Teething Machine

According to A's baby book (er, the notes Sara has been taking to someday put in her baby book), Ashley's first tooth (bottom right) started poking through a little bit on May 29.  Her bottom left tooth slit started on June 13.  Well low and behold, upper right followed pretty quickly.  Here it is on June 24!

With Trevor his first two bottom teeth were in at 5.5 months old and his first upper tooth didn't appear until 7 months.  Mommy thought Ashley's upper teeth would wait the 6 week lag too, but nope.  She's such an overachiever.  Guess we'll have to start reading 'Teeth are not for Biting' soon so she doesn't get any ideas when nursing!!

Luckily she's been pretty good with teething.  She's not really fussy but does have her hands in her mouth constantly.  Sometimes we give her Tylenol or Ibuprofen before bed but not always.  And she's sleeping great!  Bed around 8.  Sleeps until 6, nurses then goes back to sleep until 9am.  Mommy remembers well when Trevor did this too because she got to go back to sleep.  With two kids that doesn't work so well :)

'Single Mommy'/Wedding Weekend

Daddy went to Syracuse, NY for his cousin's wedding and you know what they say....'when the cat is away the mouse will play' and that's exactly what Mommy, Trevor and Ashley did :)  On Friday when Trevor was at school, Mommy and Ashley went to music class and then down to Fashion Square mall with their friend Julie and daughter Remy to do some shopping and have lunch.  

As you can see Ashley was really excited about one of the purchases.  Yum, tags!

Friday night when we got Trevor from school he said 'woo hoo, it's time to go to Chuck E Cheese and the mall.'  Guess we knew what he wanted to do!  So we went home quick and Mommy ordered the pizza ahead of time.  When we pulled up to the pizza place Trevor said 'this isn't where I wanted to go.  I want to go to the place with the purple sign and the big mouse.' Is he serious?!?!?  Wow!  Here Mommy thought Peter Piper Pizza and Chuck E Cheese were the same thing.  Apparently not!  Well, we went anyway and after just a little pouting he (and Mommy and Ashley) had a ton of fun.

Trevor proudly pushed Ashley around to different things while Mommy got everything together.  He loves being her big brother!  He also pushed her to the table he wanted to sit at.  Too cute!

On one machine he put the token in and it fell right into the bonus cup and he scored 200 or so tickets (pure luck, there was no strategy with when he put in the token)!  He couldn't believe that tickets just kept coming out of the machine!

When it was time to go Trevor wanted to feed the ticket machine all by himself.  He did pretty good!  He had over 500 tickets to spend so he picked a 'shoot thing' (to quote Trevor) then decided to save the rest of the tickets to spend another time!

Friday night bedtime was a breeze because Trevor was so tired.  Ashley, well she was probably over tired and Mommy decided while Daddy was out of town that she would train Ashley to fall asleep on her own rather than be rocked or bounced to sleep.  Mommy surely doesn't mind the extra time putting her to sleep every night but it was time for her to learn how fall asleep by herself.  Well as you can imagine she wasn't too happy about this new routine.  She fussed off an on for 45 long minutes until she finally fell asleep. Thank goodness!

On Saturday morning we got to face-time with Grandma Hillins (aka Great Grandma if you ask Trevor).  He enjoyed showing off to her and it was cute to see them chat.  Gotta love technology!

After that Trevor wanted to face time with Nana so we did that quick before skipping bagels and brew at the clubhouse and heading right to Lowe's for a little Monster's University project. 

 We had a really good time putting together his little treasure chest (as he calls it) and Ashley was a saint hanging out in her stroller while we worked.  When Trevor was putting on the finishing touches (stickers) she got a bit ansy so Mommy put her in the baby bjorn and all was well again.  Trevor was so proud walking out of Lowe's with his new creation.

 So proud in fact that he insisted taking it across the parking lot to Trader Joe's while we picked up a few items.  He loves shopping with Mommy when he gets to use a little cart. 'But Mommy we need this' was heard a few times but not too many!

After that Trevor wanted donuts (because of course we remembered that we didn't go to bagels and brew due to lack of time).  He was very specific that he wanted to go to the place with the man behind the counter and balloons outside.  And a big balloon of a tiger.  Hmmmm.....well Mommy wasn't going to mess this one up and after a few minutes thought she figured out that he was talking about La Mars donuts by Daddy's work given that fabulous description.  It's right by a bunch of car dealerships that have big inflatables along with balloons tied to the hoods of cars.  Well Mommy got it right because when we pulled in, Trevor said 'Thank you Mommy!  This is the place I was talking about'

After we got home it was nap time.  Trevor wasn't too excited about that but eventually took a nap in Mommy's bed.  Special treat - if Randle could do it when Mommy was away, we figured Trevor could too when Daddy was away :)  That night we went to a little family party at Mike and Nicci's and Sara was once again amazed that all went smoothly with two kids and being a 'single parent.' Thank goodness for two good kids....and some wine! 

What was Daddy up to?  Having a lot of fun with his family in Syracuse for Emily's wedding!  When he got home Sunday afternoon we went through the pics he took. 
Brian and his Grandma Hillins.  Just precious.  He was very excited to see her and spend time together.

Here's a great one of Jeff and Brian with Grandma Hillins.  Everyone looks so sharp!

The 'I dos'

Emily, the beautiful bride and her two cousins!

And a great shot of the wonderful reception and dance that was held!

We're glad it worked out for Brian to go and spend special time with all of his relatives in NY.  It was nice having him come home though too.  Luckily his flights back were uneventful...unlike the flight out of Minneapolis where they took off into a thunderstorm.  It was so turbulent that a man behind Jeff threw up.  Thank goodness Mommy wasn't on the flight because she would have been like that man.  Ick!

Congratulations Emily and Patrick!  Can't wait to see more of your pics as they come across Facebook!

Randle's Scrapbook

Randle's scrapbook is complete and that feels good.  Luckily it was up to date up until his 5th birthday (a month before Trevor was born) so we just had three and a half years to finish which we did in the final 7 pages that the book had.  The pictures just got smaller so that we could fit everything in.  Still hard to believe he's gone but it's nice to look back on all of the memories that we had together.

Ashley's 7 Month Pics

Yesterday we headed down to our photographer and friend, Leslie's house for her son's 6th birthday party and Ashley's 7 month pictures.  Trevor had a blast playing with Elijah.  They were very silly together!  They played pin-the-tail-on-the-donkey and broke a pinata which was fun to watch.  Trevor filled his bucket with candy and then was wound up the rest of the time.  Ha!

 Before the party really started though we enjoyed a pizza lunch and then took Ashley's pictures.  Little stinker wasn't into smiling at all.  But that's okay, they are still memories!  It didn't help that she was all off schedule.  Mommy had to wake her up at 11:15 to go get Trevor from the movies (he goes with Nicci/Adam/Cole every Tuesday morning to a kids movie at the theater as part of a summer fun program), then she stayed awake the whole 45 minute drive to Leslie's (Mommy thought she'd finish her nap), fed her at 12:00, we ate pizza at 12:30 then started the pics at 1:00.  That was about 2 hours since she'd been awake so she was ready for another nap and here we wanted her to smile and show off her fun personality.  Not this time.  Still got some cute ones anyway!

After she took a quick snooze during the party and the other guests left we decided to take a few more pics in just the white outfit she wore over there.  They turned out pretty cute and we're glad we took them!

 If you want to see other sneak peeks, check out Leslie's blog: http://lesliestyler.com/blog/?p=11410

Recent Trevorism's

Trevor really is a riot these days.  Three things that he's said recently that really made us laugh...

1) Dada was bringing Trevor home from school one day and Trevor was not happy that Dada picked him up instead of Mommy.  So sad.  Dada was trying to cheer him up by saying 'weeeeeee' over the hills like they usually do.  Trevor of course wasn't having it and told his Dada to stop it.  Dada said 'well what should I say?' And Trevor pouted and said 'nothing.' So when they went over the next hill Dada said 'noooooooooottttttttthhhhinnnnnnggggg' and you can imagine how well that went over with the grump.  Pretty smart on Dada's behalf though and sure made us laugh.

2) When Papa John was over on Father's Day and we all were swimming, Trevor announced so matter of fact 'Papa, your hair looks like a girl in the back.' This was after Papa emerged from swimming under water and his hair was outta place.
3) After Mommy put Trevor to bed she went to take out her contacts and put on her glasses.  When she went to check on Trevor with her glasses on, Trevor said 'You look funny Mommy.' And after a few giggling seconds, he says 'You look like a Grandma.'  Gotta love that a 3 year old calls it like he sees it. 

Happy Father's Day Week

 Although we are still missing Randle, we are having some fun around the Hillins' house too.  Trevor started swimming lessons this week.  He is taking private lessons at our community clubhouse like he did last Fall before it got 'too cold.' He is really enjoying them and the instructor is nice and patient.  We are having to train him how to really float - because we used his puddle jumper float for so long he thinks floating is vertical instead of horizontal.  We don't regret using the float though because as Brian pointed out it our choice was to use that or not swim at all because of all of his ear problems.  He's getting it though so we are proud.  Usually when we get home from swim lessons the boys 'watch' a quick show before bed :)

Ashley has started enjoying having a rice cracker or two while we eat dinner.  She seems to really like that she is a big girl eating with her own hands.  Won't be long now until we introduce the baby crack!

 Trevor likes eating with his hands too - especially raspberries that fit perfectly on little fingers!

Ashley really is sitting up good now and likes playing with the drum.  'We dance, we sing, when we play the drum.' Have to say we didn't miss that little tune :)

 She's also doing a lot of spinning around to get to what she wants.  She experiments once in a while with getting up on all fours but hasn't shown a great interest in scooting which is just fine.  We aren't in a hurry to have her mobile :)

 On Friday night Brian and Sara went out for a needed date night!  The last time we got dressed up and went out just the two of us was late December!  We've decided that every month we will have a date night and this time we started at Dominick's a yummy steakhouse.  We had planned to go to Fleming's but Scottsdale Quarter was having a deal that if you spent so much money in one day you got a free night at the Westin Kierland.  With purchases we had to make anyway and the fact that that we were going somewhere on a date night, we just decided to switch locations so that we could get the deal! 

 Bethany, who works at the clubhouse and has watched Trevor in Kids Korner before was our first non-family babysitter for Ashley.  She worked out great!  Trevor cried in the morning because she wasn't at the house anymore but was excited to hear she would come again!

Trevor also continues to enjoy Fire Truck school.  There is a little girl there though - Natalie - who seems to terrorize the kids and the teacher.  Which isn't so enjoyable.  Trevor came home with a full mouth bite mark on his arm one day and then he told us that Natalie cries a lot because she is naughty.  Well on Thursday when dropping him off Sara noticed the teacher was a bit frazzled after the kids came in from outside.  Come to find out she had pulled out another girls hair!  When Mommy left later (after she and Trevor went to CVS to pick up some items for kids cook), Natalie was up front in the office with the Director but she didn't think too much about it.  On Friday though Trevor wondered if Natalie was going to be at school and when Mommy dropped him off she noticed she wasn't there.  Huh.  So on the way out Sara asked the Director about Natalie and she said that Natalie got sent home on Thursday and wasn't allowed back on Friday.  Her exact words 'We don't tolerate that type of behavior at Primrose.' Ah, we love this school.  But anyhoo they sent a picture of Trevor on Friday to let us know he had a great day with his friends. 

 On Saturday we ran some errands, napped, went to church and then Mike, Nicci, 'Uncle Shar', Adam and Cole came over for pizza and a swim. We always have fun when we get together so that was nice!

On Sunday, Papa John and Grandma Pauline came over to have a relaxing Father's Day.  We watched Brian hook up his new appleTV since he would not rest til he got it figured out.  We had yummy appetizers for lunch and then after naps the kids joined the adults in the pool!  Ashley looked too cute in her swim gear from Aunt Nancy!

 Since Grandma and Papa Hillins won't be here for Brian's birthday we celebrated it along with Father's Day after the most delicious dinner of ribs and ahi tuna steaks.  Girls had ribs.  Boys had ahi - 1 pound each!  Well, except Trevor who couldn't get enough ribs.  The boy can eat!

 And before bed we took a quick pic of Dada with his two kiddos.  Precious.

Ashley 7 Month Onesie Pics

 Seriously!  Where does time go?  How is our little peanut already 7 months old?  

Ashley is sitting up like a big girl and just loving life.  She and Trevor tie for the happiest babies ever.

 She's been waving bye-bye for a few weeks now.  It's the cutest thing!

 And her hair!  It sticks up just like Trevor's did (and Mommy's when she was this age)! 

 She loves peas just as much as green beans...

but her favorite activity by far is having Trevor wheel her around in her high chair so that she can see everything he is doing.  They will laugh back and forth for hours.  Our hearts are full!

Ashley Loves Green Beans

Finally the day had come for Ashley to mix in some 'real food' with her rice cereal.  Although Mommy intended on possibly making Ashley's baby food, with Randle and everything else going on why stress about it when Gerber makes perfectly fine baby food!  So we went with that and on Thursday the 6th Ashley got her first taste of green beans!

She was so ready!  When she sees us getting her bowl and spoon out she starts kicking in excitement knowing what's to come!  Don't have to ask her to open up.  She opens wide when she sees that spoon scooping food out of the bowl.  She doesn't make too much of a mess either because she opens so wide, it all goes it.  First bite - yum!

Second bite - hard to take a pic with the iphone in one hand and feed with the other.  But, you get the idea :)

Mom, could you put the phone down and concentrate please!

Seriously!  And maybe put a bib on me because this could get messy!

She did an awesome job with her first food.  It started hitting her gag reflex about 10 spoonfuls in so she drank some water out of her sippy cup and called it good.  She eats twice a day right now and in her evening feeding she did great.  Finished the whole bowl without gagging and wanted more so she had straight green beans without cereal for course two.  Piggie!  She'll do green beans for 5 days and then move on to peas.

Lonely

We are missing Randle around here.  It is especially very quiet when Daddy is at work and Trevor is in school.  Randle's usual morning spot is now unoccupied :(

But he is showing himself to us in many ways.  Not sure if we said but when we came home from putting him down, Ashley was still sleeping in her crib so we looked at the monitor and it sure looked like Randle was in her crib with her.  So much so even Brian had to take a look and agreed.  It was kind of creepy!  

Well, the same thing happened one morning last week.  Mommy looked at the monitor and at first glance it looked like Randle was curled up next to her.  She thought maybe it was just her pink cow lovey but nope, that wasn't in the crib with her.  Hi Randle!

 

One day Ashley and Mommy were at Target and Sara was walking by the pet care section wondering if we should buy some toys to donate to the humane society and she looked up and swore she saw Randle!  

Trevor often says 'I miss Randle' and rubs his eyes and wants a hug.  We ask him what he misses and he doesn't say anything so we're not entirely sure he knows what misses means but nonetheless we try to acknowledge his feelings and talk about one thing Mommy and Daddy miss about Randle.  

Although she didn't want Randle to die to feel this way, Mommy is enjoying her new freedom to come and go from the house as needed.  Before it was a challenge and a bit of a stress to leave because it meant getting Randle in the kennel.  It's nice to not have to worry about that and it's nice knowing there are no kennels in Heaven so Randle doesn't have to fear that anymore either. 

And one other thing, now we feel really bad his picture wasn't included in our 2012 Christmas card :(  But we think he's done one better.  Look for his picture in Petsmart's upcoming circular.   On the Friday Sara and kids came home, Brian was able to cross one thing off Randle's bucket list....being an advertising super star!  The Petsmart creative team took one pic of Randle and the lights freaked him out so we weren't sure it turned out.  But we got a sneak peek of the image and it turned out pretty good!  Long live Randle! (As soon as we can share a picture of the advertisement we will)

The Roslansky Cousins

It sure was fun having Jim, Annie, Sam and Elena in town from Friday night through Wednesday.  We got to spend some nice time with them throughout then and if it wasn't for Randle we could have spent more time.  Oh well, it isn't about quantity, it's about quality.  Like on Monday during our family day they came over in the morning to hang out!  Uncle Jim was surrounded by his own kids and his niece and nephew!

Ashley and Elena kept starring at each other which was fun to watch!  Mommy and Ashley helped to feed Elena.  She's not such a fan of food and does a great job of clamping her mouth shut when she sees a spoon nearby.  Well, when Auntie Sara had the spoon in one hand and Ashley in her other arm and Uncle Jim nearby to distract her, she did a pretty good job with her sweet potatoes.  We're sure Ashley was like, wait there is food that is orange and not just white (cereal)?  It's coming Ashley, don't worry!

Ashley liked showing Uncle Jim and Aunt Annie all of her tricks.  Like look....I'm getting ready to crawl.  Not really, but boy does she prop herself way up on her arms!

On Tuesday while Trevor was at school, Nicci and Annie took their boys over to Nicci's in-laws to swim so Jim and Elena came over to hang out with Sara and Ashley. 

These two couldn't get enough of each other!

Two happy, happy babies!

We're already sensing some competition between the two over certain toys! 

Like you can see in this pic - Ashley is like that's mine and Elena's like but I have it!

Elena is 5 weeks older than Ashley.  It's fun that they are so close in age!  Sam is 3 months older than Trevor.

Elena looks a lot like her Mommy but she has her Daddy's big blue eyes!

Thanks for coming down to see us!  Can't wait to see you all again soon!