Monday, May 7, 2012

A few pictures

Since I didn't have any pictures in my last post, here are a few of my cutie...

She's ready for the Knicks playoff games! Don't be jelly of her jeggings!



Here she is being a little mommy pushing her (sideways) baby on the boardwalk.




And we decided to rearrange the living room and we now have lala la la, lala la la Ava's world! (sesame street reference for those who don't know!)



- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Saturday, May 5, 2012

Where has my baby gone?

I know they say that time flies by, but I really can't believe that my little baby is now a toddler!  Ava has been amazing us with the new things she does every day.  It's such a fun time and I could just crack up at her all day long...except when she throws a mini tantrum, that's not really that funny!

Some things to remember about little miss 16 months:

Ava loves to be outside.  Thankfully, it's been a mild winter into spring so we've been able to spend a lot of time outside.  She loves her car but now halfway around the block, she feels the need to get out and push it instead of riding in it!  We've done bubbles and sidewalk chalk and go to the playground daily whether it is our little playground in our development or one in another town.  Dirty fingernails are an almost daily occurrence as our little miss has no problem getting down in the dirt.

Ava can successfully make many animal noises when asked, "What does a _____ say?" or if we see an animal.  We've mastered dog, cow, duck, sheep, pig, chicken, monkey, cat, and sometimes horse (she sometimes says baaah instead of nay).

While I might not win mother of the year award for this one, I think it's pretty darn smart.  Ava can name a lot of the Sesame Street characters...Eh mooooo (Elmo) being her favorite.  When the Elmo's world song starts playing, Ava literally stops in her tracks and gets insanely excited.  She also knows Cook (Cookie Monster) Bi Bir (Big Bird) and Os car (umm that would be Oscar).  She also knows Dora and Blue (Blue's Clues).

We know lots of body parts!  Mouth, teeth, nose, eyes, ears, hands, feet, toes, hair, tummy and grandpa's mustache!  Ava has about 8 teeth that are in and all four molars are breaking through as I type.  She's been a trooper even with a terrible diaper rash.

Ava's starting to eat a little better.  She's loving chicken nuggets (again, mother of the year) with ketchup which is pretty big since she really doesn't eat meat.  Strawberries, grapes and bananas are the current fruits of choice.  She still loves yogurt, cheese, french toast sticks, and scrambled eggs.  She hasn't had mac & cheese in a while...as a matter of fact, the last time we tried to give her it, she didn't even touch it!  We try to give her what we are eating for dinner so she's exposed to more of a variety.

NO, ahhh NO, the wonderful word of toddlerhood.  We crack up now when we ask her a question and she actually answers us!  She will shake her head no and actually mean it!  Hence, where has my baby gone?!  She also has her meltdowns when we tell her no...like plop on the floor hysterical crying for like 30 seconds.  Then she's on to something new.  She really does like to test us though.  Most of the time she knows exactly what she's doing and is looking us straight in the eye as she does it.  Have any tips on getting a toddler to sit in the bath?  I'm all ears!

My sweet girl does have manners though.  She signs and says Pes (please) and den do (thank you).  She also signs more, cracker, banana, and cookie all in the right context. 

So as I can imagine that toddlerhood only gets more challenging in the next year or so, I can't wait to see what new, exciting, fun things come along with it.  This is really a fun time filled with so many moments that melt my heart and make me realize how lucky I am to have an amazing daughter.  Her kisses bring a tear to my eye.  I love that sweet girl!

**sorry, no picture today**

Sunday, April 1, 2012

Garden State Discovery Museum

After swimming on Saturday, we headed down to the Garden State Discovery Museum with 2 other families.  The museum was really cute...similar to a Please Touch type museum.  It was a rainy Saturday so we were there with a bajillion other people but I think all the girls had a good time!

Ava, Brielle and Ava


They had little "exhibits" set up...a diner, vet, doctors office, fishing boat, house, barn, garden, farmer's market, etc. 

Here are the girls cooking us up some treats in the diner...


a giant light brite...


and at the construction site, Ava decided she would be a plumber...

It was a fun day!  And there was not one meltdown (by our children...plenty others had major meltdowns).  Everyone just played and played and played.  Even the baby of the group, Gia, was an angel in her stroller and didn't make a peep!

Afterwards, we headed to get some lunch.  We wanted to go to this place called the Pop Shop but I guess everyone else did too.  It was an hour wait and with 3 starving toddlers and 6 starving parents, we weren't waiting.  So we went to a pizza place and had a great lunch.  On the way walking back to our cars, the moms stopped in a little shop.  We look out the window to this...


Poor Brie getting her diaper changed on the bench while Nick and Ava shield her from the passersby.  Hysterical!  Definitely a Dad move! 

Love fun days like this.  Ava is so lucky to have little friends already!  And Mommy's lucky to have such good friends in the same season of life!  It's like an instant sanity check...or insanity check!

Monday, March 19, 2012

Happy St. Patrick's Day

We had such a nice weekend! Ava started swim class with some of her best buddies. So on Saturday mornings, we head down the parkway for our 8:30 swim class. She seems to really like it and has fun splashing around. After swim, we all went out for breakfast. It was a fun time!

Later that day, we went over to see Nick's parents who were up from Florida for the weekend. Ava was all decked out in her St. Patty's day garb...



Complete with pink cowboy boots!

When I figure out how to post a video, I'll have to show you our little star getting in on the March Madness action.


On Sunday we had a birthday party at Little Gym for Ava's BFF Brielle. It was really cute and all the kids had such a good time!




Ok so Ava totally loves her baby dolls. She feeds them their bottles, rides them all around in their stroller and loves on them like crazy. When I saw her doing this yesterday, I totally melted.



She laid a dish towel down, put her baby on her belly, patted her back and said "ni night"! And then moved on to the one on her chair. She is so sweet! I just love my baby girl so much!

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Thursday, March 1, 2012

Florida

We flew down to Florida to visit all the grandparents over the long President's Day weekend.  It was so nice to get away to the 80 degree weather!  I wish I took more pictures but I was more interested in soaking up the sun and having fun with my smooshie!

Our flight down was alright.  We waited to board last so that we'd have to spend the least amount of time seated on the plane.  We were supposed to take off around 9:30 which we thought would be good since Ava naps around then.  Things got a little hairy when the Pilot came on and said, "Looks like we're all set to take off.  We're number 15 in line so we'll be in the air shortly."  Ummm, 15 in line?  So that was an extra half hour on the plane before we even got into the air.  Ava got a little cranky after the novelty of the window, tray table, tv and lights wore off.  She fell asleep for about an hour and we kept her busy the other hour and half with new books, toys and snacks we had stashed in the diaper bag.  She got many compliments so I guess she was a decent flyer!

Ava loved the beach and pool.  She literally played in the sand for an hour before she got antsy!



And then ate the perfect beach lunch...PB&J!


Splashed in the water for a bit...



God I just love her so much!


We went out to dinner a few nights and stayed in a few nights. 

I'll take a bowl of guac please!
Ava rode the merry go round for the first time...


And a train with Lolo...(Lolo was the smallest so she got shoved in there with Ava and loved every second of it!)

 **She didn't have a black eye, that's just the remnants of dinner that we didn't see.  It really didn't look like that in person**

Grandma Katie got Ava some new books and toys to play with.  She kept the books in this little basket stool.  I guess Ava thought it was a great place to read!


Overall it was a fabulous time!  Ava's so lucky to have 4 grandparents that love her so much!

Sunday, February 26, 2012

Ava's First Birthday

Ok, so Ava's now 14 months (today!) and I'm just getting around to a birthday post.  Oops!

On her actual birthday, December 26th, we had a family party at our house.  Just some dinner and ice cream cake...and a stomach bug for me!  I wasn't feeling myself all day but it didn't fully hit me til all our family was already here.  So please excuse how I look and focus on my pretty pretty princess!


again, we're terrible with family photos!

Ice Cream Cake!

Ava's Smash Cake

Maxx getting in on the cake smash action

Then we had her big first birthday party a few weekends later.  We rented a local fire house's banquet hall and, although it was a lot of work, it turned out excellent!  I had some little elves help with the setup the night before which was the best and I thank them so much!

A few shots of the setup...

play area for the kiddies

centerpieces

dessert table


yummy and gorgeous cake!

Unfortunately, Ava wasn't feeling so hot so she was like this most of the time...


But she did rally after a little nap and some food and she played with her friends!

playing in the bounce house
Ava's BFF beautiful Brielle

crazy cousins hamming it up in the photo booth

cousins coloring

Ava loves Aunt Sarah

There were a ton of people there.  We are so lucky to have such amazing friends and family that they all came to celebrate our little cupcake's first birthday!  I say I'd do it all again next year but Little Gym or one of those places where you just show up with a dozen cupcakes and they do the rest is definitely calling my name!







Monday, January 30, 2012

Dinner Date

I've come to the conclusion that I'm pretty bad at blogging! Oh well, I'll update when I can!

We had a pretty low key weekend with NO PLANS! Weekends like this are few and far between so we took advantage of it. We cleaned, relaxed, shopped, played and relaxed some more! We also had a date with this little man...


Can you even deal with his cuteness sitting in that chair eating roasted broccoli and brussel sprouts?!?! (yes, I see the knives right in front of the 1 year old, he couldn't reach them!) Rick, Erica and Maxx came over Saturday to play and have dinner. Ava and Maxx loved playing together and were pooped by the end of the night. Love seeing them together! We got to skype with Grandma LoLo and grandpa down in Florida. Ava and Maxx were both confused with the whole thing but it was cute.



Ava also enjoyed her dinner; however, hers was doused in ketchup...her new favorite thing!

We have been trying to get Ava to eat what we are eating for dinner. Some nights it works, some nights yogurt wins! She surprises us though with the things she eats...like this roasted beet hummus. Couldn't get enough!


AND we have a walker! She will walk a lot at school but not that much at home. And if we try to take a video of her doing it or try to make her walk to us, she immediately sits down! Oh well, it will happen soon enough!

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Thursday, January 12, 2012

Christmas Recap

I know it was forever ago but I never got around to uploading and posting about it.  I'm using this blog as a little snapshot of our life so I have to get this in there since it was our baby's first Christmas!

Christmas Eve was spent at my parent's house with the Kukuckas.  The Giants were playing the Jets so we did a more casual Christmas Eve day type thing since our family is Giants fans and the Kukuckas are Jets fans.  Of course things worked out perfectly since the Giants won!  I don't have many pictures but here are a few of Ava and Maxx decked out in their Giants attire!



Ava doesn't get the whole hugs thing yet!
 Then someone thought it would be funny to dress them up as Jets fans...so sneaky!


 Maxx and Ava with Grandma Lolo


We spent Christmas morning at our house.  Our parents, Grandma Gerry, Uncle Jimmy and Aunt Sarah came over for breakfast and to watch me Ava open gifts. 
little elf girl

jammies

hello belly
After all the presents were opened, I needed a nap we headed up to Nick's aunt's house where we had a nice dinner and got to spend time with the family.

I always said that once we had kids, I wanted to stay home for Christmas.  I want to be able to relax and let the kids play with all their new toys and just enjoy the day.  Since Ava was only 1 this year, traveling wasn't too big of a deal because she didn't know what was going on with all the boxes and new things in the house anyway.  Next year may be a different story though.  We shall see.

Next up, the little miss turns 1 :::tears:::

Wednesday, January 11, 2012

12 Months!

My sweet, sweet baby is 1 already!  She was actually 1 three weeks ago, but who's counting?  So I haven't even gotten around to posting about Christmas yet but I'll do a 12 month update, Christmas recap (just so I have it somewhere!) and then the extravaganza that was the FIRST BIRTHDAY!

So Ava Jo, you are 12 months old.  A whole year.  Mommy is crying!  You continue to amaze us each and every day and we don't know how we ever got by with out you!  (although we did sleep more!)


Here are some of your 12 month stats:

  • you have 2 1/2 teeth...2 bottoms and 1/2 a top.  those suckers take a long time to come in
  • you wear mostly 18-24 month clothes and size 4 diapers
  • you have become quite the picky eater.  we can always win you over with yogurt, applesauce and mac and cheese but most other things are hit or miss.  you have been enjoying the puree pouches and suck them right out of the pouch in no time.  maybe your teeth are bothering you and that just seems more appealing now
  • we are (and have been) down to 2 bottles a day, morning and night but now we are off the smelly formula and drinking whole milk!  you drink milk out of a cup as well so it's only a matter of time before we say bye bye to bottles completely!
  • sleep is a steady 2 nights on, 1 night off deal.  you have been congested for what seems like all winter plus teething so we'll say it's that.  or you just want to be closer to mommy and daddy!
  • you got so many new toys for christmas and your birthday that i don't even know what your favorites are anymore!  you love your cupcake kitchen and all your baking accessories, your drum and instruments, rody, rocking horse, little people cars and bus, and so many more.  honestly, we haven't even opened all of your toys yet because you can't possibly play with them all.  we will rotate them in, don't worry!
  • santa brought you baby signing time volumes 2 and 3 for christmas so now we have some variety in our lives.  daddy and i already know all the songs and i've caught you signing shoes (as well as saying it) and thank you!
  • when asked what sound a cow makes, you say moooooooo!  and you also do TOUCHDOWN for our awesome GMEN (go big blue!)
  • still not walking!  but we're fine with that
  • you have developed this new scream cry that sounds like you're on the brink of a temper tantrum.  i fear that the ricky shuffle is right around the corner!
  • you love your new chair and all your new books!  you literally sit in the chair for 30 minute periods and read or watch baby signing time.  you pick out a book, sit down and read, throw it on the ground and get another one.  repeat ten more times.  
  • when you wake up in your crib and we go in to get you, you hand us your blankie and binkie before we can pick you up.  i love when you do little things like that
  • you are doing so well at school.  your teachers love you and i really think you have a great time there.  i am so thankful for that
  • i swear the week you turned 1, you started babbling like crazy as if you were ready to have a conversation.  you don't say momma or dadda that much anymore, it's more just crazy babbling.  and you have this new smile where you look like you're saying cheese and you resemble grandma lolo very much!
cheeeeese!
not the best example but if you know lolo, you get it

 So baby girl, you are turning into a little girl right before our eyes but just know that you will always be my little baby smooshie tushie little bugs ava jo ava jo the prettiest girl I know!  Mommy and Daddy (and everyone else who knows you) love you so much and are so excited that you are 1!  We couldn't have asked for a better first year with you.  Thank you for being the best!