No, No, No

I have found myself saying "No" more now than I have ever done so in my life. Ava is crawling all over the house and into everything. Which is great, I love that she is adventuring around the house and figuring out her home however she as in most children her age want everything they are not allowed to have. She wants to play with the heat vent, to play with the electrical sockets, the dogs toys, the dog food, and anything else that is in her reach on the floor. I have tried to stay consistent with it already because I dont want her to think she can get away with it.

When she starts going for something that isnt hers I tell her "No" really stern and give her lots of eye contact. She will go from her crawling position to sitting up, look at me and reply 'Ah'. We have this conversation about a million times throughout the day, and I am sure both Becky and Ashley have had the pleasure also. After her reply she slowly begins the crawl back towards whatever I had just told her "No" about. So again, she is told "No" and I have been trying to either smack her fingers/thighs just to give it a little bit of an effect and move her away from the object. I know she doesnt know exactly whats going on but she is getting old enough where its starting to connect. She knows what "No" means to a point. We know this because of the way she reacts when we say it. She smiles also when returning to the object and I believe this is her saying 'the heck with it, I want it and I'm gonna try'.

On to Patton, he is just a pup, I know but how many times do I tell him "No" throughout the day, I cant count. He doesnt understand his size and strength yet. He tried to move me and play, and he jolts me sometimes. He can take his butt and knock into me and throw me off balance quick. He is 33 lbs of pup and when he runs and jumps up on me, he is looking at me in the face. He also likes to get into everything he isnt supposed to, he wants Ava's toys, socks, to go to the bathroom with ya, dryer sheets, and Ava sometimes.

They are so goofy together. They both want to be with each other yet they dont really know how. Ava cant play on the floor anymore without Patton being right beside her, but he bumps into her and down she goes. She pulls on his hair and has more than once taken the toy out of his mouth so she can play with it. This causes Patton to look at me almost to say 'Make her give it back' and then licks her in the face or toes, I believe this is his way of sucking up to her. My time with them has become very interesting and very entertaining and sometimes fustrating. But they are learning.

This past week has consisted of the following conversations with my two little ones.
"No, Patton you dont play with Ava's toys"
"No, Ava, we do not let Patton play with your toys, you do not play with his"
"No, get away from that"
"No, leave her be and let her play"
"No, get that out of your mouth"--that goes to both of them
"Where did you get that? You dont play with that"--also to both of them
"No, you dont climb on me"
"No, you dont pull hair"

Since Ava has become mobile it has gotten busier in the house, the last two evenings I have started eating my dinner on the couch and ended standing in the hall watching her crawl all over. She is so much fun and communicating very well for not being able to say much but "Hi". I am sure she will learn "No" sooner than later as much as she is hearing it. Patton is learning, much better than I could have ever imagined only having him 2 months. He's still a pup, I look at it as having 2 -7 month olds in the house. What Ava is learning, I try to teach him, so they both know their boundaries and they both know the rules. As she learns to walk/run around I know it will be more entertaining and to see how Patton reacts will be fun.

SURPRISE!!!!

I absolutely love planning! Planning has been a big chunk of the past 2 years, first my wedding, then Erika's wedding, then Ava was on the way.

Last fall, my sister in law, Erika, and brother in law, Kelly began the wonderful adventure of building a house on their property. Erika is one of my favorite people and I think we get along so well because she is alot like my sisters. As winter approached she became more anxious over dates, deadlines, and SNOW. Erika is organized and she figured because she and Kelly got all their ducks in a row well so should the weather. They would be in the middle of building this or pouring that and it would snow and stop everything. She was counting down to be in her new home. She and Kelly just wanted to have it built and be back in the valley.

She told me the end of February they would be living there, well it snowed like 3 feet one weekend in February, so she told me March was absolutely it, they would be in the house. And finally they moved. I dont know how she did it either, I think I would have even been stressed out with the weather and planning of it.

She was sooo excited to be in and slowly began decorating and cleaning. She has the cleanest house. She keeps on it. Once she was in, I thought 'she is so proud of this house why not celebrate?!?!' so the wheels because rolling and I emailed her mom to see if she would like to plan a SURPRISE housewarming party. I thought it would be awesome to have her family and friends there to celebrate this chapter in her life. She has helped me so much and been there for me that I thought it would be nice to do something for her. Her mom was on board and we asked our mother in law to help also.

So we planned a little bit, none of us had thrown a housewarming party before, bridal and baby have been the game for the last few years. We put our heads together and slowly got everything organized.

It worked out that her wonderful husband was going to be away for work so she would have absolutely nothing to do on the Saturday we had planned to have 20 women over to her house. Our mom in law got a spare key from Kelly and everyone kept it a secret. As hard as it can be to keep anything from Erika we did it.

Beth took her shopping and kept her in Hagerstown while we swarmed her house with food, gifts, and people! She came in the door asking 'What is going on? What is everyone doing here?' Ava went in her Aunt Erika's arms and I told her it was a housewarming party.

So Erika began showing off her wonderful home with Ava in tow. I think everyone had a good time. We got to catch up with some friends and family and look through her photo albums and listen to her decorating ideas for areas of the home that isnt finished yet. Her home is beautiful and she is only like 2 miles from me!

Allergy Season

My allergies did NOT bother me at all last year, thanks to being pregnant I believe. I read in my 'What to Expect with Expecting' book that some women that have bad allergies dont experience them when pregnant. Yay for me!

This year NOT so much. It has been horrible. My contacts bother me, however I am keeping them in. Ava loves to pull them off and at work I have 2 monitors and looking at both and trying to work on a file can be annoying with my glasses on. I have been coughing, sneezing, and just icky feeling. I spend the day at work with cough drops in my mouth after taking my allergy meds and cough syrup. When Rosie on Q102 announces the pollen count every morning I dread hearing it. When it's over 10 I might as well count the whole day gone to being miserable. I absolutely love spring but how can I enjoy it if when I am outside I am either wiping my eyes or coughing. It has never been this bad and I am blaming the snow.

I know you are probably wondering why the snow? Well many have found that the snow was so much this year and moisturized everything so well that spring came a little early. You remember those beautiful 80 degree days when we were all wearing short sleeves and shorts. Well everything got a good drink and is now blooming like a triple dose. And its killing us with allergies. They are saying that this year will be one of the worst years for those with pollen issues. I am about ready to stop carrying my purse because I know I am carrying pollen on it and am trying to change clothes when I get home and do not go back outside and wash my hair as much as possible.

It's terrible but secretly I am wishing spring away just so everything will bloom be gone and I can move on and play outside with Ava and Patton.

And Patton...he's a whole other issue..he's outside all day with the wind blowing, so I have been wondering the past few days with the high pollen counts if he is carrying more of it inside then I pet him then its on me! See the circle.

This pollen has been crazy but it will be gone soon enough. Just got to bide my time.

Crawling

Last night around 7 pm Ava was playing on the floor, I decided to join her. She was having a ball playing with her plastic Easter eggs, I took one and went to the other end of the living room and called her name. Kenny also got down on the floor and tried to motivate her to come to me. She was smiling and bouncing. She saw the egg and yelled then she went from sitting up to on her knees and hands. I was sooo excited. Here she came towards me. She stayed on her left knee and used her right foot to crawl all the way over to me. She got her egg, sat up, and smiled at me. She was very proud of herself. I clapped yelled 'yay' and gave her kisses to let her know she did a very good job.

I quickly went to get my camera to record her doing this new and exciting movement. As soon as she saw the camera she was on the move towards me. She is so excited about crawling and Kenny and I are so happy for her.

Its a whole new world now. She is officially mobile and all over my house. I'm sure the baby gates will be going up soon, we have had them for a couple of weeks waiting on her to get to this point. She has been close for so long. As I have said many many times before watching her grow and watching her learn new things is just too exciting and I am so thankful for her in my life.

Sitting Up!

Ava has mastered the skill of sitting up on her own. She is so funny. She will roll over on her belly, scooch backwards and use her arms until she is sitting up, then she smiles and claps. She knows she is doing a good job and likes to be praised for it, so I clap with her and give her kisses.

At some point last week she was very close to being able to do this but just not there. Then last Wednesday morning around 4am I woke up to her sitting up. It amazed me, she was still sleeping though, I layed her back down and she went back to snoring.  Kenny and I didnt know whether it was just a fluke or was she actually able to sit up on her own. When Kenny picked Ava up from Becky on Thursday, Becky told him that she wasn't sure if we had seen it yet but Ava sat herself up on the couch while she was watching her, Kenny told her we knew. Over the weekend she kept practicing while playing on the floor. By Monday, she had it mastered. Now we are woke up every morning by her sitting herself up and yelling her version of "Hi" to wake us up and she is all smiles.

Now sitting up on her own has become a new way for her to launch herself all over my living room. She is getting closer to crawling everyday. I believe now that she can sit up and knows her legs work a certain way that she is understanding that they MOVE. It's so exciting to see her grow. She is learning more and more. The more she understands her body and the way it works the more she does. She will scoot a little, sit herself up, play with a toy, throw the toy, then throw herself back down on the floor to scoot some more. Its just amazing to watch her play.

The WONDERFUL world of TEETHING

Our Avabug is teething full force now. These past 2 weeks have been stressful for her. Not only did she get her 6 month shots, she got a cold with a runny nose and some congestion but I think those bottom teeth are moving upward. We havent seen any teeth pop through yet but her gums are rough and bumpy.

Her day sleeping pattern had changed, she was more irritable, and cried ten times more than she has since she was born. Our baby girl isn't a big crier, there are only a few things that have her mad: she needs a bottle right now or she can't reach whatever she wants. Unfortunately my sister, Ashley, got the brunt of this. Ava was on a great schedule, a 2 hour nap in the morning and usually at least a hour nap in the afternoon. She went from this to sleeping 20 minutes here and there and crying because she was sleepy but couldn't because of her pain. So we broke out the teething tablets, orejel, frozen teething rings, and tyenol. There is only so much you can do for a 6 month old.

She had been sleeping all night and began waking up once or twice just crying or wanting a bottle or just cuddling. Which not only made for a long night but for a long day when I was at work trying to concentrate on files, when I would be wondering how she is feeling or doing for my sister.

I felt so bad for her, why do babies have to go through all this pain for their first few teeth when they are just going to lose them in a few years anyways?!?!

She has been drooling and chewing on her fingers for months. She hasnt had much discomfort until this past week. I can really tell when she is being bothered by them because she will shove my finger or Kenny's finger in her mouth and look peaceful chewing on ours. I guess our fingers being a little bigger and thicker feel better for the chewing process of getting those teeth to come up.

I just hope that the first tooth comes soon. The past couple of days she has began to get back into her normal routine. I believe how ever much that tooth moved forward it is done for now until the next time. She is back to sleeping all night with the occasional wake up and napping a little better during the day. Her mood has perked up and she isnt crying as much through out the day and is back to playing and laughing. I just cant wait until she is old enough to tell me what is wrong because it has been a guessing game.

We couldn't ask for a better kid though, she is absolutely a great baby. Even when she isnt feeling good she smiles which makes you feel worse because you know she doesnt feel good. But shes doing better and back to scooting all over my house and yelling and trying to talk and jumping all over us. Shes so full of energy.

Central Chapel Softball Season has BEGUN!

Our church softball season has started and the first game was exciting! I have no clue who we played, whether we won or not, but it was an evening of catching up with friends and family. Central has opened their own softball field so we had to travel a whole 2 minutes to get here which was great because Ava wasnt in the carseat forever.

The kids had a ball playing in the dirt and enjoying the nice weather.

My wonderful sister in law, Erika, was there, Ava had a great time jumping all over her. During the game we had great conversation with Jess, Jodi, and Julianne, and all the other family members there. Sitting around and chatting while listening to the kids play was too much fun. Some of the things that come out of their mouths when they are playing is unbelievable. And when dirt is involved you never know what they will do.

Ella and Ava got to see each other. Ava loves Ella. She was super hyper when Ella came by. Ava kept waving and jumping forward to try to get to Ella.

Hopefully the weather will keep getting better, by the middle of the second game we were begging for the end, as the air had gotten chiller and it was getting darker.