Insomnia

This is not a new thing for me. Sleep has always been an illusive friend. But these days, I'm taking things to a whole new level of crazy. Not buy choice, mind you. I feel like I'm slowly going insane with sleepless delirium. My usual night's sleep is averaging about 3 hours these days. I take warm baths, lay quietly in bed, read, tried homeopathic remedies, etc., to no avail. When 3, 4, and 5am, roll around, and I'm still bug-eyed, awake, and wired, I start to get a little annoyed. I've even tried the old Unisom stand by. Lucky me, Unisom actually has a reverse effect on me- it gets me totally hyper while at the same time feeling so tired I could actually rip my own eyes out of my head. To graphic? Perhaps, but true, none the less.

Luckily, I have a night owl daughter who stays awake playing, singing to herself, jumping on her bed, doing head stands against her door (no really, this is a new fave of hers) etc. loooooong after we put her to bed. Her late nights usually equal late morning wake ups for her, meaning I get a little bit more sleep than I would otherwise. She usually wakes up between 8:30 and 9:00am these days. I drag myself out of bed, get her a bottle (yes, she's over 2 and still drinks a bottle) and then I go against my long standing and fervent belief that TV is not a babysitter and should not be used as such. I turn on Sesame Street for her in my room, lock the bedroom door to prevent her from running amuck throughout the house, crawl into bed next to her, and slip into a half coma-attempting catch 45 more minutes of shut eye. She sits enthralled with Elmo, Telly, and Abby Cababby for the 1st 30 mins or so then decides it's more fun to jump on and/or tickle "sleeping" Mommy.  Not restful. Not sure why I even bother attempting the extra sleep. But desperation drives this boat. I feel like I'm living each hour in pursuit of a dream- literally. I dream of more sleep. 

Other than insomnia, things around the Hughestead are going pretty well. Avarie is still the sweetest, cutest, most curious, sassiest, doll face I ever did meet. I often catch myself just staring at her while she plays and wondering how on earth something so adorable could have fallen into my lap. I mean, she's just so CUTE! Could she really me mine?! This may sound trite, by honestly, she is such a blessing to Adam and I. We marvel over her daily. Even in the midst of her raging 2 year old tantrums, fraught with kicking, screaming, yelling, and general stubborn refusal to give up her will (huuummmm, vigorous stubborn streak, where ever could she have gotten that from? Guilty. It's me), we often find ourselves laughing at her sheer persistence (with our backs turned so she can't see how amused we are) We are fully and completely enamored by every facet of her personality- the good with the less than joyful.

Avarie has some very definite passions in life. She is an avid singer. She sings all day long, especially when she is supposed to be napping. I have never met a kid her age that knows song lyrics as well and accurately as she does. She has me beat by a mile. Half the time, I make up song lyrics because I can never remember the real ones. I can't get away with that for much longer around her though, she knows when I'm fudging and she calls me on it. Called out by a 2 year old, things just got real. She knows tons of songs too. Songs I know that she's only heard once or twice, she will just show up singing them around the house as though she's known them for years. It's adorable.

Avarie is also a dancer. She puts her arms above her cute curly head, clasps her hands and twirls and twirls to her heart's content. She also jumps, hops, and tumbles like a little gymnast. Since Mommy is not so keen on extra curricular movement these days, Daddy has been filling in as her dance partner lately, he's actually pretty darn good :) They spin, leap and twirl to their heart's content.

Avarie also LOVES to read. Her non-sleeping nap times are filled with lots of story reading. Whether or not she sleeps during nap time, or quite time and we now call it (even though it is faaaaaar from quite in there), she sits and reads book after book to her Pooh Bear and Babies. She listens most intently during story time with Mommy and Daddy too. Sometimes she even reads along with me.

Story time with "Pappa-Daddy" is her favorite time of day.

Her favorite stand by activity is coloring. She will spend hours coloring while I cook dinner or color along side her. Most of the time she takes over my color page and adds her own styling to it. She is surprisingly accurate with her coloring for a 2 year old. She doesn't just scribble the page, but actually colors specific elements of the picture while staying mostly in the lines, or pretty close to it. Her Nursery teachers at church comment with awe on her coloring prowess weekly. One teacher even asked me if I supervise her coloring to make sure she colors in the lines...ummm? (the answer is no, I don't :)


Avarie is also passionate about shoes and clothes these days. She spends quite time every day in her closet pulling her dresses off the hangers and trying them on. Often times, I'll put her down for nap fully clothed only to come back when quiet time is over to find her stripped nakey- diaper still on, most of the time, thank goodness- and clothes strewn about her room. She also has very specific ideas on what she wants to wear. Gone are the days when I can pick out a cute, well coordinated outfit and slap it on her with ease. Most days now I have to distract her or convince her of the merits of the clothes I choose for her to wear. Getting dressed is an event lately. Mostly because the only thing she wants to wear (and INSISTS on with vigor) are her pink and yellow striped pajamas. It must be this one particular pair of jammies too, there is no substituting. Goodness forbid they get dirty and I try to wash them! It causes a major melt down complete with weeping, wailing, and gnashing of teeth. Once I get them wrestled away from her and into the wash, she insists on going into the laundry room, standing in front of the washer or dryer, depending on the progress of the wash, and watching them get all clean for her. As soon as that "done" buzzer chirps, you'd better believe she lets me know and starts striping off her clothes in anticipation of getting those cherished jammies back on her person. Some days, I just give in and let her wear them all day, yes, even to the store.

Avarie sporting her fave jammies.
She was also SUPER excited to find the "worm"
I made her out of left over fleece.
That's right,  I'm magic with a needle and some thread.  

Shoes are also BIG for her. As in, she's very opinionated about which shoes she wants to wear and when. I've generally given up fighting her on wearing snow boots to the store in 100 degree weather, though I do draw the line at wearing rain boots with her sunday dress to church. Quite time is also shoe trying on time. I've gone in to check on her a number of times to find her passed out on her bed, with only a diaper and shoes on.

While we coo and fawn over Avarie, we are also patiently awaiting Baby Pacca's arrival in early October so that we can coo and fawn over her too. Avarie talks about Baby Pacca often and loves kissing my belly and talking to her. We talk to her frequently about how exciting it will be to have a baby sister and that she's going to have such a special job being a big sister. Avarie LOVES the idea of being a big sister, though, we're still not sure that she really gets what that means.
A few weekends ago we finally started turning Pacca's room into a nursery. So far, we've done nothing more than paint the multi colored dark blue walls a light, airy lavender color. I love it, as does Avarie. Painting was a family affair. I did a bunch of the prep work while Adam did the actual painting. Avaie even helped wash the walls and clean up after we painted. Though, there are still some paint utensils strewn about the room, since we still have to paint the trim and such, so Avarie is banned from entering the room without Mom or Dad being with her. Sometimes I'll go upstairs to see where she's snuck off to and I find her sitting in the doorway of Pacca's room the with the door pushed open. When she sees me she is quick to point out that she's "just looking" at Pacca's purple room. and not actually breaking the do not enter rule. I think it's kind of adorable how taken she is with the new purple room. We've told her that after we finish Pacca's room then we get to pick a new color to paint her room (right now it's dark red). When we ask her what color she wants her room to be she used to say, "BLUE!", now it's a toss up between purple, red, and pink. Adam is emphatic that at least one of the girls should have a pink room and he's been secretly coaching her to tell me that she wants a pink room. Sneaky bugger :)
The room may or may not get completely finished and accessorized before Pacca is born, we only have 2.5 weeks left after all, but we figure that she'll be sleeping in her bassinet in our room for the first few months anyway, so we've got some time.

And that, is life at the Hughestead these days!
Aaaaaand, now it's time for lots of photos!

Pacca's room: Before

We laugh in the face of Child Labor Laws here at the Hughestead ;)

The two cutest painters ever in the land!

Little helpers need a princess break every now and then.

Sunshine, bubbles, sprinkler, & stickers= successful afternoon in toddler land.

Avarie still loves brushing Mommy's hair!

Stickers!! At final count, she had 17 stickers on her body.

Picnic date in the park with Mommy

Our little troll; Avarie looooooves playing in the dirt under our back porch.

Avarie found the gigantor ear muffs...

And refused to remove them. Apparently they are a must for trips to Home Depot.

I turned my back for 2 seconds and she took out every single toy truck the store had...

She is a huge fan of selfies these days 

and making different emotion faces

"happy gills" are her faves

"sad gills"

We were both supposed to be doing "grumpy gills", someone bailed at the last second...

Avaire is such a happy girly!

"I Shaved You Hair"

For the record, Avarie is currently standing atop an overturned baby doll carrier right next to me scream-singing, "I got a dream, I got a dreeeeaaaammm!!"
Curse the person who ever introduced her to the movie, 'Tangled'. Though the movie has been banned at our house for the last month (for provoking mischievous and/or general sassy pants-ness), I can always tell when Adam secretly watches it with her...

Case in point; The flower gleam and glow song is back. Sunday morning began like any other Sabbath day at our house. We had breakfast, then Avarie and I headed to the shower for tubby time before church. These days, during tubby time I have to sit on the tub floor to shave my legs as my baby Pacca girth no longer allows me to do so while standing (TMI?). While I take care of the leg shaving business, Avarie often stands behind me stroking my hair and singing the "Flower gleam and glow" song from Tangled (obsessed much? Yes, the answer is yes, she is), though she hasn't done it as often since the Tangled ban.  So this particular shaving sesh started out just like all the others. I got my razor off the top tub shelf, sat myself down, turned around for a sec to grab my shave gel, then proceeded to lather up the leggies. Meanwhile, Avarie grabs my hair and gets her stroke on, with accompanying song. Just as I go to reach for my razor and realize it's not where I left it, Avarie proclaims proudly, "I shaved you hair, Mommy!" Whaaaaaaaaaaa????
Yes folks, she was not wrong, she did, in fact, shave my hair.
What kind of genius leaves a razor where a 2 year old can reach it?! you ask. Well, apparently, I do. During the split second that I set it down next to me then turned my back to get my shave gel, Lady McKlepto snatched said razor and proceeded to use it like unto a brush on my unsuspecting locks. I frantically snatched the razor from her clutches and proceeded to run my fingers through my hair to assess the damage. As I did so, long strands of hair came out in my hands, but not as much as I had initially feared. So we're okay, thought I. But then I shampooed my hair. More long strands. Then the conditioner. MORE long strands kept coming, and coming and coooooming off in my hands. She obviously wanted to get a very close shave.  Ahhhhh!!! Panic set in. During all the damage assessment and subsequent freak out, Avarie was chirping excitedly, "I shaved you hair, Mommy! tee-hee, SO soooooorry!" and kissing my hair.

When all was said and done, the damage wasn't as bad as it initially seemed. For one, the shaved spot is in the back of my hair so, really, I can't tell if it's visible to the naked eye anyway. Blissfully unaware. Adam couldn't tell where she got me either, so that's comforting...though he is also the same guy who "couldn't tell" when I burned off a huge chunk of my bangs 2 weeks before our wedding- me thinks he was trying to lessen my self consciousness/freak-out at the time (and mayhaps this time also) by letting me think that others wouldn't notice the obvious fizzled hair stubs sticking straight off my forehead. A true sweet heart.
So, lesson learned (at the expense of my poor hair), the toddler's stealth and creativity is not to be underestimated. And, true to my suspicious, the dynamic duo watched Tangled together Saturday evening. Sneaky.

Later on that same Sunday, Avarie had been doing something I asked her repeatedly not to do, thus, she was subjected to time out. After time out, I sat down with her to have a little chat about why she went to time out. I asked her, as per usual, "why were you in time out?" She replied, "a'cause, I be disobedient", a typical response from her. "And why were you being disobedient?", said I. To which she responded, atypically, "It's complicated, Mommy". My response? Pick up jaw from the floor, try not to laugh. Fair enough Avarie, obedience, or the lack thereof, can be a complicated topic. Deep thoughts by my 2 year old. Loooooove her!
Later on, when I was telling Adam about her response and wondering where in the world she picked up that phrase, he told me that it's from Tangled. Rapunzel says it to Flynn Ryder. Nice. Glad my kid is at least getting a vocab boost from all that secret Disney watching ;p

La Vida

It's been a busy, busy couple of weeks. I actually love busy weeks & days at a kind of unnatural level, but that's neither here nor there.

We FINALLY got Avaire's 2 year old photos done. I scheduled the photo shoot way back in March for the week of Ave's birthday (the second week in May) but life happened and we ended up having to reschedule the session, not once, but 3 times before actually getting it done. The first time was due to the fact that our original date turned out to be the best date for us to schedule our move (move #9 in the last 4 years for the Hughes Clan, barf). The photographer, Lauren Perry with Perrywinkle Photography  (who we looooove) had a conflict come up on our second date. Then, despite ample sunscreen applications, Ave's pearly alabaster skin got a lovely lobster-esque sunburn a few days before our third scheduled date :( Rescheduled again.
On the day of scheduled shoot #4 I was waiting with bated breath to see what sort catastrophe would arise to, once again, derail our photo dreams. Luckily, this time we actually got to the photo shoot location without any major disruptions! Victory!! Except...Avarie was diabolical during the whole shoot!!
I know, I know, moms aren't supposed to:
A) admit to the adoring public that their child is anything but sugar and angel dust wrapped in sweet smelling baby skin, or
B) call their child diabolical (it's rude right!? But, alas, at times very true).
But I'm calling it! She was a bit of a diva and quite uncooperative the whole time! I was kind of (a lot) appalled. She had been such a sweet heart and a big helper all day. The whole 45 minute car ride on the way to the shoot she talked excitedly about seeing Lauren and getting her pictures taken and saying "cheeeeeeese" for Lauren. And then we arrived.
As soon as we stepped out of the car, some sort of genius switch flipped in her cute little baby brain, hidden underneath that adorable head of sumptuous curls, and she realized that she was in a great position of power. Here were 3 eager adults ready and willing to do anything to please her in order to elicit her cooperation. To a quick witted 2 year old, this spells P.O.W.E.R. And ohhhh how she used it! She frowned, fake whined, fake cried, purposefully kept her back to the camera, and ran from us at every possible opportunity. And, all this she did with her trademark little impish twinkle in her eye that says, "I've got ya riiiiiight where I want ya!!" Often, when we're at home, this little eye twinkle is acompanied by her factually stating, "I teasing Mommy!! Hehehehe!!"
Nothing we did could convince her to cooperate, nothing. Adam even resorted to unabashed bribery. Fruit snacks, jelly beans, promises of ponies and a shiny new car for her 16th birthday...he even sprinted to the convenience store next door and got some chocolate covered ice cream bites to entice her good will, to no avail. The only thing that got her to smile, was the approach of a nasty feral cat that persistently followed us around the garden. Ohhh, thanks little kitty (yuck!)!

A's classic fake cry face.

It's a good thing our photographer has tons of experience with "active" little ones! She was sooooo patient and sweet with Aves and, despite all of A's antics, she got some really cute shots of her. Phew!! I've only seen a few of the photos so far, but I'm hopeful the rest are just as cute as the preview pics :)

Angel face

        I also discovered the other day that Avarie has now learned how to operate the outside door locks. Perfect. We had just returned from a trip to the grocery store and were running behind schedule for getting dinner ready. So I hurriedly unlocked the house, set the keys on the counter, got A out of the car and set her free in the living room, and turned on the oven to pre-heat while I went back to the car to unload the groceries. While I was carting an armload of groceries toward the door Avarie appeared in the doorway with a sly grin on her cute little face and muttered something to the effect of, "No leave the door open, MOMMY!!" right as she slammed it in my face. Somehow, she had also managed to lock the door handle...and the dead bolt. UMMMM??!
It should be noted that it was about 109 degrees that day, I was extremely tired and achy (hello 6.5 months gestation) after carting my ever increasing girth all over WalMart (which store I detest and loath above all others, for various reasons, but is now the closest store to our new house). Needless to say, being locked out of my house by my 2 year old, while the oven was on inside and the heat outside was rivaling the oven temp, was not my favorite.
I tried, unsuccessfully, for a while to get A to unlock the door (at this point I hadn't realized that she'd also locked the dead bolt). Once it became apparent that she wasn't going to be able to undo (or didn't want to undo- the jury is still out on that one) what she'd done, I started to get a little panicky (oven on, curious toddler alone in the house. check). So I called Adam. Straight to voice mail, 4 times in a row. Texted. no response. Fantastic, and right on par for the tone of the afternoon.
I then resorted to calling Adam's co-worker's wife to see if she could call her hubby at work and ask him to tell Adam to call me. Her hubby was already at home. But, she did happen to have their boss's cell number. I used it. Awkward. SO awkward.
Meanwhile, inside the homestead, Avarie was dancing around the kitchen singing, "Mommy open door? Nooooo! hahaha". and knocking on the door at me while laughing hysterically.
While waiting for Adam to call me back after my super fun convo with his boss, I went around to each of the house doors to check to see if, by some miracle, one was left unlocked. No dice. But, while at the sliding glass door I had a stroke of genius. I faked a game of 'hide and go seek'. I called out to her that I was hiding and she needed to come find me. The whole time, I was working overtime to feign easy, breezy, calmness as not to alert her to my ulterior motives and cause her run the other way. She took the bait. Once she was at the glass door, I coached her through the process removing the security bar and unlocking the door. SUCCESS!! Downside, she now knows how to open the sliding glass door.
That little gem of an experience served as a not so subtle reminder that I am the mother of a cherubic, genius, trickster. Never a dull moment!!

The culprit,  all cowed up for free meal day at Chick Fil A.

Such a Ham!

It's Official

I don't know how to work this new fangled (or maybe it's old fangled by now, who cares) Blogger technology enough to get the background and blog header that I want to actually show up on my live blog. I am now annoyed to the point of indifference.

In other news. It's summer, it's hot, and I love it. Mostly, I love it because I hide indoors until the heat subsides enough to make a jaunt outside bearable for longer than 10-15 minutes at a time. Avarie and I frequently go for short walks to the end of the block and back or sit on her tiny bench on the front porch eating popcicles and watching the birds fly from tree to tree. We venture to the store or the park a few times a week, nothing monumental. All in all, we are a generally a laid-back pair, however, upon review of our recent daily activities I've concluded that I've morphed into an overly boring, tired, pregnant mom. EW. Sorry Aves, we're living life in the slow lane this summer.

Avarie is still a BUSY, creative, adventurous, smart, and very determined little girl.  I love her personality. She keeps me constantly on my toes, whether I want to be or not. Most days, lately, I have not wanted to be. These are the days I notice that she gets WAY more amped up than ususal. Getting in to EVERYTHING (especially things she knows, beyond a shadow of a doubt, are forbidden) and teasing me to no end. Yeah you read that right, she teases me. She even lets me know she's teasing me by cheerfully chirping, "I teasing Mommy!! (giggles) Mommy getting grumpy gills*!" She then makes a mocking grumpy gills face at me.
*For inquiring minds, grumpy gills live on both sides of one's neck and can only be removed by kissing, tickling, or nose nuzzling them away.

Thankfully, her Mother Gothel phase has seemingly come to an end, I hope. For a week or two, every time I corrected her behavior in any way, shape, or form, Avarie would call me Mother Gothel, as in, the evil, kidnapping, spiteful mother from the movie Tangled. She would then sing, "Mother knows best", whenever put in time out. At first I thought that Avarie must not realize that by calling me Mother Gothel she was effectively insinuating that I share similar evil traits with said antagonist, she is only just barely 2 after all. That is, until I questioned her a little more about dear Mother Gothel. She told me, in no uncertain terms, that, "Mother Gofel is Punzle's meeeean mommy!"  Glad we cleared that up.

Avarie is getting pretty good at the whole potty training thing these days. We haven't had to change a poopy diaper in over 2 weeks at this point. No one is complaining. The need to pee is a little harder for her to control/recognize. Up until this week I have just had her in pull ups and I try to take her to the potty every 20-30 mins and she stayed dry as long as I remembered to take her. It's the remembering part that is hard for me. So this week, I've had her in dresses with a nakey booty everyday and I keep the timer on my phone set for 20 mins. When the timer goes off, we drop what we're doing and head to the potty. She is doing great! She's only had 2 accidents so far and luckily, both of them were outside :) She gets the choice of 1 jelly bean or 1 cinderella fruit snack every few times she goes in the potty to help keep her motivation on the up and up. Hopefully, we'll rid ourselves of daytime diapers before the summer ends.

Update on Ave's feeding disorder situation...it seems (knock on wood) that our situation has come to an end!!! She has been slowly and steadily improving over the last year or so, but we saw a marked improvement since we moved into our new house in May.  We haven't had any uncontrolled, unearthly, exorcist-like vomiting in months AND Avarie eats like a champ these days! She eats regular meals and snacks with gusto and generally always eats a healthy amount. I've finally stopped mentally calorie counting, like a crazy person, to make sure she's getting enough of her daily intake and I feel comfortable trusting that she will respond to her appetite appropriately on her own. WHEEEEEEW!!!  I think back on the really dark days of dealing with failure to thrive, constant vomiting, refusal to eat, feeding therapy, constant Dr appointments, weight checks, and the looming threat of having to put in a surgical feeding tube and it all seems like a distant nightmare now. I am so glad that she is doing well and learning to listen to her body's hunger cues on her own! Adam and I marvel daily at her progress and feel so lucky to have had the support of awesome family, friends, and care providers to help Avarie thrive, and thrive she has!

 Some eye candy to wrap things up...

Halloweens of Yester Year

Last year, Avaire's official Halloween costume was chosen by Adam. He felt that since Avarie and I are both May babies (My b-day is the 13th and her's is the 16th) and thus were almost the exact same age on our 1st Halloweens, it would be only fitting for us to have the same 1st Halloween costumes.  So Avarie became the world's most adorable bunny rabbit for her first Halloween.

Avarie the bunny, Oct. 31, 2011

Megan the bunny, Oct. 31, 1980

Avarie's 1st Halloween costume #2 (because every baby NEEEEEEDS 2 Halloween costumes, obvi.) was Tinkerbell (Daddy also picked this one).  What can we say, it was on sale, it was adorable, she is adorable...the 2 were made for each other!

StinkerBell, Oct. 19, 2011

Avarie's official Halloween for this year? Tinkerbell- again! Her costume from last year, size 3-6 months, STILL fits! So our tiny lady will rock the lime green sparkles and wings once again. Lucky for us she loves wearing it!

Stinkerbell, Sept. 19, 2012

And some more adorableness just for added measure...

Stinkerbell hard at play.

The Stink and Daddy, sooooo cute!!

Love this girl!!

...And the Living is Easy...

Summer time was been slow and easy here at the Hughestead, and yet, I still never found (i.e. made) time to blog. So consider this a make up sesh in the form of a massive photo dump.

We hiked the White Pine trail up Little Cottonwood Canyon 1.5 times. 

It was brutal but so worth it!

We took Avarie to Lagoon.

Jury is still out on whether or not she loved it.

Avarie and Daddy pre-ride numero uno.

She decided to take up boating.

 We went Swimming...a lot!

 We played with Daddy, cousins, and friends

Cousin Katie adds style to any situation!

Happy 4th of July. Have some water, it's HOT out there!

We love visits from B-Swan and Natty B!

I had a fun night out with the ladies...and some turtles :)

Okay, this is all the photo dumping I can handle for now. More later...maybe.