Oops - flew by Thanksgiving

I forgot to post for Thanksgiving! My goodness... sorry! Ava's first Turkey Day. We spent it as we have been for the past few years in Waycross, GA with my father, his wife & son, my brother & grandmother. It was nice, cool weather, sunny, perfect. Delicious, and over too quick! We had planned to do mom's family that weekend, but things just fell thru left and right. So for the most part, it was a great long weekend. Don's bro & wife, and my mom came over Saturday, and we had a little get together. Planning holiday gatherings just isn't easy when there's so much family to try to get in. Another reason we got a nice house, with an open floor plan - so we could just do holidays here. We decided that every holiday is just going to be here from now on. It'll be easier, central, and did I say easier? Yes. There you have it.

How many days until Christmas?

Seriously, I think it's less than 2 weeks. Oh my goodness. I cannot believe that it's almost time again, and I feel like I may have said the same thing last year. I'm pretty sure I did. I'm thinking it's because Thanksgiving was just a couple of weeks ago, and time has just flown by. We don't even have a tree up! I know, it's a shame. No lights outside, or inside. I've barely put any decorations up, either. I have a few things here and there, but eh... This is our first year in the house, I kinda expected that we would be more into decorating, etc. Even with the baby, it's firsts all around. Last year, at this time, we were prepping to move all of our things into storage, and to move in to my mom's downstairs apartment. I was pregnant, and not really feeling the move. Bitterness, frustration, anxiety, on top of the pregnancy was all going thru my body. Thank goodness, and God, that everything worked out. And here we are today. In the house that we could only dream would be so right, with a baby that we couldn't have imagined being so perfect, and being blessed beyond what we deserve. God has a way of pointing things out to you, pointing out how He will handle things when you truly give them over to Him. We didn't think this would work out, and I know that both of us, Don & I thought that there was still the possibility that we wouldn't close on the house, or that something would fall through again and we would have to find an apartment or stay at my mom's for longer. We had already started in the side of our minds (ya, moved up from the back to the side) how we would arrange that little apartment at mom's to fit a crib, a sofa, table. We finally, completely just asked God to take it - and help us trust that it would work out. Jan 31 rolled around and it all fell into place. Amen. So I move on to the fun part - Ava. Our little miss fancy pants is now 7 months old. She's crawling all over the place, is pulling herself up and standing, and doesn't like to stay down much. She's learning what "no" means, and is an ok listener. She's 7 months, what can we expect? She's coming out of her waking up in the middle of the night to eat or cry phase, which is lovely. The past few nights she's been much better. I don't remember if I had mentioned in her 6 mo update, but she was waking up and crying, and was hungry. Our perfect sleeper had decided to flip the script on us. We were not amused. But we got her off the food, and would just find her pacifier, give her that and it would hold her for a few more hours. Her morning schedule was different, then, she wasn't waking up at 7:30 a.m. either, but whenever. So that made mornings interesting for a while. Then she would sleep most of the day and stay up so late! Oy! So now she's getting back into her groove. This weekend she went down at maybe 11pm Friday night, which is great, and slept until 10am Saturday morning! Um, so did I. We were out and about most of the later afternoon/early evening, and she was great. Snuck a few naps in during car rides, but other than that, she was up. I put her down at 10:45 and she woke up this a.m. around 6, and I gave her her paci, and she slept until 10. So it's been nice catching up on our sleep. It took us 3 nights to watch Man of Steel, which by the way is an awesome movie. (Doesn't hurt that Superman is super hot...) No teeth yet, just the same as usual. Her eyes are still light, a hazel, like mine. :) yay! And her hair is a light, golden brown. So she looks just like her daddy, but I get the skin/hair/eyes. Not too shabby. xoxo

Sunday fun day?

If you want to call cleaning "fun," then ya, I had a super fun day.  I cleaned the bathrooms, scrubbed the tubs and even dropped the comet on the floor sending powder all over myself.  Got some vacuuming done, dusted, swiffered the floors.  I got a wild hair, decided to go with it.  If I had stopped, it would've never been done.  Baby did her napping and play time. Oh, found out she's not afraid of a running vacuum cleaner, but very intrigued.  She followed me all around the house. That was cute.
Speaking of miss Ava, we decided that after two weeks of her waking up in the middle of the night, it is time to put the rice cereal in her formula before bedtime. I need some sleep, she needs to be full.  So this is a learning experience for us. For the past oh I don't know, maybe five months, we've had the perfect sleeper.  As soon as I started saying, "I know it can change at any time...," her sleeping pattern changed.  Obviously she's growing, because when she wakes up, she'll drink 6oz of formula each time.  She still eats every four hours, even after bedtime, where she would stay asleep for 8hrs.  Selfishly I need this just as much as she does.  I may be late in the game to do this rice cereal thing, but I know I'm not alone.  Here's hoping!
Hope y'all have a great short week... gobble gobble day is nigh!!
xoxo

Monday's outfit

Hey y'all! Now that I know what "ootd" stands for, I'm trying to get into the swing of things.  So here's my outfit of the day:
Garnet boatneck 3/4 sleeve top, Target (only $12 hello!)
Star print Rockstar jeans, Old Navy (saw them on the sale table while I was in line, $17, done.)
Black suede flats with zipper details, Target a few years back, on sale
Camel bag, Forever 21, sale maybe $20 or less
And my fave piece, my statement necklace from Lily Wang, shoplately.com, $14 (Y'all seriously have to go to this site for your statement pieces - great prices, pieces, sales! It's def my go-to.)

Oh ya, and I figured I'd share the other - I waited as long as I could. Six months, and baby got a pedi. I decided to match her pedi to mine, butter London's "Yummy Mummy," a perfect light gray/taupe.  I polished my finger nails with "All hail the Queen," a slightly darker taupe. Perfect fall neutrals.  Yep, my little diva in training.

XOXO

High times

What a beautiful weekend! I hope y'all enjoyed your weekend like we did. Saturday we took it easy, did a little shopping and had some fun with friends. Sunday was church, relaxing and a lot of playing with miss Ava. This little girl has some energy!  They told us at church when we picked her up from the nursery that they didn't want her to leave! How sweet it is to hear that they love her and that she's so happy. Such a relief, too!
Don set up Ava's high chair this afternoon. Since she's eating now, that bumbo chair isn't cutting it.  She wiggles and squirms all around. So the big girl is sitting... big!

My little ghosty ghost

Happy Halloweenie!!  Miss Ava was a ghost for her 1st Halloween! Don and I browsed through pinterest to find a cute costume for her. Oh wait, who am I kidding, I browsed, he picked. ;)  It was so fun making this, too! Omg and so easy.  And inexpensive.  I probably spent $10 on it. I had her onesie & capri pants already, so I bought ribbon, tulle and hair bows.  (Knowing how easy tutus are to make, I see many, many more in Ava's future - and Coco's!)  I must say, she was the cutest little ghost around! (Until she pooped and got it on her outfit after our first stop, so I had to pull the back up pants out... back up pants, good call mama.)  We stopped by Ava's "god parents'" house, my grandma's and my mama's.  This little ghost sure brightened some spirits! No tricks, only treats.
On our way home, Coco climbed in Ava's car seat to snuggle. They were two tired little girls.

XOXO

I blinked & it's been 6 months!

Hey there loves! I feel like I've just blinked, turned around and Miss Ava is now 6 months old. Let it sink in. It's gone by way too quickly, but we've totally enjoyed the ride. We are so in love with our little bunny-boo and having the best time watching her grow, learn new things and have a blast doing it. She's now eating foods - the baby food version of course, as well as applesauce, which is her absolute fave food. How do I know? Oh because after her grammy got her hooked on it, she lunges for the spoon when it comes close (and she realizes it's on there)! It's so cute to watch. I'll mix a banana in with it, and she likes that, too. Of course, right? So sweet! Ava is totally in love with her daddy & doggie, Coco. When daddy walks in the room, she immediately turns to look at him and smiles that oh-so-cute smile. I would say, "one that only a father would love," but come on, let's be real. After you see this smile, you'll melt. Or crack up because of the way that little button nose crinkles up. Coco has been an amazing big sister, letting Ava grab at her, pull her hair, try to eat her tail, pull on her feet, etc... Coco just sits there & takes it. Funny thing is, when we tell Ava to be gentle, and tell Coco to move, Coco will come right back to be close by. It's to die for. I have about 8 cavities now because it's too sweet. We also have a crawler on our hands. Forward motion has begun! On Sunday 11/3, Ava started moving forward, scooting. She's been up on all fours now for a few weeks or more, but no movement. Then Sunday night, she started. All this week, she's on the move! She sat upright on her own at 5 1/2 mos, and then boom, crawling. She's trying to pull herself up now and I am NOT ready for that mess. Baby-proofing has begun; we took the coffee table out of the living room and I'm already in the market for a new living room rug. (The one we have now sheds and gets all in Ava's sweaty little hands and toes - and in her eyes.) Babies are not that expensive, it's the baby-proofing that is! Ava's finally growing into her 3-6 month clothes. She's petite, and has been in 3 month clothes since maybe 4 months. So I'm excited to see her grow into the bigger things. I have pulled all the newborn clothing out of her dresser & closet, and moved the 3mo things in, and will be getting the 6mo clothes ready to put in the dresser/closet. Shoes are fun now, so we have some cute ones in the mix! Ugg boots for winter - yay! I finally started making her some headbands, and that was fun. I like being crafty! I picked up the little notebook I had while I was pregnant with little fancy pants, and looked back at this week a year ago. I was 14 weeks pregnant, and hadn't found out what the sex was. I noted that I was feeling good, had a fun birthday and that I had my first baby dream. I dreamed that my baby was a girl, I was nursing her and remembered looking down at her and her reddish-brown hair. Guess what color hair Ava's was as a newborn? Reddish-brown. I know, I can't believe it. And a girl! I thought that was so sweet. I like looking back at that little notebook, where I wrote hilites of that particular week, kept track of my weight, etc. I will definitely do it the next time around, and I recommend y'all doing that, too. A fun pregnancy tracker, and I kept it with me in my purse. In mommy news, I'll be 35 next week. 35. Let THAT sink in. Wowzers... xoxo