Growing up way too quickly

My friend Lesley was so nice to take a few pictures of the girls recently. Ava and Arden look so sweet and grown up. Time is passing by too quickly!

Arden at almost 8 months-she smiles constantly but you have to work to get the giggles

I'm holding onto her hand here. She is not even close to standing on her own. She's not crawling or even completely sitting on her own without supervision. And I'm fine with that!

We're growing out her bangs, so usually her hair is in her face a lot. I made a little effort for this photo.

It's not always easy to get a natural smile from Ava, but this is pretty close

The case of the crazies

Being a parent to a three year old is really tough sometimes. As David says "why is everything a chore with Ava?" Ava constantly wants to assert her independence and whines a lot (typical three year old behavior, right?). Ava refuses to take a nap sometimes even though she needs it and I need a break. Those are challenging days. There have been a few temper tantrums where Ava is crying/screaming for a while. I run through the whole good cop/bad cop routine of trying to calm her down by being nice, then I lose my patience and start counting to "3" and threaten her with time outs. After her tantrums, Ava will say "my head hurts" and it leads me to wonder if she is throwing a tantrum because of a headache or she got her headache from so much emotional distress. But this chicken or the egg conundrum is kind of beside the point when she is acting crazy and I start acting crazy. Honestly I feel like a psycho person battling with a three year old but I can't seem to stop being so stubborn. I keep thinking that I can't give in or else I will not be able to discipline or control her in any way. Sometimes I don't know how to handle these situations and I feel completely inadequate as a mother. I keep praying for more patience and maturity. Sometimes I have to remind myself that I am the adult and I need to act like one! One encouraging aspect about Ava's rants is that a lot of times she will say "I'm sorry I cried" or "I'm sorry I didn't listen to you" after she has calmed down a bit.

Now that I am not working, I don't get an official evaluation on how I am doing at my "job". I don't really have a boss telling me what I am doing well or what I am doing poorly as a mother. I keep a mental mommy scorecard because I guess I have a need to be evaluated. Please, someone, give me an evaluation! Basically I grade myself on certain aspects of motherhood. For example, I think I am flunking several aspects (i.e. combing Ava's hair, cleaning her face after eating breakfast so she doesn't look homeless, feeding her vegetables, and the list goes on). However, I give myself an "A" with the number of kisses and cuddles I give my babies.

I love being a mother. There is absolutely nothing I would rather be doing, but they weren't kidding when they said that it is the toughest job in the world (maybe except for cleaning public toilets...that to me is the toughest job in the world). As my children are growing, I hope I will grow as a person too.

Pure sweetness

Love her smiles after a bath

Can I keep her at this age forever? I want to remember this smile!

Guess who is sitting up now (sort of)?

Big sis Ava at around the same age. She says "been there, done that"

Arden is not a Buddha Baby anymore. She was only 17 pounds 5 ounces at her seven month check up (the doctor wanted to weigh her after her six month check up to make sure she gained weight). She is beautiful either way...but now that she is no longer of the super chunky baby variety, she can fit into clothes I thought I had to put away forever.

Halloween for Horton and Bad Witch

Ava was so excited for Halloween this year. We read Halloween books for the whole month of October. She really likes spooky stories but I was worried she might get too freaked out to sleep at night. Fortunately, that wasn't the case. I don't think she really understands the stories perfectly but the eight or so books from the library were a big hit (what's really scary to me is how dirty library books are...I always wipe the covers with baby wipes. Is that weird?). So Ava decided she wanted to be a witch a few months ago so that's the costume I got her this year. As we got closer to Halloween, Ava decided she would take on a more evil persona and said she was going to be a bad witch. Pretty funny. Ava attended four Halloween events! She had so much fun dressing up at school for the Halloween party (I was a schmuck and didn't get any pictures of that), trick or treating at Chelsea Market, going to the church party (no pics of that either), and finally trick or treating on October 31. Trick or treating New York City style was cool. We went to 95th street, between Central Park West and Columbus Ave, and people who lived in the brownstones sat on the steps outside to give out candy. We also did some trick or treating in our apartment building.

Halloween PJs. A lot of love going on.

Looking comfy together. At least Arden isn't going for Ava's hair. Ava's hair falls victim of some pulls if she gets too close to Arden.


Ava getting her face painted at Chelsea Market. This lady was a pro. Spider on the forehead and spiderwebs on the cheeks.

Cool pumpkin display at Chelsea Market.

Does this look like a bad witch to you?

Horton says hello

Does this costume make me look fat?

Daddy elephant, Arden and cousin Grant as a lion. This was at the Halloween pizza party in our building.

I didn't get one decent full body shot of Ava in her costume. At least she has her hat on here...even if she has pizza grease all over her face.

Uncle Dan came for the festivities!

Everyone thought Arden was a boy and I heard people saying "look at Mr. Elephant". Strangers were commenting on her extreme cuteness. Arden was so comfortable while we were trick or treating that she fell asleep in the carrier.

October in a nutshell

October just flew by. Here are the pics of some of the good times we had...

Ava took a trial hip hop class. It was the cutest thing.

The whole fam headed down to Times Square to check out the Toys R Us there. Arden, whose head was poking out of David's jacket got a few chuckles out of some people.

T Rex at Toys R Us. To be honest, Toys R us is not my favorite place. There were so many people there (I think mostly tourists) and Ava is still too young to ride the ferris wheel anyway. Although it was kind of cool that Matthew Broderick was shopping there with his son and he smiled at Arden.

Sweet little carousel in Bryant Park. Loved the French songs that they played while going around. Ava and cousin Grant are little buddies.

At the apple orchard with the Book Buddies preschool. Ava would take a few bites of an apple and say "core, mommy, I'm done!" Then onto the next apple.

It was so fun to find the apples in the lower branches that she could pick herself.

Looking so grown up with her hands in her pockets. Getting ready to fill up the wagon with apples!

Beautiful view from the Brooklyn Bridge

Brooklyn Bridge was fun to walk on at night

At Belvedere Castle in Central Park. Ava thought princesses lived there.

It's our secret

David started this thing where he would give Ava a treat and say "Shhhh, don't tell mommy, it's our secret." Ava absolutely loves this and they do this as often as they can. The other day I found them whispering in the kitchen, hiding from me (not too many places to hide in our apartment). They were already done stuffing their faces with cookies so they had to pose for me here...

Trying to sneak a few bites in before mommy sees. Indeed we do hang out in our PJs all day on Saturdays...

Daddy is Ava's hero and the sweetest sound ever heard is Ava shouting "Daddy!" when he walks through the door from work. Ava kicked me out of her room the other day because she was playing baseball with daddy. Even when she is lying in her crib and has dug out a little boogie from her cute nose (I will use this as blackmail when she is older) she will shout "I want Daddy to clean my boogie!" Basically there is a lot of "forget you, mom" mentality going on but I'm glad Ava has such a special relationship with her daddy.