Dressing up to travel

Ava loves dressing up and putting on clothes, jewelry, and shoes. Last weekend I bought her a pair of cowgirl boots at a yard sale. They are a size 11 and she only wears close to a 7, but I thought they would be fun to play in. I was right! She wears them with everything! As we were getting ready to head to KY last weekend Ava was wearing a cute little summer outfit, these brown boots, and a pearl necklace. She had to check herself out in the mirror and true to form said, "I so cute!"

Check out the Baby Countdown

If you look over to the right side of the blog you should see a little widget to count down to our Baby 2009's arrival.

This week I am 8 weeks along and the baby is about the size of a kidney bean. It is amazing how fast it is growing every week.

Ava has decided it is a boy and says she wants a brother.

Black Patch in KY

Last weekend Bradley, Ava, and I went up to KY for Princeton's Black Patch Festival. Black Patch is a festival that celebrates the harvest of tobacco. We didn't get there as early as I would have liked (because I am married to Bradley and we are never on time), so it was really toasty once we got to Princeton.

For Black Patch the Main Street is blocked off and people have booths of food, games, crafts, and other odds and ends. In the few years since I have been to Black Patch, the amount of people and booths has significantly decreased. There is nowhere near what there used to be. It is just a small example of small town America and its celebrations.

Bradley and Ava had never been so I thought it would be a fun family activity. We started off at Black Patch with Bo and Mike and went through most of the street in just a few minutes. Of course you ended up seeing people you know and haven't seen in forever, so every once in a while we would stop to chat. The best new addition to Black Patch was a little petting zoo for the kids. Ava thoroughly enjoyed that and in the course of a few minutes had kissed a pig and licked a goat. Disgusting kid! Trayton eventually made it to Black Patch and he and Ava went through the petting zoo again and played at the Rubber Duck Pond.

But after a trip up and down the street twice, we were hot and ready to go. We topped of the day with a visit with Mammaw and Nanny and dinner at my parents' house.

Cholesterol Test

Ava had to go to the dr. today for a cholesterol test. At her 2 year check up she was screened for high cholesterol due to high risk factors. The screening came back a little high so after fasting since midnight, Ava went in to get blood drawn. It was not as bad as I had anticipated. I felt so sorry for the little squirt. It took me holding her, a nurse holding her arm, Nana sitting in front of her, and the blood taker lady. Of course she cried through the whole thing starting with when they put the tourniquet on her arm, but once she put her big purple bandage on, she was good. Also I am sure she was starving and thirsty, so once she got her milk she was in great shape.

As far as the cholesterol goes, her is what the doctor said: They are testing to see the ratio between the good cholesterol and the bad. They have to test every year to get baseline readings because at age 10 if it has been consistently high she will have to take medication. At this point we need to monitor her diet and watch fried foods and fatty ones. They want her eating Fat Free Cheese and Fat Free Milk. So monitor the diet is the answer. Seems like some pointless pain just to tell me to watch what she eats. But it is over now and barring any sickness, she doesn't go back until Feb.

(all photos taken by Nana)

Ava - 2 Recent Funny Conversations

This first conversation occurred a couple of weeks ago. Ava is becoming a little master of a particular brand of reverse psychology. During the conversation, she will trick you into suggesting something and then agree with whatever you suggested. It usually goes something like this:

Ava: Wanna go slide?

Mommy: Do you want to go slide?

Ava: Okay, let's go!

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So you see, she tricks you into asking whether you want to do it! Here is a conversation from a couple of weeks ago. To set the scene, Bradley was trying to distract Ava from a small fit she was brewing.

Daddy: Ava, Mommy has a baby in her belly.

Ava: Baby in Mommy's belly.

Mommy: Ava, what do you think we should name this baby?

Ava: Tom and Jerry

Mommy: Tom and Jerry?

Ava: Okay Mommy, let's watch!

So, she either knows we are having twins or she was trying to trick me into watching Tom and Jerry...

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The next conversation took place between Nana and Ava because Ava was standing on furniture and her potty.

Nana: Ava, get down off of the potty please.

Ava: (running around the couch and up to Nana) Say please princess!

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Ava definitely has it in her mind that she is a princess. So here are some pics of our princess and from our Labor Day Family Reunion at Reelfoot Lake.

View of the Mississippi River

A Few Misc. Photos

As I blog this I am listening to Daddy giving Ava a bath. She is laughing and I hear a lot of splashing going on. Now she is saying, "I hold it?" and I am sure she is getting ready to have her teeth brushed. Why is she not crying? For me, she is always crying when I brush her teeth. She actually just said, "Ahhh." I guess dad has the special touch.

Ava is changing everyday, and she just walked by me and said, "I so cute." She loves to look at herself in the mirror and say that over and over.

She has been saying tons of cute things and I will try to get those posted soon. She is quite the little funny girl. She loves playing with her stuffed animals and Barbie's and she very rarely will go upstairs or downstairs without at least one animal. Lately she has been lining/piling them all up and playing with them for the longest time.

She likes to think that she is really helping with the puzzles.

Dog Owners Boycott

Thought I would share this site with you all, especially ones that have dogs. If you read through a couple of posts, you can see the company's response as well as pictures of the accident.


http://thechaistory.blogspot.com/

Just thought I would pass it along...

Chalkin'

We all know from reading the blog that Ava loves to color (our coffee table, walls, windows, etc. are a testament to this) so I figured she would love to play with chalk. One evening last week we took out a bucket of sidewalk chalk and dressed up the driveway. She was very unsure at first, but once she caught on, she was coloring everywhere. She loved laying down while I outlined her and drew a face on her little chalk outline. Of course she demanded different shapes to be drawn and for as long as it stayed on the driveway (until Bradley washed it off) she would stand at the mirror and admire her work and name the different pictures.

Labor Day Weekend

This past weekend we got the chance to visit with Bo and Mike (aka Nona and Uncle Mike). They came down to spend a long weekend so we would have plenty of time to hang out and visit. On Saturday I had decided we should go to Casey Jones Village in Jackson, TN which is home to Casey Jones (well, it was when he was alive) and his famous train. http://www.caseyjones.com/ Since Ava is a little fascinated with trains lately, I thought she would enjoy the experience. We started off eating at the Old Country Store and the food was excellent. For a buffet, I was very impressed with the food and atmosphere. They also have lots of little shops, trains, and a tour of Casey's house. We made it to the 2nd shop when the fit started. Ava was wearing her little monkey backpack and walking around on her own. Outside one of the shops were some tall, wooden animals. Ava spotted a giraffe and looked at it for a few minutes until we were ready to move along to the next shop. Apparently in her mind, we were buying that giraffe and taking it with us because a huge, crying fit erupted. She was screaming and crying and being all dramatic. She kept crying, "Bye, Giraffe! and See you later Giraffe!"

The fit culminated in the final stop where you could tour the house and train. It was so intensely bad, I had to remove her from the store and I made her sit down outside on the sidewalk and try to calm her down. All the while, Uncle Mike is like a paparazzi snapping pictures of her and people are staring at us. Let's just say that not only happy moments are now immortalized on film. But after we got back to the car, she calmed down and was fine. In fact as we drove out of the parking lot, she kept saying, "Train, Choo, Choo!" I have to give her that it was extremely hot and close to her usual nap time, but man, can she throw a big one! So needless to say, we didn't get to fully experience Casey Jones. Sorry Bo and Mike, maybe another time!

The giraffe that started it all...