Friday, January 17, 2014

Our Christmas

First up, our Christmas card. We went with Minted again and once again they did not disappoint. 

 photo ChristmasCardProof.png

We started off the season with our neighborhood's "Breakfast with Santa." Ava was all about the breakfast, but not so much about Santa.

 photo 16D1640D-DEBB-4E01-91EE-3F5DE474D77D.jpg

 photo DSC_0775.jpg

 photo DSC_0779.jpg

Ava loved the Christmas lights and Christmas tree, and even though we put the tree in jail she still loved to pet the bottom ornaments.

 photo 8106FA35-BE6E-45FB-BB34-BBD3D681EEF6.jpg

And occasionally she'd make off with one.

 photo 3AF1A565-C06B-4250-824C-7F0E4AB39FB8.jpg

Checking out Christmas lights in the 'hood:

 photo EE54FD0B-D3C0-4D81-95AD-7BA395B7F65B.jpg

Loved spending the afternoon with these girls:

 photo 324F3037-B694-4E95-B919-CEB810AAAA61.jpg

Since we were spending Christmas in La Grange, Santa paid a visit to our house early. Ava woke up to all of this loot:

 photo D58A1C74-98FA-4AFD-AA3B-CC5D596DC2E6.jpg

 photo 5A51F68E-AACA-40C1-B9AA-867783EF0B7E.jpg

 photo 6DA075CB-351A-47EB-9BB9-4F42B87E1C88.jpg

 photo 11776B37-CB35-4EB1-9331-32CBFFA6C274.jpg

First thing she did? Jump in the cozy coupe. 

 photo 8413F14A-52BB-4F7A-A107-1A6BCDC587FC.jpg

 photo B8369677-A631-45AA-B7EE-0E2BF7B6A03A.jpg

Then it was time to hit up the slide.

 photo E3CD47DC-2387-4DC7-8789-F6C1D6972510.jpg

 photo 5D69234A-2C26-4543-8997-FB00E8D233AB.jpg

Decided she needed her new kicks on.

 photo 318247BD-FD30-458A-BD70-25A347FDC1D5.jpg

 photo E3489E1E-FC98-4D6C-A9B1-85C502C2B272.jpg

And of course "Christmas" morning isn't complete without sausage balls.

 photo 9A53843F-F322-4F19-AAB6-599193EE6278.jpg

She quickly decided that her favorite way to go down the slide is head first. Pray for me.

 photo 039BD8C9-E45A-4781-907E-74FF74977439_1.jpg

We loaded up and headed east, where we spent lots of time with family, ate lots of good food, and opened way too many presents.

 photo 4C71E98C-FECD-4911-A2A8-0A03EFA2BCAF.jpg

 photo 15728461-8020-492E-97D0-01D96020F79D.jpg

 photo C17468BA-1DC3-45BD-B1FE-95189CA09195.jpg

 photo DSC_0867.jpg

 photo DSC_0886-1.jpg

 photo DSC_0893.jpg

 photo DSC_0895.jpg

 photo 8937D46A-5AAD-451C-9B54-2E52B5697097.jpg

 photo DSC_0929.jpg

 photo DSC_0932.jpg

 photo 52D64610-0649-4A7D-910D-EABC93F989FC.jpg

 photo DSC_0937.jpg

 photo 8FA1BE7E-AE5D-42C2-A2B3-5F4105973495.jpg

 photo DSC_0952-1.jpg

 photo 6E9F46D0-5E1F-434E-A85C-358892FDAEF8.jpg

 photo 3A2DACA5-7DDD-41FE-955B-F7596990EC83.jpg

 photo 4D569E51-19EB-446E-AD71-215243EB9318.jpg

 photo 54F78D04-B769-4913-A21B-D6EB9F8F86A2.jpg

And finally, all decked out for New Year's:

 photo F78CB6A8-0193-4C85-BD11-6F330798C1CA.jpg

We had an awesome Christmas and I'm so thankful we were all relatively healthy this year. We continue to be so blessed in so many ways, and in constant awe of how this little one is growing and changing every day!

Wednesday, January 1, 2014

Ava: 15 Months

 photo 15Months.jpg

I haven't done an Ava update in a while, so it's long overdue. I was glad to be done with the monthly updates of the first year, but I do want to keep track of what she's been up to, so for her second year I'm going to do 3-month updates at 15, 18, 21 and 24 months.

It's amazing how much she's changed in three months. In my last update, she had just started crawling and standing. Now she's walking like a pro and suddenly seems more "little girl" than "baby."

She started walking just after 13 months and hasn't been still since. My house hasn't been clean since either. She loves to open cabinets and drawers and strow the contents about. And her absolute favorite forbidden fruit? Climbing the stairs. We had to get serious about childproofing really quickly.

Her language skills are starting to blossom too. She understands lots of words and can say: uh oh, bye bye, night night, dog dog, ball, bubbles, light, mama and dada (although she gets them mixed up and calls lots of things dada, like random people on the street and pictures of Jesus), and most recently she's learned no and mine (not nearly as fun). She can show you her belly, point to her nose and sign for "more" and "milk."

She has a favorite book, Bizzy Bear on the Farm, and will bring it to us to read approximately 237 times per day. She moos at the cow, quacks at the duck, says "doodle do" after the rooster cockadoodle-dos and will finish the last sentence which ends in "bye bye."

Whenever I'm sitting on the floor she walks over, turns around, and backs her little behind into my lap, which pretty much makes me die on the spot. She gives hugs and kisses, saying "uh uh" and "muah" respectively. Now that she finally gives closed-mouth kisses, I actually kind of miss the open-mouthed sloppy ones.

And for old time's sake, a few of the monthly update categories:

Clothing: 18 or 24 months, size 4 diaper

Eating: While she used to be an eat-every-single-thing-on-her-plate-every-meal kind of girl, she's now settled into a more typical toddler pattern of having meals where she eats great, and meals where she eats very little. The pediatrician said this is perfectly normal. She loves cheese, sausage, chicken, green beans and most fruits. She can feed herself with a spoon pretty well, and drinks her milk and water solely out of sippy cups (dropped the bottle at 12 months). And during Christmas, she learned the joys of chocolate and sweets. Any time I'd be eating a treat, she'd walk over, plop down on the floor and start signing "more," which means "give me some of that delicious thing you're eating."

Sleep: Sleeps through the night consistently (7:30pm until 7 or 7:30 am), with the occasional wakeup here or there. She got ear tubes right before Thanksgiving that I think did a lot to lessen the wakeups. Takes one nap on daycare days and usually two naps when she's home on the weekends.

Illness: In the past 3 months she's had roseola, hand/foot/mouth, a couple of ear infections that led to the aforementioned tubes and a mystery virus that we were convinced was RSV but turned out not to be (or at least the test was negative). Sounds like a lot, but it's actually been a lot better than last year so far (knock on wood).

Her height is 54th percentile and weight is 75th.

And finally some pictures to wrap up the last three months.

Already has a shoe obsession:

 photo D673B270-6A97-4E52-B7E6-8D975526B1FD.jpg

Loves her wagon that she got for her birthday:

 photo 356203BA-FFFC-447C-AC01-E83630AF7886.jpg

 photo FBB8BD15-F9E9-4A28-8B75-086302471E6B.jpg

 photo B1CDB86A-1AE9-422F-8C50-0BEDF6F61FD4.jpg

 photo 0923182E-0527-40FE-AB57-616098ECEE65.jpg

 photo 7A92E2B0-C47D-4964-972A-A57D600C634F.jpg

Fun at Marbles Kids' Museum:

 photo E77DAB1A-3EAF-4451-9E2D-B4D4FC781D7B.jpg

 photo 6344C032-6946-44B8-B5A4-9483D32A087E.jpg

Loves to stand in our shoes:

 photo 025D7826-FC91-412A-AE35-F46B28ED6788.jpg

Thanksgiving feast at daycare:

 photo 72EC4193-52F0-4708-B82F-D38F950EE15F.jpg

Selfies after bath:

 photo 06E521C6-F3F8-4965-AE8C-20DA22C856B7.jpg

This is a classic Ava face:

 photo 97E51B26-124E-4485-BED7-A78A993A3FB4.jpg

Everyone always tells me she has the most facial expressions, which is a nice way of saying "she can cut you the evil eye in a hot minute."

Signing for "more":

 photo 5CF210F8-03A4-4264-84EC-3F991BC28F00.jpg

Loves the racecar shopping carts:

 photo AD35D00C-E10E-4758-8055-72A62B2ED0B1.jpg

Enjoying Thanksgiving lunch:

 photo D416F877-6C8A-4467-8305-271DF75188F7.jpg

Soaking up the attention at Thanksgiving:

 photo E026995C-9564-4913-9D22-0228FC3864D9.jpg

Princesses need naps too:

 photo 09941AEE-9B03-409C-B0A8-9CEB700419DD.jpg

Happy 15 months Ava!

(I'll be back soon to tell you about our Christmas!)
Related Posts Plugin for WordPress, Blogger...