Ava at (almost) 13 months

Time for an Ava update!

For a long time now I haven't been able to decide on the colour of her eyes - something that should be pretty obvious right? Pick a colour! They seem to change depending on the angle, and if you look straight into them it's even harder to decide what colour they are.

From the side they look like a golden brown, when she glances at you in the light they look green and when you stare at them they seem to have a greyish blue base with a green tint and then brown flecks scattered around.

If you click on the picture you can see them more closely

I've decided they must be hazel.


She also now has 7 teeth! It took 9 months for the first one to come through but since then they've been popping out like crazy!

Ava learns things so quickly it just amazes us. She can say so many words and can identify objects when we ask her where they are.

Words she can say:
- Mummy
- Daddy
- Dog
- Baby
- Toe
- Eye
- Mouth (sounds like Mouw)
- Shoe
- Cat (Dat)
- Fish (Dish)
- Bounce, bounce, bounce (bow, bow, bow)
- Hi
- Hello (Ho!)
- Nose
- Ear
- Hair
- Bye bye
- Moon
- Pretty (when she sees flowers or plants)
- Teeth
- Beep
- Plane (Pin! and points at the sky)
- Tea
- Poo
- Stinky (Dity)

Wearing Daddy's massive shorts!

Cute things she does:
- makes a 'baa' noise when she sees a sheep or lamb
- pants like a dog when she sees one
- meows when she sees a cat
- picks up a phone or remote and shouts 'Hi!' or 'Ho!' to 'answer' it
- waves and says bye bye when she's leaving or when she's talking to someone
- says 'nigh, nigh' when she's going to bed
- she dances to music on the tv
- she loves 'This Little Piggy' and tries to sing along to Old McDonald by saying 'E-Yo-E-Yo!'
- when she sees a bird she quacks like a duck
- she says 'num, num' when she wants food or when she sees it coming

She can identify her eyes, ears, mouth, nose, hair, toes and teeth and can find them on both Graham and I as well.

Ava and Cody playing with his mom's purse

Ava giving Cody a big hug!

I'm sure I'm forgetting loads but that's all I can think of right now. For the most part she's a great baby, she's very happy and loves to play. The most frustrating thing about her right now is that it's impossible to brush her teeth. She clamps her mouth shut and I can't get anything in there. I feel really bad fighting with her because I know it'll just get worse and she'll fight even harder as she gets older. I wish I could figure out a way to make it fun for her.

Fever

My poor little Ava Lou has a fever :(

She seemed fine this morning but when we went to meet some people at the airport I noticed she felt really warm so I checked her temperature and she was over 39C! She seemed perfectly fine so we were kind of unsure what to do. We gave her some paracetemol to try and bring the fever down but it just made her sleepy. She perked up a little bit around lunch time when we were watching some of the planes at the airshow, but she wouldn't eat anything. She became really drowsy and lethargic when we got home so we gave her more paracetemol and she fell asleep for an hour or so.
She's awake now, still quite warm but playing with toys and seems happy enough. We're going to keep an eye on her and see how she does tonight. If she still has a fever tomorrow morning I'm going to take her to the doctor. It's so annoying that doctors offices are closed on weekends, it's like they don't think anyone will ever get sick on a Saturday or a Sunday. I know hospitals are always open, but I feel bad using emergency rooms when it's not really an emergency.

She suddenly seems much better. We gave her some baby ibuprofen and she's back to her normal self. She was even just laughing while she bounced on her trampoline. Wouldn't have known it was the same baby from two hours ago!

Baby's First Steps!!

She did it!

This morning Ava took her very first independent steps and both Graham and I witnessed them!

I had been swinging Ava in my arms like they were a hammock, which she seemed to be enjoying, then I set her down on the floor and she suddenly took two steps to grab on to the table leg and then she fell onto her bum! I was so excited I started laughing and clapping which made her excited too, and she started crawling around the living room really quickly, giggling her little head off :)

I couldn't believe that she had just done it because only half an hour earlier I was talking to Graham about it and I said 'I just hope we both get to see it.' It was so exciting. I'm not sure she'll be running around everywhere just yet, it may even be a while before she takes any more steps but I won't mind! :)

Stinky!

Ava has turned into such a funny little monkey recently; a few days ago she was doing some loud farts and it would make me laugh, so every time she did one I would laugh at her and go 'Stinky!' which she found really funny and now anytime she toots she looks at us with a huge smile on her face and goes 'Dity!' (for 'stinky') Even when we don't hear her, we know she has farted because she suddenly smiles and goes 'dity!'

Earlier today she also informed us she was going for a poo. She was holding on to the couch and I could tell she was doing one, and then suddenly she looked at me and went 'Poo.' and then turned to Graham and said 'Poo.' It was pretty funny (and even better - Graham got to change that nappy!)

It's London Baby!

We took Ava on her first trip to London a few days ago and she was an excellent baby the whole time. She slept for the first 45 minutes or so but then seemed to enjoy herself for the rest of the day. It was very hot but I had a great time, I hadn't been since before she was born and I always liked London. It could have done with a few less people but I just tried to pretend they weren't there.

Ava fell asleep on the way there

Buckingham Palace (Ava's asleep in the stroller)

She finally woke up!

We all thought she was going to take her first steps here but she just stood there staring at Brandon :)

Brandon, me, Ava & Graham

Time to go home!

I had a really nice time, even though it was so hot. I wish we could spend a bit more time in the city but I know Graham isn't crazy about it. It also gets very expensive; parking at the train station, train tickets, food and drinks, and then doing the touristy stuff like boat rides and going on the London Eye. It's still a fun day though and even more fun when you go with someone who has never been before. My family and friends need to take advantage of how close I live while I'm still here! We'll be moving back to Canada one day and they'll all have lost their chance!

Baby Giggles

This morning when I was changing Ava's diaper I gave her an animal book to look at so she didn't fuss, and she had it open to the page with the rabbit on it. I pointed and said 'Rabbit' and she looked at it for a second then gave it a kiss and said 'Wabby.' It was so sweet :)

She was in a good mood today, I guess she must have slept well. Earlier this evening before I put her to bed I was having a grumpy moment so I sat on the stairs trying not to think about anything when she crawled up to me and decided to slam the baby gate into my foot. I shouted 'Ouch!' and she burst out giggling, it was such a sweet sound. She rarely ever giggles so we love it so much when she does. Suddenly it became the best game in the world to her and she kept slamming the gate against my foot so I'd say 'ouch!' She laughed for ages, I could have listened to it all day. I wish I'd had the camera on to catch it but I'm sure she'd have become distracted and stopped giggling anyway so probably best that we didn't get it out.

We're off to London tomorrow, it'll be Ava's first trip so we'll have to make sure we take pictures of her in front of Buckingham Palace, Big Ben, the London Eye, etc. Hopefully she'll enjoy her day and not be too cranky.

Birthday Girl!

My baby girl is one year old today!! We had about 30 adults, 4 babies and a 7 year old all crammed into our tiny backyard for a barbeque and everyone seemed to have a nice time. It was pretty hectic for Graham and I but thanks to the help of Ben and Anna we were able to pull it off.
Ava was so well behaved and didn't seem at all bothered about having so many people around. Graham and I feel bad that we didn't get to spend much time with her because we were so busy but she seemed happy to be passed around for the day.I was getting frustrated at the beginning when everyone showed up because they all kept crowding around in the kitchen and I wanted them out in the yard. It was difficult to get in and out of there because so many people were standing in the doorway. Once the food was ready they all found places to sit though and it was okay.

When it was time for the cake we set up the webcam so my parents could join in the singing of Happy Birthday and watch Ava have some cake. We wanted her to blow out the candle so we practiced a couple of times a few days before and although it took a few minutes, in the end she blew it out!

I made her this Very Hungry Caterpillar cake

Having just eaten a piece of her very first birthday cake

Some of her baby friends playing in the pool

Lots of people in our teeny tiny backyard

Time to open presents!

A counting book from Uncle Steve

Ava liked the pretty ribbons from Grandma & Grandpa Bowman's gift


A pretty little sunhat from Grandma & Grandpa Bowman

Winnie the Pooh dish set from Aunt Laura & Uncle Robin

Toys and puzzles

Lots of books!

Cute outfits from my Aunt Debbie and Uncle Bill

A beautiful dress made by my mom

Ava's awesome new trampoline from our friends Mark & Jess

She was definitely a spoiled baby!

Nearly there!

My goodness has it ever been a busy day today - and all I've done is the cake, and not even the whole thing yet!

It started with me not being able to find the recipe Anna gave me, eventually finding it pinned to the noteboard (where I put it yesterday because I thought I wouldn't lose it that way.) Then I realised I needed eggs so I went over to the shop behind the house and bought 6. Got home to discover I actually needed 7 so I had to go back. Then I got home and started to finally make the cake which wasn't too difficult. Put it in the oven, waited, waited, waited a bit too long and it's slightly overdone now *sigh*.

Anyway then I had to wait for both parts to cool so I could put the lemon filling in the middle. Finally got around to doing that and then it was time to roll out the icing... about 17 tries later I finally got it right and was able to put it on the cake. Now all that's left is the decorating, but I have to wait until Graham gets home with the icing sugar first.

Ava was really patient with me today up until dinner time. She entertained herself quietly with my keys and some other items and seemed quite content. I feel a bit bad for leaving her to play by herself but she didn't seem to mind.

Can't believe she'll be one tomorrow!

12 month update

Ava now has 4 teeth and was weighed at 21lbs 7oz today. We bumped into her birthday buddy Jack at the weigh clinic, he was just over 21lbs as well. Jack's older sister Lily had a kitten on her bag and Ava kept meowing at it and calling it a dog :)

Graham has been trying to teach her about colours lately and yesterday we saw that it's working! She opened her box of blocks and I heard her say 'yee-oh' and then grab the yellow block! I thought there may be a chance it was just a coincidence but then when she was in the swimming pool she picked up a yellow ball and said 'yee-oh' again. My clever little monkey!

Happy Canada Day!

Happy 143rd Birthday Canada! I almost missed out on putting Ava in this super cute Canada outfit that she got last year at my baby shower. It was only because I couldn't find any onesies for her to wear that I decided to go digging in the pile of stuff that is 12months+ I managed to find 5 other outfits for her to wear too!

It was one year ago yesterday that I started having contractions with Ava and was sure she was going to be born on the 1st of July - Canada Day! Instead she decided she'd rather wait until her due date and was born on America's most famous day, the 4th of July.

It almost feels like a dream when I think back to one year ago. Life before Ava just doesn't seem like it ever happened now.

Sometimes it seems like this last year has flown by and other times it seems like some days happened years ago. When I watch videos taken during the first few months, I barely recognise the baby in them. She has just changed so much, so fast.