Why I'll never win "Mother of the Year"

The other day I put Ava in the bathtub in our bathroom, she needed a bath and I needed to clean so I figured it was a win/win situation. She's taken a bath in there before, and other than the fact that it's shaped different and quite a bit larger I wasn't worried about her. She was always in my view. I peeled off for a minute to pee, (the toilet is a mere 5 feet from the tub, but in a separate room ) I didn't hear the splashing that I had heard before, and as soon as I peeked out my heart dropped. She was thrashing around, under water. The image that will haunt me is her eyes wide open, her mouth gasping for air, and her arms and legs trying to get to get to a position where she could support herself. I immediately yanked her by the arm out of the water, unafraid of the fact that I could have pulled her shoulder out of socket. I didn't even dry her off and I just held her so tight and we cried together. I shouldn't have, because my crying was a dead giveaway to her that what just happened was BAD. She couldn't have been under water for more than 5 seconds, and I'm not sure how she got there unless she just slipped, but it scared the living shit out of me. I pulled myself together, she recovered pretty quickly, in fact she was laughing as I was getting her dressed. It happened to be close enough to her nap time that I laid her down (after I knew for a fact she was okay) and went to my room and lost it.

The part that really bothers me is that something similar happened to me when I was 3. I don't remember much about my early years, but I remember this day like it was yesterday. I even remember what color my outfit was. We were getting ready to leave the pool for the day, and I was walking around the outside ledge waiting for my mom. My dad was with me, close by, but I slipped and fell straight into 9 feet of water. It wasn't 2 seconds that I was under before the lifeguards got me, but to this day my biggest fear of death is drowning. It's so bad that if there's a part of a TV show or movie that includes being submerged in water, I have to turn it off to avoid being thrown into a panic. The shows where they teach you how to escape if your car were to run into water are tattooed in the back of my brain. It's also unfortunately led me to be claustrophobic. Not bad enough that it controls my life, but makes me fearful nevertheless. I'm the girl that always knows where the exit is wherever we are, bar, restaurant, sporting event, hotel...yep I'm THAT girl.

I do think she's young enough and it's not going to have any lasting effect on her, and I even put her back in that bathtub the following day and all was fine, and I did not get up to pee this time.

On a lighter note, and since I'm so bad at posting, some pics from the following days.

Not really sure what she's doing here, but she looks damn cute doing it.

At the Blue/White Scrimmage Football Game today. We stayed all of 45 minutes and it was enough to let me know that she won't be attending any football games, this year at least.

One of many days spent at the park. God I love the park. Hours and hours of play = tired, tired child. Yes I realize she looks drunk in this pic, it's a phone pic and therefore not the greatest.

This ones another shot from my phone so again not the best but I took her to my best friends son's T-Ball game and she LOVED it. Here she is with my best friends other little boy, they sat here for at least an hour straight. I was in shock.

Snow Day

We woke up to a little snow cover on the ground, and Miss Ava and I decided we needed to take advantage of this before it melts. We MIGHT have gotten a 1/2 inch, and of course schools all over the state were cancelled. Basically if there is a threat to get any snow at all, this entire area goes into survival mode, and I'm sure if I needed a gallon of milk right now I wouldn't be able to find one within a 50 mile radius. That's how we work in these parts.

So we got all dressed up (minus pants, she was still wearing her pajamas), and went out side for a bit. I also realized that the child doesn't have boots, so I broke the rules for my online shopping limits and just ordered her a pair of UG.G's, and I am going to get it for that. I don't know that I can justify spending that kind of money on shoes for her, but I would rather spend it in her than on me, so JUST THIS ONCE (yeah right) I'll indulge myself. She wasn't really sure what to do once we got out there, so she just decided it was best to stand still.

See how she's sort of frozen in her own footsteps?

Still trying to figure out what the hell this white stuff is.

This is his "I'm done" look. He ironically enough went back inside a good 5 minutes before us, and just stood and watched us from the window.

Crazy Week

To say it's been a crazy week would be an understatement. I took Ava to the doctor on Monday to check out a cough that she's had for a week or so and it turns out that she had a double ear infection as well as an upper respiratory infection. Only her second ear infection so far (knock on wood) but the coughing was keeping us all up at night and it needed to stop. Take that and add "I" teeth finally breaking through, 8547 temper tantrums and I can say I've seen better weeks. To top it all off my parents are in FL for a month, Matthew worked late almost every night, and I came close to pulling a Britney and shaving my head. It would have saved me the trouble and energy of pulling each and every hair out.

In Ava news, I know I mentioned a while back that she was taking her clothes off in her crib, leaving much to be desired when I would get her up. Well I did solve the problem temporarily by putting onesies or body suits on under anything she had on. That worked....for about a week and now she has figured out how to pull the tabs of her diaper through the onesie, and while she can't quite get it all the way off, she can get enough of it off so that the goods still come out. It wouldn't be such a problem except for that she is now OBSESSED with putting her hands down her pants, and you can imagine what a mess this can create. Just today, I got her up from her nap and she had poop smeared all over her pants, shirt, arms and face. Immediately to the tub we went. This child now bathes on average of 2 times a day. I don't know what else to do. She's not interested in the potty. She will say potty and sit on it for a few minutes, and if she's naked she will get up and immediately find a more suitable place to go. I guess I just have to be thankful that my dog seems to think that baby pee is just as good as water.

Anyway, I haven't posted pics of her in a while so here are a few recent ones. Enjoy...

Anyone else think she resembles the mad scientist here?

Sitting in her big girl chair. One of my many recent Pott.ery Barn purchases. I have since been banned from shopping there from my husband.

Doesn't the dog just look thrilled to have her on his back?? Notice the medicine bottles in her hand. She is borderline obsessed with these. Bad yes, but you will be happy to know that the lids are on VERY tight.

Clearly getting good use out of her new easel. And yes she has fallen off, and does it stop her from doing it again?? Not a chance.

And last but not least a little video for your viewing pleasure. I'm not sure whether to laugh or cry at this one. Everytime I clean she insists on having her own cleaning rag, and stuff to spray. I pretend to spray it and she will go around and wipe down where I've just cleaned. Let's hope she still likes to clean when she's 10.

When life gives you a lemon, make vodka and lemonade

Yeah I'm here. I know you all are sitting on the edge of your seats wondering what to expect next. Well the neverending challenges of this pregnancy keep coming at me. Things were going good until I got the call on Tuesday. The call that will again keep me from sleeping or enjoying a minute of life until my ultrasound on Tuesday. My Doctor called Tuesday afternoon to inform me that my AFP test came back high for Neur.al Tu.be De.fects. He assured me that he's confident based on the pathology of the dead baby that this is a direct reflection of that. I am also comforted by the fact that if he was overly concerned I would have been in his office that day. It still doesn't make it any easier on me. Yes I know these tests produce many false positives, yes I know that at the time the blood work was taken I was probably still carrying hormones from the other baby. I also know that as we weren't planning to have a baby this soon I was NOT taking pre-natal vitamins. I did start choking them down the day I found out, but there were some days at the early stages I couldn't choke them down. I just have to try to have as little faith as I have left that everything still is okay. We will know for sure on Tuesday but knowing all of the what ifs takes all the fun out of finding out the sex of this baby. All I am concerned about now is that it is healthy. And considering this is the last time I am going through this, I was hoping to at least be able to enjoy a little bit about being pregnant. So far we've struck out big time in that area.


In other totally irrrelevant news, things haven't been all that bad here. My child FINALLY decided that she can indeed get faster places if she walks. Sure she's been taking a few steps for weeks, but the other night we were out to dinner at the clubhouse where my dad plays golf, and she just took off, all the way across the room, and never looked back. That's my girl. I knew she had it in her! She still prefers to crawl but at least we're getting there. Now if the dog would only get out of her way...

Knowing me I won't post again until the weekend is over. Thankfully I have a busy one planned. Matthew is having his 20th, yep 20th High School Reunion this weekend (I love teasing him about that) so there's all kinds of crap, I mean stuff going on. Not really looking forward to much of it except Keen.land on Sunday, but seeing as my favorite thing to do out there is chug the ice cold beer, I might be in for a long afternoon. He's also dragging me to some picnic on Saturday which is forcing me to miss my beloved Cats kick the crap out of the Gators. Does he realize what a good wife I am??? Because seriously, I don't miss football games for just anybody.

**Just got a message from the nurse at my Doctor's office saying my blood work came back normal??? WTF. God I'm so confused

One last thing and then I'm moving on...

My super ahhhsome doctor called Wednesday to check on me, but to also let me know that they did some preliminary testing on the baby we lost and they determined that it did not have a breastbone, and the ribs were not in the right place. So basically it had nothing to protect it's heart and if it would have survived, it would not have had an easy life on the outside. He also briefly mentioned something called Turn.er's Syn.drome and although I only did a little bit of research, I learned that it only affects females and am now beginning to wonder if we indeed lost a girl. Definitely a question I'm going to ask next week. While I'm definitely comforted to know that this was caused by a chromosomal anomaly and not something that I did, it upsets me to know that I'm an now a statistic.


On a totally different note, and one in which probably deserves it's own post but I'm too lazy right now to do that, Ava had her 18 month check up last week. All is well, except the little squirt weighs about the same that she did at 15 months. A whopping 21 pounds. It appears that all the chicken nuggets, french fries, and hot dogs that I've been feeding her have only made her mommy fatter. Not fair indeed.

All joking aside, she's really changing alot and I know that's what they do at this stage, but I just can't get over how much of a person she is. She's really good now at communicating what she wants to us, and she's even better at showing us when she's really pissed off. I can't even list all of her new words because she has about 10 new ones a day. She's starting to interact with the dog alot more, and she now calls him "Harwee" instead of puppa. She frequently shows her disgust with him by pushing him aside, and the other day she even smacked him on the nose screaming "no" at him because he ate her chicken nugget. She looks more and more like her daddy every day and acts more and more like her mommy. And I know we will pay dearly for that later. She's still really not walking much. She can, and we've seen her do it, she just has absolutely no interest in it right now. But give the child a ladder and she will be up it faster than you can scream "shit." Oh, and did you know that she can now climb right on out of her crib? Because she can. I found her playing on the floor the other morning when I went to get her out of bed. Do you think it would be child abuse if I gently handcuffed her to the sides, because I'm not quite ready to put her in the toddler bed, and even if I was I have no idea where the instructions are to change it.

She starts a mother's day out program on Monday and I'm really looking forward to it. I have no idea how she's going to handle it but I'm all about having 4 hours to myself. Can you say toddler free time at the grocery store? Oh I can hear angels singing now. It's going to be nice to put the frozen stuff on the conveyor belt without having to explain why it looks like a mouse got a hold of everything I have. I'm also hoping that it entices her to WALK. She passed her August deadline, and she's a flower girl in a wedding next month and I'll be damned if she doesn't walk down that aisle. I refused to push my 19 month old child in a wagon. Not gonna do it.

I guess that's it. 5 more days until we hopefully get to hear the heartbeat on our other baby. I guess the good news is that since all of this has happened, I have felt 1000 times better. No more headaches, no more backache, no more nausea (for the most part) and my appetite has returned with a vengeance. I guess I should have listened to my body that was telling me something was wrong. Naturally I just didn't want to believe it. And now I'm anxiously, and impatiently waiting for that first kick, a sign that all is well in there.

Ticker

Does everyone see my ticker? Do ya, do ya?? See how it says I'm 12 weeks? Does that mean that this hell that they call the first trimester is coming to an end?? Lord I hope so.

My next appointment is Tuesday, and I am literally counting down the hours. I'm telling myself that all is well, but as you know nothing is as great as hearing that hearbeat, or heartbeats for the very first time. I probably won't sleep much until then.

I promise I do have a worthy post to write, but since no one's around on the weekends I know you can wait until Monday to read it.

Oh and I have the funniest video of Ava to put on, but lo and hehold Blogger is being a pain in the ass and it won't upload, so maybe I'll save that for a rainy day.

17 months, and pictures for your viewing pleasure

So my little precious Ava turned 17 months on Monday, so I'm a few days late getting to this. As usual this one is more for me than you, cuz I'd rather type than write in the baby book. And it's easier to type and eat popcorn than it is to write and eat popcorn.


This child is seriously wearing me out, but at the same time I'm having a total blast watching her change and grow on a daily basis. I swear to you she can crawl faster than some kids walk. Her knees are constantly black and calloused and I'm just waiting for her to literally just get up and run from me. Skip walking, go straight to running, do not pass GO, do not collect any money. But bless her heart she is TRYING so hard to walk. She just can't get the right balance and it frustrates her to no end. She stands up tries to take a step and then just falls down in a fit of tears, and it totally breaks my heart. So in an effort we do lots of finger walking, and she seems okay with that.


Vocally? She's a pro. Yep I'm gonna brag a bit. The child has over 30 words, too many that I honestly can't even count them all. New ones this month are below. And she actually knows what she's talking about when she says them, or at least I think she does.


Shoe
Socks
Toe (says it while she takes a grab at my big toe)
Too bash (tooth brush)
Dink (drink)
Keys (obsessively points to key rack and yells until I give her the exact ones she wants)
Ban-tet (blanket - she has two that MUST go with us everywhere)
Pre-tty (sounds just like that, two very pronounced syllables. Points to herself in the mirror and says it, no idea where she learned that one)
Cute (pronounced more like cuuuuute - again, repeated when glancing at self in mirror, also repeated anytime I pull clothes out of her closet)
Too-tie (cookie - the person who taught her this needs to be punished. She's not stupid, she knows the difference between a cookie and a cracker.)
Mom (not really a new word, but I'm no longer mama. I'm flat out mom. Sounds so weird coming from a toddler)
Please and thank you (peas and dank ou - I'll take what I can get)

I think that's it, she's very good at repeating after us, but these are daily words around here.


I know I've mentioned it before but the child can and will climb on anything. Evidence below. And these are bar stools, so technically a little taller than a normal chair, and yes I took away the hand sanitizer from her before she could eat it.






She's a pro at undressing herself:



She has great organization skills (I did have this drawer insanely organized. You can see that she definitely does not have my OCD problem)


And she loves to get herself in challenging and difficult positions. Any one else think she needs to start some sort of gymnastics??


I just love this child more and more each day, and the thought of sharing her and not being able to focus all my time on her is terrifying and overwhelming. But there will also be a day when I look over and she's desperately trying to teach the twins something new, and I know my heart will burst with pride.

As for me, the past two days have been a nightmare. Everytime I think that I'm getting over this pukey crap, I have a setback. Yeah I know I'm "technically" still in the first trimester, and the second one can't come soon enough. I guess deep down I'm thankful that I'm feeling bad, because most of my other symptoms have all but gone away. Except for the peeing...every hour, which keeps me from sleeping which in turn makes me a bitter hag. I feel like a pill factory. I'm taking 2 Zo.fran a day, Tu.ms after almost every meal, and at night I'm usually taking Bena.dryl and a few times I've even taken Dram.amine. I can't sleep without them. When I was pregnant with Ava I think I took Tyl.enol MAYBE 2 times the entire pregnancy and that was it. I just can't do it this time. IAnd I'm praying that even though what I'm taking is considered safe, that my babies are able to come out alright. Oh and I'm also only taking Flinst.one Vitamins at this point. My doctor said it was okay, even though I still feel like I'm cheating myself. But they taste a heck of a lot better than regurgitated prenatals. Trust me.

Wordless Wednesday

Apparently Mr. Sippy cup's lid was not on tight enough. And I have no idea how that kleenex got in there...

15 months, going on 10

I'd have to say that today was one of the better days I've had in a while. Ava had her 15 month pictures this morning, so we got up and met my parents for breakfast beforehand. She of course cheesed it up like a professional, then went and played her heart out at Gymboree and crashed for a much needed 3 hour nap. When she woke up is when the fun began.

Since we've moved into this house, I feel like I'm constantly doing something. Laundry, dishes, vacuuming, sweeping, mopping, unpacking, hanging up pictures, picking up, and vacuuming some more. I feel like I rarely have time to sit down and when I do it's usually after Ava goes to bed. Because of the craziness I feel like I'm not doing as much as I need to with her so today I decided to take away all distractions, and give her my undivided attention. As soon as she woke up, I immediately turned off the TV and my computer and the only noises in the house was the laughter and jabbering of my little girl. I don't have a cell phone at the moment (mom moment #1578 I'll get to at the end of the post) so even that couldn't get in the way. It was just me and her and even though I knew it already she is just an amazing child. She's working on a vocabulary of about 20 words now, is repeating almost everything I say, mimicking alot of things I do and in my opinion is just sharp as a tack. And of course she's one of the funniest human beings I know. We laughed, we played, we read stories, I got lots of kisses and hugs, and of course I turned into a human jungle gym for alot of the time. Even the few tantrums that she threw didn't bother me. I just can't get over how my little baby has truly turned into a little girl, the changes every day are just remarkable. Watching her learn something new has to be one of the greatest things about motherhood, and knowing that I played a part in helping her is like nothing I can describe.

So, off on another random subject, I have been without a cell phone since Friday. Do you know what this is like for me? I have had a cell phone since 1995 and it is rarely far from my side. I had to get something out in the mail Friday, so when I realized that at 11:30 AM that the mail had already come, I decided to throw Ava in the car and take it to the post office myself. One small problem, I left the letter, my wallet and cell phone on the top of the car and drove off. It wasn't until about 1 mile down the road when I heard and saw my phone fly off the roof. I was able to recover my wallet (thank god) but all that was left of my phone was the back, and part of the battery. Not too worried about the phone, but the thought of re-programming all my numbers is enough to throw me over the edge. And do you know where the letter was? In my driveway of course.

Oh, another random subject, do you remember that race that I was training for? Well it's Wednesday, and guess what? I'm not running in it! Because of my foot injury I'm forced to lay off for a couple of weeks. Boo hoo. I told my girls I'll be at the finish line with margaritas. Hey it's the least I can do.

Happy 4th to everyone. Be safe!

Fru-strated

I'm going out of my mind! When we moved I bought a new laptop, complete with Windo.ws V.ista which I am quickly realizing my hatred for. I have burned a total of 10 discs from my old computer and I'm slowly getting things organized on the new one, but using Wo.rd and Ex.cel, forget it. I'm not even going to try. I'm old fashioned. I liked my Wind.ows 2000 just fine. And it doesn't help the computer nerd in my family (a.k.a. my brother) has no idea to use it either. Fantastic...

In Ava news, little Miss Priss stood by herself for a whole 10 seconds at Gymbo.ree today. And naturally I've been trying to get her to repeat it all afternoon. Any such luck? Not a chance in hell.

She's also started sticking her tongue out when she's concentrating. Which normally would be cute but since my mom and I both do it without realizing, it's looking more and more like we have a third generation tongue sticker outer. I assume it's Gods way of getting back at me since I used to constantly make fun of my mom for doing it.

Ta ta

Me likey me daddy

I always knew Matthew was going to be a good father to any kids we had together. I had seen him around his son, and was so proud to stand next to him and call him mine. I will never forget something he said to me early in our relationship. He looked at me and told he was terrified of having any more children, mainly because he was terrified of having a girl. He knew that it would be a love he could never match, and he would never be able to put her down. He knew that someday, as hard as it was going to be, he was going to have to punish her for her own good. He knew that she was going to be rotten and hateful as a teenager. He knew that someday he would have to watch her start dating, and that meant showing all prospective boyfriends his enormous gun collection. He knew that one day she would get married and that man will become responsible for her. He's afraid that after that day she would no longer be daddy's little girl and need him. He on the other hand is completely wrong. She will always need him, she will always be his little girl, and there is nothing in this world greater than that.

Happy Father's Day Matthew!

Daddy and Ava

Ready to go to church

My sister-in-law and nephew. I wish I had the pic of him also wearing Ava's old sleeper that we put on him after he had a massive diaper blowout.

Cards are way more fun than anything else.


I hope everyone else had a wonderful Father's Day!

She slapped me first...

I imagine that's what is going on in my childs head, because I just slapped her hand as she was doing something she wasn't supposed to (imagine that) and she turned and slapped my hand back. I had to laugh really, because it really is just funny.

Reason why I love being a mom. #7564

Today and tonight was one of those days where being a mom is exhausting, challenging but so worth it. Ava has been sick most of the day. No puking but it seems like I've changed more than 15 diapers since lunchtime alone. Stuff that comes with the territory but stuff that makes it hard when you are the only human being within a 100 mile radius that the child wants anything to do with.

Tonight I got to do something that I haven't done in a very long time. I got to comfort and rock my baby to sleep. She's the kind of baby you lay in the crib, turn the lights out and she goes to sleep on her own. I loved holding her with her back on my stomach, watching her rub her blanket furiously in her face. I loved watching her pelvic thrust and throw her legs all over the place. (apparently this is her newest nightly sleeping ritual.) I even loved it when she rolled over and put her finger in my nose, only to promptly take it out and put it in my mouth. But what I loved most was that she rolled over on her belly and laid her head on my arm, fighting to keep her eyes open while rubbing my face, as if to silently thank me for taking such good care of her.

No one could have prepared me for how much I love being her mommy.

MIA...

And it doesn't mean missing in action, it means mommy in action. Because that's exactly what I've been up to. Between the running (yes I'm STILL doing it, but I gave up running outside and am now going back to the gym), the packing, the child chasing, the moving, I've completely neglected my blog.

We closed on the house last week, so now we are in a mad rush to get the hell out of here so we can get our house ready and on the market. I've got the movers scheduled for the 25th, so at least I have to get it done by then.

Mother's Day was great. Not as eventful as last years, but it was still great. Last year's was spent at the Tim McGraw and Faith Hill concert where I had floor seats so close to the stage we could reach out and touch them! It still sometimes hasn't hit me that I'm some one's mommy, but I am loving every minute of it. We got up and had breakfast with my parents, then they took Ava back to their house to nap, and Matthew and I ordered my fancy new Duet' washer and dryer from Lowe's, then we had a late lunch before picking the babe back up. I'd have to say that was a pretty good present.

We did have a little scare last night. I was in the kitchen loading the dishwasher and I heard a huge crash, and then an even bigger scream. My poor little baby was surrounded by this

By some miracle she only had a scratch the size of a papercut It makes me sick to think what could have happened. I was already in emergency room mode as soon as I heard the crash.

Here's a few pics.

Here we are at my parents feeding the ducks.

And sitting in her big girl chair. You will be excited to know that she is FINALLY cutting her top two teeth.

I absolutely love this dress.

This is totally unrelated, but I think you know who she's rooting for on American Idol tomorrow night.

Separation Anxiety and other Random Thoughts

So basically Ava has decided that now would be a good time to start suffering from separation anxiety. We've had instances before, but nothing and I mean NOTHING like this. It goes something like this, if I I put her down, she screams. If I take a shower while she's awake, she screams AND beats on the shower door. If I leave the room, she screams while beating on anything she can find. If I fold laundry, she screams while throwing all my freshly folded items in another cute little pile. You get the idea I'm sure. She only stops if I'm holding her, playing with her, or feeding her. I know this is normal at this stage but lord I had no idea. Right now she's screaming in her crib because she hasn't napped today (Monday is Gymboree day and as much as I love it, it puts a super wrench in the schedule). I'm just hoping that she will give in and go to sleep, even though it is a little late for a nap, momma needs a little break. I guess she could be teething, but she's had Tylenol and that hasn't changed anything. If that's the case, then disregard everything I've just written and offically label me as worst mother of the year.

Moving on, just some random stuff that's happening around here.

• I kicked some serious ass at K.eene.land last Friday. I would tell ya exactly how much but I probably shouldn't. Let's just say I had to sign an IRS ticket so they will take taxes out...boo.
• Ava has officially dropped the morning nap. I thought it might be happening, but it's official now. She has gone from 2, 1 hour naps to 1 REALLY long one mid afternoon. Throws a wrench a little bit in my daily routine, but I'll take it!
• Tomorrow morning we are meeting with the bank, and then we are making an offer on what we consider to be our dream house. I never thought we would find something that we both love, but this house is it. However after our last experience, I'm not getting my hopes up. If we get it I'll be esctatic, if we don't we will move on and keep looking. Keep your fingers crossed that my realtor gets it right this time.
• On Wednesday Matthew and I are leaving for a much needed mini vacation to Orlando. He has to go for a conference, and his boss told him to take me along for the ride. I can't tell you how much I am looking forward to it. He and I rarely get away together for anything other than an occasional date night, so these 4 days are going to be pure adult bliss. Our anniversary was earlier this month, so I guess you can say it's a late anniversary present. The only downfall is leaving the baby for that long. I know she will be in good hands, I'm just going to miss the snot out of her.
• She is offically crawling all over the place. I don't know if it always happens this quickly, but my god. It only took her about 3 days. And in those 3 days things have definately become more challenging. I knew it would be, but honestly I was beginning to think we would skip crawling all together, and while I don't think it will last long, I'm going to enjoy every second that I can.
• My great aunt passed away last week after having a stroke. She was old and it wasn't unexpected, and I'm thankful that I have such a good lasting memory of her. We did a "generation" dance at our wedding, and her and her husband were the last ones standing. When she passed, they had been married for 65 years.

Since it will probably be her second birthday before I get around to posting pics from her birthday, I'll leave you with a picture of my normally super deliciously happy baby! This pic was taken on the day of her party...so at least I included one on there.

Oh and by the way....she's asleep so I'm off to catch up on blogs, and the news of the tragic shootings today in VA...I'm keeping all of those familes in my prayers.

Easter Explosion

So I hope your Easter was swell, because ours...not so much. It started out promising, but that all diminished when I heard bloodcurdling screaming, and noticed a super rotten smell walking down the hallway to Ava's room. Explosion...Ava's first poop out of the diaper experience, and it was not a pleasant one. All up the back, all over the bed, all over the blanket, and she was left with the worst case of d.iaper rash that I had ever seen. We went straight to the bath, and at this point I realized that going to church was no longer a priority. We were able to meet my parents out for breakfast and then back to their house for a while before the screaming started again.

She's had d.iaper rash before, but I have never seen anything like this. There was even a slight moment where it appeared to be bleeding. Everytime we walked into her bedroom to change her she woud scream. Everytime I would even put a wipe near her she would scream and I cried and told her how sorry I was. I felt so helpless and horrible because even though I knew I was helping her, I didn't want her to think that I was deliberately causing her pain. I finally just let her air it out for a while, but in the hour that I decided to do that she pooped on two blankets and a towel. The poor child just didn't stop. The worst is behind us, but now the hardest part is keeping her hydrated. I put Pe.dialyte in her bottle but since we all know she won't take anything out of a sippy cup, she promptly used her baseball skills and hurled it all the way across the room. I finally did get her to take some water, but other than that all she had all day was milk and formula. She would not eat anything else. Yeah for another set back trying to wean from the bottle....

I tried to capture a few good shots of her with her Easter basket, and although they aren't as good as I wanted, she put on her brave face. She's such a trooper.









And I'm working on her birthday party post...I'll get to it eventually!!


And Happy Anniversary to my hubby....thank you for 2 glorious years! I can't wait for many more...

One Year Stats

Weight: 19 lbs. 2 ounces (I promise I do feed her)

Height: 29 1/2 inches

Head: 48 cm

And here are the glorious things that she is doing these days

Pulls up on anything everything

Babblesand squeals ALL.THE.TIME (she gets that from me)

Says and waves bye bye to EVERYONE and EVERYTHING

Plays tug o'war with the dog and his toys

Still rolling all over the place, however now she must have at least one toy in her hand while doing so

Loves playing patty cake and peekaboo. All you have to do is say patty cake and she squeals while clapping her hands.

Words are mama, dada, dog, hi, bye, duck, ball, more (sounds more like muh), NO....that seems to be her favorite, night night (nigh nigh) and sh*t (I am NOT proud of this one and have since scratched that from my vocabulary permanently)

Does the cheer to C-A-T-S Cats, Cats, Cats (you have to be a UK fan to know this one)

If you cough, she fake coughs back at you

She pinches my neck and pulls my hair but ONLY when she's tired

I can't believe she is the same baby we brought home a year ago. I'm so not ready for her to grow up!

And I've been working on a video for her birthday party on Saturday, and I promise to upload it soon. I would have done it yesterday, but yesterday wasn't one of my best days. Will post about that later.

Happy Birthday!

Happy Birthday Baby Girl. You have made our lives complete!

Random Thoughts

I am in utter disbelief that in two short days my baby will be ONE. I, in the meantime have so much to do to get ready for her party this weekend. We're expecting about 35 people, and I have no idea how I'm going to handle food for that many.

I'm working on a video montage, but now it looks like I will have to change most of it...after I've spent MANY, MANY nights and hours working on it. It's a long story. Let's just say that if I do it my way I will upset and disappoint several people. And we wouldn't want to do that now would we.

Matthew took me out for my birthday. I proceeded to take a few too many shots and made the whole bar sing Happy Birthday to me. It was karaoke night, so it wasn't too much to ask for. He also lost his wedding band, and we've turned the house upside down for it. It's not that I can't get him another one, it's just that it has such sentimental value as I put it on his finger that day and that can never be replaced.

We have to make a decision this week, one that might be the most important decision that we make for a long time. We have to decide whether or not we are going to buy a lot of land to build our dream house on. We've been talking about it for months, but it's time to get off our butts and do something about it. As much as I want for it happen, it scares the living bezeezus out of me.

Ava's acting like she wants to try to drop her afternoon nap. She hasn't had her afternoon nap in almost a week, and it's totally not okay with me. She is however cruising a little bit now so she spends alot of time in her crib doing that.

She also said what appeared to be "shit" the other day. Now don't get me wrong she does babble alot of which 99% is completely un recognizable...but this was as plain as day and Matthew and I looked at each other and cracked up. Oops.

I guess that's all. I'll leave you with a picture of her in her new car seat facing forward. My baby girl is growing up!

Happy Birthday to...

Me!

I'm now 31 years old and for the first time in my life I really don't care about it being my birthday. 1 year and 4 days ago I had a perfect, beautiful baby girl, and no present will ever top that.