Fashionista

We were out for some retail therapy today and Avery was a riot!  I put these sunglasses on her and she started making all kinds of funny faces.  I think this wins some kind of award for goofiest baby picture ever.  Is there an "awkward baby photos" website yet?  And yes, the glasses did find a way to come with us!

Beautiful day in the Neighbourhood

We needed a change of scenery today so the kids and I spent the day out.  It was a beautiful, sunny day, so once TJ got home from work we went for a walk and then it was girls' night tonight.  A lovely day of getting away ... even if it was just for a bit.  It looked gorgeous and warm outside, but we were surprised to find that it was actually very windy and cold in our neck of the woods. 

 

Obsessed

Logan is obsessed with dinosaurs right now.  This is a pen that came with one of the dino books he got for Christmas.   Such a simple thing, but it makes his day everytime he gets to use it!

Skillz

Logan is still loving his skating lessons.  Right now they are doing a larger "course" on the ice so he's very happy about that!  He's just starting to stand on one foot on the ice but the movement is too fast to capture on film ;)

Tea for two

Sunday Tea at The Zoo. Girly girls and trucker boys...all are welcome!

Shiner

The sweet potatoes went over much better than that boring old rice cereal!

Snow Day

All of the buses were cancelled today :(  But...Logan was thrilled for two reasons and one of them was NOT that he didn't have to go to school.  He was happy that A) he still got to go to school (it was Hibernation Day and everyone wore their PJ's to school) and B) he got to go there in his best friend's van.  Apparently the two of them giggled the whole way there and made plans to play together all weekend long.

Best friends and superheroes

Morning Smiles

First thing in the morning is the happiest time in our house.  Three of us are morning people...one of us is not, but he copes!  Here are some good morning smiles from today.


















(in case it's hard to tell, Logan is balancing his yogurt container on his spoon - and is quite proud of this little skill!)

DIY - 30 meals in under $1

Well, OK. Only for the 6 month old crowd, but y'know.  It's cheaper and takes up less space than all those little jars ;)

Draw a Rhyme

By Logan: age 4.  Quote from Logan:  "Don't ask about his other leg - you don't want to know!"  LOL!

Waiting is painful

Nomnomnomnom

Not really!  Avery had her first taste of rice cereal (home made!) today, and as you can see, she was not much of a fan of it.

Oooh, what's that you've got there!?

I'm not sure I like the looks of this, afterall. It looks a little questionable.

No, no...I don't think I do!

Definitely not. 

Just hanging around in the evening

Rough-housing when Daddy came home from work

Logan had gotten a haircut today - pretty proud about showing it off.  "Just one picture, just one picture" - you'd think he was fending off the paparazzi.

Avery got the green light to start on solids.  Which, in our house, means a sippy of water out if she's interested. She hasn't tried the solids yet, but we tried out the sippy tonight.  She was more than happy to dive in, even if she did wear most of it!  Home made rice cereal at breakfast tomorrow...wooo-hoo!

Artistry

My aunt did this recreation of a popular work of art and it hung in the Renwick Gallery Grand Salon. I received this replica in the mail today! It is a Christmas tree ornament and I cannot wait to hang it up next year! It is on display until then.

Mommy & Me

Logan needed some 1:1 time with Mama, so we packed up today and went to the Leisure Skate at the arena.  Granny & Avery came with us, but it was just Logan and I on the ice.  He was so thrilled!  I haven't been on the ice in over 10 years, so it was pretty strange from my perspective.  All I could think about was what kind of surgery I would require by the time the session was over!  I was in brand new skates, too...that didn't help matters any.  I clung to the boards for a good 5 minutes before I was brave enough to venture out.  The dilemna was this:  which is more embarrassing?  Falling on your butt in front a rink full of people or having your 4 year old heckle you from centre ice in front of that same rink full of people?  So, off I went.  By the end of the session I was feeling more comfortable, but it is hard to believe that I used to be so "into" a sport and yet I was a total rookie today.

6 month picture

Here's Avery's 6 month picture with her pig.  I can't believe how much she's grown!  And I can't believe how happy she can pretend to be even though she's been feeling so rotten the past week (we have a new steroid inhaler now, and after only two doses, she is breathing better).  She is 26.75" long, 16lbs 13oz.  She's around the 50th percentile all around.  At this age, Logan was almost 5lb heavier!  He was always 95th percentile or higher.  Here's a look back at Avery and piggy.

6 Months

5 Months

3 Months

6 Weeks

Tubby Time

Thanks to Family Day, I had some help for tubby time tonight, so I was able to take some bathtime pics.  Both kids are sick, but Avery's a little worse for wear. The coughing around our house right now is something else!  Bathtime helps bring out the smiles, though. 

The happy wheezer

And poor Avery's rash.  It isn't the greatest picture.  It covers the majority of her torso and back with some angrier patches on her arms.  It looks so sore...thank goodness for Aveeno Baby Oatmeal Bath.

Happy Valentine's Day

Logan got a Nascar remote control car yesterday as his Christmas gift so he was pretty impressed with that.  And therefore, less than impressed by the pirate towel that we got him for Valentine's Day!!  I thought for sure he'd love it...we have some other "Character towels" that he LOVES to put on and run around acting silly.  Ah well...when you get a super fast remote control car, I guess a towel just doesn't compare next to that.  He was still willing to model though!

Avery got a similar towel except it's a butterfly.  Collective "awwww" now! She's still feeling rough so I didn't make her model it.  She's a tad tiny for it yet anyway.  Here's what she's up to today:

Poor babe has 5 days worth of sleep to catch up on now that she can breathe.  She had a bottle before we went to emerge last night (it was around 4pm when she had it).  When she was due for another feeding, she had that inhalation treatment so she couldn't eat.  When it was done, she just wanted to sleep.  She fell asleep in the wrap about 9:30pm in emerge, woke briefly while we put her in the carseat, and then didn't wake up until 9am today.  I can't believe she went 17 hours without eating, but wow...she really needed that sleep.  She's only been sleeping 20 minutes at a time (most of the time) since Tuesday!!

She was OK yesterday morning so we decided to go to our family function. However, her coughing increased (as did the wheezing) and her breathing was just deteriorating over the course of the afternoon/evening.  You'd never know by looking at these pictures that she was feeling so rotten:

Loving her new Sophie the Giraffe

Loving her brother

And for no good reason...a random pic of my two babes from earlier in the week.  They look so much alike (well more that Avery looks so much like Logan did as a baby...except feminine), so I think it's hysterical that they just happened to share the same expression in this pic

They both have the most plentiful, long, thick eyelashes.  I'm so jealous!

Half birthday

Our baby girl is 6 months old today...unfortunately, we spent the evening in emerg with her.  We had been at our final family Xmas for 2009 (no joke!) and Avery's breathing kept getting worse.  She started coughing and couldn't stop, but couldn't catch her breath, either, so that was the final straw.  Out we went.  We had to wait an hour to be seen (which wasn't bad, considering) and they discovered that on top of having a terribly constricted airway right now, Avery's also battling a raging ear infection.  Poor ladybug :( :( :(  They asked about family history of reactive airway (which is what Logan has) and eczema (Logan has psoriasis) and then asked about Avery's skin.  Ohhh noooo, I said...her skin is fine!  The doctor undid Avery's undershirt to find a lovely pinpoint rash covering her entire torso.  Upon further inspection, she has it on her arms and back as well. Hmm...wasn't there an hour and a half ago when we put her in her jammies before going to the ER!!  So, her immune system is in overdrive right now battling all this stuff, and has decided that now is a great time for eczema as well.  Poor baby girl.

The doctor ordered a neblulizer treatment of ventolin to help open Avery's airways.  How fun was that??? Well, I got to pin her down, hold her, restrain her AND hold the mask on while she bucked and screamed and threw herself all over the place.  We were in a tiny cubicle so they asked TJ not to come back...so I got to do the honours on my own.  Wonderful!!!  Then she got her first taste of banana.  In the form of amoxicillan.  Perfect!  She wasn't a fan of that, either.  She sounded better, but still wheezy, after the ventolin treatment, so they let us go with instructions on giving her increased dosing of her puffer, and instructions on when to bring her back in.  Nobody wants to actually say the word "pneumonia", but they don't say it's NOT pneumonia, either.  Though, they also haven't done a chest xray yet.   So, a few hours at the hospital and a big bottle of amoxil later...we are home.

While we were at the hospital, Logan stayed at Granny's house since the party went on without us.  He partied pretty hard too, and was passed out cold on the couch when we returned to pick him up.


Our pooped out little party animals: