Ava & Mila

Our little Ava is now a one year old!!! Can you believe it?!?

On the anniversary of the exact minute she was born, Ava was fast asleep in her pack ‘n play… getting ready for her first birthday party. Happy Birthday Ava!

This was the week for her one year check-up. She now weighs 22 pounds 2 ounces (68%) and is 29.25 inches long (48%).

Oh, and her head is 18.9 inches around… still at 98%. We were hoping for 100%. hehe. Maybe next time.

Check Ava out in her new car seat. Notice anything different? That’s right! She now faces forward and gets to enjoy staring at the open road… instead of herself in her panda bear mirror.

Now that she is a one year old, Ava is doing a ton of new things. First, she loves to turn the music on and off from her piano, take the dancing bear off and use her finger to stop the mechanism that makes the bear dance.

And besides knocking over blocks that we stack up for her…

… Ava also starting stacking blocks all by herself.

If you think a dog knows a lot of commands, it has nothing on Ava. She can now kick a ball around if you ask her too.

Kick it!

Hold on… there’s more.

Ava picked up a spoon over the weekend and tried to feed Little Buddy by placing seed in his cup. So sweet.

And she started to drink whole milk too instead of formula. It went down pretty well but had some problems coming out. Poor thing.

And my favorite new milestone is her new word… Goon. It’s short for balloon. She usually says it with her mouth closed like a sound effect. Goon goon goon. Lol. I love it.

So one thing that did not change this week is her love for cheese. Even after I give her more than her normal amount of cheese, she still tries to look for some more that might be hiding… down her shirt.

During one of our afternoon walks this week, there were about 30 crows on the street. Not sure what they were all doing. It was straight out of a scene from Hitchcock’s ‘The Birds’.

Ava got a kick from Yoda and her new leash. We are planning to go on a road trip and take Yoda with us. So I have been trying to get Yoda comfortable with not having a roof over her head. She hates it. She immediately turns into a pancake. But Ava loves it. She gets to pet Yoda as much as she wants without any protest.

So excited for our road trip… Ahhhhh!

Hello Everyone. Guess who turned ONE this weekend? ME!!!!

Check me out in my new red wagon. Who wants to ride with me?

When I woke up from my afternoon nap, there were a bunch of people at the house. Why are they all here?

Oh, yeah. My party. No hats please.

There were streamers and balloons everywhere too. Ahhhh!

Oh no. Diego is touching my favorite book. Mama!!!

I tried to open my presents up early. But it wasn’t my fault.

Nathan made me do it. See.

Here I am posing with my big birthday cake that I shared with everyone.

But not this cake. This one was handmade just for me.

Out of nowhere, everyone started singing and staring at me.

And asked me to blow out the candle. What’s a candle?

Get me out of here!

Ahhh!

After the cake incident, I calmed down a bit thanks to my binky. Starting to the left is Nathan, he was the only one paying attention to the cameraman. Next is me, wondering why we are all sitting on the floor. Then, there’s Diego, moments before he planted a kiss on my cheek. Yucky! And last but not least, is Grace. She is a professional horn blower.

And then I got the a-ok to open up my presents.

Grace was really excited about tearing paper.

I was melting and appreciated her help. Thanks Grace and thanks everyone for the cool gifts.

Before the party was over, Mikey introduced me to my first keg.

Gotta go. Time for my first keg stand. Chug chug chug.

Our little Ava is now 51 weeks old. Yeah!

This week was a little rough for Ava and for us too. It all started with these bright red cheeks last Friday. Ava wasn’t acting like normal self. She half heartedly played peek-a-boo and walked around with no expression.

A few hours before bedtime, Ava sat on the floor in the hallway and puked on herself. All three of us were stunned for a split second and just stared at each other. It was so sad. Ava ended up puking all over herself, me, and all of her clean pajamas for the next few hours.

After awhile, she didn’t want to be held. She decided that laying on a towel on the floor was more comfortable. A few days later, Dan and I both caught the stomach flu from Ava and found this position on the floor comforting too.

All this sickness was bringing us down so as soon as Ava felt a little better, we went out for some birthday present browsing. Here is Ava at Costco riding a butteryfly.

And here she is at Toy ‘R Us for the first time… hanging out in a mini kitchen. Would you like mayo on that?

Even though she has no idea who Elmo is, she still loved hearing him giggle while hiding in his box.

Most of the week, we stayed home and enjoyed reading time…

…smiling at flowers…

…and pointing at the crows and doves.

Besides dealing with the puking monster, Ava also had to deal with a “scary guy”. We were eating dinner at Victoria Pub, and Ava was sitting in a high chair, as usual, enjoying her own food when all of a sudden she starts screaming and shaking. She had this look of fear on her face that I have never seen before. I had no idea what was going on until she looked above the TV and shook in fear again from this leftover Halloween man hanging on the wall. To tell you the truth, I thought he was pretty scary too. So, she sat on my lap the rest of time, pointing away from the scary guy. But the weird thing is, she kept trying to turnaround to look at him. I stopped her most of the time but if I couldn’t she would freak herself out all over again. Poor Ava.

So… what do Yoda, a chair and book all of in common? Well, they all hurt Ava this week. Yoda scratched her hand when Ava decided to bother her during a nap… and the chair hit her smack in the middle of her eyebrows when she tripped and did a face plant into it.

And here is her boo-boo from a book at school. Bad book bad.

To distract her from her string of bad luck, Dada bounced a ball on his head and someone thought it was just silly.

There were a couple milestones for Ava this week. She started hugging her medo. Yeah.

And stacking rings too.

This week was her first official full day in the toddler room. One change I did notice with Ava is that her babbling is much more complex now… and she babbles with books now too.

Since her birthday is a few days aways and it appears that we beat Ava up this week, I am planning to distract everyone from her bumps and bruises with her new candle blowing out talent. Well, it’s more like spitting and it doesn’t happen on cue… oh oh, I’m in trouble.

Ava loves waving at Rudy’s picture and even likes to do it upside down.

Weeeeee.

Thanks Dada.

And at school, they tried to celebrate Ava’s birthday but it was a no go. She did not want to participate. There were too many new baby boys in the infant room that were crying and it made her cry too. I don’t like sausage parties either.

Guess who is feeling better now? Just in time for her big day.

Our little Ava is now 50 weeks old….

Her first birthday is just right around the corner. High five!!

Ava has been eating more grown up foods this week, like bread and crackers… which she loves.

Ava is starting to pick up the pace with her walking a little this week too.

I just love her ‘wind in the hair’ photos.

Ava is obsessed with her binky. I usually leave it the car for crying emergencies but sometimes it ends up in the house… and therefore straight into her mouth. When I put my foot down and take it away from her, she turns into a sad goose.

Our sad goose quickly transforms to her old self with one of her favorite distractions…. a walk outside.

Is my binky there?

Or over there?

I think it’s hiding in my car seat.

Too much pointing can lead to balance issues. Ohoh. Thank goodness for diaper padding.

Ava is a great squatter. It is preferred position for examining leaves on our walks.

And at daycare, Ava is slowly making the transition to the toddler room. On Thursday she spend most of the day there playing with the big kids and a few of her old friends who already graduated from the infant room. Ava rarely takes naps in the infant room and if she does it is only for a few minutes. But that was not true during her first toddler room visit. Here she is 45 minutes into her nap. There were 10 other kids there sleeping at the same time too. Not sure how the teachers manage that every day. Miracle workers. We had trouble waking her up from this nap. She was so passed out.

Ava spent New Year’s at Nicole’s place this year. She loved it there. First Nicole had a brick phone and now this? She should open up an antique shop

Ava loved rolling on the carpet there also with a pillow. If you say ‘nani nani’ to Ava, she heads straight for the floor as if it was a slip and slide.

Ava wasn’t able to make it up to midnight but got to enjoy some time with old friends in the early evening before going to sleep in her pack ‘n play.

She slept right thru the night… even thru this craziness. (Sorry boys, I just had to include this one!)

Over the weekend, Ava also got to visit with her friend DiDi…

… play Wii with her Aunts and their friends…

…run around their house like a crazy person…

…and refused to sit still with her Grandpa. More running around time please.

Ava is a pro at eating at restaurants now. Most of the time she eats from the high chair but this week she got to try out a booster chair. It was a little scary since it doesn’t have a seat belt but she did pretty well with it.

Here she is trying to color for the first time. Ava didn’t really get into it. I guess she is still a little too young.

Ava is also obsessed with shoes. I have to hide all shoes from her in the house or she will walk around with them in her mouth.

So when Grace needed help finding a new pair of shoes, Ava was more than glad to be of service.

Who’s a troublemaker?

Not me!

Psst. I have a secret to tell you.

This is going to be good.

I pretended to be sick of eating my veggies so my mama and dada would take me out for lunch. Yucky

I am so funny.

How am I supposed to eat a chicken soft taco?

I will demolish this thing to the best of my abilities. I promise.

Hi-yah! Those karate lessons really came in handy this week.

Mission accomplished.

Since Ava started walking we are having lots more fun chasing her around the house. She also loves riding on her magic carpet up and down the hallway

Here is Ava opening her first Christmas present. Watch for her expression as she was not ready for it.

Don’t worry Carrie, she now loves her little finger puppet