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!

Sunny San Diego!

Lauren was teaching her how to build a sand castle, but Ava was too busy destroying the structures to understand the bigger picture....

This is Ava feeding herself because she does not want any help from us, she will even push our hands away. And she always starts out with the spoon, only to give up later because she knows her hands can shovel it all in so much faster

Something was making her giddy

We weren't sure what, but it just kept her giggling after each bite

Another day at another beach, La Jolla, my personal favorite and now Ava's because she was able to see all sorts of animal life.

Starting out with these baby squirrels,

but every time Ava would go running up to take a closer look, they would dart and we would ask her where they went and she always responded like so

She was so sad that we had to distract her with her one of her favorite games; the swinging game

Then I had to end with this picture of Jon's first surf lesson (and I use the term lesson loosely, since Lauren was his instructor -- hahahaha). They had a great time and Jon has some wounds to show for it. We also have video, but I am sure Jon would like to edit it to make the ocean look much more angry than it was and to show the leaping great whites. I wanted to go too, but something about me being pregnant and safety and blah blah blah.....oh well, next time and I will put both babies on either end of the board....they'll see....

Rainy Days

San Francisco has been a foggy, rainy haze, so we have had to find indoor alternatives for Ava to be able to use up some of that energy she has....she still struggles with wanting to walk through tunnels as opposed to crawling through them, but today she finally got the hang of it.

She also gets real excited whenever she sees kids playing chase....and I mean real excited. She gets all giggly and tries to join in -- quite a site (will have video soon).

Block Party

Ava's first real bouncy house experience, I think she enjoyed it, we have some video, but I will have Jon edit it down before we post it. It's not so much jumping as it is being bounced around by other kids and her running around, but it's still real cute.


She was real thirsty afterwards and as we were watching her sippy it up, a professional photographer took these photos of her and us.

She seemed quite suspicious of this stranger taking our picture.

Though these photos don't show it, she did have a good time, bouncing, dancing to the live band, hula hooping, sidewalk chalking, and chasing the kids around her. We'll also need to post the video of her dancing to the band.....Jon has it sideways and I don't know how to fix it...so these photos will have to do for now.

Relaxing Memorial Day Weekend

Daddy knew how Ava loves to look out the window, but they are so high. So the only thing he thought to do was to build a path to the window, where she now loves to spend all of her time. And as you can see the toy bins that she climbs she has little to no interest in because the window and the climbing are her main focus. (You can see in the previous video, Daddy "baby-proofed" the area below the structure with a giant bean bag that is stuffed with all of her stuffed animals and pillows....so you know, the area is up to safety codes, I'm sure.)

She is also fascinated by birds, so when we go to the park, we feed them our old bread or crackers, and though Ava had no interest in eating them when we were at home, she all of sudden wants to eat the crumbs as I toss them on the ground. Toddlers, aren't they just adorable? I should have video'd this part, but it happened so fast, she was literally pecking her nose to the ground like the birds were doing.

It was a foggy weekend, so we decided to head to the Academy of Sciences, but by the time we stepped off the train, she was already fast asleep and stayed asleep in that carrier for the entire trip and through lunch.

Okay, last but not least, I heard some where that it takes 30 days to create/break a habit. So, here we are nearly 30 days straight of sleeping in the crib all through the night all by herself. As you can see, she is surrounded by her favorite things; the cow -- which makes her "mooooo," the Daddy Kisses book (Thank you Lainey) -- which is the last book we read every night, and her Sleep Sheep (Thank you Tuoc) -- which calms her, no matter her mood (even though she used to fight it, she has grown to love it).

Peek a Boo?

Bay to Breakers

We went to watch the Bay to Breakers Race (the oldest/longest running race in the U.S. - 98 years or something), but they run from the bay all the way to the ocean. It is a unique race in that it has attracted a variety of people with a variety of costumes or lack thereof. So, since this is a family blog, I opted to leave out the most interesting pictures and will allow you to google that for yourselves. You will find plenty of video and pictures to get a sense of the spirit of the race and why it is so interesting to watch....

...obviously the adults enjoyed it more than our kids.

(Ava got to play frisbee with her new friend Nick -- so afterwards, she just watched him adoringly -- she is so easy to win over these days)

Ava also enjoyed being outside and sitting in the grass with her friend Mimi (just as long as there was "no sand on the dress")

The race ended, so we decided to load up and head to the beach, where the party continued...

it was actually warm enough to step into the water, which was nice. This is Ava's first willing and intentional dip into the water (not like that time Lauren let Ava chase the dogs along the shore and then watched a wave knock her down and laughed)

And though she likes sand, she doesn't necessarily like wet sand, especially on her legs...for some reason, she just kept whining until we realized she wanted us to brush off the wet sand from her legs....oh man she's a whiner!

But of course, nothing like dogs to help turn that frown upside down, she chased this dog all up and down the beach, giggling up a storm.....it's a shame we can't get a dog.


She must have been exhausted because I rocked her for maybe 3 minutes before she was out and stayed out for nearly 2 hours. We live for these afternoons.