Beach Vacation '09!

If you hadn't gathered already, we took a relaxing vacation to Myrtle Beach last week. It was faaantastic and just what we all needed to regroup, relax, rejuvenate, and really soak up each other's presence! We had a great time! Eric & I contemplated whether or not to take Ava along--you know, the typical first time parent worries started to kick in--Would she scream the entire 11 hour drive there? Would she hate the beach? Would she be up all night long? Would we end up wishing we all would've just stayed home? Basically, would it end up being the trip of our worst nightmares? We were so pleasantly pleased. She was an angel! Of course she had inevitable occasional melt downs, but she did better on this trip than we could've ever hoped for!! We are all re-energized and ready to start the busy fall season!

We stayed at Eric's Aunt's timeshare in North Myrtle Beach. It was rather roomy for the 3 of us! There were 3 bedrooms, 3 bathrooms, and 2 kitchens, as well as the general living areas. It was actually 2 individual condos with an adjoining door that we opened so we had two different condos to live in for the week. It was oceanfront, so Eric & I enjoyed the balcony a lot--not so much the nats though!

It was interesting brainstorming ideas for activities, other than the beach, that we could do with a 10 month old. She goes along with just about anything though so we came up with a few fun things! We went shopping at the outlets one day, spent one full day on the beach (plenty of breaks in there--it was a HOT day and we could only handle so much sand in one babies mouth), visited Battleship NORTH CAROLINA, walked through Brookgreen Gardens, did more shopping and walking around at Barefoot Landing, and spent lots of time playing with Ava, eating, and enjoying each other's company!! Ava actually started sleeping all night again, too! Wow--talk about a vacation! =) Eric and I took turns soaking up the sun and surf on the beach while Ava took her naps. It was interesting ... we had walkie-talkies. We ought to bring along our babysitter next year...or maybe grandma & grandpa!! :)

We had so much fun! We are so thankful that we were able to take this vacation and leave work and other worries behind. We made so many precious memories on our first family vacation... many more to come!

Lots and lots of pictures ahead!! I took 220 ... but you'll only preview a fraction of those! :) These are in reverse order ... and small because there's a bunch!

Ava with her FAVORITE blankie and doggy Rufus-- he sings, she dances :)

At Brookgreen Gardens ... she loved the animals there of course!

Eric walking under the teepee in the kiddos play area of the garden ...

Brookgreen is like 6,000 acres (maybe 600? I can't remember-- A LOT) of garden grounds, sculptures, a zoo, and walking paths. This was my favorite sculpture- The Joys of Motherhood.

Mommy, baby, and big bear.

Live Oak Allee--Love these oak trees!!

Brookgreen Gardens

On one of our evening beach walks ...

One of the MANY ways to entertain a 10 month old in the car after several hours ...

She tried to put them on herself -- not quite!

Daddy and Ava in the Battleship

Battleship NORTH CAROLINA

Tigers exhibit at Barefoot Landing

He fits in perfectly, huh?

High five for Dad!!

Took her a couple minutes to warm up to the ocean ... but then she loved it!!

My baby on the beach :)

Our only family photo from the beach. A nice lady asked if I would like all 3 of us in the picture. :)

Ridin' the waves!! His favorite part of the beach ...

Kisses for Daddy ...

Baby toes in the sand ...

Ooww, that water is chilly at first!

I'm ready for the beach Mom!

Classic relaxing ...

Ava's room :) No, we didn't sleep in that big queen size bed ... our room was down the hall!

Eating some french toast ... Yum!

We had a big breakfast every morning -- my favorite! :)

Dropping Portia off with Eric's mom on the way to the beach!

Happy 10 months Ava!!

Happy 10 months baby girl!! I'll save the "time flies," "they aren't little long enough," "I seriously can't believe she's almost 1 year old," talk--but know that I really am astounded at how fast time goes with a baby in the house!! Weeks just fly by ... soon it will be Christmas again ...

Ava's personality is shining so brightly!! She's a peach. An ornery little peach!

Some milestones for this month ...

* First for the most exciting -- Ava's tear duct is OPEN!! YAY!! No worries about that anymore!! No more wiping of the goopy eye and no more red & irritated skin!! We thank the Lord that her eye is all better now! It really is a relief! That had us a little stressed :)

* The other day at the store we were picking up cat food and Ava saw the kitty on the front of the bag and said "keey!" Amazing how she picks this stuff up at places other than home. It's also funny that while we were visiting Ava's cousin for her birthday party she saw their very little dog (ok, very little compared to Portia) and said "keey!" Well, Muffin's little like a cat I guess--a little confused, but she's picking this stuff up! :)

* Ava pulls herself up on ev-er-y-thing! She's still very wobbly kneed so if she lets go she immediately falls down, but she's starting to pull herself up for longer periods everyday. I don't know ... will she be walking by 1 year??

* She looves finger foods and feeding herself!! She likes Stonyfield Farm Yogurt Bites (strawberry to be exact :), whole wheat toast with applesauce, Baby Mum-Mums (kind of like rice cakes-only these melt in her mouth), pieces of fruit cut up (peaches, bananas, strawberries). We've been trying a sippy cup with her too--it's going okay--but she would much rather have her bottle! I've started adding herbs & spices to her babyfood now too. She loves cinnamon & nutmeg sweet potatoes & apples, cinnamon acorn squash, ginger carrots, and cinnamon butternut squash. She's had a huge variety of foods now -- as well as those already mentioned she's had brussel sprouts, broccoli, rice, peas, green beans, sugar snap peas, zucchini, avocado, mango, peaches, cantaloupe, watermelon, blueberries, strawberries, blackberries, plums, pears, pluots, variety of yogurts aaand that's about it ... I think. For breakfast she has oatmeal cereal with yogurt and a 6 ounce bottle. Lunch is usually a vegetable like sweet poatoes with applesauce and 4 ounces of juice (1/2 water 1/2 juice). She has a snack in the late afternoon which is usually a 7 ounce bottle and 1/2 container of yogurt or some puffs. Dinner is usually a vegetable like peas & carrots with a fruit, maybe a banana. Before bed, she gets another 8 ounce bottle after her bath. When she goes down for the night she is out like a light!!

* She's a momma's girl all the way! :) Loooves to be held and carried around and watch everything I'm doing--this is where a side sling would really come in handy! For the next child I will definitely have one!! I love holding her and toting her around with me--stinks that she won't want held forever--ha!

* She loves to crawl all over us when we play with her on the floor. She totally disregards the fact that anything is laying in her path, she crawls right on top and over it, and sometimes face plants. She crawls on Portia - who is slowly starting to accept the fact that unless she wants to keep getting her hefty 130 lbs up and move everytime Ava comes over to her, she might as well get used to it! Ava obviously has no sense of what gentle means--and the cat has been trying to teach her--unsuccessfully. She has be mauled by kitty a couple times...thankfully kitty has no claws ... but her teeth are kind of sharp.

* Ava gives high fives now, too! So cute! She gets so proud when we all cheer for her after giving us a five.

* Toys are sooo not cool to this girl. Anything that isn't a toy is pretty cool and receives all of her attention. If she sees something she wants to get into and there is a toy in her path she will pick the toy up, chuck it across the room, and keep heading in the direction of, oooh lets say, my plant stand. Lil booger.

* Naps--Ava still takes about 2-3 naps a day. Just lay her down in her crib with the tag of her blanket and she falls asleep--usually without objection. She is in bed by 8pm still. However, I don't think she has slept past 4 or 5am for the past month. I'm not sure what's up with that, but we don't fight her--we get up, give her 2 ounces, and everyone falls back to sleep happily--all in about 6 minutes. So, who knows ... I'm going to blame teething ... like I do for every cranky day or night she ever has. :)

* That's about where life stands for Ava at 10 months! She is tons of fun and we're loving being her mommy & daddy more everyday!!

Standing up in her crib to say good morning to mommy this morning.

10 month milestone pic ... its funny to look back at her younger pictures and see how she has changed the way she holds her hands and her legs. Also to see how her rolls have developed :)

Mom said I had to get a shoot of how wide she opens her mouth when she eats--it is pretty funny--this girl loves to eat!!! We have no problem aiming food into that big ol' mouth!!

Munching on some peaches in her walker at mom's -- we were canning peaches that day. They were nice and sweet and warm! Ava gobbled them up!

Playing outside one nice day last week. She cracks me up with the expressions she makes!!! She is just one rolly polly giggle bug!!!

Ava's Indian Chief pose :)

This girl is precious.

Her hair can look so golden in some pictures--she's trying to snatch the camera from me!

Summertime Pics!

We are really soaking up our summer around here!! I'm super excited that the weather is finally "August-like" again. I love hot, hazy, sticky, thick summer air!! And then I love the transition to cool, crisp, chilly sweater weather of the fall!! Football season is just around the corner--wooohoooo!!

We are staying busy that's for sure. Eric has been working his tail off at work and also trying to finish some home improvement projects that have been on hold for awhile ... and may continue that way for a little longer. :)

I have been busy trying to find time to help with our garden ... that I live an hour and fifteen minutes away from ... it's been interesting. :) My sister and I have learned a lot from our first gardening experience!! That thing has vegetables growing uncontrollably!! Peas, green beans, squash, carrots ... oh, everything is coming on!! We're still waiting on our tomatoes--my absolute favorite. :) We froze corn last week--a good and long 12 hours or so hours of shucking, washing, blanching, cutting, and bagging 500 ears of corn. WOW.

And Ava has also been growing uncontrollably lately! Somebody sprinkled some fertilizer on that girl!!! She is really taking off--crawling all over the place, getting into everything her little fingers can get ahold of--including Portia's food & water bowls... sooo gross. She pulls herself up on the stairs, my lap, the coffee table, the baby gates, in her crib--everywhere. We've seriously baby proofed this place!! She's saying kitty & dog--not incredibly understandable, but we know that's what she means. "Kitty" sounds more like "keey" and "dog" is more like "doe"--but we get the idea. :) I'll save the rest for her 10 month update coming soon!

Here are some random pictures--Enjoy!!

Ah yes, exploring the vacuum!

She finds all those places I forget to look while going around the house putting things like these out of baby's reach ... thanks for reminding me about these picture frames Ava! hee hee.

She LOVED eating the corn on the cob!! I could barely keep these out of her mouth!! Pretty cute!

There she goes--digging through the cobs--about to find a good one and chew on it!

Yay!!! New carseat!! Finally!! I think she likes it :)

Couldn't resist getting a shot of these rosey baby feet!! Soon enough she won't have these sweet little baby feet anymore!

This picture cracks us up!! Ava's grandma face. :)

She's not extremely happy in this picture, but it showcases her two cute little teeth! :)

My sweet sunshine!!

Our little family--who do you think Ava gets her baby blues from? Not me for sure! :)

Crawling!!

This video is of Ava from last week. She looks like she's getting around great in this video and now she's even more into E-V-E-R-Y-T-H-I-N-G!! I love watching her chubby buns crawl around--even if she is harder to keep an eye on. :)

A Quick Post ...

Just a quick post with a few pictures with my NEW camera!! We ended up getting a Canon Powershot ELPH--a very awesome point-and-shoot camera so far!! Bonus: it's Buckeye Red!! :)

Anyway, enjoy!

I can't get enough of these rolls!! CHUBBY WUBBY!!

Uh-oh! Caught in the act ...

Always striking a silly pose for the camera ;)

I don't know what's going on with this face ... but that left cheek seems to be hanging pretty low.

Daddy and Ava ... two seriously cute people that I'm totally in love with!

Cereal shot





Bath time! Ava's favorite! You think she's getting a little too big for the mesh tub seat? I agree :)

A Day at the Beach!!

We went to Alum Creek Lake today so Eric could play around on his jet ski and Ava could get her first dose of sand between her toes. We thought she needed a preview of the "beach" before we go on our real vacation to the beach in September! She enjoyed every second of it! We had a great time! The weather was fantastic, too.

Enough jabber ... enjoy the pictures!!

Don't you just wanna smooch those cheeks! OouuWee!!

Blowing razzberries ... with a very runny nose--Ha!

This beach is no Siesta Key -- but, it's the best Columbus has to offer! ;~)

She loved feeling the waves come up over her toes!! Unfortunately, pictures only show so much of her reaction--she flapped her arms and hands so fast I was pretty sure she was going to approach lift-off! Huh-larious!!

She liked clapping her hands with the sand---notice daddy has buried her chubby feet in the sand. I have a feeling these two are going to be a handful when she gets a little older. ;)

She's kinda lookin' like, "Uhhhh dad, what are you doing to my feet?"

Going for a ride!!

Silly Willy :)

I cannot get enough of this girl. 0:)

Happy 9 months Ava!!

It feels like just yesterday that I posted about Ava's 8 month milestone! Summer is flying by waayyy too quickly ... I'm sure it's because this is my favorite season. :) It's almost August and we have yet to make it on vacation!! Anyway, back on topic ... Ava has been a BLAST this month! Even through teething. :) Thank goodness I'm keeping a journal for her (well, and me ;) to look back on at how sweet of a baby she has been!! I just want to quickly say that bringing a baby into this world and experiencing the joy & intense love I feel for her has been the most awesome experience of my life! If my heart was filled with any more love than this I'm sure it would explode! With that said, I wouldn't wish a baby for anyone who wasn't completely ready to shower that baby in love, affection, attention, and patience! Babies (and kiddos) deserve to feel every ounce of their mommies & daddies love for them and for each other!! Yes, okay ... that's all. :)

So, Ava has finally cut a couple teeth!!! I knew they were coming!! Two sharp lil teethers are poking through on the bottom! I'd say they are about half way up. They are the cutest lil things! About a week of sleepless nights (okay, it wasn't that bad, she woke up once or twice a night...so I guess that's not sleepless) and a rather grumpy baby for a day or so just before those 2 teeth erupted. We feel more are coming ... and you can guess why.

My favorite new thing this month is Ava giving kisses!! Oh My Gooooooodness! Melt my heart!!! I say, "Can I have a kiss?" and she leans toward me with a big wide open mouth with her tongue hanging out to give me a kiss!! Sweetest. Thing. Ever. The best kisses come in the morning when I pick her up out of her crib ... I barely get the words out and she's already leaning over to give me a big wet kiss!! She gives Eric kisses, the kitty, tries to give them to Portia, but never really succeeds ... she even tried to lay one on her babysitter with a mouth full of sweet potatoes! She is a natural lovebug. ;) Gosh, I love it!

Ava loves clapping and giving high-fives, especially while she is in her highchair! She really loves listening to pat-a-cake and watching your hands do the "rolly-rolly-rolly" part. She giggles every time. And boy is she a razzberry blower!

Eric's favorite thing to do with her when she wakes up in the morning is bring her to our room and let her hang out in bed with us for awhile. She grabs the tv remote and fiddles with it for a bit ... then she crawls all over us and gets lost in the blankets. Portia, of course, sleeps in our room at night, so while Ava is on the bed with us Eric will say, "Ava, where's Portia?" and she'll get all excited and crawl up on daddy's chest so she can see down to the floor where Portia is laying...then she'll flail her arms in the air and say something like "dododabahlalado!!!" She loves that dog. :) It's really neat how she's learning and associating our words with actual things.

Ava went to her well-baby checkup this morning. Fun times. :) She is 21 lbs (80th percentile) and 28 inches (90th percentile). Chubby Wubby ;) I'm not sure where she's getting her 'height' from since Eric and I are both pretty average, but Dr. Brown said she'll plateau after her first birthday, most likely.

She still has a clogged tear duct ... I feel like a broken record. I'm really avoiding intervention on this because she will have to be put under some type of anesthesia, obviously because babies do not hold still while they're being probed in the eye. I am not down with the anesthesia part. Nooo, thank you. It really bothers me to think about it so, I'm hoping and praying that it opens on its own. Unless I hear an option that doesn't involve anesthesia, I will not be hopping on the bandwagon with this one. I am thankful that this is Ava's only medical issue so far! A very minor issue at that!

Ava still takes about two, sometimes three, naps a day and then goes to bed around 8:00. Lately, due to teething issues I'm sure, she's been getting up a couple times a night. Usually, if she gets up twice and it's early in the night I will give her some Motrin. She seems to have trouble relaxing and falling back to sleep, which I've been blaming on teething pain. The Motrin always helps and she's able to sleep untill morning then.

Something Ava and I have really enjoyed lately is the walking group we've joined called Mommies & Munchkins. It is tons of fun!! A friend of mine introduced me to the group about a month ago. We all get together on tuesdays & thursdays (just tuesdays for me & Ava since I work thursdays) and meet up at different parks in the Dublin/Hilliard area and get some exercise & socialization! It's a christian-based group, so we start out the morning with Summer (she's the creator of the group) reading a devotion and then we stretch our muscles before the walking and exercising begins. We do lunges ... lots of lunges ... and then I'm sore for days!! The soreness process starts over the following week ... when we do MORE lunges & crunches and yada yada yada. So, picture this---a group of about 6-10 moms with their munchkins in strollers power walking around the park ... stopping every so often to get down and do some crunches ... and then back up to do some lunges ... and then we do various other exercises as well ... and this goes on for about an hour. Then at the end, we get our munchkins out of their strollers (if they're big enough) and do circle time ... so, we sing "Ring Around the Rosey," "Head, Shoulders, Knees, & Toes" and recite the memory verse of the month! This month's verse is, "We love because He first loved us." John 4:19. There are munchkins there from the age of 3 or 4 months to 8 years old! It can be a little elementary at times, but I think it's a pretty awesome group. Ava loves getting in on the action, too!! Eric gets a kick out of my group and says, "You guys have got to be a sight out there strolling around the park doing exercises with your strollers!" I agree--we are a sight to see, I'm sure! The old folks at the parks love watching us! ;) We are having a Mom's Night Out soon which I'm really excited for! Thank You Jess for introducing me to M&M! :)


Enjoy the pictures from my seriously lame old 3.2 MP digital camera!! :)

"I'm coming to get you, Momma!"

"Hi there, Smiley Bear!"






"Wait, is that a butt cheek hanging out? Or just another chubby roll?"

"I'm wearing shoes!! For the first time--real shoes!!"

"Soooo Big!"