15 months old

Today Ava is 15 months old. I can't believe how fast time flies. We had our 15 month well check up this morning too. She weighs 24lbs 4.5 oz. That puts her in the high 70th percentile. She has really slowed on the weight gain. I am not sure how, because some days she eats like a cow. Tonight she had 2 pieces of pizza and probably could of had more. I guess, I will continue to feed her if she seems hungry. She is 32 1/2 inches tall which puts her in the 96th percentile. Gotta love daddy's genes! Dr. Jafri was really pleased with how well she is doing and couldn't believe how many teeth she has. (she has 12 officially and the bottom 2 canines are coming in). I can tell she is trying to talk more and more. She tries to mimic what I say. Words might not come out, but she moves her mouth to try to get it out. She is communicating more, well, if you count grunting and pointing. She will go to the kitchen by the cabinet where we keep our food and start grunting and go into melt down if I don't get her a snack right away. I guess she is like me in that way. If I don't eat when I am hungry, I start to go downhill fast.

Ava is starting to get more and more timid around other people/babies. Today, when we went to Gymboree, there were a lot of new kids/parents. She buried her head in my legs when another toddler would walk towards her. At one point all the kids were on this air log and the parents were bouncing them up and down and Ava was so scared she clung to me and then buried her head in my chest and did not more for quite some time. I had to go and get one of the stuffed animals to get her to lift it. That is my only concern with her. I know that it is probably not an issue, but I still worry. I know that I just have to keep taking her and eventually she will warm up. She needs familiarity and routines, that is just how she is and when it is not like that, she tends to get scared.

Nice Sunday with Auntie Susan and Troy

Aunt Susan and Troy came over last night for some BBQ chicken, potato salad and fudge brownies (yummy!) Ava is starting to remember who Susan is and let her hold her and Ava even put her head down on her. It was so cute! She was hamming it up for them too!

After dinner, we went outside and because it was still a bit warm, Mike wet Ava's hair down and this was her new do!!!

My crazy haired girl!

I love my Ava!

I wanted to take a minute to stop and really appreciate my little girl. I tend to get so focused on what she is doing and our family life. I am very lucky with my job. I work part time from my house and right now we are in between nannies as most of you know, so I watch her 24-7. I really, really enjoy every minute of it and know how lucky I am I know many moms don't get to be with their kids, but for a couple of hours every night. Some days are tough, I have to admit, but I still love it and wouldn't change it for the world.

This weekend we got up early on Saturday and headed off to the zoo. We got there at 8 am and walked around. Ava loves the animals. I guess I should really say, she loves them from afar, not up close. We got to pet a donkey, Pedro, and watch the rooster and turkeys and all the other great animals. She just loves going. Here are some pictures below.

Ava's personality is shining through every day. Overall, she is a great baby. She usually plays by herself in the mornings so I can get work done. When she gets frustrated, she will start to cry. I am trying to encourage her to figure it out with just a little bit of help so that she can build her confidence and not get frustrated so easily. It is difficult sometimes. I tend to do everything for her. She is exploring her space. She likes to crawl under the table. It almost always ends with a cry.

She is learning about opening and closing doors.She will go into the dark laundry room and close the door. I usually wait a minute or two to see if she cries, but she never does and then I go and open it for her.

She loves music. When she hears it she sways her body or bounces up and down. We play a lot of music in our house, because I need background noise.

Sleeping has been a bit rough lately. I am not sure what the deal is. Her naps are very unpredictable. Sometimes she will take two 1 hour naps or sometimes two 1-1 1/2 hour naps. Yesterday we put her down a little bit later than normal for her morning nap and she slept 2 hours, but didn't take the second nap. She has been waking up around 5 ish every morning and screaming as if she is scared. We go in and give her her paci, but she still cries for a bit before settling again. This morning she was up at 5:20am....I did notice a bump on her bottom left side where her canine tooth is coming in.

She loves to watch baby Einsteins. She knows a lot of it by hand now. she knows what is coming next on the video. Below is her and daddy watching it. On a side note, I was watching with her and happen to see the dancing part and realized that is where she learned to bounce up and down when I say to dance.

She is really shy. I know that I was pretty shy until about High School and I really hope that she will come out of her shell. If someone tries to talk to her, she will bury her head in your legs. When we were at Gymboree, they did this activity where all the kids sit on an air log and we hold onto them and bounce them and she was the only one that insisted that I hold onto her her as if we were hugging. The rest sat on top and let moms hold them and bounce them. She is more shy in bigger groups. The previous 2 weeks at Gymboree, it was Ava and Alli only. No other kids showed up and she participated in some of the group activities that she hadn't done before. She was too scared. It will just take her a little longer to get involved in things.

Friday Night Pizza

All week long, we look forward to Friday night pizza. It is a favorite in our household and we have it every Friday night. The past 2 Friday night's, Mike and I actually had a nice treat as Ava took a little bit longer evening nap and we were able to eat alone! Last night was no different, but when Ava got up and we told her that her pizza was ready, she got all excited. She eats 1-2 pieces. She loves it and so do we!

Happy Mother's Day!

This was my second Mother's Day and it will be unforgettable. Why, do you ask? Well, at about 1:30 am, we woke to the sound of Ava chocking and then puking. Mike and I sprang out of bed, ran in, picked her up and realized that she wasn't done throwing up. I ran her to the bathroom, but quickly found out that she doesn't want to be turned out towards the sink, but in towards my chest. So I was puked on first thing this Mom's Day. It was not my first and certainly won't be my last! We got her all cleaned up, read some books and then put her back down, only to be awoken again about 30 mins later to the same thing and again, I was puked on. By the third time, I grabbed a towel to use as a buffer. I felt so bad for my little girl. We don't know why she was sick, but that was the end of it. She did wake up one last time, just scared, around 2:45. I just picked her up and put her on my chest and rocked her in the rocking chair for about a half hour while she slept. That part I enjoyed sooo much! She was fine by morning.

Mike brought me coffee in bed, which is all I wanted, even though we could barely open our eyes because we were so tired for being up most of the night. I still drank it and loved every minute of it. Thanks hon! We had already decided on Friday that we were going to go to the Farmer's Market in Ahwahtukee and Ava seemed to be ok, so we packed up and headed out. I was a bit disappointed. Not many booths of fresh veggies/fruits or flowers. It was really small too, but we still walked out with some hummus and salsa. We came home and cleaned the house in preparation for the family to come over for lunch and dessert. It was really nice and low key. I made a fabulous carrot cake for dessert. Yummy! It was just a really nice day and happy that I have my little Ava to help celebrate it with. Love her to pieces.
I wish I had some pictures to post, but I am only posting because the TV in my bedroom is on it's last leg and I can't stand to watch it with lines running through it. It is too dark to fool around with a camera, so check back later this week.

Not looking forward to this week at work as we moved offices last week and our systems were down the ENTIRE week. I know, crazy,right? So I have a lot of catching up to do. Oh well, such is life.

Hope everyone else had a great mom's day!

My First Haircut!

Yes, Mike finally agreed to let me get Ava's "mullet" cut! We went to Kids Snip-Its by our house and it was a mad house, but we put our name in, went to Target and by the time we were done, they were ready for us. Here is the BEFORE.....

She did pretty well sitting in the chair to get her haircut. We had to give her her paci to distract her and daddy stayed right by her side. If I went too close or touched her, she wanted me to pick her up, so I was the paparazzi for the event.

We didn't want to get rid of her famous shag, so they just took a little bit off, but just enough to be cute. Here is the AFTER...

She got ahold of her paci when we were cleaning up in her room when we got home and I couldn't get her to let it out without a fight...

Ava's newest thing is CLIMBING.... the dreaded climbing.. This is where I can officially say that I can't get anything done. The other morning I was getting my crock pot dinner ready and I looked over into the family room and found Ava standing on the couch, smiling at me and bouncing up and down. Here is a video of it. (I called Mike and towards the end she was trying to jump off, so the taping is a little rough.)

She is also climbing up on her little pink chair that I got her awhile ago. That one is worse because it is made of plastic and she will stand on it as well and try to get to things and it tips really easy. I have to keep my eye on her every second.

She is using her sign language a bit more now, but still likes to grunt and point. She mostly uses "all done" and "more". I am trying to get her to say words, but she looks at me like I am crazy. I will take her using sign language, because at least she is communicating.

Our weekend

We had such a nice weekend. On Saturday, we got up early (6am) and walked to the Starbucks that is at the end of our street for some coffee and then went for our walk. Afterwards, we ran some errands and cleaned the house. I know...how is that a nice day, but being able to clean all at one time is a luxury these days. We went to my sister's house Saturday night for her delicious prime rib and to celebrate my step brothers birthday (Happy Birthday Brian!) I made a white chocolate raspberry cheesecake. It turned out pretty good. I love to bake, but I don't do it very often because I can't have sweets around the house since I have no self control. It is as if they call my name to eat whatever it is that I made!
Sunday, we got up early again and decided to go to the zoo. If you become a member and buy a 1 year membership you can go anytime and one of the benefits is that you can go in 1 hour before it opens to the general public. Right now, that means we can go at 8am and that is just what we did. It was awesome. It is as if you have the park to your self. We walked around the kids area and Ava LOVED every moment of it. Above are a few pictures that I took. I know that her and I will be going A LOT. I know the summer heat will make it hard, but they have an area where the kids can play in some water. We will hopefully spend a lot of time there. We are going to be meeting up with Erin and her daughter Ella next Thursday morning and hopefully can do it a lot more. We headed out to Ikea after her nap, but it was unsuccessful as they didn't have what we went looking for instock. We are looking for a bench with shoe storage for out in the garage. As for right now you would think it was a shoe graveyard. Since we got new carpet last summer, we don't wear our shoes in the house and since we always go in and out through the garage, why bring them in since we would have to go to our closet and bring them out there anyways?They said they should have it instock in a week or so. Let's hope so. I wouldn't mind another trip to Ikea. Every time I go there, I find so many other things that I want to buy. I like things to organize our house.
Well, looking forward to Mother's day next weekend.