11 Month Photo Shoot

11 Month Update

Ava is 11 months old! We keep marveling at the fact that her first year of life is closing in on us. Late last night I was going through and deleting some photos and videos on my phone since it keeps crashing every time I open it (tends to happen when you have over 2,000 pics stored). Of course I got sucked into looking through and watching many of them. After seeing how incredibly different she looks and acts; and how big and coordinated she is now in comparison to those early days, weeks and months, it does seem like a year. A quick and very full year.

Ava at 11 months you...

• Are the belle of the... grocery store, play date, park, library, restaurant, pharmacy... pretty much everywhere you go. You're a total ham and make it your personal mission to brighten people's day. You stare people down and stalk them by waving and excitedly flapping your arms until you get their attention. And then you bask in it. Wherever we go people comment on what a happy baby you are.
• Have a couple of new funny faces in your repertoire. You do this super cute "fishy face." You suck your cheeks in and bug your eyes. It's hilarious. Your swimming instructor especially likes and requests it. You love to deliver. I wish I had photos of it but I haven't been able to capture it just yet. Your other one is "surprised face."

• Are starting to imitate us. You do this delayed laugh after you hear us laughing. It has about a four second delay. The other day I was looking online at real estate in the Ventura area, my new past time, and getting frustrated. You were eating your breakfast and I heard this exasperated sigh come out of you. Surprised, I looked over to see what is wrong and realize you were just imitating me. I hadn't even realized I'd let out a sigh. It's interesting having a little mirror put up to you like that. And I have a feeling this is just the beginning...
• And I did our first 5K together. You were my little coach, crying when I wasn't going fast enough. You're my little running partner. I think we're ready for a 10K next time.

• Put your hands on your head for the song, "Head, shoulder, knees and toes," and look at me with anticipation like, Okay mom, sing that song you sing. It took me forever to figure our what you were doing.
• Do the cutest things! Like the other day your dad was sleeping off an overnight and you went over to him and opened his eyes with your fingers. That's one way to wake him up!
• Walk with your push toy

• Blow kisses! Kinda. It's so cute. You slap your hand over your mouth and then throw your arm out towards us. It's all very graceful...
• Got a new (hot) bathing suit. Pink zebra tankini. What? So cute. 

You're a little excited about it.

•  Speaking of new bathing suits, you're becoming quite the little beach babe. Just in time for summer!

• Say Mama, Dada, Ni-ni (night, night; when you are asking to be put to bed), bye bye. You even put a few words together bye dada and my mama. Melted me.
• Love dropping things off your high chair and changing table and out of your stroller. Food, sippy cups, toys, books... anything. It's Annoying. 
• Pooped in the tub! And then clapped. Gross.
• Are getting really into daddy aka A da as you call him. When I go into your room to get you in the morning or after a nap you get all excited to see me and then look past me like, Might there be a da coming behind you? This is the face I wake up to every morning. Love.

Mommy's little alarm clock

You also request dad to go up the stairs behind you (another new favorite hobby you could do all day long), even if I'm right there. You love, love, love it when daddy goes to swimming lessons with us. You look for me every time your head comes back up out of the water, but when you see him sitting there too you look like you could explode with excitement right then and there.

You & the pops

• Have been healthy and eczema free for about a month now! Oh Hallejuhah! What a blessing health is and how we appreciate it now. Parenting and being a baby is hard enough without all that sickness to muddle through. We still aren't sure what causes your eczema to flare up but we've seemed to found the trifecta that works for you: 
• 1. Diet: you only get fruits, veggies, meat (nothing out of a box or package, no wheat, no dairy)
• 2. Skin regimen: Olive oil baths for ten minutes every other day in lukewarm water with no soap. We pat you dry and lube you up with copious amount of CeraVe cream.
• 3. Prescription medicine: Protopic ointment for flare ups (which we haven't had to use in about two weeks. Yee-haw, because it's a pretty strong medication with a black box warning on it).

Blurry pic, but your skin is heavenly these days.

We're really looking forward to celebrating your first birthday at the end of the month, Baby Girl! It's been an incredible (almost) year with you and we're looking forward to many, many more!

Mama loves you.

"I had a great day with you today."

Baby Girl,

Every night, right after I nurse you but before I put you in your crib, I stand there holding you and rocking you for just a moment. As I lower you down into your crib, ever so gently as not to wake you, I whisper the same thing into your ear, "I had a great day with you today." And it's always true. Even the hard days, which [thank you Jesus] have been fewer and fewer lately since you've been healthy and your eczema has cleared up, are still great ones. Because they're spent with you. You and daddy are the greatest things that have ever happened to me. I love you both and am so loved by you two that it hurts to think about sometimes.

Some nights, like tonight, you let out the sweetest, breathy sigh as soon as you hit your crib and it just melts me. Melts me. The house is a disaster. I haven't showered. Or worked out, although I HAVE worn work out clothes all day, does that count? And you wore blue snowman pajamas to Ace hardware today and everyone thought you were a boy [a cute boy, but still a boy] and I don't care about any of it. Because we rolled around in your pen, and practiced standing and clapped a lot and did "family bed" and went for two walks and went out for breakfast, and woke daddy up for his shift, and read books and both ate a lot, and well, I had a great day with you today. I always do.

Love You Like Cray Cray,

Mama

10 Month Photo Shoot

He Is Risen!

We had a GREAT Easter! On Friday morning Ava woke up and I brought her into our bed. I was explaining Good Friday to her, telling her that it's a sad day because its the day Jesus died, but a good day because His sacrifice means we could be saved. When I told her He rose again on Easter she clapped! My girl knows good news when she hears it.

That afternoon we went to her first Easter egg hunt at a park with our playgroup. It was a potluck and there were about 15 moms and babies there. So fun! Ava has two best girlfriends in the group, Olivia and Lilia. They were all born just days apart and met when they were about a month old. Their moms and I took walks by the beach twice a week with our babies. We'd compare labor stories, offer nursing advice, talk sleep training, and wonder aloud whether or not we really had to give our babies Vitamin D drops... It's hard to believe we're now talking plans for first birthday parties.

Look what I found Mama...

Eggs!

Little friends & first Easter baskets

That evening our good friend Becky came over for a Seder (Passover) Dinner for Christians. We had Noodle Koogle, latkes and lamb. We listened to Exodus 12-14 on Becky's iPhone app while Ava tried to figure out where the voice was coming from. It was a great night.

On Saturday we drove up to Ventura and on Sunday morning we went to Reality Church's Easter Service at the Santa Barbara Community College campus. Oh. My. Gosh. Mark and I both agree it was the best Easter service we've ever been to. Incredible sermon. Rocking music. Stunning view.

Easter Perfection.

Hanging with Uncle John & Grandma

Clap your hands yo, HE IS RISEN!

Ava & Peter Cottontail (mine from when I was a little girl)

My girl and I

We hope and pray you had a great Easter too!

Daisy's New Song

I was just wrapping up giving Ava a bleach bath, putting a layer of hydrocortisone cream on her red, inflamed skin, followed by copious amounts of moisturizer. Then feeding her expressed milk from a bottle instead of nursing her because I took a day off and ate all of her allergens (wheat, dairy, eggs, peanuts, who knows what else...) and she's been paying for it ever since. I was just watching her wiggle in her crib, trying to scratch all the hard to reach places, feeling really sorry for myself, for my baby, and asking God why this has to be so hard. That's when I logged onto my Google Reader and found this...

Daisy's New Song 

It's a song sweet Daisy Love, our Ventura pastor's daughter, wrote and is singing on her way to get a PET scan to see just how bad the cancer that is back a THIRD time really is. It wasn't good news. Surgery is scheduled for next week. Perspective. If a seven year old with cancer can have this kind of attitude. and faith. and patience. and JOY. Then what the heck am I doing wallowing in some skin issues?

Singing, praying and faith[ing] along with you Daisy Love...

Happy 10 Months Ava Shay!

Ava is 10 months old! I know I say it every month but this is the most fun stage so far. She's on the move and getting verbal. The other night around bedtime she crawled up to me quickly, used my leg to stand up and started tapping on my thigh saying, "Nigh, nigh. Nigh, nigh." She wanted to go to "Night, night." She impresses me every day with what she knows and learns. Here is what our little joy is up to lately.

Ava, at 10 months you...

• Imitate my work out moves. It's hilarious. I'm on day 21 of Jillian Michael's 30 Day Shred. It's a work out video that you watch me do it every morning from your pen. You now do head rolls & leg extensions. It's a game to you. You look at us and cock your head slowly to one side and then to the other, all the while maintaining this cute little grin on your face. You play this game with strangers too; the waitress at Bouboufee Mediterranean Grille and the businessman in the waiting room at the Kaiser pharmacy. They don't understand the game, but you bring smiles wherever you go. Here you are doing [your version of] a head roll.

Work it baby. I'll explain the carrot later.

• Had some fun play dates at the house

• Learned how to clap! I know I already posted a clapping video but here's another. Because we can't seem to get enough of clapping in this household lately. 

• Love trying out your four little teeth on raw carrots.

Nom nom nom nom nom.

• Celebrated being Irish on both the Russell & Power side of the family on St. Patrick's Day.

• Got a new toy chest. We were going to wait to give it to you for your first birthday but we couldn't help ourselves. It's too cute! I love the hot pink script personalization. Here you are on top of it. Clapping of course.

• Climb up the stairs. At warp speed. With no concept of gravity on the way down. We need to get a baby gate at the bottom of the stairs but for now one of us just follows you closely behind. Oftentimes you stop at each step and clap to celebrate your accomplishment. So cute. I don't know why this video came out sideways and don't know how to fix it but I'm posting it anyways.

• Think its hilarious when I wear a hat. I wear a visor on runs and you think it's hysterical. You just look at me and loose it every time I put it on. It's as if I wear it for your own personal entertainment. And sometimes I do.

•  Speaking of laughing... you think playing catch with an oatmeal lid is pretty funny too. I'll leave you all with this gem...