Those Baby Blues...

...aren't looking very blue anymore....

I honestly have no idea what color her eyes are these days. In some light, they look blue. Sometimes they look brown, green or grey too. It's the strangest thing!  But I think the blues might be leaving us which makes me a little sad.

But I do love this picture:

The Hunger Games

I finally got around to reading this series...I'm sure you've heard of it?!

To be honest, I wanted to see what all of the hype was about! It was all I heard about for awhile so of course it made me interested.

My Aunts got me the entire series (there are 3 books) for my birthday back in April.

And I just finished it about two weeks ago.

Yes, it took me that long.

The reason?  Work, house, two kids, summer time....enough said.

Typically what would happen is that I'd read a lot in a short number of days (when I started the first book, I read 150pgs in 2 nights) then wouldn't touch it for a week or so.  Each book is close to 400 pages too, but they are very quick reads.

These are young adult books (think Twilight) so like I said, they are quick reads. And each  chapter tends to leave you hanging and wanting more.

I don't want to get too much into the details, because if you haven't read them yet, you should! 

The plot of the book is that it is set in post-apoctolyptic North America.  The nation is known as Panem and there is a Capitol (wealthy) with 12 surrounding districts (poor). The Capitol controls all of the districts and every year they hold The Hunger Games.  The Hunger Games were created because of a previous rebellion of the districts against the Capitol, so this is how the Capitol "punishes" the districts every year. The Hunger Games is where a boy and a girl  between the ages of 12-18 from each district are selected by lottery to compete in a televised  battle to the death until only one person remains....that person is the "victor".

The Hunger Games follows Katniss Everdeen, a 17yr old girl from District 12 and is told through her eyes.  You basically follow her through the "reaping" (the Hunger Games lottery) and the Hunger Games.  This leads into book 2, Catching Fire, and book 3, Mockingjay.

I will say that I was a bit surprised that this is a young adult book. My 11yr old cousin read this for school and I was shocked by that. I mean, a book about kids killing each other? I will say that some of the scenes are pretty graphic too so that's why I was surprised by it.  But, to each his own.

I really enjoyed the first two books of the series.  Book 3 was good, but different. I don't know how to describe it, but everyone I know that has read the series agrees with me-book 3 moves differently for some reason.  Personally, I think there were a lot of characters to keep straight at that point and they all have "odd" sounding names. So for me, it was hard to keep track of who was who and eventually I just gave up and kept reading. I also think book 3 was more political/governmental in feeling which sort of bores me. Of course I was itching to see how everything ended up so I had to keep trudging through!  And I'm happy I did because I thought the ending was really good.

I do suggest reading these if you get the chance. I'm usually not a sci-fi reader, but these were good!They definitely held my attention and like I said, they keep you wanting to read more.

Unfortunately I haven't seen the movie that's out yet, so I'm anxious to see how that is compared to the book. Hopefully I'll be able to see it before I forget too much of the plot!

So....have you read the series yet?? What are your thoughts? Have you seen the movie? How did it compare to the book?  Do share!!

Royalty

I ran to Target last night and was instructed to buy construction paper to make crowns. 

Guess what Avery and Daddy did today?! 

Made crowns for everyone....yes, all 4 of us have been wearing a crown all day today!

please ignore the fact that C's bib says "Birthday girl!"

You'll notice Gabe and I are not pictured-haha!  But believe me, we were sporting the royal head gear as well!

Starting Solids

On Monday, we decided to start solids with Cassandra!

We got the go ahead from her pediatrician on Friday and we were busy over the weekend so we didn't get a chance to do it. So, it just happened that we started on the day she turned 6 months old!

As soon as we put her in the high chair, she got this huge grin on her face like she knew what was coming...it was so cute!

We decided to start with plain ol' rice cereal....first bite!

not sure what to think

Of course Avery had to help feed her too!

Since it was the first day, she was quite clueless! Her tongue was out constantly so getting the cereal to actually go IN her mouth was quite a chore!  And of course she spit 99% of it back out once it did get in her mouth!

Oh well...she'll learn!

She was happy though!

Six Months Old!

Happy half birthday to my baby girl! It's amazing that you've been with us for 6 months already!

Cassandra is still in size 2 diapers for the day and size 3 for overnight. She's still wearing mostly 3 month clothes believe it or not! She wears some 6 month stuff, but some of it hangs on her because it's so big!

She nurses every 2.5-3 hours during the day and is incredibly nosy! She's a very distracted eater these days!

Cassandra is still an early bird for bed-she's ready to go down around 7-usually she's asleep by 7:30-8pm once I get her in jammies and feed her. She sleeps about 11-12 hours overnight waking up usually once to eat (sometimes twice).

Cassandra still naps well. She does a morning nap about 2 hours after waking up in the morning. Then she'll do an afternoon nap 2 hours after waking from the morning nap. Some days she'll take a third nap around 5pm that's really short-a half hour or so, just to get her through until bedtime. I have noticed that she's harder to put down at times lately-she'll wake up when she hits the crib and then will fuss for awhile. She eventually falls asleep, but sometimes it takes awhile.

New things for this month....she went in her exersaucer for the first time and really enjoys it! I realized the other day how infrequently she goes in the swing. Avery lived in her swing it seemed-although that's where she liked to nap. Cass really doesn't care for the swing so she hardly goes in it anymore!  Cassandra has started to notice Jerri the cat lately and gets SO excited to see her! It's the cutest thing! As soon as the cat walks by, she stiffens up, kicks her legs and squeals with excitement! She can hold her bottle by herself now, but can't quite lift it up really high yet. She loves her feet now-she puts them in her mouth all of the time. She really is such a happy baby and laughs and smiles so much-I just love it!

Here's the "birthday" girl's pics:

Yes folks, she does have a neck!!

Proud big sis!

My faves:

And for fun, here are Avery's 6 month pics! (Wow, I just noticed how huge Avery looks-she looks like a giant compared to Cassandra!)

Water Baby

Last night we went over our friends' house to hang out, swim, and have dinner.

Their kids got right in the pool, which was a little on the chilly side. Avery was hesitant to go in, but finally did go in for awhile. 

Before getting out, we decided to see what Cassandra thought of it.  She really loves taking a bath, so I know she loves the water. She's never been in a pool before though and with it being so big, who knows how she would react to it!  I also really didn't know what to expect with it being chilly.  I didn't even bother getting her bathing suit on because I honestly thought she would last about 2 seconds in the water.

Boy were we all wrong (and shocked!)!

She fussed for a second when Gabe first put her in, but after that? Not a peep out of her. I think she stayed in for about 15 minutes which is way longer than any of us thought!

She's smiling!! I think she might be our little water baby!

After we swam awhile, we had some pizza and wings for dinner and just hung out for a bit.  And Daddy was sitting with his two girls so I had to take a picture!

love Avery's face!

Two Kids, One Appointment

Today the kids both had check ups at the doctors.....Cassandra had her 6 month visit, and Avery had her 3 year visit. 

And yes I'm crazy and took both kids to back-to-back appointments by myself.

I have to say-it was not bad at all. 

I knew going into it that Avery wouldn't be getting any shots, so that right there made the whole scenario easier to me. And the poor kid has been through so much this year that she's a pro at the docs now.

For the first time, Avery got on the big girl scale and they also did a vision and hearing test with her. She did a great job! 

Then we went into a room and Cassandra got her weight and length done. And then we waited for the doctor to come in.

He started with Cassandra first (per Avery's request). Currently she's 24 3/4" long (20th percentile) and she weighs 12lbs 13.5oz (8th percentile)....sister is still a little peanut!  Everything looks good with her and we got the green light to start her on solids!

Then it was Avery's turn.  She's currently 36 3/4" tall (40th percentile) and 28lbs (25th percentile).  She changed quite a bit. Last time they checked her she was in the 75th percentile for height and 10th for weight so she definitely has shifted on us, which is totally fine.  He confirmed with us that her sleep apnea appears to be gone (yay!) based on her second sleep study. We told him that we are starting her on some iron supplements to see if it helps anymore with the restless leg symptoms-he wasn't for or against it, but is anxious to see if it does help her with that. 

Overall, the appointment went really well and both girls are healthy as can be!  Avery doesn't have to go back for another year, but Cassandra will go back in 3 months!