Riley and Avery

So I suck. Haven't updated in a while. So sorry...and I haven't taken pictures in a while, so only pictures from Maryland right now. Like I said, I pretty much suck.


So I started school last week. Three in-class courses (all paralegal courses) and an accounting course online. Finding the time to do homework and complete the required reading is really not cool. Try taking reading notes with two little ones who always want to be in your lap and steal your pens. So I'm really really tired. And because my classes are over dinnertime, I don't think that I've been eating well enough. So that doesn't help. All of my professors are great, so at least that's good. One of my professors, who's also the head of the paralegal program, is very very animated. Almost crazy. At least it's entertaining. And scary sometimes. I wouldn't dare come to that class unprepared. No sir.

The girls have beee excellent for Rudi when I'm in school. Avery still cries a good deal when I leave, but calms down right away. Riley whimpers a little still, but is all-in-all the brave one. And the four hours that I'm gone go really smoothly. Really makes me feel wanted. At least I have the excited hugs and kisses to look forward to when I come home. And I also look forward to seeing what imaginitive (and incorrect) way Rudi has come up with to cloth diaper. I've given him so many tutorials and none of them have stuck. Once I came home and the diaper cover was on inside out and backwards, and the prefold was hanging over the top by about eight inches. Hmmm...

Riley starts school on Tuesday. She's been asking about it, and not in her normal crazy way, but like she's looking forward to it. They are having an open house on Labor Day, so I'll go with Riley. Good thing is that Rudi is off on Tuesday and my classes are out that day, so we can do something special as a family to celebrate Riley's first day of school. Don't know exactly what that would entail, but at least the idea's out there.

Avery is currently sick-ish. Her normal fever. Horray. So sleepless nights will be the norm for me for a while. Riley had the fever bug last week, so what's a few more nights without sleep? Who needs sleep? Avery gets feverish so much, with no other symptoms, that I don't even need a thermometer anymore. I'd say 102-103 degrees right now. Not too bad. The virus jumped right over me. What I wouldn't do for a sick day.

Avery is talking so much more lately. I was sitting down and she just came up to me and goes "hands, feet, eye, nose, face, ear, knees (her favorite), tummy (her other favorite), arms, mouth, back, butt, pants, shirt" pointing out all of my body parts and saying them. I didn't know she could say nearly half of them. Then I asked her if she wanted to nurse and she said "sleep, bed, nurse." Not really a sentence, but step-by-step instructions. Bossy thing. She patted Riley's bike seat today and said "sit butt". She really likes dressing herself, sans diaper. Perhaps I should get her a pair of undies or two. She seems to do okay without diapers or undies under her pants, so maybe that's the next logical step. Although she doesn't ask to go potty any more (and to be fair, I haven't put her there or suggested it) but always asks for a diaper when she has to pee. I don't want to be pushy, but it's going to get cold soon. Potty train now or never. Probably never, since I'm not all that motivated. Who am I kidding?

Waiting for pictures to upload...waiting...waiting...

Rudi has a doctors appointment tomorrow to see what is to be done with his gallstones. Hopefully not surgery. The doctors at the VA are like old sawbones. So behind on technology. Not that it's their fault, just lack o' funding.

So I'm finally making some progress in cleaning up the mess that greeted me when I came home from Maryland. Rudi insists that the place was clean when I came home, but I guess we have different standards. Just cleaning out a walkway does not constitute "clean" in my book. It's starting to look like a house again.

We walked up to 7-Eleven today and I let the girls each pick out a treat. Riley picked out M&Ms and Avery picked out a package of Oreos (slim pickins when you're allergic to everthing), and then we headed over to the Slurpee machines. While there, Avery saw the cold case where they had all the milk and sandwiches and such and saw a packege of Oscar Meyer bologna hanging there and she starts freaking out asking for bologna. So I tell her that if she gets bologna, she'll have to put her Oreos back. So she does. Everyone in the store was cracking up, Riley with her M&Ms (normal) and Avery with her bologna (abnormal).

So I finally finished the Harry Potter series several days ago. I read all seven books in a little over two weeks and now I'm suffering severe Harry Potter withdrawl. Rudi has graciously agreed to let me go to the movies Monday night to see the Order of the Phoenix. That'll be fun.

I start school on Tuesday and am really nervous about how Rudi will fare while I'm in class. Hopefully class will end early since it's the first one, and Rudi and the girls can ease into the routine more slowly. Rudi doesn't understand a single word that either of the girls say. Mostly, I think, from a lack of trying. I'm trying to impress upon him the importance of actually interacting with them, and distracting them from my absence, rather than sitting there watching TV for three hours. I just have a really bad feeling about it. He talks about establishing routines with the girls, and then blows them out of the water. He doesn't understand that if I go grocery shopping at 4pm and he lets the girls fall asleep, they're not going to go to bed at 8pm. He thinks that they should just go to bed anyway, or lay up there awake, just because it's eight. Argh!! No sense worrying about it now.

So we were outside playing with our balls (no chuckles, but we have a lot of balls) and a neighbor-lady wandered by with her two children and dog. Since the girls wanted to pet the dog, the mother and I spoke briefly. Her 4-year-old popped one of the big balls by hitting it with a stick. She also had a boy that just turned one. We didn't talk long before it started to rain, so we all went in. Then we had dinner and went back out after it had dried to play with our balls again and saw and ambulance and firetruck almost in front of our house. Apparently something was wrong with this lady's youngest boy. And all the neighborhood kids were standing around watching, as were some of the adults, and it was kind of embarassing to see people shamelessly rubber-necking this family. So I asked this woman if she needed someone to watch her 4 year old while she went to the hospital. So we had an extra kid for about three hours. I don't know how mothers of boys do it. Andrew was very polite, he preceeded everything he said with "Um, excuse me?" even to Riley. They played really well together. But anyway, I was so annoyed by the boy energy! Now, Riley is very on-the-go but it can be bridled and directed, but not the boy. Andrew said that his brother was in the bathroom and got a bug stuck in his throat. I'm not sure of the accuracy of this, but that's the story. He was crying and wheezing when they put him in the ambulance. Maybe we'll get the full story, or maybe not. I'm not the town gossip.

Don't know why I bother blogging when in Maryland, since most of the people that I update for are here...but just for the sake of continuity...

So we got to Maryland totally okay. We did sit next to a man on the flight from Atlanta to Baltimore who was a father of six children and coached multiple sports, so needless to say, he really liked children. He talked to Riley for the absolute entire flight, which I though was really nice at first, but then I realize that he's drunk. And he started giving me a headache.

Avery is in disposables for this trip, as we just couldn't fit the cloth diapers in our luggage (another failed attempt at packing light). She wouldn't pee in them for three days. Now it seems that she's back to normal, pee-wise, but now we're working on pooping...

James and Riley are getting along famously. And Riley and Avery both absolutely adore baby William. And what's not to love? I've never seen a baby so happy all the time! Just to sit and laugh at whatever he lays his eyes on! He's such a soft little chunk-a-lunk!
Everyone here is getting a little peek at Riley's transition problems. It seems that it is a bona fide problem, as opposed to something that is simply annoying to the parent.

I haven't been feeling all that great since we got here, but mostly yesterday and today. I don't know what it is. Probably just climate-change and the humidity. I feel like the excessive Maryland gravity is pulling me into the ground. I may simply be dehydrated or something. I can try to choke down some more water. Yuck!

I know that I haven't blogged in a long time. Giving myself a slap on the hand. It's been so busy around here that I've been trying to go to bed early. But decided I'll blog tonight.

We went to Prospect Lake at Memorial Park today with Amy and Abby. The girls really had a lot of fun romping around in the lake totally buck naked. In fact, a woman asked us if we were German, or just liberal Americans. She said that she is from Germany and they are a lot more "free" there. So at least it wasn't a negative comment. It was really cute seeing three butts splashing in the lake with the mountains in the background. Riley is really strange like that, she'll swim in the ocean and lakes and play in rivers, but fountains and spray grounds? No thanks. Oh, and Avery is definitely an absolute slide junky.



I think that Riley and Abby are learning how to be in such close quarters together. I think...when they do clash, it can be pretty bad, but they are starting to set boundaries ("I need my privacy" has been heard a lot around here today) and avoid conflicts. Avery is so jealous of Abby being near me or getting my attention. Not to mention if Abby is actually touching me. When I'm in Maryland I'll have to run off and hide if I want to hold little William.

Tomorrow we are planning on going to the zoo, so we'll see if that pans out. It's been really scorching hot here and the sun is so strong at this altitude. And the zoo is a mountain zoo so it's uphill a lot of the way. We'll see what the weather is like. The zoo is definitely better when it's overcast or a little rainy.

We went to the Garden of the Gods yesterday. Amy's friend Allyson was here from Boulder (originally from MD, she worked at Borders with us) so we went with her and the girls liked running around and climbing the rocks and playing in the dirt. Of course, it was really hot and shade was scarce and far between, but we managed with a lot of water.

I think I've spoken to everyone lately, so nothing I write is new, so I'll just make this one all about the pictures...

And a gratuitous cute picture of Avery with a Q-tip in her nose. This is she smile I get when I ask her for one. She stuck a Q-tip in her nose and just resumed playing like it was totally normal:

I've been just a little busy lately designing and sewing this carrier. Hence the busy signal on our phone line a lot lately. When you rip off someone elses design, it takes a lot of research! I always like the Tettitet and Taitasi carriers that I saw on TBW, but I certainly don't have $180 - $240 dollars to have one shipped from Norway, so I totally ripped it off. Hey, a BWer has to do what a BWer has to do...Avery is quite crooked in these pictures, but hey, she was naked and I sure didn't want her to break in the MT by peeing on it! I am such an addict!


It's hard to tell from the pictures, but the brown fabric is pinwale corduroy and is really soft. Although now I notice that it could use some ironing...

So I survived another trip to the zoo on Friday with NINO. It was a lot of fun, I have to admit. Of course, we did the usual, feed the giraffes. We also went into the Budgie Buddies exhibit and Riley got upclose and personal with some birds. Avery was really excited about it too. We didn't go in there last time since I had already been pooped on recently and wasn't ready for another bird-dropping. Didn't get pooped on this time. The zoo also brought back the Wallaby Walk-about and Riley and Avery both petted the baby wallaby. Riley also got to hand-feed one of the really people friendly chipmunks. We were standing around and eating teddy grahams and the little chipmunk came right up to us and stood on its back legs, its arms reaching up, and his little hands opening and closing. Aww, begging chipmunks.


Today Riley said to me: "I want something to drink...in a grande cup." Do I go to Starbucks too much?

Speaking of things that Riley says, we were at playgroup on Thursday and I was talking to the other moms and nursing Avery. Riley decided that she wanted to be twisted on the swings. Another mother offered to twist her since I often do the same for her daughter. Well, the woman walks over to Riley and Riley looks at her and says "I'm a pain in the ass! That's what my daddy says to me!" It was so surprising that every single mother laughed. And the discipline opportunity was lost...

Oh yeah, I was downtown on Friday and like a complete idiot, I park within sight of the Uncle Wilber fountain. So a fully-clothed Riley just had to go in. We stayed for a couple of hours and Riley got soaking wet. It was the most she had gone into the fountain, so that was good. They have a "Spray Ground" here that just opened up this summer, so I'm looking to take her there either Sunday or Monday. We'll see...

Avery is into baby dolls BIG TIME! She has to have several babies wherever she goes. Last night, she was laying down at bedtime with her babies and she sits one of them up and waves its arm at me and says "bye bye". It was really cute. Whenever she eats, I have to give the baby doll a bite first. Oh, and I have to nurse these dolls on occasion. I try to get her to nurse them herself, but that's a no-go so far.

So we went to the zoo on Tuesday. We had a lot of fun although it was piping hot up there on the mountain. Riley was really excited to see all the baby animals at the zoo this time of year. The baby giraffe was shockingly huge for only being two weeks old. We saw a baby gorilla too. It was so cute, the mother cuddling with it as it slept, right up against the glass like she was showing it off. The mother kept blowing dust off of it and picking dirt from it and kissing it. Very tender for such huge animals. The zoo doesn't even know if it's a boy or a girl because they haven't examined it in any way, although it is nearly six months old. I thought that was cool that they don't traumatize mother and infant just for the sake of scientific curiousity. We also saw a baby orangutan whose mother rejected it, so it was in its cage with a zoo keeper who just holds it day and night. It must be strange to be a human in a cage like that. And the keeper was just sitting there, looking blankly off into space, not reading a book (what I would do) just being as much of an orangutan as possible. Riley had a ton of fun romping around with the other West Side kids. It's nice to see her with other children being social. I have absolutely no pictures of Avery at the zoo because she was straped to my back the whole time. As proof that I've been wearing her a whole lot: she hadn't worn shoes in weeks, until I took her to the zoo that day. Well, we're having a NINO field trip to the zoo on Friday, so that'll be even more fun. Ah, the joys of being a zoo member...going to the zoo twice in one week.

Oh yeah, today is the 4th of July. Maida from West Side Moms offered us her deck for us to watch the fireworks, although they wouldn't be home. I told the group that I was looking for a place to overlook the fireworks because I really didn't want to have to stake out a spot, deal with parking and crowds, just to have Avery scared out of her wits. Her house is super cool, great city and mountain views and we could see several fireworks dispalys from her deck. Avery fell asleep in the car on the way there and didn't wake up. So sweet.

I keep forgetting to blog this: Avery has some new words. First, and cutest, she pointed at the Father's Day card that Amy, Scott, and Abby got Rudi (which has a toddler cheerleader on the front) and said "Riley". It was cute. It sounds like "Ry-way". Now every girl is Riley. She also says "up" "off" "no" and some more, I'm sure, but it's getting late and my brain is fried. Riley sometimes gets mad that Avery mispronounces her name ("My name's not 'Ry-way'! Say 'Ry-wah-wee'!") but Riley can't even pronounce her name correctly...Avery says "VeeVee" for her own name, but she doesn't say it often.

She also says "me me me me" about a hundred times a day. She wants to do everything herself. Dress, undress, get her own dishes, take her diaper off, buckle her carseat. Today she opened the dishwasher, stood on the open door, pulled out the top rack and got herself a bowl for her watermelon. Kind of cute for now, but Riley didn't hit this stage until she was a little older, and I'm sure it'll wear thin really soon. And can I tell you, this kid can climb like no one's business. She can climb onto the dining room chair, which is a rather tall chair (we have the high table and chairs) and play with the computer (yikes!). She may be little, but she's nimble.

Oh, one more thing, I was at a fabric store and carrying Avery in the mei tai and the woman working there asked me about it. This woman was of Chinese discent, and said that when she was in China she saw women working in the field wearing babies on their backs (never their fronts) in something very similar. She also said that she used to work for Indian Health Services and one of her close friends was a Pueblo Indian. She said that this woman trained her children to simply cling to her like little monkeys (no offense at the comparison, none other fits). She said that they would grip onto her hipbones with their little toes and just hang on. No carrying and no carrier. From birth. How amazing (and a little scary) is that?

Just thought I'd post more pictures of Denver Children's Museum since I have so many. I'll probably post even more later.

Avery shopping in the miniature store. You can tell that she really loves corn on the cob!

Riley ringing up the purchases in the store.

Riley operating the washing machine.

Avery examining the enormous flowers.

So Riley and Avery have been sick and wre'll all going stir-crazy. We haven't been out of the house since Saturday. Riley's sounding a little better todaday, and Avery was just mildly ill to begin with (the joy of extended breastfeeding). I don't think they'll be well enough to go to playgroup tomorrow, but we can hope.

So we've had all of the windows open since it's been so hot. I was trying to get the girls down for a nap yesterday afternoon and we start hearing a chainsaw in our front yard. Our bedroom window overlooks the front yard, so Riley goes to the window to see what's happening (I already knew) and saw her beloved tree being chopped to the ground. The tree was really damaged by the blizzards this winter. Of course, she starts crying hysterically, saying that it was her favorite tree that she loved to climb. It was heartbreaking. Then we go downstairs and she sits on the front step with Rudi and cried. Made the poor men chopping down the tree feel really bad. They tried to make her feel better. They said that we'll be getting a baby tree today. I told Riley that she can help take care of the baby tree and watch it grow. Of course, we get up today and the men are at a loss at how to get the stump out of the ground. A whole lot of chopping and sawing hasn't yeilded any results. So we may have to wait for our baby tree.


Riley's been saying "Our yard doesn't look like itself!"

Nothing much else has been going on since we've pretty much been staying in. At least the girls aren't feverish anymore. Rudi is the medicine-pusher. He says that they kids need medicine for the tiniest things. It drives me crazy. That and he insists that I take the girls to the doctor. For a cold? I'd just be wasting my time. Plus, I've put off finding a new doctor. Rudi liked our old doctor until he found out that she's a NP. Funny thing, his doctor at the VA is a NP. He liked her a lot (not knowing that she was a NP), but she left the VA and I told him that she was a NP. Then she comes back to the practice and he's reassigned to her and he doesn't like her anymore (just because she's a NP). Ugh. Our NP gives great physicals, better than any of the MDs we've seen before, but I'm tired of the unsolicited parenting advice. She obviously didn't like me breastfeeding Riley when she turned three, and really urged me to get them their own beds. Like, did I ask?

Oop, my pictures have downloaded! I can stop gabbing now...