Thankful Thursday

Interesting after I posted those pictures this week of Ava's recent food adventures, I saw CNN coverage on the famine in Africa. It is SO bad. The most heart breaking stories are happening right now to real people, real children, real parents. Masses are dying daily, many are children and infants. Two parents interviewed had already had their two older children die during this famine and after much travel to reach the hospital their one year old was too far malnourished to survive also, covered but lying dead next them during the interview, their only hope was now to find try to gather enough money for a respectful burial. (CNN did the right thing by assisting with the arrangements).  Can you even imagine not feeding your child when they are hungry, its the most automatic and natural parenting instinct, to provide for their basic needs for survival. My heart breaks for the parents. The UN is mobilizing but the current level of funding are no match at this time for the scale of this famine, please consider giving to this effort:

http://www.cnn.com/2011/WORLD/africa/08/11/africa.famine.donations/

In light of trying to wrap my mind around this, I am reflective on my own thankful thoughts this week...

I am thankful I can feed my child when she's hungry.

I am thankful I can easily give her a clean drink of water whenever she desires it. 

I am thankful I can access high quality, near by medical care whenever we have need.

I am thankful I live in a conflict free area where my home is a safe place, I can take walks in my neighborhood without fear of being attacked or harmed. 

I am thankful for our government. As complicated and messed up as our government can be there's a reason millions would love to be a called a citizen, to have their rights as human beings respected and honored. 

I am thankful that the many children who are dying now, who never had the chance at a real life, that their pain is over, that they have a heavenly father who welcomes them into his loving arms, lets them have the restful peace that only He can provide. 

following doctor's orders...

Ava wasn't into Peda-sure at all, no matter how we tried to dress it up but we were are still following doctor's orders to try to get some lbs on this girl. So in the past few weeks she's discovered some big hits such as pizza, cinnamon rolls and ice cream sandwiches to add into her usual favs like yogurt, banana's and granola bars to get our very active girl some more calories...

home sweet home

Two weekends ago we went home to spend time with my family. It was the first time since Christmas we were all there at the same time. The only thing on the agenda was to spend time together and enjoy each other's company. We planned out our favorite meals and all of us girls each took turns preparing our favorite recipes. We played lots of games, Bible Trivia (which can get ironically very competitive), Guestures, telephone pictionary, Scattegories and tons of words with friends were played on our smart phones with one another. We enjoyed some pool time at my parent's neighborhood pool. I was not smart and we stayed up till 2:30 in the morning visiting the first night we all got there and I was playing catch up all weekend on my sleep but it was still a great time. 

The vast majority of our family birthdays are May, June and July. With so many presents, I made the comment it feels like Christmas in July. So that sparked an idea and we decided we will make this weekend an annual event each year, we will up the spending limit a bit and draw names to celebrate all our adult family birthdays all together at this annual Bell family weekend together! Christmas in July every year...

Its always good for me to go home again....even sweeter now that I get bring Ava along. In the past couple years I've thought its important to think of parents even before they were parents. I like thinking about my own parents as babies, as kids, as college students, as a young married couple... Its a new thing to really think on, that your parents weren't always just your parents. Sharing with Ava my home town and all the ways it is still a part of me from before I was "Ava's mom" is something I look forward too. (Interesting thought that Ava was with me in many ways back then too, the dream in my heart with every cabbage patch doll I toted, puppy I dressed up and the times I played house declaring, "I'll be the mom"!)

Thankful Thursday...

Over the past week I've been feeling rather mellow. Nothing I can put my finger on but just kind of blah, so its a good night to do my gratitude list and refocus my attitude and mindset in a positive direction as its my weekend-eve tonight and I am looking forward to slow paced and quiet weekend to enjoy some family time.

As I reflect on the week here's my gratitudes:
-A husband that takes care of broken things like AC's promptly, so I don't have to worry about it or even be involved in the fixing process.
-the feeling I get when I'm waiting for Ava to wake up, I have such a warm and excited feeling to see her each day.
-A great last session with a special client family that said some really kind parting words to me that reminded why I do what I do.
-A great voice mail from my boss when I got to my office this week that was uplifting and encouraging and got me ready to tackle the work week with re-newed energy, reminding me throughout the week to pass along to my staff the things I appreciate about them.
-knowing the answer before I even had to ask to stay with my sis-in-law the night we had no AC. I layed in bed that night and I thought about some families from work, who don't have these kinds of easy options when something happens like your AC breaking or even the extra cash to fix things that unexpectedly break. We had a handful of offers quickly for places we could stay the night. We didn't have to make hard choices about gas money, food money or fixing the AC money. It's so easy to fall into taking it all for granted things like safety, security, options...


Yea, I already feel better, God's blessings are abundant in my life, I pray for the clear vision to see them and honor them.

Laundry Helper

Ava's new thing lately is "helping" me around the house. Here's a few shots of her helping me with laundry. I try to find the balance of having her following along side of me "helping" and trying to get our chores done timely. So even though helping might mean longer tasks and more messes, I love her helping spirit and that natural part of her at this age to want to be like us and do what we do, even the most seemingly mundane parts of what we do that give her such a sense of joy and pride. and how I love to see her filled up with both of those.  Yet another lesson she's teaching, joy and pride can be found throughout our day in even the most unlikely of places...

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.