Ava turns 2

Ava has been two for about six months now, maybe longer. Except now that she is actually two, I am realizing that she wasn't two all along, and if we thought she was a pistol before, we are really in for it.

This little girl cracks us up all day long. Ava added hilarious to the mix. She will make you laugh.

One of our favorite things is how she comforts you after she hurts you. She'll hit or kick or bite (all in good fun!) and when you give her a sad face she immediately gets this sweet little comforter face and past your cheeks to make it all better. It is so wonderful.

She is definitely an active child. Impossible to shop with. I never know where she is or what she is getting into. She is always running faster than her feet can carry her sliding down the hall on her belly after a good fall. She is up bright and early every morning - like before 6:30 am, every day.

She has been potty training herself all year, but she won't quite commit and just runs around half naked for a good portion of the day. She had almost given up her binky, but then Eric came along and now the location of her binky is her main concern in life.

She kept trying to convince me that it was actually my birthday, not hers, but I think she enjoyed the day either way. And she really loves the birthday song!

Diseased

A few days after we got home from Bear Lake, our little nephew, Friedrich, got chicken pox from the vaccine he had a couple weeks before. It is very rare for this to happen, and we were feeling pretty bad for the little guy. While we were on our trip, Mason's throat glands were swollen like little golf balls, but he didn't complain about a sore throat and didn't have a fever, so we didn't worry too much. (I didn't worry too much, Tim thought he might suffocate in his sleep.) Then about a week after we got back, he broke out in a little rash, too.

I figured he caught chicken pox from Friedrich. Then Brielle spiked a fever. Then I started thinking it was very strange that three kids would get a disease that they had all been immunized against. So I googled! Possibly chicken pox - probably hand, foot and mouth disease. Turns out they are very similar and neither can really be treated, so no need to get a doctor involved.

When Ava caught it, I got a little concerned. She got sores all over her body, not just in her mouth and a couple on her hands like the other two kids. She was inconsolable one minute and happy to run and play the next, like kids often are when they're sick. She didn't want to walk much and was obviously itchy and uncomfortable. She kept pointing at her spots and saying, "bug!" Since our neighbor is our pediatric physicians assistant, I ran her down there and it turns out the internet knows a thing or two about diseases. Definitely hand, foot and mouth... and that's what Friedrich must have had, too.

Once Ava started to feel a little better, Tim got a terrible sore throat and a fever and was down for a couple of days. As soon as the sores in his throat healed, they turned up all over his hands and feet. The doctor told me that it is actually a lot more painful than itchy and evidently that was the truth. Tim was on the couch for three days and said it felt like someone just shaved all the skin off his hands and feet. He couldn't even lift the lid of the toilet without severe pain in his fingertips. Otherwise he felt fine, and I thought he was going to go crazy being out of commission for almost a week.

I also thought I was going to go crazy. It is one thing to have your husband home sick and be the caretaker - I've never minded it. It is a whole other thing to be completely home-bound because the kids are still contagious. I had two awesome friends (Karalee Kidd and Nicole Watkins) bring me treats out of pity, without even hearing me complain! It was so sweet that they realized that its kind of hard taking care of a whole house of sick people while you're pregnant.

Now that Tim's sores have healed the skin is all peeling off to reveal nice, pink, baby fresh skin underneath. Meaning, his hands and feet are sore and sensitive again. It has been terrible for him and for Ava. Not being able to do anything to make it better for them is the worst. And here are some wonderful pictures to walk you through the horror.

 

Ava at 18 months

On July 14, Ava turned 18 months old. I have very few pictures of Ava because they always come out blurry. That about sums her up!

She has always been a busy baby. I thought Brielle was a busy baby and I thought I could totally sympathize with the moms who have boys that they just cannot get a handle on. But now I KNOW I can sympathize because I have a boy that I just cannot get a handle on, except she's a girl that wants her toes painted while she takes all the books off that shelf and also runs a marathon.

In the morning I get Ava out of bed and she sits on my lap on the couch for a few minutes giving me a precious cuddle and sometimes some kisses and always lots of smiles. Then after about five minutes of that, she is off to the races. She literally does not stop RUNNING until it is time for her nap after lunch. That wasn't true a couple of weeks ago because I could put her in her highchair and as long as she was eating, she was happy. She'll eat anything, and all of it. (Up from the 3rd to the 6th percentile at her check-up!) But now that highchair is just too restraining. She wants to sit in a big person chair while she eats but she actually wants to crawl all over all the chairs and the table while she eats. Plus, that gives her the freedom to get down and do a couple laps between bites.

She is a bright little thing. She follows instructions just perfectly and will take her clothes from her bedroom to the laundry basket on the other side of the house with a happy, "Kay!" She has quite a few words but she is very good at communicating with the few she uses most. Please, thank you, that, kay, oh, bye, binky, love you daddy. And of course, Brielle's constant renditions of the song have taught her "let it go." Since posting this a few days ago, two people have mentioned that I forgot to add "hey!" Which I can't believe I forgot because it is her favorite, catch-all word.

She decided this month that she is ready be potty-trained, so that's been funny.

She is a happy girl. Always so happy. And she is so fun. She gets more fun and more hilarious every day. It has been such a joy being her mama. And now I hear her calling me from her crib. So, game on.

Ava is 1 year old

The first few months of Ava's life were kind of a rollercoaster. Three kids is a huge transition that overwhelmed both Tim and me. She was a sad baby and when she wasn't sleeping she was crying. She was hard to nurse and I had a two and three year old and basically, it was rough.

 

And then one morning a new baby was born. It was like Ava suddenly decided that this body she had been given wasn't so bad after all. She has been almost permanently happy ever since. She has been just ahead of the curve in every new stage. She takes the abuse from her siblings in stride. She has been remarkably healthy. So, if you are going to have a third child, you are going to want an Ava.

 

(Side story... Last week the kids were all out playing in the lawn and Mason called to Brielle to get him a rock. Ava immediately ran over, picked up a giant rock (I swear she is an ant) and yelled, "May!" Guys - she is one! Maybe I don't remember what my other kids were like at this age but I'm pretty sure they weren't following instructions and talking like this.)

 

I can't even describe how happy she makes me. She lights up any room and it just brightens my whole world every time I see her. She is our darling joy.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Ava at six months

My little Ava Darling is six months old. She is crawling all over the place, stuffing everything into her mouth. She pulls herself up on the furniture. She is trying to climb out of the crib. She is six months old.

I once had a baby girl and I thought the baby part of her would stick around for a while and soothe the baby-hungry in me. When she was born I would get these panics that she may be the last baby of mine that I ever get to hold and I would snuggle her and breathe her in and try to make it last longer. Apparently, she has other ideas because she is so over being a baby and is ready to be a toddler with her brother and sister. Three weeks ago she started scooting. Two weeks ago she was sitting unassisted. One week ago she was really crawling, and three days after that she was already working on the walking.

Some ladies in my ward said that it is totally normal for the third child to be walking before nine months. True?

Ava is also just the sweetest baby. She cannot turn down a smile. When she got her shots last week she started crying that sad, "how could you do this to me, mom?" cry. But then she caught a glimpse of the nurse smiling at her and she had to stop, return the smile, and then start her cry again. She just lights up any room. I've always thought each of my babies brought a special new joy to our home, but the joy my Ava brings is palpable. I think if I had to choose one word to describe her it would be enthusiastic. She is enthusiastic about being alive and it is contagious.

Ava's blessing day

Yesterday Ava was blessed at our home with most of our family around. We'd been trying to get a few projects finished up before everyone came (before and after pictures to come soon!) so it was kind of a crazy week. The first half of the week we worked so hard and stayed up so late that I thought I might murder a person. The second half of the week we worked so hard and stayed up so late, but then my 8 week old darling decided to start sleeping though the night and...glory hallelujah. Eight hours of relatively uninterrupted sleep will save your soul, or something like that.

So back to the blessing, Ava looked totally adorable. Since she's the third child I had to follow suit and get practically no pictures of her. (I still have not taken a single picture of my three kids together since we brought her home from the hospital.) She was a trooper and let everyone hold her and just smiled a cooed and then fell asleep in their arms, only to repeat when she got passed to the next person. She has turned from a sad, fussy newborn into a happy, wonderful infant. Her dad gave her a beautiful blessing. It was so nice to have so much family together to join us while we swoon over our perfect little addition.

And some recent pics...