Continually Busy

As we continue to prepare for the arrival of baby brother, it seems our life as a family of 3 (well, really 5 counting Bo and Bentley) has become very busy.  Perhaps it's just the warmer weather that makes us think we need to be doing more around the house, or more probably the fact that baby brother is coming to us in less than four months.  Whatever the reason, it seems our days are a lot fuller than they were just a few weeks ago.

Two weekends ago, Chris took care of cleaning out baby brother's room.  This included getting a large computer desk and couch through the very narrow doorway and down our even narrower stairway.  With the help of our brother-in-law this happened.  I did not touch a thing.  This past weekend Chris took care of painting and steam cleaning brother's room.  We are now officially ready to start putting some furniture in there.  We have yet to buy any furniture.  We are still trying to decide what to do with Avery as far as moving her into a big girl bed or letting her continue to stay in her crib.  She has been sleeping so well and does not try to climb out or fuss or anything, so I'm kind of thinking, if it's not broke, don't fix it.  We'll see what happens in the next couple of weeks.

We have also slowed down on the potty training.  I guess stopped is the more correct term.  Avery was doing so well every night before her bath.  She would sit down and do her business, but getting her off her potty chair became such an emotional event that it felt like we were pushing her a little too hard to do something she wasn't quite ready for.  Tears, screaming, and pleading do not feel like part of the natural process so we will try again when she shows more signs of wanting to try herself.

Avery turned 20 months on Monday.  I can't believe we're closing in on 2 years.  She has become quite the chatterbug, repeating pretty much anything we ask her to.  Her latest saying is "thank you" which I'm very proud of, but also a little clueless where she hears it from so much.  I try to have manners with her, but she really surprises me with what she picks up.  She can pretty well name all our relatives when shown a picture.  She is very familiar with Nick's picture; she points at it, says Nick, then points to her neck.  Nick, neck, close enough.  Also, since Uncle Sam came to visit a couple of weeks ago, now everytime we go over to Mom's, she asks about "Sham."  Too cute!

Lastly, I am 21 weeks pregnant today.  I've been feeling really good but am still napping after lunch while Avery naps too.  I've started waking up again in the middle of the night with all kinds of crazy, random thoughts floating through my head, but I know that's part of the package deal.  Baby brother is moving all the time, not kicking as much as Avery did, but kneeing and pushing his way around.  He sleeps pretty well at night with me, so I'm hopeful when he comes, he'll not be quite as big a night owl as our beautiful blond haired girl.  I'll leave you with a few recent pics of Avery:

Modeling Mom's Laguna Beach sunglasses.

Helping Charlie walk around the kitchen.

Still helping.  She was destined to be a big sister!

I don't know what our family's obsession with maple syrup is, but this is the first thing she goes and gets from Ron and Pam's cabinet.