All Over the Place

Personality!

Ava is really coming into her personality. I thought at 3 and 4 months WOW this kid has got a personality all of her own. At 8 months that personality is more shown than I could have ever imagined. She argues. Yes my 8 month will argue. She can't say a word yet but we know when she disagrees. We can smack her fingers and tell her no and we get the frowns down and a big 'ugh' from her. It is so funny even though I try to keep a straight face. She has started to throw temper tantrums. I know I thought this was a little early myself but apparently she is right on track with other mobile children. I will move her from an object she shouldn't be around and she will kick her feet and move her arms and yell a little bit. She will learn, one day, I figure not to touch what she isnt supposed to touch.

She is just a happy baby, most of the time. She smiles at you all the time. It really melts your heart. She enjoys life, she is really getting the full of it right now, not letting anything stop her. She has started pulling herself up and walking along the couches. Which amazes me everytime I see it. She also has started throwing her arms in the air and letting go to stand on her own for a bit. Kenny and I have watched over the past week how much longer it has gotten, from a little second for a few seconds. A few seconds might not seem like a long time but when you are that small that is a big thing. We always tell her 'good job' or 'yay' and clap our hands. She is getting the hang of balancing herself while holding on to a piece of clothing or the couch.

She absolutely lets us know one way or another how she is feeling. It is so great to watch her grow and the development of her understanding of things is awesome because I can work with her through something as small as a toy is under the couch and she cant reach it.

Her schedule is about the same as last time I posted, she is staying awake until around 8:30 but that gives us more time with her, she usually goes to relax in bed around 7:30 regardless just to give her time to calm down and prepare for bed. She is LOVING the tub. Now bathtime is a little more frequent with her being mobile, she gets dirty so easily now. I am still giving her a bath in her baby tub because our tub is huge and I think it'd be awkward to give her bath in it. But she loves her tub, I sit it on the counter in the half bath and she can watch herself in our mirror and she takes her washrag and fligs it everywhere, getting water everywhere and all over me. She's starting to get a little upset when I get her out of the bath because she is old enough now to want to play.

It's just been an exciting time. Her skills and mobility is getting better everyday.

Sounds of Ava

My 1st Mothers Day

My first mothers day was awesome. It started great with Ava sleeping in until 8am. Do you know how long it's been since I have been given the chance to sleep in? Oh I'd say about 8 months. Kenny came home from work that morning with cinnamon rolls for breakfast. We went to church and Ava was in a good mood the entire time. On the way home, which is about a 2 mile drive, she fell asleep and slept for about 2 hours. After her nap, Kenny made us lunch: steaks and baked potatoes. One of my favorite meals. He is such a good cook, he likes to grill and I am thankful for it because I dont like to cook so much. He presented me with my 1st Mothers day card from Ava, I thought it was soooo thoughtful that he actually got a card from her instead of a card from him. Then I got my gift, which I wasnt expecting anything to be honest. I had told him I just wanted lunch and to spend the day at home. He gave me a gift card to Sernity Day Spa for a massage. Oh how wonderful of a gift. I loved it! Erika and I had went there last year for her bridal shower gift from me and it felt so good, I didnt want to get off the table. So now we are planning a girls day out with lunch and massages. We ended the day with Dairy Queen and then my schedule went back to normal. Ava got a bath, fed, then bed.

Stand Up!

Soooo this whole crawling thing as now lead into a standing up thing. She would rather climb up and stand sometimes loosing her balance than crawl sometimes. It is so exciting to see her stills improving everyday. She is so strong! She just grabs your pants leg and next thing you know she is up and smiling.

She has gotten good at knowing that she needs a hand every once in a while. She will throw her hand in the air and grunt at you to hold her balance while she gets up. Her bouncier that she absolutely loved for 3 months is now obsolete, its now pushed back in a corner until we can move it downstairs out of the way. She would rather climb on it than be in it. It's just a part of our daily lives now, Ava being everywhere. It is so much fun. She's always on the go and curious about everything. As strong and quick as she is getting I know it wont be long before she is walking on her own and wabbling all over my house.

No, No, No

I have found myself saying "No" more now than I have ever done so in my life. Ava is crawling all over the house and into everything. Which is great, I love that she is adventuring around the house and figuring out her home however she as in most children her age want everything they are not allowed to have. She wants to play with the heat vent, to play with the electrical sockets, the dogs toys, the dog food, and anything else that is in her reach on the floor. I have tried to stay consistent with it already because I dont want her to think she can get away with it.

When she starts going for something that isnt hers I tell her "No" really stern and give her lots of eye contact. She will go from her crawling position to sitting up, look at me and reply 'Ah'. We have this conversation about a million times throughout the day, and I am sure both Becky and Ashley have had the pleasure also. After her reply she slowly begins the crawl back towards whatever I had just told her "No" about. So again, she is told "No" and I have been trying to either smack her fingers/thighs just to give it a little bit of an effect and move her away from the object. I know she doesnt know exactly whats going on but she is getting old enough where its starting to connect. She knows what "No" means to a point. We know this because of the way she reacts when we say it. She smiles also when returning to the object and I believe this is her saying 'the heck with it, I want it and I'm gonna try'.

On to Patton, he is just a pup, I know but how many times do I tell him "No" throughout the day, I cant count. He doesnt understand his size and strength yet. He tried to move me and play, and he jolts me sometimes. He can take his butt and knock into me and throw me off balance quick. He is 33 lbs of pup and when he runs and jumps up on me, he is looking at me in the face. He also likes to get into everything he isnt supposed to, he wants Ava's toys, socks, to go to the bathroom with ya, dryer sheets, and Ava sometimes.

They are so goofy together. They both want to be with each other yet they dont really know how. Ava cant play on the floor anymore without Patton being right beside her, but he bumps into her and down she goes. She pulls on his hair and has more than once taken the toy out of his mouth so she can play with it. This causes Patton to look at me almost to say 'Make her give it back' and then licks her in the face or toes, I believe this is his way of sucking up to her. My time with them has become very interesting and very entertaining and sometimes fustrating. But they are learning.

This past week has consisted of the following conversations with my two little ones.
"No, Patton you dont play with Ava's toys"
"No, Ava, we do not let Patton play with your toys, you do not play with his"
"No, get away from that"
"No, leave her be and let her play"
"No, get that out of your mouth"--that goes to both of them
"Where did you get that? You dont play with that"--also to both of them
"No, you dont climb on me"
"No, you dont pull hair"

Since Ava has become mobile it has gotten busier in the house, the last two evenings I have started eating my dinner on the couch and ended standing in the hall watching her crawl all over. She is so much fun and communicating very well for not being able to say much but "Hi". I am sure she will learn "No" sooner than later as much as she is hearing it. Patton is learning, much better than I could have ever imagined only having him 2 months. He's still a pup, I look at it as having 2 -7 month olds in the house. What Ava is learning, I try to teach him, so they both know their boundaries and they both know the rules. As she learns to walk/run around I know it will be more entertaining and to see how Patton reacts will be fun.

SURPRISE!!!!

I absolutely love planning! Planning has been a big chunk of the past 2 years, first my wedding, then Erika's wedding, then Ava was on the way.

Last fall, my sister in law, Erika, and brother in law, Kelly began the wonderful adventure of building a house on their property. Erika is one of my favorite people and I think we get along so well because she is alot like my sisters. As winter approached she became more anxious over dates, deadlines, and SNOW. Erika is organized and she figured because she and Kelly got all their ducks in a row well so should the weather. They would be in the middle of building this or pouring that and it would snow and stop everything. She was counting down to be in her new home. She and Kelly just wanted to have it built and be back in the valley.

She told me the end of February they would be living there, well it snowed like 3 feet one weekend in February, so she told me March was absolutely it, they would be in the house. And finally they moved. I dont know how she did it either, I think I would have even been stressed out with the weather and planning of it.

She was sooo excited to be in and slowly began decorating and cleaning. She has the cleanest house. She keeps on it. Once she was in, I thought 'she is so proud of this house why not celebrate?!?!' so the wheels because rolling and I emailed her mom to see if she would like to plan a SURPRISE housewarming party. I thought it would be awesome to have her family and friends there to celebrate this chapter in her life. She has helped me so much and been there for me that I thought it would be nice to do something for her. Her mom was on board and we asked our mother in law to help also.

So we planned a little bit, none of us had thrown a housewarming party before, bridal and baby have been the game for the last few years. We put our heads together and slowly got everything organized.

It worked out that her wonderful husband was going to be away for work so she would have absolutely nothing to do on the Saturday we had planned to have 20 women over to her house. Our mom in law got a spare key from Kelly and everyone kept it a secret. As hard as it can be to keep anything from Erika we did it.

Beth took her shopping and kept her in Hagerstown while we swarmed her house with food, gifts, and people! She came in the door asking 'What is going on? What is everyone doing here?' Ava went in her Aunt Erika's arms and I told her it was a housewarming party.

So Erika began showing off her wonderful home with Ava in tow. I think everyone had a good time. We got to catch up with some friends and family and look through her photo albums and listen to her decorating ideas for areas of the home that isnt finished yet. Her home is beautiful and she is only like 2 miles from me!