Little brother update

These are older pictures of Ava that I came across, since I have no new pics to post at this time but lots to update you on. I went to the doctors today and I'm dilated 1cm...which really means nothing, you could be that way for weeks but the baby is head down and quite low, hence all my pelvic pain. My doctor thinks this baby may come before February 25th, was not expecting to hear that this morning and neither was Daddy who accompanied me to the appointment. As of today Joey Jr. (no we're not officially calling him that) weighs 5 lbs. 10 oz. - big difference to Ava who was a little butterball. Ava was a mover but our little guy is a kicker, I'm going to have to sign him up for soccer before I know it. Oh and I LOST 1 lb. this week - woo hoo!!

This pregnancy has been much easier then the first, so far no swelling, no carpal-tunnel and not much lower back pain yet but it is certainly not without it's challenges at this stage. The challenge being our first who grabs my hand and says "come on Mama, come in my Dora house" -- how do you say no to that, so I get on the floor and play, getting up is the hard part.

When we ask Ava if she is ready for her little brother to come, she cocks her head and says little brother?? She loves to kiss and hug my belly and occasionally elbow it, when we ask her where the baby is she lifts up my shirt to see my belly, which does not go over well in public, as you can imagine. When she put my shirt back down she says "bye bye baby" she is talking up a storm some of her favorite things to say are "wow" and "that's cool" -- thanks to Wow, Wow, Wubbzy and she still loves to say "go away" which we are trying to break, she hears us tell Bailey that all the time - yikes! She sings twinkle, twinkle little star until you get to the 'up above the world so high' part, then she just hums. She counts to 10 and beyond sometimes, but always seems to omit the number 7. Avita points to things around the house and lets us know if it's "mama's" or "dadda's" -- and if it's hers, it's "mine."

Our 22-month old is very independent wanting to do everything on her own, which we encourage but some things she's just not ready for yet, like walking down the stairs all by herself although she has her own opinion about that.

Oh, What A Night!!

This year for Joey's birthday I made it extra special and it was all about him. For his first gift he received a NY Yankees Snuggie -- since he had been eyeing my Gator Snuggie I decided to get him his own. On his birthday night out we went to Sofrito, a puerto rican restaurant in Midtown, where we enjoyed great food and authentic puerto rican music. Then, he had no idea where we were off to, so we hopped in a cab on this freezing arctic night and went across town to the theatre district to see Jersey Boys. Since he was born in Jersey and half Italian I found it quite fitting. And the performance did not disappoint...probably one of the best shows we've seen, highly recommended. We had a great night and were exhausted by the time we got home but it was all worth it, especially since it was probably our last date night until after our little monkey arrives.

Carlyle Shower

Last week was great. I was baby showered.

There was Magnolia cupcakes and banana pudding -- YUM!

There was an AMAZING diaper cake and sweet party favors that Kristie's mom made.

There was an abundance of thoughtful and fun and awesome gifts from equally thoughtful, fun, and awesome women.

Later, at home, there was lots of excitement on Joey's part, seeing all the newborn clothing and gifts, we are really having a little boy. Who knew baby boy stuff could be so cute and cuddly.

Most amazing diaper cake!!

How sweet is this?

An NYC shower is not a shower without Magnolia!

Me & Kristie -- party planner extraordinaire.

I can't believe "wee blockers" exist -- welcome to the world of boys.

Some of my wonderful colleagues.

Me all warm and fuzzy :)

JH Spring Babies 08 Playdate

There are many things I like (and dislike) about our neighborhood, Jackson Heights but I think one of the best things is the baby explosion that happened about 2 1/2 years ago. There are so many kiddos running around the nabe. Ava is a member to a couple of baby groups since she was born on the cusp of winter/spring so we've had the wonderful opportunity to meet many of the parent/kid trios in both groups.

With the temperatures dipping into the teens and this past week Ava and I made the decision to stay indoors. We were graciously invited to a playdate from some of her fellow Music Together classmates, twins, Sam & Ezra -- who happen to have a playroom in their basement, lucky tikes. Ava had a blast playing with all the different toys, seeing friends and making new ones.

Practice Makes Perfect

Ava has been getting lots of practice holding Baby Jordan while at Lela's house. She will be well adjusted when her little brother gets here in about 7 weeks. She is very gentle with Jordan and tells Lela when he's crying and if he's sleeping. Just not so sure how she will feel when she sees Mommy holding her brother all the time, guess we will find out soon enough.

New Years Eve and Day

The beauty of having friends that live in your building and them throwing an impromptu New Years party is that you don't have to go out in bad weather and you can just throw something on and head on over. We were planning on staying in this NYE and then we got a call from the Maldonado's. We put Ava down for a little nap and woke her up to watch the ball drop with our upstairs neighbors. Avita was not feeling that great so it was nice to be able to go upstairs.






Needless to say she enjoyed all of Isabella and Sofia's Christmas toys and had to play with all of them.

On New Years Day Avita slept in until 8:30am and was feeling a little better after a dose of Motrin. It was bitterly cold outside so we stayed inside and in our PJ's, I can't remember the last time we did this as a family, it was great! Ava and I decided to make Daddy brownies and this is Ava's attempt at helping me.






This is how we spent much of our day, hanging out on the couch, watching television and eating tons of bad stuff. Great way to ring in the New Year. Happy 2010 everyone!!

Bounce-U

What do New York City parents due when you have inclement weather and everyone has cabin fever...you go to Bounce-U!! This was Ava's first experience at the inflatable NYC hot spot. She absolutely loved it and to top it off we met some of her friends from the nabe (Lucas & Charlie) and made it a playdate. She bounced a lot with Daddy in toe and Mommy got in on some of the action. After Ava discovered the slide it was all she wanted to do. It was a great way to teach her that she has to wait her turn because she wanted to skip in front of every kid there. After the 2-hour adventure we headed over to Five Guys Burgers, which started our day off just right. Avita was exhausted by the time her nap came and fell asleep in the car on the way home.