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. :)