Ava Meets Santa

Merry Christmas!

5 months old!

All About Ava at 5 months old.

SLEEPING

Ava has always been a good sleeper. She sleeps for 10-12 hours but will wake up once somewhere in the middle. I wish I could break her from that! When she gets sleepy I lay her down in bed and turn on her musical seahorse. She turns to her side, throws her arm over her little bunny and falls to sleep while playing with it's little ear....melt.my.heart! I do sometimes rock her just because I like to but she is just fine with me laying her down too.

EATING

Ava is now eating cereal and apples/pears along with a bottle for breakfast, she takes three bottles while at "school" and then she has another bottle with her dinner of sweet potatos. This girl loves to eat! When I put the spoon close to her, she'll grab my hand, stick out her tongue (Gene Simmons style) and try to cram the spoon in her mouth. I have a picture of this, I need to post it.

MOVING

My baby is growing up-she is now rolling in both directions which allows her to move from one place to another. Justin found her under the Christmas tree the other day! She is dying to sit up and tries soooo hard. It will be anyday now I'm sure.

PLAYING

Ava loves to play with her girraffe, in her saucer and with her toy that her daddy got her that hangs from the carrier. It's a little cow and if you pull down on part of it and then let go little beads in it's belly giggle and make a little noise. She will do this over and over again. It is the cutest thing.

BABBLING

Ava loves the sound of her own voice. She is the most vocal in the mornings and would talk and chatter and giggle at herself for hours if you didn't interrupt her.

PERSONALITY

Baby girl has the sweetest little temperment! She smiles at everyone and if I'm holding her when someone is talking to her she'll flash this huge smile and then pretend she's shy and hide her little face in my neck. Love this! She only really cries when she's dirty or hungry. We are such spoiled parents!

STATS

At her last appointment (about a month ago) Ava weighed 15.7lbs and was 24" long. Heehee, she's a little square. My girl is SOLID ya'll!

LOOKS

Mostly, she looks like her dad but every now and then I can see a bit of myself in that face. Especially in the mornings when she wakes up with puffy eyes and crazy, frizzy hair. She really looks like me then.

Baby Ava, it seems like just yesterday that I thought you would never get here and now you've already been with us for 5 months! Where is the time going? You are killing me with all the growing you're doing! I love you with all my heart and soul sweet girl. Thank you for making me a mommy, Happy 5 months!

Lucky girl

Loves of My Life

Odds and Ends

I thought that once I had a child, my blog would become really interesting. I thought I would have all of these cute/embarassing stories about my daughter and myself as a new mom.

I DON'T.

Or maybe I do and I'm just too tired to remember them. Yes, that's probably it.

Speaking of blogging, I've been meaning to sit down and re-vamp mine. I have a fancy schmancy camera (for almost a year now) that I'm too lazy to figure out how to use. I want to make my own banner and resize and edit my photos. I think I've figured out how, but when I have the time to sit down and do it, I decide that I'd rather nap.

Maybe this weekend? Probably not.

Starbucks has it's red cup out. I LOVE that silly red cup! Too bad I usually go to 7-11 to get my coffee in the morning. It's good, it's fast and it's waaaay cheaper.....

Dear 7-11, you need your own red cup.

This past week my husband has been getting up early to work out. On his way home, he stops at 7-11 and BRINGS me coffee! It's not in a red cup(I must get passed this) but it totally makes my day a good one. I love that man!

My daughter will be 5 months old next week. I can't believe she's growing this fast...slow down! She is so much fun and I am having such a good time watching her learn new things. She's just about to sit up and before I know it, she'll be crawling all over our house! Maybe then, I'll have some material for interesting posts/pictures. Ehh, probably not.

One last thing.

I made myself a little test blog to practice making my new layouts and things, you know, so I don't screw up this one and I just spent the last 10 minutes typing this post into the test blog.

What a dum dum.

Thank goodness for copy and paste, right?

Got Milk?

Continued Success

Remember this? That same student, now in the third grade, read the entire third grade high frequency word list to me today.

My little friend who, just two years ago, struggled putting two sounds together is now reading words like this:

through since probably

someone nothing themselves

together morning thought

Plus, 91 other words with similiar difficulty.

Now, if I can just get my daughter to sleep through the night!

Prettiest Flower I've Ever Grown

I love this girl.

Photo taken by Jana Lee in Boswell, Oklahoma.

Not that I'm counting or anything.

Today

Today, my baby girl turned 4 months old.

Today, I stopped right in the middle of my chores and got my daughter out of her swing, even though she was perfectly happy, I just wanted to hold her.

Today, I ignored all the parenting books and rocked her until she fell asleep. Actually, I did worse. I held her while standing up and swaying back and forth (GASP!)
I kissed her chubby little cheek, nuzzled her floppy ear (who did she get that from?) and smelled her fuzzy hair (the hair came from me).

Today, I thanked God for blessing me with this precious little girl that I surely do not deserve. I prayed that I will never forget those sweet moments of nuzzling and dancing. I prayed that would never forget the day she turned 4 months old.

*This happened on Sunday, I'm just now getting around to posting it.

Someone's another year older

It's not Ava. She did turn 3 months old last week though.

And it's not me....yet. Thank goodness!

That only leaves one person.....................

This handsome fella!

Happy Birthday Justin!

We love you!

It's that time again

Go Pokes!

Whew!

Being a working mom is tiring! I've been meaning to sit down and write a blog post for about two weeks but I'm just so tired at the end of the day. Instead, I'll just post some pictures. That's really the best part about blogs anyway isn't it?

These were taken in reverse order but oh well!

One of the very few pictures where Ava favors my baby pictures. She's the spitting image of her dad.

Look at that expression! We are in BIG trouble!

"Sugar Stealer"

She's laughing because she just blew out her diaper.

Exactly 2 months old

Ava's first day of "school". She looks about as happy about it as I did.

That's all for now! Hope you (Nanny Gayla) enjoyed them!

It's almost time

My days as a stay at home mom are dwindling.

Ava and I feel the same way about it.

1 month!

Ava turned one whole month old on the 17th. We celebrated by taking her to church for the first time. She celebrated by vomiting down my dress during Sunday school.

When I say down I actually mean "in". It went straight down my chest. I didn't even feel it until it hit my belly....nice.


Here she is at 1 month

Little pumpkin is not sitting up obviously so it took several attempts to get a picture.

I'm sure this is not the last time she'll make this face at me.

Happy 1 month Ava Caroline! We love you soooo much!!!

Rub A Dub Dub

Ava loves the tub!

After almost three weeks of waiting, Ava finally lost her umbilical stump and we were able to give her a proper bath! I was a little nervous because the girl hates to have her diaper changed. She hates it! I mean screaming at the top of her lungs, arms flailing, face turning beet red, lips quivering, I hate my life hates it.

But she loved the bath!

Without further ado, here is my angel getting her first bath.

"Hmmm...this isn't half bad, mom."


"Just a shampoo and rinse for today please."


"I could get used to this."

Getting her out of the bath, was a whole other story.....

Just to give you an idea, there was a lot of this:

This child does NOT mess around ya'll! She knows what she wants and she wanted it 2.5 seconds ago! Lord, help us.

My Sorry Attempt at Documenting My Childs First Holiday

Only a week late. That's not too bad, is it? We spent the 4th down south with my family. Unfortunately, I am still adjusting to the lack of sleep new mother's get and I didn't take many pictures to document the trip. Luckily, my mom and aunts took plenty of photos so I'll have to get some copies. These are the few that made it back on my camera.


We've had these fireworks for 4 years! Every other year it's been to dry to set them off. I was scared to death the boys were going to blow us all up but that obviously didn't happen and the show was awesome! And all we had to do was step out into the front yard! I wish we could have taken more pictures of the fireworks, but it's quite a challenge it seems.

Ava took lots of naps with her Dad.

And her Great Grandma Smith

Finally awake and in her festive red, white and blue. Forgive the clashing hot pink gloves, they are the only ones that will stay on her little hands!

Maybe next year, I'll do better with the camera. I figure by then I'll at least be a little more attuned to functioning with no sleep.

A New Kind of Normal

Coffee with the girls has a whole different meaning...

And cutesy, feminine undergarments have been replaced by these....

I have a few other things to add but my daughter is finally napping and I'm about to fall over so I'm going to take advantage of the situation and catch a few zzzz's.

Never too early

I always know when Justin has been watching Ava sleep.


How do I know, you ask?


I'll give you two guesses.



Your Dad loves you so much little girl. And don't worry, if you grow up and have no interest in soccer but are really interested in something else, like say, dance or something-Mommy's totally got your back!

If perhaps you do choose to be our tiny dancer, do not fret, I'm sure your crooked little toe will not interfere with your pointe work....

My mom went home yesterday. I cried like a baby. We're going to see her this weekend but that didn't seem to matter. Ava cried like a baby too which is totally acceptable as she actually IS a baby. We love you Nan!

I don't even know what to say about this.

While discussing how much weight/fluid I've lost since giving birth my husband says this:

"You're finally starting to look like the women I married. I didn't want to say anything but you didn't look like yourself."

Ohhhh men, they just don't get it......luckily, he was actually trying to compliment me. God love him!

And just because she's so darn cute, here's a picture of my girl.

Ava's Big Entrance

Wednesday, June 16 at 8:00pm
"Let's get this party started!"


Eleven and a half hours of cervidil and ten hours of pitocin got us broken waters and soaring blood pressure but NOTHING else.

I guess my girl is not much of a party animal.

Because at 4:42 pm, this is where we found ourselves.

The anesthesiologist (my new best friend) , at one point looked at me and said "Man, I got you stoned!"

This is the part where I say this:

"My newborn can beat up your honor student."

At 9 lbs and 2 oz little darling barely fit into the "wash bucket"!

There were 9 babies born that day and Ava quickly became known by the doctor's and nurses as



The Big One

Curly hair!

And baby makes three.

This picture is dark on purpose. I looked very similar to a sumo wrestler at this point.

I can't believe they're letting us take her home!

Just a couple of days ago, Mommy's little angel.

I love this face
Ava Caroline
June 17, 2010
4:42 pm
9 lbs 2 oz


Our precious gift from God

Here we go!

Heading to the hospital in a few hours. Baby Ava should make her appearance sometime tomorrow. Prayers are appreciated!

First comes love, then comes marriage...

The baby carriage is ready and waiting. Now,

Where the heck is my baby?

Apparently my daughter hasn't noticed that my little count down thingy says she's three days old because there is no sight of her what-so-ever!

For nine months I've been worried sick that she would try to come dangerously early and here she is late. Unfashionably so in my opinion.


What a Drama Queen!

Umm....

This could pose a problem.



So could this.


She's used to being the baby girl around here......

Nesting Much?

I wish I would have taken a before picture so you could fully appreciate the craziness.

This is our linen closet. For the last two years we've really just thrown things in there at random. We very seldom open the closet so we forget about the mess that resides within.

Until yesterday.

Enter Devy's nesting phase of pregnancy.....I took everything out, washed it all, refolded it and put it all back in it's home nice and neat! This was after a day of weekly housecleaning.

Last night I had lots of cramping and contractions so this morning in an effort to keep them coming, I'm roaming around the house trying to find other things to clean and organize. If I can get my fat feet into my tennis shoes, I plan on doing some serious mall walking!

Diaper Duty Anyone?

Justin's co-workers threw him a surprise baby shower today. How cool is that? There is also a box of over 200 more diapers in the floor that you can't see. I'd say that Justin has a pretty good supply to help him with all those stinky diapers, wouldn't you?

36 weeks

Here's the bump in all it's glory at 36 weeks:

I don't know what the weird line at the bottom of the picture is.

We're almost there!


Only 4 more weeks (I hope) of:

-taking my blood pressure twice a day
-taking BP medicine that makes me extremely tired
-pregnancy induced carpel tunnel
-swollen EVERYTHING
-congestion
-indigestion
-achy joints
-not being able to see my feet, or shave my legs, or put on my pants w/out intense effort and grunting

most importantly though.....

4 more weeks until I get to hold my baby girl.

Little girl, we are beside ourselves with excitement to get to meet you. Your dad and I cannot wait to count your fingers and toes and kiss your chubby little cheeks (we know you'll have them) and your dad is especially excited to change your diapers...:)

See you soon little Ava!

My thoughts are always random

So, I see people doing these random thoughts posts and I thought today was a good day for me to do one. Here goes....

I had to go shopping AGAIN for maternity pants. I mean seriously, I thought it was my belly that was supposed to get bigger! This is becoming ridiculous.

I wore those new, bigger pants to the 7-11 this morning. After asking me how far along I was, the nice lady told me how good I looked from the back! I believe she even used the word small! If it weren't for my huge belly, I would have thrown myself over that counter and kissed her on the mouth!

Don't you think when you're wife, who is 32 weeks pregnant, calls you you should answer your stinking phone? I mean it wasn't an emergency but it very well could have been, you know? After calling my husband twice and leaving two messages, he decides to call me back at the exact time that The Devil Went Down To Georgia comes on the radio. People, this is one of my very favorite country songs. I was SO irritated when that phone rang!

......Johnny you rosin up your bow and play your fiddle hard.....

I'll let you imagine the insane amount of head bobbing and foot tapping that ensues.

Speaking of interrupting things, my husband also likes to call me just as my favorite TV show is coming on. I don't watch a whole lot of TV but I wait anxiously every week for Real Housewives to come on and it NEVER fails, he will call me just as it's starting.......Ahhh, the horror!

I got really excited the other day when I looked down and noticed that my flat belly button was getting a ridge around it again. Could it be? Is my button going back down? Maybe the baby has shifted and I'm getting my button back?

Bahahahahahaha! Silly girl.

My belly button was not in fact "coming back" but instead turning into an outie which is causing a slight dip to form around the very center. Fabulous.


Happy Friday ya'll!



.......The devil opened up his case and he said: "I'll start this show."
And fire flew from his finger tips as he resined up his bow
And he pulled the bow across his strings and it made an evil hiss
Then a band of demons joined in and it sounded something like this.....

I CANNOT wait for swimsuit season!

Because of this sweet little number.





Obviously not because I can't wait to get into a swimsuit. Those days may be over forever for me. I just can't imagine this cellulite going away enough for me to ever show my legs again. But won't little Ava be soooo stinkin cute in this?

April Showers

My sister, Shannon, was kind enough to host a shower for baby Ava and me last weekend. Here are the pictures to prove it.

Thank you sister, I love you so much and little Ava is going to love having you as an aunt. She's one lucky little girl.

Ava's shower in pictures:

My favorite sister/hostess and my niece, Baleigh

My sister-in-law, Melanie and my niece Brooke

My mom, my sister-in-law Heather and my nephew Zack


Zack's face

Two of my aunts, Carol and Leigh


My other aunt, Joyce, my cousin Kay and her daughter Kirsten


My dear dear friend, Leslie

Leslie made this adorable quilt for Ava. I LOVE it!

There were tons of loved ones that I didn't get pictures of and tons of wonderful gifts for little Ava that I just don't have the time to upload. Though I may have to do a special post later about her gift from her uncle Andy. I'll give you a hint, it rhymes with hamouflage!