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

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.