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!)