Pumpkin Carving

Today we carved our pumpkin for Halloween. This is the first time Ava was able to help out. Mike drew out his design and did all the work, but Ava was there as his right hand woman. 

Here is the one eyed Cyclops...

Drawing done.

 Seeds pulled out and carving begins.

 The final product.

 Ava posing for pictures.

 Bobo had to get in on the action too.

 Lights out.

I am really looking forward to Halloween tomorrow. I will post pictures soon and let you know how Ava does.

What's Going on Around Here

Here is just a random blog of what has been going on around here.

*Noah has been a movin' and a groovin'. He has started crawling around more. He definitely does it more than Ava ever did. He hasn't started exploring all too much yet, but he will move out of sight and I know it is only a matter of time before he is off and on his own.

*Ava doesn't like that Noah moves around so much. She is always saying "mommy, Noah's coming to get my animals." (i.e her whimzy toy of the week).

*I think Noah is going to be an even more picky eater than Ava. (I know mom and dad, payback is a b!t@h)..He doesn't like new foods. I really have to do the try it a million times rule for him.  He makes a sourpuss face when he tries it. It is funny though because he is at that stage that he doesn't know how to spit it out, so he either gags on it or cries through eating it.

*Ava likes to eat Noah's baby food. The puffs, yogurt melts and Lil' munchers. We use it to get her to eat her food.

*Noah has been sleeping good. He sleeps through the night, which is all I ask.

*Ava had been doing well on sleeping at night except the past couple of nights she started waking up 1-3 times again.

*Noah has quite the personality. He always wakes up happy, which is the exact opposite of Ava. BUT, if you take something away from him, he gets M.A.D!!! Fists clenched and legs kicking and loud cry/scream. We have another feisty one on our hands!

*Ava likes to show off once she gets comfortable around people.

*We left the kids with Aunt Susan and Uncle Troy on Saturday so that Mike and I could go to a Baptism class. This is the first time we have ever left Noah with anyone other than my mom and the first time we have left Ava with anyone other than my mom since our nanny. Ava cried when we left, but was fine 5 minutes later. Noah was asleep, did good once he woke up, but refused to eat and then just started to cry and wouldn't stop, so Troy put him to bed and he fell right asleep. It was good for me to leave them, but hard at the same time.

*The other morning, Mike went to take the kids for a walk and there was a guy laying on the sidewalk in front of our neighbors house. He called the cops and they showed up 1 minute later. The cop told us that the house 2 doors down had a party the night before and that guy decided in his drunken stupor to sleep out there!?!?!

*When Ava sees something she likes, she now says " Mommy, I want that for Christmas." We even got a Toys 'R' Us catalog yesterday and she wanted everything!

*I have been trying lots of new recipes lately. I have loved most of them. I look forward to making them and eating them. Since I do Weight Watchers, I found a website that has all the points plus info, so it is great. It is skinnytaste.com

*I love when Ava self plays. She gets all dressed up. She is just like her mommy and loves new shoes. I bought her some gold sparkle sneakers from Carters the other day and she puts them on every opportunity that she gets. I would say 50% of the time she gets them on the right feet.

*Looking forward to Halloween, but not having all that candy right in front of my face. It will be a challenge. I am interested to see if Ava will wear her Halloween costume longer than 5 minutes and if she will actually go trick or treating. She knows that she will get candy, but she is all talk and no game!

Schnepf Farms

Today we went to Schnepf Farms. We have been planning on it for a while and of course, it was one of the hottest days in a while. I think it was supposed to get up to 95 degrees today. Where else can you go to a pumpkin farm in shorts and a tank top and be really hot? ARIZONA!!!

Aunt Jaclyn and Uncle Nick came with us. It is a trek out there, about a 40 minute drive. We went last year and Ava enjoyed it and I figured she would enjoy it even more this year. Well, she sorta did.

First thing we did was to head towards the animals. Ava loves the animals. 

Family portrait. 

Ava feeding straw to the Turkey.

Right next to the animals was a merry-go-round. Ava said "daddy, I want to go on that". I was shocked. So they got in line and Ava picked out a horse to ride on. Then as soon as she sat on it, she started to cry. Mike tried to sit on the seat on the merry go round, but she wasn't having it. I told them to get off before the ride started because I knew it would not have gone well.

 Mike put her on a horse, but she wanted a different one.

 Horse #2, we thought things were going to go well....

 Not so much!!!

While Ava was doing this, Noah was doing this...

Chillin' in his stroller!!!

Then we headed over to the playground.

Then over to the petting zoo, which didn't go over well. Ava got scared after seeing the pig, so it was off to the corn maze...

She was reading the map of the farm and that was probably her favorite part of the entire day, the map!!

Lastly, we headed over to the pumpkins. Ava LOVES the pumpkins. She probably could have spent the entire time there. She was looking for a pumpkins for Bobo and she had to touch all the pumpkins and try to lift them. Noah got in on the action too. He loved the pumpkins and the hay.

After looking at the pumpkins, we headed out for some food. Mike got some chili and a hot dog and Ava had a snow cone. Aunt Jackie took her up to get one and she got to choose between red, purple or blue flavoring. Ava of course choose blue, her favorite color. It was bubble gum flavored. 

Then we headed home. I figured Noah would sleep, but Ava fell asleep reading her map.

They were both tuckered out after a long day and a long weekend. Unfortunately when we got home, we put them down to finish their naps so that we could take a nap and neither of them were having it. I guess it is the price you pay to have a little fun. Hopefully they will sleep well tonight.

A Girl and Her Bunny

We all know that Ava loves her bunny, Bobo! She loves him/her (Bobo is gender neutral and changes daily).  She takes Bobo EVERYWHERE! We don't leave the house without him.(For today, Bobo will be a "he").

If Bobo could talk, I bet he would have many stories.

Ava talks to Bobo like a friend. When we go to the park, she is yelling "Bobo, watch me!" or "Bobo, I'm coming" after sending him shooting down the slide first.

She likes to show Bobo many things. If she is doing something or building something, she will call out "Bobo, come look".

The other day, I took the kids for a run in the jogging stroller to the park. When we got to the park and got out of the stroller to go in the swings, I realized Bobo wasn't with us. I panicked and called Mike to look for him.  We got back in the stroller and ran back to retrace our footsteps and found him on the ground on the street corner! I think I was more upset than Ava. She didn't realize what it would mean if Bobo went missing.

Bobo is our "third" child. No one can love him like Ava.

Noah's New Adventures

It's official, Noah is crawling. Well, maybe not crawling in normal standards, but he has a one legged scoot. He doesn't really go far at any one time. He usually goes about 3-5 scoots. Part of the reason is because there is always a toy within reach or 1-5 scoots away. He won't just scoot when you call to him. In fact, he gets mad when I tell him to come to me.

Here is what it looks like....

 He has one knee bent and the other one up and he scoots along the bent know, which had rug burn yesterday, so I put pants on him today in hopes that he would move around more.

Now that he is moving around, he looks for EVERY.SINGLE crumb on the floor. He even lifted the rug to find something to put into his mouth.

He has started eating more people food and LOVES it. He really pushes away all baby food. 

Today we had some avocados.

He loves Cheerios, bananas and baby apple slices too. We had some baby oatmeal with pears mixed in this morning and that he let me feed him. We will try some meat sticks next and some peas and veggies.

He is growing up so fast and Ava has NOOOOO idea what she is in for.

Phoenix Zoo and Our Weekend

We had a great weekend.
A friend of ours is in her second pregnancy and she is having twins, so me and a few other girls threw her a baby shower. It was a couples shower. My mom came down to babysit and Mike and I were able to get out! Yay for us!! We had a great time.

It also happens that these same people are moving to Georgia this month, so we all decided to go out after the shower. Everyone had babysitters, so out we went. We went to Va Bene in Chandler and had the best time. It was just nice to get out with adults without the kids. (kiddos, if you are reading this when you are older, we still love you, but we also enjoy going out without you!!)

On Sunday we headed to the Phoenix zoo with my mom and sister and her husband, Nick. We have  a membership to the zoo and I get a monthly magazine of what is going on at the zoo and I had seen that Dora would be there. Ava loves Dora. It was also the Fisher Price weekend. They bring out the new Fisher Price toys that the kids can play with.

So Sunday morning, we heading on over.  There was a long line to meet Dora and we figured Ava wouldn't want to stand in line and she would be scared once she got up there, so we waved from afar!!

 Playing with some toys.

 Ava and Auntie Jackie

 Playing with the Dora doll. She really just wanted to put on and take off her shoes.

 Noah got in on the action too. He was really more interested in all the kids that were there.

It was a nice weekend. Looking forward to more cooler weather to get out and do more!!!

Noah is 9 Months Old-UPDATED

**So I posted this before I was finished. Could've been the fact that Noah was on my lap, grabbing at the computer!!!

Noah is 9 months old already!

He is getting so big! He is wanting to move around so much more, but still not crawling. I tried to get pictures this morning, but he kept moving, so this is what I got.

I spiked his hair because he has this quaffed hair.

Noah now has 8 teeth. He is our barracuda! In terms of eating, he is still on his Elecare formula, eating four 8 oz bottles a day. He recently started refusing to eat baby food. I started him on some puffs and I know he wants table food. The problem really is how his tummy will handle it. Our GI doctor was being really cautious about what we feed him, but our pediatrician said to go ahead and introduce slowly. She was concerned with his lack of weight gain in the past month. He weighs 21 lbs 10 oz, which was only up 5 oz since last month. He has been really hard to feed lately. I think it has to do with his teeth. I am going to start with some veggies and fruits and keep trying new things over time. He needs to put on some weight here. He is only in the 68th percentile.

He is tall, he is 31" tall, which is in the 94th percentile. He is growing out of his 12 month clothes. I just bought all 18 month fall clothes, but am thinking I may need to return some for 24 month sizes.He is just so long. 

He is sleeping through the night and taking short naps in the day. He usually sleeps about an hour in the morning and one hour 20 mins in the afternoon and 10 hours at night. I guess he is just on the lower end of the spectrum for sleep. I know he is ready to move his morning nap out some, because the past couple of days, he has only been sleeping 30-40 mins in the morning. 

As I said earlier, she wants to be on the go, but I guess he is just "lazy". Again, the pediatrician was a bit concerned and just wants us to keep an eye on it. He gets up onto one knee and reaches as far as he can and sometimes moves his one knee, but gives up after that. He moves around in circles on his butt. There is always a toy within reach, so I guess he hasn't had to learn to crawl. I know it will come within the next month. He likes to walk when we hold his hands. He still isn't pulling himself up on stuff all the way. He gets up to his knees. He loves to grab on to Ava to try to pull himself up and she thinks he is giving her a hug!!

 Reaching as far as he can on his one knee.

 Trying to pull himself up.

He loves music. Every time I put it on, he bounces his body. 

He loves to babble. He says "da-da-da" and other babbles.

He is very serious. He studies everything. He loves to see things move. He loves to move wheels on trucks. He loves to take objects out of a box.

He still loves his sissy. She always makes him smile and he tries to talk to her.

He recently developed a fear of the elevator and public restrooms.

He knows who he knows and who he doesn't. He usually cries throughout his doctor's appointments because he doesn't recognize the doctors.

He personality is ever changing. He gets very angry when you take a toy away or make him do something he doesn't want to do. (Like eat...He hates to sit in his high chair unless he gets some puffs). He likes to clench his fists now and fuss. 

Overall, he wakes up happy and babbling and that is all that matters...

He is in size 5 diapers.

This month we traveled to Prescott for a weekend. He didn't like to be out of his bed. It was the first time in a month that he had woken up at night. He was a bit cautious of gramme's dog, but towards the end of the trip, he was smiling at her.

****Even though this is technically in the next month, just yesterday and today Noah has started to crawl a little bit. He is on one knee with the other leg bent and he scoots on his one knee a couple of scoots. Oh man, are we in trouble. EVERY. SINGLE toy we have is a choking hazard!!

Can't wait until next month to see what he is doing and new parts of his personality.