Another week has quickly flown by. Ava had her first music class last week. Unfortunately she spent the majority of the time taking her name tag on and off. She's pretty amazed at the concept of stickers these days. So this past week we opted to forgo the name tag. Instead she was overtired and whiny. While all the other children were tapping their rhythm sticks and singing, our child was at the front of the room yelling and trying to grab the bag of "shakers". I was so happy when we could finally get those damn shakers down so that my kid would stop making a scene. I'm kind of regretting enrolling her in this class because of the time of day it is. The class gets over a little after 7:00, which is Ava's bedtime. We then have a 30 minute drive home. I think that she was overtired, as she was asleep within 5 minutes of leaving the class. I'm hoping that next week goes a bit better.

Thursday Nate and I "celebrated" our 4 year wedding anniversary. Celebrated is a nice way of saying that we had dinner, watched a little TV, and I think I probably fell asleep on the couch. We did however get a chance last weekend to get away. Ava had a sleep over at Grandma & Boppa's on Friday and Saturday while Nate and I got away for the weekend at the cabin. It was beautiful, peaceful, and relaxing. We had a great time. We even got to enjoy a nice dinner out...no interruptions. Thank you to Grandma & Boppa for allowing us to have that much needed getaway.

This week has been busy with work, music classes, dinner with friends, etc. Yesterday Ava and I went to our first story time at the local library. Ava wowed the moms and grandmas there with her vocabulary. Of course we were drawing shapes while coloring and she whipped out her newest shape as of last weekend; octagon. She seemed to really love story time and the activities there. It will be a great activity this winter when we're stuck inside.

This weekend is the IA/MN football game. Aunt Lisa, Uncle Brent, and cousins Reece & Zackery are coming up late tonight. Ava is very excited to see them all. Daddy & Uncle Brent will go to the game while Aunt Lisa and I take the kids to a fall festival in Maple Grove Saturday morning and then go shopping. We're anticipating a fun weekend. We're going to kick the weekend off by having a fabulous dinner tonight at Fogo de Chao. Ava will be staying with "Grandma Terri" in Maple Grove while Nate and I enjoy dinner with Grandma, Boppa, Uncle Wes, & Janna. I don't think that a Brazilian steakhouse is the best place for Ava on a Friday night.

Wishing you all a wonderful weekend!


Cheryl & J joined Lauryn at our house last week while we were at work. They carved pumpkins. Lauryn made Ava her own. From what I hear, Ava was a bit of a diva and didn't want to touch the insides.
Ava loves her new desk and spends a lot of time there asking for "help" drawing shapes and tracing our hands.

Doing a little dancing with her booty sticking out.

It's been awhile

I think back to how I used to try to blog every 2-3 days when Ava was first born. Now I see that it's been a week and half since I last updated. I don't know where the time goes. I suppose it could be that Ava has us constantly running around doing puzzles and reading books that there's not a lot of extra time until the end of the day when we're exhausted. Every day with Ava is exciting. She is like a sponge and is talking so much. I swear that she has a new word every day. It's the little things that she says that make my day though. The other day on the way home she told me that she was "done cup", I took it from her and she said, "thank you mommy". I hope that she'll always be that polite. I worked my 12 hour night shifts this weekend. I was tired when I got home Sunday morning at 8:00. I pulled into the garage and saw the door to the house open. There stood Ava proclaiming "Mommy's home" with a huge smile on her face. Life doesn't get much better than that! She's now singing "rock-a-bye baby" all the time, and loves to sing "L-M-N-O-P". For some reason she can't get the ABC down, but loves L-M-N-O-P. I'm still working on getting her to play by herself. That doesn't go over very well. She'll usually come up to me and say "hand, walk this way" as she takes me hand and leads me over to her puzzles or whatever she wants to play with.

Ava has had some quality time with Grandma the past week and half. A week and half ago I left the cities on Friday afternoon and headed south. I spent Friday evening in DeSoto at my sister's. I got to watch Zackery play in the band during half time of the football game. I had to laugh when we got to the game. It's a very small town outside of Des Moines. Football is obviously very popular there, as I felt like I was in the movie Friday Night Lights. Brent & Lisa's neighbors went and saved our seats at 3:30 that afternoon for a game that started at 7:30. It was a great time though, and the weather was fabulous.

Saturday morning I got to meet up with our friends Erin & Kevin for breakfast. It was great to see them and catch up, even it if was for only a short period of time. I then headed to Ames for a get together with my high school girlfriends. We've been doing these get togethers for the past couple of years, and decided that this year would be just us...no husbands or kids. I have been friends with these girls since we were freshmen in high school. They are an amazing group of women and I feel blessed to have them in my life. We had a great time laughing and catching up. I'll be looking forward to our get together next year. Before heading home Sunday I got to have lunch with my cousin Kristin who is getting married next Sept. It was great to see her, catch up on her wedding plans, as well as everything else that's going on in her life. She's a senior at IA State and has such an exciting year ahead of her. It was so nice to be able to see so many people while I was in IA.

While I was away Ava had plenty of people to love on her. Lauryn came over on Friday to watch Ava. Saturday she spent the day with Grandma while Daddy & Boppa went to the cabin to finish up the railing on the deck. Sunday it was back to Grandma & Boppa's after church.

This weekend Nate and Ava were kicked out of the house during the day so that I could try to sleep. Boppa, Nate, and Ava left for "Nana Day" as Ava called it on Saturday morning. She told me that she was going "with the boys" to see Nana in Hollandale. From what I hear it was a great time. She keeps telling me that she saw Aunt "Sue" and ate "cake". I have no doubt that she had a great time. I know that Daddy enjoyed getting to see everybody in Hollandale. Sunday morning they were off to church and then Ava hung with Grandma & Boppa while Daddy went golfing.

Ava was off to daycare today while I tried to get a little sleep. I hate working nights for many reasons, but one of them is because I have to pay for a day of daycare so that I can sleep. I guess it's just part of the job. I'm off tomorrow and am looking forward to tomorrow evening. Ava has her first "Musikgarten" class. The classes are once a week for 8 weeks. I'm doing it with a group of women and their kids from our church. I think that Ava will really enjoy it. It's dancing, singing, playing instruments, etc. I'm looking forward to spending that time with her doing something new. I'll keep you posted on how it goes. Maybe she'll hate it, just like she hated the camel and pony rides that we talked about for weeks. :)


"The Angels" We enjoyed a nice afternoon at the winery in Ames.
Ava's first experience with play-doh

Getting ready to head off to church

Nana & Ava

Pee in the potty (for real this time)

Big day here at the Veldman household...Ava peed in the potty on her own. We got home from running errands and I was changing her diaper. She told me, "poop, pee, potty" so off to the potty chair we went (like so many other times with no expectations). We gathered her ducks, she sat down, and went pee right away. I started clapping and cheering and she looked at me like I was crazy. Then she started to smile and clapping for herself as well. Maybe we can start this potty training sooner rather than later.

On another note, I've been trying to figure out how to disciple this cute, stubborn, and too smart for her own good child. Time outs do not work, as I can not get her to sit and then once she starts to get up she thinks it's a fun game to try to get up every time that I put her back in the chair. For the the last week or so she's been throwing her cup on the floor at the end of her meals. The other day I told her it was naughty and that it made me sad when she's naughty. The next day I took her hand and slapped it, telling her "no" when she did it. Well yesterday she took her cup and threw it on the floor. She then looked at me and said, "naughty" (with a smile on her face), then said, "you sad" and made a frowny face. When I went to wipe her up she slapped at my hand and said "slap slap, naughty". I don't know where she learned the word slap, but I guess we won't be doing that anymore. I can just see her going to daycare and hitting people. So, back to the drawing board for disciple techniques. Perhaps ignoring her actions will work...or is that bad? I guess we'll find out.

White Duck & Orange Duck are Ava's potty buddies. She has to have them every time we sit on the potty. Here she is after her big accomplishment today.
Good Job Ava-Bug!!!

A fun filled weekend

What a beautiful and fun filled weekend! We lucked out and had the most beautiful weather this weekend. I'll give you a little run down of the weekend, but the pictures will show all the fun...

Friday evening I came home from work and Lauryn was here hanging out with Nate & Ava. She stayed for dinner and Ava got to spend some time playing with her. Ava has become quite fond of her. When I ask Ava what we should do every day she responds, "Lauryn". Lauryn has volunteered to watch Ava once a week now that Nate is heading back to work. We are so grateful for this and hope that Lauryn doesn't regret this decisions. :)

Saturday morning we packed up and met Grandma & Boppa so that we could go to Emma Krumbee's Scarecrow Festival in Belle Plaine (about an hour away). We had such a great time (see pictures below). It was a little chilly in the early morning, but it turned into a gorgeous day. I'm glad that we got there early, as it got a little busy as we were getting ready to leave.

After we got home Daddy whipped up an amazing apple crisp and a delicious dinner for our friends Kate & Mo who came up for the evening. They are expecting their first baby in December and we couldn't be more excited for them. Kate looks amazing! It was great to see them and catch up.

We were up bright and early this morning so that we could go to St. Paul to cheer on Uncle Wes as he crossed the finish line after running 10 miles (I honestly can't imagine doing such a thing). Congrats to Uncle Wes for finishing strong (and to Janna who finished a whole marathon!). After Uncle Wes was done we headed to breakfast and then we were homeward bound. Ava & I took a nice nap and then went to Uncle Wes's house so that Daddy to get a haircut. We all went to the park and then headed home for dinner. Ava made a stop at the potty chair (see picture below) and then she was off to bed. I'm sure she'll sleep well tonight.

Tomorrow Nate will start his new job. We're all very excited for him and hope that he likes it. Congrats & Good Luck Daddy...we love you!


I had been prepping Ava all week about how were were going to ride a camel and it was going to be SO much fun. She would even tell you that she was going to ride one. Well this is Nick the camel. He's better trained than most dogs. As soon as we walked up next to him Ava put a death grip on me and when I asked if she wanted to ride I got a very stern "no" in response. Nick was very sweet and even gave Ava a kiss (which she did not appreciate). Needless to say, Ava and I did not get our camel ride...
So I thought I'd give the ponies a try. This is pretty much the look she had on her face the whole time (all 15 feet that we made it before I took her off and we made a quick exit).

After a bit of sweet talking she decided that she would try the "choo choo" with Daddy. It was a tight fit, but she and Daddy made it work. By the end Ava was waving to people and having a great time.

The Hulk Hogan scare crow

Ava LOVED driving the tractors

Grandma & Ava

Ava & Mommy driving the trike

Daddy & Mommy (yes, I made Nate do this)

Ava's 1st milk shake

Ava's 1st milk shake mustache :)

I can't believe how big she has gotten!

Picking apples with Boppa

Gathering as many apples as she can (and then she thought it would be fun to throw them like a ball)

Taking a moment for the important things in life (like picking up rocks)

Boppa, Grandma, & Ava

Exhausted after a day at the apple orchard!

It was a cold morning and we had breakfast on the go so we could make it down to watch Uncle Wes.

Uncle Wes looking great after his 10 mile run. Way to go!

This would be Ava putting her potty away after she peed in it! That's right, Ava peed in the big girl potty tonight!!! Ok, well it was kind of an accident but it still kind of counts. She was sitting on her potty and appeared to be done. We was walking back into her room and said, "poop" so I told her to come back in and sit down. As she stood in the bathroom she started to pee on the floor (yet another load of laundry to do tonight) so I grabbed her and put her on the potty. She continued to go. She was startled when Nate and I started to cheer and clap. She soon joined in, smiling and clapping along. Hopefully she can put two and two together and this will be the start of a short and successful potty training mission (there's always wishful thinking).