Prayers for Aunt Jackie

I'm not usually the praying type, but I love Chuck's sister, Jackie, dearly, and I know that she is a strong believer in the Lord. My heart goes out to her right now and I hope that she is being kept comfortable and can go in peace, if it is His will.

We love you, Aunt Jackie...wish we were there. Our hearts are with all of Chuck's family at this terribly difficult and sad time.

Photo Friday

Ava playing in the ghetto ball pit


Pointing to her favorite thing! KITTY!


Now, just for some fun. I know what you're thinking when you see these pics: you can hardly even tell that kids live here! Lol. I've become something I thought I would never be: a clutter monster. It is impossible to control the TOYS with two kids so young! To prove it, I've included pics of our living room and dining room. If you visited our house when Aiden was a baby, you'll remember that it used to look like civilized ADULTS lived here. Not anymore, lol. Dining room = playroom. Oh well.

Ava LOVES to race cars with Aiden!

Videos!

Aiden practicing his somersaults...

Ava shaking her head "no no no no no" lol

And the grand finale from this morning...nothing can stop her now! She is all over the place. She's had a few tumbles already, but I think she's finally brave enough to get the hang of things!

Walking!

First, the bad news. Ava has Strep throat. Poor girl. She seemed better today though, and got on more antibiotics, so hopefully the worst has passed. She spent all weekend throwing up and running a temp.

But, the GREAT news...drumroll please...Ava started WALKING tonight!!! Out of absolutely nowhere, she was holding onto the coffee table in the den, let go, and walked 6 steps to me. She kept doing it over and over again (also once walking to Aiden, not realizing that he was NOT going to catch her and yell, "Yay Avie!!!" lol). Chuck got it all on video...but I look ridiculously fat and it cannot be posted here (on the bright side my vigor to lose weight has been renewed! Nothing like seeing yourself on camera to make you realize how fat you are!). I promise to take new video of Ava tomorrow and post it ASAP.

We are so happy! 13 months is by no means "late" to start walking, but it sure felt like it compared to Aiden. I told Chuck that she must have gotten fed up hearing me tell people that she was never going to walk, lol.

Scrapblog

A quick Aquarium scrapblog while Ava is napping...

Aiden funnies

Just a quick post about some of the funny things Aiden has said lately. I wish I remembered more to write them down as he says them--I know I am forgetting a lot!

We went to breakfast at Cracker Barrel a few weekends ago (thanks Rachele, we finally used our gift card! Yum!) and we got Aiden a little Snoopy car that holds smartie candies inside. Yesterday Ava dropped the car and a bunch of candies spilled onto the floor. Aiden's response? "It's OK Mommy, I will eat all of those and clean them up!" He was ON those candies, lol.

At dinner tonight we were talking about everything we saw at the aquarium today. We asked Aiden if he liked the giant crabs and he said, "Yeah, the giant crabs were really crabby and lobby and snappy!" Lobby? I think he was trying to say that the crabs were like lobsters with their claws!

He also asked me why we didn't see any monkeys today at the aquarium. I told him that monkeys live on land, so they are at the zoo, and the aquarium is a place for animals that live in the water. His response? "Sea monkeys live in the water mommy!" Well...technically I guess he was right, but I am pretty sure he has no clue what a sea monkey is!

Any time I laugh about something, Aiden asks me, "Mommy, what are you funnying about?" I correct him every time ("You mean, what am I laughing about?") but it never seems to click!

At school last week, the art project was to make a dog-ear headband. When we picked the kids up, their teacher put their headbands on them as they walked out the door, along with a little stick-on nose. Aiden came to the door looking so sad and said, "Mommy, I don't want to be a dog...I just want to be a little boy!" That got some laughs from the onlookers in the hall!

Misc.

First, I want to ask for some prayers for Chuck's sister, Jackie. She is in the hospital right now and not doing very well, so please keep her and her family in your thoughts!

We went to the aquarium again today--trying to make the most out of our annual passes! The kids had a great time, and particularly liked looking at the jellyfish. I really like the picture of Ava looking at the Beluga Whales--she looks so tiny up against that big tank!

Ava seems to be sick again though. She spiked a fever this afternoon and threw up and we can't figure out why. Please keep her in your thoughts--we really hate seeing her get sick so much!

Name stools

Ava's birthday present from her Aunt Lizzie and Uncle Dave finally arrived today--her own puzzle name stepstool! Aunt Lizzie got Aiden one for his first Christmas, so now they each have one. Aiden really enjoyed showing Ava how to do hers and then doing his also. At the end of the slideshow are two of Aiden's new art projects: collages! He really loves picking out items in magazines to have me cut out, and then using a glue stick to put them on the page. Aside from me cutting out the pictures, he did them all by himself!

Layouts, layouts and more layouts!

My friend Susie has a great blog about her kids and on it I discovered blog layouts from thecutestblogontheblock.com, and oh my goodness are they ever CUTE!! So be forewarned: I will be changing the layout a lot now because they are all WAY too cute to resist! (I think I've already gone through 3 today, lol).

I really need to take new pics and videos of the kids this weekend, so stay tuned...

All about Aiden

I've been focusing the blog on Ava a lot lately, since there has been so much going on with her, and I feel like I've been leaving Aiden out. So here is a blog post all about Aiden!

Here are some pics of him being silly this morning before school. He is finally feeling better and I am so relieved, he was sick for over a week! There are also some pics of some art projects that we've done at home. He has been doing all of the glueing himself, and he is very proud of his artwork!

Right now Aiden's favorite things are: puzzles (he loves them and can even do the 25 piece puzzles in a box without any help!), his new Diego Rescue Mountain set, reading books (always!), watching his 1st year montage and also watching Ava's (but he prefers his own), and eating treats:) He is still a very picky eater but last night we were very proud of him--he ate up a whole plate of PEAS! He is my little smarty-pants and knows just what to say to try to get his way:) Whenever we are at a store and he sees a toy he likes he says, "Mommy, I think this one is on sale. It is only thirty dollars! Yay! We can buy it because it is on sale!" Nice try kiddo:)

I am really looking forward to the weather warming up soon and playing outside more. He still can't pedal his tricycle and I really want to encourage him because I think once he gets the hang of it he will have so much fun cruising in the driveway!

Brave girl!

Ava's ear tubes surgery went very well this morning. We had to be there at 7:30am and the surgery was from 8:30am-8:45am. It is a very quick and easy procedure, and Ava did very well. Dr. Correa (her ENT) said that her left ear was particularly bad, with very thick yellow fluid inside her middle ear. He said that he is glad we decided to go ahead with the procedure, because it never would have gotten better without sucking out the fluid and putting in the tubes. We're so relieved!

Ava spent 30 minutes in the recovery room and now she is home and doing fine. Dr. Correa said she should be back to "normal" by tomorrow, but I told him that she has been sick for so long that we don't even know what "normal" is for her anymore! We're really looking forward to her feeling better and *hopefully* (fingers crossed!) walking very soon!

Just a few misc. pics on this chilly Thursday morning. I know it is very cold in the Midwest, so I guess I shouldn't be complaining about temps in the 20's here!

This is a picture that Aiden drew (mostly). I made the circle and he did the rest. Pretty good I think! (It's a smiley face, in case you can't tell!).

Also a few pics of Ava reading. She is OBSESSED with books these days, which is great!

We have a long day of Dr.'s appointments today. Ava's pre-op for her tubes surgery this morning (her surgery is Tuesday, the 20th, if I forgot to mention that!), and then a well check for Ava in the afternoon (complete with 4 shots, poor baby) and Aiden is also seeing the Dr. for a nasty cough. I hope we don't spend too much time in waiting rooms today!

Birthday scrapblog

Let's try this again! This isn't the one I originally did, but I can't even open that one at all. I am not sure what the glitch was, but I think you should be able to see this one.

Ava's 1st year montage

I know I sent this to many of you via e-mail, but I thought I would post it here too. Make sure you have some time to view it--it's almost 9 minutes long! Enjoy:)

Photo and video editing at www.OneTrueMedia.com

Photo Friday

Just a few photos on this Friday afternoon! PS--It looks like Ava is about to climb this ladder, but there is NO WAY, lol. She wouldn't dare do that in a million years!

Tubes

Forgive me for neglecting the blog a bit lately. I've been busy with my new job and the kids and everything, so I feel like I haven't been taking very many pictures or videos lately!

Ava had her ENT appt. yesterday and she will be getting tubes in her ears. I am waiting to hear back from the Dr.'s office to schedule the surgery (they needed to clear it with the insurance first), but we are eager to get it done. The ear test they did confirmed that she has a lot of fluid in both ears, and the Dr. did say he thinks it is probably affecting her balance and causing her to be a late walker. It makes sense--I wouldn't want to try to walk if I was dizzy all the time either! Poor girl. I hope we can get her surgery scheduled soon and hopefully 2009 will be a good year for all of us!

Aiden starts back to preschool tomorrow, and we are all excited! :) He is ready to go back and be with his friends, and Mommy is ready for some more time in the mornings to be able to work while Ava is napping.

I'll write more later this week and promise to upload some of the video clips I have waiting on the camera!

All aboard the potty train!

Well, I think we can officially say that Aiden is potty trained. Not at night, of course, that will take some time, but he has been doing just wonderful during the day. Potty training was 1000 times easier than I thought it would be, and I think it just was the right time to do it. In the last week Aiden has only had 2 accidents, and mainly it was my fault for not reminding him to go. He has even been waking up dry from his nap too! We are so proud of him:)

Aiden really thinks that being "potty trained" means getting a train as a present once he is done using diapers, lol. He keeps telling me, "Mommy, now that I am all potty trained, I would like Duncan!" Duncan is a yellow train from Thomas the Train. I think we'll have to get it for him as his potty reward!

Just two random pics from the other day. Hope you all had a nice weekend!

Birthday scrapblog

I am not sure if this will work, I am having some issues on Scrapblog today. I'll try to fix it again later!

Another Ava video...

This was a little video clip from yesterday. Ava was watching the cats out on the porch and really wanted to go out with them, but it was cold! (relatively speaking...for the southeast;) Anyway, I thought she was being cute, so I wanted to share!

Birthday video

Here is the video from Ava's birthday! I did it on Youtube instead of posting it directly to the blog so that I could keep the quality better. Sorry that there is an almost constant red light on her face--I was taking a lot of pictures!

Enjoy! (this can take a minute or two to load, so please be patient)