Ava Drew Update!

Its time for another update with Ava Drewski. That little spitfire. She is a HOOT! We love her to death! We (or maybe I should say "I" since Bryce is away at training for 5 months) were challenged for a couple months with Ava's strong will. And I mean STRONG! I have never met a little 2 year old with a will as strong as that girls!! I pushed through with lots of discipline and prayer and was very consistent and it has paid off. I read an article my mother-in-law sent me about how to raise a strong willed child and it has helped tremendously. It gave lots of tips that were SO helpful. 

Ava has never been a snuggler but lately she will come sit up next to me and let me rub her feet or back. She will randomly come up to me or one of my sisters or mom and just say "I love you ___". It melts my heart. Her favorite snack is cookie dough (homemade of course) or fruit snacks (don't judge me ;) ) which can be found any day of the week at my parent's house.  

Her vocabulary is amazing. She can say about anything she wants to. 

Lately she has been wanting to tell-time so we will start learning that soon. Hey, it's never too early to learn. If she shows interest, I will teach her. One thing I have learned is to never underestimate toddlers learning abilities. 

Ava just learned the New and Old Testament song so she sings it ALL. DAY. LONG! Some of her other favorite songs are Jesus Loves Me, Twinkle Twinkle Little Star, ABC's  and Jesus Loves the Little Children. 

She eats eggs with sausage every morning for breakfast. Her favorite color is blue and she LOVES Peppa Pig. 

Shes just discovered Barbies!! Eek!! 

Ava Drew is in LOVE with her daddy and she was in heaven when he was home a few weekends ago. She also LOVES Calum and always goes up to him and says, "Hey Buddy, did you have sweet dreams?". Sweetness. 

Oh, Selfies? She is the queen of them! :) 

 This is her facial expression for EVERY picture!!!

I am in LOVE with this sweet princess!!! She's the best ever!! 

Calum: 4 Months Old

My favorite little guy, you are 4 months old!! Your personality has really started to shine through and I love it. You are such a sweet and happy baby. You only get fussy when you are tired or hungry or just want to be held. You are a cuddle bug and I can't get enough snuggles from you.

You weigh 15 lb 8 oz (49 percentile) and your height is 25.5 inches (57 percentile) and your head circumference is 41 cm (12 percentile).

You are wearing 6 and 9 month clothing.

You wear a size 3 diaper!!!!

You're a chunky little guy and I love it! Your hair is finally starting to grow back.

Your schedule isn't very predictable but we try to stick with the Baby Wise method. You go down around 8:00 pm and will usually wake up around 10:00 pm and it will take me about an hour to get you back to sleep. You wake up around 7:00 am to nurse and will usually go back down until 9:30 am.

You have a little tooth that will probably pop out soon.

You hate the car seat!!

You still nurse every 3 hours. You spit up A LOT!

You love bath time. Kisses from your sissy are your favorite! You HATE your neck to be touched. You are your fathers son!! ;)

You have found your feet and we can always find you holding onto them. You are standing up great and love to be facing out when I am holding you.

Calum: 3 Months

Calum Brooks, you are 3 months old!

You weigh 13 lb 14 oz (54 percentile) and 25.3 inches tall (84 percentile). Your head circumference is 40cm (17 percentile).

You wear size 3-6 and 6 month clothing and a size 1 diaper (getting snug though).

You nurse every 2-3 hours (you're a BIG eater) and you only get up once (anywhere around 4am-6am) in the night which means you sleep 6-7 hour stretches at night.

Lately, its been difficult for you to get yourself to sleep so I have to bounce you and walk to get you relaxed and to sleep.

You are the cutest little thing and you LOVE to "talk" (coo) and it is so sweet. You are the happiest baby!!

You have found your hands and you are totally mesmerized by them!

You are so close to rolling over and you try so hard. I bet it won't be too long!

You love your big sister and you are a trooper when she gives you lots of kisses and covers your face with her hair.

Calum: 2 Months

Calum, you are 2 months old! We have loved these past two months with you in our lives. You are the SWEETEST baby.

You weigh 11 pounds and 1 oz. (a whole pound heavier than Ava was at 2 months)

Wearing 0-3 and 3 month clothes . You've already outgrown most of your newborn clothes. :( 

You are wearing size 1 diapers. 

You nurse every 2-3 hours during the day and stretch it to around 4 hours at night. 

You are a great travelor! 

You LOVE your play mat and kick and coo every time I lay you on it. 

You love your baths and your paci. 

You have found your hands and you are mesmerized by them! 

You are very ticklish!! 

Most of your hair has fallen out and it makes me so sad!! 

You love to be held and cuddled. You don't like for me to put you down very often which I love but makes it a little difficult to get things done. I'm soaking it all in though. 

Calum Brooks, we love you SO much!!! You are the perfect addition to our family and we couldn't be more happier!

Ava: Update!

I've been meaning to do an update on Ava for awhile now. Ava is quite the character. Because I want to look back on this one day, I have to state that Ava is the most strong willed child I have ever met!!! Honestly. I love her to death but she is giving me a run for my money lately.

Ava Drew weighs 23 pounds. Her hair has really started growing. She wears a size 5-6 shoe and wears size 18 month clothes. She loves having her nails painted and hates having her hair brushed/messed with. She isn't a fan of wearing bows now but I still force her to wear them. Ha!

You can bet 90% of the time she is running around the house with just panties on or her "frog" pajamas (as seen below).

Speaking of panties, Ava is 100% potty trained!!! Woo hoo!! She woke up one morning and decided that she wanted to pee in the potty and hasn't looked back! Somehow, she has learned to get up in the night to go to the potty instead of in her pull-up. I am so thankful!!

The only way I can get her to do something is to tell her not to do it. ;)

When we leave to go somewhere, we have to take her clothes with us and change her once we get to our destination. Like, if she is home in just a t-shirt, she will wear that t-shirt in the car until we get to where we are going. She refuses to get dressed at home.

She is VERY opinionated and doesn't like to be told what to do.

She LOVES to be outside and one of her favorite things to do is to go "Shoppin' at Target". ;)

Some of my favorite things that she says is "hella cocker" (helicopter), "jamas" (pajamas), boobies (blueberries), "smacks" (snacks), "Twankle" (twinkle). A really bad habit that she has is putting a "t" sound at the end of words like "phone t" or "moont". I have no idea where she developed that habit but we are trying to break it! Ava has really progressed in her vocabulary. She can pretty much say anything she wants to and can hold a good conversation.

Ava likes to be "rocked" (me holding her) and sang to every night before bed. We sing 4 songs, in this order... "I love you" (barney song), "Jesus Loves Me", "ABC's" and "Twinkle Twinkle Little Star".

As difficult as she can be, I am completely in love with this little girl. She is the light of my life and brings a smile to my face everyday. She says some of the funniest things and can make a bad day turn good.

This picture describes Ava's personality perfectly! 

Catch up

Wow! I am WAY behind on an update. Life has been pretty crazy the past couple of months. So, here is a little update on where our little family is at right now.

Bryce got orders to go to training for a new job in Georgia and he was ordered to arrive on April 27th. About 3 weeks before this, we decided to pack up our house and put everything we own in storage and me and the kids would stay at my parents house in Texas for the summer. So, we got busy packing! With our cars loaded down, we left Cheyenne on April 17th and stayed with Bryce's parents for a few days. We spent Easter there and finally got to relax after the busy 3 weeks we just had.

Then, we drove to Sherman and Bryce stayed for a few days and then drove on to Georgia for his 4 1/2 month training. While Bryce was in Sherman, we got to go see a movie while my parents watched the kids. It was so nice!! We also went down to Denton to see my BIL's presentation of a project he had been working on his whole college career. It was so fun to spend time with my family that weekend.

Now, Bryce is in Georgia learning how to be a special agent and me and the kids are spending our days at my parents house in Sherman and we are loving the warm weather. We went shopping in Canton this past weekend and this coming weekend, we will be going to Tyler for my sisters graduation from SFA.

Calum: 1 Month

I am a bit late on this post but its better late than never, right?

Calum's weight is uncertain but its probably around 8-9 pounds. He nurses every 2-3 hours and sleeps all. the. time. I forget how much newborns sleep! He wakes up by himself for every feeding unlike Ava was when she was a newborn. I had to wake Ava up for almost every feeding. Calum wears newborn diapers and newborn clothes.

Calum sleeps in a cradle next to our bed. He is such an easy baby. He is always so content and only cries when he is hungry or tired. He has insanely strong head control. He loves his baths and he is a big fan of his paci.

Pictures from Calum's first month...