4th of July pics

few things I remembered that I wanted to write down -

Avi still going to therapy on Tuesdays / every other Tuesday, going well. we have this neck brace thing she is supposed to wear to try to give her a stretch and give her a view of what things should be when she's sitting upright. that is going ok... doing about 30 min a day of the brace now, supposed to move it up to hours a day. I also forgot to mention a while back that she puts the binky in her own mouth - it's cool! just wish she'd do it overnight on her own!

Cian has been taking my / scratch that - HIS pillow and wrapping it around himself like a blanket, so I gave him his "breathable" blanket in the crib and he's actually been using it! and he is finally putting things back! takes the toys out of the box, puts some back that he doesn't want to play with - and he also will take the books of the shelf in his room and put them back =) as I've said before, Avelina has some peculiar noises. she has this one noise that she makes when she gets excited, like when she sees Cian. only problem is, it makes him cry! hopefully he will soon be able to see that she is just 'talking' to him! and the best for last - I've been practicing walking around the house with Cian holding hands - and he does GREAT! in fact, he really likes it! Grant did it with Cian for the first time yesterday - all you have to say is "let's hold hands," or "hold my hand" and off we go walking around the house. he actually even took my hand last night in the kitchen and took me over to where Daddy was on the floor. it was really cute! I'll get a video of that and post...

and...Happy July 4th! hopefully the kids will sleep thru the fireworks. the mountain fireworks can get pretty loud... and they both cry when they hear loud noises!

ps - Avelina ate a meal holding her own spoon today =) she's learning early!

kids updates & more...

Cian is still not done eating books, & eats every speck of dirt he can find off the floor. won't eat most "real" food, and won't use a spoon at all anymore - but he does do big chunks of apples & pears now, and he even said yes to a chunk of banana the other night!!! and he really likes cherry flavored prunes! yay! progress! said a big whopping no to meat again the other day. we had tried a hamburger at Nana's suggestion, bread & all - big FAIL. oh well, in time he will at least give it a try - I hope! got results back from the allergy test - they tested for Egg, Soy, Dairy, Wheat, Codfish, and Peanuts - and his results came back fine for everything. I was SOOOOOOO relieved that I started crying!!! I was so very happy to hear that...glad we had him tested at any rate! at least now I know for sure. he is still getting hives here & there when he has oats though - guess it is just something he will outgrow eventually. but - still not talking. speech therapist is coming to evaluate him this coming Thursday. he is still totally loving the Italian and Spanish language CD's. wonder what they will say about that?!? no more peachies everywhere. =) climbed over the play area a couple of weeks back, so we had to reconfigure the room & decided to just open the room up to him and block the fireplace... he does also have free run of his room now too. still sleeping in crib, but when he can climb out (which seems to be soon at his pace), he will be in his toddler "big boy" bed already! (or he'll start climbing up into the real bed and trying to sleep there - joy - I can't wait to hear him banging on the wall right behind us at night...) then I guess potty training will shortly follow. he's started doing bottles again overnight - which I may have already posted on - but anyway, we are still doing that. 1-2 bottles overnight!!! drives me crazy - but maybe he's just growing and it will pass... Grant thinks it's because he won't eat enough during the day...he could very well be right! he has also started practicing "stompies" around the house everywhere - they are funny to watch!

Avelina is still trying hard to crawl. she can pivot on her feet and do circles really well, and sits on her side a lot when on the floor (cute pose!). and she still has reflux. =( but we are still pushing ahead with food, moving up to level 2 foods now. bottles are closing in on 5 oz at a time - she does not follow schedule of oz per hour like Cian did though...so she has very unpredictable eating habits! typically only does 2 bottles overnight though, but wakes up several times anyway. she puts herself to bed at about 5:30/6pm these days. that is her schedule, not ours! if I had the choice I'd have her do more quality naps than miss queen of catnaps likes to do (two 20 minute naps a day is all I get lately!!!) - and then have her in bed by 7. right now as it is she does stay in bed for about 11-12 hours a night though. not bad =) not that it helps me get any more sleep, but it does help my sanity! she is teething pretty hard now. gets kinda cranky and always needs something to chew on. a lot less drool than Cian though! thankful for that =)

I'm sure I missed a few good things since I haven't written in a while. like I never got that initial video of Cian getting excited to go down the stairs on his own... and there is this thing that Avelina does in the bath that I want to capture on video before it passes too. we've been quite busy - taking it easy this weekend. just a few house things to clean up and that's that! oh - the bear came a couple of mornings ago about 6am, and we both got to watch him eat the bird food out back. then I started bringing in the food at night, taking it back out in the morning, and he showed up again today at about 9am! mind you, this is the same bear from before who never learned proper "bear etiquette" of when to eat, what to do, etc. since his mother was killed - but we did follow another's suggestion this morning and Grant opened the door up and yelled at the bear, who promptly turned and ran away. he shouldn't be out eating in the daylight anyway, but now we know at least he is finally scared of humans!

it's also my cousin Danny's birthday today - so Happy Birthday, Danny! =) and Charlie's was yesterday - Happy Birthday, Pooh ;D Miss ya!

Avelina is 7 months old!

and she just cut her first tooth on Sunday =) lower left front.



at 4 months old, little Gavin just cut his first tooth too! Congrats! =)

Happy Birthday, Dad!!!

Kids (& me)