11 months & 1 week- She's officially walking!

my my have things changed since last week. Ava has decided to pick up walking again and boy has she been getting around! We are in trouble now! It's amazing how in one day things can change so quickly. It just melts my heart to watch my sweet little baby walking around the house. A couple of days after she decided how fun it would be to start walking again, she also started testing out her tantrum capabilities. Yesterday she threw one tantrum after another. Steve and I were for the most part amused, but kept up a good united front and didn't give in to her tantrums. We know that she is just starting to understand how to deal with her emotions and now that she's so mobile, she will be easily frustrated when she can't do something. She was furious because we wouldn't allow her to disassemble the computer. We finally had to close up the computer desk and keep her out of that area.

Friday we took doodlebug to Grandmother and Grandads for the day and Steve and I had a date. It was really nice! She made herself at home instantly and didn't have much of a problem with us leaving. We went shopping, had lunch and then went to a movie. Despite the horrid traffic in clear lake and the 105 degree weather, it was a lot of fun!

We decided to stay home on the 4th of July. I've never been a big fan of fireworks (I hate sudden loud noises) and with doodle going to bed around 7, we just decided it would be fun to grill at home and that's what we did!

Doodle has been enjoying the new dog sofa we bought for the pups. She spends just as much time in it as they do! She and Magnum are best buds.

Never Nurse & Drive

10 months 3 & 4 weeks

We have been so busy! Ava has decided that crawling is much quicker and easier than walking so she's put walking on hold for a bit. She will take a few steps every now and then but usually drops to her knees and crawls to her destinations. We are hoping that in the next couple of weeks she'll build up her confidence and get to walking again.

Ava has so many new things she's doing all of the sudden!

• says Mama to me (usually when she's sad or needs me)
• says Dada to Steve
• waves bye bye
• does the sign for "more"
• does the sign for "milk"
• blows kisses!
• kisses her baby doll and us
• loves to eskimo kiss
• dances when she hears music
• "sings" to sesame street or when she hears others singing on TV

Things Ava loves at 10 months:

• Pointing! She loves to point at everyone and everything
• Playing in my closet & rearranging my shoes
  
• her dogs, especially Magnum.
• tormenting Casper who puts up with it like a good kitty
• the dog bowls and playing in the dogs water bowl
• bath time
• standing in the tub
• her rubber octopus
• her colorful new doll (she hugs and kisses it)
• eskimo kisses
• the Mama's gonna get you game
• being naked
• being outside
• being naked outside
• pulling anything out of it's original container
• sorting laundry- pulling all of the clothes out of the laundry basket!
• Books
• Music and singing
• her new car

Things Ava doesn't like at 10 months

• Being told "No"
• diced fruit
• Stage 3 baby food

We have been trying our best to keep the dogs off of our furniture, but they love the soft cushions on the back of the couch. Today at Costco we found a doggie sofa so we picked it up for them. You think they like it?

10 months 2 weeks

my goodness you step away from the blog for a week and it causes a frenzy! Due to popular demand I am now updating the blog...I have to admit it sure is nice to have so many people so interested in reading about my sweet princess.

Okay the most exciting news is that the very next day after my last post, Ava took 5 steps in a row! She practiced walking all week! We were so proud of her. I got it on video so of course will post it here later today. This week she is much more cautious and isn't as brave about walking. It's much easier and faster to crawl.

So last Thursday Ava and I met Courtney, Trent and Nana at Casa Ole for lunch..yes we actually all love this place. We put Trent and Ava's high chairs right next to each other and it was too funny to watch them interact. As soon as Ava saw Trent sitting next to her she got a big smile on her face. They would imitate eachother making sounds. Ava thought this was funny until Trent screeched really loud and shes started crying. She did not like that noise, even though she had just done it herself less than a minute before. Then Aunt Courtney gave both babies some baby mum mums. Ava inhaled hers and then tried to take Trent's out of his hand and eat that one too. Trent was savoring his baby mum mum.

After lunch we took pictures and Ava wasn't too happy about me putting her down. She was

really ready for a nap. We love this picture...Courtney said Trent is saying "Don't cry Ava, I wont' hurt you, look your mommy is right there" See him pointing to me?

On Saturday we went out to my moms house

to hang at the pool. Ava just lounged in her little

floaty and enjoyed the day. Of course we had her all slathered up with sunscreen, under a canopy

thing and with a hat on. Steve is VERY ada

mant about her not getting any sun, and rightfully so!

After playing in the pool for a while she went inside and played with my step-brother, Ava's uncle Allen. She LOVES uncle Allen and he held her on the couch while she took her nap. Then he brought her outside and showed her the new puppies and the chickens 0ut in the barn. He got a kick out of her because she had never seen a chicken before so when she saw them she said "oh" like "oh what is that?"

On Sunday my cousin Christine had a family housewarming party at her new home. The house is gorgeous and she is so excited! Of course all of the kiddos were there including the 3 babies. I'm waiting on pictures from that so that I can post them. That was too much fun having all the babies together again. Trent is just sitting up on his own and Ethan is doing so GREAT. He was laughing and having a good ole time. Of course with all the babies we couldn't get anyones name straight. Ava was Brenna, Ethan was Nathan, Trent was Tyler and so on. Just like when we were all little ones. Everyone would say Court, Chris, Kel, ERIN. Finally you just got to where you answered to other people's names. In fact Memaw called me Bonnie so much that I just started answering to it and went by Bonnie 90% of the time at home.

First Trip, First Word & First Step!

Ava on the flight to LAX
Our little family took our first trip together since Ava was born. The hotel we stayed at the last few nights was in the heart of Beverly Hills, so Ava got to be a Beverly Hills 90210 girl for a few days! As a matter of fact, she took her very first step on Rodeo drive! We were super nervous about how it was going to be with Ava on the plane. We were sure that 3.5 hours would be too much and that she would be squirming and crying because of her ears. We planned to get to the airport early, but due to construction at intercontinental we literally had to RUN to catch our flight and were the last people on the plane. It was hell running through the airport with a 20lb baby, a diaper bag and a 20 lb purse, not to mention Steve had the car seat and the stroller! Steve said the next purse he buys me will have wheels on it. haha! Ava was a champ on the plane both ways! She laughed, she played peek a boo with the girls sitting behind us and she took good naps. Everyone commented about how good and happy she was. We were so proud of her! In fact she was the happiest, sweetest baby the entire trip. We were glad to have a little traveler on our hands. She loves being on the plane and loves being in the same room with us at night. She even slept like a champ in her pack n play.

We decided to keep our watches set to Houston time to keep Ava on her normal schedule. It felt so funny putting her to bed at 4 pm in the afternoon in California and then waking up at 4:30 and 5 a.m. haha. Saturday we took Ava to the carousel in Long Beach. --->

Now on to the most exciting news...Ava said her first word! Now of course she's been saying mama and dada but we've never been too sure if she associated those words with us or if she just said them because it was typical baby babble. Well on our first day in Long Beach, Ava was introduced to Stacey's dog Sophie. As soon as she saw the dog she said "Magum" and Gigi and I both heard it very clearly! We couldn't believe it! Of course she never said it again so we were again left wondering if it was a fluke. Then today when Steve and I got home the dogs were going crazy, Steve was holding Ava while petting the dogs and again Ava said "Magum". So there you have it ladies and gentlemen, our childs first word was the dogs name. For cryin out loud!

Sunday we had brunch in Palos Verdes (beautiful place!) and then headed to Beverly Hills to our hotel (thanks to hotwire.com) which was totally awesome. Then yesterday we found a park to lounge at and Ava was super excited to play and crawl around. Steve and I headed over to Sprinkles cupcakes while Ava played with Gigi and Papi. When we got back we played for a while and in front of all of us she was standing with her hand on my knee, she let go and then took one step forward, then stood for a little bit before she dropped to the ground. Today after we got home she was playing in her room and she did it again! She isn't too confident yet and is just testing that one step but I'm going to keep working with her this week and see what she can do :)

The best part of the trip of course was getting to spend time with Gigi, Papi, Aunt Stacey and Uncle Sean. Ava warmed up to everyone pretty quickly and showed off for them all weekend. When she first met Papi, he stuck his hand out to her to say hi and she inspected him for a second and then reached over and put her pancake in his hand. We were really glad that they were able to spend some time with Ava. We also got to spend some time with our friends Allyson and Josh. It was Josh's first time to meet Ava so of course we were excited to show her off. She always loves Allyson and goes right to her. There must be something about Allyson because Biscuit is pretty much obsessed with her. LOL.

Gigi bought some toys for Ava to keep her busy while we were there. One of which is a freaky looking rubber octopus. Of course that was the toy she loved the most and carried it with her the entire trip home. All of the other babies in the airport had their lovies, silkies and sweet toys and our baby is cruising around with a purple rubber octopus. Geez! We were laughing and everyone else was laughing when they saw her with this stupid thing all cuddled up to her chest with a tentacle in her mouth.

Ava loved goofing off in the hotel room at night with mommy and daddy. She was such a trip.

10 Months

My little princess precious cut another tooth this week! We were wondering why she was being such a bad napper for the last two weeks and now we know! I discovered a top tooth that broke through the gum over the weekend. It's going to be so weird seeing her with top teeth! We just got used to the bottom teeth. Since we were having such a hard time getting her down for her naps, grandmother had to resort to letting her fall asleep in her jumparoo. Ya do what ya gotta do I tell ya!

Last week Steve and I went to dinner with friends so my mom got to watch Ava for several hours. She came over to pick her up and took her over to her house. We were beside ourselves! I thought I heard her crying and would run to the other room to check on her, or I'd think Steve had her outside. We just didn't know what to do without the doodle. Anyway mom said she was upset at first but once she warmed up she was all smiles and laughs. She would chase mom's dog Taz around making kissy noises and once she got a hold of him she would pull on his ears really hard and laugh. Then around 9 or so she put herself to sleep playing on moms bed. When we got there she was all cozy sleeping flat on her back with her arms up in the air. We were so proud of our little doodle and mom was so happy to finally get to babysit again (minus the burglar alarm fiasco).


Now that she is so good about playing in her crib and putting herself to sleep, I've started putting a few toys in there when I know she's going to be a while. Then we'll watch her on the video monitor and one by one she picks up each toy, inspects it and then sticks it through the crib rails and throws it on the floor. Once she's done throwing all of her toys out she rolls over and goes to sleep. When we go in to get her from her nap there is a pile of toys and a paci on the floor next to her crib. It cracks us up and we have no idea why she does it.


She is still loving her swimming pool and she spends lots of time in there on the weekends. She gets so excited when she sees it. We left it in the house with no water and it would keep her entertained for a little while. She just loves to play in it and put her toys in there with her. One day when it was in the house casper was laying in it and boy was Ava excited about that! She crawled over there as fast as she could and got into the pool with Casper. Of course Casper jumped out so fast he poked a hole in it and deflated it. I had to go back up to target and get Ava another one. She just loves it too much not to.