12 Months

Ava continues to grow and never stops entertaining us. At the doctor she weighed in at 21lbs. 1oz. and was 29in. tall. She is in between the 50th and 75th percentiles. Ava is big for her age, but still has tiny feet. She wears size 3 shoes and is in between size 12 to 18 month clothing.

Ava still is not walking (thank goodness), but she is slowly working towards that milestone. She does furniture walk and loves to walk holding onto my pant legs. Sometimes she will stand on her own for a few seconds either signing or clapping. Ava still is a fast crawler and for the time being doesn't seem to see the need to walk.

Ava loves music. Currently, her favorite bands are Queen and ABBA. She likes to sing and dance along to music. She often will stop whatever she is doing to bop along to the beat. Ava also recently started singing, "Ba, Ba, Ba, Ba" to the song "Take a Chance on Me" by ABBA.

Ava has some new favorite toys, but she has been pretty loyal to her old favorites. She also still likes to read Eric Carle books and a book called "Over in the Ocean...". Ava loves pandas and it is probably her favorite word to say. Her favorite toys are: Doggie puppet, mirrors, glow-in-the-dark ball, piano/xylophone, Laugh & Learn table, and of course anything that is Luca's.

Ava has added to her vocabulary and continues to learn to sign. Her first word was button, followed by panda. She also tries to say doggie, turtle, and book. Rich is pretty happy that she says "dada" and knows that it is him. She still does not say "mama", but she gives me plenty of hugs and kisses to make up for it.

Ava's first sign was milk. The sign for milk has now turned into her sign for "I want". We've tried to correct her but it hasn't work yet. She can also sign more and eat which have both been very helpful to us. Just this past week Ava has started folding her arms to pray. Of course it only last for a few seconds, but we both were amazed the first time she did it all on her own. Now sometimes she will fold her arms and initiate the prayer before we eat.

The past year has gone by so quickly and our baby girl isn't a baby anymore. We have loved watching her grow and seeing her personality develop. We are grateful to be parents and have started the adoption process again. We continue to enjoy watching Ava grow and explore her world. We are anxious to have more children so Ava can have siblings and we can enjoy the blessings of parenthood. We will keep you posted as we start our adoption journey.

Our sweet little angel.

Yeah, I'm facing forward and can see the world around me!

Birthday #2

The only good thing about being sick and cancelling your birthday party is having 2 birthdays. We had a quiet celebration with my family on Ava & Rich's birthday and then celebrated again last weekend with Rich's family. We made two kinds of lasagnas and an ice cream cake to bring with us to Gridley. Ava was a little tired, but she had fun with her cousins. She also loved the cake.

Ava surrounded by helpful cousins while opening her gifts.

Rachel dressed Ava up with pretty beads and a bracelet. Ava does love her bling.

Nathan

Kobie

Lily

Sorry no pictures of the elusive Bella.

Baby Chuck's

Pine Wood Derby

Two Fridays ago we competed in our ward's annual Pine Wood Derby. We were both excited since we missed last years because we were flying home with Ava (which was much cooler). Rich had been planning his car for a year and he was so excited to bust out his Dremel to create it. I also planned mine far in advance but made it only a few hours before the race started.

Unfortunately we both came up big losers. Our cars were really slow, but not the slowest. Rich's wasn't very aerodynamic with Luigi on top and mine was just a big clunker. We all had fun and look forward to next year. I think Ava will have to make a car too.

Rich made the Super Blooper which is a car from Mario Kart (Wii Game).

I made a Lego car. I thought is was pretty clever because I can change and rebuild each year.

This is when we raced each other. Notice we are 3rd & 4th and significantly behind...Can you say LOSERS!!

Ava the Dare Devil

Ava is starting to feel better and here are the pictures to prove it...

Nona Carole to the Rescue

Since Ava wasn't feeling well we decided to cancel her birthday party for Saturday. We were pretty bummed because we were excited to celebrate the blessing of having Ava for one whole year and the fact that Rich is an old man (35). We did have my parents and brother over for a quiet little celebration. The day before was pretty pathetic. We had birthday doughnuts, macaroni and cheese, and no presents. My mom felt bad for all of us and knew I was exhausted from the previous weeks of no sleep, so she kept the birthday spirit alive. She baked Rich a checkered board cake and Ava four little baby cakes of her own. My parents also bought Round Table Pizza which is one of our favorite things to eat.

After dinner we opened gifts and then had cake. Ava was feeling a little better and actually opened some of her gifts. She got a red rocking chair (like mine when I was little), a quilted pillow with a book, and a savings bond from my parents. Ava's Uncle Eric also gave her a savings bond. Mommy and Daddy gave Ava a rocking puppy, Raffi's Baby Beluga, glow-in-the-dark ball, and a stuffed monkey with buttons & zippers. Ava really liked the puppy and ball.Rich also got some presents. He got money, Nutella, and Ferrero Rocher from my parents. My brother gave him a gift card. I gave him a leaf blower and he will be getting an IPhone soon. Ava actually liked Rich's box for the leaf blower the best. She climbed all over it and was a little dare devil.After presents and cake we took a much needed nap. Ava actually napped for about 2 1/2 hours in her Nona Carole's arms. This was nice because it allowed Rich and I to rest uninterrupted.

A Very Unhappy Birthday to Ava

Late Thursday Ava broke out in a rash from head to toe. She was not feeling well and only slept while one of us held her. Ava woke up on her birthday with the rash that looked 10 times worse than the night before. We took her to the doctor and found out it was Roseola. It is a virus that causes a bad rash and makes you miserable. The rest of the day Ava felt terrible and screamed and cried. We spent the day snuggling on the couch and refueling her with Tylenol and Ibuprofen just so she could relax. Ava didn't sleep much because she was so uncomfortable.

Ava was happy for about 5 minutes at the doctors when she could play in the mirror.

Since Ava was feeling terrible and we were exhausted I didn't get to make her a cake. On the way home from the doctor we bought some doughnuts and that was Ava's first birthday cake...so sad. I did promise to make Rich and Ava birthday cakes when we are feeling better.

Ava didn't eat much of her doughnut. She played with it for a few minutes and then threw it to Luca.

Ava's 1st See's Candy

On Monday Ava enjoyed her first See's Candy. Santa put a Milk Chocolate Chocolate Buttercream in her stocking. We didn't have to wonder if she liked it or not...She LOVED it!! We let her chew on it for a bit, but as soon as she tried to shove the entire thing in her mouth we took it away and gave her little bits at a time. Sometimes she gets her sign for more mixed up with milk, but this time she had no problem and just keep signing more, more.