I've created a monster

Ava has fallen in love with her high top tennis shoes that Gigi sent her. She wants them on all day and brings them to us to put them on her. When we try and take them off she gets upset and cries. Steve tried to put sandals on her today and she was having none of that, she wanted these shoes on.


Here she is in Daddy's news

Ava loves her magnum and is always cuddling with him. She just loves hugging on him and playing with him.

She also loves her Casper and is fascinated with him. Tonight she crawled into the kennel just to sit with him and pet him. He is so good with her, but gets aggravated when she pulls his tail, which she loves to do.

She has just started to call Biscuit by her name. It started out as Beeebe, and now she's saying Biyaaa. For some reason she likes to hit biscuit a lot. She calls for her "biyaa!" and then runs after her hitting her with whatever she has in her hand. We are trying to teach her that hitting is not nice, but have no idea why she wants to abuse poor Biscuit like that. No wonder Biscuit avoids her.

When the dogs are misbehaving, Grandmother always says "bad, bad, bad" to them and Ava picked that up. I chuckle everytime the dogs are being bad and Ava shakes her finger at them and says "ba ba ba!" It's so funny!

She is obsessed with going outside now. She absolutely loves being outside. Steve had her to himself over the weekend (I was out of town for a bachelorette party) and he said he was outside with her before dawn on Sunday morning swinging her in her swing. She runs to the backdoor and trys to open it with her little fingers. I say "Ava you have to put shoes on to go outside" and then she runs to her room and gets her shoes and wants up in my lap so I can put them on her. Smart little cookie!

She loves her "news"

We were getting ready for bed last night and she just had to have her new "news" out of the closet. She got them and brought them to me and lifted her foot up like "okay mommy put them on me" So she sat patiently while I got them all laced up and then ran to her chair and threw her feet up so she could get a good look at them.

Thanks for my "news" GiGi!

Little Toot

I took Ava to Chik Fil A for lunch today which she loves. While we were sitting at the table she was in her high chair and I heard a really loud toot. I looked at her with a funny look of surprise and she looked at me, threw up her hand and did the poop sign like "I'm poopin mommy"

It cracked me up and I had to instantly text Steve and tell him about it.

Sleep, who needs it?

Ava has never been a good napper, but has always been a great night sleeper. Around 10 months I finally got her to a good nap schedule of 10 and 2 and down to bed by 7:30 or 8. Well we started to get lenient with her and when she fussed in her crib we would go get her and just soothe her a little longer so she'd go down easier. BIG MISTAKE!!! That may have worked a few times, but she quickly learned that if she didn't want to nap or to go to bed, all she had to do was let out a blood curdling scream and in we would come running. So she skipped the wimper and fussing and went straight to the blood curdling screaming.

Last week she decided she no longer needed naps, and she didn't really need to sleep at night

either. She was waking up in the middle of the night, which she never does, she was not going down in her crib anymore..she would instantly start her screaming and crying when we sat her in there for night night (when before she would lay in there and play or fuss a little and then lay down). One night last weekend she was up until 11 pm! I was at my breaking point and it was taking it's toll on both of us. So this week she stayed with Grandmother and Grandad on Tuesday and she always sleeps great for Grandmother, so Grandmother got her down for her two naps and to bed by 8. I was determined to nip this sleeping problem in the bud and get her back on schedule, so Thursday I started her sleep training again. It was rough and it was probably one of the worst days I've had since she was born, but so far we have progress!! She went down at 7 and slept until 7:30 this morning. She went down for her nap for Steve with about 15 minutes of fussing at 10 and slept until 12:30. Tonight she went down at 7, but then woke up about 15 minutes later, fussed for a few minutes and then laid down and put herself back to sleep.

I am hoping the rest of the weekend goes smoothly and that we've corrected this problem. This little buggar is smart! It does not take her long to figure out how to manipulate mom and dad.

The dogs resting after a day of being tormented by Ava

On a good note, Ava now loves to eat and is eating like a champ! I decided that she is a snacker like her mommy. Has been since she was born and still is. I couldn't expect her to get all of her calories in 3 meals and a couple of snacks. So, I started giving her healthy snacks throughout the day like blueberries, organic crackers, strawberries, canteloupe, cheerios etc. Now she's eating great! She goes crazy for blueberries and crackers. She's still not a fan of veggies, but I do what I can with that. She knows where we keep all of the food and when she wants something she runs in the kitchen and points to the counter, fridge or the pantry depending on what it is she wants. Banana's are Babas, crackers are Crakuhs, and she even tries to say canteloupe which makes me laugh.

We still teach her new signs and one of the signs is "potty" so whenever she is going pooh, I can always tell and I do the sign for potty and ask her if she is going "poop". So last weekend Steve and I were laughing so hard because she started her "poop" stance and was doing the sign for "potty" while she went. It was so funny! It just amazes us at how much she picks up and does.

Yesterday I was sweeping the floor which I do a few times a day and she ran to the broom closet and got the little hand sweeper. She ran over to my pile and started "sweeping" with her little broom! I was so impressed I took a video (and yes I'll probably post it later) As amazing as it all is, I realize every day how quickly she is growing up, how quickly she is changing and how fast this is all going by!

Zoo Pictures

Ava & Daddy enjoying the zoo

I love this picture

Look mama it's a "gutt"

I'm scared mama

13 Months

Last Thursday I took Ava to lunch with Sara at Rainforest Cafe. We sat near the tigers and thought she might get a little scared because they roar really loud. She was super happy when we sat her near them in the high chair and said "kitty!" Then the thunder and lightening started and the tigers started roaring. It freaked me out! It was so realistic and Ava just laughed and laughed. She thought it was the best thing ever. Sara took her around after lunch and showed her all of the animals. She is definitely an Animal lover. Afterwards I took her clothes shopping at a few children's stores. She was so tired of being confined that she just wanted to run and be free. Of course she refused to be held or in her stroller and ran straight to the shoes. There she proceeded to take all of the shoes down and throw them on the floor. As I got her away from those she ran to the clothes and started on those. I thought "oh no, I'm one of THOSE moms!" So we very quickly left and she got to run free in the open space instead of ripping through the clothing stores.

Steve and I took her to her very first Astro's game last Friday night. We met our friends Jeremy & Denise and their twin girls Brianna and Sophia (also their 1st game). All babies did great! It was the latest we've ever kept Ava out and she fell asleep on the way home, but she had a blast. Luckily the seats were in the club level so we were able to take her inside and let her run up and down the hall. The twins did great too, not a peep out of them. I think they loved all of the noise. I did get a little worried when Ava saw the girls drinking their bottles. It was the same bottles Ava used and she wanted Brianna's bottle for herself. She said "bot bot" and reached for it. We said "bottles are for babies and you are a big girl now" She seemed to comprehend, but I don't think that changed her mind about wanting the bottle. Luckily she was easy about it and just drank her own milk from her nuby.

First Night Away

Ava spent her very first night away from mommy and daddy. She did great! We did pretty good too. Grandmother took her home Tuesday morning and Steve went and picked her up Wednesday when he got off of work. We weren't too excited about having her gone all night, but decided to take advantage of the free time and go to one of our favorite places, Houstons for dinner. It was kind of weird not doing our usual nightly routine and not hearing her wake up on the monitor the next morning.

Ava got to spend some good quality time with Grandad and Aunt Kristin. Kristin took some really awesome pictures of doodlebug too, as you can see above!

My mom got her a baby doll for her birthday that came with a baby bottle and paci. I tell Ava her baby is hungry and she runs over with the bottle and jabs it in her face. Usually gets her in the eyeball or the nose, but she gets the point! It's so cute. Then I say..okay now baby wants her paci and she runs and finds the paci and brings it to the baby. She's such a sweet girl. She's always happy and loves giving hugs and kisses.

I've been working on getting Ava's 1st year photo album put together. What a task! We took over 1,000 pictures of her 1st year and it's so hard to pick and choose which ones to use. It's amazing to see how much she's changed in such a short period of time and I keep wondering where the last year went.