Baby Scene

Okay completely addicted to creating Baby Scene's now! Got the idea from a fellow mom and immediatly had to try it! It is harder than it looks to come up with props and to get babe to not want to move. Here is my first attempt:

Why mother's kiss their babies

A friend posted This on facebook and I just love it...who can resist kissing their precious babe. Awesome to read all of the benefits to mom and baby :)

NB long weekend!

We are busy packing to head to PEI for the long weekend! We are very excited to take Kaiden to Cavendish beach and Av's longest trip so far. I will be sure to post lots of pics when we return!

Weighed and Measured Av yesterday and she is 18.4 pounds (fully clothes and diapered) and 25 inches long. So she is our short chubby girl he he..25-50th percentile for height and 95th percentile for weight!

Teeth!

Tooth # 2!

We had a long night last night with Avarie waking every hour or so. She was soothed with a soother but would wake again in about an hour or two. She wasn't showing signs of hunger just seemed uncomfortable. Well this morning we found out why as her second tooth has come through! I have been attempting to get a picture, but busy baby and trying to focus a camera isn't the easiest task!

Warning-Breastfeeding post

Avarie has been exclusivly breastfed since birth and it has been a wonderful experience for both of us :) I cannot express how amazing the experience has been. I purchased a breastpump and began pumping in order to maintain my milk supply as well as have milk on hand for the occasions where we need to give a bottle of expressed milk. She doesn't get a bottle often as we both enjoy nursing and she is a bit of a mamma's girl so has only been away from me a few times and not for long. I will say though we are lucky as she takes a bottle like a pro as well. Anyway the point of this post was to talk about my pump which is a first years pump. I love it and found it to be much more comfortable than my old pump that I had with my son. I purchased it at walmart and unfortunatly the pump stopped working twice. (I use it every single day) I have returned it both times (second time they gave me a hard time but did return it). This time I purchased the double pump as I am pumping both sides every day so maybe this one will last longer! I am very fortunate to have a freezer full of expressed milk and am very proud of how much I have been able to save. Avarie will be starting solids in August when she reaches six months so I have lots of milk in order to mix into her cereal etc.

Crafts and Online shopping for the kiddies

My SIL kindly bought Kaiden a wonderful birthday gift consisting of a large bucket full of craft supples! It had enough to do just about any kind of craft! So we have been spending our rainy days painting, colouring, gluing etc. Also in response to Kaiden's struggle with independence and jealousy after Avarie's arrival, we did up a sticker chart last week. In an attempt to teach Kaiden about positive reinforcement and rewarding/consequencing we thought this chart might help. Together each night we pull his chart off the fridge and place stickers according to the behaviours/chores he completed that day. So far he is doing wonderful! His reward for 30/35 stickers at the end of the week is to choose a fun activitiy for the family to do together ex: visit a playground, get an icecream etc. I will keep posting about his progress!
Lately I have been doing a fair amount of online shopping, I will admit! I recently purchased a few books for Kaiden from the Berenstain Bears collection which I loved as a child. The stories relate to some of Kaiden's current challenges/fears. For example we recently purchased "bad dreams" and "too much junk food" We are hoping to explain to Kaiden the importance of healthy eating and fewer "treats". I also purchased This which looks like fun and is great to throw in the purse for restaurants, appointments etc.
For Avarie I have been doing a bit of online shopping as well. My last purchases for her were this as well as these  Looking forward to the mail for the next couple of weeks!

Av's first camping trip

This weekend we went camping in Moncton for Avarie's first trip. It was a very successful weekend! We went with my sister in Law, her husband and our beautiful niece and had a lot of fun! Avarie and Kaiden were very well behaved and slept great in the trailer! We visited the zoo and the boardwalk and tried to remain cool as it was close to 40 degrees on Saturday! Avarie also tried her first sippy cup with water and loved it!

Beginning

Hi All! Thought I would like to start documenting some of what our lives consist of on a day to day basis. I thought it would be fun to have this to look back on and I used to love keeping a journal so am continuing to journal however decided to join the online blogger community! My name is Brandi and I am married to a wonderful man who is my high school sweetheart. We met in 2000 and dated for 6 years before marrying July 8, 2006 :) I got pregnant shortly after we were married and gave birth to a beautiful baby boy Kaiden David on May 13th, 2007. We were blessed once again on February 24th, 2011 when I gave birth to our beautiful princess Avarie Carole Marie. Right now I am on maternity leave and enjoying spending time at home with my wonderful children. We live in a beautiful friendly neighbourhood with lots of kids in a home we built in 2008. This blog will mainly talk about my children and stages in their lives. We are raising them the best way we know how and are very much enjoying this chapter in our lives as parents.