Ava is eating by herself & climbing stairs

Yeah, I can climb the steps!

Working her way up the stairs for the 10th time!

Texting?

Having a "serious conversation" on Mommy's cell phone

She is very proud of her new talent

Our "lefty" eating her hotdish

Ava has certainly been quite the character lately. We decided to open the gate to our stairway as it was time she learned how to climb up and down steps. Well, we didn't need to give her any invitation...she was very happy to work her way around the steps. She climbed up and down half the flight at least twenty times, and even made it all the way to the bottom and all the way back up. We finally just had to remove her from the stairs and put the gate back up or she would have continued the workout all night (just think of all the calories she burned!). She was quite excited at her new found talent. She certainly isn't ready to fly solo on stairs, but she is remarkably quick already. Ava also is exhibiting some new skills in the eating category. We have been giving her a spoon to eat with which is actually going pretty well. She uses her left hand 95% of the time, so we are thinking that is going to be her dominant hand. She can't really scoop the food up yet, but if we put it on the spoon for her, she can usually get the food to her mouth. It's obvious she is loving this new independence. Only another 5 years of disasterous meals, right?

Brad's Cousin Kelly's Wedding in Alexandria

Ava taking one of her 15 minute naps on the ride back after the ceremony (missed nap time!) Sorry - no pics of Ava looking without the binky!

A tired Ava with Brittney L.

Brad & I (first pic without Ava in forever!)

Roy, Lisa, James, Layne, & Lori

Ava being silly as usual

Mommy & Ava all ready for the wedding

We packed up on Friday to go to Alexandria, MN for Brad's cousin Kelly Estrem's wedding. As usual, we were amazed with all the gear we end up packing. It seem to get worse with each trip! The drive went remarkably well. We only stopped in Marshall which is a little over an hour away. We drove the last three hours without stopping and Ava did well. She took a couple short naps, watched her DVD, and dumped several goldfish and cheerios all about the backseat. We were thrilled she didn't cry the whole way! When we got there, we swam in the hotel which Ava loved and also visited Roy, Lisa, and Layne at their house which was nice. Saturday, we met up with Lori and James and rode with them to the wedding which was about 40 minutes away in Elbow Lake. That car trip was not so good for Ava as she was ready for a nap (I think James was getting annoyed!). The ceremony was beautiful with great music. We enjoyed it and Ava made it through about 3/4 of it before we had to take her out to run around. The reception was held right next to our hotel which was very convenient. It was great to visit with all the relatives we had not seen in a while. We thought we were going to have to leave the reception by 7:30 pm as Ava was not doing very well, but then she turned a corner and decided she liked Brad's cousin Julie and her daughter. It was nice for Brad and I to have a little time to just visit without having to keep an eye on Ava. We headed back to the hotel shortly after 10:00 where we all crashed from exhaustion. (Yes- we are old!) Sunday, we had lunch with Roy, Lisa, and Layne and then headed home. It was a very fun weekend and nice to get away, but as always, great to be back in our own beds again!

Ava is 15 months (plus almost 2 weeks-oops)

Playing with her puzzle pieces - wonder when she may want to play with the puzzle itself?

Eating applesauce with Daddy

This month seems to be getting away from me and I don't really know that I have any excuses. Ava is keeping us busy as usual. She has made some good progress in the behavior category as she is starting to understand what "no" means...that is great for us. She still opens all the cupboard doors, but will close them when we tell her to (yeah!). She seems to be able to understand much more of what we are saying. She certainly is showing us what she enjoys lately, especially music. She loves when I turn music on in the house. She immediately begins to sway back and forth...her version of "dancing". She smiles and will continue to do it for 10 to 15 minutes. Music can brighten her mood immediately! She also has a couple new words, one being "hot" and the other is "bite". Of course, both of these are related to eating....her favorite pass time. She tries to say lots of words so we are anxious as to which one we will be able to make out next. Ava has also taken a liking to TV lately. She really pays attention, especially if there is music on.

At her 15 month well check, she weighed 24 lbs 3 oz and was 30.75" long. She is doing well and has a healthy appetite. She is eating lots of veggies which I am happy she likes. Faves right now are green beans, squash, carrots, and broccoli. Some day she may eat a fruit, but it's not looking good at this point.

Our Active Little Girl

After licking the spatula

Riding on Mommy's shoulders

Carrying several things as usual

Ava gets a hold of Daddy's cell phone

Preparing for her somersault

Okay, so Ava probably is not going to be a gymnast, but she certainly loves to do flips on the floor. She started doing the stance pictured above a couple of weeks ago, and we would flip her over when she'd do it. Well, needless to say, ever since then she assumes the position with hopes that someone will see her and flip her over much to her delight. Other favorite activities right now for Ava include carrying 5-6 small toys at a time around the house and dispersing them into cabinets or under furniture. She also loves to play under the kitchen sink and in the pantry at any chance she gets. She is very good at making messes faster than I can keep them picked up! She is also getting a little fussier about eating. We have to hide any bread items from her until she has eaten her main dish or she will refuse to eat until she gets the bread (this has caused some unhappy moments). She is also starting to run away when she knows you want her to do something (i.e. change her diaper). We are throwing out quite a few "no's" to her lately as it seems she is always into something that we don't want her to. Most of the time, she is pretty good and will stop, but not always.

Ava is 14 Months Old...

Playing peek-a-boo behind Mommy

Showing off her new bottom teeth

peek-a-boo!

Here we are in 2009 already! Where does the time go. On New Years Day, Ava turned another month older, 14 months. She is quite the character lately. She loves to play "peek-a-boo" at any chance she gets. She will suddenly cover her eyes, and then check your reaction. It is precious. She will also play by hiding behind objects or her parents.

Here are the stats:

Weight: 24 lbs, 3 oz.

Movement: Ava has advanced from just walking to running. She still falls quite a bit, especially on the wood floor. She is getting better all the time at walking while carrying objects. This is one of her favorite pass times. She loves to pick up three or four smaller objects and try to hang onto them all while walking around. Needless to say, she drops things often and spends a lot of time trying to bend over and pick it up while hanging on to the other stuff. It is too cute to watch!

Speech: Ava continues to advance with her words. She doesn't have a wide vocabulary, but she is starting to verbalize more and more. Common words she says are "Mum"(Mom), "Daa"(Dad), "Woah" (when she falls or sees something neat),

"num, num" (while eating), "hi" (to greet us). She is also understanding more and more of what we say which is fun.

Food: Ava continues to be a great eater. She eats pretty much anything and quite a large quantity. She typically eats at least 1/2 a cereal bowl full of oatmeal with 1/2 a banana for breakfast. She still has room to have some of Mommy or Daddy's cheerios. Other favorites include vegatable soup, pizza, any bread, apple sauce, and most any dessert. She still will not eat any fruits unless you hide them in something and even then, sometimes she will separate it and spit it out.

Teeth: Just shortly before the new year, Ava got two new teeth on the bottom. That brings the tally up to 7!

Sleep: Ava has been sleeping really late lately. She typically goes to bed at 8 or 8:30 and will sleep until 8:30 the next morning. We were spoiled over Christmas with this wonderful schedule! She is not taking very good naps right now. It could be the teeth or the fact that she is sick, but many days she will only take one, two hour nap per day. This is much less than usual for her and she seems tired, but just not able to sleep. We shall see....maybe the one really long nap or two nap days are over.

We have been continuing to battle the double ear infection. We went back to the doctor to recheck her ears, and she still had infections. We are currently doing another round of antibiotics. Hopefully, this will take care of it. Overall, Ava continues to be in good spirits despite the infections. She seems to be in a very clingy stage right now. I am not sure if it was all the company over the holidays or what, but she certainly likes her mommy. Sometimes, she won't even go to Brad. Hopefully, this is short lived.

Christmas 2008

Grandma Flo, Mom, & Dad

Ava after church Christmas Day Shelly & Addison

Ava & Grandma Chris

Ava opening up her nursery rhyme book

Daddy & Ava

Sally, Mom, & Shelly

Our Family Christmas 2008

Ava trying to get rid of her cardigan sweater...not a fan of it. We had a wonderful Christmas this year. My sister Shelly and family came to stay with us through Christmas Day. On Christmas Eve, my parents, Grandma Flo, and Aunt Donna also came over. We had turkey and all the fixings along with about a million desserts :)) It was fabulous, but not so great on the waistline! We then openend gifts which proved to be chaos once again. Maybe in about 5 years all the grandkids will be big enough to open their own gifts and enjoy the whole event. For now, there was some crying and whining, but overall it went pretty well. Ava did not have anything to do with opening gifts. She could have cared less. She just wandered about all the packages and picked up little pieces of tissue paper among other things she wasn't supposed to have. We would have never thought a year ago that she was going to be quite this busy this Christmas. She did play with a book that played music that she got from Grandma Chris, but other than that, there was just too much going on for her to sit and play with a toy. Ava loved her time with Sam and Addison. She would watch them run around and struggle to get her legs to move as fast as they were. On Christmas Day, we went to church in the morning. Gary, Joyce, and Joe came over late in the afternoon. We had a little lunch and visited with them. Hopefully, we can get together with the rest of the family soon.

A Short Visit to Bridges Bay in Spirit Lake

Look, I can stand up in the water!

Ava loved the lazy river! We joined my sister and her family at Bridges Bay Resort in Spirit Lake, Iowa for a short stay just before Christmas. We rented a little condo so we had plenty of bedrooms for everyone, and it was just a few steps from the action. The indoor water park was really nice and not very busy. They are not normally open on week days, but they were open for Christmas break. Ava really enjoyed the water more than we thought she would. She loved floating in her little ring around the lazy river. She'd just giggle and smile the whole time as we floated beside her. She slept in the pack-n-play a little better the second night. The first night was pretty rough. She certainly prefers her crib over that. Overall, it was a really fun trip.