Better than toys!!

                                  I recommend this to any Mom! It entertained Ava forever!

Ava proof house!

We have spent the weekend baby proofing!  Baby proofing included a 52 inch LCD...haha.  Really though, now she can't get into the entertainment center we used to have.  We got some gates that Daddy installed today.  Eventually we are going to get a chest with locking doors to go under the TV. For now the cable box and other TV stuff is in the wicker basket.  Ava has a lot more room to play now!

This is an outfit that my friend Lyndsey got
for Ava.  She looks like a little ballerina!

Ava pictures are up!!!

http://www.eshahart.com/blog/

Esha is so talented!!

Kitties

Ava LOVES the kitties!  They have been pretty distant from her, but now that she's crawling she is catching up!  Yesterday she chased Pike and eventually he just gave up and laid down.  She was practically laying on him!  I knew she would be covered in hair and I should probably have taken her off him, but she was so delighted to be that close.  I had to let her enjoy it.  We filled a sheet on the lint brush when she was done!

                                                 She even tried to eat him but I put a stop
                                                 to that real quick. We don't live in China.

More Ava movies

Ava loves this ball!  I think we might have a future soccer player on our hands!  She moves her legs to try and kick it when it gets close to her!  Silly girl.



This is hilarious!  Rafael makes this snorting noise and everytime he does it he will "get" Ava and bite her ribs.  She gets a kick out of it.  Now that she is crawling he sneaks up behind her and when he makes that noise she starts to panick, crawling really fast to try to get away from him!

Daddy's hat

I boiled some peas last night and mashed them a little on Ava's high chair.  She wanted nothing to do with them!  She just played with them!  She doesn't quite have that urge to put food in her mouth yet.... just toys.

New book!

This was my FAVORITE book when I was little.  I saw it today at Fred Meyer and had to get it for Ava!

My friend Esha came over today to take some photos of Ava. She is an amazing photographer and I can't wait to see how they turned out. 

What a mess!

Since Ava has started crawling, her toys have too!  She starts the morning off with the toys on her mat, but within 20 minutes they're all over the room!  I think Daddy needs to build her a toy box!

My car!! :(

We have decided to sell my car!!  It is really sad for me because it's the first car I paid for with my own money!  I got it when I was 19.  I spent a lot of money making it cute!  We just don't have a need  two cars.  We work 2 miles from home and if one of us needs the car for something, we can just take/pick up each other from work.  We made the decision to sell it since it hasn't hardly moved since we bought our jeep.  I posted it on Craigs list for $2000 and within 5 minutes we got an email from a high school kid.  He said he only had $1000 dollars to spend for a car.  Rafael told him we weren't willing to go that low, but it made me so sad for the kid!  I just know his parents probably told him to find a car for $1000.  It is a cute car, and he'd look pretty cool rolling around in it being in High school.  He asked if it didn't sell within a few days would be willing to reconsider.  We shall see....

Pretty girl!!

Rafael and I are selling our entertainment center!  While packing everything up we found the tiara I wore on our wedding.  I had it on display at some point, and it made it's way to the back of the entertainment center.  Here it is on our little angel!

                                                                      Standing!

                                                    Yuck! Ava doesn't like rice cereal...
                                              despite the many, many times I have tried,
                                         I think we know now that she doesn't like the taste.

                               Homemade Pho'!  I am addicted to this Vietnamese soup! YUM!
                                   I figured out how to make it homemade purely by mistake...

Crawling!!

Ava has gone from almost crawling to crawling overnight!!  She couldn't do this yesterday!  I was so excited to see her change so much in one day!!  We aren't ready yet!!!  I am going to get some boxes from work tomorrow so we can start putting things within her reach away!

                New leap frog table! It talks in English and Spanish
                and sings songs when you hit the different buttons!
                So cool!! It comes with legs for when she gets a
                little bigger. :)
                 Ava's new dolly.

 

                                         
                                         Standing!!  With the help of the pole of course... :)

Today Ava and I took a long nap upstairs.  We were cuddling and I think I must have been pretty warm because when she woke up, her cheeks were all rosy!  She is almost crawling!!  If she wants to get something, she gets on her hands and knees and moves one arm in front of the other and pulls both her knees up to her hands at once, like an inch worm!  Rafael and I have some serious baby proofing to do over the next few weeks!

Silly hat!

Ava videos!

Happy Valentine's day!!  Grandma was so sweet to come over last night and watch Ava so Rafael and I could go out.  We went and saw "Coraline" in 3D.  It was SOOO good!  We loved it!  After that we  had dinner at Daniel's broiler in Seattle.  We decided to make each other something this year rather than buy something since we were going out.  I made Rafael a memory box and wrote down all the memories I have since we got together.  Rafael wrote me a really long sweet letter!

Ava started saying Dada tonight!!  It was so exciting!  I was a bit jealous but it was very cute!  I keep telling myself that she doesn't really know what it means yet and is just babbling...  Rafael was thrilled!

Ava insists on having her binky upside down..  I have no idea why.  It seems harder to suck on that way.  When we put it in her mouth she grabs it and turns it uspide down.  Silly girl!

Ava's crib

We lowered Ava's crib tonight!  Earlier today she went from sitting in there, to her knees, to standing!!!  A big milestone, but it kinda freaked me out!  She isn't even crawling yet.... I'm wondering if she is planning to skip crawling all together!

Happy Birthday Grandma!

We had a party for Grandma's birthday last weekend!  It was so fun!  Ava always loves visitors and everyone came to our house to celebrate.  Happy Birthday Momma!!

Ava has been a little under the weather lately.  She hasn't quite been her happy little self.  I caught a cold and it has stuck around for a week and a half!  Ava has got it too.  I wish she could blow her nose... it would make her feel so much better!

















                       Ava and Uncle Chad

We got this sweatsuit for Ava for Christmas.  It is still a little        big on her, but I put it on her today.  She looks so cute in it!

Ava is always going after the phone or the remote.  Today Daddy brought home a new remote just for her!  She was so excited and it didn't leave her mouth for a long time!

When I was pregnant I would go through an entire box of otter pops in a weeks time!  We bought SO many boxes!  We have a lot left over and I haven't touched them since Ava was born.  I pulled one out today and let her suck on it.  The wrapper is still on, I think she liked it because it was cold.  After it melted a little I cut it open and let her have a taste.  She liked it!!

Happy 6 month birthday Ava!!

Ava is 6 months old today!  I'm happy to report that she slept all night in her crib and did so good! She woke up twice but she always wakes up twice during the night, so it was the same as always!  I didn't sleep so good because I was fixed on the monitor most the night.  I think tonight will go better though.  I went down at 4:30 am to feed her.  On my way back up the stairs I felt so sad!  I was wishing that I was holding her and could take her to bed with me.  It will be an adjustment I think, more so for me than Ava!  I was so afraid that Ava would be mad at me this morning, but I woke up to the sound of her playing in her crib, and when I went down to get her she gave me a big smile.
She had her 6 month checkup today.  She weighed in at 16 pounds and is 26 inches long!  Ava's pediatrician was out sick, so it was another doctor that saw her today.  She said Ava is the 50th percentile for both height and weight.

Scary night!

I'm embarrassed to say that Ava has not once slept in her crib since she was born.  She sleeps in a porta-crib next to our bed and half the time IN our bed.  I know it's terrible, I've heard it a hundred times but I love to cuddle with her and it is so comforting to have her right next to me.  I wonder sometimes why we were in such a hurry to get her nursery ready when I was pregnant.  She never spends anytime in there and the room has become more of a storage room than a baby's room!! Tonight is the night.... the dreaded night.  She will attempt to spend her first night all alone in her cold dark room with no Mommy or Daddy in sight...  Ugg I am so scared!!!  I know I won't be getting any sleep, but hopefully we can make the transition smoothly.  Here is a photo of the warm up tonight... doesn't she look terrified???

Busy day!

Babies R' Us was having a sale today, so we stocked up!  We got some diapers, wipes, ointment and a few other things.  It's so hard for me to go in to that store.  I want to buy everything!  We got Ava a new puzzle play mat that is SO cool.  She loves the bright colors.  We also got a shopping cart cover for the grocery cart.  Some lady at Fred Meyer last week told us her son got the roto virus from a shopping cart.  It totally freaked me out!!  Ava has been too small up until now to sit in the cart on her own.  Now that she is ready, we thought we should cover the places she can touch.  We also got a non slip bath mat for her and she had her first bath in the big kid bath tub tonight!

                      Thank you Grandpa for the Baby Gap gift card!  This is the outfit I got! :)

                                          Ava's first ride in a shopping cart like a big girl!

                                       Ava's new mat to play on! It is so fun!! It's some kind
                                       of foam material that is easy to clean and is padded nice
                                       and comes apart so she can pull the letters out if she wants.

                                                     Ava's first bath in the big girl tub!!