Avery: One Month

Our little girl is growing fast!  I can't believe that she has already surpassed the one month milestone. On May 4, she weighed in at 11.5 lbs and measured 23.8 inches.

 

We are loving adding little details, like her bows, to her outfits.   I knew that dressing a girl was going to be fun, but I didn't know it would be this much fun.  I put a lot more thought and effort into her outfits than I ever did with Aden.  Sorry Aden!

During our 1 month photo shoot, Aden decided that he wanted to get in on the action.  Unfortunately, this was the best picture I have of the two of them.  Avery was not happy with Aden taking her spotlight.

Avery is doing a great job sleeping and eating.  We are working on her staying awake for a bit after eating.  She's doing well if she can stay awake for 45 minutes to an hour which includes her eating. 

She loves lying on her play mat and just kicking her feet. The girl has a lot of energy at times!  She is learning to enjoy bath time more, but would much rather prefer to have a shower with either Jamie or myself.  She'll just snuggle up to my shoulder while the warm water runs down her back.

One thing that surprised us was her hair.  Not only was she born with a ton of it, but it is dark and curly.  After being bathed, it becomes a curly halo around her head.  I love it!

Aden has continued to enjoy having Avery around.  We've caught him being very sweet to her.  If she is ever crying, he knows and is very concerned.  He even tried to push Jamie out of a chair once because he wasn't going to help her fast enough.  He has also make the connection that putting her pacifier in her mouth can make her stop crying.  Especially when we are in the car, he will stick it back in her mouth and even hold it there for her to help her calm down.  We are so proud of what a wonderful big brother he is turning into.

 Unfortunately, Avery and I did come down with a cold when she was about 5 weeks old.  It wasn't terrible, but it wasn't fun either.  Stuffy noses, coughs, and just plain being tired meant a lot of sleeping and cuddle time.  During this time, I let her sleep where ever and whenever she wanted to.  Thank goodness we are completely healthy again and she is back to her normal self.

Jamie and I feel very blessed to have Avery as our daughter.  She has been an "easy" baby so far and we look forward to discovering more of her personality as she continues to grow.

Spring break with mom

The timing of Avery's birth couldn't have been planned better.  She was due on April 4th which was the first day of spring break.  She did come two days early, but our school gives two days of paternity leave.  This meant that Jamie and Aden would be home with Avery and I for the first two weeks of her life.  Perfect timing!  Another bonus was that my mom came during that time as well.

We spent a lot of spring break just hanging out at home, but did get out of the house a bit.  Most of our outdoor time was spent at the beach.  Aden loves the beach!  He loves the water, the sand, the shells, everything.  Avery wasn't too sure of the water.  Sometimes she thinks its okay, but other times she really doesn't like it.

 Nana and Aden playing in the sand

Our little beach babe!

 

Aden loves swimming in the ocean

One weekend, we went to Hofuf which is one of the world's largest oasis.  Pretty much, it is an old Saudi town that has a lot more foliage.  There are some really neat caves on the edge of town that Aden loved.  We also visited a camel market and watched the camels get loaded onto a truck.  Jamie, Aden and I had visited Hofuf before, but it was a neat experience for my mom plus Aden was too young to remember his first visit.  Thankfully we didn't go on our own.  Mark (school principal) and Gerd-Inger were our guides.  They are like grandparents to our kids.

picnic lunch

Playing in the caves!

Our whole group outside the caves

We really enjoyed having my mom around as we worked on acclimating to having two kids.  She did a lot of dishes during her time here and things just miraculously got cleaned during the day.  It was so nice to not have to worry about those little things.  Of course there was a lot of walks with Aden and snuggling with Avery.  Thanks mom for all your help, it was priceless!

 Posing at the camel market

 Aden getting friendly with some local boys

We miss you Nana!

Proud big brother

One aspect of having a second child that made me a bit nervous was how Aden would respond to it.  Before Avery was born, he started acting a bit clingy, especially to me (Tara).  However, once he met Avery, he was smitten.  He absolutely loves her!  He always wants her to be awake, and is often by her side when she is awake.  Every time she cries, he is very concerned and wants us to do something about it.  One thing we've done is give him jobs to do every once in a while.  He likes being helpful by getting a diaper or burp cloth and knows where all of Avery's things are. 

The day Avery came home

 

He is very aware of her feeding which has been amusing.  The other day he lifted up his shirt, stuck out his belly, pointed to his bellybutton and said "Avery eat!"  Jamie and I just laughed and explained to him that only mommy could feed Avery.

 He really loves to hold her

 

I'm very thankful that Aden has not shown any signs of being jealous and is usually very gentle with Avery.  He is such a good big brother to her. 

 

This is my favorite picture of them so far.

Avery Vera: The Birth Story

Avery is here!  After much anticipated waiting, our little girl has arrived.  Here is the story of the night she arrived:

It all started at 9:45 on April 1.  We had just gone to bed when I felt a snap.  At first I thought it was baby girl punching me, but something was different about it.  After a few minutes, I decided to just walk around and pack some snacks into our hospital bag.  It was then that I started to realize that something was different.  That snapping feeling was my water breaking, but I didn't have that gush of water that you see in the movies.  I also started to get some seriously painful contractions.  At this point, I decided that it was time to wake Jamie up and let him know what was going on.  We called our lovely neighbor, Patty, who had volunteered to stay with Aden when I went into labor, got everything in the car, and headed out.

Our little girl!  

(sorry it's sideways, but I'm done fighting the computer to try and fix it)

By 10:30, we were on the road to the hospital.  For those of you who don't know, we live 1 to 1 1/2 hours away from the hospital, depending on traffic.  My contractions were 5 minutes apart when we left the house and just under 3 minutes apart by the time we arrived at the hospital.  It was the most interesting car ride I've ever had. 

Exhausted, but she was worth it

The nurses were great.  They didn't care that I was wearing shorts and a t-shirt (putting on my abaya was not on my to-do list), they just grabbed a wheelchair and took me to an examination room.  Jamie came in about 5 minutes later to hear that I was 10 cm dilated.  I was really hoping for at least 6 cm, but was not expecting 10.  At that point I asked "So, are we having the baby here?"  and the answer was yes.  Avery was so excited to arrive, that she wasn't going to make it up a few stories to the Labor and Delivery section of the hospital.  We were having an ER baby!  We were told that babies are delivered about once a month in the ER, but the room was definitely not set up for delivering.  As I got into position to push, I asked for stir-ups to put my feet into.  The bed only had one, and it just held my leg up.  There was nothing for me to push on.  Jamie understand what I needed and ordered two nurses to hold onto my feet so that I could use them as leverage.  He did such a good job being my advocate the whole time! 

Proud Daddy!

After just a few contractions in the examination room, I was told that it was time to push.  It was at this time that I realized how wrong most tv/movie labor scenes are.  Yes, labor is painful but you can't scream and push at the same time.  According to Jamie, I did scream a few times and people down the hall could probably hear me, but it was so worth it.  After 3 pushes our little Avery was here.  She arrived at 12:02 on April 2nd weighing 9 lbs and was 21.25 inches long. 

 Our little sweet pea!

A huge thanks to our fantastic friends Laura, Heather, and the Youngs.  Laura and Heather stopped by our house to get our passports before coming to visit us in the hospital.  We needed the passports to get the report of birth from the hospital.  Heather also went to the airport late that night to pick up my mom since we were still in the hospital and made sure she was settled into the house.  We feel very blessed by your generosity ladies!  The Youngs also worked on some important paperwork for us and stayed overnight with Aden.  This was not an easy job since the first day he woke up at 4 am and wouldn't go back to sleep.  Thank you Nonny and and Poppy!

I'm on maternity leave for the next 7 weeks, so I'll be able to update more frequently that we have been.  Check back again soon to see how much she has grown!

Kuwait!

Hi everyone.  I want to catch you up on our trip to Kuwait a few weeks ago.

First, it was a process trying to get to Kuwait.  We planned on renting a Tahoe and driving up with our friends who don't have a car.  That didn't work out.  Avis didn't get the border paperwork done in time. We postponed for a couple of weeks and didn't get the paperwork again, so we went solo.  A 4am departure and a 4 hour drive to Kuwait City.  It was pretty cool driving through mostly open desert with the sun coming up.

Once we arrived we went to the Science Center!  Aden explored the aquarium, saw some cool boats, and played in the Discovery Center.  Now that he is old enough to know what is going on, he really likes aquariums.  I think his favorite part was watching the diver hand feed the sharks.

After the aquarium, we took a good nap in our hotel and headed out to see the Kuwait Towers.  they were impressive to look at, but are being renovated.  Later in the afternoon we found a huge mall to do some shopping.  The Avenues mall was very impressive.  It seems to be part of the modern Arab oil country culture to build huge malls.  We have seen this in Saudi, Bahrain, UAE, and now Kuwait.  Besides the mall, Kuwait City was a bit more traditional than a city like Dubai.  The invasion from Iraq in the First Gulf War is also still a fresh memory for Kuwaitis.  One guy told us about this great Dhow (boat) that had sailed around the world that the Iraqis burned when they invaded and how the Kuwaitis built another one in the same spot.  We didn't go into the museums since we were only there for a night and with Aden, but there is some rich history in the country.

The next morning we spent some time walking along the beach front.  Aden enjoyed watching the boats, birds, and people.  Then we grabbed a quick lunch and headed home.  One the way home there were camel, sheep, and goat herds all over!  A lot of the herds were accompanied by a Shepard.  Tara said it reminded her of what Bible times might have been like.  It was cool to see the very modern and very traditional Arab world so close together.  A lot of driving for a short trip, but we are glad we did it before leaving Saudi.

Enjoy the pics.  Hopefully some of a new baby are coming soon!

Daddy and Aden in front of a dhow

Checking out the huge snake!

Someone was a bit afraid to touch the turtle

Watching the penguins dive for food

Diver feeding the sharks and rays.

Kuwait Towers

Hanging out on the corniche

 

37 weeks pregnant (p.s. as of today we are 39 weeks +2 days)

Playing with baby sisters headbands and bows

Bahrain fun

Jamie has taken on a leadership class called Adaptive Schools.  It involves going to Bahrain 4 times this winter/spring for a day long training session.  Adaptive Schools is a huge buzz word in the international circuit and we are very excited for this opportunity.  The second session was in February and we decided to all go as a family and spend the weekend in Bahrain since it had been awhile since we'd visited (plus we had a hankering for some bacon!).  Jamie had to be in training all-day Thursday, which meant some serious mommy-Aden time.  I did some research into what would be fun to do with Aden in Bahrain and found out that there is a wildlife refuge center there.  It really is like a mini zoo with mostly local animals, but it was a blast.  I successfully drove Aden and I there all by myself.  I'll be honest, the last time I drove myself anywhere was probably this past summer and I've never driven while obviously pregnant.  I was quite proud of myself!  The refuge center was a big hit with Aden.  We walked around for about an hour looking at all the different animals, went into a petting area where he was so gentle with the animals, and took a bus ride to see the bigger animals.

 Checking out the flamingos and the huge pelican

 Loving the bus ride!

 The leopard went right up to the glass

 One of Aden's favorite exhibits, but he wouldn't take a picture by it.

 Being so sweet with the bunnies

 Camels, of course!

Look at all those eggs!

We ended our fun morning out with a fantastic Fuddruckers hotdog.  Aden was so wiped out that I had to wake him up after 2.25 hour nap!  Jamie finished up his training day and we were able to spend some quality time together, just the 3 of us.  

For those of you keeping an eye on the happenings in Bahrain, there are still protests, but mostly in certain areas that we just stay away from.  We did see some serious smoke from one area where we were told tires were being burned.  Burning tires and dumpsters is one of the protestors ways of expressing themselves.  We do hope that things can be resolved in this part of the world soon.

Tara

Turning Two!

This is a bit late, but on January 8th, our little boy turned two years old!  This also happened to be our last day in California, but Aden took it with stride.  His big present from us was a balance bike which we had given him before Christmas so he could enjoy it while we were on vacation.  For those who don't know, a balance bike is a bike that has no pedals.  The child's feet are supposed to hit the ground so he can push himself along and work on balancing the bike.  Aden has always been very physically active, plus we've seen a few of these bikes in action with our friends' kids, so we thought it would be a perfect fit.  We were right.  At first he was a bit timid about the bike, but he quickly caught on to the concept and had been improving everyday.  Now, he can pick up his feet and balance for about 10-15 seconds.  The goal here is to be able to skip training wheels and go straight to a pedal bike. 

Back to Aden's birthday, we had a very relaxing day of playing.  For lunch, we went to Buffalo Wild Wings and Aden loved it.  He isn't usually much of a plain meat eater, but found that he really enjoyed dipping his naked tenders into the BBQ sauce.  After lunch was nap time, when Jamie and I finished all of our packing.  We flew out that evening and after 24 hours of traveling made it back to our house in Saudi. 


It really has been amazing how Aden has grown in the last year.  He is so much more independent.  He feeds himself completely, can buckle himself into his chair, tries to get dressed and put his shoes on himself, and is in a big boy bed.  His vocabulary is growing each day.  He loves to completely surprise us with a random new word.  His latest have been read, story, and avocado.  He likes to be helpful at home (as long as it is on his terms).  He loves to laugh and make others laugh.  His laugh is so contagious.  Jamie and I are very quickly finding out that parenting is a series of phases.  We may not like each phase, but we learn something from each one.  We know that the year of two will have some challenges, but will also be a lot of fun. 

Here are some fun pics of him through the last two years: