Tuesday, December 28, 2010

1st Haircut

We did it!!! Ava went to her little salon today and got her first haircut. She was such a big girl and did such a good job. Daddy was at work so Grandma joined us for the big adventure. We went to a place called Snip-its in Maple Grove. It's a great place that does only kids' hair, and the girl who cut Ava's hair was fantastic. I kept going back and forth as to if I wanted to get it done, or if she really needed it. They didn't cut a ton off, but shaped it so it looks better. They even "styled" it and put a little barrette in when she was done. She got a certificate and a little bag that contained the first "snips" of hair from her first official hair cut.
I tried pigtails on her the other day when I was debating whether or not to get her "wings" cut off.

This would be the hat that she had on today. She got tired of it at the mall and pulled it off. Sometime while I was rummaging through the huge sale bins at Gymboree she pulled the flower off and must have thrown it on the ground. Somebody else now has a cute pink flower barrette. :(


Ava before her haircut at Snip-its

Haircut in progress

Enjoying the little video that they played for her. The cast members were of course the comb, blow dryer, and scissors.

All done! It looks like she has no hair in front, but it's because she swept it to the side to put in a barrette

There are the "after the haircut" pictures





Hanging with Daddy after work tonight

Monday, December 27, 2010

Christmas

We hope that this message finds you recovering from a wonderful Christmas weekend filled with lots of family, food, fun, and laughter. We had a good Christmas even though I spent Christmas day working a 12 hour shift at the hospital.

Thursday evening our friends Lisa and Craig came to visit. They are like another aunt and uncle to Ava and we were so glad that they were able to visit us while visiting from Kansas City. It was great to catch up with them, and watch them play and love on Ava. We only wish that they lived closer.

Friday morning we found that Santa had stopped by. We had our own family Christmas here that morning. Ava loved eating the wrapping paper, but also enjoyed some of her new toys. We went to Christmas Eve service at 3:00 and then headed over to Grandma & Grandpa Veldman's to celebrate Christmas with them and Uncle Wes. Ava was quite tired, but was still a champ. She is still not feeling well. She's had this nagging cough for about three months now, and it's gotten worse over the past week. It at times sounds like croup, but she also has a snotty/congested nose. So maybe it's just another bad cold. I feel like she just can't totally kick it. She's up "barking" in the middle of the night. I just want her to feel better and get some good quality rest.

Saturday morning I headed off to work. Daddy and Ava hung out until after her morning nap and then they ventured down to the hospital so that I could at least see my baby girl awake on her first Christmas. They only stayed for about 20 minutes, but it was the highlight of my day. It was so nice of Nate to bring her down. Everybody at work enjoyed her smiling face as well! After that they were off to spend the day with Grandma, Grandpa, and Uncle Wes. They had a wonderful dinner and were nice enough to send some home for me for when I got home that night...thanks Grandma!!!

Sunday Daddy and Ava went to church and then over to Grandma & Grandpa's again for a short time. They spent the rest of the day at home playing with all of Ava's new toys. Daddy said it was "a great day". Today was pretty low key. We did our usual run to Target to grab a few things and that's about it. I think that tomorrow we're going to take the leap and get Ava's first haircut. Her "wings" are kind of out of control and her bangs are now getting into her eyes so I suppose it's time. I just hope that they don't make it look bad. I'm planning on taking her to a place that only does kids' hair so I'm thinking it will be ok. We'll find out soon enough.


So, Ava had some cradle cap so I used this special shampoo to get rid of it. Well it made her hair into a giant grease ball. It was disgusting. So I did a little styling with it during snack time (before I washed it with normal shampoo three times during her second bath of the day). Nate loves these pictures!

Ava & Auntie Lisa (#2)
Ava on Christmas eve morning with her stocking and gifts. Please note that she actually chewed through the box...those teeth are so sharp!
Ava's unwrapping technique was to use her mouth as well as her hands.
Learning her way around the kitchen
Playing in her new tutu
Ava in her church coat getting ready to leave for Christmas Eve service


Our first family Christmas picture

Ava loves to "bang on the drum all day"

Daddy & Ava came to visit me at work in the ICU on Christmas morning.

Tuesday, December 21, 2010

A bloody finger and a goose egg

Ava has had a rough couple of days when it comes to ouchies. Yesterday we ran to the mall in the morning to pick up a few things before the snow really started to fly. I was scheduled for a dental appt. in the afternoon but canceled due to the weather. My appt. wasn't until 3:00, and by that time the DOT was not recommending travel in the cities. So, Ava and I were stuck inside all afternoon. I figured that I would attempt to cut her fingernails again. I feel like I do this almost daily and they are still always long. Well she was wiggling all over because she wanted to take her bath. I went to clip her thumb nail and realized that I had her skin. She screamed and my heart sank as I saw blood coming out of her finger. The poor little thing! I had a horrible time getting it to stop bleeding since she wouldn't let me hold on to it to apply pressure. She was of course moving her hand all over her face, chest, belly...so the bleeding looked worse than it was. Needless to say she got extra play time during bath time since I was feeling so guilty!
I picked Ava up from day care this afternoon and as I was putting her hat on I noticed a purple bump on her head. I asked if she had fallen there and they said they had an incident report for her. Ava evidently really wanted to play the drum so she grabbed the strap on the drum and pulled the drum off of the toy shelf...right onto her head. So she now has a nice purple goose egg on her right forehead. I also noticed when looking at her "what I did today" sheet that rather than taking her usual 9 am nap, she thought that she would rather stay awake and have a snack. That little pork chop! She LOVES to eat!!! They were saying that they couldn't get her in the highchair fast enough at snack time. She was just too excited to eat. She's definitely Nate and my child!

Ava in her new dress from Grandma Becker. This picture does not do it justice...she looked so darn cute!
Ava loves to pull her socks off. Lately she thinks it's funny to put them in her mouth and bite them. Here she is army crawling across the floor with her sock in her mouth.


You can barely see the purple bump on her forehead in this picture. You can, however, clearly see the spaghetti sauce that she was loving at dinner tonight. I just love when she can eat what we are eating for dinner. She's such a big girl already!

Friday, December 17, 2010

Santa

What an exciting day it's been! Daddy took the day off and after Ava's morning nap we were off to see Santa. Ava always laughs and smiles when I say, "ho ho ho, Merry Christmas". She was smiling while standing in line to see Santa, but the smile quickly left when she sat on Santa's lap. She didn't cry, but she was definitely skeptical of this guy we all call Santa. She studied him for a bit, we snapped a few pictures (because I was far to cheap to pay $18 for a 5x7 picture), and we were on our way. We stopped at a few stores and then headed home for Ava's lunch.

This afternoon we were playing toys. Ava was in super turbo speed army crawling across the floor for something that she wasn't supposed to have. She actually stopped when I said no, and sat up. We've never seen her sit up from a lying position before. She's gotten quite mobile, and quite quick.

Grandma is coming over this evening to watch Ava for a couple of hours while Nate and I run a few errands and go out for dinner. Then tomorrow we have friends coming up from IA to visit and then we'll be going over to Grandma & Grandpa's to do some cookie decorating with Uncle Wes and Sarah. We're very excited to see Sarah!!!

Have a Great weekend!

Ava with her sly little smile reaching for a Christmas ornament that she knows she's not supposed to have.
Ava went to see Santa for the first time today.

Monday, December 13, 2010

Oh the weather outside is frightful

It snowed and snowed and snowed. The snow began falling Friday night and didn't stop for about 24 hours. It started to come down while we were on our way home from a "game night" with some friends that Nate went to high school with. Ava stayed home with our babysitter Spencer while Nate and I got away for a while. It was great to see friends and hang out for a few hours. Thank you Brian for hosting, we had a great time!

Nate unfortunately had to work on Saturday morning. I am so grateful that I had this weekend off. The hospital did call to see if I wanted to still pick up Saturday evening. I informed them that I was unable to get out of my driveway, but thanks for the offer. :) Nate luckily made it home safely and wen spent the afternoon/evening inside watching the snow fall and blow around. We decorated the Christmas tree and just hung out.

By Sunday morning the roads were pretty clear so off to church we went. We went over to Grandma and Grandpa's after church and helped decorate their tree and had lunch. Nate took a vacation day today since we were supposed to be up at the cabin (where the windchill was -30 this morning) until today. Instead we bundled up and went to the gym to take Ava swimming. Unfortunately when we got to the gym Nate realized that he forgot his swim trunks. So he worked out while Ava and I played in the pool. After nap time we all headed out into the arctic air for Ava to check out the new snowfall. We were only out there for maybe 10 minutes because of the cold. She wasn't super impressed with the snow, but didn't hate it. She did, however, hate the fact that her hands had to be covered with mittens.

No big plans for the rest of the week. We're just looking forward to a warm up by the end of the week. Hope you're all staying warm!

Ava thought that trying to eat the lights was helpful when decorating the tree
Daddy and Ava checking out the decorations on the tree


"Can you believe all this snow?!?"

This is the pile of snow next to our drivewayThe snow is almost up to our living room windows

Thursday, December 9, 2010

Oh Christmas Tree, Oh Christmas Tree

Daddy took a half day off of work today so that we could go and get our Christmas tree. We opted out of going to the tree farm, and ended up getting a pre-cut tree from a lot. As I sit here and type this, I take in the aroma of our new tree...I love the smell of real Christmas trees! We still don't have the lights or decorations on it, but it's definitely looking more like Christmas in the house. It's about time, this definitely helps get me in the Christmas spirit. Ava came home from daycare yesterday with a new decoration for the tree. It's a little ball ornament that has her hand print on it. It is so cute!

We had plans to go up to the cabin this weekend but are now staying home. They are forecasting -30 degree windchill on Sunday and Monday. We figured if we're going to be stuck inside we might as well do it here in the cities rather than drive 2 1/2 hours to do it. Perhaps we'll take Ava to see Santa this weekend. We're hoping that she'll kick this cold that she has. She has a horrible cough and is all stuffed up. I hate it when she's trying to eat and she can't breath out of her nose. Poor little thing!

We thank you for checking in with us. Have a great weekend, and stay safe and warm!

Ava trying a nibble of Daddy's cheese slice.
Funny face
Thanks Greg, Anne, Jacob, & Megan for the Quality Chick shirt!


Only our daughter would take her socks off in the middle of winter while wearing a snowsuit.

Picking out our Christmas tree

Tuesday, December 7, 2010

Bye Bye

How I wish I were more technologically advanced so that I could post videos. Friday was a very big night at our house. After it took me 1 1/2 hours to drive home in the snowstorm Ava and I were hanging out waiting for Daddy to arrive home safely. I got out the video camera to try to capture her "dancing/rocking out" to some music. She refused to dance for me, but when I told her to say "bye bye" she waved her hand and said it. I was shocked! We called Daddy and she told him "bye bye". Whether she knew she did it or not is yet to be determined, as she has not done it since.

Saturday and Sunday Ava hung with Daddy while I worked my 12 hour shifts. She got so spend some quality time with Uncle Wes on both Saturday and Sunday. Yesterday she had her 9 month well baby check. The Dr. said she looks great (minus the cold she got this past week). She's in the 97th percentil in height and 90th percentil in weight. I take this to mean that she's long and lean. :) She is now 21 lbs and 30 inches long. I got her out of her crib Monday morning, and after not seeing her all weekend I felt like she grew so much over just two days! She did get her flu shot booster (being infants they have to get two flu vaccines). She didn't make a peep. You wouldn't have even known that she got a shot. What a brave and tough little girl!

Nothing too exciting on the agenda for the next couple of days. Thursday Daddy is taking a half day of vacation and we're going to go and get Ava's first Christmas tree. I think it's supposed to snow that day, but hopefully it won't be miserably cold and windy. I'm looking forward to getting some Christmas decorations up to put us in the Christmas spirit!

Wednesday, December 1, 2010

9 month pictures

Our photographer, angelacourtneyphotography.com, dropped off Ava's 9 month pictures tonight. I've posted a few of them below. Thanks again Ang for all your hard work! I've also posted a few pictures that I took over the past couple of days.

Ava sitting in her rocking chair that she got from "Grandma Great" when she was born. The chair looked so big 9 months ago...now my lil' peanut looks so big sitting in it!



Ava was Super excited to unwrap her 1st Christmas gift.So excited that she thought she would taste test the wrapping paper. YAY! Thank you Aunt Darlene for the advent calendar. My mommy remembers that you used to get her one every year when she was little.
Below are the pictures that Angela took for us...