Home Sweet Home

The Conways have a brand new house!  We found our forever-home in May 2013, and put an offer on it the next day.  Interestingly, it is the house Jake and I fell in love with back in 2010 when we were looking.  We were about to put an offer on it then, but the owners had already accepted a different offer.  So when we drove by our dream house three years later on our way to a different open house in the neighborhood, we saw that this one was for sale again!  We went to its open house the next day and put an offer on it.  Just a few weeks later, we had our old house sold and we were moving into the house that our children will grow up in :-)  That's the short story, anyway.

Here's what the girls are up to:

NOVA

Nova seems to have really come out of her shell in the last month or so.  She's very talkative now, her favorite consonants being g, b, and occasionally m, but mostly she just says "AAAAAAA" in the cutest of cute high-pitched baby voices :-)  On July 20 Nova said her first word!  dada!

Nova is soooo close to scooting!  She tries so hard, but usually just ends up going backward (this started July 9).  She is able to move forward very slowly if she "inch-worms", but she either doesn't realize that she can do this, or she doesn't like it, because when I put a desirable toy in front of her, she can't always get it.  She can roll over both ways, but, like Addelyn, hasn't figured out that she can use this ability as a form of locomotion.  She's also just started sitting up by herself (July 9).  She's not awesome at it, but she can stay up for quite a while without falling over.  It seems like it started overnight!  On July 8th she couldn't sit for long at all without leaning forward onto her hands, then on July 9th she was officially a sitter.

Here's some of Nova's favorite things:

Nova Looooooves walking around in her walker.  She doesn't even need to have any toys on the tray, she just walks in circles around the toy room and looks at the toys, then comes back in the kitchen and looks at me.  She gets so excited sometimes, she gets to an open streatch and sprints.

Nova likes sleeping with mommy.  Well, she really just likes sleeping in general - she actually fights waking up in the morning...she opens her eyes, then turns her head the other way over and over again trying to get comfortable.  But whenever we sleep together on my bed she sleeps so well!  Usually she starts out the night in the co-sleeper, but at some point in the night she usually ends up in bed with me.  It's just so much easier to get her to sleep if she's next to me.

Nova also likes playing in her bouncey...and giggling :-)

Nova likes...Addelyn!  Whenever Addelyn talks to her she gets this adoring smile on her face.  Addelyn loves to make her laugh by running around and jumping up and down.

Nova also likes baths (she splashes a lot...I've just moved her to the big bath), nursing, sucking on mommy's finger (the middle one, nail side down), and her favorite toy is either the leapfrog piano or a burp cloth or anything she can get inside her mouth.  Oh, yeah, she LOVES putting stuff in her mouth.  That is what all things do if she manages to get her hands on them.  She will occasionally shake a rattle (cause and effect), but its primary purpose is still to go in the mouth :-)

Nova likes a lot of things...she's a pretty easy-going baby, but there are some things she doesn't like at all.  She doesn't like her car seat - she arches her back and cries every time I put her in it, but usually calms down for the car ride.  She doesn't like being put down or left alone by anybody but me.  I still can't figure that one out...I'd think it would be the opposite.  Up until July 9 she didn't like sitting - she'd just get really mad when she inevitably ended up hunching forward.  And she doesn't like broccoli.  Perhaps not the best food to start with...

ADDELYN

Addelyn is growing up so much!  She is so well-behaved, sweet, and she has such a good imagination!  I'm constantly amazed at how well she plays both by herself (LOTS of imaginative games), and with Nova (wasn't she so sweet to Nova in the walker video above??)

Here's a good example of Addelyn's imagination - she was playing with her babies from her doll house - they were going to bed and she was reading them a bedtime story:

Here's some things Addelyn likes to do these days:  play with dolls, or anything she can take care of, really (she's a very good mommy), sucking on her binkie (still trying to get rid of that...), going to bed (she asks to go to bed most days, and it's no problem at all getting her to take naps or go to bed...just put her in her bed with binkie and puppy and she'll just go to sleep by herself), reading books!!  This girl loves to read books!  I swear, she'd let me read to her all day if I could.  A lot of nights, Addelyn will read books as she's falling asleep.  I always have to go in and check to make sure her bed isn't covered with them once she's fallen asleep.  Addelyn's favorite food is...fruit snacks.  Though, she does eat quite a variety of things for a 2-year-old.  I think we might even be getting over the won't-try-new-things stage.  That'll be nice.

"Take a picture of  me with the tiger, mommy"  She was 'mothering' the tiger that day.

We're potty-training!  Addelyn has been pooping in the potty since about 18 months, but pee has taken a bit more effort.  At this point, she'll tell me 4 or 5 times per day that she has to go potty, then she gets a "special potty treat" usually some chocolate chips or a piece of candy.  I'm not the kind of mother that takes her potty ever 30 minutes, though.  I wait until she tells me she has to go.  I just really don't want to have to take her potty 20 times per day, I'm too lazy...so if it takes a bit longer to potty train herself that's fine with me.

Addelyn has known all of her shapes, colors, numbers, letters (by sight and sound), body parts etc... for a while now.  I couldn't think of any other normal 'toddler' things to teach her, so she's started learning to read.  We started with "_oo" words, so she can read all of those (roo, boo, poo, coo, moo, goo, too, zoo), and we've just started on adding a letter at the end (i.e. pool, cool), and "_ee" words.  She just soaks everything up, she loves to learn!  She just got some phonics flash cards and she'll go through the whole deck with me and still be asking to do more.

That's about it for the girls.  Here are some pictures from our photo shoot today!

Addelyn Stats:

Age: 27 months

Weight: 30 lbs

Length: 35ish inches

Drinks: about 2 6-ounce sippys of milk per day (all of which is regular whole-milk) with meals and a couple of drinks of milk before bed every night

Eats: whatever I can get her to eat for breakfast - lately it's been the oatmeal packets; leftovers for lunch (spagetti, sandwiches etc...); and noodles or other leftovers or, if she finds it acceptable, whatever we're having for dinner.  I try really hard to get a fruit, a veggie, a grain, and a protein in her every day.

Sleeps: 8:30pm-7am.  Most nights she sleeps all night

Naps: 2-3 hours per day her nap is 4 or 5 hours after she wakes up for the day 

Awake for:4-7 hours at a time during the day.

Clothes size:  2T pants and 3T shirts

Motor skills: jumping, running, putting on shoes and sometimes dresses and skirts

other skills:pretend plays very well - loves to 'cook' in her kitchen and take care of her dollies, as well as pretend to be other people and play with imaginary toys.  Recognizes letters, numbers, shapes and colors very well and is starting to read small words
words: Hundreds...if not thousands.  She speaks in full sentences now and can say anything she needs to.  

signs:  over 100 - now that she's started talking we've learned less new signs, but since Nova came we are signing a lot more now.

Nova Stats:

Age: 5 3/4 months

Weight: 17 lbs, 2.5 oz

Length: 25ish inches

Drinks: no idea...she nurses about 8 or 9 times per day

Eats: a few times a week...we started out with oatmeal, but she vomited it up 2 hours after eating it about the 5th time she had it...then a few days later she vomited up rice cereal and sweet potato mixed.  Now, I steam an apple and feed her that, but she HATES eating.  Anything.  Ever since that first time she vomited, she won't eat for me - ever meal is a struggle!

Sleeps: 8:30pm-8am.  Most nights I feed her and put her down at 8:30, then feed her again when I go to bed, then she wakes up twice or three times before I'm ready to get up for the day.

Naps: 30-minute morning nap 2 hours after she wakes up, 1-hour (if I'm lucky) afternoon nap 2 hours after she wakes up from morning nap, and 30-minute evening nap around 5.

Awake for: 2-4 hours at a time

Clothes size:  some 3-6 monts (onsies etc...) but mostly 6 and 6-9 months (sleepers...)

Motor skills: scooching backwards, getting up on hands and knees and rocking and lunging, sitting unassisted, walking in her walker very well, walking while holding onto hands, standing while holding onto something.

other skills:she babbles a lot :-)  definitely has stranger anxiety, and is very independent - can entertain herself for a while
words: Dada :-)

signs:  none yet for sure...I thought I saw her repeat 'ball' to me yesterday, but I'm not positive.  We're working on 'up', 'Mama', 'Dada', 'hi', 'Nova', 'Dance', 'ball', 'yay', 'Milk'