Puppies & Party Hats

It was another fun weekend with family in Des Moines. Ava was once again a super star traveler. She loves to sleep in her car seat in the car. That's great until we get to our destination and it's time to sleep for the night. She stayed in a Pack and Play in the same bedroom as us. It's the first time that she's ever slept in the same room as us. Let's just say that the three of us were up for a good portion of Friday night/Saturday morning. She was kind of cranky during the day Saturday, probably lack of sleep. She was back on track with her normal schedule the next night though. And last night she did just fine, waking up once in the middle of the night. I'm not sure how to get her back to sleeping 8 hours at night again. Oh how wonderful those two nights were.

Our weekend was packed with activities like it normally is when we go there. With Brent and Lisa having five kids between the two of them there are always plenty of sporting events and activities to attend to. Saturday morning Lisa, Reece, Grandma Becker, Daddy, Ava, an I went to garage sales in Waukee. We got a few cute outfits and jeans for Ava, as well as a Halloween costume for her. She doesn't really need any more summer clothes and I was very good about not buying her anymore. Saturday afternoon Ava and I went to go and see Erin and her two dogs Porter and Magoo while Daddy went golfing with Zackery. Ava was a bit cranky and not very nice to Erin or Erin's mom Mary. Not only was she cranky but she blew out her cute little outfit before we got pictures of her with the dogs. It was great seeing Erin as well as Mary, and meeting Magoo. We hope to see you sometime soon Erin, we miss you! Saturday evening everybody went to Ellen's softball game except for Lisa, Grandma, Ava, and me. We got dinner ready for when everybody arrived home.

Sunday morning we went to church and then had Reece's birthday party. I asked Reece on the way home from church who's party it was today and he responded, "Ava's" and smiled. He just loves our little girl and is so sweet to her. The party was great and it was so nice to see many of my family members again. It was hard to say good-bye. It's even worse now that we have Ava. I wish so badly that they were closer!!! Thank you Lisa and Brent for a wonderful weekend. We miss you already and hope to see you soon!

Ava all snuggled up with Aunt Lisa

Ava in her party hat

Reece & Ava

She found it and has mastered the art of sucking on it!!!

Porter, Magoo, and Ava taking a nap

Iowa Bound

Yesterday Ava turned 9 weeks old. I didn't take any pictures yesterday, I was to busy changing her clothes. By the end of the day Ava had gone through three outfits. No wonder our water bill was more this past month! :) Yesterday we ran a couple of errands and then went to Maple Grove and met Grandma Veldman for dinner. We then went to the "Divas and Diamonds" party at Mark Michael's (jewelry store). Ava was so content and very happy. Daddy and any future man in her life could have a problem...she LOVED all the bright lights and pretty sparkly things. :) After the party we came home. I'm thinking that I never should have blogged about Ava's sleeping 8 hours straight through the night...she hasn't done it since. :) She still only gets up once a night so I shouldn't complain. However, I was just so hopeful when she did it two nights in a row. I know, the time will come when she does it consistently.

This afternoon we're going to go and pick up Daddy from work and then we're off to Des Moines for the weekend. Sunday is cousin Reece's birthday party. We are very much looking forward to seeing everybody and spending some time with them. We're going to hit up some garage sales tomorrow morning. For some reason this is very exciting to me now that I have a little girl. No, we are not above buying our little girl clothes at a garage sale! :) We also have a play date with Erin, Porter, and Magoo. Some of you may know Porter as "Drake's most beautiful bulldog" from last year. Well he now has a little brother Magoo whom we have not yet met. Erin, I can't wait to get some great pictures of our "kids" together. :)

We hope that you all have a wonderful weekend!

PS-Last Tuesday Ava weighed in at 13 lbs 9 oz at our group. Everybody who sees her asks how old she is and then says, "Wow, she's a big girl". I'm not sure how to take that...as long as they don't call her "husky" which is what an elderly resident called me when I was working at the nursing home in high school!

Play date

Our week has been busy. Yesterday we went to the New Parent Connection group at United. It was once again good to see everybody and share our stories about the week. After going to the group we hung out at the hospital to go to the MNA meeting. Our contract is up at the end of May and negotiations are not going well. I'm worried that there may be a strike looming at the beginning of June. Ava and I will be heading out for her and my first picketing experience in May.

Today we had a wonderful day. We had a play date with Kristi and Cora. The weather was beautiful so we were able to spend some time outside on a walk. We ate at a nice little place near their house. It was so great to talk with Kristi and catch up; sharing stories and different experiences that we've had since having the girls. It's so much fun to have the girls so close in age (2 weeks apart). Thanks for a wonderful day girls, we're already looking forward to our next play date!


Ava & Cora

Ava doing her tummy time on the beach ball. This works so much better than the floor. Look at her hold that head up high!!!

Exhausted after her day with Cora

Our little sleeping beauty

Our little sleeping beauty slept through the night for the past two nights and we are so excited. Nate woke up Sunday morning and asked what time Ava got up in the middle of the night. When I responded, "she didn't", he jumped up to run into her room and tell her what a good girl she was (she was obviously awake at this point). I of course had already gone into her room twice to make sure she was still breathing. Last night she slept from 11-7. This time I got up only to pump at 5:00. My only concern with her sleeping through the night is that she spends 7-8 hours on the right side of her head, flattening it even more. I'm going to call the clinic today to see if our pediatrician is in this week (she's heading to Europe and I can't remember when she leaves). If she's in I'll talk to her about maybe starting therapy early and see what she thinks.

We had a busy weekend yet again. Friday evening Ava got to meet Kari, Andy, Julia, and Brynn. They came over for dinner and hung out for a while. They live in WI, a suburb of Madison, so we don't get to see them very often. The girls were so good with Ava. I'm sure that Julia is a wonderful big sister, as she stood over Ava saying "hi" and asking how she was. Then there is Brynn who seems to constantly have a smile on her face. It was great seeing them and we thank them for taking time out of their schedule to spend time with us.

Saturday we were hoping to take a family outing to the TCF Stadium for the Gopher's spring game. Mother Nature had something else in store for us since it rained all morning. Nate was still up for going, I on the other hand didn't think it was very appropriate to take our little peanut out on such a dreary and wet day. As I told Nate, we don't need a soggy peanut! Nate ended up going to Golf Galaxy to meet up with Wes to look at clubs. He was nice enough to take Ava so that I could get a little nap in. That evening we headed down to Chaska to see Josh and Jenny. They had been wanting to meet Ava for so long and we finally found a time to get together. I had not seen their place yet so we headed down there. It had been so long since we had gotten together, it was so great to see them and catch up a little bit! They are expecting in Oct. and we couldn't be more excited and happy for them!

Sunday was a pretty low key day, but very nice. We started out the day at church and then went over to Grandma & Grandpa Veldman's. Grandma & Grandpa watched Ava while Nate and I went and ran a few errands. You can run errands so much faster when you don't have to load and unload a car seat and stroller! Uncle Wes joined all of us in the afternoon and we had a delicious lunch/dinner. Ava had a great time and even chatted a bit with everybody while flashing an occasional smile

There's nothing too exciting on the agenda for today. We've already had story time (which she actually sat through) and some tummy time. We're hoping the sun will peak through this afternoon and we'll go for a walk. It's just Ava and me this evening since Nate has his golf league on Monday nights. We'll do a bath tonight and just snuggle in together. Have a great day!

Daddy & Ava playing under the jungle gym

Kari, Brynn, Ava & Julia

Brynn, Ava, & Julia

8 Weeks = 2 Months

That's right, our little peanut turns 8 weeks old today. The time has gone so quickly, and I can't believe that I have to be back to work in less than a month now. Ava decided that she wanted to start celebrating her 8 week birthday early today. She was up at 3:30, and then again at 5:30. I then woke her at 7:30 to try to get her back on her schedule and so that Daddy could see her before he left for work. She was kind enough to share some smiles with him this morning, which got his day off to a great start. We are trying a new schedule as of yesterday which involves eating every 3 1/2-4 hours instead of every 3. She seems to be doing ok with it. She's been really sleepy in the mornings the past couple of days, I'm not sure what is up with that. She is usually much more awake in the evenings though...especially when we want to sit down and eat dinner! We've been trying to get her to sleep looking to her left since I am freaking out about her flat head. The little poop just won't do it. I've been reading info on it online and I'm hoping that with her increasing muscle strength in her neck that she will eventually not be on that side of her head all the time and it will correct itself (like most cases do supposedly). I just need her to cooperate during tummy time to strengthen those muscles. I'm going to pick up a beach ball at Target today to do tummy time on that. Otherwise when she is on the floor she gets lazy and just puts her head down.

I went to the eye Dr. yesterday and everything is now healed and back to normal. No more eye appointments! I'm so glad that it wasn't anything too serious. You don't realize how much you take your vision for granted until you have a problem with it. Thank you again to Grandma Veldman for watching Ava while I went to my appointment.

Today we're off to the mall and to run a few errands. We have Kari, Andy, Julia, and Brynn coming to visit tomorrow evening from Madison. We are excited to see them. We were hoping to go to the Gopher spring game on Saturday during the day, but it looks like rain and Ava and I are kind of fair weather fans.

One more thing, Ava wants to wish a big Happy Birthday to her biggest admirer...cousin Reece. Reece turns 2 today. We will be heading to Waukee in just over a week to help him celebrate. We're looking forward to seeing him and all the other family (just not the car trip). Happy Birthday Reece, we love you!!!

We hate shots!!!

Yesterday was Ava's 2 month well baby check. With that well baby check comes 2 month immunizations. That's three shots and one oral vaccine. I had been dreading the appointment since Sunday when I remembered that she had it. I was so worried that I would have to hold her down while they administered the shots, and then she would look up at me with those big blue eyes and cry out in pain. The actual shots were not as bad as I thought they would be. As I've said before, I absolutely Love our pediatrician. She actually administered the vaccines herself. I have been a nurse for almost 7 years and have never seen a physician administer a shot until yesterday. She had them all in within 30 seconds and then she handed Ava to me to be soothed. I didn't have to hold her down at all which was good. Ava only cried for about a minute as was then fine. I had premedicated her with some Tylenol before we left the house. I thought to myself, "well that wasn't so bad, the worst part is over". Silly me!!! We went for a walk when we got home and upon returning home Ava woke up and was NOT happy. The poor little thing was in so much pain. Her little thunder thighs were even more swollen and bright red. I couldn't even breastfeed her because when her leg touched me she would cry out in pain. Nate and I felt so helpless. We gave her more Tylenol to help with the pain as well as the fever that she was running. Nate gave her a bottle at 10:00 and then put her down. She slept until 4:15. At that point her fever was gone and it seemed like the majority of the pain was as well. Her one thigh is still slightly swollen but she had a much better day. She slept most of the morning. I think she's just worn out from yesterday, and still tired from the weekend.

As for the rest of her appointment. She weighed in at 13 lbs 3 oz, and was 24 inches long. Yes, she's gained 5 pounds in 8 weeks. Needless to say, we got the ok to try to space her feedings out a bit longer. :) That puts her in the 97th percentile for both height and weight. Our Dr. said that she looks great. However, there are a couple of things that we need to continue to watch. She is still going cross eyed quite frequently which I know is normal up to 4 months. If it's not better at 4 months then she will send us to a pediatric eye Dr. I also began to notice this past week that Ava is getting a flat head on the right. She always sleeps on her back with her head facing right. So now we have to see if we can get her too start looking to the left while she sleeps. Otherwise we may be heading to therapy. The Dr. didn't seem nearly as concerned about it as I did (shocking, I know), but said that we will definitely re-evaluate at 4 months. If I don't notice any improvement or can't get her to sleep facing the other way in a couple of weeks I may just call the Dr. and see if we can do something before 4 months.

It was a beautiful day yet again. We did make it outside for a walk this evening when Nate got home from work. Other than that, we went to the new parent connections group again today. I really enjoy just interacting with other new parents and hearing what they are going through, and seeing the other kids and what they are doing developmentally.

Tomorrow my friend Becky is coming to visit us and is bringing lunch from panera. It will be good to see her again. Then I have another eye appointment in the afternoon. I'm hoping that this will be the last of the appointments. My eye is so much better. I've started to wear my contacts a few hours each day and continue with the eye drops. Grandma Veldman is coming over to watch Ava again while I am gone.

I think that's it for now. Thanks for checking in!


Ava with her battle wounds (aka, injection sites)

Uncle Wes and Ava sticking their tongues out at each other.

Baptism

What a Wonderful weekend we had! The weather was beautiful, the company was great, and everything went very smoothly. We had a very busy weekend with Ava's baptism and were blessed to be surrounded by so much family. Lisa, Brent and the kids arrived around 11:00 on Saturday morning. Reece was the first in the door and wanted to make sure that he got to see Ava and give her the gift that they had brought for her (Ava's necklace, which Reece called daily to tell me the week leading up to her baptism). Brent was nice enough to grill lunch since Nate had to work until 1:00 on Sat. Grandma Becker, Great-Grandma Schutterle, Grandma Great (Becker), Darlene, Carl, & Sara got here about 1:30 after taking a short detour through Minneapolis and I think all of Mounds View. We had lunch and just hung out for awhile. Then everybody except for Ava, Grandma Becker, and I headed over to the hotel to go swimming. I had to feed Ava and Grandma had to sew the last couple buttons on the back of Ava's dress. Grandma Becker made Ava's baptismal gown, all from her wedding dress. Ava's dress was beautiful and so special. It will be such a keepsake. Thank you so much Grandma...what a wonderful gift, and Ava looked beautiful in it!!! We then joined everybody else at the hotel. Grandma & Grandpa Veldman, along with Tom and Judy arrived at the hotel just before we did. Tom & Judy drove up from Johnston to celebrate with us and meet Ava. We are so happy that they were able to make the trip up. It was great to see them again!!! It was a low key evening at the hotel that involved pizza and visiting, but it was wonderful to spend that time with everybody. Ava was a very good girl as she was passed all around. I think she likes the attention. :)
Sunday brought more people from IA. Grandpa Becker arrived at our house around 2:45 AM. We know he was very busy with work and very exhausted, so we were very grateful when he arrived here safely. Marilyn, Carl, Kristin, and Luke also drove up during the wee morning hours and met us at church. Aunt Carolyn, Uncle Rick, and Nana drove up from Hollandale that morning as well. A big thanks to all of you for sacrificing your sleep and time to be a part of Ava's special day. She is a very lucky little girl to have so many people surround her with so much love. We had around 36 people attend Ava's baptism and luncheon. The service was very nice and then we went over to Grandma & Grandpa Veldman's for a delicious lunch. As I said before, the weather was gorgeous so people were able to eat outside which was very nice. We had lunch, opened gifts (which were all very nice), and were home around 4:00 Sunday afternoon. We were all exhausted, including Ava!!!
A big thank you to everyone who attended Ava's special day this weekend. It was great seeing you all and meant a lot to Nate and I that you were there.

Ava thinks it's very funny that she's wearing mommy's old dress

Ava's baptismal gown that Grandma Becker made out of her wedding dress

Godparents Brent and Lisa with Ava, Mommy, & Daddy at the church

Uncles Wes, Grandpa & Grandma Veldman, Ava, Mommy & Daddy after baptism

4 Generations on the Becker side...Grandpa, Grandma Great, Ava, & Mommy

4 Generations on the Veldman side: Grandpa, Nana, Ava, & Daddy

The Iowa group that came up for Ava's baptism (minus Tom & Judy who came from Johnston)

4 Generations on the Parr side: Grandma Becker, Grandma Schutterle, Ava, & Mommy

Ava & Mommy with Ava wearing the dress that Mommy wore at 18 months. That dress was given to me by my great grandma Clark

At the hotel Sat. night where we ate pizza and hung out with everybody

Nate & Reece spending quality time in the pool

Judy & Tom drove up from Johnston (Des Moines) to meet Ava for the first time and attend her baptism.

Reece holding on tight to Ava, he wanted to make sure that he got his time with her. He loves our little girl SO much!