ABC Reading Eggs

ABC Reading Eggs

Growing pains

Our life is already pretty crazy with two babies, but lately we've added to the craziness! For the past month, we've been getting our house ready to put on the market! It is very exciting but recently I have been getting emotional at the thought of leaving my first house. This is the house I brought my babies home in! This is the first place I've put hours of work in to to make our home! I guess I just have to keep reminding myself of the benefits of a neighborhood and more space!
The kids are doing great. Ava just started preschool last week!! Someone this weekend described my feelings well as she said of her son, I couldn't be sad because she was so excited! It is very hard for me to relinquish control of my baby! but Ava is a very social child and she had no problem with the transition. I think it will be great for all of us! The only negative I see is that she is regressing in potty training but I hope that will fix itself with a little time!

Reece is 8 months old now and such a big boy! He is clapping (still half closed fists), crawling, cruising, shaking his head "No!", waving bye bye, babbling up a storm, and he's even stood for a couple seconds not holding onto the furniture! He's growing too fast! I've wanted so badly to keep him my baby but he's seemed to grow up faster than Ava!
Reguardless, I'll still keep tryin to keep him my baby as long as possible!

Huffstetler's lately

We just made it back from our FABulous vacation and I have been depressed all day!!! Well, I did go work out and FINALLY made it to a class this afternoon, so that really helped my endorphins!! Ava is the normal biploar 2 year old. She the cutest thing ever one minute and a CRAZY terrible 2 at any moment! I will admit, she does have it in her genes to be fiesty, strong willed and stubborn, so LORD help us all. AND she does get that from BOTH sides! HAA!
Potty training still continues and is going well! She's pretty much 100% at home and is just having an accident here and there..It's been long and frustrating and I'm soooo ready for it to be all the way done!

Reece has been a wonderful baby these past couple months. He's so sweet. However, he has been getting 3 teeth at once this past week, so he's NOT too happy about that!! So needless to say, a tantruming toddler and screaming in pain infant has not been that much fun lately!! I just have to keep telling myself that this will pass! before I go and start looking for a job outside the home!! :-)
Reece also just started to scoot crawl this past week! AHHH!!! Before I know it I'll have two mobile toddlers!!!
So, to summarize our lives lately, I absolutely adore my babies,but I'm pretty much positive at this point that we're going to stop while we're not outnumbered!!!

Goodbye paci, hello potty training, Go to sleep Reece!!

Yes, we have a busy crazy life with 2 babies!.I have managed to accomplish one thing this week of which I am very proud! I forced myself to take away Ava's paci last week and to my suprise she's done great!!! I was sooo scared after hearing so many horror stories! Ava was reeeeaaaly attached too!! It's almost been a non event! God is totally helping me out! :)
I've been really having a hard time with Reece and his sleeping. He was doing so well! Sleeping through the night at 7 weeks even up to 10 hours for a couple weeks! At 12 weeks he started rolling over in his sleep and we've only had a couple of full nights sleep since. He wakes himself up sometimes 3-4 times a night and won't stop crying until we flip him back over! It's killling me! If you know me, you KNOW I am NOT good with out sleep! Pretty much the only down side to the whole baby thing. :) So anyhow I just pray he grows out of this or learns to roll back over and can go back to sleeping all night again!
So, on to potty training....About 2 weeks ago Ava just decided she wanted to start going potty so we've really been encouraging her since she's showing signs of readiness. She was doing really well at home at first and then she started telling me when we were out in public. SO EXciting!! I have been so proud. However, after today I have been a little discouraged..She had a couple of accidents and was obviously not as willing to let me know. I'm guessing there's ups and downs to this process but I'm ready for her to be trained now that we've got the ball rolling!

Easter

HOlidays keep getting better as Ava gets older! Ava's not quite sure why we're collecting eggs or seeing Easter bunnies all week, but she's loving it nonetheless!

She had a Easter egg hunt on Thurs. and Fri. and has seen 3 bunnies! She had a blast putting all of the eggs in her basket and looking inside.

Thurs. we went to Fox Tree farm. We had a good time up untill the end. I felt like the worst mom ever as I dragged my two year old threw the dirty dusty road while she cried and went limp on me..AHHH!! I was so mad that she was ending our time like this! It's sooo embarrasing and I feel like it makes me look horrible as I yell at her to GET UP because I refuse to let her sit and throw a tantrum when it's time to leave! I seriously did feel like I was the only person to have a tantruming child!

Anyhow, Friday was wonderful! We went to an egg hunt at a beautiful home in Forest Acres. Ava and Jackson were trading eggs, throwing them out of their baskets and then collecting them again! They were sooo cute!

So she really LIKES the idea of the Big Bunny, but she does not want to get closer than 3 feet! She has wanted to stand at a distance and say "Hi Easter Bunny!" and wave but that's ALL!!

On the other hand, Reece had his 1st experience with the bunny and I must say he did very well! He didn't mind sitting on his lap at all! HA!

I think next year will be even better! It will be so much fun when she and Reece both get into the holidays!

Life with 2

Yes! once again, it's been forever! Sorry to all my blogger fans..HA!! Lately when I have a little time, I have so many other things I need and want to do! Getting addicted to facebook hasn't helped! So the story of my life this winter, my kids are constantly sickish. Not that it's horrible but bad enough not to be able to do our normal activities. Nobody likes a kid with green snot, imagine that! It's hard for us all to be trapped inside! I can not wait until Spring!

As for life with two babies, we're finally getting adjusted. Ava's FINALLY back to sleeping 12 hours at night and Reece is sleeping from 10pm to about 8am with 1 bottle around 5am! I think that's awesome for an 8week old! So, we've been very lucky! The good Lord knows I need my sleep to be a good Christian person! HA!

Ava's 2nd birthday is coming up in a couple weeks! I can't believe it, but she has been already acting like a 2 year old for a little while now!

My little "Reecey" as Ava calls him is not so little. He's weighing in at about 13.5 lbs! He's a chunk! I didn't have a little baby for long, so that's kind of sad..However, not sad enough to make me want a 3rd! :) It's been so awesome going through all of the "firsts" again with his smiles and coos. It's been soooo cute to see him smile and coo at Ava too. It makes all the hard times definitely worth it!

Okay, so Reece is almost 3 weeks old and I haven't updated, but it's been crazy!! For all who haven't heard yet, I was all ready to go in at 6am and my water broke at 2am! He was waiting till the very last minute! I was glad it happened that way though. Labor was great. I got my epidural about an hour after going to the hospital! Awesome considering it was 15 hours with Ava. My labor lasted about 6 1/2 hours total with 4 pushes! However, despite the great labor and delivery, I had complications with my epidural. (worst nightmare about birth by the way) Apparently, they went too far with the needle and I was leaking spinal fluid for a week which caused non stop migranes! Thank God for good pain meds or I NEVER would have made it!! I also discovered yesterday that I have mastitis.(sp.?) Luckily I caught it soon and got more drugs! HA..The story of my life these days! Other than the medical craziness, oh wait other than that, things are crazy all around! In case some of you don't know, 2 kids are hard!! There have been plenty of GREAT moments don't get me wrong, but I think it'll take a little while to adjust! My job just got 10 times harder and we're making less money! :)

Back to the great moments, Reece is precious! He is needy, to be expected of a newborn, but it's been great having help and getting to bond with him. Ava also LOVES him! She is absolutely adorable wanting to hold him and give him kisses and snuggles all the time. She gets really upset when he's crying too, which is kind of pitiful but sweet.. Her naughty side has def. come out since he's arrived and she's had a horrible time sleeping, but I HOPE it is a phase that will be ending soon! Hope to be updating soon since he's growing so much every day! Thanks to all my friends and family who have provided meals, help, love and support!