Oh, Monday!

Its Monday. It's raining. I've been up since 6am. Yeeeeah.

Avonlea decided that she needed to be up a gazillion 6 times last night and then she was up for good at 6am this morning. I slept like crap last night too. Ugh! I also realized at 3am that I had to be at work at 8am this morning instead of thinking I had the morning off. Then, my client no showed me at 8. Such a joyous start to my day!

So, here I sit at my office, attempting to work. I did get my billing finished for the month and I should be working on reports.....buuuuut....I'm not. Yes, Hi, my name is Courtney and I'm a procrastinator. Mmmmk.

In other news, Peytonn saw the ENT on Friday. On a scale of 1-4, his tonsils were a 2.5-3+ in size. Needless to say, they need to be taken out. Its affecting his sleep and he is in the beginning stages of apnea. He'll need to be "down" from all activity for approximately 2 weeks. (that should be fun!) He won't even be able to ride in a car for longer than an hour. So, with school still in session and baseball until the end of June, we've scheduled the procedure for July. The doc says we should see immediate results in his sleep. I sure hope so!

Peytonn is also LOVING baseball this year. I'm so glad that I ignored him when he told me he didn't want to play this summer. Last year, he played through the YMCA and its an understatement to say that it was horrible! We got switched teams mid-season and the coach parent volunteer hardly ever showed up. In the "team" picture, there are 4 kids. Yeeeah. But this year, he was old enough to play in one of the youth leagues in our town. The coach is awesome, they have practice twice a week with games on Saturday, and most of the kids (including the coaches kid) attend catholic school. I am glad Peytonn is getting a chance to socialize with kids he will be attending school with next year. His first game is this Saturday and he is totally pumped about it. He asks everyday if he has baseball. But the best part, is watching him attempt to do jumping jacks during practice. Ha! One day son, one day. I'm sorry that you have inherited your father's rhythm!

I'm hoping to get Bennett into some swim lessons or some sort of activity this summer. He really wants to play baseball, but he is too young and I'm not wasting my money on the YMCA again.

Avonlea is crawling EVERYWHERE! Nothing is safe from this child! Her bottom teeth are also super close to breaking through. It's only a matter of time.

She has also tried several new foods this month and has done really well with them and feeding herself. Here is what we have tried:
--quinoa
--kiwi
--mango
--ground beef
--cheerios
--yogurt
--cottage cheese
--cheese

This girl loves to feed herself and is starting to slow down on wanting to eat pureed foods. I mostly just use them to finish "filling her up" at the end of a meal. She has also slowed down on bottles too. She was drinking close to 40oz a day, but has now dropped to taking 4-6 ounces at a time while increasing her solid food intake.  She also has a sassy "feed me now or else" kind of attitude as well these days. But how can you get agitated when she is just so darn cute! But then she pulls your hair and pinches you. I think I'm in trouble!

9 months old!

My little Missy Moo-Moo is 9 months old!! She is sassier than ever, too!

So, what is my sweet little girl up to these days:

weight: 18 lbs 1.4oz (25-50th %)
Heights: 27 3/4 inches (50th %)

--started army crawling and all fours crawling in the past week
--can get herself to a sitting position from her belly
--feeds herself and gets a mixture of purees and table food
--daytime weaned in the past two weeks and only nursing at night now
--says "dada" and "hi"
--starting to wave
--has been teething for the past month, but still no teeth
--wearing size 4 diapers and 12-18 month clothes

We are still working on sleeping, although things are better, it still no where near consistent or great. The past two nights she has taken the pacifier instead of nursing. She has refused the pacifier since she was like 4 months old. I wonder if it makes her gums feel better. Some nights she is up 3-4 times and other nights she is up once. Its a work in progress.

She is so happy and every place we go, I swear we get so many comments on how cute she is and she smiles at everyone. She is generally happy most of the day, but she is starting the baby tantrums. She definitely wants what she wants, and she wants it NOW! Ha!

Overall, she is such a joy to have and the boys love her to death!

Say what?

I swear my kids say the funniest things ever! Bennett: -I want "harshmellows" in my chocolate milk! -(Bennett riding his scooter on the driveway) mom, did you see those "skeeeerts!?" yeah, my fast! Peytonn: -mom, this looks ok for church? (walks in the room wearing his baseball cap, batting gloves, and cleats with jeans and a tshirt) -mom, look. I dressed myself! Me: how did you get your jeans down off the shelf? Peytonn:I made some stairs in the closer with stuff and I accidentally messed up the closet. Me: oh really? Accidentally, huh? This all happened today. I swear, everyday is something new that they come up with!

Walking in my shoes..

I love seeing how different everybody's day to day life is compared to ours. I love getting new ideas or routines from the way other people live. We all live our lives differently and I love that! So, here's a day in my life: 5:30am Avonlea wakes up for umpteenth time. I attempt to get her back to sleep, but most mornings it's an epic fail! 6:00am I get in the shower before the boys wake up. 6:15am Peytonn comes strolling into my bathroom with tired eyes and wants some "brefquest" 6:45 I head downstairs with two kiddos to start breakfast 7:15am Bennett is usually up and also requesting "brefquest" I feed all three children and then get them dressed. I also load up the diaper bag with diapers, food for Avonlea, a spoon and bib for her, and a bottle. 7:45am we are out the door and loading up the vehicle. I do a mental check of everything: three kids, a school bag, diaper bag, my work bag and breast pump. And we're off to the babysitter! 8am Drop the kids off and head to work. If I'm going to stop for coffee, I usually do it now. I've been up for about 2.5 hours at this point and haven't ate or drank a single thing. 8:30-11:45am At work, which usually consists of case management, supervised visits, or transports 11:45am head back to the babysitter to pick up Peytonn for school. 12:15am Drop Peytonn at school and grab some lunch while heading to the next clients house. 12:30-2:30 Work some more doing the same as above. Or getting yelled at by a client. Or diffusing a situation. You get the point. 2:45pm pick up Peytonn from school and drive back to the babysitter to get the other two children. 3:15pm head home and start job #2 3:30 get the kids settled and get Avonlea in the high hair for a snack. I usually try to tidy up the downstairs at this point from the morning chaos. 4:15 try to figure out something for dinner while playing referee to the older two and handling Avonlea's fussiness 5:00 or 5:30 I feed the kids dinner. I usual stand and eat because otherwise Avonlea throws a tantrum if she can't have my plate. Therefore, I must be sneaky when I eat 6:00pm clean up from dinner and get bathe Avonlea. If we take a walk, we usually do it now. But sometimes we just ride bikes in the driveway or play out back. 7:30pm hubby arrives home from work. Sometimes Avonlea is asleep at this point and sometimes she is awake. The boys are all hyped up because dad is home! 8:00pm showers for the boys and jammies 8:30pm the boys get into bed and I usually read on my kindle or finish up any chores that need to be done ( which are never ending, by the way!) 9:30-10pm I am passed out. Exhausted from a long day and preparing for job #3.....night time with Avonlea! There you have it! I'm exhausted just thinking about it! Maybe this is why I look forward to Saturday so much, knowing I don't have to go anywhere if I don't want to! But I do enjoy my time with my kiddos, even if they do wear me out! I wouldn't have it any other way!

What Easter is all about

I'm not really a fan of the Easter Bunny...never really have been. I've never really understood where the bunny part came in? Anyways, I made some baskets for the kids with just a few simple items: puzzles, bubbles, pencils, and playdoh. We also went to my inlaws on Easter and the kids did an egg hunt. They had a really good time. We colored eggs when we got home that night.


But I'd have to say, the highlight of Easter for us was attending the Easter Vigil at church. Hubby and I have been going through the RCIA process for quite a few months now. On saturday night, Hubby and I:
--had our marriage blessed in the Catholic church (renewed our vows)
--Hubby got baptized for the first time
--We both got confirmed into the Catholic church
--We both took the Eucharist for the first time as Catholics

The mass was 3 hours long, but it was beautiful and enlightening. I felt such a wonderful spirit within me during the mass. It was so special to see everyone that has joined us on this journey be welcomed into the church with open arms. The cathedral was full and it was such an experience to hear everyone praying and singing for you. I just love our church, it is so beautiful and the people and priests are so wonderful! I feel so blessed to be a part of this family!

*The baptismal pool where Hubby was baptized. If you can see, there is a gate on the left and right side. You walk down into the pool and the Bishop poured water over their heads three times. You can also dip your finger in the tall pool each time you enter the cathedral to renew your baptism each time.

There was a photographer who took pictures of the baptisms, but we were unable to take any other photos, per the Bishop. There were 43 of us that went through the RCIA process and got confirmed into the church at the Easter Vigil. It was just a very special mass.

The kids will be baptized in May. Peytonn already attends Catholic preschool and all of the children will attend Catholic school instead of public school. We are very lucky that our community has a large Catholic population and the Catholic schools go all the way to 12th grade. The Catholic school also has a very good sports program if any of the kids want to play sports.

Overall, we are very happy to finally be a part of the church family!

What's in a name?

Recently, I've had people ask me about Avonlea's name. We've gotten so many compliments on her name. I love it! I just love her name.

First off, people always ask me how to pronounce it when they see the spelling. Let's start with what its not:
--Avon-lee-a
--A-Von-lee

It's simple, really. Av-on-lee. Or better yet, Av-in-lee. Sometimes we call her Avon, pronounced Av-in. But mostly she is known around here as sissy or sissy girl.

Where on earth did we come up with such a name, you ask? Well, I didn't come up with it at all. I grew up watching Anne of Green Gables. It was on Channel 11 almost constantly and I loved watching it. There are several movies and one of the sequels is called Anne of Avonlea.

Originally we tossed around the spelling, thinking maybe Avonleigh would be easier for people to figure out how to pronounce her name. But I really loved the look of the original spelling, so that's what we went with.

I love her name and so glad we chose it. It's unique and beautiful and I doubt she will ever have a kid in her class with the same name, which was my goal. And the best part, it completely fits her. A sweet, pretty little girl, with a hint of sass!

Quinn, her middle name was a bit different. I love the name Quinn, but hubby just wasn't a fan. I've brought it up with all three kids and he has shot it down every.single.time.

We had no idea what her name was going to be when my water broke that Sunday night. Thankfully, we had spent most of that Sunday discussing names and coming up with a list. We went to the hospital with a list of first names and a list of middle names, none matched with each other. While I was in active labor, we started to rate names. By the times she was born Monday evening, we had the first names narrowed down to Avonlea and Hadleigh.

We went to the NICU to visit her for the first time around 9pm. My father in law was with us and the first family member to meet her. Hubby and I told him our name choices and he said he really liked Avonlea Quinn. And so it was. So, I guess my father in law chose her name. :)

Funny thing, we actually had two different hospital staff comment on her name and knew where we got it from. Both we huge fans of Anne of Green Gables.

Maybe one day we will do a trip to Prince Edward Island and she can learn all about where her name came from.

Wordless Wednesday

FLASHBACK!

Bennett at 6 months and Peytonn at 18 months. Its hard to believe they were that tiny and now look like this:

 

 

 Man time flies!