The countdown started yesterday

If you can believe it, my baby boy will be turning one in less than a month. Wow.

Hopefully things will be more clear

I don't know if you've noticed, but my pictures have been slightly out of focus lately. First thought was the camera was broken. But come to find out, after reading the owners manual, it was do to owners error. Who knew you could learn something from reading the manual? I'm not pointing fingers at anyone, but my dear husband has been using my camera lately for work, makes you think doesn't it? So maybe a few settings accidently got changed around, but now everything should be focusing smoothly. Thank goodness.

Don't you love spring? Today was another lovely day in the W.C. The kiddos and I decided after doing a few chores, it would be fun for a walk. And plus, I wanted to test out my camera and make sure the pictures were clearer.

You might be wondering how I got this cute little fellow to pose for the camera. What you can't see is Reid trying to drop his hat behind his back. That little stinker!

I've been trying to get him used to having a hat on his head because we'll be going to the beach in a few weeks. We still have a long way to go in the hat department before then.

Reid would not move an inch once I placed him on the grass. Not even with Ava's help. It was nice putting him down and knowing he'd be in the same spot that I left him. This never happens anymore. I was in heaven!

Here's the cute older sister.

PS//Do other children fall as much as Ava does? I'm always a little self conscious when Ava's wearing shorts or a dress because I think people are going to see her legs and think the worst. Her poor little legs.

PPS//I have been a blogging addict as of late. Sorry that I've been writing about every little thing, but I really enjoy going back and rereading my past posts. It helps remind me of all the fun things me and the kiddos do. Especially on days that aren't going so well. Hope you enjoy them too.

Welcome Spring. Stay as long as you like.

T-shirts, shorts and sandals. We took full advantage of the warm weather this past week.


Including washing the car. I think we would of come up with any excuse to go outside :)

After finishing up the van, Ava made sure we didn't forget another special car.

Reid couldn't wait for Ava to finish so he could take his ride for a spin. Too bad his feet don't touch the ground yet, but his sister doesn't mind driving him around for now.

Gotta love all 16 lbs of this kid

Took this handsome little boy to the doctor today. I'm glad to say that he's bigger than Ava was at this age, but not by much. The little man weighed in at 16 lbs 8 oz. He's rocking it in the .53%. Meaning out of 1000 kids his age, who breastfeed, he weighs heavier than 5. That's a step up because Ava was flat out in the 0%. For height he is 29.9" tall, which is in the 64%. I'm pretty thrilled to have something above average when it comes to our kiddos. Besides the cuteness factor of course.

To heck with chores, we're going to have fun

You read that right! I don't think we have had a completely free Saturday the whole year. So when Josh and I realized that we had no prior obligations, well besides chores, we decided to ignore our chores and do something fun! Maybe go on a little family outing. Ava has been rocking it with potty training all week. We decided to take her over to Tilden Park and see if she could handle a 3-4 hour trip. And she did. She still rocks! Oh, and she's still super cute!

It has been raining in the Bay Area for the past 3 months, so we were pretty lucky to get such a gorgeous view of the bay.

Here's a close up. For those of you not familiar with the area, I've labeled the picture for you :) We were up in the hills above Berkeley.

First stop was the Steam Train. Ava was more than excited to get to ride "her" train. "Daddy has a train (Bart). Ava has a train (the steam train). Mommy where's your train?" I guess I'm not cool enough to have my own train.

Reid would not look at the camera once during the whole outing. There was just too much for him to look at. Hmph!

Here is the steam train and the conductor.

After the steam train we headed over to the Merry Go Round. Ava was complaining of hunger, so it was the perfect place for our picnic. Luckily for Josh, the Merry Go Round also has a little food court because his sandwich accidentally got put back in the fridge instead of the cooler.

You know it's been a great lunch when you have cheese all over your face.

So here's the Merry Go Round. Sorry to the guy bending down in the middle of my picture. I sure hope that no one has a picture of me doing that on their site!

Ava couldn't wait to get to ride the horse.

Isn't she looking so big in the picture? We haven't really ever taken Ava on any rides before, so I was a little nervous about how she would handle it. The Merry Go Round gets going pretty fast. But I had nothing to worry about because she did great. I'm such a worrier.

Our last stop was the Little Farm. Yep, it's in Tilden Park too. Isn't this park awesome?! There is a Botanic Garden in the park too that I've been wanting to go to. Maybe another weekend :) I'm so excited to post this next picture because this is the first time that Ava has ever feed any of the animals by herself. If you don't count throwing the food at the animals, thus making them eat it off of the ground.

I wish we had it on video, but after the cow ate the celery Ava was jumping up and down with complete excitement.

I sure hope we can have more weekends like this.

Lots of giggles, splashing and bubbles

Bath time is one of those things that both of our kids will do willingly. Especially now that Ava and Reid are splashing in the big tub together. Think of the loudest, most ear piercing scream you've ever heard. That's what Reid is doing in the picture below. No, the water wasn't scorching hot. That's just how excited he was to be in the tub.

There is usually lots of giggling going on in the bathtub.

Mostly having to do with whatever Ava is doing.

Have you noticed Reid's current smile in my past blog posts? Opening your mouth as wide as it possibly can get (sometimes accompanied by sticking out your tongue) = Reid's extremely happy. Just keep that in mind for future blog posts :)

I sure need to find some time to fit in my own bubble bath. But without all the splashing. That sure sounds nice.

It's been a good day

It amazes me at how easily Ava has caught on to potty training this time around. A total 180 from January. Waiting two months has really made a huge difference. Not only is she making it on the potty, she's doing it on her own. Today, while I was making dinner, Ava excitedly runs into the kitchen and tells me she went on the potty. And she sure did! I am so dang proud of her.


This past week I saw a walker on sale and decided to pick one up for Reid. He's been pushing our kitchen chairs around the tiled floors lately, this kid is strong, so I thought the walker might just be a little better suited for him. It's the first thing he wants to play with in the morning.

Ava has mentioned that she just can't wait till Reid can run around with her. Note how she said run and not walk. Well it might just come sooner than she thinks because Reid took his first steps today. This kid let go of the chair he was holding onto and walked right over to me. Mind you I was only a few Reidy steps away. But still, he walked to me! It was a pretty good day :)

One day down, the rest of her life to go

Here is where Ava and I spent most of our Saturday. And it was totally worth it!


Miss Ava made it on the potty 6 out of 7 times. Yeah, my daughter rocks! I just hope her excitement and motivation carries on through tomorrow too.


Here are a few of her prizes she has earned so far. The princesses spent most of the day dancing, sharing clothes, learning to use the potty, and having Ariel take them scuba diving (Cinderella kept getting too close to the crabs and sadly got snapped a few times). I can only imagine all the other adventures these princesses will have around our house.

We're going to give it another go

At potty training that is. I think the picture below pretty much sums up how our last experience at potty training went. Not fun for anyone.

This time is going to be different! Hopefully when Saturday comes along Ava will look more like the picture below.

We've stocked up on yummy goodies, Ava's picked out a handful of princess dolls and books. She couldn't stop thinking about all of the fun things we picked up at the store all day. Without fail, every hour she would ever so sweetly ask, "Daddy, can we read a princess book?" Or ask for a treat of whatever else we got. So hopefully these things will be a bigger motivator for her this time.

I don't think I ever mentioned on the blog how potty training went back in Jan. One word, horrible. Our little stinker knew when she needed to go on the potty, but just decided she didn't want to. We gave it a try for 3 whole days, and there were maybe two times where Ava actually went on the potty. Out of the whole 3 days. She didn't want to do it, and nothing we would of given her would of convinced her otherwise. But I think enough time has passed that we are all up to giving it a try again. So this time around, we went to the store and she picked out what snacks and rewards she wanted. I'm going to put them all in a container so after she goes she can pick whatever she wants. So we're crossing our fingers that having a variety of things will help motivate Ava. Does anyone else have any suggestions on what worked for you?

I love him.

How could you not? My favorite little guy turned 10 months old back on the 28th. Each day this guy seems to be surprising us with new and funny things that he now can do. So I thought it would be fun to write down what Reid's been up to lately. Especially since a lot of you don't live nearby.

• Eats double the amount of food Ava does in one day. He eats 5 containers of baby food, a yogurt, an adult serving of oatmeal, nurses twice a day, must join us at the table for every meal (even if he just ate) and then tries to devour any morsel of food he can get his grabby little hands on. He's only in the 10th percentile for weight. We're still trying to figure out where the food goes.
• Going along with Reid's love affair with food, he says "Mmmmm" BEFORE and AFTER every bite. The only time he isn't saying it is because he is swallowing. I need to post a video of it.

(Sorry for the blurry picture, taken with Josh's iPhone. I have to mention, the cheese was on his forehead for most of the meal. And he also rubbed something in his hair to make it stick straight up for the rest of the night.)

• What's Reid doing in this picture? You guessed it, asking for more food. Just today he learned how to sign the word "more". But I still think sticking his hand out it pretty dang cute and it gets the point across too.

• We have a slight idea where the food goes, this kid is always moving. He can climb up the stairs, walk around furniture, and his superpower must be crawling, because this kid doesn't mess around when trying to get from point A to B. He is fast. He's usually trying to get to something before Ava or I take it away.
• Anything on the ground is fair game for going in his mouth. Including shoes. Yuck.
• He can stand all by himself for a few seconds. He's usually standing without holding onto anything because he is in the process of raising his hands above his head so he can body slam you.
• Can say "Mama", "Dada" and "Ba" (ball). He also mutters quietly when reading a book.
• Josh is able to work from home a lot. So whenever Reid misses his dad, he looks upstairs (that's where Josh's office is) and screams "Daaaaa!". He's pretty excited when it actually works and Josh comes out of the office.
• His favorite pastimes are playing catch with his ball, taking a bath (he would jump in with his clothes on if we let him), playing peek a boo with Ava behind our curtains, reading books, swinging on the swing, having conversations with us (he's actually now quite vocal), and being upside down. Oh, and can't forget eating.
• He still drools all. the. time. Seriously.
• His first tooth popped through this week. And boy, Reid sure let us know it was coming. He was not a happy little boy. But now he quite enjoys bitting the spoon when I'm trying to feed him.
• One last thing, he can't pass up a good game of follow the leader. Especially when we're clapping, waving or raising our hands above our heads. As you can tell below, he's pretty good at it.

I love him.