Pre-Halloween Weekend

We had quite a busy weekend again! It started out with no plans, but we kept ourselves busy!

Yesterday I got up early and hit the gym for an 8am class (yep I'm nuts)-and it was packed! The most crowded class I've been to yet! I guess most people are early birds!

When I got home, we took Avery to the Strong Museum for their Halloween party. Of course when we walked in the door, she wanted to ride the horsies with Daddy! No trip is complete without a horse ride! Here she is playing with one of the train table type things:

And giving the Berenstein bears some big hugs and kisses:

Of course we had to hit up the train before we left too! Daddy rode with her since I usually get to when we go (he's usually at work):

She didn't do too many of the Halloween things they had-they had a lot of crafts set up and some games, but she really showed no interest in them. She did collect the coins they were handing out, which you then turned in to the Pirate and got a prize for. They also had a DJ and music/dancing going on that she loved-we were there for a good 20 minutes at least! She just wanted to hear the music and dance around which was cute!

After the museum she took a nap and then we all went out for dinner.

This morning Avery and I went to her friend Josie's house for a playdate. The kids both wore their costumes for awhile which was really cute. I forgot to bring my camera though so I don't have any cute pics to share! We ended up walking to the playground for a little bit and enjoyed the day outside too!

During her nap I went grocery shopping and it ended up that she didn't nap! We watched the Bills game and had maybe one of our last cookouts of the season-burgers! They turned out really good too!

And now we're just gearing up for work and Halloween tomorrow! Can't wait!

Frustrations

I love my little girl to death, I truly do.

But lately, she has been quite the handful. Any parent would be lying if they said their child is "good" all of the time.

And the terrible two's?! Yeah, I think we're there.

We've had some days lately where I question how we're going to do this with a second one here as well. It's been very trying.

I try to be patient with her, I really do. But sometimes, it's very, very hard.

Let's just say that if we tell her "no" for anything, a meltdown/tantrum typically takes place. Even if we say, "not now, later" she still freaks out. The foot stomps, something gets thrown across the room, lots of crying....good times.

Her latest thing really has me frustrated.....getting her in the carseat.

Monday I picked her up from daycare and found out she didn't have a great day there. We walk out to my car and as soon as I open the back door, she clings to me screaming "No Mommy!" I try to put her in the seat and you would swear I was wrangling an alligator....she stiffens up, arches her back, kicks/slaps me, and contorts herself all over the place. I pulled out all of my tricks-songs, stories, my cell phone (she always takes that), bribes for candy...nothing. She somehow launched herself out of my arms and was headed face-first to the pavement. I caught her and finally lost it and yelled at her. Yeah, that didn't help. The crying just got worse, the wrangling continued, etc. Let's just say that after a HALF HOUR we were both in tears. Her because she didn't want to sit and me because I couldn't get her in her seat. I have no idea how it happened, but I finally got her in her seat and we made it home.

Let's just say that Tuesday was basically a repeat performance. The only difference? I got there later so about 4 cars of parents/kids came and went while the whole performance was going on. I even was showing her how well the other kids got in their carseats. She didn't care. The only difference was that I didn't lose it on her this time and somehow I got one leg buckled in so she was at least held in her seat. She cranked up the crying though and had herself so worked up it was like she was foaming at the mouth. I felt horrible. And I'm sure every parent that saw this going on will definitely nominate me for Mom of the year (NOT!).

Want to know the funny thing?! The whole time she's pitching a fit, she's telling me "I want to go home." I kept telling her that we can't go home until she gets in her seat. That did absolutely nothing.

Tuesday when we finally got home (a half hour later) and before exiting the car, I had a talk with her. How much she understood I have no idea. But I basically told her a few things:
1. I was sorry for getting upset with her
2. I have to get her in her seat so that she stays safe ("like Dora" she says)
3. Mommy loves you and doesn't want you to get hurt
4. Next time I want you to be a big girl and get in the seat for Mommy
I go to unlock the door of the house and come back to get her. As soon as I open the door, she goes, "Mommy, I sorry I didn't get in my seat." So...maybe the talk worked.

I will say it was one of the most frustrating situations I have been in. When you need to go somewhere (HOME!) and can't get there until she sits and having no control over her....not fun.

On a good note, she has been better since then. I was dreading picking her up on Thurs/Fri, but she did great both days. Let's hope it stays that way!

Sometimes being a parent is not an easy job. Not easy at all.

In the Halloween Spirit

So I have to admit, our house is not very spirited this year. See, when we started building our house, we thought we would be moved before Halloween. So....I packed up all of our Halloween stuff and it's not buried in the back of our POD in the driveway. Needless to say, I'm not about to go out there and unbury it for just one day and then have to pack it back up again. It was bad enough that I had to send Gabe out there hunting for Avery's costume that was packed up! Because of this, I don't even know if we'll carve pumpkins this year-I know the carving set is packed away as well.

Since it's a gloomy day out here today, I decided Avery and I would do some Halloween stuff. I did a quick search online for easy crafts and actually had some stuff in my house I could use to make something!

Craft #1: Coffee Filter Ghosts

What you'll need: scissors, string, a coffee filter, a black marker, tinfoil and tape.
Lay out a piece of tinfoil flat on the table and tape a piece of string (whatever length you want the ghost to hang from) in the middle of the foil.


Crumple the foil up into a ball:

Take your coffee filter and draw on a ghost face:

Poke a hole in the top of the coffee filter and thread through the string-the coffee filter will rest on top of the tinfoil:

Display them around your house! (Please ignore the ugly chandelier we have-and yes, it's missing lights!)

Just a note-you're supposed to use a regular coffee filter, but my coffee maker takes the cone shaped filters-they still worked out just fine!

Craft #2: Handprint ghosts

What you'll need: white paper, scissors, a black marker, a pencil

Trace your child's hand on a piece of white paper. Using scissors, cut out the handprint making the wrist area rounded (for the ghost's head). Draw on a ghost face!

Here's Avery posing with her ghost:

The finished handprint ghost!

She really got a kick out of this one. Lately she loves tracing her hands so we made 3 of these in no time. She colored in two of them and I did this one. We hung them on our front door and she loves them!

Boo!

There's one other thing we're doing to get into the spirit of things around here. It's called getting Boo-ed! I saw this idea on another blog and thought it sounded like so much fun!

You start by printing out a few copies of this. You put a copy into a bag of treats that you assemble. Then you deliver the treats anonymously to your neighbors without them knowing (basically a ding-dong ditch type of thing). They put the ghost sign up in their window so that others know they have been boo-ed and then they continue on the fun! The idea is to see how many houses can get boo-ed by Halloween.

I delivered the first bag back on Sunday hoping the neighbors would participate. I saw the sign go up on their door so I was hopeful. Unfortunately I haven't seen any other signs going up, so I don't know if they followed the instructions or if they did follow them and our other neighbors are party poopers. So, I put together 2 more bags to deliver tonight to see what happens.

These are just a few things we're doing here to get into the spirit of Halloween. Tell me, what are you doing to gear up for the holiday? I'd love to hear your ideas!

A Very Busy Saturday

Yesterday was quite a busy day for us.

We got up in the morning and got ready to take Avery to her first Halloween event of the year. The library I take her to for story time does a Fall Festival along with the town hall and police dept (their buildings are all connected). We took Avery there last year and we enjoyed it so we decided to hit it again this year.

Avery was so excited to put her costume on! When I showed it to her in the morning, she wanted it on right away. Once she finished breakfast, I got it on her and she wore it right up until naptime!

Doesn't she look adorable?! We got to the party and the first thing we saw were two characters-one was a dog named "Biscuit" and one was a cat (not sure of the name). Avery was obsessed with them-always saying "hi" when they walked by and showing them her costume. Lots of hugs and high-fives. She wasn't too fond of the cat at first (hence no photos of it) but finally gave him a high-five at the end. She loved "Biscuit" though!

Then we took her to the trick-or-treat area. They set up "houses" and you got to trick-or-treat. She got a lot of cute stuff-candy, pencils, stickers, toothbrushes, etc.

Here she is getting her first treat-her fave, M&M's!

A close up of Avery:

And a quick family shot (Avery is saying "cheese"): They had pony rides set up outside and she really wanted to go on. The line was pretty long, but we decided to wait. Thankfully when it was her turn, she actually went on! I was fearing waiting in line only for her to decide not to go on. But, she donned a helmet and got right on the pony! Taking her walk around:

Checking out her helmet:
Our last stop was in the library where they had a few animals on display. This year they brought an owl:
And a duck!
The duck actually nibbled Avery's fingers, but she just laughed at it! Then she sat down and made a fall themed wreath which turned out cute.

And that was just the start of our day!

When we got home, Gabe's parents came over to babysit Avery while we went out looking for our kitchen backsplash. Luckily we only went to one store and found something we liked so that was good! Then we got home and my Mom showed up to spend the day/night with us. Gabe and I took off again to go to a local baby furniture store that was having their tent sale this weekend. It's the same store we bought Avery's crib set from and the quality is very good so we were interested in seeing what they had. Originally we went looking to buy Avery a new bedroom set-full size bed and dressers. But we ended up just buying a new crib set and dressers for the baby. Avery's crib converts to a bed anyways and they had a great deal we couldn't pass up! So, we now have baby furniture for #2!

After shopping, we all met Gabe's parents out for dinner which was nice. Then it was home and time for Avery to get to bed. It was a super busy day for us, but a productive one at that!

26 Weeks-Baby #2

So I'm at 26 weeks now-hard to believe that next week I'll be in the 3rd trimester already! It's crazy how fast it's going by this time! January still seems so far away to me, but when you think I have 14 weeks left, it doesn't seem like much!


How I'm feeling/sleeping: Pretty well at this point. Sleep is still hit or miss and I'm up at least once to use the bathroom. I have the occasional swollen ankles or back ache, but that's about it really.

Appointments/events: I had my monthly appointment last Friday. I gained 5lbs since last month (for a total of 13lbs so far). I also had to do my glucose test that day. I haven't heard anything from the office so I'm assuming it went ok. They told me if something was wrong that they would call me. My doctor wanted me to get a c-section on the book in case we have to have one again. She said the OR schedule fills up fast so she wanted me to get one booked ASAP. I had the choice of 39, 40, or 41 weeks and she told me she needed to know at my next appointment. Well, they must have taken it upon themselves to schedule it because I got a call yesterday that I'm scheduled on January 27th! My due date is the 25th so we'll see what happens. I know my doctor only works part-time and on the 27th I'm guaranteed to have her do the surgery, so that's fine with me. Plus it's a Friday so Gabe won't have to take too much time off of work! It's pretty weird having an "eviction date" though!

Cravings/Aversions: Still not inclined to eat oatmeal or peanut butter but everything else is fair game. I was dying for rice krispy treats the other day so I made some while Avery napped. I was out of rice krispies so I used Cheerios instead. They hit the spot!

Movement: Yes! Baby seems to be more active these days-I have many times in a day that I feel lots of movement (of course one of them is when I go to bed!). I'm not sure if the baby is still breech, but I do feel a lot of movement down low-mostly below my belly button. I honestly don't remember where I felt it when I was pregnant with Avery!

Avery's thoughts: She still tells everyone that baby is a girl! Now when we ask her what to name the baby, she says "girl"....nice name! Haha!


Here are this week's pics...the grey shirt is yesterday at 26 weeks and the red shirt is me at 27 weeks with Avery. Hard to tell if I'm bigger now or not. I weigh exactly the same as I did with Avery at this point.

Monday Night Fun!

This is what we do for fun on a Monday night.... Yep, we wear our winter gear (love how I'm wearing Avery's hat?!)!!

What do you do?!

Turkey Dinner in Buffalo

Before I start what this post is about, I had to include this picture of Avery from the other day. Can I just point out how old she looks in this pic? Oh my gosh-where is my baby?! FYI-this is her eating her first cheerio treat (a rice krispy treat made with cheerios instead). She just looks so big.... And onto the post....

Yesterday we went to Buffalo for the day to visit Nama. Here's my big girl in her cute outfit:My Mom and Aunt were dying to make a turkey dinner, so they decided that yesterday was the day for it. They went all out-turkey, mashed potatoes, corn, broccoli/cauliflower, stuffing, rolls...yum! My friend Joelle, her husband Matt, daughter Samantha and her Mom JoAnne all came over to enjoy the yummy feast with us. I've mentioned before that Samantha is 8 days younger than Avery and both Joelle and I are expecting-and we're about a week apart again which is too funny!

The girls had a blast playing together and were really big into the hugs!

And Samantha shook Avery's hand which was so cute!

After dinner they got to showing off their tummies!

And on their way out, more hugs:

and kisses:

They were just too cute together!

We had a nice visit, that's for sure! And of course dinner was wonderful! Joelle brought dessert which was also amazing! We were all stuffed!!

Before we left, Avery got in her jammies and watched some Dora on Gabe's phone-her new obsession! Look how focused she is!

I'm really not sure when we'll make it to Buffalo again-our weekends have been a little crazy and with our house almost being done, it's hard to say when we'll make the trip back!

We're Gettin' There

Yesterday Gabe, Avery, my Mom, and I all made a visit to the house. My Mom hasn't been there in a very long time (I don't even think the siding was started yet!) so I was excited for her to see the progress in person, as opposed to her seeing the pics online. Of course I haven't been in a few weeks myself so I was anxious to see all of the new stuff as well!

I'm going to apologize for the pics-they aren't the greatest because of the lighting. There is no lighting done in the house yet, so really I'm relying on the natural light and my flash so some of them turned out a little dark. You know there will be more to come though!!

This is the mudroom area-laundry room is the far room. Tiling on the floor is done, paint is done!
This is the half bath downstairs-cabinets and floor are in!

Family room-painted, bookshelves in, fireplace installed-stone and mantle are done!

Morning room/kitchen-they were just starting the hardwoods when we were there-love them!

Kitchen-cabinets are done!

The office is now painted (Sherwin Williams Smoky Blue):

The "good" stairs are now put in and stained-they really look great!

They have part of the banister up-it's missing the spindles still.

And on to the upstairs....this is the 2nd story foyer area-I like the hardwood accent up there!

Guest bedroom:

Avery's room:

Baby's room:

Full bath upstairs-tile is all done and cabinets are installed!

Master bedroom:

Master bathroom-cabinets installed:

Master bath-jacuzzi area-floor is all done and tile is all done! I really, really love this room so far!

Our walk-in shower....they still have to install the glass wall for it, but there will be no door at all!
Close up of the tile and listello (or as I call it-the "border"):
The column of the shower:
And our hidden shelf in the shower area-so glad the tile guy suggested this! Hopefully it'll hide our shampoo bottles!
So those are the latest updates! They still have to finish the hardwoods downstairs and the carpet needs to get put in. Then the granite counters, speakers, lights and grass outside. Other than that, I'm not really sure what else has to be finished. It can't be much-we're in the last few weeks so I think they are pretty close to completion at this point! YAY!