More baby goldfish

Ava loves baby goldfish but al least she is still willing to share. Rusty is becoming more braze around Ava the more she is willing to share. This is not going to be good for Rusty's waistline.

Evening trip to the park

Ava has been enjoying the park so much during the weekend Mommy and Ava took a walk after dinner. There are always lots of kids playing. There was midget football practice on the field next to the park. I love this neighborhood sooo much!

Yoga Ball

Ava discovered the yoga ball this afternoon. She pushed it across the floor eventually going to fast bouncing off and falling to the ground.

Closing Daddy down

Ava stands at the top of the stairs and yells for Earl to come upstairs. When he gets to the top of the stairs she keep closing the gate on him. Hilarious!

TROUBLE

Ava is obsessed with playing in Rusty's water dish. She has also become very good at removing the electrical socket plugs. TROUBLE!

Puzzles and the park

We took advantage of what will probably be the last hot weekend and spent some time this afternoon at the park. Ava is now running around everywhere although still not as sturdy as I would like her to be. At least she still laughs when she falls down!

Fun with Mommy

Daddy is at a very important conference in downtown DC today so Mommy and Ava had an evening to ourselves. We stopped at the park for alittle bit but it was a little too hot. So we went home and had dinner. After, we played legos and kitchen before bath and bed.

Oh teething

Ava constantly has her tongue rubbing her gums. I hope they come in soon!

A morning at the park

Now that Ava is walking we can go to the park and Ava can run around. The large park in King Farm has a great area for small children. There were only a few people there since it was 9am. There was a 2 year old little boy who was adorable and his dad was a little nervous because the little boy was at a either hit or hug stage. Luckily Ava got a hug!

Napping on the way home

Wednesdays Momma and Ava are back to walking home because Daddy is helping with a public health law class in Baltimore. Two weeks ago was our first walk home which was a success, we walked from the daycare to the bus which dropped us off right across from the house. Today was not a success. As we were getting to the bus stop the bus pulled up and pulled away before we could get across the street which meant we were walking all the way home. It was another 30 minutes before the next bus came. So we started walking Ava just sat back and eventually fell asleep on our hour walk. It reminded me of when I first went back to work and I would walk home from Kindercare with Ava. She looks so sweet and peaceful!

Song books

Ava loves books that play music. This one she got from grandma Heckman for her birthday. She pushes the buttons over and over, dancing as it plays.

Our walker!

Everyday she gets steadier and more confident.

Finally....Mama

Last Monday when we drove up to Hummelstown to pickup Grandma Ava finally started saying Mama, mama, mama. It is the most wonderful sound in the world and I have been waiting sooo patiently to hear it. We then went a few days before she said it again and it has finally become a permanent part of Ava's vocabulary. Love!

Love that the summer heat has finally ended

Today it was 75 degrees......soooo wonderful. Ava slept until 8:30am....soooo wonderful! We ate breakfast and got ready, heading to the zoo around 10:30am. We found a parking spot within 5 minutes and then decided to head to the back of the zoo to see the large cats since usually we don't make it that far. On the way in we stopped to see the zebras because all 3 were right up near the fence. We saw the daddy tiger, mamma and the new cubs are still inside. We can't wait to go see them when they make their debut. We also got to go into the reptile house another first since usually there is a long line because it is air conditioned. Ava loved the reptiles...mostly because they were all close to the glass. Ava's favorite animals are the ones she can see :) The apes were outside so we saw them too. We then headed back to the car to go get some lunch. Ava napped on the way to the cheesecake factory. Lunch was delicious and Ava had so much fun playing with the woman sitting at the table next to us. The it was nap time!





After naptime Mommy and Ava ran some errands, some returns for Kohl's and groceries at whole foods. Ava got a couple more outfits for the fall since Daddy didn't think we had enough but we got leggings and tops in 18 months so hopefully they will fit now and for a while. We tried them on after dinner. The legging were definitely a good call but the 18 month tops are a little big...oh well I am sure she will grow into them soon enough. Then Ava got to be naked until bath time. It was hilarious to watch her walk around the house like this!

Flipping the eggs

Daddy made dinner so Mommy got to play with Ava. Mommy was showing Ava how to flip eggs in the frying pan both with the spatula and in the air. She laughed every time whether or not it landed in the pan.

Pizza for dinner

Mommy was feeling lazy tonight so we stopped to get pizza for dinner. A regular patron of the restaurant a Montgomery county police office sat us at our table. We were a little confused but had a good laugh as he took our drink order and then got a thumbs up for his server skills from our REAL server. We stopped and got Rita's on the way home. Yummy!

Grandma goes home

Today Mommy turned in Grandma's final test. The study nurse called to tell us now we have to wait for test results to come back since the imaging doesn't show anything that looks like a pheochromocytoma. Grandma was feeling pretty good today so she headed home while she was feeling good.

Thursday nights are my Clinical Pharmacology class so Ava and Daddy had a date night. When I got home Daddy said Ava had walked all the way from her toy box to her kitchen set at the other side of the house. I think that makes it official...we have a walker!

Grandma's stay

Ava has been excited to have Grandma staying with us. Tonight while Mommy made dinner, Grandma and Ava had a tea party.

Grandma has been feeling better and better each day and tomorrow she will finally be able to take something for her headache again since the tests will be done.

Clinical Center

Mommy and Grandma left this morning at 5:45am so we could get through security and to admissions at the Clinical Center by 6:30. Admissions was the only slow part of this process. We got to the Day hospital about 7:25am to have blood drawn. The nurse was great and the study coordinator came about 8:15 to check on everything and tell us we would see the endocrine fellow at 8:30 (RUN) and we would also have an appointment tomorrow to see urology. The endrocine fellow was great and after talking to us ordered more blood work so we went back down to phelbotomy. Hopefully we will have some answers soon.

Daddy got Ava ready for daycare this morning. When I got home from work after my conference call Ava was wearing long pants and a long sleeve shirt. It was 90 degrees today so a little off but he did a great job with her ponytail!

Glasco Park

Today we drove to DE so Daddy could do his fantasy football draft. Mommy, Ava, and Grandma Stoddard went to Glasco park since it was such a nice day. Ava got to play in the sandbox....her first time. We were luck the 2 kids playing were very willing to share their toys. Daddy finished his draft and we headed to an Italian restaurant for dinner. Ava was a little cranky but we made it though and dinner was delicious.

A BBQ with baby Morgan

Today we had dinner with a few of Mommy's friends from high school. Sarah and I were co-editors of the yearbook and 2 months ago she had a baby girl. Ava and I had gone to Baltimore for her baby shower in April so we were very excited Sarah was coming to visit Amy, her sister, here in Gaithersburg for labor day weekend.

Amy made some great food and we met bay Morgan who is adorable and very smiley. Marissa and her husband came from Bethesda as well.

It was so great to see old friends. So much fun I forgot to take pictures. Ava was in love with baby Morgan.

Happy Birthday Grandpa...we miss you!

It makes me sad every time I think about the fact that Ava never got to meet my Dad. He would have been an amazing Grandpa and Ava totally would have had him wrapped around her finger. He never could say no to big blue eyes and a big smile...I know :)