Ava at Four, CJ at 8 Months

I love how, at the end of the last post, I got cut off and predicted it would be a month before I updated again...haha! Anyhow, it may not be much of an update but I want to try to stay on track and not let too much time pass between posts. So, here it goes:

Ava
...turned four years old a few weeks ago. There was much celebrating this year: a "Tangled" party on New Year's Even with my family in IL, a very small celebration with just the four of us on her actual birthday, and a Star Wars party last weekend with friends. Have I mentioned how much I love that my preschool-age little girl wanted a Star Wars birthday party?! We have raised her well...the Force is strong in this one! ;o) Anyhow, I also had a parent-teacher conference at the preschool this week (kind of intimidating, seeing how this is the first time I've been the parent at one of those things!) and it turns out she is smart, pays attention to details, plays well with kids, follows directions, and is overall pretty well-balanced. Maybe I'm not a totally crappy parent after all: she just saves all of her stubbornness and willful disobedience for me, and doesn't unleash it upon other people. I can live with that. Aside from those things though, she is funny, sweet, articulate, and can be pretty good company.

CJ
...is eight months old today! I assume he's still about 50th percentile for height/weight, at any rate he's wearing mostly 6-9 month clothes so he does seem to be right in the middle. He has started crawling...mostly he does the army crawl but he can do the real thing and let me tell you, that kid can MOVE. Especially if he manages to find a choking hazard within a fifty foot radius. (I will be picking up a play yard for him this week.) He sits up like a champ, takes bottles about 80% of the time (I nurse him when he wakes up in the morning and before bed), eats three meals a day, and likes making chirping, humming, and growling noises, with the occasional babble thrown in. He is happy and snuggly, and a really crappy sleeper. SERIOUSLY....between Ava with her nightmares and restlessness and CJ with his desire to be snuggled and nursed all night (I am working on this, but it isn't going well as he doesn't want to give in any more than I do, and will cry/fuss on and off for hours), I rarely get more than 2-3 hours of sleep at a time, probably averaging 5 hours total a night. Hopefully this will work itself out soon, before I lose my mind...but overall I am enjoying my baby and will be sad to see these days end! (Except for the sleep part...that part cannot end fast enough.)

As far as Ava and CJ's relationship with one another, Ava is mostly good with him: she has appointed herself his guardian, and is great about making sure he's not doing anything that will hurt him, like eating the rocks in the fireplace or chewing on power cords. CJ absolutely adores his big sister and when she's in the room, he will watch EVERYTHING she does. All she has to do is make a funny face and he falls apart giggling...it is so stinkin' cute! I know eventually they will fight and probably even try to beat the crap out of each other, but I hope that for the most part, they can maintain this relationship. They love each other very much. :)

There is so much more I want to write about--Craig got an awesome promotion at work, there are lots of thoughts I'd like to jot down about things in general--but it will have to wait. I'm going to attempt to sleep. If all else fails, I have the coffee maker ready and waiting for me. ;o) Goodnight!