BaskePuck

Who likes sports?

• First the Olympics, the house was full of a patriotic little man singing 'Oh Canada' all the time, even singing himself to sleep, and practising his ski jumping.


• The Stanley Cup was next with Penguin fever and a new little Guy moved into the house named Lucas Crosby.



• Next we have had the world cup first we had a New Zealand Super fan with lots of God of Nations and Lets go New Zealand while running around in circles.



• Now we are living with Van Persie and playing soccer constantly, thankfully we have a squishy Ikea soccer ball so Ava has not yet taken a beating.

Lucas is now in the process of creating his own game.

Baskepuck, involves a Styrofoam puck and a basket ball net. There is a goalie and a lot of falling down, the rules keep changing so it must still be a work in progress.

Not to be left behind, Ava continues to work on her Abs of steel with her favourite thing to do being crunches lately.

8 Days and we Finally have POO

Yes we are at it again, this time Ava was on the poop strike. Today she pooped after 8 days of holding out. She sure did have stinky toots so am glad to have the poop out finally. She just couldn't hold out the 16 days like Lucas did, lets hope she doesn't give it another go. I took a look back at the BLOG to see when Lucas was up to the no poop trick and it was also at the 4 month mark.

We have been trying to give her a bottle but she is not taking it so I thought in order to get more food into her I would give her a syringe of breastmilk at every feed. I am not sure if it was my intervention that helped but either way it came out today.

Yesterday Ava was giggling with Mommy and then talking and laughing with Lucas. He was doing a fake laugh and Ava thought that was pretty funny, giggling and throwing her arms up in the air. It was fun to see them communicating a little bit.

She has been trying desperatly to sit up kind of makes her look like she is doing crunches, I think it will be a while before she actually does.

Ava has found a way to settle herself to fall asleep she sucks on her index and pointer finger and rolls over on her side. Finally not screaming her head off until she gives in. Although for the last 3 weeks she has been getting up once, twice maybe three times a night which I do not like. I was spoilt for so long, from 6 weeks she was sleeping at least 11 hours a night and sometimes 13 hours, man is it hard to go backwards. Hopefully soon we will be back to a full night sleep.

I bought Lucas new "cars" sheets for his twin bed and he has insisted on sleeping in it. Thankfully he has been pretty good in it, no falling out and as of yet he doesn't seem to realize that he can get out of the bed, he just sits and yells for me instead. Soon enough though I am sure.

We had a Daisy visitor for a couple of days. Lucas thought that was great and is still filling water buckets in the back yard for her. As he says "Daisy will come back again tomorrow, yes she will"

Lucas showing off his Piha shirt under our Piha picture, almost like being there - sort of

This is how much Lucas loves Ava, he even lets her cuddle Patrick sometimes, although under supervision and only for a couple of seconds

No idea why this picture keeps loading upside down but I thought it was cute so it is staying

Big Boy Bed and First Swim

Today is Lucas' first night in his 'big boy bed', really the crib without the side on it. He hasn't tired to climb out and he is not big enough to fall out yet but we had to get him started since he has taken to kicking the railing that slides down because it makes this great noise. All fine and dandy but it wakes up Ava so time to remove it and learn to sleep like the rest of us. We will see how it goes as often he sleeps with his legs hanging out the side of the crib or his head stuck right up against the railing. Hopefully he doesn't fall out tonight.

Ava is doing much better, unfortunately she is not back to sleeping all night but it is not too bad. She had her first swim the other day. Not too sure how she felt about it, she was very quiet but didn't seem too upset. She is rolling all over the place, she can't seem to get all the way over but she is going back to side to back to the other side over and over. She is so aggressive with her toys. Nothing like her gentle older brother. I am worried she might pull the baby gym over on herself one of these days. She has started to turn around in her crib, a whole month earlier than Lucas. They say that girls do things faster. She is trying hard to sit up always bringing her head and legs up looks more like she is doing sit ups at the moment, even has a moan when she tries, and she has a very deep voice so sounds very funny. Maybe she wants to join Opa at the gym!

They are doing good together Lucas has said a couple of times "I love you so much Ava" and gives her a big hug. He loves getting the chance to hold her now, he has to be watched very closely as he likes to just push her off when he is done. Ava still loves to watch her big brother, almost more than Mommy.

Final thought - I almost forgot. Lucas has not forgotten where he came from. He often sings himself to sleep and tonight he sang "God of Nations" (NZ national anthem) What a proud little Kiwi. He must be gearing himself up for their World Cup debut!

I need a Drink

So Peter was not working at home today and for some reason it was a crazy place today. Lets see if I can paint you a picture:

1. Ava was up 3 times last night which is 3 times more than usual (I knew our luck would run out some time), so I started the day out tired.
she looks cute but she causes a lot of chaos!



2. We get into the car to go and drop Peter off and the car will not start, think the starter is gone.


3. Lucas was playing hockey outside waiting for Lori to come and pick Peter up to take him to work (thanks L-Train) and he knocked himself in the eye with his hockey stick = bruise number one.





4. Ava would not take her morning nap (that is nothing new though)


5. Lucas tripped and knocked his eye into the door downstairs = bruise number two on the same eye this time with cut and bump.
6. Lucas only slept for 1 hour at nap time today, that is 2 or 3 hours less than normal.


7. It took me 2 hours to get Ava to go to sleep tonight.

I am ready for Peter to come home!

Look at me rolling over!

"No they are not baby toys Mommy! Ava likes to share with Lucas"

Here's hoping for a better day tomorrow.

I WILL Win!!

Ava and I are fighting. Not sure what I have done to make her so angry but she is very angry with me. Yesterday she let me have it all day, she took a break for about an hour around lunchtime, then she finally exhausted herself at 5pm when she passed out for another hour, Finally in bed for the night at 7pm. Thank goodness. Can't say today has been much better but her anger seems to have calmed a little. Hoping for a better evening anyway.

I think every mom obsesses over something and mine is sleep. I think it is so important that kids get the right amount of sleep and if you live in my house you seem to need a lot of sleep. Ava has not yet learned that she would be a much happier person if she would just let go and go to sleep. It may be a bold statement but I think she is worse than Lucas was. Maybe a little better at keeping herself occupied when she is awake but probably a bit more stubborn when it comes to going down for a nap. She hates napping so much that if I go upstairs with her (nap time or not) she starts to cry and stiffens up. I don't know how I lucked out to get two kids that have an aversion to sleeping. It must be their fathers fault, it certainly is not mine. But I will win this battle one day.

On a less frustrating note Lucas is still making me laugh everyday. Still loves to play with Ava's baby toys ("When she is done Lucas can have a turn") and continues to get time out for throwing things.

Lucas still has things a bit mixed up. He calls himself 'you' and Peter and I 'me' or 'I'. It gets a bit confusing when he says things like

Lucas:"You want to have a drink?"

Mom: "No thanks Lucas I am not thirsty."

Lucas: "You want to have a drink!"

Mom: "That is very nice of you Lucas but I am not thirsty".

Lucas: "LUCAS WANTS A DRINK!"

Mom:"Oh sorry Lucas I thought you meant me."

Not exactly sure how to get him to figure that one out.

A little over 3 weeks and Lucas gets to see Aunt Elissa and Aunt Emily in the same room. I can't wait to see his reaction, I am convinced he thinks they are the same person.

It Happened

Went to the park today and Ava cried most of the time, so I decided it was time to leave. Lucas had a temper tantrum. Full out laying on the ground kicking and screaming 'Not Yet Mommy, Not Yet!' Apparently it was not time to go yet. I was pretty proud of how I handled it, although there were some other things to keep me occupied, as Ava pooped right then so I walked a safe distance away from Lucas, wouldn't want anyone to know he was mine, and I changed Ava's bum. By the time I was done, Lucas was calmer and very sorry for making a complete fool out of himself. He asked very nicely if he could have one more swing before we went home, so of course I gave in. Phew that was a close one, thought I was going to have to drag him out of there kicking and screaming all the way.

So I thought we were done for the day but no, we get home at about 12:00 and I am getting his lunch ready, for some reason he feels throwing toys is a good idea. He knows "We only throw balls" so he gets a time out when he throws his train. He is not a big fan of being in timeout so he picks up his beaded necklace and throws it down the hall, this means a longer time out. Finally there are tears and lots of "sorry mommy, we only throw balls, sorry mommy we only throw balls, Mommy come and get me". Finally we are done, or so I think. It is now 12:30 and he has to test out the rules one more time. Picks up a little wooden camel and chucks it across the room. This time I dont even need to say it Lucas says "Time out, we only throw balls" and walks himself to timeout. Makes my job a little easier. He is now down for his nap, I hope that is all we have for today.

Poor little Ava's first word might be timeout if he keeps this up.