Happy Fall y'all!

Hi my name is...

Big girl.  I'm over bottles.  I don't even really like milk.  I really like yogurt though so I'm getting my needed vitamins.  But ya,  I'm a big girl.  Mama put all my bottles away.  And I think I saw a single tear...

12 months - too soon!

Two teeth and daycare under her belt. Our little miss had a big year!

Happy Birthday, Little One

We celebrated Little Miss Ava's first surrounded by family and a few friends. Of course the decor was shabby chic! Had a blast. But Ava's not really into sweets so the smash cake wasn't really her thing. I should've gone with my gut and covered it with cheerios - that would've peaked her interest! 

Daddy and Ava

It's great to be home at the same time after work.  I get the mail while Ava walks around the driveway.   This time daddy came out and walked around with her. Be still my heart.

Another countdown is on.

What's this one for, you ask? Oh just for little miss turning 1! Oh goodness. It's already been 11mo and she's almost 1. Wrapping my head around having a one year old is not the easiest thing to do. I look back at this week a year ago and I was scrambling to get everything done before Ava's arrival. Last minute touches to the house,  making sure her room was all set, my bag was packed and trying to stay calm for all of it. And now look. A beautiful baby girl, walking around the house, happy as can be.  We are beyond blessed.  We are past happy. We are totally enamored with this girl.  Hearing Don tell me that she was his everything melted my heart.  I look at that little face and rub my fingers on her cheek that's as smooth as silk and thank God for trusting me to care for her. What could I have done to deserve something so perfect?  She's mine. Ours. For now our little family is complete. (I have some serious puppy fever though.  Working on that...)  Not a day goes by that we thank God for our life. Ahh...

because I'm still fancy

Wearing pink makes me happy. and it makes A happy too.  So we took selfies.

pink top, kohl's. skinnies, forever 21+, nude flats, burlington

A moment of panic...

A girlfriend of mine came over to go through all of Ava's clothes & the hand-me-downs that were given to us, for her little one due in May.  Ava was being very helpful pulling all of the clothes out, sharing cheerios and ransacking the room. So when daddy came home, I left her in his care.  He was in the living room, with some fishing on tv, and Ava was entertaining herself. At one point I even came into the room and asked if she was being a good girl.  Of course she was!  Well, a while later, I heard a snore, and after that, I noticed it had gotten pretty quiet out there.  Normally there's some banging around, but nothing.  Mind you, I am in the front bedroom, separated by a wall or two, and talking with my friend, awww'ing and separating clothes.  I decided to go peek out there, and when I did, I found daddy asleep.  Coco was sleeping on the love seat.  Not alarmed.  Ava was not on the floor.  I asked Don, "where's the baby?" He opened his eyes, sat up with a strange look on is face, as if to say I was crazy.  I did a lap around the room, b/c sometimes Ava will sit on the other side of the loveseat and look outside.  No baby.  Not  hiding behind the dining room table. Not in the kitchen. Panic slowly decides to show. I went to her bedroom.  Nothing. Not in the bathroom, either.  I came out and Don calmly told me to get my camera.  Sigh. Panic can go back to where it came from.  I was expecting to find her asleep in my closet, where she goes to play sometimes when we're in the bedroom.  Nope, she found a new bed. Up comes the cuteness.  I almost threw up.

 I've wanted another puppy, but kinda wanted it to be a boy.  I guess I'll settle.  When she woke up, she looked around like "where the heck am I?" I was watching her from the sofa, folding her laundry and gently called to her.
And thus the hashtag lives on... #sodamncute

(sorry mama)

Shawty is a 10

Well, she was a 10.  Tomorrow she'll be an 11-month old. I'm so behind on my updates!  My apologies.  A lot happened for Ava during her 10th month on this planet.  She started to walk around on her own for short bursts.  And then a week later, 3/20, she was on the move!  Now, her official mode of transport are her two little feet.  It's so stinking adorable to watch a little person walk around.  She'll sneak up on us, like a ninja.  My little one will almost be a year old.  Wow.  Insane.  She's officially in her 9mo clothes, too.  I moved her 6mo clothes from her drawers & closet. And my little obsession with baby shoes is growing.  I got her some adorbs garanimal shoes from wally world the other day. Oh my word.  I don't care if she grows out of them soon.  They're precious.  Ava's getting tired of formula, I think, so we're trying to introduce more foods to her.  She loves her some bananas, sweet potatoes, chicken & turkey.  Oh, and she is head over heels for cherrios.  I must admit I was looking forward to the day when we could introduce her to the yellow box of goodness.  Coco loves them, too.  Thank goodness, b/c Ava pulls them out of her little snack cup and shoves 10 at a time in her mouth, while the other 10 fall on the floor. So our girls love them.  Yay!

yay yogurt & sweet potatoes

cannot handle the cuteness with these shorts!  she looks so retro 

doing a little evening read. daddy called her kevin bacon b/c of the tank & jeans. 

cheewios!!

A mother's work...

Is never done!  Neither is a wife's. You could pretty much insert any role in that phrase.  I feel like for myself, though, that the laundry is never done. I feel so good about doing it, folding, putting it all away, and then I look in the basket that next day and it's overflowing. How? And then oh ya, don't forget the baby's stuff.  Just when you think that you have time to sit down and exhale after a long day's work, nope. Don't forget to pack up the baby's bag for daycare tomorrow, and oh ya, make husband's & your lunch, and why don't you go ahead and just finish those dishes you put aside two days ago? Throw in a baby weaving in & out of your legs, whimpering for your attention.  Ok, steal a couple of min- oh! Spoke too soon, it's bath time!  Splish splash!  Lotion rubs, maybe pin her down & use the suction thing on her runny nose thanks pollen!),  wipe tears away and coo her to calm.  Set her down and fill up the humidifier, before she gets back in the bathroom to open up all the cabinets & slam the doors. Make sure the music is on in her room, set out her outfit for tomorrow.  Maybe let her ransack her book basket.  Then snuggles on the sofa and then bottle as daddy dozes off & Coco sits next to us with panda. Baby can go to bed now (about 10pm), so we can now relax... Hubby is asleep already on the sofa.  Coco is following me around, waiting for me to settle so she and her panda can rest in my lap.  Don't forget to take an allergy pill!  Ok so now it's time to say ahhh.... Eyes feel heavy... sofa feels so soft... should I go take my makeup off? Brush my teeth?  Nah in a minute.
It's been a minute and it's now 1:45a.m.  Oops. Guess I'll move to the bed now. One more peek in at the babe, soundly sleeping. Heavy breathing, darn allergies.  Brush teeth.  Remove bra. Bed. Zzzzzzzzz
Alarm. Snooze. x's 3. UP.  Shower, get as ready as can be before baby wakes up.  Diaper, clothes, nose -wipe tears!! Bottle, out the door!  And so the cycle repeats itself.

psssssstt.... i wouldn't change any of this for the world. God sure has blessed me & I am ever so thankful.

9 months, and loving it!

Little miss has now reached her 9 month mark. With it comes a few stumbling forward steps to mama, and a tooth that doesn't quite seem to know if it wants to come to the party or just be fashionably later.  Her locks are getting thicker, showing off a lovely, golden blonde color and those eyes, oh those eyes!  A gorgeous blue/brown/hazel color. Everyone tells me - er reminds me - that Ava looks just like her daddy, but I'll take those eyes and hair.  I once thought that those little fingers and toes were mine, but I am mistaken. They are her daddy's, to which he told her, "sorry kid." What's so fun about those little toes is that Ava sits in her little bumbo chair, with the tray on top, and lets me feed her snacks while I not only file her toenails evenly, but polish them as well.  Top coat and all. I am not exaggerating, she actually lets me do this.  Hey, she's got to learn early! I just use Essie, Butter London or OPI polishes b/c they are all safe and "three free" polishes.  No sense in buying those little piggy polishes when I have almost every color known to woman in my stash.  I let her pick them out, she knows where they are, too.  This week, she picked out Essie's Splash of Grenadine.  It's darling!

Let's not forget about our sweet little Coco.  Still taking care of her little sister, even if she does grab her a lot more than she used to.  Coco is still nearby, making sure that crying baby getting the snot sucked out of her nose after naps isn't getting tortured by their mother.  (you moms know what I'm talking about!)

Coco in the back...

Ava in the front! 

Another rainy day & a Life Lesson

And a cold one, at that.  It's been like this for the better part of the week, and it's really messing up my Saturday errands with the babe.  I don't know that I want to take her out in this mess. I see it's stopped, so I may hop in the shower, feed her lunch when she wakes up and get out.  Daddy's sick anyway, or at least not feeling well, and has also requested a rotisserie chicken, probably to make some soup, so I'll be making a trip out regardless.  I think it's just because he's been working out in this weather - it was 80 degrees this week, and then rainy and in the 40-50's.  I hope he's not sick sick.  There was a sick person at work this week, one of the ones that got us all started around Thanksgiving, so I really hope that it's not contagious.  But you know what happens, and what I've always said - it IS contagious when they say it's not.  Oy. Oh, and you know little Ava has a runny, snotty nose, too.  Ah the beginnings of daycare baby. So I'm a little stuffy too.  I guess I just have to accept this as a part of life and move on.  (even if I really do not want to...)

So I wanted to share something with you readers, whoever you are.  Something was brought to my attention this past week and it really hit hard.  In a constructive way, thank goodness.  It was pointed out to me that I gave the impression of being controlling. Gasp!  Me?  Um, yes. believe it.  It's true.  As much as I hate to even admit it, I know that this is a huge fault of mine.  I hate to say that I was raised in a house like this, but I was.  I won't say which parent, but if they didn't like something, they would say something, and try to correct it to their liking.  Be it the way one sits at the table, holds their silverware to cut meat, the way a buffet line at home should go, or how quickly one is to say, "excuse me," if they burp.  But I am a product of my parent(s), and it's taken me this long to finally see that this has to end.  The person that brought this to my attention is someone very close to me, someone I cherish and love as much as a sister.  She told me in such a way as to not make me feel badly, but it really just brought it to light.  It's one thing when your mother or husband tells you something, but when your friend does, we tend to take it differently.  I was immediately knocked down a peg or two.  Or three... or four... you get it.  I mean, this is something that I've been thinking about because of the way things may be going at work, and me not liking something.  I have no problem voicing an opinion if I don't think something is appropriate, but I'm not in charge. I'm not the boss.  My wonderful husband has reminded me of that, and that I really need to step back and let others (in charge) handle it.  If they don't, fine. But I can just not like it.  I don't have to say something about it, I can just silently disagree with it.  Not in a judgy-judgerton way, just to myself.   I thanked her and apologized profusely.  I love that she came to me about that, and how she opened my eyes.  I spend a lot of time with her, we are comfortable with each other to say such, and move past it.  She also mentioned something that I had been avoiding because of my embarrassment and shame.  I don't need to fight anyone's battles for them.  I don't have to say anything in their defense, or at all. They can handle it.  Even if it's coming from a place that is the same as theirs, or from a place of concern, we're adults.  We can handle our own.  I am so glad that she mentioned this too, because like I said, I was so ashamed that I said something a while back. You know when you open your mouth and out comes something that you want to immediately bring back in?  But you can't the damage has been done, and you think, "oh fudge..." Ya, that's what I did.  Lesson learned, and we are moving past this.  She forgave me and said we're moving on.  That's love.  And thank goodness for that!
Don't you just love learning lessons the hard way?

Diva In Training

I realize I am raising a little diva, and making her this way.  I have no problem with this.  And neither does her daddy.  (He better not... haha)
So Ava was sitting so sweet in her bumbo chair the other night and I thought it was the perfect time to get her toenails polished again.  So I rushed into my bathroom, got my stash, and let her pick out a color.  She went with a super cute pink, Essie's Poppy Art Pink - pure perfection!

8 months came & went

happy little Ava in her leggings

Little Miss had a big 8th month. She had some big changes, growth, hit some milestones. It's been pretty fun and we have enjoyed watching her go through these things.  Ava's eating people food, loves turkey & chicken, and even butternut squash.  She loves yogurt, too. She had a love for carrots, but now I think she's not so sure about them anymore.  I wish she would drink from a sippy cup, but she prefers her water from a cup. I just found a sippy cup with a soft tip, more like a nipple, and she got the hang of it last night. Yay!
Ava's also standing up more on her own, not holding on to anything.  She's making a few reaching steps, which is scary because that means she's even closer to walking.  Yikes.  Or Yay.  We've not really decided on that yet.  She's so smart, though, because she knows that if she can't reach it, she'll sit right back down and crawl that half inch and stand back up.
The biggest change that Ava has gone through is the transition from being at home with a nanny to her first week of daycare.  After much thoughtful prayer, Don & I decided that it was best for Ava to go to daycare.  We loved having her at home with a nanny, and we loved our nanny. She was here with Ava for 3 days a week, and my mother was here with her for one.  We had the nanny for Mon-Thursday, but Don's work schedule was so sporadic that she may be here 3 days, maybe 2, maybe 2 1/2, but only once 4 days in a week.  After we all sat down and hammered out some scheduling issues, we decided to keep her here for 3 days a week.  This way, she could get another job on the other days, and have a more set schedule.  Wouldn't you know that the first week we were on 3 days, we needed her all 4 days.  But due to scheduling conflicts, she wasn't able to be here that 4th day.  Also, my mother had a terrible migraine headache, so we knew she was out for Friday.  I had to take a half day, Don took the other half, and we were able to get the nanny here on Friday.  It was so crazy!  I shouldn't have to feel like that, and we shouldn't have to take off.  Also, in all fairness, if we have a set schedule with the nanny, we kinda have to stick to it.  I told her that I couldn't get upset if she arranged her schedule around her days off.  (I would do the same.)  So we looked into some daycares, asked around to some friends we trusted, and were able to find one.  How amazing that there was one, only one, immediate opening.  How amazing that we had an immediate need.  It's at a church. It's not a large school.  It's on the way to work (minutes from, to be exact).   I was able to do a tour, had such a peace about it after all the prayer and the divine coincidences that led to this decision, and told Don that this was going to happen.  He was already on board because of the recommendations we got from his friends.  We both knew that we would one day have to make this decision, but didn't realize it would be best to do it sooner than expected.  I left the school Friday after paying the registration fee, and was told by the director that she would pray for me as I went home to break the news to our nanny.  Surprisingly, it went very smoothly.  Another blessing!  It was just one big ol' blessing in disguise.  The nanny even came back to be with Ava the next week (which I was hoping she would, since I didn't want her to feel like she was "fired" - it was not personal).  She understood that it was something we had to do for Ava, to be consistent. I told her that I loved that she was so understanding and cool about this.  That's why we loved her too!  So Ava's first full week is this coming week, and she's already had some fun. I checked on her during my lunch break and what was she doing? Playing and having fun.  They went to chapel, she loved the music, she played and met some new friends.  They were so excited to have her!  She was exhausted by the end of the day, and I'm hoping that this will help her get on an earlier bedtime schedule.  God is so good and had His hand in this from the beginning.  Yay! 

Having fun playing at school!

Ava cute as can be on her first day of school!  (toenails polished & everything!)

Little miss

It's getting a little more difficult to keep little miss still for a staged picture.  I think this is just precious, though.  Santa's little helper! I found these cute leg warmers and hair band on etsy, from Lilly Bow Peep, and Ava liked them! Well, I loved them, she didn't mind them haha.
www.etsy.com/shop/lillybowpeep

Happy New Year!

Happy New Year, y'all! Hope everyone had a safe and fun time. We spent the day relaxing, enjoying the time off with little Ava. We went out for brunch & then just came back home and played around. Come midnight, I had to wake Don up to toast in the new year with some ginger ale. I know, I know, boring. But I didn't want to bust open a bottle of champs in the last 50 seconds, to only drink a little bit & it go flat. Plus, I just didn't care to do all that mess. So I poured the ginger ale up in our flutes that we used on our wedding day, and got my smooch! We have had an amazing 2013. A year ago today, the purchase for our home was approved. Being that it was a foreclosure, we waited for probably 6 months to hear that. We even backed out before Thanksgiving 2012, and then we were offered something we just couldn't refuse with this house. I was pregnant! We were staying at my mom's b/c we had to move from our rental. We had so much stress going on in our lives, it was almost unbearable. But the joy and excitement pushed through, as we started to feel our little Ava kicking & dancing. We should've known then how much she would grow to love music. This little thing LOVES the guitar, so daddy makes sure to play her music on his guitar all the time. She crawls over to his guitar stand now, pulls herself up, strums and sings. It's one of the most precious things in the world! She's been such a blessing. So anyway, in 2013 we were living at mom's, waiting to close on the house, finally closing on the house 1/31, got settled here, set up the baby room, had a baby, found a nanny, lost the nanny, found another nanny, and we're still figuring out how to be parents. This journey is amazing and I don't believe I would change anything about it. We are so looking forward to the new year, time for some resolutions... or something. I mean, let's be real, now many people say they're going to eat better, exercise, lose weight? Um... pretty much everyone. So be a little more original. For me, the ones I can think of are as follows: - wash my hair more than one time a week - give myself more mani's - give Ava pedicures - i.e., polish her piggies - wear pearls more often (like I had mentioned in a post a couple of years ago. 11/12 - shave my legs more often - do some devotion time. I actually thought of a couple more but forgot... Regardless, mine are a little more original than "exercise, work out, eat right" huh? It's almost the weekend - have a good one! xoxo