Pregnancy update: {24 weeks}

I haven't done one of these in a long time...so here goes. :)

This is a picture of me a week ago at 23 weeks.

How far along? 24 weeks

Total weight gain/loss: +3 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: Just 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!

Anything making you queasy or sick: Sickness is gone for the most part!

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 about eight and a half inches long and weighs one and a half pounds, gaining steadily at a rate of six ounces per week. Much of that weight comes from accumulating baby fat, as well as from growing organs, bones, and muscle. Those little ears of his are getting sharper and can hear very loud sounds, from a yapping dog to a jackhammer. Also by now, that fabulous face is almost fully formed, complete with eyelashes, eyebrows, and hair. Is he is brunette, a blonde, or a redhead? Actually, right now his locks are white since there's no pigment yet.

Here I am 24 weeks pregnant with baby boy:

(please ignore my horribly dirty bathroom mirror) :)

To compare, here is me 23 and 25 weeks pregnant with Ava:

It is so weird to think that I am already 24 weeks. At this time last pregnancy, I felt SO pregnant. This time around, I still feel very "newly" pregnant and I feel like I still have so much time before he comes. But I have a feeling it will go by faster than I am thinking! 

Ava's First Year Video

I made this video last night after many months of stressing out over the thought of doing it.

The thought of going through our seemingly hundreds of videos of Ava and making it into one video was very overwhelming. 

But then I just told myself I would make the video the length of 2 songs and be done with it. 

I still have hopes of putting all those videos of Ava's first year on a DVD or something so someday she can pull it out and watch the videos and laugh like I did with the videos of me as a kid.

But this is what I have for now. 

I was going to label the "first smile," "first laugh," "first time rolling over" ... but I figured it was kind of obvious. :)

You should have seen me laying in bed last night making this video with tears streaming down my cheeks. 

This beautiful, sweet baby girl definitely has my heart. 

Ava One Year from Ashley Webster on Vimeo.

And as cliche as it sounds...this year has gone by way too fast. 

Cracker

A couple days ago Ava started saying "Ca ca" (cracker) when we give her a cracker.

It's so funny because she has to concentrate SO hard to say it...

But she is definitely trying. 

Say Cheese!

To get Ava to smile for a picture, we have her say "cheese."

Ava saying cheese makes for the perfect smile for the perfect picture.

Hmm, imagine that. 

See for yourself.

In each of these pictures, she is saying "cheeeeese." 

Sweet, sweet, sweet baby.

AT&T Park and Twin Peaks

Last weekend we went into the city and took Ava to AT&T Park (Where the Giants play) and she got to run around on the field. Give Ava some open space and let her run, and she is one happy camper! 

Then, we punched into our GPS Twin Peaks and we saw the most beautiful view of the city. 

These pictures are completely jumbled and out of order, but I am too lazy to fix them haha. You'll get the idea. 

My little trick pony

Sometimes I feel like Ava is my little or parrot or something. 

I just ask her to do things and then get so excited and praise her when she does them correctly.

Everywhere we go, I want to show people her tricks and I beam when they "ooh" and "aww" over how well she performs. 

The only difference is, I don't reward her with treats...just high-fives and smiles and lots of "good girl!"s

Wow...am I first time mom or what?

And on another note...

Ava has slowly been getting more teeth.

She only had two tiny teeth from age 6 months to 12 months.

Then BAM, 12 months hit and she got 4 molars and 2 front top teeth and 2 more are coming in. 

She also HATES more than anything in the world when I try to lift up her lips or open her mouth to try to see her teeth. 

BUT, I was finally able to capture on video a couple of her new shiny teeth. 

Cute, cute, cute.

Chair climbing

I've been wanting to buy Ava a little table and chairs for a while now since the only "chairs" we have in our apartment are stools - no way Ava can sit on those. I wanted her to have a place to sit and eat and to color (I'm trying to teach her how to color haha) and really, just to learn how to sit in a chair haha. I didn't want to spend a lot of money, so I have been looking on Craigslist, but I hadn't found anything. Then I came across a table from Ikea for $20 and thought it was perfect. So, today Ava and I drove to Emeryville and bought this little table and chairs from Ikea. When we got home, we put it together and now Ava has a little tiny table and chairs all to herself. It was so cute watching her watch me put the table together. She would crouch down and watch me use the allen wrench to screw in the screws. Then, she would take the allen wrench herself and stick it in the hole of the screw and try to turn it. How cute that she "got it" - she watched me do it and then she tried to copy it. 

As you can see from the picture below, Ava was very excited to be at Ikea haha.

As soon as I put the table together, she knew exactly what to do...

And then, she figured out how to do this...

And I couldn't help but grab the camera before I taught her not to climb on the chairs. 

Enjoy my moment of bad parenting. :/ haha

Skillz

It is so fun and HILARIOUS to watch Ava learning new things. 

Like just the other night, we were leaving someone's house and we said "Thank you!" and she smiled and proudly said "Tay Tay!" Of course she isn't saying thank you, but she is trying to say it - and it is just so cute! Now whenever I'm at the grocery store, for example, and say "thank you," you can rest assured Ava will chime in with a nice, loud "Tay tay!" 

She is talking and using baby sign language more and more to communicate but it is becoming harder and harder to get her to do it "on cue" and catch it on camera because she just isn't interested in performing, I guess haha. If I say, "say cheese," she will sometimes say it...but if I am feeding her a piece of cheese she will say cheese nonstop. When I am putting on her shoes, she says shoes over and over (shee), but if I ask her to say shoes randomly, she just runs the other way haha.

I work with her every day to teach her new words both orally and by signing and she picks words up so quickly now...I never know what she will learn next.  Here are a few little videos of some of the things she can say. I know I am so annoying in these because I am trying so hard to get her to perform. She sure knows how to act silly when the camera comes on, as you will see in some of the videos. 

Things she knows in this video: "hi" "bye = said very loudly, sounds like eye and always accompanied by a wave" "uh oh" "woah" "shoes" "thank you = tay tay" signing: more, milk, eat, cat, baby

Things she says in this video: "hi," "shoes = shee," "cheese." After that, it's boring haha. 

Signs she knows in this video: Daddy, Momma (this is her being silly and loud)

Anyway, I just thought it was cute. You can also tell she is very high energy, always on the go go go. I love my sweet girl - she is so fun! 

I'm Thankful For {Day 1}

I'm Thankful For My Husband. :)

How could I start a month of expressing my gratitude without saying how much I am thankful for my wonderful husband? I know, without a doubt, I do not show or express my gratitude nearly as much as I should. I find myself sometimes taking for granted how great he is...until it hits me like a ton of bricks yet again just how wonderful a husband, father, and best friend he is. 

Bryson is the kind of husband who gets up from the couch to get a bottle of lotion so he can rub my feet - without being asked. He washes the dishes and cleans the kitchen every night after dinner. Bryson always, always, always makes me feel and tells me I am beautiful - even when he comes home and I am still in my pajamas and I don't have a stitch of makeup on. He tells me I am a good mom. He hugs me and tells me all the time that the loves me.

He is the kind of father who woke up with me every single night for months after Ava was born to change her diaper, swaddle her nice and tight and bring her to me so I can feed her (he still gets up with her at night if when she is teething or sick). He wakes up with Ava on Saturday mornings and takes her on "daddy-daughter dates" just so I can sleep in - even though he is the one that wakes up early and leaves for work while I am still sleeping soundly every day of the week. I never knew just how much I loved Bryson until I saw how much he ADORES Ava. I always knew he would be a good dad, but he is better than a "good" dad - he is an incredible father who loves his little girl more than I knew possible. What a lucky girl Ava is to have him as her Daddy.

I honestly could go on and on...and on and on. I wonder all the time how other girls do it...without husbands who help and who are as "hands-on" as Bryson is. He is wonderful and I know I don't deserve him in the least bit, but thankfully I tricked him a long time ago and now he is stuck with me for good. :)

Love you honey bunches! Thanks for ALL you do for me, for Ava and for our soon-to-be son! 

Halloween Take 2

Here is Ava in her cute 2nd costume - a hilarious little flower.

I love that she could wear it all day and night and it would never phase or bother her

 - she never pulled the hood off or anything. 

(notice in many of these pictures, she had lost a shoe - and she was walking around, pointing to her foot saying "uh oh, uh oh."

...aaaaaand we're done here. hahaha

Happy Halloween!