1 year 2 weeks

We now officially have a toddler on our hands. Not only is she toddling all around the house very confidently, but she's throwing tantrums and showing us what she wants by doing signs and saying words.

One morning she wanted me to read to her so she brought me one book after another. We read goodnight moon about 3 times, but she wanted me to read more so she did the sign for more and then the sign for book "more book" good girl! Then my mom and I went grocery shopping with her and mom was so impressed with her skills. As soon as she saw the banana's in the fruit aisle she pointed at them and did the more sign. She LOVES banana's! She does the sign "more" anytime she wants something.

Her aunt Brenda got her a stuffed jack russell for her birthday and that dog is one of her favorite toys. She can now say puppy and make the puppy sound "woof woof", her version of it is "woo woo" It's too cute. She bounces her puppy up and down and says "woo woo".

Another new word she's trying to say is Balloon. She has a birthday balloon that is still holding on and she see's it and says "boon". She says "bot bot" for her bottle, and "boo" for nursing. As of today she says cracker and keys. Marcella got her first words cards with pictures on them and she loves to have us go through them with her.

For Ava's birthday she received several toys that play music and she has been having a blast with them! She presses the buttons on them until her favorite song comes on and then she bounces up and down dancing. She'll do this over and over again and we get the biggest kick out of it. Must be something with girls, they instantly want to dance.

We are working on getting her transitioned from formula to whole milk and from bottle to sippy cup. So far she loves her sippy cups for water, but not so much for milk. She is drinking the whole milk but isn't too fond of it. I've started mixing it with orange juice and then she'll drink it. As for food, we discovered that she loves queso and charro beans! Definitely a Texas girl. She'll still eat her weight in puffs too.

Steve and I took her to the Tot Spot at the children's museum yesterday she had a blast, okay we ALL had a blast. She ran around there like she owned the place. Went up to other little kids and played with them and shoved a few out of her way so she could get to something. It was a fun family day for us, except that I got my museums confused and we did a lot of walking! I parked at the wrong museum!

Biscuit enjoying Ava's new sofa

Ava at the Totspot

More Totspot fun! This is the toy she knocked other kids out of the way to get to.

Ava sharing her chair with Kate

Hey daddy...wanna go for a ride on my new dora bike?

Happy 1st Birthday Doodlebug!!

Our baby is 1 year old today! We can't believe that just one year ago I was in labor all day trying to bring this little blessing into the world. It feels like yesterday and it was the happiest day of our lives. I can't imagine life being any sweeter.

We had a big blow up pool party at our house with all of Ava's little friends, mommy and daddy's friends and families. Ava was quite the little hostess. She went from pool to pool to visit with all of her guests. We had burgers and hot dogs and po

or Steve stood over the grill in the scorching heat, what a Dad! Even Biscuit and Magnum had their swimsuits on and their own baby pool :)

Ava received so many wonderful gifts from her friends and family. She just loved her toys and wanted to stop opening presents to play with each toy she opened. A little while into opening her toys she decided she was tired and wanted to nurse. Everyone got a kick out of her because she started saying "booo, booo" and doing the "more" sign to me like come on mom it's nap time. I was so embarrassed but couldn't help giggling at he

r too, what a smart girl! We got her a bottle and decided it was cake time. So we did the cake thing and everyone sung happy birthday to her but she had no interest in her cake, all she cared about was her bottle. T

he great thing is we were able to skype in Gigi & Papi from California so that they could see everything. It was like they were here with her. Technology is amazing.

When she was opening her gifts she got an Elmo couch from grandad and grandmother and all of the kids went nuts. Sara said Elmo is like Baby Crack, they all freak out when Elmo appears. Too funny.

I will post more pictures later but in the mean time here are a couple of the doodle at her very 1st Birthday!

Go-Goot

Okay y'all my child actually said YOGURT today. Is this normal? Grandmother sat down to feed her some yogurt this morning and we said Ava you want some yogurt and she said "Go-Goot" And then she said it several more times. I even got her to say it for Steve at dinner. haha!

I am just amazed by her daily. It's amazing how quickly babies learn.

11 months, 3 weeks

1 more week and our doodlebug will be 1 year old! In the last week she has really gotten confident with her walking and she just toddles all over the house. She can move really fast now too! Turning one means no more bottles, no more formula and no more nursing. As of right now she will take her sippy cup with water, but will not drink her formula from one. She wants that bottle, so we'll see how she does on whole milk. I am gradually weaning her from nursing but it is very emotional for me so it's hard on both of us. She is not ready to wean so this is going to be a slow gradual process. I just can't do the cold turkey thing with her, it'll break my heart. Maybe she'll surprise me and we'll be done before I think we will.

Thursday we had a playdate with friends and afterwards met up with Courtney and Trent for lunch. Again they were too cute together eating their puffs.

Very important business on her cell phone

Ava has been such a good little helper around the house lately. Here she is helping daddy with the dishes.

And here she is helping mommy with the laundry

I have noticed that Ava will say a word for a while and then stop saying it. For example she's stopped saying Mama and for a while she was saying Milk like mmmmooK, now she's stopped saying that and we haven't heard the word Magum in quite some time.

Things Ava is doing this now:

• throwing her hands up and giving us the "all done" sign
• says "kitty"
• gives the "more" sign when she wants milk
• Tries to put objects into other objects (like blocks into a box or her glow worm into a her push stroller)

11 Months, 2 weeks- Let the party planning begin

Well I've started planning Ava's very 1st Birthday party! I'm so excited because I've chosen a theme, ordered the invitations and the cake. Next we need to figure out food and presents! This is so bittersweet for us because this year has gone by so fast. It seems like I just gave birth to her a month ago, but nope it's already been an entire year. What a wonderful blessed year it's been too.

Thursday I took Ava to the kids club at the gym for the very first time. It' s a really nice little child care that watches your kids while you work out. I've been scoping it for a while and it really looked like doodle would have fun. Steve was really worried about her crying but I was the first one there and a few other little kids showed up after us. Ava saw a 3 year old little girl and was instantly fascinated. She toddled right up to her and hugged her. It was so cute. The little girl said "what are you doing you silly baby?" Then she said "daddy that baby doesn't have very many teeth!" too funny. So I put her in the room with a the other children and she was so excited. She squealed and followed the older kids all around. I was a little sad that they didn't want to play with her because she was a baby, but when I went back a little later to check on her she was happily playing with another baby. We were both so surpised that she was happy to be there. She didn't even care when I walked out. She was just like see ya mommy I'm gonna play now.

Her new word this week is "pupem" for puppy. Everytime she sees a dog she points ands says "Pupem" in the sweetest voice. I love it when she's in bed at night and she'll pop up out of the blue and say "pupem" and then lay back down. I LOVE the video monitor! The other night I saw her in there practicing the "more" sign.

Suddenly Ava has sort of attached to one of her new dolls. I had read that when you start the weaning process that babies who weren't previously attached to a transitional object will start. She doesn't carry it around with her all day but she loves it at night. In fact today I gave it to her to play with and she kissed it then walked over to her crib and stretched as tall as she could to get it over the top railing to get it back into the crib. I wonder what was going through her little mind? Every night when I put her in her crib she picks up her dolly hugs it close and then lays down. Sometimes she'll play in the crib for a while and talk to it, shake it around and kiss it.

Off to Grandad & Grandmother's house