and 5 months later...

So I kinda slacked on the whole blog thingy.... sorry. On the bright side, little miss sunshine is a fulf fledged toddler! She is runny, sassing and talking up a storm. She is an incredible ham that loves to get strangers to look at her so that she can perform- yet does not like to be approached by unfamiliar people. For the new things Ava is doing:

1. She can say more than 60 words and is starting to put sentences together (i.e. Mom? Where dada go?). Yes she calls me "mom".

2. She saw her first movie, Kung Fu Panda, a few weeks ago. She was wonderful for 3/4 of the time. Until she got restless and turned around in my lap to discover the audience behind us just waiting for her to perform. I will never forget her face when she saw all those people!

3. She can tell us where we are going if it is a familiar route (Boppa and Nama's, Nana's, Ella's, etc.).

4. She is very motherly.... if there is a baby (in which I mean anyone who is smaller than she is) she will try to hug and move and help. She is particularly fond of Ella Compau. She will randomly yell "Ella!" at the top of her lungs for no reason.

5. She laughs forcefully and loudly and often (hmmmm where did she get that?).

6. She has started calling me "Chelle!" to get my attention, particularly in the car. It's so funny!

7. Ava is a water baby. I have never liked playing in a sprinkler (it's so cold!), but Ava thinks it's the greatest!

Here are some pictures I shot for her 18 month old photographs. Then some other randoms.

Baby Picture Contest

Okay, I need some help! We are sending in Ava's picture to a contest and we want some input. Pick the picture that is your favorite...

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Ho Ho Ho!

Merry Christmas! It wasn't Ava's 1st Christmas, but it felt more like it was than last year. Christmas with the Smith Family was spent at Aunt Kim and Uncle Randy's. All the grandkids were very much spoiled... there were toys everywhere. Nick wanted all of his gifts put together right away, Sophia opened her presents very slowly, watching everyone else, and Ava was interested in all the wrapping paper and boxes. It's funny how they are all so different. She received clothes, a grocery cart, books, a barbie car, baby cradle, and more that I can't remember!!!

Christmas morning started around 7:30 when Ava woke up. We opened up her gifts from us and from Santa. Santa brought her an Aqua-doodle, a pink ball, and books. Her gifts from us included more books and maracas. We headed over to Gramma and Grampa's around 9am. She got a table and chair set, blocks, a giant rubber duck, toddler crayons.... gosh, I can't even remember anything else. She got so much, that we put half of it away to bring out during the year since her birthday was just a month ago and she has so many toys out already. Our basement literally looks like a daycare center! All in all, it was a nice couple of days with family. I can't wait until next year when Ava understands Santa.

Ava is almost a pro at walking, we remarked to each other (Jim and I) how well she was walking today. There are still plenty of falls, but she doesn't seem to walk like a zombie so much. We have been working on identifying things... she will give us her rubber duck when asked to in the bath tub. She says everything twice... "du-duck", "kitty-kitty". She got a Little People farm set from Papa and Nana and she can identify the cow. Today, we were reading Grover's Animals and I asked her where the kitty is (like I have a million times before) and this time she pointed right to it! Jim and I looked at each other with big grins and clapped and laughed. It was SO cool! Oh yeah, pointing is new too. Lots of new milestones in just the past few days. The next few months will be filled with new words I am sure!

Happy Birthday!!!

Our baby is 1! Today began with waking her up and getting ready for pictures. We get there and first take our family pictures, get a few in her holiday outfit and then switch outfits to get her one year pictures. We got a few decent pictures before she decided she'd had enough and had a small melt down. I told the photographer to a get a few of her crying.

We then drove home (she had a small nap in the car), fed her lunch and... ice cream! She ate her first bite of sugar. She was confused about how cold it was but definitely like it (chocolate and brownie chunk) and then headed to Sam's Club to get some pictures printed. We also went out to lunch. We can back and Ava and I napped (we are both getting over the stomach flu from this weekend). We woke up and went over to Papa and Nana's. She received her first birthday gift (pajamas and a Dora phone). She loved the phone and the tissue paper. We came home and gave her presents from mom and dad. BOOKS! She loved them.

I cannot believe a whole year has flashed by. It's incredible. I'm not sure how to put it into words. What is our favorite thing about the past year? Jim's is becoming her hero when she isn't feeling well. Mine is probably when she calls my name when I'm not in the room. I also love how happy she makes everyone, especially my Papa, he really needs it.

11 months old

I have a whole list of things to talk about! Where to start? How about her talking.... She FINALLY says mama! Not only is she saying it, but she is saying both mama and daddy to the right people. It's the best thing ever. She says kitty-cat, up (aaaahhhpuh!), and swear to god that she said thank you (or close to it) the other day after I gave her the juice cup. Blew my mind.

She has a new favorite toy, her car which she endlessly gets in and out of, flopping over the door that doesn't open, sitting in seat and opening and closing the door. This goes on for sometimes 20 minutes straight. She brings her baby doll in with her, her blanket, a book, looks underneath it, tries climbing on top of it- I think she'd sleep in there if she could.

Jim ran the Detroit Marathon and crossed the finish line with Ava in her arms. Tori came with us and we walked around a bit and waited for Jim to call us and tell us he was close, so we lined up by the finish line and I saw that a lot of people were crossing the finish line with their kids running next to them. I hurried and called Jim to see if he wanted to push the stroller across with him and he said, no he'll just grab her. So he's running toward us and Ava is struggling to grab onto the metal fence when I say "here comes daddy!" she looks up and it takes her a few minutes to see him and she giggles when she sees him then squeals. He picks her up and everyone around us gives out a collective "awwww!" and then they start cheering! The Ava turns around and looks at Tori and me and gives us the biggest smile I will never ever forget. We, and a few people around us get all teary and Jim and Ava cross the finish line. Ava thought the cheers were for her and she was grinning from ear to ear. It was really one of the most unforgetable things in my life. I get chills writing about it.

Next, came Halloween. I got her costume back in August. We were looking online for a costume, Jim wanted a monkey, I wanted a bear. The first thing that pops up is a Wonder Bread bag costume. We instantly bought it (my papa drove a wonder bread truck for 30 years). So it was really hard not to tell my papa about it. After the whole pumpkin thing and the trick-o-treating thing (overrated) we went over to my papa and grahm's and Jim went in first with the video camera. Papa couldn't understand why we were making such a big deal out of Halloween until I walked in the door. He was grinning so wide and was so surprised. And right on cue, Ava reached for him and squealed. It was completely priceless!

The latest ordeal is that Ava caught an upper respiratory infection which caused her to be completely and utterly miserable (can't blame her). This picture is of her and her newest feat, putting the phone up to her ear. She says "hi dada" if you prompt her- so cute! Anyways, in this picture her nose and cheeks are SO red... it was so hard to watch her be so upset. She was okay during the day, but absolutely would not sleep by herself. She had to sleep ON you, so neither one of us (Jim I mean) got more than 3 hours of sleep at a time. Totally sucked. So Sunday afternoon we felt like she was feeling better, never had a fever and so Monday was a go with a normal day. We were both up all night so Jim stayed home and took her to the doctor and took care of her. I had to work because I was already scheduled to be at a conference for 2 days. So mad I didn't get my mom day. Glad Jim got to do it though :) Last week I had a hard time producing enough milk for Ava- all of a sudden I couldn't get two full bottles for her. So I went and bought whole milk to make up for what I couldn't produce. So while all of that was going on, I thought maybe she had a milk allergy and was making her sick (a lot of the symptoms were similar). So Jim ran out and bought soy milk. She ended up really being sick, but never even cared that she wasn't drinking breastmilk. I tried Sunday to breastfeed and I guess she wasn't hungry because she bit me 4 times and thought it was hilarious. So I just pumped that evening and barely got anything. So Sunday was the last day of breastfeeding. I went through one and a half days of being slightly uncomfortable and it's over. I didn't make it to my year goal, but I am trying not to think that way (still creeps into my mind to tick me off though). I did some research and decided to go with rice milk instead of soy and Ava hasn't given us any cues that she cares or notices, only that it is warm. It all went much easier than I could have ever predicted.
So- what's next? Three weeks from TODAY she will be 1. Cannot believe it. So, one year ago I was in agony with my rash and had no idea she was to come so early. Motherhood is the best, most worrisome, most fulfilling thing. Her smile and giggle give a feeling that is more than love, more than adoration, more than pride. I cannot explain it in words.

Babbling Baby

School started back up at the end of August and I don't know if it's my students this year or the fact that I just didn't want to come back after a summer home with Ava. It was so much fun. She is growing so fast and it seems even fast now that I don't get to see her all day. She has six teeth now- four on top that you can see the tips of and two on the bottom and that are almost all the way in. Her smile is contagious and now with the teeth it's seems so funny. And her personality! Lordy lordy, is she a funny baby. She is just so silly and laughs a lot. I hope that never changes. She is crawling everywhere and is cruising the furniture. She has stood up by herself a handful of times but isn't interested in taking steps yet. She plops down and crawls no matter how close she is. I know it will come soon enough and that things will change all over again. She says dada, duck, kitty (more like KEY), and hi. She's said papa a few times but has never called me mama. That's okay though, I'll let Jim have that!

Welcome baby Bobby Chapa IV on September 19th!

And.... we're standing

Didn't I JUST write about how Ava was crawling? Well, it didn't take long for her to pull herself up. Now just today I caught her trying to step from the couch to the ottoman (about a half step away). It will be mere days before we are changing our lives all over again. It would have been GREAT if someone could have clued us in on how fast everything goes. Seriously- she'll be nine months old in a week and a half. I have to start thinking about the big bash- the big oh-one. Ugh.

At her nine month check up her stats were as follows- head: 16.5 inches around length: 27.75 inches tall weight: 17 pounds and 12.5 ounces!!!

We went to Kiddie Kandids (Babies R Us) for some professional pictures. They are super duper cute, but there isn't a way out of there without spending some cash, and not everyone got a picture this time. I really like the less formal ones that I've taken and given out (and a heck of a lot cheaper). We are going to go back to the first picture lady that April refered me to for her one year pictures and our family Christmas picture. Yes, we WILL be one of those family picture Christmas cards you get in the mail this year. HAHA. We turned into one of those people!!!

I go back to work next week (no kids but a week of reorganizing my room and boring meetings). I am thinking of just not showing up and seeing how long they continue to pay me. I am in denial again, I just want to stay home and play with Ava. She is seriously so much fun. What else is new? Oh, she is kind of waving bye-bye... minus the wave. More like a hail Hitler, but I count it! She has been saying mama, but only when she is whiny and hungry. She has said dada, but indiscriminately (holla for the $5 word), she says hi sometimes when you say it first.... so I guess she mostly mimics words. When the cats are meandering around, which is all the time, we say kitty over and over again. So when she sees the cats or Lucy, or Mellie (Compau), she makes the "k" sound at the animal. It's really funny. She is signing more all the time, and she signs for milk too. She is addicted to baths- she thinks everytime she makes it down to the bathroom that she gets to take a bath.

All in all, it has been the best summer of my life. But now it is over :(. And now that the HOTTEST summer ever is over, we are getting central air. Yeah, I'll give you $20 if you can figure that one out.

Vacation, Crawling, Old Man Smile...

Last week we had our first family vacation up north camping, nay- RVing. The Chapa's camper doesn't really count for camping but we did stay in a campground. I switched vehicles with my sister-in-law so we had a minivan for the week (Jim was SO thrilled to have to drive a minivan). So the girls started the trek up to Wilderness State Park and the guys took the truck and trailer. Norah was in the midst of being potty trained so it took awhile to get up there (5.5 hours I think) but it went by really fast. Ava slept most of the way up (thank goodness). I was afraid she'd scream the whole way up there. She didn't though, both the girls were wonderful. We spent a few days in Mackinaw City and had bonfires and ate A LOT of food. The weather was cool but comfortable. Jim and I spent our third wedding anniversary at the Bayfront Inn in Petoskey having dinner. It was exquisite. On the Fourth we packed up and headed down to Traverse City. There we watched fireworks and went to the beach a few times (Jim even took Ava all by himself!). Norah entertained Ava a lot... there was one evening when the boys were out fishing and so it was just us girls, and Norah was just sitting next to her and Ava was hysterically laughing. She even snorted. I was on the phone with my mom so she got to hear it and I got the very end of it on my cell phone. I hope she always finds things that funny! The day before we left Jim surprised me by renting jet skis for an hour on the Grand Traverse Bay. It was SO much fun! All in all it was a blast even though we missed the Cherry Festival. Yeah- we made reservations in the winter for it, and then at some point the dates for the festival were moved and we had no idea until we got there. Bugger.

Ava is now 7.5 months old and is army crawling everywhere. Yesterday she crawled all the way down the hall by herself (no one calling her to come), I grabbed the video camera and got her going into her room and finding herself in a mirror I haven't hung up yet. She then proceeded to laugh and squeal at herself and then kissed her image. It was so cute. She also suddenly has separation anxiety really bad and wakes up in the middle of the night numerous times screaming like I've left her forever. It's awful. Yesterday was the worst though, she would have a tantrum if I wasn't on the floor playing with her the whole day. She took two 45-60 minutes naps and that was it. It was a long day. It is nice to be needed so much, but a little exhausting.

She also has this new smile, she shows her teeth and crinkles her nose so she looks kind of a like an old man. It's the best! She is also babbling "mamamamama" quite a bit, but I don't think she's saying it on purpose.

6 months (and a half)

I am done teaching for the summer, my graduate class has ended and I can now breath for the summer. Jim has finished the basement and we have a cool place to hang out when the heat gets to be too much, which earlier this week it was.

Ava is now a half year old! We had a doctor appointment on the 2nd of June where she was to get her first immunization. I got all worked up about it and decided to not make my mom go with me (Jim had to work), to be strong and go it alone. I arrived, waited, got into the room and was asked what Ava was being seen for and lo and behold, they did not have the immunization in that day. I was so livid and inraged. I had specifically made the appointment to get the shot and TOLD the receptionist this, but there was a miscommunication. So when I pulled into my mom's driveway with tears streaming down my face, my mom instantly thought I was traumatized. Ugh. So I rescheduled, asked this time if they had it in (who knew you had to do that) and then asked for the specific brand and such so I could Google it (I have no idea what I was looking for, but it made me feel better). So we went on Tuesday and I was so anxious. A girl I went to school with is actually a nurse there and she got to give Ava her shot (go Stacy!). So.... yeah, she didn't even flinch. All that, and not a flinch. Which I am thrilled about because I agonized over it. Now I'll know she's a trooper (and Mom's a big wussy). So the big weigh in was 16 pounds, 1.5 ounces and 26.5 inches. We call her McChubs.

So I am sure you have all heard or experienced what a wonderful, beautiful, perfect and angel Ava is. Well, just so you all don't hate me, she has started to cry. Yeah, I said it, cry. I know! She had a tooth break through on the 7th, and then another one on the 12th (Happy 87th Grandpa!). I am waiting to get bitten, but it hasn't happened yet and I anticipate it at every feeding. Which, by they way is going great, but is happening less often because she is totally into solid food. Well, pureed in her case, but she LOVES everything but oatmeal. I pureed up some chicken, peas and carrots and she gobbles them right up. She is also learning how to use a sippy cup.

Ava had her first swing ride last week at the park down the road. It's like a daily ritual now... Jim comes home and after dinner we put her in the stroller and walk down the street and put her in the swing. She loves it. She is almost scooting. She propels her body into a teepee, which takes so much energy, and when she is doing it, she looks like she'll move herself pretty far, but she only moves a mere inch or so. It's pretty funny to watch. Today she got herself forward pretty well. The mobility factor is bittersweet for us. It's going to be so cool that she'll be more independent and can move... but that's the bitter part.

Next week we leave for our camping trip with the Chapas. I cannot wait!

Happy first Father's Day to Jim! Here is a picture of Ava and her cousin Sophia (10 weeks older). SO CUTE!

Rollin, rollin', rollin'...

So much has happened in the past month, it's hard to keep it all straight: Ava has some new friends that entered the world (welcome Ella Tayler and Joshua Michael!!), she has learned how to roll over from her back to her belly too! It's funny to watch and she can't do it without tooting mid-roll. Then she gets really mad that she is on her tummy and starts yelling. She has discovered her toes and that her fingers can grab them and lots of other things (mommy's lips and daddy's nose). She's got a good grip!

She was baptized on April 22nd, she wore my christening gown and was adorable. She slept through the whole thing. You know, it is so amazing how she learns

new things, I mean, of course she has got to grow and learn, but she won't do anything for like a week and then all of a sudden she does 3 things in a row. It is utterly amazing to watch her grow. When I held Ella Compau yesterday, I couldn't believe that just 5 short months ago, Ava was SMALLER than that! How can that be? How does that happen?

A MIRACLE also occured this past week, my brother changed his FIRST diaper. Yes, it took 5 months, but he finally did it. I handed her off to him and said "Here, change her," thinking he would say no way! like he normally does. But here is picture to prove it. He actually did it right and did a fine job. Now if she'll only take a big duece when he's here....

Yesterday, my sister-in-law Kim and I took our three little ones and walked around the mall. I looked at her and said, "We are those annoying stroller people now." But it didn't take long to realize it wasn't the stroller that makes people act like idiots in the mall. By God, it's the PEOPLE! Who knew!

I only have 15 days left of school and then I am home for 3 months. I still have to go back to clean and do odds and ends but aside from 3 days I have meetings I can bring Ava in with me. I am so excited for the summer.