Blue eyed girl

Peek-a-boo

Pigtails

More snow play

Andy was shoveling the snow around the cars so Noah went outside and enjoyed playing in the snow. I am a wimp and don't like to get cold, so I don't take the kids outside.

mmm Bacon!

Ava experiencing bacon for the first time. This wasn't really on the list of approved new foods, but all she did was suck off the fat and salt. No harm done!

Snow play and Bath play

We got our first real snow of the year, so I took Ava out in Noah's old snow suit to experience it and take pictures. She wasn't terribly impressed! It was just too cold, and the snow was coming down pretty fast.

Noah and Ava played in the tub. Ava is finally stable enough sitting that I don't have to have my hand 2 inches from her. They had a great time together!

9 months old

Ava is 9 months old. And how this last month has flown by. At her 9 month check up, she weighed 15 lbs and was 25.5 inches long, which puts her in the <3rd percentile. Ava's personality is really starting to shine, she tells us when she is unhappy, which is hardly ever, and has really started to become vocal. She squeals and squeaks at Noah and he does the same back and then her face lights up. "ma-ma" is her first word, and has began to babble a lot more. Ava isn't crawling yet, or making any attempts, which is going to earn her an evaluation with the infant toddler program. When she is laying on the ground, she will scoot around on her back and can get quite far. She still strongly objects to being on her belly, which is making my attempts to help her learn to crawl difficult. We have been given the ok to introduce yogurt, and cottage cheese to her diet. She loves the yogurt, but has some issues with the texture of cottage cheese. It makes her gag every time.

Ava has had another busy month of dr appts. She had a couple weight checks, a video fluoroscopic swallow evaluation (VFSE), and we saw the pulmonologist, along with her 9 month check up. The VFSE showed a delayed swallow reflex, but whether that is because she didn't want to swallow the barium or because there is a true issue remains a question. We had a good visit with the pulmonologist. He decided that she does have mild asthma, which the inhaler does wonders for. He told us not to wean the inhalers for now and we will try another medication starting in May, so see if she does get good control with that. Her 9 month visit was very uneventful. At Ava's ear recheck this month, the dr drew blood and ran an allergy panel...no allergies. So hello soy and milk!! Yay! We see the GI dr later this month so I will update after that.

Rainforest Jumper

I finally set up the Rainforest Jumper for Ava to enjoy. She is so little that her legs barely can touch the ground. But she enjoys is anyway. The bird is her favorite! When I was taking the pictures, Noah came over and he wanted to get in front of the camera, which is always shocking, so I got a nice picture of him and Ava. It is his first genuine and sweet picture he has taken in quite a while.

Merry Christmas!

We had a fun Christmas this year! It was probably the most laid back we have had in years. We spent the morning just the four of us. And we opened presents at our house. Noah made these in preschool for Andy and I. Mine is a fleece scarf with snowmen that he made out of his feet. So cute!! And Andy's is very fitting, an apron. It has Noah's handprint at the top of the little stick man to make his face and beard. It's a little hard to see in the picture. What a fun idea!

Noah was very interested in opening presents for the first time. Andy assembled the work bench after the kids were in bed, so Noah would see it when he woke up. When Noah woke up Christmas morning, he stopped at the work bench ran the drill a couple times then he ran in to our room and said, "momma get up." He was very excited! Ava is a baby and didn't understand the presents, but she did like to eat the paper.

After we opened presents at our house we went to my parents house for Christmas morning breakfast...delicious milkless and soyless scrambled eggs and potatoes. Then we had a few more presents to open. Noah got a Thomas the Train movie, so of course we had to watch it. It is the Misty Island Rescue. Not bad as far as Thomas movies go.

I had to work that night so in the afternoon we took naps and I went to work. It was a good day!

Cousins

We spent a lot of time before Christmas with Crystal and the kids. It was so nice to spend that time with them. Noah has really missed his cousins and I have really missed Crystal. We don't see them as much during the school year since I work every other weekend and they are always tired after a busy week at school. Sophia was convinced that Noah needed to be in the cousin picture. So she held him in as he was trying to escape.