Princess Tea Party Time

I was so excited to have gotten to spend part of my afternoon with just Avery today.  Bloomington High School Drama Department put on a princess tea party in their cafeteria.  It was so much fun!  Avery of course had to wear her tutu!  The high school students dressed up as different princes and princesses, their was a lunch served, dancing, princess 101 class, singing and storytime.  I can't wait to do this again!

The ballroom...

Princess Avery

Decorating her crown

Here come the princesses!

Even mommy got to make a crown!

Snow White was Avery's favorite princess.  I know that face doesn't look it, but I swear!  It was the one she was most excited about seeing...note the doll in her hand!

It was a great day and all of the proceeds went to support the BHS Drama department...now who can argue with that?

One Month and Counting!

We did it!  Ryen is one month old (well actually at this time, she is 5 weeks old) and we are so happy!  It has been a busy month with this little one...and very reminiscent of Avery's start in this world.  As I mentioned previously, Ryen has been on nutramigen formula and zantac twice a day.  However, we are not seeing many improvements.  After a number of calls to the doctor and adding rice to her bottles to help thicken them up, and hopefully stay down, our pediatrician has referred us to a GI specialist at the Childrens' Hospital of Illinois in Peoria and has written us a prescription for Previcid.  So, we are going to begin the new medication sometime in the next couple days and then next Friday are off to Peoria to have some things checked out.  We are feeling pretty hopeful that the new medication will work after talking to many friends and our doctor.

Besides that, Ryen is loving her big sister!  Avery is very silly with her and it is really sweet to watch her "take care of" her any chance she can get.  Anytime Ryen looks at Avery, she says, "She likes me mommy, she likes her big sister!"  I can't lie, it makes my heart melt a little each time.  Also, as the weeks go by, Ryen looks more and more like Avery and Dave and less and less like me.  Figures, right?  For example, below is Avery and Ryen's 1 month picture.  Avery on the left, Ryen on the right...

They have the same scrawny arms and legs and that same silly bird face!

As I said above, Avery loves Ryen and Ryen loves Avery.  I hope that lasts for quite some time!

Auntie Robyn came to visit for a night and I only got one picture the entire time.  Thankfully, this picture basically sums up her entire visit.  :)

This past Sunday, the girls and I attended a bridal shower of one of my former cheerleaders.  I can't believe they are that old to begin with, but Avery is going to be the flower girl in her wedding.  Jessa is one of babysitters and Avery just loves her.  I know Ryen will too.

Also, for those that don't know, Ryen was named after Dave's best friend and our best man at our wedding, Ryan.  Ryan and his wife are really important people to us and we couldn't be more excited or proud to have named our daughter after him.  She seems to really like him too!

Finally, I have been trying really hard to capture one of those random smiles- even though I think she purposefully smiles when she hears my voice.  Here is the best I can do for now!

I Get By With a Little Help From My Parents....

Thank goodness for family!  My mom and dad came and spent all of last week with us and made our lives so much easier for that short time!  Ryen is proving to be a challenging baby...much like Avery was.  Between the reflux, milk allergy, needing to be held all the time, and gas issues, we are exhausted!  Now, we are beginning to think that she might be colicky too.  We have to just keep telling ourselves that this will pass... for some reason, at 4am, that doesn't make us feel better!  :)  Now, back to the help- my parents cleaned, cooked, held Ryen, played with Avery, let us get some sleep (most important!).  We loved having them here and are counting down the days, or is it hours, until they return.

We made sure to keep busy while they were here especially since the weather was beautiful!  We went to the dairy farm to see the cows...

We went to the park and ran into Avery's best friend, Clara,

and then to the zoo and rode the carousal.

And since the weather was always nice, we made sure to eat outside as much as we could!

Grandma and Grandpa got in lots of snuggle time with both girls while they were here too!  

Grandma also brought a spring craft to do with Avery,

and Papa brought his dancing shoes!

On Saturday morning grandma and grandpa kept Ryen so Dave and Avery and I could have day out together.  After donuts and chocolate milk, we stopped at the Home Depot for their kids workshop.  The first Saturday of the month, there is a free workshop for the kids and this month, they were building bird houses!  It was so much fun!  Yep, that is Avery with a hammer by herself and Daddy's finger!

After my mom and dad left and the tears were wiped away, everyone got a little nap.  Once we were up though, it was time to party!  This is Dave playing the puppy guitar, while Avery holds Ryen's hand and dances!  It was adorable!

It is hard to believe that Ryen is already 4 weeks old today!  While these first few weeks have been difficult at times, we are realizing just how quickly it goes.  If Ryen goes down the same path as Avery did, she will be sleeping through the night in her own room in about 4 weeks... my fingers are crossed!  

Happy Easter!

It is a little hard to believe that Ryen will be three weeks old tomorrow!  Slowly, we are making some progress and we are enjoying every little victory we can.  Here's what's going on with her now.  At her 2 week checkup, she weighed in at 7lbs 7 oz- that was up 9 oz from the week before!  (I think it took Avery about a month and a half to get that big!)  She is healthy as can be.  We have already put Ryen on medication for reflux and it turns out she has a milk protein sensitivity.  Avery had the same things so we were familiar with the symptoms and able to get her some help as soon as possible.  Because of milk protein issue, she is now on special formula to help her process it a bit easier.  We have seen some improvements but it can take up to two weeks for any major improvements to show.  We can't wait for that to happen.

Ryen is sleeping a lot of the day, and thanks to the reflux medication, she can do this laying down on her own.  She sleeps in 2-3 hour chunks all day and night.  The last few nights, Dave and I have actually managed to get about 8 hours of sleep....divided up of course.  Although, I think we are slowly adjusting to it.  My mom and dad will be here tomorrow through Sunday so we are looking forward to our last week of help...and some extra sleep.

Avery has also adjusted really well and is going back to the pre-Ryen version of Avery.  She has been a big help and loves being around her sister.

She loves holding her...

She loves feeding her...

She loves playing her music...(I love that Ryen looks like she is singing!)

She loves snuggle time with her Daddy and sister...

She loves holding in the pacifier.  She really thinks it's funny when Ryen chews on her finger!

And of course, she loves just cuddling up with her.

The weather this past week has been from one extreme to the other.  First, we had a huge snow storm so Avery got to build a snowman.

Then, it turned much nicer and we took Ryen out for her first walk.  Thanks to her Aunt Jamie, she was nice and warm with her new hat!

 There was just enough snow left to have a snowball fight!

This past Sunday we celebrated Easter with our little family and then Dave's parents joined us for dinner.  First, we took Avery to a giant egg hunt on Saturday at the local minor league baseball field...along with 4,500 other people!  She had so much fun!

All ready to go on the field

Check out what I got!  She kept saying, "I won, I won!"

That night we decorated Easter eggs...

 ...and then Avery threw up and needed a bath and a whole mess to be cleaned up.  But then she was ready to get back to decorating.  We are hoping it was just something she ate because she is back to herself today!

The next morning, the Easter bunny had come to visit!  There were so many eggs to find!

And then there was the Easter basket full of chalk, stickers, playdough, a kite and a brand new little sock monkey!

An attempt at a family picture... :)

Overall, we are doing well.  It has been quite the adjustment that is for sure.  We are looking forward to the weeks ahead when things begin to become more routine and the hours of sleep increase for everyone!  Although this one looks like she is doing ok in the sleep department!

We also had pictures done of the girls together with our favorite photographer Bridget!  Here is the link to the blog...

http://imaginatephotography.com/2013/03/29/newborn-baby-girl-ryen-newborn-photography-bloomington-il/

And then to see and/or order prints, here is the link to that as well.  You will need to enter your email and create a password.  Then the password for the proofs is Ryen-1

http://imaginatephotography.com/proofs