Monday, October 26, 2009

Happy 1st Birthday Ava !!

I meant to have this post out by Monday...but then my computer froze up, and then I got sick. Disgustingly sick. I've been cooped up in my bedroom for the past day and a half, only making short trips to the bathroom and back...several trips, that is. I'm on the mend now though, so I thought finishing up this post would be the least strenuous task I could complete today ;) Hope you enjoy! And Please Wash Your Hands---A Lot!! There are some ugly bugs going around.

Where do I even begin ????? So much has happened over the last week that I'm not even sure what day of the week it is ...

Well, I'll start by saying that our boo-bear turned 1 WHOLE YEAR old last week!! Dude, this kid rocks. She is a little person now...no, really...not just a pooping, babbling, eating, drinking, crawling, drooling baby...but a real little person with her very own outstanding little personality and her very own unbelievable temper at times. As laid back and nonchalant as she is, she still throws down an incredible tantrum when she wants to--she can be a feisty little one!!! But she can also be oh-so-snuggly. She loves to still be held and loves to snuggle her little head betweeen my neck and shoulder. She simply rocks our world.

**Just a couple things**

Ava has accumulated quite the "bag of tricks" over the past few months. She plays peek-a-boo & loves it! We say, "Where's Ava?" and she quickly covers her eyes with her hands and then "PEEK-A-BOO"--"There she is!!" This is a great game to play in the car ;)

Another "trick" from her bag is, "Where's Ava's belly!?" She grabs her belly with both hands--ok, it's more like her chest, but we let it slide :) We're working on her ears & nose. We ask where her ear is and she has to think about it a second, but usually points to her ear. When we ask where her nose is, she points to her nose...more like in her nose because that's where her finger ends up everytime. Nice. What have we started? Sometimes we get excited and ask her too many all in a row and then she gets really confused and points at all of them and claps! ;o)

Tell her to "Shake your booty" and she goes to town wiggling her hips and shaking her shoulders! At the first beat of music this girl is shakin' her booty! It's the cutest ..... :)

She is going to be walking soon. Everyday she gets braver and braver, which is how she ended up with an enormous bruise on her cheek the day after her birthday. She thought she could make it from the couch to the coffee table and sooooo did not make it. :( Hate when that happens. Plenty more bruises to come I'm sure, but each one stinks as bad as the last. She walks all over the house as long as she can hold onto something!

Let me tell you the most exciting thing about her turning one year old. No More Formula!!!!!!!! YAY!!!! Just good 'ol organic whole milk for this lil girl!! I love whole milk myself...I don't love what it does to the adult waistline, but I do love how thick & creamy & yummy it is!! Eric & I will stick with our 1%...but I might accidently pour myself a glass of the full-fat wholesome white-stuff now that we'll have it in the house.... accidently. ;o) However, as good as it sounds, switching from formula to whole milk that is, Ava has not graciously accepted the change--so in the meantime we're doing 1/2 whole milk, 1/2 formula until the rest of the formula runs out. She's onto us though ... she sees right through our little trick, but manages to get past the first couple strange gulps before lapping it right up.

She's into cartoons more as well. She loves Sid the Science Kid, Super Why, Blues Clues, Wonder Pets, & Yo Gabba Gabba (which I find to be the STRANGEST chilren's show around, but she absolutely loves watching those goofy guys dance around and sing silly songs). It's pretty cute to watch her get into her shows .... ;)

Alright, I'll let the pictures do the rest of the talking ...

(we're working in a backwards fashion here--gotta love blogger)


Fancy-schmancy highchair decorations :)





Silly cake face! Surprisingly she didn't dig right in...she kind of took her time exploring this super sugary treat!! Most of the icing on her face is from her Grams. ;)

















"For me? Whoa!"






Playing with her new toys with Aunt Tammy. She got lots of 'big kid' toys so she can put those thinking skills to work! And lots of books too!












It was pretty hard to keep her attention on opening gifts...she pretty much wanted nothing to do with it ;)




Yay! She got a wagon!






Dad & munchkin :)





She takes her blankie everywhere!





My failed attempt at a butterfly cake ... clearly I don't perform well under pressure--YIKES!






Ava likes to "help" put the dishes away ;o)





Here's her peek-a-boo face!!






Being silly ... as always ;)





She loves to stick that tongue out!





Playing on Portia ... Ava likes it a lot more than Portia does ;)





LEAVES!!





Pretty in pink.

2 comments:

Tammy said...

Liz~ About the cake, perhaps you need to fly to Texas and get lessons from Andrea! 'Cause that thing is pathetic! haha :)

Our little family ... said...

Ah-hem...yes...about the cake...it was an awful attempt at my first butterfly cake...absolutely no question there...BUT, give me a teensy bit of credit--it was noon and the party started at 3:00--at least I knew half way through the cake process that this was NOT working and gave up on it. ;o) Right? I think that deserves credit... heehee ;)