Parenting 101

Oh, that little Avaroo.  When she was a tiny baby she was the BEST sleeper.  She fell asleep by herself and slept through the night at a very young age, think around 6-8 weeks.  But now as we are approaching her THIRD birthday, she is quickly becoming the worst.  I am typically up with her at least once a night about 3 nights a week.  She starts crying because her hands are cold, her knees are too bendy and my personal favorite, there is water in the rain.  REALLY?  I just got out of bed at 3 am so you could tell me there is water in the rain?  Anyways, she is also having difficulties going to bed.  She is crying multiple times yelling about spiders, her cold hands and bendy knees and asking for water and bathroom breaks.  By the tenth time of her calling us up tonight, Mike finally laid down the law.  HIS version of the law, which goes a little something like this "Ava, if you don't go to sleep I'm going to pass gas all over your pink blanket."  Shockingly enough, this actually worked.  Mike was very pleased with himself and just told me that it was "parenting 101."  Apparently I missed that lesson, but let's hope this phase in her little life is resolved soon!  

Easter Cabin

We enjoyed our time at the Easter Cabin with much of Mike's extended family that we see rarely including:  Grandma and Grandpa Applebee, Uncle Randy and Aunt Kathy including their three girls Lindsay, Kelsey and Jessica and Uncle Scott and Aunt Lisa and their two girls Emma and Meg.  Carter and Ava really enjoyed all the attention from their cousins, all of whom are teenagers. 

We had a great time hiking, eating hot dogs on the fire, walking over and over and over the covered bridge next to our cabin, playing at the playground and the foosball table.

Ava was a little grouchy on our hike, so I spent quite a bit of time carrying her.  Poor girl got a cut on her cheek this weekend.

Bo helping Carter over the stream.

Hiking Boys

There was also an easter egg hunt by a local restaurant.  The kids enjoyed this, and had a little help from their cousin too!

Once Dockie realized that there was candy in the eggs all he wanted to do was sit down and eat! He plopped his little bottom on the ground and planted it there until he got the candy!

Egg Eyes/Bug Eyes

A fun weekend, although it is stressful to pack up three little kids, drive five hours and stay at a very unchild-proofed cabin for two days.  But we had so much help, and it was wonderful seeing all of our extended family. 

Easter Baskets

This year we spent Easter with extended family at a cabin near Little Pine Creek State Park in Pennsylvania.  Due to this we asked the Easter Bunny to come a little early to our house.  He obliged!  Here are some pictures of the kids with their baskets.  

The kids were so happy,  I think the biggest hits were Carter's chocolate bunny, Ava's princess crown and wand, and Dawson's Sesame street music player.  

Funny story, as the easter bunny was going to hide Carter's basket, there was a disagreement on a good location to hide it.  His wife said "don't put it there, that's the first place he'll look."  Sure enough, the first place Carter looked was in that location!  Next year the bunny's wife is going to take over hiding duties! 

By the way, I'm sure I've mentioned to you all that we have been slowly testing Ava's tolerance of eggs.  We have been feeding her small amounts of eggs, mainly in baked goods.  We'll after dyeing easter eggs she asked multiple times to eat one.  Finally I decided to start slowly, and sure enough she did great.  She ate an entire hardboiled egg on thursday and again today.   Hooray!  We believed that she would most likely outgrow this allergy and I'm so happy that she finally did.  

Mr. Technology

Some children take their dolls for a walk.

Other children prefer to take their trucks.

Not Mr.  Technology.

He lovingly walks the clicker around the house.

Easter Eggs

Music Time and some Tidbits

This week we made shoebox guitars with rubber bands.

Enjoy the aftermath.

I particularly love the highly uninterested dockie drumming on the cookie sheet.

We have had another busy week.  We went to a local parks program.

The view was gorgeous.  But the program...well, I'm pretty sure that a program geared towards ages 1-5 should not contain a powerpoint presentation!

Our favorite new snack:  apple petals.

Seriously, these kids have consumed an insane amount of apples in the past two weeks.

The Eagle's Nest

Yes, I finally convinced the kids to go to the babysitting center at Giant Eagle.  I was able to grocery shop, with only the baby in tow.  IT WAS AMAZING!  Just don't tell Giant Eagle that Ava isn't 3 for another two weeks.  

Kid Tidbits

Driving in the car one day, Carter out of the blue said to me, did you know that Santa Claus and my Dad can do magic?  I'm not sure if he is referring to your amazing quarter behind the ear trick, but he certainly puts you on a high pedestal Mike!

We also went to a local YMCA pool that has a shallow pool for young children with a very small water slide.  I was so proud of Ava, she was very brave and went down the water slide.  Although I was at the bottom to catch her, she had to plunge into the water.  Pretty scary for a non-swimming not quite three year old, but she did it at least three times!

Dawson on the other hand, DID NOT LIKE THE POOL.  He clung to me like a wet cat.  He cried and fussed and fussed and cried for the entire hour and a half we were there.  This surprises me because this boy LOVES the tub.  He splashes and splishes to his heart content.  But he wanted nothing to do with the pool.  It wasn't even cold, it was very warm.  Hmmm, we are going to need to fix that before this summer, because I am planning lots of time at our community pool.

Home

Life has been so busy lately.  I am constantly cleaning, organizing, working on projects, getting things to complete projects and that doesn't even include taking care of the kids and hopefully teaching them a little something too.  I want the house to be 110% completed NOW!  But as Mike keeps trying to tell me "You can't boil the ocean."  Although we have been in the house for almost two months it still hasn't felt quite like home to me at least.  I keep wandering around thinking "Wow, how pretty!  Is this really OUR house?"  I forgot that we needed to take time to enjoy it.  This weekend we made Saturday morning waffles, and cuddled on the couch with our little guys.  These little moments help.  Kids are so resilient, I realize they are having none of these same thoughts.  In their little minds, this is home from the second we moved in.  Although Ava did mention the other day, "remember Drew Drive Mommy, I had a friend Elliana there."  I was pretty surprised, I never imagined she would have memories of our first house.  But she was telling me about their swing set, Dawson's room and her little bed when she slept with Carter.  Anyways, here are some pictures of us settling into our new house.

Dawson has been learning how to agitate from the best.  He took off his sock and was sticking his toes into Carter's ear.  Looking at Carter's face he was not happy with this development.  I love the look of mischief on Dawson's face.