Back into the swing of things....

Ava missed her friends

and I think they missed her too



They apparently needed some privacy?

Daddy thought maybe Ava needed to be re-introduced to her tent...

and she did seem to enjoy it for that one night, and then a few nights later after she had not paid any attention to it and we were trying to fold it back up to put it away.

Ava enjoys getting in her rays

Oh, also another odd thing, since we've been home, Ava will not play on the slide anymore, but she is loving the swing, which used to never entertain her for more than a minute.....

...she'd let us swing her until she falls asleep! This has definitely made playdates easier for me, so I am not too concerned.

This is Daddy's new favorite biking spot destination with Ava. Ideally, we'd like to build a house up here, but something about it being a preserved historical area...blah, blah, blah....we'll see how desperate California gets when they really go bankrupt.....muhahaha!

Ava's new love for "picking flowers," which literally has becoming picking the flower and then picking it to shreds...hmmm...she's got some learning to do.....
So, this basically sums up the rest of July

....sorry for the delayed updates.....mama's been a little preoccupied.

18 month check up!

I always forget to take a picture at the doctor's office, but it is usually because Ava is so anxious when she gets in that room and I have to undress her for the weighing. She actually stresses out about that much more than the actual shots.

So here are Ava's 18 month old stats;

she weighs in at a whopping 19 pounds 4 ounces and she's nearly 31 inches tall. That puts her at 4th percentile for weight and 25th for height...not too shabby.

When we got home, she was ready to wash away all the pain of that office visit...

...as you can see, she bounces back pretty quick.

she will not have another check up until 24 months, so she will only have to go back to the pediatrician's office when the new one is born, we can only hope that we all make it there in one piece!

Going home

Ava was really going to miss this place, well at least the friends and family

We had a long week and we needed to rest of the for the plane trip, so apparently mom and baby think a like...

Ava would miss her cousins; Jack

and Nathan,

but she knew it was time to go home and she just loves those pretzels!

A SPECIAL Thank you to Grandma Joyce, Mr. Marlow, and the Dr. Chan's for hosting and entertaining us like always!
(oh, and not to forget Grandma Nguyen and the Dao sisters for holding down Ava to give her that toddler-looking hair cut, despite Daddy's objections to what, at that time, seemed so torturous and cruel, but now seems so cute and functional)

Ava learning to play nice

Ava first had to learn to play nice with the cat, before we could introduce her to Nathan, but she just ended up taking all of Clyde's toys

then we thought we'd let them parallel play, so far, so good....

before you knew it, they were kissing cousins....(special thanks to Calvin for the gorgeous photos -- we'll have to post up the rest of the photo shoot in an album)

then speaking of cousins, Jack was trying to show Ava how to build with blocks, but she is never one to sit back and listen, she'd rather "take charge," but he is so laid back, he just goes with the flow

On 4th of July, Cassie taught my baby to play the drums, and Ava learned to "share"

then we introduced Ava to another little one, this is Redding and Ava enjoyed petting, I mean playing with him too....I think all of this practicing may just pay off

and these are just too cute, (special thanks to Katrina for the lovely photo-taking), Jon is serious about teaching Ava to swim

After all of those intense swim lessons, Ava would rather just play on the side with her cup

Pool time is every day in Texas

She is swimming like a champ

and apparently she loves the backstroke

she doesn't seem to be as scared of this auntie as she was of the one that picked us up

and she loves this game that her uncle has taught cousin Jack to play with her (it's always "more")

She is enjoying Grandma's pool

we forgot the swim diaper, but Ava was so polite she would get out of the pool to tinkle -- what a smart girl! (really, she really did pee outside the pool)

"H" is for "Hi", all week her cousin Jack has been teaching her the letters of the alphabet, but she's not quite as advanced as he is, yet.....

6am to Texas

Ava did great on the plane! We must always count our blessings and thank the person that invented Benadryl....j/k....sorta

We arrived to meet our nephew for the very first time....what a cutie!

Farm Girl

Happy Father's Day!

Father's Day started out with the card that Ava and Lauren picked out in San Diego, as you can see Ava was terribly pleased with the great job she had done.

Then we had a picnic at the Children's Park in Golden Gate. Daddy wanted us to sit on the ground, while he had a large lounger throne (as pictured to the right of us).

But of course, Ava, ultimately prefers sitting in the sand.

Then we saw the ice cream man and could not resist a push-up treat, but poor Ava tripped on a dirt pile a few minutes later and added some undesirable ingredients to her sherbert...so we had to throw it away -- it was a sad sight,

but nothing better to cheer her up than playing frisbee, or what looks to be more like "fetch"

Ava has picked up some signs from her other baby friends in her play group....it has motivated me to learn some of the basics to teach her some other essential words. She has picked it up surprisingly fast and it has also helped her to develop/use her words better. So for those of you who are unfamiliar with sign language, she wants "more" frisbee tossing. On a side note: she also wants "more" juice, "more" snacks, "more" play time, "more" of whatever it is you're having......She definitely enjoys being able to express her "needs" to us, but it's just so cute that you can't help but to give in....

Here we are asking her what she wants "more" of? And this is answer to everything, "Yo no se"/"I don't know"

This is Ava's new thing, it is what Daddy calls "loving him more" and what I call "distancing" (it's almost like she can sense the impeding new arrival)

Joila!

Then we ended our outings with a trip to the store to make daddy some of his favorite dishes

They both know that mommy will not be able to make a meal out of vanilla wafers and cheese, so they better start doing some real shopping.

I think Daddy enjoyed his Father's Day -- everyone called who was supposed to and the day was relaxing and beautiful, we could not be more blessed.

Happy Father's Day to all you Dads out there!

Bedtime Routine

Though Ava looks deceptively calm, at peace, and ready for bed -- this is the evening that began a 4-night streak of waking up in the middle of the night and staying up for 4-5 hours before going back to sleep.

Who knew that putting her to sleep this night would be so easy and yet end up in delirium a mere 6 hours later?

I tend to believe that it was her plan all along....girls are cunning that way.....can't wait to see what tricks she'll pull when the 2nd one comes along....

Stinson Beach

I just had to throw this venture in because I didn't want to forget our trip through the Muir Woods, arriving at Stinson Beach. A beautiful secluded beach that apparently attracts sharks, but not just sharks, specifically Great White Sharks (as noted below). Needless to say we did not swim, but Ava did enjoy ths sand. Sean was in a hurry to leave this shark-infested place. So we snapped a quick photo and let Ava play for a bit before escaping. Though, I thought the beach looked to be very family-friendly.

San Diego - Videos

Most of these are pretty short, but it's a pretty good snapshot of our weekend...Enjoy!