meeting grandpa jim

well, ava was three weeks old on wednesday. and to celebrate, she got her first real bath. photos of that are coming soon... gotta keep in suspenseful you know :-)

ava was pretty excited to meet her grandpa jim yesterday. he flew in from washington and has had lots of opportunities to hold ava, while tress and i rest our arms. i havn't gotten him to change a diaper yet, but the stay isn't over. we'll see ;-)

strange middle of the night story time. teressa says that i woke up her up last night and put my hand on her shoulder and was smiling, looking directly at her and very excited. she says that i said "were planting churches! tomorrow, were planting churches, were planting churches!" don't remember any of it.

ava also went to her first rodeo tonight! thats right. she was born in texas and she is already going to rodeos. wow. what a cowgirl. photos of that are coming soon too.

enjoy some of these recent photos though.

ava liked meeting her auntie debi - especially since she brought the gift of all gifts with her. a chocolate hot fudge shake.

now thats a tony rizzo face. ha ha

gettin to know grandpa jim

i don't know this guy yet, but he's got a bottle. must be trustworthy...

mother, grandpa, and daughter

you cannot fool me with your confusing "baths are fun" phrases

the frown is born

"help us obie won konobee. your are only hope." - princess laya. (acted out by ava rizzo)

some friends came to visit last week. chrissy is a natural with babies.

prediction time. these two above will be some great parents, and i predict it will be rather soon. oh yeah, another fun fact. these two, jd and chrissy, walked into a bank robbery on friday! they walked in and everyone had their hands up. and right then the guy was walking out of the bank and just took off on foot. crazy.

ava likes stephanie. she's so happy.

sarah comes from a large family. she knows how to handle a baby :)

daddy, hold me.

who are those silly new parents?

yesterday, ava needed to go get some blood drawn. just wanted to share a couple of photos that i took with my phone from that adventure. all i remember is that as soon as ava was placed on the doctors table, large amounts of strange sounds began to come from her. i could tell the doctor was wanting to laugh, i know that i was.

after her blood was drawn, the nurse gave us a bio-hazard bag and told us we could change her diaper. this lady's parenting days must number more than my own, because she obviously knew we were going to need this ziplocked secure bag.

lets just say that ava found a new game.
it's called "search and destroy."
the enemy? the diaper.
every new diaper we put on, ava was sure to ruin it. it was a hilarious time for first-time parents. we eventually just had to wrap her up, and tell her we would change her when she got home.

did i mention how much she smiled during it?
hilarious. :-)

teressa and i both got a cold the past couple of days, but we are feeling quite a bit better now. ava got pretty congested today, but she never got a fever. thank you again Jesus.

18 days and still kickin

ava started smiling at us these past couple of days. thats been nice. a few times she even started smiling to a few tickles i gave her.

her umbilical cord fell off yesterday too. kinda nice. kinda weird. kinda strange... all at the same time. lets just say... it didn't make it into the baby book :)

we have really enjoyed the visits from people coming over to see her. thanks guys! keep comin by. ava misses you.

cutie face

ava is learning young

still can't believe she's this tiny

daddy's lil slugger

already throwing a curveball

the moon over our house

sleeping peacefully. she normally grunts and makes lots of sounds as she sleeps

my sister danielle taught me the correct term for these - "piggie toes"

ava's favorite way to sleep

probably looking at a ceiling fan - she loves those

precious

trying to figure me out

"why am i awake right now?"

some of teressa's flowers in the front yard

uh-oh

you are being mesmerized...

sure love that smile!

asleep in the boppy

day 15

ava got to go to her 2 week check-up yesterday. we were expecting her to have lost some weight and to be around her birth weight of 7lbs. well, when they weighed her, we found out that she is now 8lb 2 oz! the dr. was floored and just kept asking us, "what are you feeding her, butter?" "have you guys been giving her red bull?" at that moment, i was pretty proud. i knew that was something she definitely got from her dad. and even though packing on a few pounds may not be considered a "talent" or "gift" to some people, it's nice to know you contributed something to your child. ;-)

it's been great to see her start to recognize familiar stuff and learn how to grasp things with her hands more. i never thought i would be excited for someone to poke my eyes repeatedly or pull on my lips as much as they liked. she also has learned our voices. it was cool yesterday, when she would start to fuss, and walking or rocking wouldn't help. i would lay down next to her and look her in the eyes and just start talking to her. she would just get quiet and look at me, as if she was listening. those are great times.

small fitness update: so in an effort to lose some of my paternal pregnancy pounds, i have been running and getting ready to do a 5K run on july 4th morning. man, i don't know why i just posted that. hows that for accountability. :) im looking forward to it though. even though i grew up playing sports, i have never really run for over 3 miles before. a friend of mine down here, matt, is going to do it with me now. anyone else out there want in?

tress has been doing well. ava was up most of today, so she is a little sleep deprived at the moment. but i want to say that she has been doing an EXCELLENT job transitioning from a full time job in the gfa office to now working a 24 hour/7 day a week job of taking care a needy newborn!

enjoy some of the recent photos of our darling.

pose

in mama's hands

flooded with joy to receive ava from the stork

no explanation needed

our buddy, the stork

no, im not offering her up :)

mid-day nap

becoming one of da girls

am i holding her right?