Florida Vacation

Last week we spent a fun and relaxing week in Florida.  My mother and I took the two kids down to stay at my aunt and uncles home in Davenport.  My Aunt Ann flew down as well from Pennsylvania and we had a great time enjoying the Florida sunshine.

We tried to have an activity planned each day and the day after we arrived we spent the afternoon at Downtown Disney.  Ava enjoyed the rides and the highlight for me was having a mother and daughter silhouette done.  I had one done with my mother at Disney when I was close to Ava's age so when I saw the stand I had to have one done.

Two days later we went to the Grand Floridian for a character breakfast.  Ava was in awe of Pooh and Tigger and her little head was on a swivel the entire time looking around and watching for them.  I dressed her up in her Princess Elsa dress and from the moment that we arrived until we left, all of the staff was addressing her as Princess Elsa and was bowing to her.  She even walked around singing "Do You Want to Build a Snowman, " it was so sweet!

Going  to Disney is a long day, especially with a two year old, so we decided to only spend one day at the park.  We decided to go to Animal Kingdom since we went to Magic Kingdom in the Fall and with 100 degree temperatures, it was nice to be in a more shaded park.  We spent about six hours there and Ava even skipped her nap and she was such a trooper.  We rented a stroller in the park and went from one side to the other and she was so happy and loved every minute of it.  I planned out the rides that we would go on and were able to Fast Pass most of them so we did not have to worry about standing in line.  I was not sure about taking her to a Bug's Life and it turned out to be a mistake as parts of it scared her and she spent the last part of it with her little head buried in my chest.  I felt like a horrible mom for taking her to it but afterwards she kept asking to go back to see the scary bugs.  The highlight of her day was meeting Minnie and Mickey and that alone make the trip to Florida worth it.  My mother had never been to Animal Kingdom so it was fun getting to watch her experience and the three of us had a great day together!

The rest of the vacation was spent in the pool and enjoying family time.  Ava is a little water bug and enjoyed spending time at the pool every day.  We had a great week and I am happy that we were able to take this trip before I go back to work.

Britt James- 3 months old

Last Tuesday while we were on vacation in Florida our sweet little man turned 3 months old.  I fall more in love with his sweet little face each day and am blessed to be the mother of two precious children.

This last month has been a great month and he continues to show his sweet little personality each day.  Britt is a laid back little thing and while he loves to be held, he also enjoys playing on his playmate.  The last couple of days we have watched as he is trying to roll over from his back to his stomach but so far it has not happened yet.  While he has a lot of strength in his neck and can hold it up while he is sitting up, he still does not show much interest in raising his head up during tummy time.  Britt is definitely a thumb sucker and much prefers this over his paci.  He shows me his sweet smile every morning and throughout the day and loves to coo at us.

Not much has changed in the sleeping department at night.  I am still waking him for a 10:30pm feeding and then he wakes up around 5 am and I have been able to put him off until 6am for his next feeding.  Ava started sleeping through the night at 14 weeks but she was also sleeping in her own room.  Since Britt is sleeping right next to me in his bassinet since he does not have a room yet, I hear every little peep that he is making.  He is still in his size 1 Pampers Baby Dry but I have a feeling he is about to outgrow them.  I put him in his 3-6 month summer outfits and some of them just fit and I had my mother move the buttons down on a couple of his john john outfits so he can continue to wear them a little longer.

Britt continues to be a joy in our lives and I love our little family of four!

Here is a picture of Ava Marie at 3 months old.

Do the Magic!

Ava is on the Frozen bandwagon and if you have not seen it, just ask Ava and she can tell you all about the movie since she has watched it a hundred times.  For Easter I wanted to get her an Anna and Elsa doll but did not realize that this was the hot ticket item for Easter and after going to three stores and finding that their entire collection of Frozen was sold item, I went on Amazon and paid a premium for these dolls.  It was worth it to see Ava delighted Easter morning to find these dolls in her basket and now she takes them everywhere.

The other morning Travis was trying to take a nap after being up early in the morning with Ava.  Ava was not letting him nap and took all of her stuffed animals and dolls in bed with Travis and was trying to get him to play with her.  She finally started to lay on top of him and kept saying over and over, "Do the Magic, Do the Magic!"  For those of you who have not seen Frozen this is in the opening scene in the movie where Anna is trying to get Elsa out of bed to play with her.  Travis and I could not stop laughing at Ava and how cute she was being.  We have a little drama queen on our hands, not that we did not know this already!

Britt James, 12 weeks old

This little man turned 12 weeks old today and he continues to be such a joy and blessing to us.  We went over to a friends house for dinner on Sunday and everyone commented on what a great baby he is and it is the truth.  He does get fussy before a feeding or bedtime but otherwise he is a very relaxed baby and I am thankful for how easy he has made it for us.  He really has become more attentive this week and lights up when we look at him as if he is showing off how cute he is.  I can also tell that he is going to be a thumb sucker.  Ava really had no desire to do this but Britt often will spit out his pacifier to suck on this fingers.

Since I will be going back to work in four short weeks now, I decided it was time to get him on a more strict schedule to get him ready to go to daycare and hopefully make it so he will start sleeping through the night.  Ava started sleeping through the night at 14 weeks old with a feeding at 7pm, waking her up at 10:30pm and then sleeping until 7am.  For the last week I have been trying this but he has not been too interested in his 10:30pm feeding and was still waking at 2am for a feeding still.  Taking the advise of the same baby book that worked on Ava getting on a schedule, The Contented Little Sleeper, I have been splitting his 7pm feed between 5pm and 7pm so that he is not as full at 10:30pm and will eat better.  He has been managing to sleep until 5am and so that he is not getting off his schedule for the day with this early feed, I am also splitting this between 5am and 7am.  

Next week Britt is taking his first plane trip to Orlando and I tried transitioning him out of his Rock and Play bassinet which has him sleeping at an incline to a flat bassinet since he will not have his Rock and Play in Orlando.  This was a disaster and resulted in him waking every couple of hours.  After three nights of not sleeping well, I put him back in his inclined bassinet and went ahead and purchased another one and had it shipped to Orlando for him to use while we are there.  It was worth spending the money to ensure that he will sleep well the five nights that we are there.  Can't wait for our getaway next week and for some Florida sunshine!

Here are my favorite pictures from this week.

Still not great at tummy time but we are working on it.

And for comparison look at the picture of Ava and then of Britt, no doubt that they are brother and sister!