No More Nipples!

After we finally got through the ear infections and the tubes and any other ridiculous excuse I could think of to prolong it, I decided this was the weekend. We were taking Ava off both the binky and the bottle. Cold turkey. The bottle was a breeze, she's been getting tired of the slow food delivery system for about a week now. She hasn't seemed to miss it one bit.

The binky on the other hand, has been a full on battle. I have never seen a child so pissed off. I can only imagine that giving up the pacifier is akin to giving up smoking for a baby. And her teachers at daycare keep telling me, "But she's your baby! Why the rush? They grow up too fast anyhow." I see that point, but it wasn't until we were having drinks with some of Jody's coworkers on Friday, and one of the ladies mentioned that she and her husband were probably more attached to the binky than their daughter. Translation: it makes Mom & Dad's life easier, not necessarily the kid's. This statement hit home with a huge thud, and I realized it's now or never. Plus I know a lady with a soon to be five-year-old who still walks around with a pacifier plugged in a lot of the time. She too holds onto the "but it's my baby," mentality, and it irritates the hell out of me.

So, here we are, day two of cold turkey for Ms. Ava. She's really only given us hell for one of her naps each day, which is sort of good, because she is so tired by bedtime she just doesn't have much steam left to fight it.

Snacking on some Cheerios with her big-girl cup.

See? She's still a well-adjusted kid without a rubber nipple in her mouth!

Ta-da! She is starting to get better at managing it solo too!

I know they grow too fast, but I'm really feeling good about our decision to forge into this territory early. Also, I'm up for any suggestions to make the transition easier, this is my first rodeo in this department. Taylor gave up the pacifier on her own, opting instead for her thumb (which she still sucks like a fiend). Let me know how to wage war on that battle without having to cut off her thumbs and I'll buy you dinner.

St. Patty's For the Old Folks

Yesterday we had the luxury of having the kids spend the night with Jody's folks, so we took full advantage and painted the town red. Not really, we tried to throw a party that fell miserably apart (I still have a fridge full of Jello shots to prove it.), and spent the majority of the day nerding out together. Regardless, we had a good time together, and here are our pics to prove it!




First stop, Ruby Tequila's for some March Madness! We filled up on queso and a few beers before taking off to inspect our new house since we didn't have to manage the rugrats. I'm so excited at how quickly it's taking shape!



Me sitting in the "bathtub."



Jody sitting on the other facility......

Even though our party was a bust, it was nice to have a day to ourselves. However, we both kept reaching instinctually for the baby monitors and keeping our voices low so as not to wake the kiddos.

More of The Same

Nothing out of the usual here, we're still doing our best to pretend it's summer around here, and we're still plugging away at our house (By we, I'm referring to all the contractors that are doing the actual work. We're just going by and taking lots of pictures.). The girls both seem to be on a developmental growth spurt. Taylor is becoming a little person with a major personality. She is speaking in full sentences now, and most of the time you can even understand her ;)

Little Miss Divalicious. Not that anyone's really surprised by that.

Oh, and we are OFFICIALLY 100% potty trained! Not so much as a skid mark in Taylor's underwear in a week, and she even pooped at school yesterday. She's even been sleeping in her underwear, not a pullup, for about a month now with zero accidents. I realize I've just jinxed myself to changing her sheets in the morning, but it's still cause to brag considering how hard the journey has been.

Ava is also starting to do some amazing things. She's army-crawling all over the place, and will babble "Bababababba," to whoever will listen. She is also taking a bath without the aid of her bath seat! Next on the to-do list is to break the pacifier habit. I'll admit, I'm not looking forward to that endeavor. It's so much easier just to pop it in when she gets fussy, plus we never had to break Taylor (she opted out in favor of her thumb on her own), so this is new territory for me.

In case you didn't know, I have twins. They even have the same taste in headgear.

Ava also got her first set of goat-horns today, courtesy of the lovely ladies at daycare that get bored enough to guinea pig hairstyles on the babies.

I'm not sure what these things are on my head, but I am not amused.

I couldn't help it, this reminded me a lot of a picture I took of Taylor's first goat horns right around her first birthday.



Hmm, I think they might just be related.

Also, our house actually looks like a house now! Or a pyramid if you ask Jody. I don't care, it's ours, and I'm damned excited to have it.

The Plywood Pyramid. We're going to change our last name to Pharoah, or Sphynx.

Also, while all of this excitement was going on, my baby hit the eight month mark! How did that happen so quickly?

Haha! I grew up almost overnight! Just try and stop me now!

Little Laura Ingalls

So, maybe we all have a pretty major case of spring fever around here. Allegedly it was supposed to be a warm springish day, but the reality was that it wasn't really pleasant until late in the afternoon. Either way, we decided to make the best of it and drag Taylor outside during Ava's afternoon nap. Her new favorite outside pastime is running back and forth between us and the back fence line. What makes this hilarious is that she runs toward us at full speed with her arms outstretched so that we'll catch her in a big hug at the end. The whole time this afternoon that she was doing this activity Jody was in the background humming the theme song to "Little House on the Prairie." In case you don't remember what I'm talking about, watch the clip below and really pay attention around the 0:30 mark.

Make a special note of Carrie hauling ass and then busting it at the very end. It's pretty much a spot on reinactment of Taylor this afternoon.

Here she goes......

Eye on the prize!!!!

And I wonder why she's so ornery.

Breaking Ground

You see that big pile of dirt below? That's going to be our new house in about 3 more months :) Today they finally broke ground and started digging the trenches for our foundation. Talk about hella exciting!

Tubes!

After a grueling two months of non-stop ear infections, we finally got Ms. Ava's tubes installed this morning. She did really well during the super fast procedure, and was only grumpy once she woke up. If you have not seen this kid when she's hungry, you have no idea of just how pissed she can get. But we survived it, even though I'm pretty sure everyone in recovery was thankful to see us go. The doctor did report that the gunk in her ears was super thick, which means that after her first ear infection, it never really cleared up. That's why they kept coming back in spades.

Once we got home, the anger wore off, and she is a new baby. I've never seen this kid so bubbly and happy. She's normally pretty chill, but today, she wanted my undivided attention, and didn't hesitate one bit to reach up and grab my face if I wasn't looking at her. I have a feeling that she's going to be giving Taylor a serious run for her money very soon.



Patiently waiting to go back.