17 months

Avery wears 12-18 month clothes (although I am certain he would fit into 18-24 month tops) and size 5 diapers. 

Avery loves to explore and make a mess. He doesn't actually play with toys - unless they make a mess. 

He runs. And he's a bit bow-legged. 

He has 16 teeth and drooly. Assuming he is getting some teeth in the back. 

He talks a lot.  Some new words he says are:

Glasses

Mommy (instead of mama)

Daddy (instead of dada)

Roxy

Crackers

Snack

Bar (snack bar)

Barrett (new bear friend)

Beep beep (riding car)

He still does the sign for water, eat, milk, more, all done and yogurt. 

He has been sleeping well at night. He goes to bed at 7 and usually wakes between 7-7:30. 

Avery LOVES reading and is so content in the car if he is holding a book! 

He naps once a day around 1-1:30. He generally sleeps 1.5-2 hours. 

Avery loves riding his beep beep and goes super fast!! It's fun to watch all the kids riding around together. 

Avery asks to talk on my phone but he mostly just listens. 

Avery listens and understands so well! If you tell him a set of directions (go get your water in the kitchen, go give that to Kaden, etc) he can typically follow what you say. 

He loves all of his grandparents so much and gets so excited when they come over. 

Avery loves to play with balls and balloons. He throws pretty well and likes to shoot baskets. 

Happy 17 months, my baby boy!

Big Girl Bed

At Ryane's 3 year check up, I asked the doctor when was an appropriate time to transition Ryane out of her crib. He started laughing and said, "Wait, she is still in a crib?? And she doesn't try to escape??" I explained that her crib is very tall and there is no way she can climb out of it. I also told him how she is into everything and I haven't been ready to deal with what will happen when she is not confined to her bed. She also LOVES her crib. It's comfy and cozy and she keeps a million stuffed animals and toys in there. There is barely room for her!

In February we decided it was time. My mom and I went to Nebraska Furniture Mart and found the perfect bed! I had been looking online for months and only found one bed that I loved... And it was waaaaaaay too expensive. Ryane started getting excited for her "princess bed" and talked about what kind of sheets and blankets she wanted. She was so excited when the delivery truck pulled up!!

She has done pretty well with the transition. For the first week she did not get out of bed at all. Now I hear her out of bed, but she usually gets toys from her closet and books and brings them back into her bed to play. She had yet to open the door or come out of her room. 

Her bed is so pretty and matches her room so well!! And she loves it which is the best part!! 

91 of 103

91 of 103. 

In the last 103 months, I was pregnant or nursing 91 of them. There were only 12 months in the last {almost} 9 years that I wasn't carrying or nursing a child. Four months between finishing nursing Kaden and getting pregnant with Cam. Eight months between Cam and Ryane. ZERO between Ryane and Avery (as I found out I was pregnant when I was still nursing Ryane). I have been consecutively pregnant or nursing for 47 months straight (February 2012 until January of 2016). 

When I was pregnant with Kaden, I knew I would try to nurse him. My goal was 6 months as I thought it was gross to nurse a baby longer than that. The first month was horrible. I remember sitting in my glider one night in the middle of the night trying to nurse him when he was two weeks old. I was bawling through it. It was harder than I expected (he would nurse for 45 minutes to an hour and would wake every 2-3 hours) and I was exhausted. Nic woke up to help me that night and he encouraged me to keep going. I honestly don't know why he was so encouraging at the time. Was it the thought of paying for formula? Was it because of the health benefits of nursing? Was it just because he thought he should? I don't know and I have never asked. I'm just thankful that he was so encouraging that night. That became my biggest advice for people who want to nurse- make sure your husband is 100% on board and ready to encourage you, especially in the first month. 

When Kaden turned 6 months and one day old, I continued to nurse. To me, he was no different at 6 months than he was at 6 months and one day. I continued to nurse him till he was 11 months and then I spent the last month pumping and giving him bottles to wean from nursing. 

Cam was easy to nurse from the first day. He nursed for about 10-20 minutes total in the hospital and pretty quickly, once we got home, nursed about 10 minutes every 3 hours. I nursed him for 14 months. 

Ryane continued the trend of being a good nurser and nursed for 16 months. I had not planned on nursing for that long, but thinking she was my last baby, I had a harder time thinking about weaning. Plus, we were a busy family and I had trouble finding the time to get it all planned out. It was just easier to do what we were doing! 

When I found out I was pregnant with Avery, one of the first things I said to my doctor was, "Oh my gosh... I'm still nursing!!" She told me it was okay but it was probably a good idea to start to wean within the month.  

Nursing Avery was the easiest of them all and I definitely tried to enjoy this special one on one time we had together. My plan was to finish nursing by the beginning of December (14 months) but on my "last night" of nursing I decided I wasn't done. As much as I wanted to have my body back, there was something I wasn't ready to let go of.  I was only nursing him before bed and I continued until January 20th (almost 16 months) when I went out of town for my Grandma's funeral. 

I sobbed the last time I nursed him. For me, carrying and nursing my babies has been my greatest honor as a mom. My pregnancies became harder physically with each baby, but there is something I will forever cherish about being the one person responsible for growing these tiny babies. That every decision I made for myself affected someone else. That feeling I got every time I could feel them move inside me. The feeling of knowing that no matter the circumstance I, alone, could keep my baby healthy and nourished. 

It truly was an honor... My greatest accomplishment to date. 

91 out of 103. 

16 months

Avery wears 12-18 month clothes and size 4 diapers. 

Avery loves getting into everything he possibly can. Trash can, dishwasher, cabinets... You name it! 

He is walking! 100% of the time.

He has 16 teeth! Holy moly!

He talks a lot.  Some new words he says are:

Biscuit 

Please 

Kaden - Dee Dee

Thank you 

Keys

Baby

Bye bye

Fish

Penguin

He still does the sign for water, eat, milk, more, all done and yogurt. 

He has been sleeping well at night. He goes to bed at 7 and usually wakes between 7-7:30. 

Avery LOVES books! He picks out a book before nap and bed and climbs up in his chair for me to read it to him. He likes to bring books downstairs too and look at them on the couch!

He started giving up his afternoon nap so we started putting him down once a day around 1:30. He's only napping about 1.5 hours right now so hopefully he will start sleeping a bit longer. 

Avery loves to put Roxy in her crate and gives her a biscuit and her blanket. 

Avery has started getting a little rough with Ryane. She's not used to that and it makes her cry.  We are being careful to make sure he is being more gentle.

Avery loves looking at the pictures on my phone. Whenever he sees my phone he asks to see a picture of Papa. 

He still gets very excited when Nic gets him from work. He waits by the garage door and cries if Nic doesn't pick him up right away. 

Whenever a grandparent is holding him, he doesn't ever want to come to me!!

He loves dropping Ryane off at school. He waves to the security man and to Cynthia. He walks into her class and goes to wash his hands! 

Avery loves to play with balls and balloons. 

Happy 16 months, my love! 

Grandma

The 

My Grandma had been sick for a long time. She was diagnosed with Alzheimer's 12 years ago. The three pictures above were from my bridal luncheon where everyone was asked to stand up and say a funny story or memory. When it was her turn, she declined. I understood completely! I wouldn't have wanted to get up and talk in front of anyone either! But after everyone had their turn, she said she wanted to say something. She stood up and told me she was proud of me. It's one of the last memories I have of her where her mind was clear enough to say something like that to me. It's been a very long battle and I'm happy she's now in peace. But I sure to do miss her. She used to mail me newspaper articles to read and cartons of orange tic-tacs. I used to pay her $100/month for my car and she would tell my Grandpa she cashed the check, but she would actually throw the check away. We would go to the mall and she would tell me all the clothes and shoes I picked out looked like they belonged in space. Before we took this picture she said, "hang on, let me tuck in my chins." She was funny, sweet and kind. She had a good heart. 

One of my funniest Grandma stories happened after she had been diagnosed. We were in Omaha visiting for my Grandparents' 50th anniversary and she had left a lot of the planning to my Grandpa because of her memory. We were in the pool swimming, talking and listening to some music. She seemed so relaxed and was really going with the flow. She started humming to a song that was playing and was dancing with her hands (she had a tube around her so all I could see was her hands). I smiled at her because she looked cute, and she turned to me, still dancing and said, "you should see my ass!"

I love you and miss you very much, Grandma. I feel blessed by these memories of you!

15 months

Avery weighs 24 pounds 6 ounces  (75%) and is 32 inches tall  (75%)

Avery wears 12-18 month clothes and size 4 diapers. 

Avery is into EVERYTHING. He is just as busy, if not more, than Ryane was. Which is a lot. He is opening locked cabinets, playing with glass bowls, opening drawers and fishing for goodies. In the time it takes me to put Ryane in her bed, he had already taken out her books from her bookshelf and tossed them all over the floor. He is a mess!!

He is walking!!! He started walking (more than 5-7 steps) at the beginning of January and walks about 50% of the time. 

He can stand up from the middle of the floor with ease. 

He has 12 teeth and is cutting 4 more! All at the same time, poor guy. 

He is starting to talk more and more. He says a lot of new words! Book, ball, balloon, banana (he moved his tongue back and forth on his top lip to say it) , mama, dada, papa, Mimi, please, more, bath, fish, woof, bye bye, 

He still does the sign for water, eat, milk, more, all done and yogurt. 

He sleeps well. He goes to bed at 7 and usually wakes between 7-7:30. 

Avery started to let me rock him again before I put him down in his crib. And now he will get the giggles (especially when I am humming a song to him) and we will both be rocking in the chair giggling at each other. It's the best part of my day! 

He naps 1-2 times per day, depending on if we are home or out. If we are out he will occasionally fall asleep in the car for about 30 minutes in the morning. If we are home he will go down down for a morning nap. He is usually pretty happy even if he doesn't get a morning nap. Even if we are home in the morning, he sometimes just plays in his bed and doesn't sleep. I will start weening him to one nap soon, it looks like!

Avery has always been very ticklish. He laughs even when you wipe off his hands! But he is EXTREMELY ticklish on his head, neck and shoulders! Whenever you try to put a hat, mask, sunglasses, etc on him, he scrunches up his face and raises up his shoulders to his ears. It is hilarious!

Avery is in love with his siblings. And they adore him too. It's fun to see how his relationship is different with each one. With Kaden, he loves to be near him and watch him. He loves when Cam plays with him, and he is still a little nervous around Ryane. But he has started to take toys from her and throw them away from her to make her mad! It's always someone!!

He started to love reading books and likes to pick out the books from his shelf. 

He and Roxy have the best relationship and Roxy tolerated him more than she did with any of the other kids. 

Avery loves looking at the pictures going up the stairs. He points at the kids and I say their names. Then he points at Nic and whispers "dada!"

He still gets very excited when Nic gets him from work. He waits by the garage door and cries if Nic doesn't pick him up right away. 

Avery loves balloons and gets so happy when we have balloons that he can chase around at home. He loves to say "ba-oon!" when he sees one. 

Happy 15 months, cutie boy!

Awesome Award and Principal's Shining Star

Within one week, both my big boys had BIG weeks at school!!

First, on November 6th, Cam got awarded the Awesome award at school for being an awesome student of the week!! We were so proud and I think he was pretty excited when they called his name during the morning assembly! However, he did not want to stand up in front of everyone and once he realized he was standing, he slowly sunk back down to his knees. Too funny!

The next Friday, November 13th, Kaden got awarded the Principal's Shining Star award! His teacher said "Kaden is doing so great at school, he is always eager to learn, help others and brings such joy to our class.  I am so happy to be giving him this well-deserved award!" This award is given to 2 second graders once a month and I was so excited that Kaden was able to receive it!! We all got to sit on stage with him when the principal read why he was getting it. When he saw us he thought maybe he was getting the Awesome award and said he never thought he would get this one! We were extremely proud!!

Love my big boys and how well they are doing this year!