Reapin' What We Done Already Sowed

As I dropped Ryleigh off at school this morning, her teacher pulled me aside to tell me a little story. Yesterday Ryleigh informed her teacher that she no longer has to do what her parents tell her to do because she is a big girl. Ms. Jo told Ryleigh that she has to do what her parents tell her to do to which she replied that, she is three and that she doesn't have to listed to what her parents say.

At this point the teacher's assistant chimed in, explaining that God teaches us that we must respect our parents and do what they tell us to do, to which Ryleigh replied, God is in heaven and has nothing to do with us.

Ms. Jo just smiled at me to which I replied, we've definitely got our work cut out for us with this one.

Thanksgiving Recap

We just enjoyed a wonderful Thanksgiving week! Jeramy got home last Monday and has been off work since then. That's 6 days straight of just the four of us hanging out, with the exception of Thanksgiving Day when we went up to Montgomery to see Jeramy's family. (Yes, the Montgomery family lives in Montgomery...charming, I know) We spent a lot of time just hanging around the house and getting the nursery set up. Avery's room is really starting to come together. I need to do a few more decorating type activities, but for the most part it's put together. We also got the tree up last night. And by tree, I mean tree. The lights and ornaments, not so much. Actually, I'm supposed to be on light checking duty right now, but instead I've been taking care of some household secretarial type activities. Seriously, how does anything get done when I'm working!

Avery is still growing like a crazy. Every day she changes and last night we put her mobile up in her bed which she really seems to like. It will keep her happy for a good 10 minutes or so. She's starting to fit in to her 3 month sized stuff. She's our little fat-so!

Ryleigh has been eerily good the last few days. She seems to be getting a bit more girly and must always dress as a princess these days. That means wearing pink and/or a head band. Her favorite thing to do right now is go on a bear hunt. This means that she and her hunting partner each take a flashlight and go looking all over the place for a bear. I stuck a stuffed bear under her covers the other night, thinking that she would find it fun to actually "find" a bear. When she found it, she just looked at me like, silly mom, this is a stuffed bear...don't you know that we're after the real deal???

Time to get the barking dog back in the house and to feed the baby, do some laundry, check the Christmas lights, make some bread, pick up the toddler....seriously, how is it that I manage to squeeze in work? I guess I'll find out in 6 more weeks!

Avery One Month Stats

Weight: 8 lbs. 15 oz.
Length: 20 inches
Head: 14 3/4 inches

Everything looked really good at her one month check up. The doctor wasn't real happy to hear that she's been sleeping in our bed and she gave me some ideas to try and get her in her own bed. Avery gags and coughs and every time I lay her on her back, so the doctor suggested creating an incline out of her mattress. She may have some very mild reflux issues, but nothing to be too concerned about. I love her sleeping all snuggled up next to me, but it is a good idea to start trying to get her over in her own bed.

Check out the new pics!

You Will Listen to me Whine

...and whine I shall, for I have been in this house for a week now, alone (Jeramy has been on the rig since last Monday), with two kids, one of which can not wipe her own ass and one of which just likes to pretend she can't wipe her own ass. I know, I know, mom, you did it for years and years and in greater isolation and with less resouces, and yes, my Nana had 4 children at one time, one of which was my Uncle Wayne and the other which was my Uncle Chad...I feel for both of you. But, this is me and me likes to sit down with her coffee and check her email in silence in the mornings and me likes to keep up with the news and me likes to read for at least a few minutes a day without a child asking to color in my book. Me needs things to do.

That being said, I am having a GREAT time with my girls. I'm getting to know Ryleigh in such a deeper way. She talks to me about her friends and her thoughts and geeze, does this kid have some thoughts. She's learing Spanish at school and so we go around the house singing the same Spanish songs that I learned in high school. She also has a real interest in learning to read right now. She gets very furstrated theat she "doesn't know the words" in her books. So, we read and read and read and memorizing her books seems to pacify her for now. She knows her alphabet and recognizes many letters, so we're working on putting that together in such a way that she can start to sound out words. I think that once she catches on to the sounding out thing, she'll be off to the races with reading. Holy cow...I'm talking about my first baby starting to read. Excuse me while I take a tissue break...

Avery is progressing in her own way as well. She slept for a whole 30 min. in her own bed last night. Woo. I scooped her up, fed her a bit more and then let her sleep on my chest for 5 hours. This means that I slept for 5 hours as well. Woo! Her eyes are staying pretty wide open now. We joke that she's like a puppy dog because she wouldn't open her eyes for two weeks. Nursing is going so extremely well. She just eats me up which has done great things for both of us. She goes to the doctor on Friday for her one month check-up and I can't wait to see how much she weighs. At her one-week check-up she was 7 lbs. 13 oz.

Ryleigh is in school today and Avery and I are about to set out for the grocery store. We're starting to get out a little bit more, but the doctor wants me to keep Avery pretty much only at home until she's 6 weeks old. I'm looking forward to being able to take more outings with both the girls.

Daddy will be home on the 20th and we can't wait...Momma needs to take a nice long, hot bath with a good book. Look for my next post and picutures on Friday after the doctor's appointment.

Night One - Single Mom to Two

Jeramy left for the rig today, which means that for the next two weeks, for all intents and purposes...I am a single parent. Tonight went better than I probably could have expected. I got both of the girls fed, bathed and in bed (though Avery will be back up soon)...and I still feel relatively sane. Our day started off at 7am as we set out to get Jeramy to the airport by 8am. I had Ryleigh at school by 9am and then Avery and I spent just about the whole day sleeping. I picked Ryleigh up at 2:30 and then battled with her over an hour to get her to change her clothes and wash her hands once we got home. (This is to protect Avery from any "germy bugs" that Ryleigh might bring home from school) Once she did agree to those two simple tasks, we made some cookies, then dinner which was followed by baths for both girls. It was Avery's first real bath (she lost her cord yesterday) and she seemd to really enjoy it, though the logistics of bathing both of the girls at the same time didn't fully play itself out in my head until we were past the point of no return.

The house is a complete wreck, even though Jeramy and I did a darn good job cleaning it yesterday. But, I figured that I have all of tomorrow to tidy back up while Ryleigh is in school. This I have found is a good thing about being at home, there is always tomorrow to get done whatever is on my mind the night before. It's 9pm and time to scoot off to bed for a night of feedings and diaper changings.