It's my first birthday party!

It has been a busy,crazy week! Our household has been sick this week. I was so nice to share all my germs with everyone! So far Ava is in the clear. She has a bit of a runny nose,but we think it's teeth,because she is gnawing on her fingers as if they were candy. She has also started up with poor sleep habits again. She has been waking at least one time either late night or EARLY morning. She has been on a 5:30am wake up lately too!!! Napping is all over the board too. Thursday she took an hour and 10 min nap in the am and 45 min nap in the afternoon. She usually takes 2 one hour and half naps. Of course it was on my day and not when Jaclyn is here babysitting.
I took Ava to the park on Monday and she had a blast. While she still doesn't like the swing, she loved all the kids palying. She loves people "her size" and she squeals in delight. She went up to most of them. We took her on the slide. She was indifferent. She loved loved wood chips that cover the ground. After lunch is when we go for our walks and I now end them at the park. I want her to enjoy the swing and everything the park has to offer because I plan on spending a lot of time there. (At least until the summer heat).

Yesterday was Ava's first birthday party with all her family. Grandma Nini and Auntie Nancy made the trek from LA for the occassion. Of course, the rain didn't hold out. It started to rain fairly hard as the guests arrived. It let up a bit during the party and then was gorgeous after everyone left. Go figure! Ava had a blast. She had bunny by her side the whole time, which made things easier on her. She walked around, but wouldn't let anyone hold her and made sure mommy or daddy was close by. Overall, I was surprised at how well she did. Here are a couple of pictures from the party...

Ava and Auntie Nancy (picture above)

Here is a picture of Ava when we were singing Happy Birthday... She didn't know what to make

of the "papparizzi" taking pictures and singing..

Below are pictures of her eating her cake...She IS her mother's daughter. She loved the cake and would have eaten the whole thing,but i didn't want her to go into sugar shock. It was a rainbow chip cake with rainbow chip frosting. That was my favorite cake growing up.

here are just some pics from the party...

I am so mad that we didn't get any video. I think I might go out and get a cupcake for tonight and sing to her again and take video and I will post later. Overall, it was such a great day.

I will be remembering it forever. It was actually a year ago today that I woke at 3:50 am and my water broke. I called to mike and said, Hon, my water broke. He jumped out of bed and asked if he could shower. I said No, but he got in anyway. We were off to the hospital. I was a 1/2 cm dialated when I got there and was in labor for 18 hours. After about 8 hours is when I got my epidural. At 10:41pm, Ava was born via c-section because I never progressed past 5 cm. She is the joy of our life. She has such an amazing personality and is so loving. She brightens our day and can't believe how lucky we are!