Ava LOVES her Daddy!!

                       Ava is getting very good at kisses! When you ask her for one, she open's
             her mouth and gives you a BIG one! She hasn't quite got the "pucker" part down yet!

                                                                           Splash!

New camera and trying to stay cool!!

Seattle hit a record temperature today!  In Tacoma it got up to 103 degrees!  Our thermometer outside said 106... OUCH!  It's been miserable!  We don't have air conditioning so we have been doing everything we can to try and stay cool.  We've been keeping Ava very well hydrated.  I just feel bad for her because she doesn't understand why it's so uncomfortable.  I've been getting her bibs wet and putting them in the freezer for a few minutes, then on her!  It seems to work pretty well.  I've been doing the same with my own t shirt all day!  I've also been letting her suck on un-opened otter pops. They are nice and cold. :)

Raf got me a new camera!!  I am SO excited!  It's a Canon EOS Rebel XS.  It's my first SLR camera! I really don't have much interest in professional photography aside from my own family, but I'm SO excited that I can take good pictures now!  I found a lady that does photography classes at the art school.  She's off for the summer right now, but said she'll give me a one on one crash course on photography so I can figure the camera out!

Here are a few shots from today.  I still have no idea how to use the camera, but can definitely tell a difference in the picture quality!!






   
        This one is a little fuzzy. I was messing with the settings, but I thought the picture was cute!

                                                               Ava trying to cool off!

Eyes!

New clothes!

I have spent the last few days going through all of Ava's clothes and putting away what doesn't fit her anymore!  It really made me realize just how fast she's growing!  Her 3-9 month clothes that don't fit filled a huge cardboard box!  We still had 2 big boxes in the garage of 12+ months clothes that my sister gave us.  I got those out and pulled out a bunch of outfits!  Her closet is full again! It's been so nice to have a constant supply of clothes for Ava.  Thank you again Christina!!

Ava is back!!

Ava's back to her goofy little self again!  Poor girl, she was not too happy for about a week!  Her Roseola rash is gone now and I think her ear infection is gone too.  I missed her!  She is normally such a little ham!  The only thing that is different now is sleeping.  She's sleeping SO much.  I think she's getting the rest of it out of her system.  She's been napping 3 times throughout the day for almost 2 hours each time, AND sleeping through the night!

Sick!

Sorry it's been a bit since my last post!  Ava's been sick!  She has Roseola.  She started getting irritable on Wednesday.  Wednesday afternoon I noticed she had a fever.  On Thursday night we took her to the after hours clinic in Puyallup.  She had 102 fever!  Poor girl.  The doc treated Ava for an ear infection, but warned us about Roseola.  She said Ava was at the age that most babies get sick with it.  She said Ava would have a fever for 4 days and then break out in a rash.  She assured us that the rash was the very end of the virus, and doesn't hurt or itch.  We still were not sure that Ava had that, but yesterday was the 4th day of fever, and today Ava has a rash.  The rash has gotten worse as the day has progressed, but I guess that just means her sickness is almost done!  It is so sad to see her not feeling like her happy little self!  I am so glad the doctor told us about the sickness so I wouldn't freak when I saw the rash!

Exploring!

Ava is all over the place!!  We moved our gate setup to give her access to the rest of the downstairs. We spent last week baby proofing the cupboards, outlets, and padding the wall corners.  She's been having so much fun!!  Sometimes she just walks around and around the center island in the kitchen.  It's so funny!  She doesn't crawl anymore at all!!  Everywhere she goes, she walks...and practically runs!  On Friday I took her to the park by our house.  We walked there.  Ava had a great time walking around.  She was very fond of the cedar chips at the jungle gym.  There was a lady standing on the sidewalk pretty far away.  Ava saw her and walked all the way across the park to go meet her!  The lady was very sweet and held Ava's hand and walked around with us for awhile.

                     Here are a few pics from the last few days of Ava enjoying her new space!

                                                   

Little Tinkerbelle

SO sneaky!

Ava has found some ways to get to what she wants!  She pushed her books over to the edge of this basket so she could get what was on top!!  Lately she's been pushing things up against the couch and standing on them so she can get up on the couch!!  Who taught her this?!?

Happy 4th of July!

We went to my brother's house in Redmond for a BBQ with my Mom and Dad.  It was fun! Afterward we went to a firework show in Carnation.  We found a dirt road and sat on a blanket off the side of the road where we had a good view of the park.  Ava is so full of energy, she was all over the place!  I had a hard time keeping her on the blanket.  Once the fireworks started, her eyes were glued! I don't even think she blinked through the whole show!  I was so glad she didn't get scared!

Walking!!