Mother of the Year...Who am I kidding!

Oops. I should have known that something was up when it got TOO QUIET while I was reading the paper this morning. I thought it was nice Ava was busy with something, just playing...then I glanced up at her. Notice the cheek and the hand on the right. No more pens for Ava, until she stops eating them!

Spring Fever...No More!!

FINALLY!!!...We have nice weather; out of no where it's 72 degrees today, and sunny! We went for a walk around the neighborhood.

Rose-colored Glasses

Ava messing around at lunch today...I think she likes the view through the "Rose-colored Glasses"...or Tangerine Tupperware rather. What a goofball!
I see you, Mommy! Hee hee!!

Sleep, sleep and more sleep!

Nine hours of sleep!...that's 9! No 3 then wake up, no 4 then wake up...a WHOLE NINE HOURS of sleep! That was Ava last night! What was different? Was it the perfect make up of fibers in her yellow ducky jammies? The optimal temperature and humidity level in her room? I pondered this all morning, in hopes of having a replay tonight! But at last I think I found the reason...one little prickly tooth poking through on top! Yippee, another tooth!! How many more of these do we have to go? Too many to think about now. And anyway, it's not like I got 9 hours of sleep last night - I was up at our usual rendezvous times of 1:30 am and 5:30 am, and yes, still there at 6:30 am too. See you tonight Ava?

One Lonely Tooth

I'm being consumed by my house and chores...too busy to post lately. In the midst of tackling the laundry we did manage to grab the camera to try and capture the tooth. A bit hard to 1) Get Ava to hold still, 2) Zoom in on the single LITTLE tooth and 3) Get Ava to actually open her mouth for us. So here it is...very fuzzy, I know.




In other exciting news, Ava can recognize and point to her nose and ears. We say, "Nose. Ava, where's your nose," and she points to it!!...And then puts her little finger IN her nose. And then we ask her where's her ear and she grabs it! What a smart cookie!!! We couldn't be more proud, for now anyway.

Daddy Daycare!

This is a picture from earlier this month, but I thought it was a great action shot captured by Daddy. This was during the night I teach class, so Daddy & Ava are together for about 2 1/2 hours....and actually she's rather clean in this picture, so it must have been early in the evening. I came home this last Tuesday night to find Ava napping, when I picked up after she woke up she was COVERED in cookies & peas. Dad??!!! Well he said he did his best and then she fell asleep after they were singing & dancing so he didn't want to disturb her. Oh well, I guess I should just be lucky she has so much fun with Daddy & she was only dirty...not hurt. Thanks Jeff!

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

From the little teething monster....

Spring Break Part III - The Finale!

Ava really thinks she's going to ask Daddy
for a sand box at home...Oh, and NO CATS ALLOWED, Cosmo!





















Ava getting ready for a swim in the pool.
Also, only decent picture
of Mommy
...others
are borderline
obscene. Note
to self, "No
More Mom-pics
until done
breastfeeding."








Hanging at the pool with Grandma K. What do you think of that frown?...I think she's almost got it down.





















"Yeah, a seat all to myself! I don't have to share with Mommy's big butt!" Coming home, can't wait to see Daddy!

Spring Break Part II

More pictures...

Messing around with Aunt Lisa.

Showing Aunt Lisa how to get her toes in her mouth with no hands!

More monkeying around.

At last, the beach! Ava loved the sand, not so much the water, but definitely the sand.

Baby Gone Wild - Spring Break!

Here are some pictures from Florida....

Taking a nap on the flight down; just the way I like to fly!

Unfortunately followed by some serious fussing when she woke up.

Enjoying a cookie at the condo.

Tweety Bird? No, it's just Ava, getting ready for breakfast. Aunt Lisa is admiring her shoes.

Going to breakfast with Grandma & Grandpa K.

More to come in a while...we have some errands to run first!

Daddy's Little Helper

Ava helped her Daddy clean the garage today. The weather was finally nice enough to be outside, 60's and a little sunny. Oh, Ava also enjoyed a teething cookie while supervising Daddy, and she's a messy eater, like Dad.

Houston, we have a tooth!

Yippeee!!! Ava's first tooth finally broke the skin today! Finally! I knew she was getting really close before the toe incident, but I guess that took some focus away from her hurting gums for a bit. I haven't noticed her putting her hands in her mouth a lot lately, or doing anything else too unusual, until today. She had some serious licking and tongue movements, so I felt the gums...and there was the tiniest indication of a tooth, a few little prickles on the gums. So we broke out into song & dance for a good half hour and called the grandparents. Awww...the little things!

Poor Little Piggies

Like I mentioned in the first post, life here is pretty slow, however there is the occasional traumatic experience. On Monday Ava had an accident with Grandma & Grandpa K and the car door...her poor little toes didn't quite clear the door. Poor baby! The worst part was that Mommy wasn't there to hold her; worst part for me I suppose. Grams & Gramps rushed her to the doctor's office, where Daddy met them, and the doctor x-rayed the toes and said they were a little swollen, but could see no real damage. Just to make sure I took her back today, and the doc reassured me that her foot looks fine. Here is a picture from last night, but keep in mind that her little feet are kind of pudgy and stubby like my family's feet already, so this may not give you a very clear idea. It does show a little bruising though.

But just to reassure you that this doesn't slow Ava down, here is a picture from dinner with the family last night. Ava is singing & clapping with Grams & Aunt Lisa...

Also helping Ava to recover quickly is a wonderful distraction from the toes in the form of gifts from Granny & Grandpa J. This new dump truck arrived in the mail yesterday just in time for Ava's 9 month birthday, which is on Sunday. Thanks Grandma & Grandpa, Ava loves it!!

The other big news for the month is that Ava & I are going to meet Grams, Gramps & Aunt Lisa in Florida on Sunday. We're only going for a couple days because Daddy can't go, so we don't want to leave him for too long. Gonna miss you, Daddy! Here's Ava trying on one of her 3 swimsuits, she must have options after all...

Welcome to Ava's World

Hi! This is Ava's mom, aka Courtney, writing...mostly about Ava and her great patience with her parents! We love reading our friends' blog, Melanie + Kiley, and their friends in Dallas, and we felt it was about time we start our own blog. So here it is....


Ava came into this world approximately 9 months ago....9 lbs. 3 oz., thanks Mom for enduring the birth! Ouch! She was born in Las Vegas, Nevada where we moved only a year prior because, "we don't have kids yet, it will be fun!" Ha! I guess Murphy's Law, we got pregnant 3 months after moving to Las Vegas. Anyway, about 6 months after Ava was born we finally saw the light, and ran out of money, and moved back home to my hometown in Indiana.

Life is much simpler here, we love it! And Ava gets to see one set of her grandparents quite often. So this is our way of staying in touch with Grandma & Grandpa J and the rest of our family & friends. I'm going to try VERY hard to keep this up to date too, I realize I have the tendency to start things and then let them slide...but can you blame me? It's tough work keeping my husband in line, and now I have Ava too! I'll do my best though!