my most favorite days in Colorado. The weather was P.E.R.F.E.C.T. The pumpkin patch was amazing and had so many fun things for the kids to do. If he's interested, I think this might become Avery's annual birthday party venue. I am grateful to Cathryn for taking so many incredible pictures because I found that hosting a party, playing with a 3 year old, and tending to a fussy/teething baby limited my picture taking ability. Despite my limitations, between the two of use we took over 700 pictures. You can see the extended collection on my picasa site.