Sweet Faces

Ava's personality is really starting to show through. She is an absolute delight and makes some of the cutest faces! And that smile...Andy is going to have a hard time resisting that!

 

Bath tub fun!

 

 

Look how she's grown

Ava wore this dress to my cousin Nick's wedding back in June. I always wanted to put it back on her, when it actually fit, so I finally did. It barely fit! She wasn't a fan of the scratchy tulle at all and mostly cried while she was in the dress.

 

June 2011.

 

7 months old

Ava is 7 months old today. I can hardly believe, she is 7 months old already. Maybe that is because she weighs 14 lbs. 10 oz. and in 25 inches long. Yes, you read that right, she is only up 2 ounces in the last month. Still tiny, but maintaining her weight and not losing, that is what the dr said, so she isn't terribly concerned, but wondering why, as always. Wondering why she coughs, wheezes, vomits, and isn't really growing. I wish the magic 8 ball, could give us an easy answer. Since life isn't that easy we are trying her on flovent (an asthma inhaler) for a month to see if that helps anything. We will see the GI specialist on Dec 12th, and the Pulmonologist on Jan 11th.

Now as far as everything else is concerned, Ava is the happiest and cutest baby ever. Not that I am biased ;)or anything. I have decided she has officially began to sit, but only if she wants to. She will put her hands down and hold herself up, if she is in a sitting mood, otherwise she will pick up her hands and instantly roll to her side. She still rarely rolls to her belly (by choice again) and quickly gets off her tummy during tummy time. She has advanced to the gerber stage 1 fruits and vegetables, (peas, green beans, carrots, sweet potatoes, squash, pears, applesauce, peaches bananas, and prunes). She likes them all except the pears and gags on the green beans (not sure if its texture or flavor). She doesn't eat her rice cereal well, unless the nasty flavor has been covered up by one of her favorite fruits or vegetables.

Genetic run wild through all our families, and I am pretty sure our families quirks get passed that way to. Like how both my kids and I have grandma Ole's crooked toes, and the Beeson chin, and how we all carried around our blankies, and now the newest. Ava has never appreciated the pacifier, like Noah did. Which in some ways is nice, not a lot of pictures with binky smiles, but there are times when I wish she would. Instead, she found her thumb. Although I can not chop off her thumb when I am ready for her to be done sucking it, it is a welcome trait in the way of self soothing.

 

We love this sweet little girl so much!!

Ava's Baptism

Today we had Ava's Baptism at our church. It was a beautiful day outside, and Noah was in a wild and defiant mood. Made life a little difficult. We had a cake made to share with our church family after church.

 

As is tradition, well starting with Noah, Ava had her pictures taken in one of the many beautiful stained glass windows. My selections were limited as most of the windows were full of food for the Moscow Food Bank. But I think this one looks like she has angels wings.

 

Ava Leigh, I baptize you in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.

 

Our attempt at a family picture. Like I said, Noah was wild and defiant. Nothing we bribed Noah with would make him cooperate for a picture.

 

Becky and Ava.

 

What is Noah up to?

These days Noah is mostly just playing his days away. He still loves his cars, trains, and unearned motorcycles (potty training incentives).

His newest excitement however, is that we are working on potty training...enough said. He is actually doing quite well. I am now assured he won't be starting kindergarten in diapers. I finally found the incentive that works for him. We have tried cars, candy, and stickers. All of which he lost interest, but the motorcycles and monster trucks are working like a charm. We have our good days and our bad, like everything in life.

Last week I went to put Noah on the waiting list for Emmanuel Preschool for next fall, then I spoke to the teacher and we talked about next semester. However, when we got to the school, and saw how great Noah did with the other kids, she asked if we wanted to start on Thursday. I said yes!! Noah's first day was a little rough getting started out (he was just a little clingy), but after circle time he went and played with the other kids, and didn't even mind when I left him. I will tell you, the free time to go to the grocery store was awesome. It took me 45 minutes start to finish. Normally it takes over an hour because Noah likes to walk and run and be a boy.

Noah LOVES his sister. Every night before bed, he kisses her and says, "Goodnight, Eva." He talks to her in a high squeaky voice and makes her smile. Most mornings when she wakes up, he comes with me to get her out of bed. He loves her and that makes my heart glad, even when he is driving me out of my mind.

Update to Ava's 6 month appt

So the Zantac we have been giving Ava has done nothing for her, she still coughs, wheezes, and throws up. It was mostly just a pain in the butt for us, as she hates it, and spits out as much as she possibly can. So the latest plan is for her to see a pediatric GI specialist in Spokane and have them do a work up of some kind of her. We just keep adding to her list. Man, she will have seen every specialist in Spokane by the time she is 5, jk. I really hope I am kidding!!! I will keep you posted what we find out.

Almost Sitting

I have been waiting for this moment for a long time. Noah was an early sitter, I expected Ava to be too, but I was wrong. Ava can finally sit long enough for me to take a picture, so not longer than a couple minutes yet, but she is getting closer every day. Yahoo!

 

Hello thumb!

Ava has started sucking her thumb which I love. If she is tired, she just puts her thumb in her mouth and goes to sleep. No more pacifier attempts for this girl! She loves her thumb instead!

Ava was laying on the living room floor, just playing, and all of a sudden, she is sleeping. So sweet!!

 

Leaves and Halloween

This evening we went to the Harvest Festival at the church. Noah was pretty much a watcher. There was a lot of noise and bigger kids running about, so he stayed back and watched. But before that we took the kids out into the leaves to play, Noah loved running through them but Andy practically had to tackle him to get him to sit in the leaves. After they started throwing leaves at eachother, they were okay. I sat Ava down in them for a minute and she fell over which made her furious. So her and Noah sat together. She enjoyed putting leaves in her mouth and sucking them.

 

After the Harvest Festival, we went to Tom and Denise's house so they could see the kids in their Halloween costumes. Sophia's beautiful Rapunzel dress was made by her Grandma LeAnn, then Ava's little ladybug outfit was Sophia's when she was her age, Noah is an airplane (although he looks like he crashed) and Eric is one of the Transformers (a very popular costume this year, I am pretty sure their were at least 5 different ones at the Harvest Festival).