Sunday, January 30, 2011

One last Christmas

That's right, we celebrated one last Christmas of the season this weekend. But before heading to Hollandale on Saturday morning, we got to spend Friday evening with friends Mo & Kate. Ava and I hadn't seen Kate for probably 10 months, so it was great to finally see the two of them again. We stayed in and had dinner here (much easier since Ava goes to bed at 7 pm).

Saturday morning we were on the road at 9 am to meet up with the rest of the Veldmans in Hollandale to celebrate Christmas. It was great to see everybody, and cousin Steph even surprised us by showing up (she now lives in Illinois). We had to leave around 4 that afternoon in order to get home for Ava's dinner time. But it was great to see everybody. Ava really enjoyed her time with Nana, as she read her a book and fed her a bottle before we had to leave.

This morning we went to church and Ava experienced the church nursery for the first time. We've been talking about taking her in there for a while now. She's just getting to "busy" and it was getting to the point where either Nate or I would have to take her out or we would constantly be passing her back and forth, not getting anything out of the service. It's also hard since we go to the 9:15 service and that is her usual nap time. She did just great at the nursery, and we really enjoyed the service. After church we went over to Mike, Kristi, & Cora's house. Our friends Joe & Amy were visiting from Chicago for the weekend, and we are so grateful that they all included us in their plans so that we could see them again. We had a wonderful brunch over there, and enjoyed catching up with them a bit. We left around 1:00 when Ava had her melt down from not napping. The poor little thing was exhausted (and she woke up with a runny nose so is probably trying to fight off a cold or is teething as well). She fell asleep on the way home, and then slept until almost 3:30. Now if I could just get her to nap like that every day that I'm home.

On a side note, I keep forgetting to tell you about Ava's new word. She's been saying "uh-oh" for about 2 weeks now. It's usually after she throws her sippy cup onto the floor. Besides the crashing of the cup on the floor constantly, it's really cute. She has now also mastered the sippy cup. She chugs water like there's no tomorrow.

We have a busy start to the week with two full days of day care. I'm hoping that we don't get as much snow as they are predicting. I hate the commute to and from work on snowy days! I'm just so grateful that day care is so close to our house.

Hope that you had a wonderful weekend, and have a great start to your week!

Daddy, Ava, & Nana at the Veldman Christmas
Mommy, Cousin Steph, & Ava. Ava loved all the fishing worms from Uncle Rick...she can't wait to use that fishing pole this summer! :)

Joe, Amy, Kristi, Mike, Cora, Ava, Mommy, & Daddy (Kim took the picture) sitting down to enjoy a wonderful brunch

Ava looking at Cora in pure amazement that such a high pitched squeal can come out of such a little person.

Thursday, January 27, 2011

Crawling

As of yesterday, Ava can officially crawl. I even got out the video camera to document it, and as soon as she saw it the little turkey fell to her belly and went straight into the "wounded soldier army crawl". She's been up on her knees a bit more today. But if she gets super excited and wants to go fast she'll go back to the army crawl.

It's been a pretty low key week thus far. Ava went to daycare on Tuesday and then got to play with Grandma Wednesday afternoon. Other than that, we've done our usual...Target runs and trips to the gym. I don't know what I would do without a membership to the gym in the winter. It's so nice to have a place to go and get a bit of exercise (and free day care). With that being said, I can't wait for spring so that Ava and I can get back to our walks outside. We did make a trip to Grandma V's work today. Ava hasn't been there for quite some time, and she shocked all the ladies when they saw how big she has gotten. She played shy for a little while at first, which she has never done before. But once they started to offer her cheerios she became instant friends with them. :)

Tomorrow we'll be heading to the mall to get some new jeans for Ava. I think she went through a growth spurt because half of her pants are now capris. I'll be anxious to see how much she weighs at her 1 yr appt. One year...how did it go so quickly?!?

We have a fun filled weekend planned with friends and family. Wishing you all a wonderful weekend!

Up on her knees.
Love that beautiful smile!

Sunday, January 23, 2011

Sleep over

Ava had a sleep over at Grandma & Grandpa Veldmans Saturday night. We had Daddy's work holiday party, so Ava spent the night with Grandma & Grandpa so that we wouldn't have to rush home and could enjoy an evening to ourselves. It was nice indeed to be able to enjoy the night, and then not have to get up early to get ourselves and Ava ready for church. We all met up at church this morning, and then went over to Grandma & Grandpa's for the day. Uncles Wes joined us for awhile this afternoon.

Tomorrow the weather is finally supposed to warm up a bit, so maybe Ava and I can get out and run some errands. When the temperature is below zero I really can't justify taking our little peanut out for a trip to Target. We can't wait for spring so that we can get back outside and enjoy some walks and trips to the park.

We hope that you had a wonderful weekend!

Ava playing with "baby" on Friday...
I'm a bit concerned that she may not be the nurturing type.

Wednesday, January 19, 2011

Rough start

We had a bit of a rough start to our day. Ava has decided that biting while breastfeeding is a lot of fun. Since she thinks the word "no" and "stop" are funny, this only encourages her to bite harder as she is smiling and laughing through the jaw clench. I ended up pumping both of her feedings this morning, in fear that I would soon need to have my nipples surgically reattached if she got anywhere near them again. She did fine before her bedtime feeding tonight. Perhaps this is because she was so exhausted. I've started to wean the breastfeeding, but wasn't ready to stop today. However, if the biting continues we'll be stopping much quicker than anticipated.

After the whole biting incident this morning I went up to change her diaper and get her dressed for the day. The little turkey had pooped so much is squished out the side of her diaper and she had poop in her pj's. So, it soon became bath time. Luckily our day did get better...Daddy came home early so that I could go and get my hair cut. We made a quick trip to Target and then called it a day.

Oh, one more things...Ava has started to give kisses. It's the cutest thing (at least to us as parents). She puckers her little lips and then lightly blows on your lips. It's so cute (except for when she was leaning in to give me a kiss and she burped and then blew it in my mouth...just fit with our day). Hope you had a good day!

Ava deciding what to wear while we waited for her bath to fill up...
She decided on shoes only

Tuesday, January 18, 2011

Another weekend

Ava got to spend another weekend at home while I went off to work. Grandma Veldman came to watch Ava while Daddy went to work Saturday morning. They hung out and played the rest of the day. Sunday morning Daddy & Ava played (you can see Daddy's wonderful creation below) and then Grandma & Grandpa V. came over to play so that Daddy could go to the Gopher basketball game. Daddy had Monday off work, so he and Ava once again hung out and went to the gym while I worked an evening shift.

Today we had a play date with Kristi and Cora. We hadn't seen them since before the holidays, so it was great to catch up. We were amazed at all of Cora's new tricks...like going up the stairs and walking. She was even able to step over Ava as Ava sat on the floor amazed that somebody her size is supposed to be able to walk. I put Ava up behind her little "walker" toy this afternoon. She stood there holding on to the handle, and rather than trying to move her legs she just started chewing on the handle. Oh how I love my sweet little lazy girl!


This picture cracks me up. Do you think she's tired of me taking pictures?

Daddy's castle creation with all 142 blocks. He actually put Ava on the opposite side of the room so that he could make the whole thing before she got to demolish it. He was pretty proud of it!


She can stand, she just can't move her legs once she's in this position

Warming up...
Slam Dunk!

So proud of herself

Ava & Cora. I can't believe how big they have gotten! It's so much fun to have a friend so close in age.

Thursday, January 13, 2011

New trick & more teeth

Ava has this new trick that she started last week. It's called spitting with food in your mouth. Daddy taught her how to spit a few weekends ago while I was at work. He thought it was funny the first couple of times that she did it while eating...not funny anymore! We're trying to teach her that it's not lady like, but she still thinks that the word "no" is funny and she starts laughing when we say it. She's lucky that we think she's so darn cute.

It's been a pretty low key week here. We had a great lazy weekend. Saturday morning Ava was still not feeling well, but was back to normal by the afternoon. We're attributing it her two new teeth that made an appearance on Tuesday. That makes for a grand total of seven teeth; four on bottom and three on top. We had nothing planned all weekend and it was so wonderful. We hung out at home on Saturday, and then went over to Grandma Veldman's on Sunday after church to play with her and Uncle Wes. Monday was daycare day, Tuesday afternoon Grandma came to play with Ava while I went to work an evening shift, and yesterday Daddy came home at 1:00 to play while I went to the dentist.

Tonight we moved Ava's crib down to the lowest position. We also flipped her mattress over to the "toddler side" since she's obviously over 20 lbs. I can't look at her and think that she really is going to be entering the toddler stage soon. How did my baby get so big so quickly? I feel like it was not that long ago that my parents were here rocking her in the middle of the night so that Nate and I could get a couple of hours of sleep after bringing her home from the hospital. I know that each stage that she goes through is fun and exciting. It just seems like she's going through them too quickly. I am so grateful that I get to spend as much time with her as I do. She amazes me everyday with new little tricks that she learns. She is such a happy little girl. No matter how many times I tell her that I love her in a day, she can't understand how deep that love is. There truly are no words to describe a mother's love. God has truly blessed us!

Ava with her mashed potatoes from lunch on her face. This was after she spit them out and then took her hand and rubbed them all over her face.

Friday, January 7, 2011

Choo Choo

Ava has had a busy week at daycare, spending three days there this week. She made some time Thursday evening to play with her new Leap Frog Engine from Uncle Ronnie and Aunt Terri. As you can see, her legs don't touch the ground yet, but she thought it was great fun to be pushed around on it while she pushed buttons and the engine would say, "all aboard" and then sing songs.

Today she got to stay home and spend the day with Grandma. Grandma said that she had a wonderful day, that is until right before I got home. When I got home she had a fever and a case of the snuggles. She hasn't wanted to snuggle since she was 2 months old, so I knew she wasn't feeling well. We rocked and she fell asleep on me, which I just love (but hated that it was because she's not feeling well). Another indication was that she didn't eat much for dinner (she ate 1/2 a chicken breast, rice, and baked beans for dinner last night). She is now in bed and will hopefully sleep all night, waking up tomorrow morning feeling refreshed with no fever.

This is the first weekend in a long time, and will be the last one in a long time that we have nothing on the calendar. We are pretty excited about just hanging out. We hope that you all have a wonderful weekend!

She has such a funny facial expression in this picture. I can't decide if she's happy, mad, or bored. I think that it may be the, "are you serious, another picture?" face


"All Aboard"

Wednesday, January 5, 2011

And then there were Five

I forgot to mention in our last post that Ava now has five teeth. Last Wednesday evening I was at work and Grandpa and Daddy noticed that Ava popped another tooth out to join the two other teeth she has on the bottom. Unfortunately, she now thinks that it's kind of cool to grind her teeth...what an awful sound!!!

Tuesday, January 4, 2011

Christmas: Round 2

Christmas, round 2 was a success. We left for IA last Thursday afternoon to celebrate Christmas with my side of the family. Nate took a half day of work on Thursday so we were able to get to Grandma & Grandpa Becker's by 6:30, which was very nice since it was very foggy out. Ava was a great passenger both down there and back home. We couldn't ask for a better little girl! She got to stay up late every night that we were in IA so that she could spend some extra time with everybody.

Friday we went to visit Grandma at work and then went to see Aunt Darlene. Aunt Darlene had fallen down her basement stairs on Thursday and broke her wrist so she didn't get to hold Ava. She was pretty sore with bumps and bruises. She'll be having surgery on her wrist on Thursday, so please say a prayer that all goes well. After visiting with her for a little while we went back to Grandma & Grandpa's and Great Grandma Parr came over to visit and play cards. Daddy and Great Grandma did not have a very good game...Grandma and I won by a LOT. That afternoon cousins Anna and Jakob arrived to spend the night. We hadn't seen them since Easter. Shortly after that Lisa, Brent, Zack, and Reece arrived. They were all very happy to get to see Ava, and we were happy to see them.

Saturday was our big celebration day. Uncle Marc and his girlfriend Sara came up from Missouri, and of course Uncle Rick and Aunt Angie were there. We had a wonderful brunch and then got ready to open present. Then Uncle Ronnie and Aunt Terri arrived with more presents for all the kids. This was the first time that Ronnie and Terri got to meet Ava. I'm so that they got to spend a little time together. Ava got lots of fun presents...toys, clothes, books, etc. That afternoon we went to "Grandma Great's" for the Becker Christmas. Ava loved Grandma Great's pulled pork, and Daddy loved Grandma Great's peanut clusters! :) Ava got more fun toys at Grandma Great's.

Sunday morning we went to Aunt Darlene's for our annual "Cousin Christmas". Even though Aunt Darlene had a bum arm, the show went on. It was fun to see everybody even if only for a short period of time. Thank you Aunt Darlene for the gifts and for getting us all together!

We left Grandma & Grandpa Becker's at 12:30. Ava slept a lot of the way home. I can't imagine how exhausted she was after being passed around and staying up late all weekend. We stopped at Nana's in Hollandale on the way home. We could only stop for a short time since we had to get home in time for Ava's dinner, but it was nice to see Nana. Ava got to show off her wounded soldier army crawl. We'll look forward to seeing her in a few weeks for our final Christmas celebration.

The Christmas tree is now bare, as we took off all the ornaments and lights last night. It seems like Christmas came and went so quickly this year. Heck, it seems like the past 10 months have gone so quickly. We hope that you all enjoyed the holidays and that your 2011 is off to a great start!

Great Grandma & Ava. Ava Loved her necklace!
Anna, Ava, Jakob, and Grandma Becker watching the train go around the Christmas tree

Ava loved the book from Grandma & Grandpa. They recorded their voices on it so they are reading the book to her. Please also note the maroon and gold ribbons in Ava's hair. Can you believe that those came from Aunt Lisa & Uncle Brent (die hard hawkeye fans)?!?

Marc, Sara, Rick, Jakob, Angie, Anna, Grandpa, Grandma, Zack, Lisa, Brent, Reece, Ava, Mommy, & Daddy
Ava had to check out every body's presents
She must love the taste of wrapping paper
Grandma & Grandpa with the grand kids (minus Jordan, Ali, & Ellen)
Sara & Ava cracking up about something
Ava & cousin Melissa
Cousin Christmas at Aunt Darlene's

Aunt Lisa, cousins Reece & Zack Ava, Mommy
Grandpa reading "Brown Bear" to Ava & Reece
Grandpa, Ava, & Grandma Becker
Daddy, Ava, & Mommy before heading home on Sunday