Saturday, July 31, 2010

Summer







{Summer}...




I pretty much want it to never END!








We've been having so much fun this summer and Ava is learning new things every day, I swear...








She is starting to use a fork. You can see the wheels turning in her head and she tries really hard to get the food on the fork and then to her mouth. I usually help her with getting the food on the fork, and then it usually falls off the fork as she is putting it in her mouth. She even will pick up the food and put it ON the fork. Too cute! I love that she is starting to show interest. She still loves to eat and her favorite foods really haven't changed! She still loves CHEESE, Cottage Cheese, fruit, pasta salad, etc. I was afraid she wasn't going to be a big meat eater but she has recently began to eat more meat. She seems to like ham and turkey (ok) and she even ate some salsa chicken (crockpot recipe=YUMMY!). She loves corn dogs, which I'm not a huge fan of her eating but unfortunately a lot of restaurants really don't offer the healthiest options for kiddos (and we wonder why our country is obese???). For example, tonight we went to Buffalo Wild Wings and we got the mini corndogs but before we fed her those we gave her some grapes, cottage cheese and raisins. At least that way she had some healthy items. =)








She has also started to put the rings on the stacking toy ring (what is that even called?). She can put them all on pretty well! Not necessarily in the correct order, but hey, pretty good job Ava!








She has this little monkey (looking) toy that I got at a garage sale (imagine that) that came with these cute little balls. Some are clear with little rattle-y things inside and you put them in the mouth of the monkey and he says 'yum yum yum' etc. She LOVES putting them in where they go! So fun.








She can shake her head yes and no. Pretty cute. And I'm pretty sure she is actually saying "no, no, no" though it sounds like "no-oy, no-oy..." It sounds more like an actual word and not just the "n" sound.








Overall, you can tell she is understanding more and more every day. When you say, "Ava, do you want to take a bath?" She will go over to her chair (which blocks the stairs...LOL) and wants to go upstairs.








If you ask her if she is hungry, she will go to the kitchen, etc.








She stillllllllllllllll loves doggies and birds are her second fave. She loves to sit in her high chair and watch out the window for birdies (I really should get a bird feeder, I guess) and she loves to listen for the neighbors ever-so-annoying barking dog! :)








Loving life! and DENYING that it is AUGUST!








Saturday, July 17, 2010

14 months...ALMOST

July 2009 (above)



July 2010 (above)
(LOVE this outfit. The shirt I actually bought new, the shorts were hand-me-downs from cousin Ella, and the SHOES----garage sale! of course).



In just under a week, Ava will be 14 months old! (sniff sniff...)


But with each passing day, she is getting funnier and funnier and smarter and smarter. Here are some things she is doing nowadays.



  • Blows on her food. She has seen me blow on food that is hot or my coffee so she has to blow on just about everything even if it's a cold grape. LOL! She also wants mommy and daddy to blow on it for her.



  • She tries to point to her nose. When you ask her "Ava, where is your nose?" She points to her mouth, I think!



  • She did pat her belly the other day when I asked her where her belly was.



  • The other night in the bath, I said, "Ava, we need to brush your teeth." and she turned her head and pointed to where we keep her toothpaste! I was pretty amazed! =)



  • She still is obsessed (as the new sitter would say, haha!) with puppies. If she even hears a dog (the neighbor's dog barks all.the.time it seems), she starts 'barking!'



  • She will look at one of the pictures I have on a shelf in her room and point to it and go "awwwwww...bay..." (I can't remember if I've already written this in a previous post)



  • I will stand her up on her changing table to pull up her pants typcially and I'll ask her "Ava, where is the butterfly (in the painting I did on the wall in her room) and she will point to it.



  • She signs "All done" "drink" and attemps "please" She still isn't really doing them on her own but she will do it after we do it usually, with the exceptoin of "All done" which she will tell you when she is done eating---let me tell ya!



  • She loves the water but still cries every.time we rinse her hair in the bath. Not sure what is up with that. She hates it. I usually just tilt her head back and get it over with. I think Travis tries to be more gentle about it. :) It barely even gets in her eyes so I don't honestly know what the big deal is.



  • We have a gate up in the kitchen where the stairs lead to the back door/basement but we use her little Pottery Barn chair to block off the stairs to the upstairs. It has worked just fine (and still kind of does, I suppose) but she has figured out how to move it so she can go up the stairs, which she loves to do and can do without much problem. We are still working on going down.



  • She has a million and one toys (barely exaggerating) and she still loves to play with the most random things: package of diapers, remotes, phones, my workout steps, kitchen utensils...you get the point.

  • She stands on her head a lot. She just decided to do that on her own. Pretty funny.




{Peek-a-boo!}

  • She still LOVES music. She will bop her head in the car or anytime she hears music or (heaven forbid---I sing!)
  • She is getting more into TV shows. I don't really have it on for her much but there have been a few times if she is bored or cranky, I'll turn on the ON DEMAND...soooo helpful! or her Baby Einstein DVDs.
  • She still doesn't really clap correctly. When you try to put her hands together to help her, she stiffens up (???). It started out as kind of a rolling motion and now she will clap one hand on top of the other one (cracks me up!) but the other half of the time she will get it right.
  • Still says "Hiiiiiiiii" to just about anyone and everyone when we are out and about.
  • Seems to say "What's that..." That is what it sounds like anyway!
  • She loves when I whip my ponytail around. She will just giggle and giggle.
  • Is ticklish just about everywhere!

Well, that's all for now. Remember this is mostly for my purposes, but hopefully you enjoyed. :)