The Princess Diaries

Aila had her 6 month appt about a month ago now, lol. Her stats were:
Weight 16.8 lbs   50%
Height 27.5   95%
Head 17 in   75%
Height is exactly the same as Ashlan's at that age.   Weight is about a half pound less than Ashlan though!

We were talking about stories a few days ago and Ashlan kept referring to Hansel and Gretel as "Handsome and Gretel". I thought that was so cute.

We went to Home Depot a few weeks ago to buy shelves for the girls closets. A worker was making small talk and asked Ashlan if she was five yet. She answered incredulously, "Nooo, I'm only three." He looked at me for verification and I said she'll be four in December and he was so surprised, lol. Her birthday is right around the corner though. I can't believe she's almost four! Time is flying!

So we went to Disney two weekends ago. We usually get a one bedroom suite bc it's easier to get Aila to sleep without Ashlan in the room and also just in case Aila stays up later than Ashlan and is loud (rare but happens). So we checked into our hotel room, and noticed a whole bunch of stuff left from the people that were there before us. Turns out they did not check out, and we got a room with people still staying there! Thank god they weren't there when we entered the room! However, because of that they upgraded us to a two bedroom suite. I have to say that we were very spoiled that weekend! I slept in the room with the queen bed with Aila, and Dan slept in the double beds room with Ashlan. We each had our own bathrooms so everyone slept pretty good bc of the lack of interruptions from each other. In fact, Aila slept the best there than she has in months, lol. Overall, we had a great time at Disney though. We finally got to meet Anna and Elsa but it wasn't because fast passes opened up (they are still only available 30+ days out to passholders unless you stay on Disney property, which we never do because of our credit card points). We happened to have a friend who had extra paper fast passes for them and passed them onto us because she couldn't use them. Ashlan was so excited to meet them finally.

Aila is much better in the car now. She actually falls asleep now (when she wants to) without much fuss, if any. She was great on the trip. She also slept on me just fine when it was naptime, and sometimes I transferred her to the stroller from the wrap and she stayed asleep for longer. However, all this baby wearing (which I love!) is making her have a very hard time falling asleep at home. I'm not sure what I'd rather have, lol. I love having her be super easy when we're out, bc I can relax more but we spend more time at home trying to get her to fall asleep and bedtime can be challenging. A lot of times (if we're not out and she falls asleep in the car), I have to wear her and run the vacuum for her to fall asleep! Crazy! I love to wear her and it makes going out super easy but sometimes it's a pain at home. However, my house is the cleanest it's been in awhile, lol. I can easily vacuum almost the whole house everyday and some rooms twice, lol. I don't mind bc I love to wear her and with all babies, everything's a phase, so we'll see how long this lasts. She is seriously out in a few min after I turn on the vacuum though. So different from Ashlan- she hated that thing!

Aila is drinking out of a sippy now. She is also sitting by herself and getting up on all fours. She has army crawled just a bit but is pretty content to just roll anywhere she likes or just push herself backwards either on her back or stomach. I'm in no hurry for her to crawl, but Ashlan is! She's crawling around, trying to show her what to do. They love each other so much. Both want to be around each other when they're not. Keeping them apart from each other so the other won't get sick is sooooo hard, lol.

So that leads me into this...somehow Aila caught enterovirus. Then she gave it to Ashlan, and then Dan. I haven't gotten sick yet so I'm keeping my fingers crossed bc they've all been miserable and I have to take care of them all, lol. No idea how Aila caught it! Her symptoms were not as bad as poor Ashlan's, but Dan said he was reading up on it and they said breastfed babies are more protected than other kids. Poor Ashlan had the gamut wrong with her- sore throat, cough, chest congestion, high fever, stomachache, loss of appetite, rash, raised bumps/blisters, etc. I've never seen her so miserable. Aila had it a few days before but with not so many symptoms, thankfully. However, she was a bear! Lol. And truthfully, Ashlan was too for the first few days! I actually slept on the recliner with Aila on my chest for a night bc I could literally not put her down or she screamed her head off. Poor kid. Not that I don't love to hold her, but for about 36-48 hrs there, I had to hold her around the clock. That virus is no joke. I just don't know how the heck Aila got it. I haven't been to the gym with her in a week or more prior so who knows. No one in Ashlan's school had it from what they told me. They called me to find out more info on what she had bc we obviously pulled her out of school for those days. They said they were bringing in special cleaners during one night and were deep cleaning her classroom just to make sure. I was happy to hear they take precautions like that when one child is out for awhile.

Aila's first solo Target trip!

Ashlan wanted a headband like Aila's, lol.

Kisses for Daddy.

At a pumpkin patch...with palm trees. :)

"Mommy, what happened to the lights?"

Ashlan at school.

Uh oh!

October trip at Disney

Check out Aila's hair, lol.

Ashlan was so happy to meet Stitch!

And Anna and Elsa.

Taking a break for some snuggles.

Halloween. Ashlan loved it.

She wasn't even scared. She was laughing at it!

The enterovirus hit her. Her head was on the wood, lol.

Happy 7 months, Aila!

Double fisting it!

Poor kiddo. :(

So September was crazy. Aila was on a nursing strike every two days for about a month and a half. It started when she had a cold when Dan's family was here in August and we gave her the bottle because she couldn't breathe. Well, that morphed into a bottle every time she ate, on some days. That means I had to pump immediately afterwards. Talk about time consuming! I was running around like a chicken with my head cut off between doing that and then Ashlan's school and dance, and I didn't have much time for Ashlan at all. My supply tanked because Aila wasn't breastfeeding at all except at night if I was lucky, and maybe the morning. I got so freaked out, I went out and bought Fenugreek, Mothers Milk tea, and made and ate oatmeal and lactation cookies. Eventually they helped, but I finally called a lactation consultant because I was so desperate. We were going to Disney in a week or so (when I called) and I didn't want to have this schedule of bottle feeding and pumping when we were there, so I wanted to see if she could help me. I'm so glad I called! I'm happy to say we're back on track and have been for over two weeks now. In fact, she's had no bottles at all during that time. This just threw me for a loop because I breastfed Ashlan for a year and never had any issues. I honestly thought she was weaning early and I started looking into buying her formula! So when my parents came down to visit the last week of Sept, they were coming into a disaster but luckily, they saw it fixed too and subsequently, my stress level dropped tremendously.

We had a great visit with my parents. They hadn't seen Aila since the two weeks after she was born, so they had some good time bonding with her. And Ashlan loved having them here too. They took her to preschool and picked her up a few times and she was loving that. It went by fast as usual.

We went to Disney last weekend. We had a great time, despite it taking awhile to get there. Apparently Ashlan had a UTI beginning around Tuesday of that week that we were going down. We took her to the doctor on Wednesday. They asked us to get a urine sample but she couldn't go there. They said it was okay if we took a sample at home and then just refrigerated it. However, when I called on Thursday to drop it off, they then said that that would not be a good enough sample. (Ugh!!!) So by the time Aila was up from her first nap, the dr's office was closed for lunch and didn't open back up until 1:30 or so. I piled the girls in the SUV and we tried to get a sample there again but no luck. So I drove home and tried to get another sample for the next few hours but she wouldn't go. She finally went around 4, so I booked it back to the dr's and got there just before they closed, thankfully. I had called ahead of time though and they were still there when I got there. The tests came back the next day. She did end up having a UTI, so we had to put her on an antibiotic for that. We didn't get that call from the doctors office until we were about ready to leave for Orlando, so we just had them fill it on the way to Disney. About an hour and a half into the trip, she told us she had to use the bathroom. We stopped to eat lunch anyway, but then we could not get her out of the bathroom for the next half hour. It was at that time that we realized we had forgot our magic bands. (Luckily our cards still worked). We almost took it as a sign to turn around and go back, but Ashlan would have been so disappointed. If it was worse, we probably would have turned around, but it just started to get to the point the day prior. So we found a Publix about a mile off of the exit that we stopped at, and filled the prescription there. By the time we got back on the road we had been stopped for two hours. So that made a two and a half hour trip into five hours. Good times! Lol. Anyway, she took the antibiotic and is feeling much better, thankfully. It didn't stop her at all for the rest of the weekend, and I'm sure Disney distracted her too. We all had a great time at Disney. Went too fast as always.

We decided to start Ashlan three days a week at preschool instead of the two that she was going. She goes Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, and this way gets to take part in 'show and tell' that happens on Friday. I am really enjoying the detailed daily activity reports that we get from her teacher at the end of the day, and the random photos they take of her doing activities. She loves it there too and learning a lot so we're all benefitting.

So a few days ago we had a baby lizard that was stuck in between a screen and the window. We had been seeing it off and on for a few days, and then all of a sudden we went a few hours without seeing it at all and I was wondering if it was dead. It was the window by our kitchen nook table, so we all saw it, I couldn't have hid it from Ashlan. I wondered if he somehow got out, so I looked around the window to see if I could see him, and he was at the bottom. He flinched when I moved my hand in front but I could tell he was slowing down. I just wanted to see if I could pop the window/screen out to see if I could free him. I have tried to do that in the past and every time it ended with a lizard running loose in the house. And those things are fast, lol. Luckily, I was able to open the window slightly and pop the screen out and the lizard was able to jump down into the grass. He might have still died but at least I know what to do in the future. Ashlan was right next to me the whole time and gave me a high five after he was freed. A few hours later, she was sitting on the windowsill, looking out and randomly thanked me for "saving the lizard." I thought that was so cute that she was concerned about that lizard.

Aila turned 6 months yesterday. I can't believe how time is flying. She is mainly in 12 month clothes now and is approximately 17 lbs and 27.5 in but we'll find out for sure at her appt this week. We just started solids and she loves most everything. Apples and bananas are not her thing though, lol. Her favorites so far are pears and squash. She's also put herself on a sort of a schedule. She only takes about three 40 min naps or two naps, but it averages out to about a total of two hours. She sleeps pretty good at night though and I really like her not sleeping a lot during the day, because she's pretty flexible with leaving the house to drop Ashlan off, pick her up, or go to the gym. I hope this continues!

Anyway, lots of pics to get through. "They" always say the first child gets the most pictures. I'd have to say that's not true in our family! Lol. I take just as much of Aila, if not more, than I did of Ashlan as a baby.

Merida dress- a possible Halloween costume.

Practicing her bow and arrow.

Always entertaining each other. :) Another Halloween costume possibility- this is her Ana dress.

She loves her exersaucer now.

Taking a dip while my parents were here.

Our little family.

Time with Papa.

Mmmm...

She is so strong.

Haha!!!!

In St. Augustine with my parents.

With my girls.

Dancing with Papa.

Lol.

Playing together.

Yummy gelato.

On our way to Disney. She sleeps more than Aila in the car, lol.

But at least she's happy! She's a much better traveler now but she does have her limit in the car seat.

Dinner at Epcot.

Our last ride on the Maelstrom. :( It's closing and turning into an Ana and Elsa ride.

She was pooped, lol.

Aila and me playing around while Ashlan naps. She slept longer than Aila that day, lol.

She can't hang.

At Hollywood Studios, it was one of the last "Frozen Summer" weekends. This was in the ice skating arena. We got fast passes for the Frozen singalong for later that night and everyone had a great time, especially Aila. She was loudly screaming (happily) whenever singing would start. In fact, she'd cry when I sat her down. She stood on me the whole time.