Listen to what Ava has to say....

She has learned something new....

I wasn't quite sure that she put two and two together w/ Santa and "ho, ho, ho", but it was confirmed this morning while we were at the grocery store.

We were at the grocery store and just cruising around, I'm all in my element and just jibber-jabbering back and forth w/ baby girl. She was holding the grocery list for me. All of a sudden she starts in on her "ho ho ho ho" thing. Once she starts, she does it for like 5 minutes. There was no Santa around so I figure, well, I guess she doesn't quite get that "ho ho ho" goes w/ Santa, but whatever, it must just be a new word/sound. Well, about 3 minutes later I look down while she is still saying it and she is concentrating so hard on the shopping list and what do I see at the bottom of the paper? A santa hat! It was on the SPCA note pad we got and it had a dog w/ a santa hat! So she DOES get it! She was saying "ho ho ho ho" to the santa dog. So CUTE!!

Getting ready for the Holidays!

We actually decorated for Christmas this year in a timely manner, so we get to enjoy the decorations for a whole month as opposed to a few weeks. It was so nice, as always, to get the tree out (pre-lit and fake--how very un-green of us) and decorate it. Ava was a big help, as you can see. We listened to Christmas music and thought about making hot chocolate, but since it was in the mid 70's here and we were both sweating, we decided water would suffice. Christmas is one of my favorite times of the year and I have such fond memories of it. I can only hope that Ava will one day feel the same way.

Here is Ava "helping" us w/ the ornaments:

Such a Silly Girl

Ava's little personality is so cute these days. She has learned to crinkle her nose and sniff. Check her out in this video. I love it!!

http://s71.photobucket.com/albums/i146/mnallen79/?action=view&current=videoavablowingnose.flv

We made it!!

Here's the fam at Grandma Laurie's house in Tulsa:

Here we are at Gigi and Poppy's house in Dallas:

We are back in the ATX now after a long journey to Dallas and then on to Tulsa and back to Dallas. Ava hung in there, but by the last day, she was tired and cranky and ready to go home, as were we. She showed off all her new tricks and of course everyone thought she was so cute!

She's waving hi and bye-bye

She's saying "mamama"

She's flipping her lips w/ her fingers and making a humming sound (does that even make sense?)

She's crawling faster than ever

She's pulling up and letting go and standing there for a few seconds

She's semi-signing "milk"

And most importantly, she gave both sets of grandparents KISSES!! Open mouth and all!

She visited w/ a lot of family and friends this Thanksgiving and it was so nice to spend time w/ everyone.

Ava and Grandma Laurie:

4 Generations of Girls: Great Grandma Smalley, Grandma Laurie, Mommy, and Ava

Ava w/ the boys, her daddy and uncle Aaron:

Gigi and Poppy with Ava:

She also got to meet her uncle Austin and Aunt Gretchen (not pictured, oops, I didn't get a picture....darn!) and see her cousin Rylee and Aunt Rachel again:

Happy Turkey Day!

Ava can say this knowing good and well what turkey tastes like, so it will be a happy turkey day for her! She likes to feed herself chicken (in finger food form, not pureed, as I couldn't bring myself to puree meat....yuck!) and tried turkey the other day at Rudy's BBQ. It was seasoned, so I wasn't sure she would like it, but who am I kidding? She LOVED it, of course.

So, in case we don't post for awhile, as we will be heading out to Dallas and Tulsa to visit the grandparents, Happy Thanksgiving!

Here is Ava styling her new onesie created by moi (my "inpiration" came from another mommy on my mommy message board, thanks SAB717)! As you can see, Ava is less than thrilled to be posing right now b/c I couldn't wait to put it on her, even if it was right after she woke up from her nap. She looks cute anyhow.

Oh, and a tooth update for ya!

Not one.

Not two.

Not three.

Not four.

Not just five.

But SIX teeth now!

If you did the math, this little lady got 6 teeth in 6 weeks! She handled it like a trooper though. She is all business when it comes to getting a job done. Determination I tell ya, every once of her, from her crawling to her teeth! This is the best picture I could get. I probably won't be able to get any closer to her mouth until she is about 2!

Belated Halloween pics

Sorry it took awhile to get the pics of the cutest chick in the world on here, but here they finally are. I will also include a link to the Halloween photo book I made for Ava.

http://share.shutterfly.com/action/project/8EbsWzZm5aMqO/landing;jsessionid=82C87C4267E0A4D2EB41596336ED5A95

A day at the park

I forget how beautiful our "autumn" weather is here in Texas for a couple of weeks. We knew we had to do something outside to fully enjoy the season, so Ryan and I took Ava to the park. She loved the swings, especially having her mommy and daddy right there with her. She also loved looking at/eating all that Mother Nature has to offer--rocks, twigs, leaves, etc.

Also, you be able to see a huge difference in the clarity of the pictures because Ryan surprised me with a new camera last week! Our previous one was great, but the shutter speed was a joke and we would miss many opportunities to catch that one special shot b/c it was so slow. This new camera, a Nikon D40, is amazing! It's simple and smart enough to take gorgeous pictures w/out having to do much. But it has the capability to get more complex, none of which I have quite figured out yet.

More fall pumpkin pics

Just because I love this time of year (and Ava was smiling in these!)

Slideshow of Ava's first 7 months

A Case of the Giggles

It's moments like these that make those tough times so worth it. You know, like the countless hours of being woken and kept up at all hours of the night to calm an over-tired baby or when you and the baby are stripped down to nothing so that you are able to rid your clothes of poo just to change a "blowout". This moment that I'm talking about is quite simply a few laughs that Ava and I shared. Nevermind the slobber that was splattered down onto my face, the sound of her giggle is music to my ears.

http://s71.photobucket.com/albums/i146/mnallen79/?action=view&current=videoflyinghighwmommy.flv

Pumpkin Patch Pictures

While Ava was too busy taking it all in to smile, she had a good time looking at all the orange pumpkins. If you know Ava, you know she is a "thinker". And if you haven't gotten to get to know her quite yet, the look on her face in the pictures say it all. I just love how serious she is and how you can tell she is just absorbing every learning opportunity there is. She is quite the studious one, this girl.

A good shot of her new teeth (darnit, you still can't see them):

The whole fam:

A few more:

A third tooth!

This girl has GOT to slow down! We knew it was coming due to:

a) a slight case of the evening fussies

b) fighting naps for consecutive days

c) that cry in the middle of the night

d) feeling it finally break through the gum

So, it's her front top right tooth that made its' debut. The bottom two came in w/in days of each other, so we'll see if there is more to come.

Another sip please...

While I don't have a picture of it, I did catch it on video. Ava drank from a straw this morning. I have been experimenting w/ ALL SORTS of different sippy cups and tried this (after several failed attempts in the past) and she did it! The look of astonishment on her face when she got water and choked a bit, was amazing! The video I have of her isn't her first time of taking a straw, but you get the idea.

http://s71.photobucket.com/albums/i146/mnallen79/?action=view&current=videoofdrinkingfromastraw.flv

She's everywhere!!

My life has changed. I had heard that it would, but had to see it to believe it. She is crawling everywhere and pulling up on everything. Gone are the days where we sit and play with toys or sing to one another. Instead, I am chasing and playing "I'm gonna getcha" to avoid any accidents or cat food catastrophes. All. Day. Long.



The silver lining? She is so much fun to play with now!! Oh, and I'm getting my exercise too!

Just watch her......
http://s71.photobucket.com/albums/i146/mnallen79/?action=view&current=videocheerleaderbaby.flv

The Baby Food Diaries (Part II)

Dear Diary,

Okay. So now it is going so much better! My mommy went back to feeding me the vegetables that I so dearly love. I didn't show much emotion either way, but this time at least, I was not brought to tears.

Here I am eating green beans. (I'm kind of bored with them already).

Next, I LOVE peas! (Unfortunately my mommy gags when she gives them to me because this is one of the rare foods that mom despises!!)

And finally, zucchini.....YUMMY!!

Now that I'm done with the stage one yellow, orange, and green veggies, I HAVE to try fruits! Mommy was a little nervous about which one(s) to pick due to our "pear incident". So, this morning she gave me peaches to try w/ my morning oatmeal. Gosh, I'm such a big girl, 7 months and all.....

I was taken off-guard a little

But, I insisted that I wanted more and I could finally tolerate them.

So, as you can see, solids are going pretty good for me again. However, now that we are delving into fruits, my attitude might change. We'll just have to see!

Oh, forgot to mention....

Ava has TWO teeth! How I forgot to update this on our blog is beyond me.

It {the teething process} has been ongoing for about 3 weeks now. The sympoms included very choppy sleep, especially naps. Some days she would even skip naps and her night wakings were every 2-3 hours there for a good week or so. She was not majorly drooling or anything, but everything was going into her mouth, which is normal--teething or not.

In retrospect, I now know why she was up so much and wish I would have known those little bottom teeth were about to come through. I posted about her possibly teething, what? like 2 months ago. So it just seemed that everyday they could or could not be coming. Poor little girl, had I only known. Oh, well. Hindsight is 20/20, I guess.

Anyway, the first tooth broke through on Wednesday Sept. 19th and the second was on Friday Sept. 21st (both happen to be birthdays of her grandparents: Gigi and Poppy). By today, they both have completely come through the gum. She has been such a trooper. She was a tiny bit extra cranky on Saturday, but has really been acting normal. She might have her daddy's tolerance for pain.

I can't believe my little baby has TEETH!! What a big girl! Here is the best picture I could get. Look very closely and it is the two bottom teeth you can see.

After uploading this, there is no way for you to see them. After I crop this pic, or get a better one, whichever comes first, I will post about it. Sorry!

The Baby Food Diaries

Dear Diary,

My mom has been working so hard in the kitchen making delicious, wholesome, and nutritious fruits and vegetables for me as an introduction to food, only modified, due to its pureed form. I have been so appreciative of her dedication that I am quick to gobble up everything she has made so far: sweet potatoes, yellow squash, butternut squash, acorn squash, and zucchini.

Mommy thought she would do me a favor this morning and give me a fruit to try. Why she decided to mess with my fondness of vegetables is beyond me, but needless to say, she did. So, as always I was geared up to eat (did I mention that I'm always so quick to gobble up the food?) and try this new fruit called pears. Only this time when the food went into my mouth, I was a bit shocked. This did not taste like those other goodies, rather is was a bit harsh w/ a subtle tartness.

I contemplated if this was something I would like:

Then, the after-taste hit me:

YUCK! NO MORE, MOMMY!

As you can see, the whole pear experience was really quite torturous. I can only hope that tomorrow's meal will be back to normal. I will keep you posted.

Oh, and mom? Try not to do me any more favors!!

She's Crawling!!

What? Yep, that's right....our baby girl is officially a crawler!! We were playing with her on the floor on Saturday morning and something peaked her interest and she decided to go get it, right in front of our eyes. The coolest thing about these major milestones (i.e. rolling over, crawling) is that both Ryan and I have got to see her do them for the first time. So exciting! Here is the link.....

http://s71.photobucket.com/albums/i146/mnallen79/?action=view&current=Shescrawlingvideo.flv

Ava's Way of Saying I Love You....

This was cracking me up (and her too!)

http://s71.photobucket.com/albums/i146/mnallen79/?action=view&current=iloveyouvideo.flv

Get me outta this crib!

Ava decided that an afternoon nap was not going to cut it! I only went in there to check on her and found her standing there talking to herself. I love the part in this video where she gets real still because she hears the song that we rock to before she goes to sleep. I just keep it on repeat during her naps and it was still on and she totally knew it.

http://s71.photobucket.com/albums/i146/mnallen79/?action=view&current=getmeouttaherevideo.flv

No one is gonna keep HER down!

Ava has decided to start pulling up on everything!! When I go into her room to pick her up from a nap or for the day, she is just standing there waiting for me. If you click on the picture, there is a video of her standing in her tent, with a little whoop-si-daisy!!

She hasn't got crawling down yet, but she sure does love to stand! Does that mean she is going to be a walker first? Who knows??

My Lil Sweet Potato!

What do you think? Did she like her first solids experience? Well, the proof is in the puddin'......errr, sweet potatoes, that is. Ava loved eating sweet potatoes. We will continue these for 3-5 days to make sure there are no allergies and then move on to squash. It is so fun to experience this with her. So far, we don't have a picky eater. No surprises there.

Boomer Sooner!

We are ready for football season! Here's to hoping the Sooners are ready to show us what they've got!