Happy 1st Birthday, Sydney!

This Saturday, we were double booked with birthday parties so Jason and I split up and took the girls their own separate ways. Caitlin and I went to celebrate her friend Sydney's first birthday. Caitlin had a blast- there was a bucket full of bubbles and bubble wands, sprinklers, and lots of water toys. It was so much fun to watch these newly walking girls toddle around and play with all their friends. Happy Birthday Sweet Sydney!

Caitlin and Sydney have been friends since the very beginning :) Her mommy, Megan and I had many playdates at Monkey Joes while we were both on maternity leave!

Sydney and her mommy, Megan

Eating lunch at the table like a big girl

The birthday girl right before she started digging into that smash cake :)

Lucky 13

Another month- totally flying by and Caitlin seems to change just as quickly! She is picking up new skills daily and really growing in confidence and personality. She doesn't say very many words yet, but she can definitely communicate what she wants! or better yet what she doesn't want. We read several stories before nap times and bed time. If I choose a book she doesn't want to read, she shakes her head "no" and pushes the book away, if she is done with her meal she has been known to push her plate and the rest of her food off of her high chair! She is completely opinionated... I wonder who she gets that from?? :)

She has taken several steps, but is still pretty wobbly. She is getting bumps and bruises all over from her falls- I have forgotten how scary it is to watch your child try to walk!! At first, I thought that Caitlin was just more of a klutz than Ava was since I couldn't remember Ava having such dramatic falls as Caitlin and then I remembered that we used to hover like helicopters over her to catch her before she fell. Poor little second child... :)

Caitlin is down to one bottle at night, I am anxiously waiting for the first night that I don't have to wash any more bottles, but I know that it will be bitter sweet since that is a major part of her turning into a toddler and no longer being a baby. She still has no teeth and I adore her toothless grin!

She loves to blow kisses, even though she won't perform that trick on command. And, my favorite thing is that Caitlin adores Ava and wants to be doing whatever Ava is doing. She follows her around the house and wants to play with every toy that Ava has- even the one in Ava's hand! We are still working with Caitlin on not grabbing toys and we are having to explain to Ava that it's actually a compliment that Caitlin keeps taking her toys- Ava doesn't quite believe that explanation yet...

Another month gone in a blink of an eye and I am loving every minute of it. I am so grateful that I am able to be at home to watch Caitlin grow and change. What a joy she is to us and I am so blessed to be her mommy. Love you sweet girl!!

Where have we been?

It all started on a dark and stormy night, the rain was pouring down in sheets, the wind was howling, lightning was flashing in the sky... and then our power went out. The next day when I went to check my email, I realized that our home computer got fried! What, no surge protector you ask? Rest assured, we have one. Every other electronic device in our office is plugged into it except for our PC... I promise both Jason and I graduated from Tech :)

As I'm writing this, it's actually Ocober 1st and that computer is still not fixed, but I have gotten over using Jason's business laptop. I normally don't feel comfortable using his laptop for personal things, but we just got back from an amazing week at the beach and I'm dying to post the pictures! I will try to skim through the last two months as quickly as possible so I can get onto the good stuff. To my faithful readers, you two know who you are, thanks for your patience :)

Just a little teaser...

Hannah and Maggie's Visit

On July 12, cousin Hannah and her friend Maggie came all the way from Iowa to stay with us. That's right people, we had 2 teenagers in our house for 12 days... How were we going to entertain 2 teenagers while entertaining 2 toddlers at the same time? We hit the bigger malls, the laser show, the Aquarium, White Water, Six Flags, Wild Wings (yum!), Fellini's (double yum!), the movies, hung out at the pool... it was a two week whirlwind and I have to be honest, I am pretty exhausted! I wish I could sleep in until noon just once... :)

Ava loved having them here- every morning at 8 am she wanted to wake the girls up to play with her, it was all I could do to convince her to let them sleep in! She loved it when they braided her hair or let her hang out in their room like one of the big girls. She was so sad to see them leave today- she's already asking to go spend the night with them at her house. I'm not sure she realizes just how far of a trip it is :)

We hope you had fun, Hannah and Maggie! Thanks for coming to visit us!

Hannah and Ava

Maggie and Caitlin

The Aquarium was so busy we only stayed for an hour before heading to Fellini's (yum!) for lunch- where did all those people come from? Doesn't anyone work anymore?? :)

Ava thought she was so cool...

Caitlin was having fun too!

On their way to the airport,

Ava didn't want them to be sad so she shared her snugglies with them

Welcome Baby Bode!

BODE ADAM MALCOM
July 23, 2010
2:57 p.m.
7 lbs, 9 oz
20 inches long

Congratulations to Jen, Jeremy and big sister Isa on the arrival of their new baby boy!

Proud (and tired!) Papa

I am like a kid in a candy store :)

There is nothing sweeter than a newborn!

I know Uncle JJ is so excited to have a little boy to play in the dirt with and teach how to play left handed ball.

Completely Obsessed

My name is Allison Stein and I am a photo-aholic.

There. I said it and now I feel better... I'm addicted to taking pictures- or in this case, getting pictures taken, especially of the girls. This latest round was taken by our favorite local photographer Jason Pendley www.jasonpendley.com and I love how they turned out! Originally, I wanted to take some photos to put in Caitlin's thank you notes from her birthday (shame on me, I still have to write them!) and I also wanted to have some pictures of the girls together at this age. For Ava's birthday pictures we have always gone to Portrait Innovations, but all of our photos recently have all had the same background and they are all starting to look the same. So, for these we went for the creative, less posed approach.

For those of you that actually read the blogs and not just glance at the pictures, YES- this is the same turquoise dress that Ava wore in the last photo session and YES- I did try to talk her out of wearing it again and NO- obviously, it didn't work. Oh well... I'm keeping my fingers crossed that she will love a different outfit for her 4 year old pictures! :)

I think these are amazing and here are some of my favorites:

BIG and lil'

Yes, this is Ava's medusa-esque bed head first thing when she wakes up in the morning. Kind of scary, isn't it? :)

I am usually not into matchy-matchy clothes... in fact, this pair of pajamas and maybe one other outfit are the only thing that I've bought for the two of them, but these pajamas were too cute to resist. Ava loooves when the two of them wear these pajamas- she is such a proud big sis! Caitlin usually spills breakfast on her pj's and we usually have to take them off after that, so I tried to snap a picture on the rare occasion that they are both clean (the pj's) and they are both wearing them at the same time!

Caitlin loves hearing Ava on the monitor and going into her room and crawling up on the bed with her... I hope they don't grow out of this stage anytime soon!

And so I wait...

As we sat in the waiting room, a storm raged outside the veterinarian's office... the lights blinked and then the power went out. I looked at Jason and thought is this really happening? and then asked out loud "Is this a sign? Maybe this is a sign..." My heart leaped- maybe we won't actually have to go through with this, maybe they can't perform any procedures without power. And just as I thought that, the power came back on. And so we waited... we waited longer than anyone should have to in our situation. Luke was nervous and shaking- he hates going to the vet and the thunder and lightning wasn't helping. The tech called us back to the room,walking with her head down. In an eerily calm voice she explained to us exactly what would happen and what decisions we would need to make about afterwards. She told us she was sorry and that the doctor would be in shortly and to take as much time as we needed. And so we pet Luke and tried to calm him down even though both of our hearts were beating wildly out of control. And then we waited...

Yesterday, we put Luke down. I hate the phrase "putting an animal down". It does nothing to convey the hurt and anguish and sorrow that accompanies the situation. Luke, our dog for over 10 years, our faithful little buddy, sleep companion, couch sitting friend, under the kitchen table floor cleaner, big protector, bark at nothing, lovable dachshund. I already miss hearing his nails click across the hardwood floors...

For those that don't know Luke's story, I will give the abridged version- I was working at Van Michael's Salon during college and one of the colorists, Obi (yes, Luke really was named after Star Wars, one of the schnauzers was named Vader) was talking about his 3 dogs. He had two schnauzers and one dachshund. Obi told me that his dachshund barked a lot and the other two dogs didn't really get a long with him. He was going to take him back to the Humane Society, if he could not find a home for him. So I offered to take him and within a few days, I was bringing Luke back to a house that I shared with 5 other people while I was going to Tech. I don't really remember if I even asked if anyone minded having a dog in the house, all I remember is that I couldn't let this poor little guy go back to the Humane Society. And so was our beginning together, we bonded right away. It is true what people say, rescue dogs always know they have been rescued and they are forever grateful.

Luke began to have back problems, as most dachshunds do, several years ago. He would jump off the bed or couch and pinch a nerve or a disc in his back. We have always been able to rest his back and give him a round of steroids and pain killers and he would act good as new. However, this last time, he seemed as though he was in more pain than ever before, he was walking differently than before and the slightest movement the wrong way would send his muscles into spasms. Our vet sent us to a specialist to have x-rays ran to see what our options were. Luke's x-rays came back showing 2 bulging discs- one is his neck and one in his back. The surgeon said that even with Luke's age, he was an excellent candidate for surgery, however, they would only be able to address one of the discs at a time. Hopefully, taking care of one disc would relieve the pressure on the other disc, but the surgeon could not guarantee that in several months we would not be back in the same position with the other disc and Luke would need another surgery. The recovery from back surgery is pretty intense for the patient and the parent involving a weeks stay at the hospital, physical therapy several times a day, on-going pain medication, bi-weekly trips to the surgeons office and total crating for a minimum of 6 weeks. This was not something we were willing to put Luke through. He hated going to the vet- the office made him nervous. He spit out his pain medicine unless we were very creative in the food we hid it in and he would have absolutely been miserable having to stay in his crate for 6 weeks.

Would our decision have been different if we had all the money in the world or didn't have two toddlers in the house or had Luke been several years younger... possibly...probably? I guess I will never know for sure. Everyone, everyone that we have talked to has said that we are doing the right thing, the merciful thing. However, having to choose the day and the hour of a living creatures last breath does not feel merciful. It feels self-righteous and like playing god- things that I am absolutely not comfortable with. I have been told that I will eventually feel at peace that we have done the right thing and in my mind I believe that we did, but my heart... still has a gigantic dachshund size hole in it.


And so I wait...

Miss you buddy

Ava's Prince Charming

Ava had a play date today with Lincoln, her first serious boyfriend. If I call Lincoln her boyfriend, she is usually quick to correct me and say, "No, Lincoln is my Prince"... geez, mom. We were supposed to meet at the pool, but unfortunately the pool was closed for cleaning, hence Ava wearing her bathing suit for most of the morning. So we headed back to our house to let the kids play. Lincoln, was a typical boy who wanted to play chase and jump in the ball pit, and Ava was a typical girl who wanted Lincoln to play house with her and dress up. Right before they had lunch, they snuggled up on the couch together and I was able to snap a few photos of the two of them looking like an old married couple, watching a Care Bears movie, of course.

Their love affair started when they were only 6 months old and fate brought them together in the same class at Open Arms. They got to know each other in the cozy corner and shared puffs in their bumbo seats. It was rumored that Ava even tried to share her pacifier with Lincoln, but that was never confirmed. It wasn't until the big Halloween Parade that they went public with their relationship.

Their relationship hasn't been one free of scandal. There were reports that Lincoln was seen holding hands with another girl on the playground last year and just last month Ava was chasing another boy- there was even a biting incident once, but no one brings that up anymore. All was forgiven between the two and we are happy to report that Lincoln has asked Ava's daddy to marry Ava. Ava has been promised to Lincoln as long as they are both 35 and Lincoln promises to live next door, cheer for the yellow jackets and vote Republican :)

We are happy that these two have worked things out and are now planning their lavish fairy-tale wedding in which Ava plans to wear her Cinderella princess wedding gown designed by Disney and for Lincoln to wear his "prince-suit". We hope that they enjoy a long life together and live happily ever after! You saw it here first! Their first official kiss on camera...