They are Doing It!

Tonight marks night three of the girls sleeping in the same room together. Every evening, Elsa has become very excited about it, but then when it comes right down to it, she decides she wants to sleep in a different room. That is, until I tell her that I will lay in bed with her for a couple of minutes.

Elsa has been playing like crazy here at the new house, so between lots of play, going to Gabriela's, and the move in general, she has been tuckered out every night. So when my "couple of minutes" is quite literally up, Elsa is already sound asleep. I do not want to get in the habit of having to lay there until she falls asleep, but I also want to make this transition as smooth as possible. So far (knock on wood), even though Avie is not sleeping that well, Elsa has not awoken when I have gone in the room to nurse and put Avie back down, so I have been fairly impressed.

The first morning after sleeping in the same room, I rewarded Elsa with a Revolution Doughnuts dark chocolate cake doughnut, but I also do not plan on making a habit of that. Thankfully she had "school" this morning, so there was no time for such shenanigans. Regardless, both mornings she has been excited that she actually did it. And she seems thrilled with the separate playroom (regardless of the disastrous state it is in at the moment), so hopefully this will stick. Only time will tell.

Trip to the Zoo

We were staying with our friends, David and Shelly, last week. On Thursday, on a mission to get out of the house in hopes that Baby Jack might decide to sleep out in the open air, Shelly, Christian, Jack, Elsa, Avie, and I all went to the zoo. It was nice to get out, and the big news was that Elsa decided to ride the train! She has taken a hiatus from it for months and months now, due to some fear she developed of the longer (and darker) of the two tunnels. Thankfully the somewhat new rainbow lights were on in said tunnel, and she really enjoyed the ride, even asking to go again... until she and Christian saw that the bouncy house was open. It was also Avie's first time on the train, and it didn't even seem to phase her. She thought it was terrific, and seemed more into the carousel this time as well.

Aveline is Eleven Months

Aveline turned eleven months old last Thursday. It is truly hard for me to believe that this little one will officially be one year old next month. And I was just talking to a good friend in the car about how it seems that with the second child (and subsequent children) it all just goes too quickly. And in ways I had not really thought of until lately.

For instance, at an appointment yesterday, where there were bookshelves of children's books in the waiting room, I asked Avie to go pick out a book, and she immediately crawled over and pulled up on the bookshelf. Really? How does she really know what I am saying? And there is a Wiggles song on a CD we regularly play in the car, with lyrics singing, "Everybody clap, [clap, clap, clap], everybody sing [la, la, la, la, la]...," and Avie will now clap at the appropriate time. What? You are not old enough to understand that.

It is as if they become more amazing. What would I think if I had three? Five? Ten? Don't get any thoughts... I am fairly certain we are stopping where we are.

But, yes, Avie is certainly amazing. She is crawling everywhere, and is into everything. She is specifically drawn, much to my dismay, to dirty shoes, remnants of anything on the ground, my cell phone, and my wallet. She also particularly adores the case for my sunglasses. She has been quite resilient in this most transient period of our lives, as we await the move into our new home. Yet it has still phased her in some ways, particularly in the way of not sleeping so well. Thus, her mama is not sleeping so well either. Suffice it to say, our entire family is a bit tired.

Avie is definitively saying "da da" and "ma ma." She likes to shake and nod her head. She signs more clearly now for "all done" and is finally starting to do "please" on occasion. "More" is becoming more prominent, and I have seen her "say" it as Elsa used to, with her pointer finger against the palm of her other hand.

She still adores her sister, and I swear has attempted to say her name on several occasions ("eh-sa"). Their new favorite game is to have me roll down all the windows in the car. Avie will squeal with delight, and Elsa will mimic the squeal, which will send them both into boughts of laughter. It is priceless. Elsa is still somewhat bothered by Avie's crying, but it is getting better, and there are an increasing number of sweet moments between the two, whether it be the sharing of toys or tickling, or squeezes and kisses.

We recently started a music class together for babies -- it's a different class than I did with Elsa. With Elsa, it was Kindermusik and now with Avie it is a class called Musikgarten, which is taught at a little place in Oakhurst, Tessitura. I have really enjoyed the class thus far (we go to our third class tomorrow morning), and I think Avie really likes it too. She has taken to bouncing up and down on her own now when we sing "Pop! Goes the Weasel," and she loved getting up on her knees and patting the big drum (which was placed in the middle of a circle of babies) last week in class.

Aveline still loves to eat, but she really seems to be steering away from the baby food, which has put me in a bit of a quandary, especially during this homeless period when it is more difficult to really grocery shop and cook well. The girl would really prefer to feed herself. Tonight she had barbecue, macaroni and cheese, berries, and some puffs, and was in heaven. Forget the pureed stuff. Gabriela also gave her a thin slice of apple this morning when I dropped Elsa off, which nearly sent me into a panic, but Gabriela assured me she would be totally fine, and, of course, she was right. Avie delighted in biting off pieces and chewing them appropriately. Why do I worry so? I honestly have had vivid nightmares of this one choking (nearly to death) on anything and everything imaginable.

More teeth have yet to make their appearance, though the canines seem to be closer and closer to popping through. She seems to be in a constant state of teething, but I suppose that is par for the course during this age.

Despite the lack of sleep (I think I have been able to sleep a straight seven or eight hours maybe two or three nights since this child was born), I am so thankful on a daily basis for this little one. She brings such joy to our lives, and I cannot imagine our family without her.

Where are We NOW?

Jarrett, Avie, and I headed to North Carolina two weeks ago Thursday. We went straight to High Point, where we met up with Jarrett's mom and grandfather for dinner, and were then able to see Stephen later at their mom's house, where we stayed Thursday and Friday nights. On Friday, we were reunited with Elsa over at Jarrett's dad and Susan's house. And I must say -- it was a top highlight of my entire year.

We drove up the street, and from a distance I could see that Elsa was outside, standing in the grass at the side of the road while Susan was unpacking the van from their camping trip. I saw Elsa look our direction, and she started getting wide-eyed. I could read her mouth, as she started saying, "It's the white car!" And then, "Mommy! Mommy! Maaaaaameeeeeee!!!" I turned off the car as quickly as possible and jumped out, running toward her and picking her up off her feet. We gave each other the biggest hug, and it lasted for minutes. It was so sweet to have her in my arms again. Eleven days was a long time.

On Saturday morning, we headed to Charlotte to my parents' house, where we spent one night with them. I think Elsa was wondering if we were going to leave her with them once again, as that was the routine, going back and forth between the grandparents. But we all got in the car Sunday after lunch and headed back "home."

"Home" was Matt and Stacey's house for another week, until the next Saturday evening, when they returned from their vacation. Elsa thoroughly enjoyed playing with all of Cameron and Zoe's toys -- especially all of the princess paraphernalia that we have deprived her of all of these years. She was dressing up in frilly dresses, playing with princess figures, cooking in the Cinderella kitchen, and hiding out in their closet reading area for hours on end.

From there, we headed the house of some other friends from church, where we currently reside and will remain until Monday. David and Rachael have been saints, putting up with our added chaos, considering they have two young boys of their own. We are so lucky to have all of these gracious friends.

On Monday we will likely move in with our good friends, David and Shelly, until the house is finally ready. We would probably go ahead and squat in the house until we close next Friday, but they are doing a lot of touch-up work over there and, thus, it is still very dusty and dirty.

We so hope that everything goes smoothly from here. I have scheduled the delivery of the PODs for this coming Friday, and movers for Saturday afternoon. We ordered a new mattress, which is also supposed to arrive Saturday morning, so we're hoping for a really good night's sleep Saturday night!

At this point, I am not even sure I remember what it is like to have a house of our own. I know many people have it so much worse than we do, and we truly have been so blessed with the graciousness of others. But I would not be honest if I did not say that we are fairly ready for our own space. So to say we are looking forward to moving into the new place is a serious understatement.

But for now we enjoy the company of friends, getting to know them even better, in ways you only get to know someone when you live among them. And for now we continue to be thankful.

Big Girl

Here is Avie ordering her berry cup at Rise-N-Dine yesterday morning.

Berry Lover

This girl loves her berries.

Avie's First Flight

Here is a picture of Avie on her first flight -- our flight out to Chicago. We only had the camera on Jarrett's Blackberry because I left the camera in a bag in our car in the parking lot... the same bag that contained most of the toys and books I packed for Avie, as well as my cell phone.