Swings at Robbins Farm Park

I should have realized for a kid that REALLY loves the rocking business, how could she NOT love the swings!! Late this am Liam and Luke stopped by with their mom Natasha and we headed over to Robbins Farm Park. It was covered with kids and parents. Now I know where we will be spending LOTS of time this summer!

Ava seemed to want to do her own thing and check out what all the other kids were doing. She started climbing on the wood buildings, such as cars and trains, and pushing kids of their seats so she could sit down. Most of them just looked her in a sort of disbelief and then started to just ignore her. That is until we made it to the sand pit. Ava plopped right down and started using the shovels and forks right out of the hands of other kids. Now, Ill tell ya, these kids wouldn't have it so they reached right back for them. There was a bit of tug of war, but the bigger kid won in the end. And i decided it was time for me to pick her up and redirect her to something else, like the swings!! And did she LOVE them. When we slowed down to get her out, she started rocking back and forth to make the swing go go go!! She was smiling and laughing the whole time. So cute.

Avas New Chair!

So yesterday I went to daycare to get Ava a little early. Honestly I think I should start paying tuition. I was there for almost and hour just talking to people and playing with Ava in all the different rooms. When the directors(Susan) daughters, Jaime and Lauren are there we play with them a bunch. Ava really likes them A LOT. Can you believe that these 2 girls gave Ava a chair?! They did and here is her BIG debut in it!! You may find this shocking, but shes trying to rock in it! haha!

The Redcoats are coming!

This past Sunday we partook in the re-enactment of the Jason Russell House battle by the Menotomy Minutemen!!! The history is as follows:

This re-enactment commemorates an event that took place on the afternoon of April 19th, 1775, as the British regulars retreated from Concord and Lexington. Even though the Regulars were going house-to-house to clear a safe path for their retreat, lame and aged Jason Russell refused to leave his home. Minutemen from as far away as Danvers had rallied to him. The British troops ultimately stormed and captured the house, killing Russell and the other defenders.

The gun shots fired did not seem to scare Ava the least bit. I think she was very interested in what was going on. She has been to the bunker hill parade after all! I love Boston! So much history that we can try to 'relive'!!!

Dare Devil

This rocking chair now sit son the dining room table. Ava tried to dismount off the arm of the chair. I was watching her, so dont worry, she didnt wipe out. :)

Fun with friends

This past Friday it was FINALLY beautiful out! There was NO rain.....it was NOT raw out...it was sunny and BEAUTIFUL! Ava and I kept real busy meeting many friends out that day. First we went to moms office and then we met up with Liam and Luke. And later in the day we met up with Alice(and Cindy of course)! Alice was trying to show Ava the ropes on the park-esp the slide. But Ava always does things HER way. I'm not going to go DOWN the slide I will climb UP it! Silly girl. We also played a lot in the front yard and walked down the street looking at all the new plants popping up through the ground! I do not want to jinx anything but I finally see and feel spring! yaya!

Its Unbelievable...almost

Well its a day and a half into Avas new eating routine. She ate like champ yesterday and didn't do too well on her milk in the am or at lunch, but last night! Wow! She drank like 6 ounces! When I picked her up she saw the sippy cup in my hand and went nutso for it so I gave it to her and she drank most of it there and on the way home. I made her a new one with diner that she almost finished before she went to bed. She seems to have no issue with not having a bottle...yet. OR the fact shes drinking cold milk. We've been trying different sippy cups and she seemed not to like the Playtex because she couldn't get enough milk and we've gone back to the 'nuby' brand cups as the top feels more like a bottle and has a greater release of liquid. Which I think is designed by how much pressure she puts on mouth piece? Maybe she needs to upgrade to the straw.....we will see. If there is one thing i do know about our daughter, its that shes very independent and wants what she wants. Hmmmm...

This is odd behavior for her, but shes been going to be around 7.30 and sleeping to 7. I'm not sure what to attribute this too and maybe I should stop thinking about it and thank my lucky stars! :)

One Year Appt

The stats are in. Ava is healthy and thriving! Shes maintaining her percentages in her weight and height which is good. The stats are as follows: head 75th%, weight 19.9 lbs 25%, height 30.5 inches 90%. Her hears were checked and had some fluid in them...could have been a viral ear infection she had in Mexico which was what the rash was that she had. The trail end of the virus leaving. She really did NOT enjoy being weighted or having any medical instruments NEAR her. Poor thing!

Some changes we are currently making, no more bottles! goodness how is this going to go! NO more warm milk! She will from now on be having 3 servings of at least 4 oz of milk a day in sippy cups. (Served along with lunch of course.) We will SEE how that goes. Its good that shes a good eater and enjoys food.

So a few things to note. Avas has had her first real laugh. Not the tickle me giggle laugh, the outright ha ha ha. Each 'ha' was followed up with an inside breath that made a funny noise. It was SO FUNNY! I was laughing out loud with her which made her do it more. So cute! She has also had her bicuspids come in and should be expecting her first year molars soon....the only indicator I have of that is that her fingers are jammed o the back of her throat causing her to gag herself.

I believe she is still recovering from Mexico and the virus she had as shes been taking NUMEROUS naps a day!! She was only getting about 7 hours of sleep there and a few small naps.

Avas first big adventure!

We had our first family trip to Cancun Mexico this past week. I think Rich and I were mostly afraid of the flight with Ava. As you all know she is a mover and a shaker!! This girl just does NOT want to sit still.....EVER. It was so nice to have some people we knew there and some extra hands to hold Ava here and there. NOT to mention Max and Anna who kept her busy and were the best playmates ever. She is one lucky girl. Did I mention we tagged along with Richs sisters family to Mexico? Crashed the trip! Teehee!

However, Ava was GREAT on the plane and even better on the way home. She slept for a good portion and would have slept more until the steward dropped a diet coke on her head practically. I supposed I would have woken up too. I was so curious to see how Ava would take to the sand and the water when I plopped her down. She LOVED it all. The sand was so fun to play with and pick up and place in buckets-and then take out She tried to use the shovel like Max and Anna, but couldn't quite get the hang of it. Though I think she thought she did. Then it happened, the ole sand in the mouth trick. It must have been good sand because it didn't stop after that one time...and it didn't stop with in the hour. Maybe by the end of the trip she was OK with not eating it anymore. But she never gave up on sampling the ocean water or pool water. She would dip her little hand and fingers in and put them right in her mouth. Delicious! This would happen over and over again until I could get her to take her paci. Eventually she would spit it out and the sampling would happen all over again.

I will let you know she did NOT get burned at all. We were very good about applying sunblock to her as much as possible. We did however have a little incident of sunblock in the eye which left me slightly freaked out as a rash appeared and her eye got swollen. EEK!

A few items to note about our trip that she LOVED almost as much as the sand and water. THe dolphins and birds. There were dolphins at our resort....can you imagine! When she got up at 530 am....ugggga....we went for walks and sometimes jogs, but always stopped to watch the dolphins and boy did she LOVE it. I would talk to her about them and say dolphins over and over again and i am convinced she learned how to say dolphin with something like 'dodah'. heh. They also had these little black chatter box birds. She was fascinated with them. We would see them and she would point and say, you know, something like 'da!'

By Wednesday Ava woke up feeling like a hot potatoe. I took her temp and it read 101.1. I am guessing closer to 102 since she took it out of her mouth briefly. We called out pediatrician and saw the doctor on the resort. After a screaming ear check we got some meds...again. This is #5, if it was in fact and ear infection. On top of that shes getting her bicuspids and lord knows what other teeth are coming up. Poor thing. After that we kept her out of the sun during the 'hot' hours. And guess what, she HATED not being outside. If we were in the room she would walk over to the door and bang on it crying.

All in all it was a great trip. I don't think it would have been nearly as great if Lynn, Billy, Max and Anna were not there. It made it more fun for us for sure, especially Ava. I would definitely do it again and recommend it to any of our friends.
Pics here: Mexico

At the swings in Mexico

Check out this lil cutie! Miss Ava loved Mexico more than I could have ever hoped for. She loved the pool, ocean and sand!! Sampled them all. More to come!

Growing Up

Today was another rainy Friday. These are the toughest because its still chilly out and we don't know enough people to actually go and have play dates. Today tried to keep us busy with a trip to the gym. They have a daycare there which keeps Ava busy and playing with other kids while I get some one on one gym time. Then we went to the grocery store had lunch and it was nap time. But there is that long few hours before dad gets home and/or we have dinner.

Ave has been so great lately, considering we are taking away her morning nap. She BARELY made it through lunch. She fell asleep in her chair and woke up almost instantly SO ANGRY that this was happening!! I picked her up and she conked out on my shoulder as I carried her to her room for a her nap. Gosh she getting so big!!

In the afternoon we entertained ourselves with a trip to Target to buy some stuff for Vacation this Sunday. 50 sunblock, formula, travel size baby shampoo....you know. WE headed home and had a few snacks and then it was serious playtime. HOW to keep this little girl entertained for a few hours now. WE played with puzzles, we played chase, hide and seek, had snacks and anything else I could muster up. Then I remembered we had FINGER PAINTS! So I attempted this with Ava. It only lasted about 5 minutes..or so it seemed. She painted...ate some paint...and then ripped up all the paper and started ripping into smaller pieces.

I also noticed and new that she was getting some new teeth but I wasn't aware of the magnitude of these new teeth. She has her front 4 and bottom 2 now, but on her top broken through her gums are her incisors and bicuspids! Shes going to have a whole top row of teeth and 2 small ones on the bottom! UNREAL!!! Poor thing, she doesn't do anything in moderation, except maybe take naps. ha! Although she has been a very good sleeper lately.(yes, im knocking on wood.)

Brithday Follow Up

Some pics of Ava the morning after her birthday. Ill have to gather all the bday stuff up and load it to flickr.