Hello!!

YAY, it's the weekend!  Rafael's birthday is Sunday!  Grandma is coming over tomorrow to watch Ava for a few hours so Rafael and I can go to lunch and a movie!  It has been awhile since we have gotten out alone together, so it will be really nice. :)

This past week I have been busy getting everything washed and ready for Reese.  All her clothes are washed and hung up.  Ava is so cute.... every time she sees something small, she says it's her little sisters.  She has been helping me get ready a lot this week!

I have been having more back pain this week.  Also bladder pain!!  It seems to come in the evening when Reese is most active.  I don't know if she is just positioned weird on my bladder or what!  It is pretty painful though!  Sometimes I have to completely stop what I am doing, it hurts so bad!  Lots of sharp pains!  "I am definitely ready for her to come out now!!"

Ava... she is moving up to the next age group in Gymnastics next week!  YAY!  She just had her one year anniversary in gymnastics.  It has been so much fun taking her there.  She loves it!  We were thinking about not renewing because it would be harder with Reese coming, but we decided to do it. Ava has so much fun there, and we couldn't take it away from her.  We changed her class from Friday's to Saturday's now instead.  That way one of us will be home with Reese so the other can take Ava.

We finally took down the gate for the upstairs last weekend.  Ava has spent a lot of time upstairs in our room this past week.  Since she finally can go up there anytime she wants, she always wants to be up there!  Rafael and I keep reminding ourselves that it is just because it is new, and we will see our daughter again soon. :)  Our poor kitties.  The upstairs was their only safe spot, and now it's gone. They hide under the bed upstairs all day now.  We have been telling Ava that when the kitties are under the bed, she needs to leave them alone.  We have caught her under there with them a few times. As soon as Ava goes to bed at night, they come downstairs.  She LOVES the kitties.  She isn't mean to them... she is pretty gentle, but she is 2, and loud and likes to chase them. :)  They will come around.  Maybe the lack of privacy is what they need.

Ava has been cracking us up in the car the past few weeks.  She is a backseat driver!!  When she sees me coming up to a red light, she will tell me to stop.  When it turns green she says "go Mommy go"!  I had a green arrow to turn right yesterday.  Ava didn't see the arrow, just the red light for going straight.  When I didn't slow down she started spouting in a concerned voice about the red light and why I didn't stop.  She is so funny. :)

The other thing about Ava that has been cracking us up is her sense of smell.  She has a MAJOR sensitive sense of smell.  Sometimes if the smell is really bad, she will be on the verge of crying! Usually she just whines and wrinkles her little face.  A few days ago, Ava had to go potty.  Rafael had just come out of the restroom.  As soon as Ava walked in, she turned around and came out crying and saying "I don't want to go potty, it's stinky"!!  Today I took her to a public restroom.  It stunk in there and when she sat on the potty she wanted me to hold her nose for her so she could hold herself up on the potty!  She is so funny.

This is Ava's favorite thing to do in empty boxes. We have had a lot of them around this past week with unpacking Ava's old clothes and washing them for Reese!

                                                                   Matching shirts!

                                                                 Loving on the kitty.

I couldn't resist taking a picture of this bum!  Ava has a few pairs of these 'boy short' panties.  They look sooooo cute on her!!  This poor girl gets her bum pinched 100 times a day since she stopped wearing diapers!  It is so cute!!!  Every once in awhile she will come up to Raf or I and pat our backside and say, "Cute little bum Mommy." Haha! :)

Speaking of panties... we have been completely accident free since my last potty post!  A few weeks maybe?  YAY AVA!!!  She now goes to the potty without any toddler potty seat too!  She just holds herself up on the normal seat.  That happened by accident, actually.  One day I forgot to put her seat back on after I used the restroom.  She went in there to go potty, and usually if her seat wasn't on there she would come tell me.  I walked in the bathroom and she was just holding herself up on the big seat!!  "Go Ava go!"  Ever since then, she hasn't wanted to use the little one.  She is gonna build some strong arm muscles!

Crafts crafts crafts!

I have been on a craft kick! It has been fun! :)
I have been feeling guilty that we don't have a nursery ready for Reese. Our home is only 2 bedroom! Reese will sleep in our room for awhile. When our house sells and we get something a little bigger, she will get a nursery. I have been trying to nursery up her spots in our bedroom. Not that she will care, but it makes me feel a little better... plus it's fun, so that's good.
This name sign is above my nightstand close to where the porta crib will be next to our bed. I finished it last Tuesday. :) I love the way it turned out!!


My sister Christina came over for a visit on Wednesday. She taught me how to make these adorable fabric flower hair bows!! They are SOOO cute! We made a ton while she was here. That night I made some more using some scrap booking flowers I had. I love the way they turned out too!! I have a new addiction to making hair bows now.

I made this frame a few nights ago too. I covered some cardboard with fabric and hot glued ribbons onto the back. We are always losing Ava's hair clips. Now we have a frame we can hang on her wall as a decoration and clip her hair bows to it! YAY!!

Ava LOVES her Aunt Christina (Na). On Tuesday I told her Aunt Na was coming to visit her the next day. She didn't stop talking about it! When Christina was here, Ava showed off her potty skills and asked Christina go to the potty with her every 20 minutes. I think she was trying to show off. :) Ava loves you Aunt Na!!! She is still talking about you. :)

It's ok elephant!

Ava cracks me up! She never ceases to find something silly to make me laugh. I love how her brain works!

Today she grabbed one of the chairs from her tea party table and took it in the kitchen. When she would push it around on the floor it would make this awful rubbing noise on the floor! Ava thought it sounded like an elephant. She went and found a few of her toy elephants to sit on the chair and push around... after all, the chair was trying to speak their language! After a few passes through the kitchen she would stop and bend down and say "It's ok elephant, don't cry". I guess the sound was more like an elephant crying than an elephant trumpeting... :)

Updates!

Hi!!
It has been such a nice weekend! Rafael had today off for MLK day. We had a nice long weekend together! :) I wish we could hit the lotto so we could be home together ALL the time!

Today we put away Ava's little training potty! We got a stool high enough for her to be able to get on the big potty by herself. She gave her little potty a kiss and watched me put it in the garage this morning. The transition was non-existent really... it didn't even seem to phase her to go on the big one instead. It has been so nice to not have to clean out her potty every time she goes today though!! Wooo for Ava!! We also got a really high stool for the sink so she can get up there and wash her hands by herself too! She really likes feeling like a big kid and doing all the stuff that Mommy and Daddy do.
We have not been reminding her to go potty for a whole week now. She hasn't had any accidents! We also stopped reminding her when we were out and about... the store, shopping, etc. No accidents! She just lets us know when she needs to go! We are so proud of her!!

One of Ava's potty books has a little girl named Hannah in it. Ava really loves the book. We have read it probably 1000 times over the course of potty training. Ava can read it by herself now. She has it memorized. Hehe. The book has been great!! In the beginning when Ava would have success on the potty she would say "Just like Hannah!", or even when she would have an accident she would say "I'm too late, just like Hannah!".
There is a page in the book where Hannah is brushing her teeth at the sink. Tonight Ava brushed her teeth at the sink with Hannah watching. We usually brush Ava's teeth wherever we can catch her, but now that Ava has a tall stool and can see herself in the mirror, she likes to do it there!

Ava felt Reese move around in my tummy today! I have tried to let her feel it before, but it is hard to get a 2 year old to leave her hand in one spot and wait for the baby to kick. Once she felt her move once, she didn't move her hand. It was fun. :) Today Ava has been talking about Reese crying, and telling me she was going to help me change Reese's diapers when she comes out. I really do think that Ava understands that she has a baby sister coming. :)

We had a checkup with the OB today. My next appointment is in 2 weeks and after that we are on the every week schedule!! YAY!! I can't believe it is getting so close!! In two weeks the doc is going to check my cervix to see how it is progressing. We went to Ikea this weekend and I had the worst stabbing pains really low in the center of my belly! It was so bad that it would stop me from walking and make me double over for a second!! I asked the nurse about it today, and she said it was my cervix making changes to get ready for Reese to be born!! YAY!!!! For some reason, I feel like we are not going to make it to our due date. Who knows though... :) I will be 37 weeks (full term) in 2 1/2 weeks!! So she can come any time after that! :)





Kisses for Reese!

Thrifty Momma!

So I am not big on thrift stores. I never picture them having anything more than other people's garbage, and the moth ball smell they have kills me!
Today Ava and I went to Goodwill after her gymnastics class. I am looking for a vintage frame for a craft project. I didn't find my frame, but Ava spotted this stuffed Thomas across the store. Ok, so thrift stores are yucky, but buying a used stuffed animal is even worse!!!
Rafael and I almost bought this Thomas for Ava online from Amazon for $29.99 a few months ago! It was $1.29 at Goodwill. I had to buy it. The funnel was half ripped off. When we got home I cut open the bottom of Thomas, pulled out all the stuffing, washed his outer lining in hot, put in new stuffing (some eco-snow I bought but never used at Christmas) sewed him back up, and sewed his funnel back on. He is just like brand new!! He really is in great shape. It doesn't look worn or anything. Woooo!! Ava was SOOOO excited!! She even patiently waited for me to wash/fix him before she played with him.

My sister hurts!!

Daddy tickling Ava. Ava was laughing so hard that she grabbed her tummy at the end and said "My sister hurts"!! We were laughing so hard!!!! What a goof ball. I love my girl. :) :)

Ava's first ride outside on her bike!!

We got Ava a trike over a year ago for her 1st birthday!  We jumped the gun a little I think.  She has loved to scoot around the house on it ever since then.  However, just a few months ago she started to figure out how the pedals worked.  She has been riding it in the kitchen since then!

Today was the first day we took the bike outside.  I have had a hard time finding a helmet that is under age 3+.  We decided to just let her go anyways.  She was SO excited when I asked her if she wanted to take her bike for a ride outside.  She did really good!!  She is pretty good at steering it too!

It has been a few months since we've been to the park because it's been to cold and rainy!  Ava was in HEAVEN today!!  It was really cold out, but she was so happy to be there again.  She ran around like crazy the whole time.

Potty training!!!  Ava is incredible!  We spent most of the last week at home just to make sure we had it down pat!  On Friday Ava had Gymnastics.  She went potty 3 times while we were there.  I was worried about her being too distracted there to think about the toilet, but she did awesome!  It has been so nice that we haven't bought diapers for 3 weeks!!  YAY!!  Just a little over a month to go before we are buying diapers again!  At least we got a 2 month break from them. :)

Speaking of buying diapers again, I haven't updated much on my pregnancy.  Things are going great! I've been having some low back, tailbone and hip pain.  I went to the PT a few weeks ago.  He gave me some stretches to do at home, and Rafael has been massaging me a lot. :)  Other than that, I don't have many complaints!  This pregnancy has been much easier on me that my pregnancy with Ava.  I think that being at home instead of working full time has a lot to do with that.  I get to take a nap every day when Ava naps.  The biggest thing though is not sitting all day.  That was SO hard for me when I was pregnant with Ava!  With my past tailbone fracture, I had big problems sitting for very long.  Being a dispatcher and sitting for 10 hours a day really took it's toll on me.  Now I get to be on my feet chasing my precious 2 year old!  She helps distract me from my discomforts as well. :)

The name we've decided on for our new little arrival is Reese Sheridan Zuniga.  Both Rafael and I really like Reese Witherspoon, and we wanted a name that was a little less common this time.  We picked the middle name Sheridan because my oldest sister Sheri, that passed away in 2000, always wanted a little girl.  Sheridan is the name she had picked if she ever had one.  She had four boys.  I think about her so much, and really feel like she is up in heaven saying, "You are having ALL girls!"  Her husband's name is Dan, so Sheridan is a combination of their two names.

Reese is very active and moves around like crazy!!  She seems to wake up every night right when I lay down to go to bed.  I guess she is preparing me for what is to come!! :)

I was really concerned earlier in my pregnancy that I was growing so fast and gaining too much weight!  It seemed to happen so mush faster with this pregnancy!  I feel better now.  It has slowed down a ton, in fact at this point I am supposed to be gaining the most weight, but I haven't gained anything in a month!  Woo hoo!!  Now I'm right on track where I should be.  It was so much different this time around!  I seemed to do most of my growing at the beginning and it slowed down near the end.

We are so excited to meet our little girl!  I have been pretty emotional thinking about not having the one on one time with Ava though.  It has been really hard for me.  I am going to miss that so much.

Ava is my best little friend!  She is so much fun to talk to!  She always has been, but now she understands everything!  We have noticed a HUGE change in her vocabulary the past 3 months.  She forms complete sentences and you can have great conversations with her.  I think she understands for the most part about her sister.  She has been coming up to me and kissing my belly lately.  She will hug my belly and say "I love my little sister."  Then she asks about the baby coming out so she can play trains and tea party with her.

A few weeks ago my neighbor brought over her son.  He is one. Ava spent the whole time handing him all her toys.  It was so cute!!  She just wanted him to play and be happy.  I think she realizes how much younger he is.  It made me so happy to see her do that!  She is going to be such a sweet big sister!!

Ava playing with Mommy's ipod.  She is so good at it!!  She knows how to navigate through all the menus.  We have downloaded some apps for her to play with.  There is an ABC one, Old Mcdonald Had a Farm, and a bubble popping one.  She knows how to play Angry Birds and Pocket Frog.  It totally cracks me up!  She is 2 and knows how to use my ipod better than me!  Well, close... :)

BIG GIRL PANTIES!!!

WOOOHOOO!!!!
We spent 4 hours at our friends house last night and Ava used the potty a TON and had no accidents! We went to Costco today and she used the public potty twice. We went to Fred Meyer this afternoon and she went three times while we were there!!
No accidents!!
No more diapers for our girl! We are so proud! :)
I am so pathetic in the public bathroom. I am a total germ freak. I think it is getting worse too, and I need therapy!
First I squirt hand sanitizer all over the seat and wipe it off. Then I put a stick-on sesame street disposable seat liner. Then I put on her puffy travel potty seat. Then she goes potty. Then I wipe her hands with a wet one in case she touched a part of the seat I missed with sanitizer. Then we go wash our hands. Whew!! The public potty takes us awhile. I know I need to relax. I am sure that will come with time. :)

Ava got to pick out some new panties at the store today. She picked some My Little Pony ones, she thinks they are Unicorns. She loves unicorns! She also picked out some frog ones that are super cute! YAY AVA!!!!