Monkey See, Monkey Do

Ava learned a little trick from her Uncle Blake.

Here's her watching Blake....

And here's what she started doing today to the webcam...

Videos

Sorry for blog post overload...I am trying to clear off the videos from my iphone.

Ava's newest word is buh buh (bubble). She gets in the bath, points to her bubble machine that Grandma and Grandpa Webster gave her for her birthday and says, "buh buh, buh buh." 

Sometimes, Bryson will text me when he is almost home and I will start getting Ava all excited to see him. So, we go on a hunt around the house for Daddy. I ask Ava, "Ava, where's Daddy?" and she runs all over the house searching for him and calls out "Daddy" and "Daaaach" (Dad). Then, when he comes through the front door, she gets SO excited! I took a VERY SHORT video of part of this process one day before my phone died. :(

My giggly girl. I LOVE hearing her laugh...so sweet.

Ava loves to JUMP. In this video I said "chomp," which she obviously mistook for JUMP and started jumping. I seriously want to get her one of those toddler trampoline things for Christmas - she would love it! She jumps in her crib, jumps on our bed, she LOVES to jump.

Okay, that's all. :)

{27 weeks} Third Trimester Begins!

I am in a total state of shock that I am already starting my third trimester.

I am starting to notice people looking at my belly when I am at the grocery store or something.

I have people tell me (no, more like declare to me) all the time, "It's a boy." To which I respond, "Yes it is, how did you know?" They always answer, "It's because you are carrying straight out, like a basketball." I honestly feel like I look the same as I did with Ava though...so there goes that wives tale. :)

How far along? 27 weeks

Total weight gain/loss: +6 pounds

Maternity clothes? No

Stretch marks? No

Sleep: Sleeping great, just have to get up a lot and use the restroom.

Best moment this week: Feeling him move all the time. :)

Have you told family and friends: Yessir

Movement: Feel him moving ALL of the time! Very active!

Food cravings: Nothing in particular. I just eat a LOT! Sandwiches!

Anything making you queasy or sick: No

Have you started to show yet: Yes!

Gender prediction: It's a boy!

Labor Signs: No (feeling A LOT of Braxton Hicks contractions)

Belly Button in or out? In

Wedding rings on or off? On

Happy or Moody most of the time: Happy

Weekly Wisdom: Hmm...I don't know. 

Milestones: Baby is settling into the proper position for birth, with his head facing downward. He is now about 2.5 pounds and almost 16 inches long. He's busy adding new skills such as blinking to an already impressive repertoire of tricks like coughing, sucking, hiccuping, and taking practice breaths. Baby's sleep now includes the REM (rapid eye movement) phase — and that means he could be dreaming already (what do you suppose he's dreaming about?).

The end :)

Baby boys are SO fun

I don't know what people are talking about when they say girls are so much more fun to dress. 

Yes, girls are fun to dress, and maybe it's because I HAVE a girl so I get to dress my little living doll baby every day. 

BUT boy stuff is really cute too! 

Are you kidding me - have you seen all those stripes, the chevron, those plaid button-up onesie shirts?

The corduroy pants, the sporty jackets, the nautical sweaters and not to mention the shoes.

OH my heavens, the shoes. I could DIE - those little tiny baby shoes that look like a miniature version of a grown man's shoe.

 I am so excited to dress my little man.

I have been making some things for him lately. 

I realized that every single blanket that we own is pink, purple or covered in hearts, flowers or ladybugs. 

And as much as I adore those blankets, I am definitely not okay with snuggling up to my baby boy while he is wrapped in a pink ladybug blanket. 

So I decided to tackle making some blankets for the little man. 

I started by making some floor blankets.

(as you will see, I am kind of obsessed with chevron prints haha)

And then I made a little rag quilt.

Today I made a car seat canopy:

And I made a new crib skirt for the crib. For the nursery, I am changing everything from pink to shades of teal/turquoise and grey. I am trying to make it both girly as well as okay for a boy since they will be sharing a room for a while. So I have chevron and stripes, but I also have florals and ruffles. I still have some things to do in the nursery: finish the curtains and get new hooks to hang them, paint the dresser, and find some things for the walls. I am contemplating making a pennant bunting. My grandma generously  offered to make the crib bumpers - they are going to be white with a turquoise ruffle on the top. She is also making Ava's blanket which is a teal and white pattern with a satin ruffle. I am also going to get some little vases and some flowers to sit on top of the dresser.

The crib skirt is on kind of lopsided, I needed to pull it up a bit.

Notice I still need to make the short sides of the crib skirt. Too much ruffling for one day haha.

Other things I've made are a turquoise minky changing pad cover, a curtain for the changing table, and some pacifier clips.

I also took advantage of the fabric sale at Joann and bought a bunch of different fabrics to make burp cloths (since the ones I have now are all, yep you guessed it...pink). :)  I also need to make some more pillows, but I might save those for when we move Ava to a big girl bed to put on her new bed. 

And now you have picked my "project obsessed" mind. I have been sewing and cutting and ripping seams and sewing again nonstop this week. Once you get me started, I just go go go and can't stop haha. 

Anyway...there's my super random post. 

The End. :)

California Fall

The leaves start falling a little later here in California.
Ava has the BEST time exploring, picking up and just playing in all the leaves.
And she looks SO dang cute in her little red coat from Auntie Kait - almost like a mini adult.
It is VERY hard to take pictures of her these days as she is so active and all over the place.
Getting her to look at the camera is almost impossible because she is so distracted by everything around her.
So I usually just give up after 10 minutes and call it good.

14 months

Just a quick update on my sweet Ava Sophia. 

On the 29th she will be 14 months and I am constantly amazed by all that she is learning. 

I'm positive it's just because I am her mom and I am completely and utterly biased...

...but sometimes it baffles me how smart she really is. 

She picks up on things so quickly now, I never know what she will learn next.

For example...she has a little video that teaches her baby sign language. 

I also teach her baby sign language and sign to her during the day...words like "drink" and "milk" and "up" - words that I think are relevant to her very complex life. :)

Well on the video, they briefly mention the word "potty" and show the sign for it.

I never in a million years thought to even try to reinforce the word "potty" because...well, she's nowhere near being potty trained. 

Anyway, the other day I was in the bathroom getting ready and she was pointing to everything in the room and I was telling her what everything was called.
She pointed to the toilet and I said, "potty."

And just like that she signed potty. Perfectly signed, like she had been doing it for months. 

Genius, I tell you. haha
See, I told you...biased. :)

These are the words she says on a regular basis: 

cracker (ca ca) (her favorite right now) 

shoes (shees) 

apple (appie)

mama

hi

bye

thank you (tay too)

more

uh oh 

wow 

cheese 

book (dook)

please (says very, very rarely)

These are the words she can sign: 

milk 

drink 

mama 

daddy 

up 

ball 

banana 

cracker 

fish

bath 

tree (thanks to our Christmas tree)

ball 

potty 

more 

grandpa 

cat 

baby

all done

Signs I'm trying to teach her next: Love (or I love you), sleep

Random things she knows/can do:

• Where her belly button is
• Where her head is
• Where her toes are
• How to use a fork (with limited abilities) :)
• Blow kisses
• Whenever she sees a letter of the alphabet, she says "seeee" because I have been showing her the letters A, B and C and I usually say "A, B, C" over and over. So she somehow now thinks all letters are "seee." One time, Bryson was putting Ava in the stroller and the stroller was parked behind the car as he was loading her up. She started pointing to the licence plate and saying "seee" referring to the letters on the licence plate. She also has a big letter "A" in her room and every time she sees it, she points to it and says, "seeee." At least she is recognizing that they are letters - it's a start. 

At this stage in her life, Ava is extremely active. She definitely keeps me busy. She is also very snuggly and loves to stop what she is doing to come lay on my lap or give me a big hug and kiss. She is my little sweetie peetie and I can't wait to share all her sweetness with all our family over the holidays (which can't come soon enough!!).

Love you soooooo much Ava bean bean! :)
Love,
Momma

And just because I have them (I know I take way too many pictures)...
here is some major pictures-of-Ava overload!

Just looking cute...

One of Ava's snuggly moments - she loves to cuddle with me.

This month Ava had a terrible stomach flu - it was horrible and SO sad. 

Ava eating her saltine crackers when her tummy felt a little bit better. 

Ava just hanging out with Mom on the couch.

Decorating her first Christmas tree (right before she ripped all the ornaments off the tree haha). 

Wrestling match ending in hugs and kisses.

Watching the Macy's Day Thanksgiving Parade.

She LOVES the Christmas tree!

Eating with a fork like a big girl.

Walking to BART to go Black Friday shopping in the city.

My little fashionista. :)

Puzzles at church.

Ava's absolute favorite toy (and probably her BFF). :)

She was such a trooper while we did some Black Friday shopping. 

Helping me make cookies. 

Park Days

Ava is just getting to an age where taking her to the park is actually fun for both her and for me. 

It used to be that I would take Ava to the park and I would push her in the swing for a few minutes...

she would get bored. 

So I would let her walk around....and I would spend the majority of the time trying to stop her from eating all the wood chips.

I would always leave thinking, "Why do I take Ava to the park again?" 

Now, she definitely is more independent and understands what to do on the playground. 

She LOVES to play with the other kids. That is definitely her favorite thing to do.

Unfortunately for her though, this little park I take her to is usually pretty empty - it is completely fenced in and designated for kids under 5 

(awesome because I don't have to worry about older kids knocking her over on accident).

But that just means she gets free roam of the entire playground.

She climbs up the jungle gym (is that what it's called?) and she can slide down the slide all by herself

(and then tries, and fails, to climb back up the slide). :)

She climbs through all the tunnels.

She runs to the swings and then signs "up, up, up" until I put her in the swing.

Then, she laughs and laughs as I push her higher and higher and when she's ready to get down she signs "all done" and off she goes onto the next activity. 

She still loves the wood chips, and spends a lot of time carefully putting as many wood chips on the benches as she can and then brushing them all of as she claps and smiles and looks at me like "Did you see that, Mom?"

And then she holds my hand as we walk back to the car. 

I love my little bug.

Even though she is growing up way too fast...right before my very eyes.