Avery at 5 months....

Again, this post is totally overdue as well but what can I say it has been a CRAZY month.

Avery is 5 months old, I am amazed at how fast time has gone and how it just feels as though we have always been a family of four.  Avery is growing like a weed and wears a few 9 month clothes but mostly wears all 12 month clothes.  Thank goodness I have a ton of clothes left from Jolie and my really good friend Jenn gives me all of her daughter's hand me downs because Avery is flying through clothes.  She barely even wore 6 months and other than little dresses and stuff she skipped over 9 months too.  She is so cute and chunky, I love it!!!

Avery has finally started sleeping through the night just before she turned 5 months old, that has been so nice.  She goes to bed about 8:30pm with a last bottle feeding in her room, I sit in her rocking chair that is in her room and after she finishes her bottle I rock her a little and then put her in her crib with her pacifier.  So far it is working great!  The only bad part is she doesn't want Rich to put her to bed, just me, she pitches a fit when Rich tries to feed her at night and put her to bed.  Avery is eating well as well, she eats squash, sweet potatoes, carrots, and peas so far and pretty soon we will start giving her some fruits.

Avery has found her feet and loves to play with them.  She also likes to play on the floor with her toys.  She is able to roll from back to front and front to back.  She grabs at everything including Mommy's hair, glasses, anything.

Jolie and Avery are the best of friends and super sweet on each other.  I love having my two girls and hope that they are the best of friends all their lives.



Jolie's Birthday Parties

I have been meaning to post the pictures from all of Jolie's Birthday Parties but have just now gotten the chance to finally do so, amazing what one day off will do for you!

Here are the pictures from her school Birthday Party, it was the morning of her actual Birthday on Monday, May 9th.

This is a picture of the Birthday Poster that Rich and I made for Jolie to take to school, they put it up in the classroom for all the children to look at the week of a Birthday and it shows Jolie at birth, at one, at two, at three, and of course some recent pictures of her at almost four.

This is Jolie and three of her friends from school.  Alex, Jolie, Laura, and Gabby.

This is Jolie with the globe getting ready to do her birthday walk.

Jolie going around the sun for her birthday walk.

This was Jolie after she ate cupcakes with her friends at school.  She had such a good time!!

Here is the Birthday girl at a small pizza party we had for her at my Mom and Dad's the night of her birthday.

 Mommy, Daddy, and Jolie with her Birthday cake.

 Jolie and Avery.

On Saturday, May 14th we had a big Birthday Party for Jolie at Chuck E. Cheese.  Here are all the pictures from that party.

Laura and Jolie

Lily, Jolie, Gracie, and Laura

Avery

All the kids eating pizza!

Daddy and Jolie

Mommy, Daddy, Jolie and Avery.

Jen and my friend Jenn.

Memorial Day Weekend

Let me first start off by saying how grateful Rich and I as well as our girls are for all the men and women who have given their lives in defense of the freedom we enjoy. I think sometimes I go about living my life and the hustle and bussle of everyday life that I forget about all the families who have sacrificed so much for me to enjoy my everyday life. I am truly grateful for all that has been done around the world and here on our own soil to ensure I have the right to speak and live freely. Just wanted to be sure that we remember what this weekend is truly about.

Now on to how we are celebrating this weekend....yesterday I did the normal Saturday stuff, some errands, some grocery shopping, some cleaning, and some cooking. After all that was done I took Jolie over to my friend Lori's house for a cookout Birthday Party for Lori. We had a great time as Lori had 17 kids there and hired a babysitter to watch all of them as they played in the pool and in the backyard and then even went over to the neighborhood park. It was nice as I got to visit with Lori, her husband Scott and a whole crew of their friends. Jolie had a blast playing with all the kids, especially Lori's daughter Jodi. Rich stayed home with Avery as the crowd was probably too much for both of them.

Today it is more of the same weekend stuff of cleaning and what not and then we are having my parents and mother-in-law over for a little family cookout. We are going to be doing the traditional grill out of BBQ ribs and corn, I am making a little salad and it should be a great time with family. I have the girls dressed up super cute red/white/blue so that is always fun, I promise to take pictures.....

Tomorrow is going to be about family time and relaxation and I am totally okay with that!!! I think we will do some swimming in the pool and that will be as exciting as it gets, which sounds GREAT!!!! I wish every week included a three day weekend!

Hope you and your family have a very happy Memorial Day Weekend and that no matter what you are doing to celebrate that you take a minute to remember what this weekend is really about!

As I check on sleeping children....

Tonight I think I have a case of the over tired's....I know it is like my kids but I am so tired I can't sleep but I had a few random thoughts I figured I would just go ahead and blog them now. So here is my list of thoughts I had right after I checked on my beautiful, quiet, sleeping girls.

- as I just checked on both my girls peacefully sleeping safely in their rooms it dawned on me how all the hundreds of thousands of people in Middle America must feel tonight because they aren't check on their kids in their houses in their own beds. So many of them have lost everything they own and some have even lost their children or other members of their family. I just can't even imagine what they are going through. My heart breaks for these families and I pray for their safety as more storms come through the area and all the water settles. I told Rich the other night I couldn't imagine what these families are going through as we watched the Evening News.

- then probably equally as sad as I checked on my children this evening I thought of the Casey Anthony trial that is currently going on in Orlando. If you don't know about this trial you must be living under a rock as it took them weeks just to find a jury because everyone knew about it, not to mention they are televising every last detail on Tru TV and HLN. Anyways I digress, the reason I thought of it was I just can't buy into the craziness that is that trial. Supposedly Casey Anthony murdered her then 2, almost 3 year old daughter and then partied like a rockstar but now according to the Defense the little girl accidentally drowned and because the Mom (Casey Anthony) was sexually abused by her father and brother she got scared and covered everything up. I just can't buy how a mother that truly, loved and cared for her child can behave this way. It really makes me sad just thinking about it, as a Mother I just can't imagine all that anyone of them is selling. I think crazy stuff like that might be part of why I check on my kids 4-5 times a night while they are sleeping, just to know they are okay, it makes me feel better.

Good news, everyone in The Perillo House is sound asleep, that includes my wonderful husband, 2 beautiful daughters, 2 cats, and the dog, the only other person that should be sleeping but isn't is me although I am feeling tired now, so I think this is the end of this post so I can get some rest, night, night!!!!

My poor little muffin....

My poor little 5 month old muffin officially has her first illness. After my Mom called me mid-morning yesterday saying Avery'seye looked really bad, she was fussy and my Mom really thought she had pink eye I decided a call to the pediatrian's office was in order. Avery has had tear duct issues in that eye since she was born so I really thought that was the problem but I made an afternoon appointment for her. My Mom and Dad took her to the doctor and it turns out she does have pink eye, poor muffin. It turns out because of her tear duct issues it makes her more prone to catching pink eye, so she is on eye drops four times a day for a week, that isn't too much fun but we are managing and she is already a little better this morning. My biggest fear is pink eye running wild through my house!!!! Will keep you posted on the adventures of a 5 month old with pink eye.

Busy little bees.....

So I just looked at the blog and realized it has been a full week since I updated or wrote anything and then I thought back to why that is and realized we have just been so busy for the entire month of May and most especially during the last 2 weeks.  So here is a little recap....

Last week Sunday, Monday and Tuesday Jolie was in Disney with Mom and Dad so that was great as we had a ton going on here.  I have been drowning in work, there is just so much going on and so much to do.  It is going into the "slow" season but that just means I have to work harder for less, sound fun right?  On top of that Rich is working hard to close out his school year and deal with 120 middle school children everyday who don't want to be at school because FCAT is over, so again a good time.

Then there is all the celebrations and fun family and friends things we have had going on.  Of course we all know Jolie turned 4 two weeks ago and that included a family party, a school party, and a big Chuck E. Cheese party (and I promise I will write a post about all that sometime soon because it really was fun).  Then of course last week Tuesday Avery turned 5 months old, wow, can't believe it, she is so big and rolls around like crazy and pushes up and is working on learning to sit.  So we officially have a moving child, there is no more set her down and she stays there, now you lay her down and she rolls where ever she wants to go.  She smiles and laughs like crazy which is totally fun and makes my heart swell with happiness!  The girls together are super cute but tons of work.  Everyone in our house eats different things at different times and I feel like s short order cook at night.  I did stop breast feeding/pumping on Mother's Day, that was the last day I pumped and after much emotional debate over it I feel really good with my decision.  I ha a freezer full of breast milk so she will be about 6 months old by the time we completely run out of breast milk and we have been mixing breast milk and formula getting her use to it and seems to be working out just fine.  Avery is a great eater and doesn't leave anything in the bottom of the bottle and can put away an entire stage 1 baby food jar.  But enough about all that, I will save the rest of Avery's milestones and updates for a 5 Month update that is almost a week over due but I swear I will get it done.

I have also had a ton of sorority stuff going on and phone calls and meetings and construction at the house so that has again filled my summer but it is going to be GREAT when completed and really be a lot of finishing details to all the work we did last summer, I will be glad when that is all finished it just makes for a lot of stress when I am not there to see that every detail is handled.

So again, we are busy little bees in the Perillo House but things start to calm down this week and then I am only a few weeks to a much needed vacation week in the middle of June!  Updates to follow, time permitting!

The Magic of Disney Lives On....

So below are the pictures I have gotten via text from my Mom of Jolie totally loving the magic of Disney World.  I remember being a 5 year old girl and going to Disney with my parents I hope that Jolie will look back on this trip with my parent's with the same fondness and joy as I do on one of my first trips to Disney.

This is Jolie yesterday on the bed of her hotel with the Mickey ears they made on the bed for her.

This is Jolie this morning at breakfast with Mickey, she is truly loving her expierence!  I talked to her several times today and you could just hear the joy in her voice!