"Oh my God, Oh my God!"

Another cute outfits from Grandma and another great evening at home.

Today Ava had 2 firsts. She had some cheddar cheese and loved it! She also had some pieces of watermelon for dessert that she ate all by herself.

After dinner Ava played with Daddy while Mommy cleaned up. All of a sudden daddy started yelling, "Oh my God, Oh my God!". I asked what happened from the kitchen but no response. So I came around the counter to see Daddy sitting on the floor with a very sour look on his face. "She just spit-up right in my mouth". All I could do was laugh. I did manage to ask him what lesson he learned from this.

Daddy's lesson: "Second hand watermelon is not very good"
Lesson Daddy should have learned: Lifting an baby up in the air just after they finished eating is a very bad idea!

Bright green!

This past Sunday we went to Delaware to visit Grandma and Grandpa Stoddard. Daddy had his fantasy baseball draft while Mommy and Ava went to lunch with Grandma, Grandpa, and Great-Grandma. Ava was amazing at lunch. She ate all of her food and happily played in the highchair, watching everyone in the restaurant. Grandma bought Ava a few new outfits for Easter. She wore one today. It is bright green! This is Daddy's favorite color on Ava. It makes her eyes seem even more blue :)

Nadia was very excited to see that Ava had learn how to crawl over the weekend. I think I was still half asleep when we dropped her off this morning and I forgot to tell her. When Earl and I went to pick her up she answered the door and excitedly said "She can crawl!" YES she can!

We have movement!

Over the last few days Ava has been thinking about crawling. She would get up on her hands and knees and rock back and forth. Today full on movement all the way across the floor.

Wet Kisses

Ava loves to give open mouth kisses. Sometimes they are very sweet and other times they result in her engulfing your whole nose in her mouth. Can you see the drool!

Too much fun!

We are totally loving Daddy working closer to home. Today we all arrived home at 4:45 and had 2 hours to play before bedtime. Ava took a short catnap in the car on the way home and was happy and playful all night. She played at the table with Daddy while Mommy made dinner. Ava ate all of her green beans and rice! We then played with the birdies and sang and danced in the exersaucer!

Reading and assisted walking :)

A few weeks ago one of the assistant directors of my fellowship program gave me a large box of board books for Ava. Since Earl is now working in Gaithersburg and I can occasionally drive the car to work I was able to bring them home. Ava is enjoying reading the books :) Thank you Dana. Ava is also getting better and better at standing an walking. It is amazing how we can see progress each day. We sit on the floor and she walks back and forth between us with a huge smile on her face.

Busy week!

It was a very busy week at the Stoddard household. Mommy gave her Fellow's Research meeting (FRM), hosted a colloquium speaker including taking her to dinner on Tuesday night, and gave a platform talk at the CCR Retreat in Hershey. Daddy had his big hospital meeting and his last day at the health department in Baltimore. Ava got to spend 2 days with Grandma Heckman while mommy was in Hershey.

There was a last minute change in plans and Grandma drove down and got us on Wednesday after FRM. We arrived in time for the poster session on Wednesday night at the retreat. Ava's first night at the Hershey lodge was fairly successful. Thursday morning Grandma came to pickup Ava and take her to play with cousin Kayden and Aunt Danielle. They had lots of fun and it was such a beautiful day they took a walk to the park. Mommy gave her talk at 1pm and it went well. Grandma brought Ava back to the Lodge at 7:30 so mommy could give her a bath and do the nighttime routine. Mommy was too tired to go to the poster session so we called it a night. Ava woke up at midnight and it took until 2:45 to get her back down in the pack'n'play...night number 2 less successful but still ok. Friday Grandma came a took Ava to her house to meet the men from Grace who were installing the counter tops in Grandma's kitchen. Grandma was very excited because this means she finally has a sink! The renovation are going very well and we are so thankful that there are wonderful people to help Grandma with the house. After Shannon and Alexandra got out of school we headed back to Rockville.

We got home right before Daddy who had been a rockstar at his meeting. They are very sad he is leaving but we are very excited he can now spend those 2 hours with us instead of in the car driving!

We quickly unpacked and then repacked for out trip to North Carolina. Aunt Alexandra was nice enough to come with us to watch Ava while we were at the wedding. The trip there was a little rough...Ava was great but there was soooooo much traffic...remind me NEVER to move to NoVA. We finally made it to the hotel just before midnight. Night number 3 out of the normal routine was definitely a fail! Ava was wide awake when we got to the hotel and it was very difficult to get her to settle back down. She eventually did but Mommy felt like a zombie the next day. Saturday we tried to go to the Duke campus for brunch but this was unsuccessful because there didn't seem to be a cute area like there is at Udel. We ended up at the Cracker barrel next to the hotel. Ava sat in the highchair at the table like a big girl! After successfully trying to get Ava to nap by walking back to the hotel we went for a car ride and to the mall...success NAP! We returned to the hotel to find Daddy napping as well. We got ready for the wedding and went to the Duke Gardens. The day couldn't have been more beautiful! Kevin and Virginia picked a great location. Highlights of the wedding were definitely seeing old friends including Steve who took fabulous pictures just like he did at our wedding (He took the pictures posted here) and the photobooth. I took Alexandra and Ava back to the hotel after the ceremony and put Ava to bed. Alexandra read in the bathroom to keep the room as dark as possible. The reception was lots of fun but being the parents of a 7 month old we tired out quick. we returned to the hotel around 10pm so unfortunately we didn't get to see the karaoke or have burgers form the burger truck. Sunday we got up and had bunch with everyone before hittting the road to drive home.

Love, love, love daylight savings time!

We are so glad to have that hour back with our funny little girl :) When the time fell baby Ava's schedule never changed. We used to start her bedtime routine at 7 and then it moved to 6, now it is back to 7. We had a great time before bath tonight playing and laughing! Lots of open mouth kisses and Ava trying to get mommy's belly. Daddy got some great shots of Ava with her big smile.

Ava meets Kayden!

Today Mommy and Ava went to Mechanicsburg so ava could meet her cousin Kayden. Ava was sick when Mommy first went to visit so she had to stay with Grandma. Ava had a great time playing with all of Kayden's toys. Unfortunately we didn't get a picture of their cutest moment. They were sitting on a chair in Kaydens room and Ava was trying to hold Kayden's hand, sooooo cute :) Ava is 7 months and Kayden is 7.5 weeks. I have included a picture at Ava at 7.5 weeks for comparison.

Ava can stand!

Today after feeding Ava dinner, Daddy and Ava were playing. Daddy stood Ava up and she stayed there all by herself! We got out her table so she could play standing up. She was having a great time. The table has a banjo toy that is her favorite. She pushes the button over and over and watches the center spin.

Strawberry Hat!

This is one of the MANY outfits Ava got this weekend when we went shopping with Grandma and Aunt Alexandra. I thought the fact that the outfit came with a hat was a little silly considering Ava doesn't really need a hat with all her hair. However, I put it on her this morning and it is too cute for words. Apparently Aunt Alexandra's crawl training session did it's magic. Ava can get up on her hands and knees and stand stable for a while. She'll be crawling in no time.

Daddy's funny!

Today Alexandra and I ran errands while Grandma played with Ava. When we got home Alexandra was trying to show Ava how to crawl. She can hold herself up but not so much movement yet. She still prefers to scoot around on her belly :) At dinner Ava thought Daddy was hilarious and I managed to capture this picture.

Play instead of Sleep

Grandma Heckman and Aunt Alexandra came to visit this weekend while their house was being painted. Ava had a good morning nap before they arrived and then we went to Babies R Us. We stocked up on 9 month clothes and pjs. Ava was starting to look like she was waiting for a flood. We also got a high chair. The bumbo was great while it lasted but it was time for the real deal. We managed to get a floor model for 30% off. WooHoo! We tried to go out to dinner at buca di beppo but there was a 60-90 minute wait so we got takeout and enjoyed our dinner at home. Ava had a great time in her new highchair. She went to bed a little later than usual around 7:45pm. Then she woke up twice throughout the night, once at 10:30pm when I quickly soothed her back to sleep and once at 2:30am. Alexandra was sleeping in Ava's room so I brought her into our bedroom. Earl came upstairs and she was laughing and playing. Clearly late bedtime is NO good!

Stand up!

First- I apologize for filming with the camera turned because now I have no idea how to rotate the video.

Ava has been standing with help for a while but she really seems to want to do it more often now. Clearly this isn't a very study place to practice standing but she sure was having a good time.

Happy Birthday Grandma Stoddard!

Today is Grandma Stoddard's birthday. Happy Birthday, we love you! This morning after Ava spent ALL night awake, God please let a tooth come through SOON, we took these pictures to spend to Grandma at work to brighten her day. We hope you love them. It was way harder than I pictured in my head to get a good shot of a 6 month old holding a sign!

Lunch!

This week Ava started to eat cereal and fruit for lunch at daycare. Yesterday I only sent 1/2 tbs. of oatmeal. She ate it all and wanted more. Today she had a tbs of oatmeal and some pears. Not such a big fan of pears. I think Ava prefers food with texture so look like this weekend I am going to try my hand at making some baby food.