Standing!

Ava has mastered standing on her own without holding on to anything!  She can stand there for a long time (maybe 10 seconds) before she decides it's boring and kneels down.  We've been trying to get her to take a step toward us.  She is so silly, she thinks she's pretty hot stuff when she's standing there by herself.  She smiles the whole time and giggles until she either goes to her knees, or plops on to her bum.

Squeeky clean!

Visiting cousins and some pictures from the last few days!

                                Helping Mommy fold clothes!

















 




                                New shoes! I got 2 pair of shoes for Ava for $5 from Craig's list.
                                      They are just like new, and very cute! Ava likes them...

Thank you Uncle Cade for my Duck!


 
                 Kisses from Uncle Cade

We went to North Bend last weekend for mine and my brother's birthday parties!  It was a lot of fun and Ava just loves her little cousins!  My brother was holding her and as soon as Brendan walked up she leaned down for him!

                                                                     Grace and Ava

                                                                   Joshua and Ava

BBQ!

Raf decided to take advantage of the beautiful weather tonight!  We had a back yard BBQ.  Despite the sun we've had for the last few days, the grass still has some really wet spots.  I didn't want Ava to get messy crawling around in it, so we brought her porta crib outside instead.

We gave Ava some of the cheese rice we had with dinner.  She loved it!!  It was actually the first time I have seen her try to feed herself!  Usually she just plays with her food and we end up cleaning up a big mess.  The rice was a little sticky so it was stuck to her arms and hands.  She kept trying to get it in her mouth though!  Mommy stepped in and helped a little... :)

What a morning!

Ava is sick....again.  She's coughing a lot and has a really bad runny nose.  Poor girl.  It seems like she has been sick non-stop lately!  Today is my brothers birthday so we are having a party at my sisters house in North Bend.  I was calling my sister this morning to see if she still wanted us to come even though Ava is sick.  I am worried about her kids getting sick.  When I was on the phone with her I was holding Ava.  I put her down on her little mat and noticed some poop coming through her sleeper!  I looked at my shirt and there was poop all over the side of me!  I told my sister I would call her back so I could clean Ava up.  We've been giving Ava a lot of extra liquids since she has been sick so her poops have been pretty runny.  I took her into her room to get cleaned up.  When I took off her outfit I saw the poop had gone all the way down to her ankle!  Ava turned over and started crawling away as I was cleaning her up.  I figured that was Ok because I needed to get to the back of her legs anyways.  As I was wiping her down she turned over and decided to sit down. Oh no!!  Now there was a little butt print of poop on the carpet.  I cleaned it up and finished wiping her down.  I left her naked on the floor to play for a sec while I got the bath tub ready.  When I came back she was kneeling on the carpet in a puddle of pee!!  Ugh! Sooo... here is a photo of a squeaky clean Ava playing in her crib after her bath so Mommy could clean up the mess!

















         
                                   WatchingMommy plant stuff!



  Notice the nice little puddle?

So destructive lately!

Ava doesn't like things inside of, or on top of anything!  If it is... it must come down or off as soon as possible!  My sister gave Ava a little wagon that holds rubber blocks.  If you put anything in it she will crawl over as fast as she can and quickly unload it!  Same goes for the toys on her highchair.  She seems quite pleased with herself afterward.  She's so funny!

Rafael stayed home sick from work today.  As fun as it was for Ava and I to have him home, he was miserable!  I am hoping he has the bug that Ava just got over and not a new bug!

                                                                     Throwing toys

                                                                       Now what?






















                                She is smiling because she knows what she's about to do....

                                                                      Oh noooo!

                                       
                                        Ava is so lucky to have a Daddy like Rafael. I don't
                                   know anyone that's as pleased with their Daddy as Ava is!

                        Ava started climbing the stairs (with me close behind) a few weeks back.
             She's pretty good at it now! I just have to be there for moral support... the rest is all her!

Happy Easter!

I had to work today! Ugh! I wish Comcast would recognize Easter as a holiday!
Tonight we gave Ava her Easter basket. It was pretty simple for her first Easter since she can't have chocolate yet! We got her a little stuffed horse that plays music. She was more interested in the paper confetti inside the basket than the toy! When I was little my parents used to hide our Easter baskets on Easter morning and we would have to search the house to find them. We put Ava's basket near her toys when she wasn't looking. We sat her down and she noticed it right away!

As you can see from this picture, Ava still has NO teeth!

Grandma's visit, the tub, and Guitar hero!

Today Ava had a bath with water in the tub! We have a shower hose and before today, we would just soap her up in the tub and rinse her off. She had so much fun in the water! She was splashing like crazy! Thank you Aunt Na for the new bath toys!
Last night our neighbors came over to play guitar hero. We had a great time and Ava was so good! She just watched us most of the time. A little later on she wanted in on some of the action! Grandma came over to visit today. We had fun! We picked up Raf from work and went to lunch. Ava loves her Grandma!








Little rock star!

A video from tonight. I don't know why Ava thought this was so funny. She's so silly!

Visiting North Bend

Yesterday Ava and I went to North Bend to visit Aunt Na, Uncle Todd and Ava's cousins. Afterward my sister and I met my friend Lindsey and her boy at the outlet mall for some shopping! We had a really good time! Ava's little cousins were so cute with her. My sister gave Ava some more toys! Most of the toys that Ava has came from my sister. She kept a lot of the toys her kids had when they were little. Ava is so lucky to have an Aunt that spoils her so much! They have a BIG dog named Jake. I wasn't sure how Ava would react to him, but as soon as she saw him she was all squeals and smiles! Jake was a good sport and let Ava crawl all over him. I couldn't figure out which pictures to post, so I posted a ton! We took so many.

We started making our own baby food! Baby food is so expensive!! This way we know exactly what she is getting too, so that makes it worth it.




New pants