Boys.

I can't even handle it

This boy can do no wrong with a face like this! 

Those eyes!!!

I could die. 

Gavin {5 months}

Dear Gavin,

You turned 5 months old on August 6, 2013. These last 5 months have really showed me that my capacity to LOVE is endless. Somehow I fall more and more in love with you the more I get to know you, the more your charming little personality emerges. Just when I think it's impossible to love you any more, when I think you just can't get any cuter, sweeter, happier, yummier...you surprise me and my heart feels like it could burst of love and admiration. I feel incredibly lucky to be your mom. 

This month, you started the "grab-everything-and-put-it-into-your-mouth" phase that all babies seem to go through. For a while I thought you must be teething simply based on the vast amounts of drool and the non-stop chewing on everything you could wrap those chubby little fingers upon. I think I must have blamed every slight whimper on those seemingly soon-impending teeth...those teeth which have still yet to show up. So for now, you still have the sweetest purely-gummy, toothless smile. No rush.  (especially while I am still nursing you - ouch!)

I have loved watching you this month discover just how BADLY you WISH to be mobile. You can roll in both directions, which is your mode of transportation for now. You roll from one side of the room to the other, and you even ended up under the couch one time. You also can do a complete 360 while on your tummy. You want to crawl so badly - pushing your little bum into the air, up on your knees, but not quite able to get up all the way. Let me reiterate - no rush! I love the fact that you are immobile for now - I know as soon as you can crawl, you will be chasing your big sister around, getting into all kinds of mischief with her. I think I might be in trouble with the two of you! ;) 

At the very end of this month, our family flew to North Carolina for your Uncle Brad and Aunt Kelsey's wedding. It was a beautiful wedding and you were so excited to welcome a new aunt into our family! After the wedding, we spent a few days at Aunt Kelsey's lake house, boating, jet skiing and swimming. You loved hanging out with Grandma and Grandpa and Uncle Blake, Aunt Maddie and Joe and all of Aunt Kelsey's family. After our time in North Carolina, we drove up to Virginia to visit your Great-Grandpa and Great-Grandma Lord, Aunt Kaitlyn, and Great-Aunt Karen and the rest of the Jorgensen family. While Aunt Karen and Auntie Kaitlyn watched Ava, you went on a little "getaway" with Mom and Dad to Washington DC to visit some of our good friends. You LOVED having our undivided attention, I could tell and we loved spending such good quality, one-on-one time with you. While in Virginia, we went to Busch Gardens and you rode some of your first "rides." I was so proud of you on both the flight out and the flight coming home - you were absolutely perfect and slept for almost the entirety of each flight. I think your favorite part of our trip to the east coast was the great amount of time you spent with your Daddy. You two were inseparable for two straight weeks, even taking many naps together...your Dad said he really enjoyed that "father-son" bonding time. :)

At your 4-month check-up (which was actually 4.5 months), you weighed 17 pounds 5.6 ounces, putting you in the 76th percentile for weight for age and the 15th percentile for weight for height. You were 2 feet, 3.75 inches, landing you in the "100th percentile," meaning you are "off the charts" tall for your age. Your BMI is 15.83. Bottom line, you are tall and relatively thin for how tall you are (although those scrumptious rolls on your thighs would beg to differ). While at your appointment, your pediatrician gave me the "go ahead" on sleep training, telling me that you can, and should, be sleeping much longer periods than the 2-hour-at-a-time stretches you have been doing so far. She also okayed rice cereal at bedtime, which we tried a few times and, while I would't use the word "enjoy," you definitely tolerated it well. :)

Other cute/funny/random things about you:

• You love to play with your toes.
• You are incredibly smiley and smile at anyone and everyone.
• You have THE most beautiful blue eyes. People always comment on how dreamy your eyes are.
• You love when we sing to you as you are falling asleep. If we are singing and then stop, you will start humming to yourself until we start singing again.
• You have found your voice and you love to test that lung capacity as you squeal loudly for joy all day long.
• You are ALMOST sitting up on your own. You can do it for a little while, but then will topple over if I'm not there to catch you.
• You are very ticklish on your feet, under your arms and under your neck.
• You are definitely a tummy sleeper and you love being on your tummy in general. The second I lay you on the floor, you roll straight to your tummy.
• You take 3 naps a day - usually one around 10am, 1pm and 5pm. You go to bed around 8pm and usually wake up for the day between 7:30 and 8am. 
• You are still exclusively breastfed, except for the handful of times you had about a tablespoon of rice cereal.

Here you are at one, two, three, four and now five months (you were SO done with pictures by the time I took this 5-month shot - but you are still adorable even as you are crying).


5 months from Ashley Webster on Vimeo.

I love you, love you, love you my Gavin boy. 

Thank you for being my sweet, happy, easy-going little man. 

I couldn't ask for a better son, 

I'm so PROUD that you are mine. 

Love always, 

Momma

Ava {22 months}

Ava turned 22 months on July 29th, 2013.
They say babies change the most in the first year of life.
Well, because "they" said it - I was ready for that first year.
But this 2nd year has been amazing, watching her learning and growing,
and discovering and exploring,
and becoming such a wonderful, smart, funny, adventurous, spunky, beautiful, happy little girl.
Truly from a baby, to a toddler, to a little girl all in (not even) 12 measly little months.

I watch her throughout the day, mesmerized by the things she finds fascinating,
the beauty and absolute joy she finds in the tiniest of things in this enormous world around her.

I watch her and I am, to put it simply...impressed.
I am impressed by how smart she is,
how daring she is,
how happy she is, and how she tries to make others happy,
how thoughtful she is, how she really has a way of making people feel special,
how she always seems to be the life of the party.

She isn't even two and I already know she is a much better person than I.
I have so much to teach her, but really I have so much more to learn from her.

I love this little girl so much.
This tiny girl I somehow created, and is somehow so perfectly perfect for me.

Here are some new things about Ava this month...

Words she knows as of today (PURPLE ones are new words this month):

*I try to keep track of the new words/phrases she learns, but I swear she is learning them so quickly now, it's hard to keep up - so here are just some cute new ones that I can remember.

Grandma, temple, cereal, apple sauce, head, hug, GG (what she calls Great Grandma), chip, wake up, sisters, pig (holds nose), purse, bag, home, up and down, fork, spoon, high five, tah dah, bum bum, there she is, ipad, iphone, oh my gosh, get it, peeeeeease (please), ice cream, chicken, pretzels, taco, peanut butter, help, blocks, welcome, yellow, bee (what she calls all flying bugs), there she is/there is!, okay, choo choo, bug (she says bub), bless you (ba-choo), Bubba (what she calls Gavin), three, excuse me (she says skuze you), mine, bus, you okay? (when she or someone else gets hurt), hurt,  Jesus, uncle, airplane, egg, tractor, what's that (waz dat), two, car, orange, blue, purple, bird, bus, Misty (the horse), Oma (what she calls Becky), knee, amen, byebye, octopus, fishies, keys, sit, achoo, look, hat, kick, stick, Auntie, puppy, elbow, banana (nana), walk, eyes, hot, yeah, play (pay), swing (wee), cup, buckle up (buka uh), bubble gum (bubba guh), apple juice, happy birthday (appie day), cupcake, goodnight (nye nye), oh cute (ohhh toote), moon, bow, ouch, cookie, all done, water, happy, moo, baa, thank you, truck, duck/quack (same thing right now) car, balloon (boon), cake, please (meese), flower (wow-wee), belly (buh-bee), clicker, cup, oh no, ball, bubble, up, apple, cool, Elmo, baby, no, grandpa (says poppy), grandma (says mama), ow/owie, milk (muk), paci (she actually calls it mammy), cracker, shoes, dada, mama, hi, more, uh oh, wow, cheese, book

Friends/Family names that she knows: Lexi (Lessie), Duncan (Cuh-cun), Faith (Face), Avery (Aye-vee), Teddy, Anna, Norman (Meh-men), Maddie (Mah-ee), Blake (Bake), Kelsey (El-see) 

Funny things: 

• Love to play the game"night night, wake up!" She says "night night" and lays down and closes her eyes, then shouts "Wake up!" and jumps up and says, "Party! Party! Party!"
• She now wants to hug everyone she sees. For example, the sister missionaries live next door to us and she is constantly asking,"Sisters, hug?" 
• Puts arms out when asking where someone is, and says "Where Daddy go?"
• LOVES to sing the ABCs and she is getting better every day!
• The thing I had been dreading for a loooong time came to fruition this month - Ava now climbs out of crib and she does it very well. When I put her down for her nap or for bed, she usually climbs out at least once and then we put her right back in and she goes to sleep. A few nights, she's climbed out many times until eventually she just gave up and went to sleep haha. 
• Ava is a little climber. One day, we were in our back yard and I was on the phone. I looked down for a second or two, looked back up and Ava had climbed to the top of the chain link fence - all by herself! She also climbs on top of her changing table, on top of the table, tries to climb everything at the playground, etc. 
• She is getting good at counting to 10. She counts 1 (finger up), two, three, five, six, eight, nine, ten!
• Ava LOVES to sing. I will hear her in the next room or in her car seat just singing away to herself. She loves to listen to the Primary songs app on my phone and she tries to sing along. Her favorite primary songs are I am a Child of God and I Love to See the Temple. She also sings Bubble gum, Eat Eat Eat, Twinkle Twinkle, Mr. Sun, Baby Bumblebee, the Clean Up Song and more but I can't think of them right now. 
• She loves to swim, play on the playground, read books, build blocks, push her babies in the stroller, play on the ipad, bug Gavin (haha)
• Favorite foods: watermelon, bananas, peanut butter, scrambled eggs, cheese, apple sauce, oatmeal, cereal, pretzels
• She LOVES purses. Whenever we go shopping, she finds a purse, strings it around her neck, proudly exclaims "purse" and carries it all around the store. 
• Ava knows almost all her letters of the alphabet. If you ask her to find a certain letter, she can recognize every letter (For example: Ava, where is the G?). If you ask her "What is this letter?" she can recall and tell you the name of probably 90% of the letters. 

Here are some pictures from this month:

And in case that wasn't already Ava-overload...here are some videos. :)

This one is of Ava climbing out of her crib...

Ava "reading" a book to Gavin...

ABC's

This video describes Ava's personality so perfectly...

Blocks...What good are block towers if you can't knock them down and start all over? :)

Ava and her letters...I LOVE this application!

Until next month... :)

Gavin {4 months}

Dear Gavin,

You turned 4 months on July 6, 2013. It's hard for me to believe you are one-third of a year old! I can't imagine my life without you in it - you truly bring great, heart-bursting amounts of joy into my life! You are the smiliest baby, smiling at anyone and everyone who even glances your way.

This month you started laughing - a sound every mother waits and waits for. You laugh when we tickle you or when we make a funny face at you. Of course, your Daddy can make you laugh the most. Ava can also make you laugh - she can also make you smile so bright. You light up as soon as you see her - I can tell you two will be great friends (something that would make me SOoooooo happy!).

Recently, we decided to stop swaddling you when you go to sleep. I was nervous, mostly because Ava loved being swaddled so much. But when you were swaddled, you would wake up grunting in the middle of the night, seemingly uncomfortable. First I just took your arms out, but still swaddled the rest of your body...just for a couple nights. Then, I just stopped swaddling you altogether. You haven't missed that swaddle one bit - you still sleep exactly the same, you just look cuter doing it. You love to sleep on your side. So far on your side, you are almost on your tummy, but not quite. You still don't sleep through the night - only occasionally will I get a good 5 hour stretch out of you. Usually, you are up every 3 or so hours. We will get you sleeping longer eventually (hopefully). :)



Other new things about you:

• Grabbing toys
• Chewing on your hands
• Everything goes into your mouth
• You do "baby sit ups"
• Love to "stand" up
• Took your first road trip to Utah to visit the Webster side of the family
• Went swimming for the first time in the Johnson's pool
• Celebrated your first 4th of July

Two days after you turned 4 months, you rolled from your back to your tummy - something you had been practicing over and over for a long time.

You are suddenly very talkative. You love to squeal and squawk in joy.

Here you are at 1, 2, 3 and now 4 months. 

Gavin, sometimes I just lay next to you and stare at you as you sleep. These are the fleeting moments I wish I could freeze in time to keep you this size forever. I try to memorize each one of your perfect features - knowing how soon they will all change. I surprise myself sometimes with just how much I really do love you - my absolutely perfect, beautiful, sweet, handsome son. My son. I am so lucky to be your momma.

Love,

Momma :)