A fashion find, A mission accomplished and A .3 percentile

Random title I know but several updates to do at once so there you go. I don't feel at all sleepy even though it is almost 11, so you get a random post from me this evening.

First up is an Ava Fashion Find, I love this little top we got at the outlet Gymboree for 3.99. It  has a little sunshine on it and says "sun-kissed". Ava loves to say "eyes" and point to the eyes on the sun. 

A mission accomplished: I can't believe I forgot the biggest milestone on Ava's 15 month update. We are done nursing. This ended about the 14 and half month mark. She was down to just mornings and then after a biting incident a few weeks before and a change in her morning routine, we wrapped it up. I really feel proud to have reached the goal of nursing her for beyond my initial one year goal. It is quite a commitment and I know it doesn't work out for all mom's have the opportunity to breast feed so I feel very thankful we got to go on that journey together.

*Random side note: Ava loves her new chair she picked out at IKEA*

A .37 percentile: Thats right I said POINT 37. Ava is a whopping 17.7 lbs which doesn't even get her to the 1% mark. Her height and head measurements are hanging in there so her doctor said she's not too worried about it. She would like for us to supplement with some peda-sure to try to pack on some more lbs. She eats throughout the day but so far her favs are pretty low calorie such as bananas, yogurt, apple sauce, etc.

The eSSentials of a good vacation....

In my book the essentials of any good vacation involve the four S'....Swimming, Shopping, Snacking & Snoozing...Ava went on her first girl's trip to the Dallas area this past weekend and was introduced to this vacationing philosophy. Our hotel was great! They feed us breakfast and dinner, they had an awesome pool and our suite was beautiful. So I will give a run down of the trip following the four S' rule...

Swimming: The awesome pool had a sun deck perfect for Ava to play on. We went swimming every day and several times had the pool all to ourselves.

Shopping: Our hotel was right down the way from the outlet shops so we spent lots of time there. Then also made a trip one day to Ikea, this was Ava's first trip there, you can tell by her photo she was so excited. Okay maybe I was the one that was so excited but still a historic first that had to be documented.

Snoozing: We slept in each day. Even Ava slept later than usual and a few days even took naps when we were wore out from the first two S'. It was so nice to have a slower pace where we didn't have to be anywhere at anytime. I love trips that can just be planned each day as you decide what you feel like doing that day.

*Notice arrow pointing to Ava below*

Snacking: We found a yogurt-ville not too far from the hotel that we went to a couple nights, we also got some giant chocolate chip cookies and ate other yummy snacks along the way.

So there you have it vacationing the four S style. Thankful for more special memories to file away with my girl. Gald for the time away this week its back to our usual routines, a little more renewed and refreshed by the time away.

15 months!

It happened again, Ava is another month older! Here's a rundown of new developments this month:

• Her new sign is "help". She put her own spin on the sign its suppose to be but we know what she's saying and she know whats she's saying with her version of the sign so we go with it. She uses it regularly now when she wants us to help her with something. She also still regularly uses her other signs (eat, more & all done). We are working on please, thank you and drink. 
• This open mouth picture is perfect for this month. She is doing lots of "talking". Her favorite new word is "No". She says it and da da most often. 

• She is still on two naps a day, most days! I love that she still takes two! 
• Our nighttime routine now includes teeth brushing with a real tooth brush (not the baby gum cleanser). She loves it! We say Ava its time to brush your teeth and she will march herself in the bathroom ready to go. 

• She loves to giving hugs and kisses. 
• She's become more and more social, noticing other kids and wanting to interact with them more.

• She's our little helper lately. Wanting to help vacuum, sweep, do laundry. It reminds me how she watches everything we do and what a big responsibility it is that most of what she will learn from us will have far much more to do with what we do rather than what we say. 

• We've had lots of fun this month with the triple digit summer to remember. Lots of water time at the zoo, the beach & pools. 
• laughing, she laughs so hard sometimes she snorts and its still the best sound in the world to my ears. 

Welcome to Wetumka!

Ava made her first visit to Wetumka on Saturday. Its nice to connect her to her roots as there's something special about taking your kids to places that you have dear childhood memories and for Ryan's family Wetumka is home to lots of those. I have a few memories there myself as I started visiting here with them when I was teenager. 

Here's Ava visiting her Great Grandpa Harry. He had quite the display of Ava pictures for all his guests to see. She hadn't seen him since her birthday but she warmed up to him pretty quickly and even gave him a kiss before we left.

a few of my favorites & Thankful Thursday thoughts in one!!

Daicia's photography website has this quote at the top, "A good photograph stops a moment from running away"- Eudora Welty. I love that these pictures capture all the tiny parts of her I just adore right now, my sweet little toddler that still has some of her baby left too...that tiny button nose that scrunches when she laughs, perfect little lips that tell all about how she's feeling and those sweet brown eyes observing and soaking in everything around her. I love photographs that let us tuck away those moments we'd like to hold on to as so often they go racing by.

Motherhood sometimes involves strange out-of-nowhere-seeming thoughts, today I was in line somewhere and I saw pre-teen that was petite, brown eyed and had chestnut hair and I all the sudden I felt a feeling of curiosity followed almost immediately by sadness that one day, Lord willing, Ava will be a pre-teen, my first thought was I wonder what she will be like at that age but the sadness came quickly as I thought but then she won't waddle or be rocked for bed time or come give me random eskimo kisses. I know I will love her in new ways and our relationship will evolve. So when I went to upload these pictures tonight it made me appreciate them in a deeper way and be thankful for where we are right now.

First Family Get Away...

We got away for our first family get away last weekend. We went with some friends from OKC down to visit our friends from college down in Houston. We had a great time, staying up late visiting, eating at the best places and made a beach trip too.

Ava did great on the road, here she is with all our stuff ready to go!

Ava and Quinn enjoyed each other, they played and played together. Ava loved Quinn's play room.

Quinn's going to be a big sister in just a few more weeks! We can't wait to meet the new little brother or sister. Its so fun that friendship is being passed on to our kids.

Here's us on the ferry making our way to Cyrstal Beach. We even got to see Dolphins on the way there and back!

Ava was not a big fan of the beach or the ocean. But as long as we were holding her and she didn't have to touch it she did okay.

Daicia did a photo shoot for us while we were there, I will post some favorites from that soon! (She also took the last two pics on this post!)