Milestones? Where are you?

I had to include this cute pic of Ava and Chuck--

no one believes me that they look so much alike, but they do!

Ava is 6 months old tomorrow. She is sitting on her own (but still a bit wobbly) but not doing much else. No rolling over at all. She still hates being on her tummy, but is getting better at holding herself up. She's still snubbing most baby food. I know she'll do everything in her own time, but it is hard not to get a bit antsy about all of her yet-to-come milestones.

Ah, well, they're only young once, right?

Sister and brother lovin' each other

The kids were being too cute tonight. Of course, I had to ask Aiden to kiss Ava about a million times before I got a good pic, but it was still cute:)

Planes, trains and automobiles

Aiden is a boy's boy, that is for sure. If it's a car, plane, train or truck, you can bet he will play with it ALL day long. His train table set seems to be growing more impressive by the day, mainly because I can't resist a Thomas clearance sale when I see one! A friend forwarded me a coupon for a free train and we trecked 30 miles to the nearest Toys 'R Us just to use our coupon--who could say no to a FREE train? Then I picked up the fire station for 50% off at the bookstore this morning, and it made for one HAPPY boy all morning long! He cried when I put him down for a nap because he didn't want to stop playing. Here's a pic of the table that Chuck made Aiden for Christmas and it's ever-growing layout and multitude of trains!

God bless you!

This actually happened about 2 weeks ago, but I keep forgetting to post it and it's too funny not to!

Aiden is pretty good about knowing when to say, "God bless you," when someone sneezes, "Excuse me, " when he toots, etc. Well, I was helping him out of his highchair and he looked up at me and said, "Mommy, I tooted!" I asked him, "What do you say when you toot, Aiden?" trying to get him to remember to say, "Excuse me." He looked very serious for a moment and then his eyes lit up and he exclaimed, "God bless you!"

Close enough kid, close enough;) Lol!

So silly!

Aiden's favorite thing to do these days is be SILLY! He loves to do something funny and then ask me, "Is that silly, Mommy?...YEP!!! I so silly!!!"

This morning he told me, "Look Mommy, I made a waffle snake!" Then he refused to eat the rest of his waffle because it was a "snake" and not just breakfast!

Aiden put Ava's Boppy pillow over his head like a crown and thought he was hilarious!

Ava just being cute in the morning:)

Credit cards? Who needs 'em!

I almost forgot to post this, but Friday was a VERY important day in the Bailey household:

We made the LAST payment on our one and only credit card!!!

Hurray!! Now if we could just pay off my car and the mortgage we'd be rolling around in our money, lol. My wonderful husband definitely gets the credit for this amazing accomplishment. His awesome budgeting and money management skills and a strict plan over the last year made it all happen. I'm proud of us!

High chair pics

I took some new pics of Ava in the high chair--I can't believe how BIG she is, it hardly seems like she could possibly already be almost 6 months old!

Also two comparison pics of Aiden at the same age in the high chair. His feats of strength at 6 months FAR outweigh Ava's--he was sitting well (she's still a bit floppy), rolling both ways (she's not rolling at all), nearly crawling (she's barely lifting her head off the ground, let alone her whole body!). It constantly amazes me how two children from the same parents can be so different! (Don't get me wrong...I'm a bit grateful, lol).

So much for knocking on wood...

It figures...I have to go and post about how great Ava has been sleeping, which of course guaranteed that it would end, lol. I lost track but I'm pretty sure I got out of bed 6 times last night and Chuck went to her twice...so 8 times?? Yeah...well, it was fun while it lasted I guess!

Ahhhh, SLEEP!

I haven't posted much about Ava's sleeping habits, mainly because until now (knock on wood!) they've been nothing to brag about! Lol. But the past week she's gotten much better and most nights is now sleeping from 7pm until about 5:15am or so, eating and then going back to sleep until 6:30 or 7am. I feel like a brand new person! It's amazing what months of sleep deprivation will do to a person.

On a side note though, we are STILL swaddling her! I know, I know, she's almost 6 months old! I suspect we'll stop here shortly, but Ava is just vicious with her hands. When she is tired she claws at her face and rubs her eyes until she bleeds, seriously! I don't remember Aiden ever doing that. I think only time will help her get more coordinated and hopefully stop trying to scratch her eyes out. Until then, we'll have to keep restraining her arms, for her own sake!

New pics...

I took the kids to the local nature center again yesterday, and they were both very good. Aiden always has a blast looking at all of the animals and especially loves the reptile house--snakes are his favorite! I took a ton of pictures and managed very few good ones (if these even count as "good")--it's so hard to get pics of them together at this age!

On the way home from the center we had quite a big scare--a tree FELL on our car!!! We were ok though and the car seems to have pulled through. I swerved to avoid most of it and ended up with a few branches sticking out of the front end. I thought the condensor might be punctured, but it looks like it is ok, thank goodness. The front bumper really just took the majority of the hit. Aiden was very scared about the whole thing--as was I!

Happy Father's Day!

It's a day late, but I wanted to say Happy Father's Day to my wonderful husband:) I don't have many pics of you with the kids, but these two are my favorites. Thank you for being such a wonderful dad to our two amazing children. You are more than I ever could have hoped for and you give us all the love in your heart.

Chuck and Aiden

Chuck and Ava

Say WHAT?

Aiden made me laugh hysterically this morning. I really don't know where he comes up with some of the things he says! We were on our usual morning walk and he pointed to a neighbor's house and said, "That house is disgusting." I said, "Disgusting? Is that what you said? Like icky?" "Yeah Mommy, disgusting! Ew! That house (pointing to a different house) is clean!" Now I know I may not like all of our neighbor's houses, but I certainly have never called any of them disgusting! Where does he come up with this stuff?!?

A sunny photo shoot

We spent a little time in the front yard on a blanket this morning and I took some cute pics of Ava. The natural light is a bit strange in the pictures, but I thought they turned out cute. Enjoy!

Something to make you laugh---ARGH!!!

Aiden loooves all things of the pirate nature. He has a pirate ship that he plays with every day, and any of his shows that have pirates in them become instant favorites. It's something about the hat, the sword and the eye-patch that just gets him hook, line and sinker I guess!

The other day we were driving to the store and Aiden looked over into the car next to us. It was a couple of younger guys, who had a LOT of tattoos. One of the guys had his feet up on the dash and you could see that his legs were all tattooed also. Aiden stared at the guys for a minute (we were at a red light) and then exclaimed, "Look Mommy! Those are PIRATES! Argh! Argh!"

I guess having a lot of tattoos qualifies you as a pirate in the eyes of a 2 year old! Lol.

Through the eyes of a child

The kids and I have been going for a walk every morning when Chuck leaves for work. It's a good thing to do to kill time before Ava's nap, and it's about the only time of day when the heat is bearable!

This morning Aiden saw a car that was covered by a tarp. A little bit of the quarter panel was sticking out, so you could see that the car was yellow. Aiden said to me, "Look at that yellow car Mommy! That yellow car is sleeping, he is fast asleep." It took me a minute to realize what he meant--the car had a "blanket," so of course it was sleeping! How easy it was to see after he pointed it out to me.

Sometimes we all need to be reminded of the wonderful innocence of childhood. How simple and black and white everything is. I miss those days (I barely remember them!), but I'm happy to be able to experience them again through my children. I think that is one of the most wonderful gifts that children give to us--the ability to experience things again in a new light, to remember the innocence that we've somehow lost along the way.

Some new pics

Ava all tuckered out

photo shoot
sitting like a big girl
having fun playing
Aiden getting in on the action!

Kids say the funniest things...

Aiden has been a real chatterbox lately. His sentences are getting longer and his imagination is getting more creative. Here are some of the funny things he's said to me in the past few days:

While playing with his race cars from the movie Cars:
"Mommy, McQueen hit King. Timeout McQueen! Hitting not nice! I sorry King. Ok, all done timeout!"

While in the wagon on a walk:
"Mommy, where is that doggy? I hear it, I hear that doggy! Is he in that house? Is he behind that car? Oh--I see him!! I see him, there he is!! HI DOGGY!! WOOF WOOF!"

To Ava (in her bouncy seat):
"Here you go Ava (picked up pinky bear and gave it to her). Aw, so cute! Mommy, Ava's a princess! So cute!"

At Walmart, after he saw a Cars (the movie) shirt with Lightning McQueen on it:
"Mommy, I want to wear a cars shirt. I want that Lightning McQueen shirt! I want to buy it....pweeese?"

Friends are fun!

Some new pics of Aiden and his friend, Henry. Aiden really loves his weekly playdates with Henry and talks about his friend all the time. I'm excited for him to start school in August and get to meet a lot more kids his age!

Sittin' pretty

My mother seems to have a special effect on my children. Her visits always seem to coincide with important milestones in my babies' lives. Two days after she visited when Aiden was 7 months old, he took off crawling. This visit, Ava wasn't sitting on her own at all when my mom was here. Two days later she started sitting and now can sit pretty much as long as she wants to. Amazing, isn't it? Mom, we'll have to make sure you visit again sooner rather than later--Ava still isn't rolling over, lol.

Anyway, enjoy the new sitting pics of Ava! Isn't this outfit adorable? It's another hand-me-down from her cousin Alyssa--I love it!

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There she goes!

I apologize in advance because the quality of this clip is lacking (it's really choppy and I'm not sure why), but it's cute none-the-less:) Ava is learning how to sit up, and she's doing pretty well the past few days! Aiden has a new favorite game called "There she goes!" We sit Ava up, then watch her and say, "How long will she last? Nobody knows! Nobody knows!" and then when she falls over we yell, "Oh! There she goes!" Aiden thinks this is hilarious--as you can see in this clip!

Caution: objects in video are LOUDER than they appear!

When I tell people that Ava is a very LOUD baby, they usually don't believe me because in public she is very quiet and observant. At home, however, she doesn't like to be outdone by her big brother! First thing in the morning and especially in the evenings, Ava loves to SHRIEK for no apparent reason other than hearing herself talk, lol. Enjoy this clip, but I'll warn you to turn the volume on your computer down as low as it goes first!

I just don't get it

Well, it's official, I really just don't understand my son. I'm sure other moms of boys are with me a little bit on this one. I guess because I am so much a "girl" and Aiden is so much a "boy," well, we just don't see eye to eye on things very often.

This morning we went to Kohl's just to get out of the house for a bit without using half a tank of gas to drive all the way across town. Aiden loves to look at toys at any store we go to. Ava was her usual easy, happy self (thank goodness!), but Aiden, forget about it. He has so many cars at home that he couldn't play with all of them in a WEEK. He has cars coming out of his ears!! But anywhere we go, he NEEDS another car. When I told him that we already have a Lightning McQueen at home and we are NOT buying another one, he totally lost it. I haven't seen a tantrum like this in a while, and trust me, I've seen some good ones! Our outing ended with me carrying one kicking, screaming little boy out of Kohl's under my arm (Ava barely noticed, by the way). I've never seen so many strangers stare at me in horror and disgust as my shrieking little boy let the whole store know just how unhappy he was.

Outside Kohl's, on the sidewalk, I gave him some space to let him recover. I reminded him that we only went to the store to LOOK at toys and not to BUY any, and that he has a whole boatload of cars at home. My little man, in typical boy fashion, looked up at me through tear-stained eyes and said, "Mommy, let's go home and play CARS!"

So we did. Again.

Granny's visit

Aiden and Ava's Granny came to visit last weekend. We had a wonderful visit with her. Aiden had so much fun playing trains and cars with his Granny--and he loves his new Chinese Dragon train that she got him!

Here are some pictures at home yesterday morning and then some pics from the nearby nature center that we visited on Friday afternoon.

We miss you already Mom!