A visit from Aunt Lexi and Annabel!

I'll be honest - I'm a bit behind, so this post is going to cover the last 2 weekends. First off, Lexi and Annabel came to visit 2 weeks ago (clearly only a sister would leave Texas in the middle of February to come to New England). Friday, I sent the kids to daycare because it was the day that they were celebrating valentine’s day and I didn’t want them to miss out. Ok, and, let’s be honest – they both had really cute outfits to wear for valentine’s day, so they HAD to go and show them off.

Saturday, we went to the children’s museum in Providence. I had never been before, so I wasn’t quite sure what to expect. Let me first say – holy crap! Going anywhere with 3 kids is ridiculous. I’m not sure how families do it. Thank god we had the Pilot with the third row. Otherwise, we would have had to take 2 cars everywhere all weekend. And, even with the third row, poor Annabel was practically in the trunk. It felt like she was miles away from us while we were driving. And, besides the logistics of the car situation, I really think that the bigger issue is the amount of stuff that 3 kids require. I mean, we had 2 diaper bags (one of which had stuff for a 2.5 year old as well as a 7 month old), 2 bjorns and our double stroller to shove in the car with us wherever we went. So, anyway – we get to the museum and get all of the kids loaded up in the stroller, get the diaper bags in the stroller and off we went just in time to see a huge sign at the front entrance asking us to leave all large strollers in the car. Awesome. Well, thankfully, they didn’t really enforce that rule ( I think that they felt bad for us when they saw how long it took us to get in the door with all of this stuff). So, we walk in and Alex proceeds to FREAK OUT. I mean, totally start bawling and was clearly scared out of his mind. I think that the 5000 kids running around combined with the 10000 lights and sounds were probably a bit too much for him. Annabel on the other hand, just sat in the stroller chilled out and stared at him wondering what in the hell was wrong with him – this stuff was fun!!! :) Given his reaction, I put him in the bjorn and carried him for the rest of the time, which he was very happy with. Avery had a great time. It took her a bit to warm up to the idea of 5000 kids running around as well (man – apparently my kids aren’t quite as “social” as I would have thought), but as soon as she got used to that, she had fun running around, playing with things, etc. At the end, we found the water room, which was great. She loved playing with all of the water and it gave Lexi and I a chance to sit and feed the babies. Afterwards, we all went out to lunch “at a restaurant,” which is Avery’s favorite thing to do. And, on the way home, we did the famous “drive 30 mins out of your way to keep the kids asleep” routine, but it was nice because it gave Lexi a chance to see parts of Little Compton that she hadn’t before (ok, so that part only took 5 mins out of the 30 given the fact that if you blink, you miss Little Compton, but whatever…).

Sunday was Valentine’s Day. The day started out with a fun gift from Daddy – a sit and spin!!!! Poor Josh literally went to like 5 stores at Christmas looking for one of these and never found one. So, he finally found one on Amazon and ordered it. She was really really excited about it…until she realized that it doesn’t spin as fast as the ones at daycare. She hasn’t been on it since. Awesome. Anyway – we went to Lindsey’s house on Sunday morning for a little Valentine’s Day brunch. It was nice to have Lexi and Annabel meet everyone and the kids had a good time. Sunday night, we went to Josh’s parents for a Valentine’s Day dinner, which was also nice. Monday was spent with all of the kids at home just chilling out. Both of the babies were sick, so it was a constant exercise of how to keep both of them from screaming. Overall, Alex and Annabel really played well together – they interacted with each other much more than I thought that they would. It was pretty funny – every time Alex would get a new toy, Annabel would immediately steal it. For being such a little peanut, she sure was a big bully! Although, Alex didn’t seem to care. In fact, he showed her by stealing her sock and eating it! Overall, it was a great trip - it was fun having them here and for the kids to hang out. But, clearly, everyone was a bit exhausted by the end...

Quickly – the only real exciting thing that we did this last weekend was that we went to a friend’s house for dinner on Saturday night and then went to a park that they had lit up with various lights, etc. It was really fun and something different to do. Max and Avery had a great time together and liked running around at night seeing all of the lights. They seem to play really well together. I think that it works well because Max is a very laid back kid who pretty much just lets Avery play with whatever she wants and lets her just talk and talk and talk. It’s pretty comical – he just pretty much stares at her most of the time wondering who this crazy girl is in his house. And, Avery loves it because, let’s face it, she gets to do whatever she wants and what woman doesn’t love a man who just sits there and lets her talk and talk and talk…..

Neverland

Apparently, that is the world we live in. And, no – I’m not talking about the creepy place where Michael Jackson used to live. I’m talking about the place where Peter Pan lives – the place where children never want to grow up.

This weekend, we thought that it would be fun to surprise Avery by transforming her crib into a day bed (aka, “Big Girl Bed”), which essentially just means we are taking the front railings off of her crib (which, were replaced by a railing, which essentially is just a shorter version both height and length-wise). So, this last week, I ordered an entire bedding set (which is super cute and was found at Target for just $30 (sheets, comforter and pillow case) – I was pretty psyched) and then we had Josh’s parents take both kids for a couple of hours so that we could put the whole thing together.

So, when Avery came home we told her that we had a surprise for her upstairs. She marches up the stairs, not knowing what she is going to find, and then enters her bedroom to see the “Big Girl Bed!!!”



She was really excited at the time. Then came nap time. Yeah- not really digging the big girl bed. It seemed to totally freak her out, actually. She wanted nothing to do with it. So, I finally get her to lay down in the bed (AFTER having to remove all of the bedding that I just purchased for the big girl bed because she doesn’t like blankets in her bed – never has, actually, but I assumed this would be a fresh start – not so much) and as I was sitting in the room for a few minutes (like I always do), she (being the queen of procrastination that she is) starting pointing out ridiculous things like, “I don’t like that letter A (referring to a large wooden letter A that we have hanging on the way) on my wall.” Or, “I don’t like those stuffed animals in my room.” It was as though she all of a sudden noticed these things that she couldn’t see through the crib railings or something. So, of course, I tell her she is being silly and that I’m going to leave so she can nap. Then she wants Daddy to come in. So, Josh goes in and go figure, I go up later? The letter A is on the floor. The stuffed animals did remain where they were, so I guess he didn’t COMPLETELY cave. Anyway – she finally did get to bed, but took a horrible nap - short and woke up in a bad (to say the least) mood.

So, night time comes. We did manage to get her to sleep at a normal pace. However, at approximately 130 AM, we wake up to her standing right next to our bed calling out my name. First of all, it scared the living crap out of me. Second of all, I was in such a daze when she woke me up that I couldn’t really think about how best to handle the situation. So, I attempted to pick her up and to carry her back to her room. As you can imagine, she wanted nothing to do with that and was about to throw a fit, which would have woken Alex up. So, I caved. She slept in our bed all night. UGH! I’m not sure what to do. Josh said to give it a week, but I can guarantee you, she will be in Mommy and Daddy’s bed every night this week, which will then turn into a habit. Part of me is just tempted to put the crib back together. I mean, if that is where she wants to sleep, who am I to take it away? It really isn’t a big deal at the end of the day. Surely she will eventually want a big girl bed someday, right? I can see it now – we will have the only 13 year old still sleeping in a crib.

So, Alex apparently doesn’t want to grow up either. We switched him out of his bucket car seat this weekend (the kind that you carry them around in when they are infants) and installed the big kid carseats that stay in the car. EVERYONE hates this change. Frist of all, it is really annoying because now we have to completely bundle him up (vs. no jacket in the old carseat because he had the fleecey lining thing that kept him plenty warm). Second of all, he hates it. I’m not sure what he hates about it, but so far, 3 out of the 4 times we have put him in there, he cries. Awesome. Clearly, this one can’t be changed, as the poor child was completely being stuffed into the bucket, as he barely fits into it anymore. So, Alex and Mommy and Daddy will just have to get used to it.
I guess I can’t blame either one of the kids, as Josh will be the first to tell you that I don’t deal well with change either. But, at least with me, I’m an adult and can get over it. They apparently have a harder time. Let’s just hope, after 2 years of Avery basically NEVER sleeping in our bed, that this big girl bed doesn’t create a horrible habit. Then again, maybe this will be reason enough for Josh to cave and get that King size bed that I’ve been wanting???? Hmmmm…this could be a good thing.