Our little musician

Ava is very into music these days. She loves to sing and bang/play any instrument she can get ahold of (including the big piano). Here is a sample of her musical ability!

Potty Training Progress

I started to attempt the potty training process with Ava earlier this summer. I'll admit I haven't been really consistent. I got really frustrated after days up cleaning up pee from my floor. I have a very, very strong willed little girl! We were out of town last week at my parents so we didn't do any potty training or really even talk about it. So today I decided to give it another shot. I put her potty in her toy room so it would be close by, took off her diaper, and told her if she need to go peepee to sit on her potty (I know she knows when she needs to go b/c she usually asks for a diaper). To my surprise, 15 minutes later I heard the potty "sing"(it plays music when you go potty in it). Sure enough...she actually went peepee in the potty! She was very excited about dumping it into the big potty and flushing it. Every peepee was successful today!!! I didn't have to clean up any off the carpet. The next challenge will be getting her to wear panties and still use the potty. Today was a good day but we have a long way to go. Baby steps...we'll get there eventually. Everyday is a new day with Ava. You never know what you are going to get. She could be my sweet little princess and behave so well one day and then the next be a total terror child who throws extreme fits and continually disobeys. Oh the joys of the terrible 2's!

Ava's first official haircut

I took Ava for her first official haircut today. I have trimmed the back a couple of times myself over the past 6 months, but today I sought the help of a professional to get her mop under control. Her hair is very frustrating because it is so thin and fine and it is not straight but not really curly either. She always looks like i haven't combed her hair. To make it worse, the back of her hair grows really fast while the front and sides are growing super slow. I decided it was time for some bangs because I can' keep a barrette in her hair to keep it out of her eyes. Everything I put in just slides out or she usually ends up pulling it out anyway. We went to a place called Cookie Cutters. It is a shop that does mainly kids cuts. It was a very cool place. They had a big slide for kids to play on while they waited and a couple of TV's with cartoons playing. Each hair station had a chair that was some type of car for the kids to sit in instead of just the plain old typical chairs. Ava chose the old fashioned car to sit in. Each station also had their own TV so the kids could watch while their hair is being cut. Ava behaved fabulously! She didn't fuss or cry once and sat very still. They even took her picture and printed it on her own certificate with a lock of her hair attached. To top it all off, they gave her a balloon!

Anderson is 3 months old!

Anderson will officially be 3 months old tomorrow! Time has really flown by. He is growing so fast (much faster than Ava did). And he is sleeping through the night!! He is such a different baby compared to Ava. She didn't sleep through the night until she was nearly a year old. We had his 3 month pictures done last week. I was curious to see how they compared to Ava's 3 month photos...what do you think?!



Anderson is bigger at this age and I can see a difference in their eyes, but i see a strong resemblance!

Ava's first trip to the dentist!

Today I took Ava for her first dentist appointment. I was preparing myself to have a hysterical child. Lately she has had some stranger anxiety and couple that with a strange man putting his fingers in her mouth....I was truly expecting some major tears! Boy was I wrong! Ava behaved so well. It was totally an answer to prayer. When we first went back, she got to pick out a new toothbrush. She chose a Dora mermand (mermaid) one. The hygienist used her new toothbrush to put on some yummy strawberry flavored fluoride on her teeth. I promised Ava that if she behaved like a big girl I would take her swimming this afternoon...so she attempted to tell the lady about the "big water" we were going to swim in during the fluoride application. When the dentist came in, I felt her grip on me tighten, but once he began talking to her she relaxed and did everything he asked her to do. I was so proud of her! The dentist said everything looked fine so far and that her neonatal tooth was actually in good shape compared to most he sees. He said it could fall out at any time so that everyday we have with that tooth is a blessing. It has lasted over 2 years so hopefully will get 2 more.

What a week!!

We have had one busy week! Sadly, we got a call from Dan's mother, MaryAnn, about 2:30 am last Sunday informing us that his grandmother had died (MaryAnn's mom). Then the following day, MaryAnn found out she would have to have surgery on her hip immediately. She has been having trouble with her hip for a couple of months and a recent MRI revealed that she had a significant stress fracture in her hip that had to be repaired ASAP. So the viewing and funeral were scheduled for Thursday and Friday of this past week to allow MaryAnn to have the surgery and a day of recovery. So...we went to visit his mom in the hospital on Tuesday, spent Wednesday packing and driving up to Winamac, had the viewing on Thursday, funeral Friday, followed by the trip back home to Avon. Everyone was soo exhausted. To top it off, my family has a tradition of going camping every year on Father's day weekend. We didn't spend the night this year, but we did spend all day Saturday at the camp ground enjoying the beautiful weather. Today was our recovery day. We all took good naps!

Accident Prone Ava

My dear sweet daughter just can't help but keep injuring herself! She always has the usual bruises on her legs from falling down but lately she has had 2 major bruises to her face. A couple of days before Anderson was born, she fell and hit the window sill on our bedroom. She immediately had a goose egg on her forehead. Over the next several days, the bump turned a variety of colors. Eventually the bruising continued down to the bridge of her nose and her eyes. It took a month or better to get to the point where it wasn't visible anymore.


This week Ava was playing outside on her new playset with some neighbor kids and she walked in front of the baby swing. Her right eye and the bridge of her nose took the hit. The hit managed to cut her nose and the corner of her eye. When she woke up the next morning, here eye was a little puffy and her eyelid was completely purple. The morning after that, underneath her eye was purple. This is her first "shiner." She always seems to recover quickly. She cried for a few minutes and was then ready to go back out to play in the sandbox!