HRCS

Today was Ava's 3rd day (PreK) & Kylie's 2nd day (PreK 3) at HRCS. Ava begged me to let them out in the drop off line because she really wanted to walk Kylie to her class. I convinced her to let me walk them to the main gate where I could watch them walk to class. As Ava took Kylie's hand to walk off the class, Kylie looked up at Ava and said "this is the best day ever!!!". Ava then held tightly onto Kylie and walked her to the door of her class (they have never in the past held onto each other for that long). When they got to the door of Kylie's class, Ava made sure that Ms Liz saw Kylie and then walked across the courtyard to her own class like a big girl, waving goodbye to me. It was the cutest big sister-little sister moment. So precious!!!


Tonight Ava asked my when Daddy was going in another trip so she could sleep with me. She asked why mommies have to sleep with their husbands...and said that husbands poor a lot! LOL! She also told me that the reason she doesn't like to sleep on Moe's side is because he pooted last night.

Kylie had her first dance class tonight and loved it! She kept saying "I love my dance class!" :-)

Siblings will be siblings

We've had a fun weekend with all four of our kiddos.  We picked up Gabby on Friday and she spent the weekend with us.  She and I got some to spend some QT together today as I took her shopping with me to find an outfit for Derby.  She picked out a really cute belt to go with my outfit and finish it off.  She does have an eye for fashion and there's nothing like a child's honesty to let you know if you really look as cute in something as you think you might.  As I was trying on some pants, she did ask me why she could see all the veins in my legs.  Good thing I'm going to the Florida this weekend.  I guess I need a little tan :-). 

Ava loves Gabby and when she's here with us.  It's so sweet.  Kylie does too.  Although there is quite an age gap, the younger ones love having their big sister around.  I look forward to watching them grow and hopefully become best friends! 

We also started making plans for our 10 year wedding anniversary.  We told Gabby that since she wasn't able to be a part of our first wedding, we will do it again and all the kids can be a part of it.  Gabby has already started to think of bridesmaids dress colors :)  It will be fun to do that with them!

"What the...!?!?!"

Kylie
A few weeks ago, Ava started saying "What the...!?!?" a lot!  So today, Kylie, my baby of few words started saying it today..over and over again.  She and Ava are truly examples of "monkey see, monkey do.."  Even though I hate referring to black people, especially children, as monkeys. 
 
Ava
Ava had her first teeball game tonight.  She has missed pretty much all of the practices so was pretty confused about the entire process...my poor baby.  I was so very, very proud of her though, because she stayed on the field the entire time...crying at times...but stayed out there. I took her for her first McDonald's hot fudge Sunday after that.  She really liked it! :)  After we got home from her game, Uncle Chris was at our house (they LOOVE their Uncle Chris!)  Somehow we started talking about Mom's and Ava reminded Chris (as if he didn't know) that his Mommy is in Heaven.  Then she told him, "You're going to see her in Heaven....tonight...Jesus is coming to get you."  LOL...Chris didn't like that too much.  He told me if he dies in his sleep tonight that I better take her to see Oprah.  That girl is funny!



 Aaron
Aaron's scooting has advanced quite a bit over just the past two days.  Since he won't stay on his belly, he is really not interested in crawling but tonight we found out just how far he can scoot.  I was in the bathroom with Ava and Kylie getting them ready to take their baths and helping them to potty first.  We had been in there a few minutes and Aaron was in their bedroom about 7 feet from the bathroom door.  My mother's instinct started to kick in (because he was so quiet in there and I remembered how much more quickly he was beginning to scoot) and I asked Ava to go check on Aaron.  As Ava looked out of the bathroom door to check on him, Ava said, "Mommy, he's trying to get into the bathroom!!"  He was sitting right at the bathroom door looking at us like, "Why did ya'll leave me in that room by myself?"  :-)  Ava was a scooter too, then she went to a one knee crawl like sweet pea from Popeye :)

Today was a good day :)

First Teeball game...almost

Today was a pretty busy day although the only thing on the agenda was Ava's first Teeball game. She loooves to run and Moe and I think she's pretty fast. But the catching, throwing and batting part...she can take or leave all that! The game ended up being rained out but we'll see how Wednesday's game goes. When we got home, Moe told the girls he is leaving town tomorrow for a few days. Ava said "where are you going?". And Moe said "I have to go work,". Ava said, "I said WHERE are you going?". LOL! She is growing up so fast :(

So evidently it's love bug season down here. I took the kids to the grocery store with me which, at their current ages, is always interesting. Even at the grocery store, these love bugs were EVERYWHERE!! In the parking lot flying around, in the grocery cart, in the grocery store...it was nuts! And poor Ava after her attack from that wasp yesterday is really over all these bugs. After a lot of whining, we finally made it out of the store in one piece.

Aaron has officially mastered the scoot! He isn't crawling but he has the amazing scoot that can get him from point A to point B pretty quickly! And I swear he tried to say ball today. He loves balls already!

Traveling

Lately I have been traveling a lot with the kids by myself. It is challenging at times because we have to make sure we eat, change diapers and Kylie is still potty training. Last week as we were headed to KY, Kylie heard the pilot say Kentucky and she said "Tucky...mommy Tucky". She also says "I love Tucky" and "Thank you much" instead of " Thank you very much"

Some random things happened today though. Kylie Hit Ava in the head with Thomas the train and got in big trouble for that. In the car, I was trying to explain to Ava that Kylie doesn't mean to hurt her. Ava said. I love Kylie very much but I just don't like when she hits me.". So sad...

Aaron was trying to touch everyone and/or give high fives all the way down the aisle as we boarded the plane :)

When we got home from the airport, Ava had been playing on the swingset less than a minute when a wasp went in her shirt and stung her twice on the chest and once on her hand. I was stung while I was pregnant with her and still remember how painful that was. I felt so bad for her!! But she was a Little champ. She was finished crying within 3 mins and playing with Kylie within 10 :) Later on after falling outside and then running into the corner of some furniture in the family room she came and sat next to me on the couch and said "I don't think I can take much more of this." Bless her heart!

Twinkle Toes

Kylie & Ava got their first pairs of Twinkle Toes shoes a few months ago but evidently their a little bright for Kylie. Early one morning, it was still dark and I was going to put them on her and they started to "twinkle" all the colors in the dark. Kylie quickly covered her yes with the back of her hand as if she was being flashed with the brightest light she had ever seen and let out a "Oooooh" to go along with it. Girls can be quite dramatic.

Been Forever

For the sake of my kids, I'm going to do better with this. With the addition of Aaron (Clarence Aaron Moore, III) in combination with our move to Louisiana, our days are extremely hectic! Ava goes to school Tue-Thurs while currently Kylie and Aaron are home with the babysitter while I work from home. Kylie is extremely strong-willed. She eats when she wants to and refuses to start learning to use the potty...ughhh! Ava is smart and very sensitive. Aaron is laid back, loves to be talked to and loves watching his big sisters run around him being loud and wild.

FCOTD (Funny Comment(s) Of The Day): Kylie was sitting in my lap as I was combing out her hair after washing it tonight and pooted. She turned around and gasped like she was really suprised and then looked at my with a very concerned look on her face and said "You poopy?" LOL...she looked like she was really worried about me.

Another funny thing that happened was as I was sitting on the couch nursing Aaron, I saw Ava playing with her baby and then hold it up to her nipple as if she were really nursing it....I mean it was the perfect nursing cradle position :) I had to try so hard no to laugh.

Last week, we were Family of the Day at Ava's school. We did a short presentation where we shared Ava's favorite Song (Never Say Never..Justin Bieber/Jaden Smith), favorite book (Goldilicious) and her favorite snack (Strawberry & chocoloate cupcakes). We also showed her class 5 pics of her family and her friends from her old school in Kentucky which she affectionately calls "my Oak School."

Feb 2010 update

Kylie is officially in week 2 of daycare. It's hard because she hasn't reallly been sleeping at all there so when she gets home she's sooo sleepy and doesn't really spend any time with me :-( Makes it one of the hardest parts of being a working mom because this time goes by so fast and each day matters. Patti reminded me that I felt the same way about Ava, so I know it'll get better.

Yesterday at my mom's house, we were about to leave:
Ava - "Mommie, let's go...leave Kylie"
Me - "You want me to leave Kylie here?"
Ava - "Yeah, leave Kylie"

Then this morning I realized how careful I have to be about what I say and how I react to things. Thank God I don't curse! Moe had helped me bring the girls down to get ready to leave and as usual, I was running late. So I go to get Kylie's car seat carrier and realize that Moe didn't strap her in, he had just set her down in the car seat. I got frustrated and made a loud grunting noise.
Ava - "What happened Mommie?"
Me - "Oh nothing, Kylie's car seat isn't fastened and I need to fix it." then she asked me like 3 other times. "What happened to Kylie's carseat?" So I realized again this morning that I really have to watch what I say and how I say it. My girl is a very intelligent and perceptive little talker. I'm just a typical, proud Mommie!!

More to come...

I will soon be updating the blog with some of our holiday photos, but just to give an update. Little Miss Kylie is doing well...growing and growing. I predict she may be like 6'2" because she is sooo long. My Doctor predicted Ava will be 6'0" but since he doesn't really look at that until they turn two, he can't do Kylie's prediction yet. Kylie is already almost 15 lbs. (14lbs 11 oz) to be exact and she'll be 4 months on Sunday, 1-17. She is already in 6 month clothes mostly because of how long she is. She is a very sweet baby and loves to talk and laugh.

This picture was taken a few days ago. Patti and Drad got them those matching outfits for Christmas so I was dying to get a picture of them. So we did our best to make Ava sit down and prop Kylie up next to her. Well at one point, Ava just decided to get up and of course Kylie just toppled over in this cushy chair, Thank God she didnt topple forward!! So that explains the look on Kylie's face :-)

Ava's Fears

It has been much tougher than I thought to keep up with this, but I'll get the hang of it and now that I'm back at work, I'm hoping to get a chance to jot some funny moments down every now and then.

So the topic of this post is Ava's fears. I'm really starting to worry about my little girl because she is afraid of SO MANY odd things!

1.) Random noises...which include the potty timer (like a kitchen timer) and the buzzer at her Daddy's basketball games. The buzzer terrifies her! It's really sad the way she jumps and grabs hold of you when she hears it. I mean it is very loud and happens very frequently at a basketball game, but I mean she cries and asks to go bye bye and everything! So, needless to say, last Saturday was her last game until we go down to Atlanta. I just can't put her through it anymore. After being traumatized at the game on Saturday, she told me repeatedly "I don't like Daddy's game, it scares me." So sad :-( And last night as I was leaving to go to a game, she got sad and said "Mommie, I wanna go with you" and I said, "Well, I'm going to Daddy's game and you don't like Daddy's game." She said..."Bye Bye Mommie!"

2.) Ella in her Wizard of Oz Lion costume. Somehow, even though she knows it's Ella, she is very scared.

3.) Things floating in the bathtub. At first it was the white Dove liquid soap that happens to float in the tub then she saw a piece of her hair and that really freaked her out too. In both cases she literally started crying and yellling "HOLD YOU!" (which is what she says when she wants to be picked up) and tried jumping out of the tub. Whew.....

4.) Any little things on the ground that in any way resembles a bug!


It's so sad, I'm going to start praying for her to be less fearful because at this rate, she is going to have a really hard time :-(

Our First Few weeks with Miss Kylie

Kylie is 8 weeks old today. She is the worst sleeper in the history of all newborns...okay maybe not that bad, but it's ROUGH! From her 2nd week until about a week and a half ago, there was rarely a night when I didn't see every hour on the clock, but she is getting better. Only now, she won't let you put her down pretty much from about 5:00 am on, so if I want sleep, I have to hold her...which can be preeeetty uncomfortable.

Ava can be pretty rough with her sister so figuring out how to react and not over-react has been a challenge, but I can tell by the way they look at each other that they will be BEST FRIENDS!!! When Kylie is upset it's sweet to see how seeing Ava and hearing her voice can sometimes calm Kylie down. Last night they were laying on the bed together and Ava is saying to Kylie..."Waaaassup Kylie...Waaaasup!" Today was Ava's and my first day leaving Kylie with my mom and going somewhere without her. When we got to the car, Ava said "I want Kylie"...I LOVE IT!!!

Kylie Lynn Moore's Birth Day

This is the Labor and Delivery story of Moe's and my 2nd child together (Kylie Lynn Moore).



That Wednesday night before started off like many other nights at home for Ava, Moe and myself. Although, I had been having some sort of contractions since Monday, I assumed they were Braxton Hicks although (as my sister-in-law reminded me) that was silly because at 40 wks, they're not considered Braxton Hicks anymore...they're the real thing. But they would be close and then go away for a long time and they weren't painful at all. So Wednesday after putting Ava to bed, I was washing dishes around 8:30 when I realized I was having some contractions again. Since, I had been having them all day, I wasn't paying much attention to them yet. I was more concerned with determining how I would style my hair after I washed it so I didn't look crazy in my post-delivery pics...you'll see later how that came out...not good :-) So I went on and washed my hair realizing that I was still having contractions.

After I washed my hair, it was about 9:45 pm and I was thinking....hmmmm....I better start timing these. I started timing them for the next hour and they were never any more than 5 mins a part. Still kinda in denial that I was going into labor, I called my sister and asked her what she thought. She told me I should try to stay at home as long as possible, but to call the doctor. When he called me back he told me that 5 mins or less is pretty consistent and to see what happened in the next 1/2 hr and come in if nothing changed. Meanwhile, my husband is pretty much KNOCKED OUT during all of this and to be honest, I don't think he really thought anything was really happening. He was soooo tired after having early morning workouts with his team the entire week before and earlier that week. I had to ask him like 3 times to put my and Ava's bags in the car. Over the next 1/2 hr, not only did the contractions continue, but they started to get just a little bit painful.

At this point, it was about 11:15 pm and we called my mom so she could come get Ava and take her to her house to be with my dad. As I waited for my mom to arrive, Moe slept and I tried to make sure I had everything I needed...well the contractions started to HURT. But that didn't stop me, I knew they were going to starve me of food and drink when I got to the hospital so I made sure to eat before I went :-) My mom arrived around 11:45 pm so we were able to leave for the hospital about midnight.


About 3 minutes out on the way to the hospital, my water breaks....YES...sitting in the car. I had no idea what it was supposed to feel like, but there was no mistake due to the sheer amount...that my water had definitely broken. (Thankfully we were in my car and not in Moe's fairly new car...with cloth seats). Well, of course I knew that if your water breaks you need to go to the hospital so thankfully we were already on the way. What I did NOT know was that once your water breaks, it continues to leak, trickle...gush sometimes....whatever, but it isn't over after the initial whatever it is. Interesting...and...GROSS! Mostly because I had on sweat pants and everyoneknows that sitting in wet sweat pants is extremely uncomfortable. So still not realizing I'm going to continue to lose fluid, we pull up the the hospital and I get in a wheelchair while Moe goes to park the car and get our things. While he's parking a security guard sees me outside waiting and comes to wheel me up to Triage. As the chair starts moving, more and more fluid is coming out. So much that I begin leaving a trail in the lobby of the hospital, then onto the elevator and finally all the way in to the Triage area. Sooooo embarassing! And yes I know I'm not the first one but it was still embarassing. NO one prepared me for that!! After Moe came back from registering me, he told me "you shut down the elevator"...GREAT! He knows exactly what to say. Then as I was being wheeled to the Labor & Delivery room, there was this HUGE cleaning machine cleaning up and he said "they had to break out the big machine to clean your mess"...WOW...REALLY?!?!?

From then on my mom came and by 2:30 am I had my epidural....ahhh!!! Although, that was a little crazy because I think a Resident Anesthesiologist was doing my epidural because it took her FOREVER and there was another doctor coaching her through it. Very strange, but 3 contractions having to stay completely still later, it was done and I have barely been in any pain since then.

The only scary moment was after the nurse deermined I was 10 cm and ready to go, she told me to do a practice push (for future refernce ladies....I'd say NO if a nurse asks if you want to do that). Evidentally it pushed Kylie's head into the birth canal before the "real" pushing began and her heart rate was dropping they suspected because her head was being squeezed (this is why I have the oxygen mask on in the pics). But, Moe said a prayer and all went well. She was here 10 mins later. That's the story!!! Another wonderful Moore BLESSING; I'm thankful God is allowing us to parent another one of his awesome creations!!

See ALL the pics including Kylie meeting Big Sis!
http://www1.snapfish.com/share/p=10221253652257391/l=2035904012/g=84374496/otsc=SYE/otsi=SALB

A few pics of Ava in Her New Dress

These pics are from before church last weekend. You can't tell my baby she didn't look cute in her new dress her Mimi sent her from Louisiana :-)

Yes, that is a bow!!

"Look how tall I am!!"

"You mean stand like this, Mommie?"

"Okay, enough Mommie, I can't be still anymore"

The Waiting Game...

I Think I'm Finally Ready and Here's Why...
So baby Kylie is due to arrive THIS Thursday! It has gone by quickly and honestly I have been in no hurry for her to arrive because I feel like I have to have absolutely EVERYTHING in order at home before she comes. Even over the weekend people would say to me, "Oh...I bet you are so ready..." and I'm thinking "No, not really".....that was until last night.

I normally take water with me to bed because I wake up soooo thirsty throughout the night, but I realized that when I do that, I end up drinking a lot of water throughout the night which makes me have to wake up almost every hour to use the bathroom. So, last night I decided not to take any water to bed with me. Well, about 3:00 am I woke up REALLY thirsty and decided to go downstairs to get something to drink. Well on my way down the steps (in the dark...I figured I know my house well enough that I didn't need any lights on), I somehow missed the last 1...or 2 steps....ooops! Down I went faster than I realized what was really happening. I caught myself with my hands and right knee...THANK YOU JESUS! But after I calmed down from the suprise of falling, I sat up and I told Kylie....OK, it's time for you to come on now! :-)

Ava Preparing for Her Little Sister...

Every few days or so as we put up something new for Kylie, Ava has to break it in. It started with her crib. Once we had it set up and moved to it's position in Kylie's room, Ava was jumping all in it and pretending to go to sleep in it.

Next was the Pack 'n Play bassinet (which she does recognize as her bed when we travel out of town). She only needed one night to break that in and once we moved it to the edge of our room, she wasn't as interested anymore. The double stroller was fine for her to break in because technically it belongs as much to her as it does Kylie.

Finally, tonight she arrived home from her day with Mema and Grandad and sees Kylie's infant seat; newly washed and set-up. She immediately tries to climb in....successfully. Then I suggest she put her baby in there....that only works for a few minutes and for the next 30+ minutes, she proceeds to make sure its all broken in for her sister :-)

The rest of Crazy Fun Week at Ava's Daycare

So I'm a little behind posting pics of Ava's "Crazy Fun Week" at her daycare. Her new thing is "Come on Mommie.....Come on!!!" Which is great because she gets excited about going to see her friends Isabella, Marleigh, Jaden & Ava Parsons at school. It's a MUCH MUCH better feeling than the mornings we have the tearful good-byes or with her grabbing my leg or her teacher having to just take her from me....much, much better. OH and the cutest thing was last night, my Aunt Jeneene had received some bad news from her doctor, so Mema took Ava over to visit her while Moe and I were in our last Dave Ramsey Financial Peace class and she had a BALL visiting with my Aunt. As we were leaving, we had just finished praying for Aunt Jeneene and we were telling Ava to tell her good-bye and she gave her a kiss and said "Bye Neene...I love you...Ima miss you!" It's the first time she spontaneously told anyone she'd miss them. It's amazing how God uses tiny children to lift our spirits. It was a blessing to see.

So as far as our pics from Crazy Fun Week....Tuesday was "Pajama Day" Ava wasn't very cooperative with the pics, but we did our best...

We don't have a pic for Wednesday because it was mis-match day. You were supposed to let them pick out their own clothes, but she wasn't the least bit interested in doing that so it was a normal day for us.

Thursday was "Crazy Hair" day. I took her to school with her bed-head, afro-liscious look, but when I got there to pick her up, her teachers had given her a multi-ponytail mohawk....interesting. They don't know my baby needs a tad bit of grease to control that hair. :-)

Friday was "Favorite Sports Team" day. So of course Ava had to rep the school that pays the bills :-) She was a little Kentucky State Thorobred and she looked adorable! (ignore our un-made bed and hair supplies in the background)

I'm so thankful for my children! This weekend (assuming I don't go into labor) we'll be finishing up Kylie's room and cleaning, cleaning, cleaning period. I think I'm in serious nesting mode...this didn't happen with Ava so I dunno....

Is my name Mommie or Aunt Lynn??

After a rough weekend of having to sleep with Ava's feet in my back (she had some kinda 48 hr virus over the weekend or she was teething...hard to tell) it's good to have my Ava back to her wild self this Monday morning and sleeping in her own bed. Although, most Monday mornings, she's with Mema and Grandad, they're in NY with Allan's kids so she gets to participate fully in her "Crazy Fun Week" at her daycare. After a week with 8 out of 14 of her cousins, she sometimes now prefers to call me "Aunt Lynn" out of the blue. She knows what she's doing too especially when I try to correct her by slowly saying "MOMMIE," she smiles and says "Aunt Lynn" anyway. So this morning she hands me her sippy cup and said "I want juice Aunt Lynn" :-/ She did melt my heart on Saturday though, when she looked up at me unprompted with a very serious look on her face and said "I lul (LOVE) you Mommie" She's soooo sweet!

Well today for Crazy Fun Week was "Dress in Red" day. It may look like she's dressed a little warmly for Aug. 31st, but it was 55 degrees here this morning and I can't have a sick toddler with a newborn on the way! Speaking of the newborn, Kylie, she is so big that I feel like I can literally feel the pain of my stomach strectching sometime....but it's all worth it! I can't wait to meet her....15 days and counting....

My First Post

Everyday I thank God for my family -- extended and immediate. Having children has given a new meaning to feeling BLESSED! My now 20-month old daughter Ava makes me laugh EVERY DAY and when we are fortunate enough to have my step-daughter Gabby with us, it is difficult to go more than 5 minutes without a good laugh! I wanted to start this blog so that they can have a place to see all of the funny and difficult moments of their childhood. I figured this might be better for me to keep up with than journaling....we shall see :-)

This morning....I was actually in the midst of a bad dream when I hear through the baby monitor at around 5:50 am:

Ava: "Mommie.....Mommie.....Mooooommmmie," then a few seconds later..."Mommie....where are you? where are you?" and then when I walk in her room, as she does most mornings, "Hi, Mommie" and hands me her sippy cup which somehow she slept with last night (don't know how that happened b/c it was her cup from the night before last???)

She is quite the talker already. It's no suprise though having myself and Moe for parents.