Happenings

Ava loves to sit with her daddy.

She thinks the outlet covers are her new pacifiers.

Sunday morning snuggles with Daddy.

Ava working on her buns of steel. Doing some squats. 

Yes, this makes my heart go pitter pat.

Bryson has some cool interactive digital storybooks on his iPad. 

Swinging...

 ...swinging...

...swinging.

Ava's strange fasciation with computer cords. 

And another strange fascination...the spices in the kitchen. :)

We go on lots of walks these days. And these days Ava leads the way.

Ava mesmerized by Elmo. 

 Auntie Kait can always make Ava laugh so hard on FaceTime. Wouldn't you laugh, too? :)

Ava has enough hair for teeny tiny pigtails!

Daddy bought Ava her very first soccer ball and he is teaching her how to kick. I had to remind her it's called football all over the world for a reason, but she didn't listen. :)

First visit to ToysRUs. She was pulling toys off the shelf like crazy. 

Pigtails!

Aaaaaand that's all for now!

Thanks for stopping by!

Belly Laughs Times 10

Cute videos

These are just some videos of Ava since we have been home. 

Ava toddling along. 

More toddling. 

Ava's new favorite toy. It was only a matter of time until she found this thing. 

Playing Peek a boo

This is in Virginia. Papa bought her a pool and she loved it. The only thing she loved more was the puppy, which she hurriedly climbed out of the pool to go see every chance she got. 

First steps!

Tonight, Ava took her first real steps all on her own!

She has taken a couple steps here and there, but never anything like this.

We weren't even paying attention at first, and when we looked up there she went!

As Kaitlyn pointed out...she learned to walk 4 days too late to ride all the kiddie rides at Busch Gardens,

since you have to be able to take 3 steps to ride those rides. (haha)

Ava was definitely holding out, waiting to start walking for when she was with her Daddy.

Check out some of her first steps we caught on camera. 

I love that she doesn't bend her knees when she walks.

Since then, she's been cruising all over the apartment all night.
Walking, falling, getting up and walking again.
Does this mean I officially have a toddler?
I'm going to say no, for now...still my baby. haha

So proud of our little baby!

I found this in my baby book written by my mom:

Ashley at 9 Months - Memorable first accomplishments: On September 28th, you began walking all by yourself! Tonight Grandma and Grandpa came over and you walked right across the room to them!

Is it weird that I think it's cute that we both learned to walk at 9 months? haha

Anyway, I have a LOT of blogging to catch up on from our wonderful trip to Virginia. Hopefully I will get to that soon!

Drinking from a straw

This might not seem like a big deal, but we have been trying to teach Ava to drink from a straw for a while now.

When we were at Busch Gardens the other day, she drank from the big straw of our refillable plastic cup, but still couldn't quite get the hang of it when using her sippy cup.

Well today, she finally got it and she guzzled her sippy cup of water - she wouldn't put it down. 

Yay for learning new things!

And I am, yet again, intrigued and fascinated by the LACK of reaction I get when Ava sucks on a lemon or lime. 

Not only does she not react, she seems to love them.

Silly babe. 

Aquarium

Today Papa treated us to a trip to the Virginia Beach Aquarium.

Ava loved trying to touch the sting rays (actually I think she liked splashing in the sting ray pool the best), 

she loved banging on the glass as watching the fish swim by, 

she loved touching the horseshoe crabs and starfish,

and she especially loved waving at every single person who walked by until they smiled at her.

She was worn out by the time we made our way through every exhibit and slept the whole way home. 

Thanks Papa for a great day!

First swim in the ocean

Being from California, Ava has of course been to the beach before.

But the water has always been WAY too cold to actually get in.

So today was Ava's first swim in the ocean. 

She loved it!

Videos {Virginia #1}

Since we are going to be away from Bryson for 2 weeks, I don't want him to miss out on all the funny and cute thing Ava is doing. 

So naturally, I take a video of everything. 

This is Ava dancing while my brother plays the guitar. This is how she dances when she is on all fours haha. 

Riding in the rodeo. Granny got her this fun toy.

Dancing at Busch Gardens...

This was the only ride Ava could ride at Busch Gardens. She loved it.

Ava at the play place in the mall.

Ava loved the splash park at Busch Gardens.

It really was so Hot Hot Hot that day!!

Well, I have many many more, but this is all I will post for now. :)

Our trip to Virginia so far

Busch Gardens

Water Country

Swimming

Lots and lots of family

Good food

Fireworks

Roller coasters

and lots more.

And it's only been 3 days. 

Better make more room on my camera's memory card. 

Happy 4th of July!

Ava's first 4th of July was a huge success.

It was spent eating, swimming, crawling, dancing, napping and eating some more.

We got absolutely no reaction out of her when it came to the fireworks.

She just stared at them blankly, as if to say, "Is that all you've got?"

But she sure did look cute sporting her red, white and blue!

Happy Birthday America! :)