Monday, January 31, 2011

Avery Update....

Okay' I have a much happier baby on my hands, thank goodness!! After a conversation with the nurse at the kid's peditrician office I got the answers I needed. She told me not to worry, this happens, I really needed that part, then she told me to start with a 10 minute bath with her bottom under warm water, once done to take a rectal tempature and then to wait. She then told me a whole list of things to try after that if this didn't work. Well I didn't wait long and she was going, a lot! I have to say I have never been this happy to change a baby diaper! The moral of this story is we are back to "regular" and so much happier, all of us!

Hush Little Baby

Last night might have been one of the longest nights of my life....I spent the better part of three hours trying to calm a crazy, fussy baby. My poor little, sweet baby spent those three long hours just screaming at the top of her lungs, I did everything to try and calm her. It was crazy, I walked with her, I bounced with her, I rocked with her, you name it I tried it. I tried feeding her, I tried her pacifier, anything and everything to no avail. She hasn't had a bowel movement in several days but every bit of research I did online says that isn't abnormal for a breastfeed baby but I am still convinced that her tummy was bothering her because as she screamed she was clinching up. All I know is it might have been the longest three hours of my life! I also think the only reason she stopped crying and screaming is because she just plain wore herself out. She slept fine during the night and is feeding well and is currently taking a nap so hopefully she is better soon, all I know is Mommy can't handle more screaming. Will keep you posted, any suggestions please leave a comment, I will try anything if the screaming starts back up.....

Saturday, January 29, 2011

Lazy Day

So Rich went and played in a golf tournament with friends this morning, he left the house by 7 am.  Avery and I were up for her morning feed but she fell back asleep while eating and I decided it was the perfect time for Mommy to get a little TV watching while in bed done.  Well I laid done and started watching TV but ended up falling asleep as well and Avery and I didn't wake up until 9:30am, I have to say it was amazing and I can't remember the last time I got to have a lazy day like that, I love it!!  Rich will be home from golf soon and when he is I have cleaning, dishes, and laundry to do but it still feels like such a quiet, relaxing day!  Then tonight we are going on a little date night to the bowling alley, so that will be a good time!  Tomorrow I will be grocery shopping and then having my Grandfather over for dinner since my Mom and Dad aren't here and neither are my Aunt and Uncle, that puts me in charge of being sure he eats and visiting with him on Sunday so I will cook dinner and also make him a casserole to take home for food for a few days.  It will be nice for him to come over and visit and get to spend some one on one time with Avery.  So today is a lazy day and tomorrow might not be that much more productive and I am loving every minute of it!

Friday, January 28, 2011

Snow Picture

Here is a cute picture of Jolie on her flying saucer in the snow.  Mom and Dad's Internet in NC is SO slow they aren't able to send many pictures but I did get this one today.

Wednesday, January 26, 2011

Avery's Photo Shoot

On Sunday, January 9th we had a professional photographer come to the house to capture some beautiful photos of Avery and a few of Avery and Jolie.  Here are some of the photos, I love them!!










Weather Reports...

This morning I have gotten several phone calls with weather reports from Jolie....

They began around 7:30 am when she called to say "Good Morning" and that it was raining and cold.

Then at about 9 am I got a call to tell me it was snowing, she was so excited!!

And just a few minutes ago I got a call about 9:30 am to tell me she was outside throwing snowballs at Poppy, I don't know that I have ever heard her so excited, she is in complete awe and amazement of the snow!

This picture is from when they got there on Monday and is just of the snow that was on the ground but you can see the pure joy in her face.  My Mom promises more pictures today so I will update as I have them!

Monday, January 24, 2011

Over the Weekend...

**Updated with Pictures**
So here is a little weekend in review post, I will begin with Friday because I don't think I said anything about that yet. So, Friday I had two doctors appointments and since my Mom was sick with a cold I took Avery with me to both. We started with dropping Jolie off at school and then headed over to the chiroprator's office, I got adjusted and treatment and Avery slept like a baby, well duh she is a baby but you get the idea. Then it was off to an appointment for my bladder, an ultrasound was in order for that and here I thought I was forever done with ultrasounds as my child bearing times are over but nonetheless an ultrasound it was. So knowing we were going to be out for so long I knew I was going to have to make time to pump and/or nurse so I took the pump along and figured I would just figure it out along the way. So after the chiro appointment I got in the car and thought of something my friend Jen had told me about the Medela Freestyle pump I use and that is that because it is handsfree it is very possible to use it while driving, she originally told me about this because of my job, she is in the same business and did this with her daughter so I thought to myself, self this is a chance to try out this theory, so I strapped it on and proceed to doctors appointment number two. And to my amazement she was right and not only was she right but this was amazing, I can get where I need to while accomplishing something else I have to do so I don't explode. So I pumped successfully and got to appointment on time, score!

(this is a picture of the pump, it doesn't give you the full idea but just imagine it...)
Avery slept between appointments and woke up in time for my to bottle feed her in the waiting room and then just hung out in her carrier while I was in my ultrasound, awesome! So then we went home, rested, ate and then had to run a few errands to finish gathering a few things for my friend, Sarah's Baby Shower that I was throwing with another friend on Saturday.

So Saturday I drove to Minneola with shower stuff in tow and left my sweet baby for the first time, I was sad to leave Avery but knew she was in good hands with her Daddy! I will add pictures later from my regular computer as I am currently writing from my I-Pad but we threw a really cute, really fun shower for Sarah and her triplets, she got great gifts and it was so nice to see so many wonderful friends! I had a great time visiting with Sarah, Lora and Sarah's Mom and sisters after the shower. Sarah's Mom even made Avery a beautiful quilt similar. To the one she made for Jolie, I absolutely love it!! After a great time I headed home to the family.

Jen, Sarah, and Lora (Addie is also peeking in the picture)

The food table.

The diaper cake centerpiece that Lora made, it was so cute!!

The cupcake tower.

The cute Monkey Soap Favors.
(It seems as though I didn't take any people pictures so Lora when you read this please send me some!)


This is Avery on the quilt that Sarah's Mom made for her and she is even wearing the matching onesie, I love it, it is so sweet!!

Once home I packed Jolie up for her trip with Mimi and Poppy and crashed into bed as soon as Avery was asleep! Sunday morning I finished getting Jolie ready for her travel and then she was off to the snow! Once she left I can honestly say Rich and I just hung out, we didn't do anything! We laid around, I got in a great nap while Avery slept. We did take out, watched Jersey Shore on DVR and football and just regrouped after some long weeks! I can honestly say it was delightful! We have gotten several phone calls from Jolie with weather reports, she hasn't seen snow yet but it is coming and it is cold! My Mom says she has behaved amazingly and all is well with them. So it was a great weekend! Rest, friends, some family time, nothing gets better than that!

Sunday, January 23, 2011

So quiet....

So this morning around 10 am our house became super quiet....I am sure you are wondering how in the world that happens with two young children. Well, the answer is I have amazing parents! My amazing parents took Jolie to see snow in the mountains of North Carolina, to say the very least Jolie was ready to go. She has spent the last two days singing frosty the snowman in preparation of building her very own snowman with my parents. My Mom even packed all the items she said she needed for this snowman, like coal and buttons, a corn cob pipe, and hat and scarf, I can't wait to see a picture of her creation. Based on the forecast we are thinking she will be building on Tuesday, I am sure there will be a post after that! I am already enjoying the quiet and the easiness of just having a newborn at home, I have said this before to Rich but it is easy to have either of the girls by themselves it is the combination of both of them that can make things a little stressful! I plan on using the two weeks that Jolie is gone to finish a few things around the house and organizing life to get ready to return to work and care for both my girls, I know it won't be easy but can be done! For now I am catching up on sleep, so the plan for today is nap, take-out, jersey shore on dvr, football, and just relax and hang with the hubby and baby!

Thursday, January 20, 2011

So Avery is now sound asleep, like it is night time or something! Well, I guess I am off to nap as well, Mama needs some rest....

Rough Night

Just when I thought I had having two kids under control last night happened. Avery started fussing uncontrollably at around 9pm and didn't finally fall asleep until around 2 am, she spent all that time just screaming and crying, I have to say it was beyond frustrating, I was nearing my breaking point when all of a sudden around 1:30 am Avery had the biggest poop of her life, which I think was a large part of her fussiness, however, when she did it, it went everywhere, up her back, all over her outfit and of course all over the sheets to my bed. So now after hours of fussy and no sleep I had to wake Rich up to help me change our bed and clean her up, not fun! Then as we settled in and her and I finally got to sleep, Jolie was up and screaming around 2:30 am, my wonderful husband went in her room and dealt with that but wow do I feel as though as bus or a truck or something has hit me today. After not sleeping well the night before and my new medicine for my bladder, the soreness of my left arm from my tDAP shot and just overall motherhood I have to say I officially feel defeated today. I will be napping today when Avery does and there won't be any house projects today, I will, however, be running a few errands to finish up things for my friend, Sarah's Baby Shower that I am helping to throw over the weekend.

Wednesday, January 19, 2011

Avery's 1 Month Doctor Visit

This morning I took Avery to see Dr. Anton for her 1 month visit...below are the results of her visit as well as a picture from our visit.  I will say that I knew she ate well and was getting big but I didn't expect her to weight as much as she does.  I e-mailed Rich with Avery's stats from the visit and all I could say was "wow, we grow BIG kids!!".  Jolie was also a baby/child that appeared in the 90th plus percentile, in fact she still does, I think it is because Rich is so tall because Lord knows these girls aren't getting their height from their Mama!!

Height:  22.5 inches, 91st Percentile
Weight:  10lbs., 15oz, 91st Percentile
Head Circumference:15.55 inches, 93rd Percentile

Dr. Anton says that Avery is PERFECT, although I already knew that..ha ha!!  She is growing and doing well, meeting all milestones, and is proportionate, all the things that are important at one month.  We are going to start giving her a Vitamin D drop to supplement the breast feeding since vitamin D doesn't transfer in breast milk.  She got her second Hepatitis Vaccine and is currently sleeping, all is well in The Perillo House!!

Tuesday, January 18, 2011

Bladder update: bruise/blood blister thing on my bladder, causing problems plus possible infection, more meds and sonogram on Friday, will know more then.

CVS Extra Care Bucks

So in my search of ways to save money and find deals For my family I came across this amazing system at CVS called Extra Care Bucks, it is a reward card system with awesome benefits...one of the blogs I read, Balancing Beauty and Bedlam, always talks about this system and the more I read the more I had to try it out to see how it works and let me tell you it works like a dream and you mix in some regular Sunday paper coupons and you are really saving, which of course is the always the goal in The Perillo House.  Below is a link to a tutorial video that I watched before I started trying to make this system work for me, she explains it better than I ever could. I have also included a link to the same blog where she puts out the CVS extra bucks for the week, this week we at The Perillo House will be taking part in the M&M's and the Maybeline makeup and from the Pepsi's we bought last week we have $10 towards our purchase so our total out of pocket expense this week should be about $7 and then we will have $11 towards next week, I love this system! I know it sounds kind of crazy but trust me it works just watch the video!

How to Video

This week at CVS

Good luck and we hope you find as much savings as we have!

I guess I should explain that when we found out we were going to be a family of four and not just three anymore Rich and I felt that it was really important to start watching the dollars we spend so I started searching out ways to save money, like coupons and sales, people that have known me for years and years would find this to be funny probably but isn't it funny how much we all change over the years.  And because I am an overachiever it has turned into a mission and every week I add up what I saved on the grocery bill and I get more and more excited when the amount is larger.  I figure the money I am saving us can go to another bill or towards something for our girls and I have found it isn't that hard to save money so it is totally worth it, if only one of the local grocery store chains did double or triple coupons I would truly be in heaven!!

Monday, January 17, 2011

One Month

Avery,
Today marks your 1 month birthday and while it seems like just yesterday I laid eyes on you for the first time it also feels as though you have always been a part of our family. Since you need your sec on hepatitis shot and you got the first one on December 19th I won't know your measurements until your doctors appointment on Wednesday. But what I do know That you are so special and I love you so much! You are truly a fantastic baby you sleep really well, you go to bed around 10 or 10:30 pm and then wake to feed about 3 or 3:30 am and then go right make to sleep and wake up about 6:30 or 7 am to feed again, normally after you eat then we get up and get sister ready for school and Daddy out the door. Then you have a half of a feeding about 8:30 or 9 am and then you normally nap until lunchtime, this is normally when I get all my stuff done for the day because typically you are awake all afternoon until about 5 pm or so then you nap for a while and we do a before bed feed around 9:30 or 10 pm. So you are doing so good with your schedule and Mommy appreciates that! You have been do small amounts of tummy time and are really working on lifting your head, you are really getting good at it, you will be supporting your head all by yourself before we know it. You have gotten to where you can grip really well, you hold my finger and sometimes even pull my hair! All in all you are just the most amazing baby ever, your sister is totally in love with you as well, she loves to give you kisses and talk to you, sometimes I think you hate that she gets right up in your face but you seem to tolerate it okay. Your Daddy is totally in love with you as well, he takes over with you shortly before bedtime because that seems to be your fussy time and hehasthe magic touch at calming you down. Know that at one month old you are loved so much by your entire family but your Mommy loves you more than words can express.

Love,
Mommy

Here is a picture of you and your big sister in the super cute "Thing 1 and Thing 2" shirts that Mr. Scott got you guys.  Jolie loves these shirts so she picked them out for you two to wear on your 1 Month Birthday!!

Recap since last Thursday....

Okay, so I got blogging lazy at the end of last week and over the weekend so I have a lot to catch up on.  On Thursday I decided to make it a work around the house day as it was pretty cold outside and I figured it best for Avery and I to stay indoors.  So I decided it was time to tackle one of the smallest but messiest places in my house.  I can't believe I am sharing this on the Internet but at least I know it is better!

The Laundry Room Re-Do

So I told you it was awful!  We don't really have a laundry room per say, it is more of a very tiny laundry closet in the hallway upstairs, in fact it is so strange that I had to take two crazy pictures to get the whole thing because there wasn't enough space for me to back up to take pictures otherwise.  So I don't think I need to say much we can all see it was a mess!!


And the after makes it look so much bigger and better, I am really happy with it, it is so much easier to do laundry now.  In fact I have done a ton since I cleaned it and I am loving it!

I often wonder if you all think I neglect my child to get little home projects done around my house so I took a picture of what my little one does while I do projects, she sleeps!  Most of the time I have her in one of her two bouncy seats or in her swing, sometimes she is just in her pack n play sleeping, it kind of just depends where we are or what is going on but I assure you I take care of her!

Friday, Avery and I went out for a while to my Mom's house to hang out with my Aunt who is in town and my Grandma, it was really fun.  We all had our i-pads and sat there playing and telling of all our favorite apps.  I forgot to take pictures :( but my Mom took some I just have to get a hold of her memory card so I promise to update with photos as soon as I get them from Mom.

Saturday afternoon Jolie went to my friend Christina's hair salon for a much needed haircut.  Her hair was too long and too wild so we trimmed it down, it is so cute!!  She had a blast with Miss Christina, thank goodness for lifelong friends that do my hair and my girls!!

On Saturday night we went to my parent's house for an amazing lobster dinner with my parents, Grandma, and my Aunt.  It was so much fun, of course the food was amazing but the company was even better.  We used my i-pad to view totally hilarious you tube videos so that was fun, I don't think we have ever laughed so hard all together, it was so much fun!!  Again I forgot pictures, I swear I am going to get better at that!!

On Sunday morning we just hung out as a family and I captured a few great pictures of my girls.  I just love them both so much, they are amazing!!




 Sunday afternoon we went over to my parent's house to play.  Santa had brought Jolie some snow to play with but we had yet to bust out that activity so I thought a quiet Sunday afternoon at Mimi and Poppy's house was the perfect opportunity.  And let me tell you that Jolie truly loved it....it was pretty cool and the best part is you can use it over and over again so there will be more snow days in her future.


We had such a great weekend....it was quiet but we just got time to hang out and enjoy each other and I have to say that this is the best part of life, just hanging with my family and laughing and smiling, I love it!

Avery's Nursery

I just realized that I recently posted pictures of Jolie's new Big Girl Room but that I never shared any pictures of Avery's completed Nursery.  I have to say that I really love both the girl's rooms, I think they are so cute and totally girlie...I have to say I gave up on my desire for pink rooms for fear of them being totally over the top but I really like them they way they are in fairly gender neutral wall colors with the very girlie accents and plenty of pink in the accents of course.  So here it is without further ado....Avery's Nursery.
This is what you see when you walk in the door.  Her crib is there to the left and then you see her swing, a rocking chair, of course her TV for when she is bigger.

This is a picture of Avery's crib and the artwork and her name that I made for her before she was ever born.  I really love the way it looks.  I have to say after taking these pictures and then looking at them it is really difficult to capture rooms in pictures, hopefully everyone realizes it looks better in person.
This is the shelve that sits by her crib to the left of the dresser, I also made it and have it decorated with little things that people have given her as gifts.and then of course the necessary diaper items as this sits right next to her changing table.

Sunday, January 16, 2011

We had such a great weekend in The Perillo House! I have a ton of post to finish and publish, I promise to get to it through out the week but right now I am tired and I have a slightly fussy baby to deal with and I am in massive amounts of pain from the whole bladder infection thing I am going through, can't wait to go to doctor on Tuesday! Hope your weekend was as full of relaxation and family as mine was!

Tuesday, January 11, 2011

Baby Avery Milestones

I am writing this so I can't forget the mini-milestones in Baby Avery's life.  Today she started smiling, she looks right up at me and smiles, it totally warms my heart!  And because I feel like I haven't shared many pictures of her recently here are a few, I am going to try and capture a smile but that might take a while.
This might be one of my most favorite outfits ever, the onesie and the pants have strawberries on them and there is even a hat that is a strawberry!  (Sarah get ready it will be coming your way soon, she is growing so fast.)

This is my two beautiful girls!!!

And I couldn't resist sharing a picture of my big girl before she went to play golf on Sunday with her Daddy, my goodness she is getting so big!!

More Completed Projects.....

So again today I was very productive around the house.  I was able to clean off the tops of my kitchen cabinets, I wiped down and/or washed everything and then reorganized, I got rid of a few random things that I just didn't think we needed any more and I rearranged everything so that it looks different.  Once again I was so excited to get started I forgot to take a before picture but here is the after.

After I got that done I thought I would finish the one thing that I didn't complete on my pre-baby to do list, I know she is almost 4 weeks old already but hey better late than never, right?  Here are the before and afters on that....

Don't get me wrong there is still a ton of stuff out there but at least it is a little neater...this is the only place we have in our house to keep outdoor toys so it will always just be kind of crazy out there but at least it is some what organized.

I also got to clean up Jolie's room for her today.  It looks a thousand times better than it did, she had taken most of the toys in her baskets out so it was just messy.  And since I never did finished room pictures on any of the house, I swear I will do that while I am on maternity leave, here are two pictures of her room, one of either side of the main part of the room.
This is a picture of her room from the doorway looking at her bed, I know it is a big bed, it is a queen because that is the size bed we already owned (it was my bed before I met Rich and then when we got our king sized bed for our master bedroom it went to the guest room, then the guest room became Jolie's room and we just used that bed).  This is the fabulous cute little girl's bedding that I found last spring at Marshall's for $30, I love it and looks so great with her yellow walls.  On the wall to the left of her bed is an art show hanging where she can change out and put her school work in, we change it about once a month and it is due for a change as it still has Christmas art in it, that will have to wait for another day.  As you can see on her bed is her favorite Christmas gift from Santa her Lady Bug Pillow Pet, she loves that thing!

This is a picture taken from the corner of the room by the closet doors.  As you can see she has a great desk and hutch, a corner piece and a long dresser.  There is also her favorite thing in her room, her TV, she loves to watch movies and gets so excited when we let her watch movies in there.  The good news is her room is clean as I sit here and type this, the bad news is she is on her way home from school with Rich and so it is possible in less than an hour it will be destroyed...ha ha!!

Recent Projects...

So since I am home with Avery and the weather has really limited the amount of things I can do, like leave my house because it has been so cold and windy and Avery can't do that we have been make wise use of our time at home and have completed several projects that I never seem to have time for as a working Mom.  So here is what I have completed so far...
I took this mess of coupons that was just sitting on the corner of the kitchen counter, I got rid of the expired and organized them all to fit in the two red envelopes ($1 each from the Dollar Spot at Target) you see in the left of the picture.  This was a great way to free up space on my kitchen counter and now I feel so much more prepared for the grocery store.  In fact this weekend I saved us $20 at the BJ's Wholesale Club and between ads, in store deals, and coupons I saved us over $45.00 at the grocery store and bought meats plus a weeks worth of groceries all for around $90, not bad for a family of four, well really three Avery doesn't use much in the way of groceries...ha ha!

On to the next project, I forgot to take before pictures on these so you will have to take my word for it that the two areas below had exploded with kid's stuff and toys and was driving me insane!

This is the toy area in my living room, prior to this picture I had two small wicker baskets there to hold toys and it was over flowing and was always looking super crazy so I went on a mission in my own house to figure out a better arrangement, that is when I looked in Jolie's closet and found the two rubber bins you see above, they have handles, they fit in the space, they hold a ton of toys, and other then the color I love them.  Although I did this project last week and the color isn't bothering me as much anymore.  So again another project done for free!!

Again, no before picture but when I tell you the above corner in my house was out of control that would be an understatement, this is right next to the sliding glass door in the back and had become a dumping ground for Jolie's large toys that were in the living room, there was a turtle art station, a princess ride on car, and a shopping cart there prior to my redo.  The basket in the corner was one of the ones that were used in the living room for Jolie's toys prior to the reorganization you saw above and now it holds all of Jolie's shoes that had been piled up by my front door previously and then I took one of the chairs from the kitchen table that always seemed to be in the way anyways and made a little finish getting ready station for Jolie, she sits in the chair in the morning to get her shoes and socks put on, it is perfect and I love it!  And yet again a FREE project, just a little moving around of things I already have!

Now on to the good stuff, here are the pictures before and after of my kitchen cabinets that I cleaned out yesterday...I am so glad that I tackled that project.  I did all the cabinets and drawers (well I have one drawer left to do) and then today I am going to clean up and redecorate the tops of my cabinets, I will again do a before and after.  I hope to make it super nice up there as well.
This might have been the easiest cabinet, it was just a little moving around and putting the things we use most easiest to get to and then on the bottom right I made room for all the sippy cups.  And a few of the rarely used glassware sets found a new home in the corner part of the next cabinet as we don't pull them out often.


This is the before on top and after on bottom of the cabinet above the stove.  I decided after reading a few stories about how you should not put any sort of plastic in this cabinet to go ahead and move that to another home and replaced it with some occasionally used glass cookware and then the seasonal salt and pepper shakers.




This is the cabinet I use to hold measuring cups and some frequently used bake/serving ware and some acrylic wine glasses that we use rather regularly when it is just us at home.  Doesn't it look so much better??  It is amazing how much space you find when you reorganize because I really didn't get rid of much I just made better use of the space I have, I thought I would have to get rid of a ton of stuff to have this happen, I am loving it!!


This is where I keep all my dishes and plastic plates and bowls for the kids to use, I can't believe how much better this looks, I couldn't be happier with the results!!



Now these are the bottom cabinets that open with the door but then go around the corner so it is very hard to see but trust me when I tell you this pots and pans cabinet looks AMAZING in comparison!


 This is the cabinet on the left of my stove that is the dumping ground for extra stuff like small appliances, bake ware, cookie cutters, extra parts to my kitchen aid mixer, extra lunch boxes, everything just end up in there but WOW this makes it look like it all belongs, I am really excited to not have stuff falling out when we open up the doors.

And last but I think my favorite....I forgot to take a before picture which is somewhat disappointing because it was so crazy and it is so great now but this is my Tupperware cabinet and it is so super organized, LOVE it!!!


So as you can see I am making GREAT use of my time at home and getting a lot of things done that don't normally fit into my busy working mother schedule.