Ava & Mila

Our little Ava is now 40 weeks old…

…and is still enjoying dancing at her table.

Ava pulled a new smile out from her pocket this week. She scrunches her eyes in this new smile and looks a tiny bit like a jack-o-lantern.

She has also figured out that empty diaper boxes can turn into dangerous walkers.

Here she is cruising the hallway with her new found freedom.

Grace went to Sea World last week and brought Ava a polar bear puppet. Thanks Grace!

She loves it. She especially loves it when the puppet turns into a tickle monster.

Ava also loves when she rides on the dada train around the house. She had an extra ticket and decided that her green ball would make a great passenger.

Afterwards, she told Yoda about her choo-choo adventures with her green ball.

I don’t think Yoda really cared.

But guess who cared and decided to hang out at the dinner table with Ava when chicken was on the menu?

Has anyone seen my cerveza?

It took Dan 40 weeks to finally get Ava on a surfboard. She was more than excited to crawl on top of one at the surf shop.

She thought it was so fun to walk to the nose of the board…

…and hang ten. Cowabunga dude!

To thank her daddy for the surf lesson, Ava decided it was time so say DaDa this week. Yeah. I think the clicking sound she started to make with her tongue and the roof of her mouth really helped reach this milestone.

DaDaDaDaDa!

She also figured out how to finally put the ball in the giraffe’s mouth. When the ball reaches the giraffe’s feet, Dan and I clap and yell yeah… and Ava smiles and shakes her hands like they are on fire.

Eat the ball, giraffe.

There is one thing about babies that I could never find an answer to online… when do babies get moles? It’s true. That question was driving me crazy. Well, this week we noticed that Ava has 2 moles. Yeah? I don’t know about yeah but it at least answered my question. She has one on her chest and one on her arm now.

Since the past couple weeks have been stressful, my milk supply has drastically dropped since I haven’t been taking care of myself. So, Ava is drinking formula now in addition to nursing. She is not very happy with this new situation. When I try to give her a bottle, Ava purses her lips, pushes the bottle away and waves bye-bye to it. I guess she gets the concept of bye-bye. She also has repeated the word bye at three different occasions last week. It freaked us all out. In addition to getting angry at the bottle, Ava also get angry when we make her hands do something… like when we show her how to clap or pick up food. She gets angry and shakes her arms like they are on fire. Who me?

Ava loved the Halloween cards from her Aunts Catherine and Connie and all her admiring fans. Thanks everyone! She agreed to try to open her eyes as wide as possible to look like Elmo, just as long as she wasn’t sitting on a pumpkin. hehe.

Alright. Ava has to run to her Thriller audition now… Bye.

My mommy just told me that I have to help pick out pumpkins today.

But pumpkins are scary.

You sure you need my help? Ok. Ok. I’ll help.

We walked around a lot to find the perfect one.

Hmmm. This is one is pretty nice but let’s keep looking.

Ummm. This one is too big.

Wow. This one is WAY to big.

And these are obviously moldy. Pee-you. I’m out of here.

Oh wait. What are these? These are just my size.

Can I please get this one? Please. Please.

I love you pumpkin.

I love to eat you too pumpkin.

Guess who has been outside of her mommy’s tummy as long as she was inside her mommy’s tummy? That’s right. It’s Ava.

Wondering what Ava was doing at the exact minute when she turned 9 months old? Well, she was sitting on Rudy’s bed sending her happy thoughts.

Needless to say, this has been the most difficult week of our lives in a long time. Thanks to everyone for the flowers, cards and especially all the kind words. They have helped brighten our days. Ava loves crawling around the house and resting her head on random things. Ava especially loves to rest her head on Rudy’s bed. We hope she loves to do so forever.

We spent a lot of time this week hanging out at home. Dan even let Ava watch an episode of Good Eats to allow for extra snuggling time.

And during the commercials, they had extra giggling time.

But we did get out of the house to get our mind off of things. We decided to take Ava to the fish store to look at fishes.

She has been intrigued by fishes ever since she saw her first aquarium at day care.

We also made sure Yoda got extra attention this week since she misses Rudy too. So we made sure to leave empty boxes out for her to play in. But to Yoda’s dismay, Ava loves boxes too. And when Ava gets too close to her box, Yoda shoots laser beams out of her eyes… which somehow always miss Ava.

In your spare time, I know most of you are wonder how Ava’s hair looks on a windy day. So, here you go. Ava on a windy day. If you look really really close, you can see one really long hair. It is the one hair that never fell out in the early weeks of her life. About once a week, Dan freaks out because he thinks it fell out when he looks for it. But it is still there. I think he might need glasses again.

Changing diapers is getting more difficult. Ava twists and turns like a wiggly worm. To distract her from her wiggles, we let her play with different objects. Her favorites this week are her tooth brushes. She will chew on them for long periods of time. Grandma Ester and her dental team must be so proud.

This week was Ava’s 9 month check-up. They have a cool little play area next to the waiting room for the kids. Ava is finally big enough to play there. Here she is with her daddy, who is showing her how the trains go around the track.

Choo choo.

At this appointment, Ava weighed 19 pounds 5 ounces (53%), was 27.5 inches long (39%) and her head was 18.25 inches around (95%). Everything but her head circumference seemed to go down in percentage points this time. And everyone says I feed her too much. Ha! This was an appointment for make-up shots since Ava was sick at her 6 month one. I tried to distract her with these funny glasses but it didn’t work too well.

Ava also got her big toe pricked for an anemia test.

Okay. Now for a food update.

I’m trying to have Ava feed herself a portion of each meal… but most things are too slippery for her.

I am also introducing water from a cup after each meal. She doesn’t mind water anymore. And loves biting the glass when taking a drink. This tiny cup is from a trip Dan and I took to Taiwan when his grandmother passed. I was so intrigued by the little cups that they served beer in. Dan stole two little cups for me from that restaurant. Now that’s true love.

And Ava is officially not a vegetarian anymore. We introduced chicken to her this week. I hope she never figures out that they are birds. Her first bite did not go so well. I was secretly a little happy about it. She pushed the chicken out of her mouth with her tongue and tried to get the rest out with her finger.

One thing that she did like to bite this week is herself. Check out the 4 tiny bites on her forearm. She made herself cry after she bit herself at daycare. I thought she was pretty lucky to inherit her Uncle David’s long and curled eyelashes but now she also inherited his self-inflicting pain. When David was little, he would pull his own hair over and over again and make himself cry. Poor Ava and Uncle David. Hopefully they will both outgrow this stage very soon.

Also at daycare, Ava enjoyed her reading circle this week. She was a bit surprised when we showed up to pick her up.

She also painted a pumpkin for Halloween. Her pumpkin is the top one to the left. She was trying to pull the other down so hers could shine.

Ava is getting better at walking with her daddy. She is also getting better at cruising the furniture and only uses one hand most of the time. And Ava dances all the time. Not sure if this is normal or not. She dances while eating, on the diaper table, in the car seat, while walking and whenever we sing or read a book. She loves dancing.

Oh, and she learned two impersonations this week. Here is her Frank Sinatra pose. But the next one is even better….

Watcha talking about Willis!!!!

Our beloved Rudy passed away Friday, on the day Ava turned 9 months old.

As all of you know, Dan and I have been blessed with our dog Rudy since she was 6 weeks old, more than 10 years ago.

She was our family and we loved her more than anything we could have imagined. She was the best dog anyone could ever hope for. Rudy filled our lives with love for ten and a half years… as she did for many of you too.

She had been hiding her illness from us for quiet some time. A cancerous tumor had been growing in her spleen for some time and spread to her liver and abdomen before it was detected. The internal bleeding was just too much for her and we had to say good-bye at around 9:20pm on Friday, October 12th. We miss her so much.

Rudy was the first baby we ever brought into our home. She was only 6 weeks old when she joined our family back in the Summer of 1997.

She taught us how to be responsible and to how to love unconditionally.

Here is Rudy in her awkward teenage years. Hehe.

She grew up into the most beautiful dog.

We took her to class, work and vacations with us whenever we could. Here she is loving the snow for the very first time at the cabin.

Boy, did she have fun there.

Rudy lived the second half of her life in Ventura and the first half in Santa Barbara, with her best friend Nanook.

Rudy and Nanook would get into lots of trouble together. Like the time when they tore up the couch we were borrowing from a friend. Sorry Mikey

Nanook passed away a little over a year before Rudy. I think they are causing trouble in heaven together. I can just imagine them laying around as they are in this photo. It makes me feel better to know that she is not alone up there.

She accepted new members of our family throughout the years with open paws. Even if it meant that we would have less time to spend with her. She wasn’t too sure of Yoda at first, especially when she tired to find Rudy’s nipple for a breastfeeding session. Sorry Rudy.

But after a month or so, they became friends, even though Rudy would never admit it. We would catch them playing together and sometimes sleeping together too.

One of the hardest things about Rudy’s passing is knowing that Ava will not remember her. She will not remember all the times Rudy would make her giggle. The thought of that is too much to handle at the moment.

So, we are creating a new blog that will tell Ava of all the the great times Rudy had with her, our family and our friends. Check out www.ourdogrudy.com.

I will never forget how Ava loved crawling to Rudy. She would crawl right up to her face and laugh out loud. We couldn’t have been any happier than at those moments.

I think Rudy helped Ava’s love of animals blossom and I will always thank Rudy for that special gift.

It is really hard to be at home without Rudy. The house is too quiet. I can’t stand that either. I miss the sound of the doggy door flap opening and closing all day long. I miss telling Rudy to go to bed at bedtime. I miss her wet kisses. I miss the way she would push her head against you when you rubbed the inside of her ear. I miss hearing her nails scrape the floor while she was dreaming. I miss seeing her rest her head on her bed as if it was a pillow. I miss her staring at me while I eat. I miss the way Yoda used to attack her face and Rudy would bark back at her. I miss they way she would greet everyone at the door and then ignore them for the rest of their visit. I miss almost tripping on avocados at the front door. I miss her stretching in the morning when Ava wakes up. I miss our walks together and having to saying W so she doesn’t get too excited before it is time for our walk.

I miss her waiting for me in the hallway to finish playing with Ava so she could eat. I miss her tap dancing when it is dinner time. I miss the way Yoda would meow when Rudy started her tap dancing.

I miss the way Rudy would wait for Yoda to finish her breakfast so she could eat the leftovers. I miss the clanking the bowls would make.

I really miss seeing Rudy looking through our dining room window when we would come home.

I miss the last time Rudy walked into our house from the back yard.

And the last picture I ever took of Ava and Rudy at home together.

The morning and nights in the bedroom are the hardest. I miss having to step over her at night. I miss her staring at me in the middle of the night because she has to go potty. I miss all five us being together.

Ava had a chance to feed Rudy for the first and last time at the hospital, just a few hours before our good-bye. It broke my heart.

I didn’t really like it when Rudy would give Ava kisses on the face. But I am so happy that I captured Rudy’s last kiss for Ava in this photo.

I’m really thankful that we got to have a chance to take a family picture the night before she passed. I will always cherish our memories with Rudy. Always. I am also so thankful that we had a chance to say goodbye to Rudy as she fell asleep forever.

Goodbye Rudy.

Ava is officially 38 weeks old.

Ava still likes going to the park. Forget the swings. Trying to eat leaves is her favorite pastime there.

She likes walking with her daddy too.

And twirling her tongue.

Over the weekend, Ava had a chance to hang out with Birdy. She loved it when Birdy gently nibbled her finger.

But she also got to see Tarzan again. He is the egg-laying bird that makes Ava close her eyes every time he squawks. Today was no different.

Here she is with Marko and Anthony at the start of a crawling race.

What is this?

It’s Ava dressed up as my favorite muppet baby, Animal!

The costume is a little big but the picture is priceless.

Guess who likes to dance to music and grandma’s ABC singing near the couches…

…and on the carpet…

…and especially at her table.

Ava also spent some time with Grandpa Slavo. She was in love with his pocket.

At dinner time, Ava and I are not the only ones at the dinner table. Yoda is there because she thinks the Cherrios are her cat treats… and Rudy is there for leftovers, especially waiting for the Cheerios that don’t make it into Ava’s mouth.

Ava loves the rattling spoon that came with her table. She crawls with it around the house and stops to feed Rudy.

Rudy isn’t the only lucky one. So is her Great Grandma Dinka.

To be fair, it was then spoon time for Ava. She can’t have all the fun.

Ava’s trick of the week is biting the spoon after each bite.

We all think it is a pretty cool trick.

Silly Ava.

Oh, and we introduced Ava to seals too. Uncle David took us to the marine mammal rehab center.

Ava preferred the real ones to this wooden one.

Guess who got sick again. I know. I’m tired of it too. Believe me. This time is started with red cheeks and ended up being another eye infection, fever and cold.

Rudy is also not feeling well so we took her to the vet. Here is Ava waiting for the doctor in a big girl chair.

Time to go. We need to figure out why Ava’s lips are stuck in this rectangle shape. jk.