A Bunch of Sickies

We've been struggling to get over a cold at the Rizzo house these days. Madelyn's teething on top of that and having a hard time sleeping at night and so I'm fairly sleep deprived. But we're making it.

Ava woke up this morning and requested 'mato for breakfast so she's eating tomatoes and toast for breakfast this morning. Must be the small amount of English blood she has in her coming through.

Yesterday she and I had oatmeal for breakfast and I was giving Madelyn her weekly attempt at eating some rice cereal while we ate. Madelyn has yet to become enthusiastic about eating solids and tends to just clamp her mouth shut when I bring the spoon up. Ava saw this and said, "Eat you oatmeal Madelyn. Give you muscles." Haha!

Despite not yet being willing to eat anything off a spoon, Madelyn is doing well. She's getting pretty skilled at rolling over back and forth and pushing her chest up off the floor. The other day I even caught her part way up on her knees at the same time. AND she's starting to scoot herself backwards. Not ready for that.

On Sunday she started "talking" out of the blue. Her shrieks and coo's suddenly had consonants added to them. She's been thoroughly enjoying her new grasp on language with lots of chatting going on.






The other day I gave them their first bath together. Their little noses were all stuffed up so I steamed up the bathroom and put them in the tub. Madelyn was sitting in her Bumbo seat and I took a cup and poured some of the warm water into the seat, telling Ava, "Mama's putting some bathwater in Madelyn's Bumbo to keep her warm." Ava wanted to do it so I let her and just told her to only pour it on her lap. She kept gently pouring the water into Madelyn's seat, saying "Keep Madelyn warm" for several minutes and then all of a sudden, she took the cup and poured it right over Madelyn's head. I guess she just wanted to see what would happen! Poor Madelyn was pretty startled but I could tell Ava felt bad afterward. And she did say, "Sorry Madelyn." I felt bad for Madelyn but I also had to laugh a little when Ava wasn't watching.



Last Monday Madelyn had her 6 month check up. She's doing great. She is 27 inches long and 16 pounds, so that puts her in the 90th percentile for height and 75th for weight. Both her and Ava got shots that day. I was nervous about Ava because she hadn't had any shots since she was old enough to really know what was going on. I talked to her about them a little before hand and had chocolate and Lambie available for afterward. The nurse was great though and the shot was over before I knew it and I don't think Ava even felt it. Madelyn on the other hand was ANGRY about her shots. She didn't stop crying until we were on our way home. Poor baby.

Ava will be going to her second ballet/dance class tomorrow morning. I found out last Tuesday that our friend Cheryl was teaching a pre-school dance class at the Rec Center in Carrollton and although it is supposed to be for 3-5 year olds Ava was able to join. I'd been wanting to have her do some sort of activity and be with other kids more and I was so excited for this opportunity for her. A weekly dance class at the Rec Center is cheap too! She already has plenty of tutu's but per Cheryl's recommendation we did go to Pay Less Shoes and buy a pair of tiny ballet slippers, which was a lot of fun for both us us.

The night before her first class we'd watched some YouTube clips of real ballerina's dancing and as soon as we turned it on Ava ran to her room yelling, "My tutu! my tutu!" The she came back properly dressed and she and I danced. She watched the screen very carefully and did her best to imitate the dancers in the video. And if she caught me not paying attention, she rebuked me quickly, grabbing my hand and saying, "Mama like this, like this. Dance!"

So she was very excited for her class the next morning. In fact she had a hard time falling asleep the night before and woke up about an hour and 1/2 earlier than normal that morning. I didn't stay in the class with her but peeked in at the window. She took it all very seriously and came out able to show me 1st position and a plie. We've been practicing this week so she should be all set for tomorrow.

And here's some things I'm loving about my girls right now.

I love when Madelyn looks up and smiles at me. She has the sweetest smile, it's a "secret" smile, like there's something really special that only she and I know.

I love it when Ava asks to hold my hand. She's been holding my hand a lot when we're all eating dinner together and when I'm reading to her. She says, "Mama, hold my hand!" I love it!

Ava likes to hold Madelyn's hand too. Especially when Madelyn is bugging her by grabbing at her face and hair. After patiently repeating, "No Madelyn. No Madelyn." Ava will just take Madelyn's hand and hold it. Very sweet.

Madelyn is a snuggler. When she's sleepy all she wants if for me to hold her and let her snuggle her face down into the crook of my arm. And if she's in her crib she likes to have her forehead stroked and have me cup her cheek in my palm. I have to admit she's a little spoiled and gets to snuggle a lot at bedtime . . .

Madelyn is ticklish. VERY ticklish. And she loves to be tickled. Her tummy and her neck are the most ticklish and her whole body convulses and she just laughs and laughs when you tickle her. It's so cute!

Since Madelyn was born I've been singing to her the little song, "I love you a bushel and a peck, a bushel and a peck and a hug around the neck." Only I changed to the words to "kisses on the neck" because it's much more fun to kiss a baby's neck than hug it. Anyway, now when I sing it and to her and I get to the "kisses on the neck" part she leans in and chomps down on my cheeks with those big slobbery baby kisses. I love it!






Ava is really into puzzles and I love doing them with her. She is pretty good at them, and their real puzzles not the wooden cutout kind. She has such concentration when she's working on them. She'll sit on her bedroom floor for a good 30 minutes at a time working on them. She also loves being read to and reading out loud to her baby or stuffed animals. She usually adds quite a bit of detail to each page she reads, but the other day she was reading Are You My Mother and gave the abbreviated version which went like this. "Are you my mother? No. And No. (flipping the pages) And no. And no. Yay! The End." Which is pretty much exactly what that books says. Funny how I can't get away with skipping parts when I'm reading to her . . .

Because I'm Awake and No One Else Is

Forgot to actually post this last week . . .oops!

Well it's another "weekend" morning and again I'm the only one up because Madelyn woke me up at 6:45, but then an hour and a half later she wants to catch some more Z's but of course I can't go back to bed because I've already consumed a cup and a half of coffee. This is the new weekend for me. So what better to do than type out a blog post eh? I've been meaning to jot down a few random notes about my girls anyway. Yesterday Ava went all day without any accidents (not even first thing in the morning or during nap) in her diaper for the first time, with a grand total of 8 successful visits to the potty chair. And so today, as promised, we'll be going to the Shoe Shop (i. e. Target because this is where we went to get her her requested "soccer" shoes when she asked to go to the "shoe shop" for a pair. She did actually need tennis shoes by the way. We don't always fulfill her every wish.) to get her some new Dora underwear. Or perhaps, "puppy underwear" because for some reason after all the promises of Dora underwear and the excitement she did have over the thought of them, suddenly yesterday she decided she wanted "puppy underwear." Every time I would remind her that if she stayed dry we would go buy new Dora underwear she'd correct me and say "puppy underwear." I sure hope the Shoe Shop can deliver.

Madelyn will be 6 months in just a few days. Hard to believe. I'll be feeding her her first bites of rice cereal this weekend. She hasn't seemed to interested in food/us eating. But I want to give it shot before her next Dr's appointment this Friday in case I have any questions. Guess I better go dig out my Super Baby Food's book for a little refresher . . . She's getting more and more vocal too, especially in the mornings. Lot's of yelling and shrieking, especially if Ava's any where near. She makes all kinds of excited commotion in hopes that Ava will come play with her. Between that and Ava's constant chatter is a wonder I have any sense left in my head these days. She is quieter than Ava was though, I think there's more going on for her to just observe. She LOVES watching Ava and she just gets the hugest smile on her face when ever Ava comes near to her and reaches out to try and grab a hold of Ava. Often grabbing her hair or poking her, which is understandably a little hard for Ava to understand, and so she's always telling her, "No, no Madelyn" and returning Madelyn's hand back to her own personal space. Madelyn can roll over now. From side to side and onto her tummy. Which makes her angry at nap time. I have clear memories of this horrible phase with Ava. They can roll themselves over onto their tummies at nap time, but they can't fall asleep on their tummy or roll themselves back over so they cry and cry until you flip them back over onto their backs only to have them roll back over onto their tummy a couple minutes later. And this nasty cycle repeats and repeats and repeats until their so exhausted they don't have the energy to roll themselves over anymore and fall asleep on their back. Good times. Madelyn's been teething a lot for weeks now with still no appearance of that first tooth. She has to tiny white spots on her bottom gum but they don't seem to be growing at all. Poor thing. She still remains fairly cheerful though. She really is a sweet baby. She loves to laugh and sometimes now will just start laughing if I just look at her. She is loving her exersaucer right and her new found ability to actually play with her rattles and various other baby toys. But she still likes to be held best. Ava liked her "alone" time and was content to play by herself often. Madelyn is for short amounts of time but she wants to be checked in on often and would probably really just prefer for me to carry her around all day. It's really interesting to see already the differences in their personalities and preferences. There's toys we have that Ava did ever really seem interested in that Madelyn really likes (glad I didn't just toss those). When Ava was sleepy she just wanted me to lay her down in her crib and leave her alone. She didn't like me trying to sing to her or pat her back or touch her at all. Madelyn loves to be rocked and snuggles her head down into the crook of my arm. And singing and patting her back or stroking her forehead soothes her. Ava slept on her back with her arms above her head every night. Madelyn is a strict side sleeper, usually with one arm draped over her eyes. When I used to go in to get Ava in the morning she would be ecstatic and shriek and strain to try and sit up and get out of bed to greet me. Madelyn is more relaxed. Still happy to see me but she greets me with just a sweet smile. Just little things but it's just so interesting to see their similarities and differences coming out. Ava is saying some pretty funny stuff lately. I need to be better about writing them down. Last week I was putting her into her new booster seat at the dinner table and telling her how now that she sat at the big table with Mama and Dada she needed to be careful to eat nicely and not make a mess. And jokingly I said to her, "Because Ava, with greater age comes greater responsibility. Can you say that? Can you say 'with age comes responsibility?'" She thought a moment and then said, "No Mama, too hard." We did have a big breakthrough though. She has acknowledged finally that her name is Ava, and yesterday she was scribbling on her white board and said, "Ava Rizzo. My name Ava Rizzo." I said, "Are you writing you name?" And she said, "Yes. My name Ava Rizzo." Of course, she did follow that up by saying, "Mama Rizzo, Dada Rizzo, Hi-You Rizzo and Madelyn Rizzo!" This is good though, because both Tony and I have found ourselves constantly calling her "Hi-You" in public places and being a little embarrassed that the strangers around us think that we actually named our daughter that.

Here's some pictures of Tony's dad and step-mom's visit and then our Christmas tree decorating and some pictures of the girls before we left for the GFA Christmas party.

Hanging out with Granddad Joe and Grandma Beth

Pillow Fight!!!

Story Time with Dada

Ava asked to eat her cereal in the chair so she could "read" while she ate, so I let her, sans milk.

My beautiful Madelyn

Bed Head

Christmas tree shopping at the good Ol' Home Depot. It's a family tradition! :o)

Ava loved helping decorate the tree this year. I started out only putting not breakable ornaments on because I was afraid Ava would break them, but the tree looked a little bare so I added some glass bulbs. Two of them got broken before the tree came down, one by me and one by Tony. . .

Ava totally remembered how to put the star of from last year, she asked to be held up and put it right on.

Ava in her Christmas dress. It has some silver sparkles on it so it's not the totally black unfrilly dress it appears to be, so don't feel to sorry for her.

The two loves of my life (minus the third)

Say Cheese!!!

Senior Photos - Christina

I had a great time hanging out with Christina and her mom, Shelly, a few weeks ago. We went down to the Arts District in Dallas and shot some senior photos as we walked around. Shelly knows the history behind many of the buildings and locations, so that was especially fun. I have walked/driven around that area many times, but had no idea how old and historical some of the buildings are.

Christina has been blessed with an amazing voice and she hopes to sing professionally after high school, so the part of town she picked was a perfect fit. Enjoy the photos!