Ava's First Desk

Last week we found this little old school desk at The Colony Resale (like a Goodwill) for Ava. It was love at first sight. She spends a large portion of her day sitting at this desk reading her books, talking on her cell phone or eating her snacks. And if she's not sitting in it she's climbing in and out of it. I was really wanting to get her a little table and chair but hadn't found one for the right price and then came across this gem and Tony talked them down five bucks and we got it for $10!

Ava is loving the cold weather and being able to play outside more. She especially loves walking to the mailbox everyday with Dad when he gets off work, playing in the hose and swinging in her tree swing. Her other passions at the moment are her cell phone (my old phone), feeding herself with her fork, helping me make the bed each morning by putting the pillows on the bed, bringing me my shoes and purse and trying to force me to put them on, shoving her toes in our face and making us smell her "stinky toes" and hiding from us behind the dining room chairs.

We love her.

Here's some pictures of Ava enjoying her Saturday morning pancakes sitting at her new desk. Note her picnic basket next to the desk. . .it's never far from her side . . .

Being goofy

king kong ava

picky about shoes

today, teressa tried to put a pair of boots on ava and she started screaming. she was fine with any of the sparkly shoes that her mama wanted to put on - but not the brown boots with the pink flowers. she was not having any of that. she started spitting and screaming and trying to claw her way away from them. but all was well, when some shoes she liked were put on her feet :)

rediscovering old toys

isn't it fun to rediscover old toys?

i decided to give teressa a much needed break and went into a different part of the house to play with ava. she rediscovered her old exersaucer and loved climbing in it and through it.

it so much fun now that she can walk better. i took her out to the garage with me today and she walked around the garage and on the driveway. she then followed me into the backyard and then climbed into the bike trailer all by herself. that was impressive!

she went with us to the r.e.i. scratch and dent sale in plano on sunday. we put her in a backpack and she just joined in the fun. r.e.i. is a outdoors store and every 3 months or so, they put all returned merchandise at about 90% off and members can come by it - but you have to wait in line and try to survive the stampede. it was a sweet place to get a $9 bike pump and a $19 pair of hiking boots!

mama mia

and now for the photo of the day...

this is little miss rizzo eating some "biscetti"

wut up holmes?!

many of you have heard about some of the funny things ava has learned. well a couple of months ago, she starting folding her arms, and we thought it looked kinda "gangsta"... so we shouted "wut up holmes?!" she immediately started connecting the two. even when her dada starts beatboxing, she'll fold her arms up and start spitting. priceless.

don't worry... i (dada) still have plans for princess training...

naptime is over

one of the best parts of the day is when ava wakes up. its fun to go into her room. she is a morning person. she turns into 100% goofball as soon as she wakes up. well, she's still asleep for about 3 or 4 seconds. and then she plays hide and seek with us and crawls around the crib, or stands up and yells stuff, or points to the photos hanging on the wall. we thought you might enjoy "waking up ava" with us - heres some photos :-)

fast asleep

this is her "sleepy face" that she has for a few seconds (above)

eventually, things calm down, and she grabs her "lamby" again

An afternoon of reading . . .

Ava has obviously been watching her dad . . . snacking and reading. :o) I guess she's not a fan Ted Kennedy . . .



She's getting to be such a fun little companion during the day. She follows me around all day "helping" me with my chores and keeping me company. She's "reading" her books to herself now, and saying the animal noises for dog, kitty, horse, cow and rooster. Although they do all sound very similar to her favorite, "woof, woof".

She also recently learned the signs for "milk" and "more". I started to try and teach her a few signs when she was about 9 months old, but then she started nodding yes and no and I just figured we'd get by on that. But she started lifting up her hands when I asked her if she was "all done" after eating and so the other day I thought I'd try teaching her the sign for "more". After repeating it only 5 or 6 times during her dinner she started doing it herself. Then the next meal time I taught her the sign for milk and now she uses both pretty proficiently. So the lesson is, wait until they are 15 months old to teach them to sign because then it only takes a few tries instead of days and days with no success.

a girl and her picnic basket

today, teressa captured this hilarious video clip of Ava trying to crawl through her playhouse with her picnic basket. chrissy, thanks again for the picnic toy - ava carries it around everywhere and loads it full of stuff. enjoy!

Labor Day in Arkansas

We went to Eureka Springs Arkansas over Labor Day weekend to visit a Calvary Chapel there. We were blessed by members of the body there who allowed us to stay in their guest house right across the street from the church. The house was so nice and peaceful and had an amazing view looking out over the hills (My view was rudely interrupted one afternoon by looking down to see a huge tarantula crawling up the steps. Gross.). We had a restful and encouraging weekend just spending time together as a family and enjoying fellowship with Pastor Jason, his wife Cindy and their daughters Kindred and Emma, as well as with Keith and Watty (owners of the house we stayed at) and the rest of the body at CC Eureka Springs. Tony shared on Sunday morning and there were 6 kids and 1 missionary sponsored! Pray for the church there, it is a very difficult area to minister in.

Ava had a good time exploring the town with us. She especially enjoyed the blueberry pancakes at the Mud St. Cafe. I need to start ordering for two, she's always eating more than her fair share of my food! She didn't seem to enjoy the 8 hours (with stops) of driving though. She is a girl on the move now and prefers not to be sitting for too long. Below are two video clips, the first one taken outside our house just before we hit the road and the second on our drive back at a McDonald's play area.

By the way she had her 15 month check up today and all is still well. She remains in the 90th percentile for height and just under the 75th for weight. She's not as cooperative as she used to be and I think she's over her crush on Dr. P. Her visits with him always end in shots. :o(