2 Year Old Ava (long for my records)

Ava is 2... I have said that so many times in the last 2 weeks and still can't believe it! I am still a bit shocked that Ava turned 2 and not only do we not have another child but I'm not pregnant with another. All my life when thinking about having children I envisioned them being no more than 2 years apart in age... Knowing that Ava will be at least 3 or 4 or even older before she has a little sibling (if she gets one at all) really hurts my heart but its just the battle that I have to go through.

I feel like I'm the only person in the world that's not pregnant or have a newborn some days but I just need to try and not focus on that and focus on the wonderful little girl who really is a miracle and the greatest blessing. I know lots of friends who have battled infertility and are still waiting on their miracle and I pray for those friends daily. Its a difficult struggle, I am 16+ months into it but still have a ways to go.

Onto Ava.

Ava had her 2 year well check today. Yesterday I had to take her in for a sick kid check because our office won't do well and sick at the same time :( She's been having a hard time with her ears, eyes, throat. She has a sinus infection and is now on antibiotics and drops for her ears and eyes. I was worried that maybe her tubes had come out but it appears that her ears are just clogged and nothing can get out.

Ava's stats today were

37 inches tall (99%)
32 pounds 6 ounces (98%)
19 1/2 inch head (95%)

Our doctor immediately started in talking about how tall she is. She mentioned the whole idea of doubling a 2 year olds height to estimate their height as an adult. If you double Ava's height she would be 6'2! Our doctor took the guess that she will be 6+ feet tall. I looked back at my height at 2 and turns out I'm just 1 inch shorter than my height doubled at 2.

Ava's wearing 3T clothes... her ideal outfit is 4T shirts and 2T pants. But overall 3T fit best :) She is wearing 7/8 size shoes depending on the shoe and is in size 5 diapers when we used disposable. We are not anywhere near potty training.. no motivation yet.

Ava says SO much, she repeats everything. She even knows her ABC's, how to count to 10, she knows her colors, she can recognize her ABC's and the sounds of letters. Her latest saying that she learned the other day is "have a GREAT day!" its very cute!

She has 11 teeth right now and is currently getting 3 of her canines... I hope they come in soon! She hasn't been to the dentist yet but our ped told us to take her closer to her 3rd birthday. She loves brushing her teeth/getting her teeth brushed so I think we'll be okay.

She is still sleeping great! She was going through a phase where she was waking up every night at 4am but now shes back to her normal self. She also moved into a big girl toddler bed in January and she LOVES it! She will sleep anywhere. We have found her on the floor often but she is happy to be free.

She is eating better and a ton. She loves most foods but must feed herself. Her favorites are peanut butter, black beans, chocolate :) to name a few. She's FINALLY drinking water. She would never drink water but the last few weeks shes actually been willing to drink it :)

One thing I didn't think she would have still at 2 is the pacifier. She uses it to sleep and I have no motivation to take it away from her.. so OH well.. I know some people don't like it but thats fine by me. She is also still rear facing in her car seat which may seem "babyish" according to some but I'm keeping her that way.

Other than that shes a super happy rough and tumble sweet little girl. She really rolls with the punches and makes me so happy. She is the best little girl I could ask for!

Big Girl Bed!

Tonight is Ava's first night in her "big girl bed" OH wish us luck!!
We decided a month and a half ago (well at Thanksgiving) that it was getting close to time. She weighs over 32 pounds now and lifting her out of her crib has been causing my back pain to be excruciating. We ordered the little toddler rail for her bed since it was 50% off on amazon and decided around new years after family had left we would give it a go.
Well new years came and went and since Ava and I both got sick we didn't change her bed over. Since we decided we are heading to AZ in a few weeks I realized I either needed to switch her now or buy some sort of "toddler tent bed" for our trip because shes way too big (tall and heavy) for her pack n play, it was a stretch to use it 6 months ago but now we definitely can't use it.
We did our usual bedtime routine (after I spent over an hour setting up her bed and baby proofing the room) and got her to bed around 7:30 (2 hours ago)... She stayed in her bed for 50 minutes! I thought we were home free but since then in the last hour shes gotten up 4 or 5 times and came to the door trying to open it. We have the baby monitor on as well. I hope we some how get some sleep tonight and we figure this thing out. I'm giving it a few nights and if it doesn't work we are going back to the crib.

New Years Eve

Honestly the years go by 10 times faster when you have a kid, can't imagine what it will be like when we have a handful of kids!

We have had a lot happen this year, not all has been that great and sadly enough a lot of the things I wanted to accomplish DID NOT happen, but Ava changed a lot and that was my favorite part!

Ava has:
Gained 8 pounds this year
Grown 5 1/2 inches
Gone from 12-18M clothes to 3T

1 year ago Ava was still army crawling and had JUST started pulling herself up on things. She had 0 teeth and could say 1 word?

She was my little chunky baby 1 year ago and now she's my energetic toddler!

I've worked a TON this year. Brittybird has gone really well and I've stayed extremely busy. We are almost up to 1000 sales on Etsy!! I have been busier than I had ever planned. For most the year I kept telling myself that I needed to work more so that we could pay for things like infertility treatments but I've decided to take less orders this year and focus more on changing myself and losing weight and then hopefully we won't actually need to pay for infertility treatments.. (hopefully).

Don't get me wrong, I LOVE my work. I want to make new projects this year that I haven't tried before and with more time that should be possible. I've already started this year off with a new project, recovering my friends car seats!

(16 &) 17 Months Old

Ava is 17 months old!! I somehow missed writing a 16 month update for Ava with getting tubes last month but here we are and she's already 17 months old!! 1 more month and she's off to nursery and will be 1 1/2!!! How is this possible!

She's talking a LOT more since she got the tubes in her ears. I keep track of her words and phrases in my phone and its AMAZING to see how many shes developed just since getting tubes! I honestly think she said about 5 or so words before she got tubes. That day we got home she said 2 new ones and has been adding tons since.

I'm writing this list for me for future reference so enjoy lol and this is about the order she learned them... but not totally

Words:
Dada
Mama
Wow
Hi
Num
Ya
Bye
Kenji
No
Uh Oh
Down
Thank You
Up
Nice
Eyes
Nose
Go
Papa
Night
Share
Baba
Whose there
Hello
One

Has said before but not as easy to get her to repeat:
Lisa
Dortha
Yes (ya-sss)
Ya I do
Doggie
Grandma
You
How are you
Food
Two

If you ask her want a snake says she says "SSSSS" Its cute, she'll sometimes do kitty right and we are working on what a dog says now :)

Ava is wearing 2T and even some 3T clothes now but I haven't had the heart to put away ANY of her 24 month clothes... I need to though. She is wearing 5/6 in shoes. We went and got her shoes the day she turned 1 and those were a size 4 and now her 5's barely fit, so I think we will be in 6's full time here real soon. Why can't she stay tiny!!! We have a ton of clothes we have been storing and I have even more stored coming up for her to wear... Girl has way too many clothes!

Ava has 6 teeth now, and 5 or 6 more coming in soon! She's got 5 teeth in front and 1 molar on top :) Everytime I try to get my finger in her mouth to feel she tries to bite me! Thankfully she doesn't bite otherwise.

She is such a well behaved little girl. Ava and I traveled 4200 miles in 3 weeks through Az, Ut, Id, Wy, Sd, Nd, and Mt. She was perfect the entire time. She sleeps, she eats, we get out a couple of times when we get gas, she plays with some toys, she doesn't whine or fuss or cry. Its sooo nice to travel with her! If she didn't travel well I'm sure I'd never make the drive anywhere because I hate driving!

I'm really impressed with how easy she is. She loves other kids and is such a sweet heart. I am so grateful for what a blessing she is in our life. I've wanted another baby in our home for 9 months now. Unfortunately we know the wait to have one is going to be a lot longer. Its hard for me to think that getting pregnant with Ava was so simple, if this 2nd child was like Ava I'd be giving birth in a week.

This already shows me that every child is different and although my plans were to have another child already, that's not necessarily gods plan for us. I've learned a lot in the last 9 months, and 17 months for that matter. I am looking forward to the day that we find out that I'm pregnant again and pray that it all works out and our battle with secondary infertility will end soon enough. I need to go back to my doctor and talk about some more medical options because so far I haven't seen much changes with the meformin I've been taking.

Here's to more exciting updates in the future :)

15 Month Appt

Weight: 25 pounds 11 ounces (85th %)
Height: 33 inches (98th %)
Head: 19 inches (94%)

Ava didn't get any of her shots today because she needed more antibiotics for her ear. Her eardrum is ruptured :( and has been bleeding. We have to take her back on Saturday to look and see if she needs more antibiotic and to see how her ear is doing.

We go back in 2 weeks to do a weight check and to get her shots. She has lost 2 pounds (which could be from having the flu this weekend) so we just want to make sure her weight starts going back up because she was nearly 28 pounds at 13 1/2 months old.

We are going to do tubes in her ears and we are going to get her tear ducts probed... hoping to get her into the doctor soon so we can get this all done asap.

AZ Memorial Day Trip (so far)

She can walk!!

Ava took her 1st steps while we were visiting my mom in AZ 5 weeks ago! Now 5 weeks later she has gone from first steps to finally walking part time :) Still favorite mode of transportation is crawling but dang 2 days ago she walked 5 steps for the first time and that was the most she had ever done. Now its just no big thing for her!

We have been joking for a while that she would just up and start walking as soon as Dan went out of town to the Indy 500... while Dan was on the plane, Ava just started walking! So at 14 1/2 months we have a little walker :)

Here's the video :)

Ava's 1st Steps!

Ava took her very first steps yesterday! 2 to be exact! I always thought kids walked by 1... nope not Ava. I then found out its totally normal for them not to walk till even as much as 18 months... OH so not okay. Ava weighs about 28 pounds and it really really hurts my back to carry her around all the time.

Ava is pretty timid about standing on her own. She has only been doing it for a little while. She will let go of things and stand there for a minute or so, maybe. Yesterday we gave her Grandma's phone to play with and while she was playing with it and standing there she took 2 steps towards me! I started screaming I was so excited, and of course my mom started crying!

The day before Ava was sitting on the floor playing with a toy carrot. She started picking pretend pieces of off it and eating them while saying "yumm" both my mom and I started crying on that one. I could not believe she was old enough to pretend like that! It was so cute.

Speaking of being around my mom, we made a quick impromptu trip to see family here in AZ. I was having a hard time thinking that it would have been 5 months between visits if we waited till the end of May so I couldn't do it. I had to come for Easter.

Ava has been having so much fun here in AZ. She has a lot more room to play and lots of people to see! She went swimming in a baby pool for the first time and LOVED it. We will have to do that more when it warms up in Utah. She also went to the Phoenix Zoo for the first time! Thanks Aunt Kate and Uncle Kirk :)

I think we will be staying another week here, so we look forward to seeing people and 'enjoying' the heat. I will say, I have become accustom to Utah weather and AZ is SOOO hot to me now!

My babies 1st tooth

Ava finally got her first tooth! She's been teething for a couple weeks now. The doctor pointed out that she was getting this tooth when we went to her 1 year check up on the 16th. It finally cut through today. It is so sharp! No wonder babies are tiny monsters when they are teething! I would be too!!

Anyway, I'm sad to see her little gummy smile go away, but excited that this tooth finally broke through and she can get a break (for a minute).

The number 6

First 6 stands for the number of pounds I lost my first week back on Weight Watchers! WOO HOO! Thats a very good number for me!!

Second 6 stands for the number of ear infections Ava has currently gone to the doctor for since September. We talked and the doctor thinks she's had more but we didn't realize it. Its REALLY hard for us to tell when Ava has an ear infection because she is in such a good mood all the time. However the doctor is worried about the infections affecting her speech development and hearing. So we go see an ear nose and throat doctor next Friday to talk about tubes. I'll be happy when they are over and Ava stops having to suffer through these ear infections and rounds and rounds of antibiotics.

Sunday Update

Quick update! Ava says "wow" now. SO cute! I can hardly stand it! She also plays patty cake and her favorite part is the "throw it in the air"... she always throws her arms up during "mark it with a B" :) Its so cute!

I'm on day 4 today of Weight Watchers (well we, Dan's doing it too!) I feel great, the first few days are the hardest to get started, then after 3-4 weeks, it becomes totally second nature to count points and eat healthy. I'm looking forward to Thursday and weighing in again and seeing how this week turns out!

I'm so thankful for the support others have shown, its comforting to know that people support us and that we aren't alone. This is important to us. Its important to me. I love health, I love being healthy, I love running and haven't been able to in years now. I was a public health major of all things :)

Happy New Year

Already 1 week into the new year! Can't believe its 2011. Seems like I waited forever for it to be 2010 and now its 2011 and Ava is almost 1!

Ava has changed so so much just in the last few weeks. On the 15th at her Dr appointment I was worried because she had never crawled on her knees (only army crawled), not pulled herself up, couldn't sit up from laying down. Well she did all those things a couple hours after we left the doctor!

We had a great trip to AZ and Ava loved seeing all our friends and family. She really loved her riding dinosaur that my mom gave her and everyday she wants to sit on it and ride backwards. She only goes forwards now so she can go backwards again.

She currently has some sort of virus. Possibly Rotovirus but we aren't sure. She's had bad diarrhea pretty much since Sunday I believe. The doctor had us take her off formula and only drink pedialyte which I didn't think she would do but so far she has drank a ton of it and she has had very little diarrhea today. YAY.

And honestly whenever she is sick I honestly second guess it because she is never upset. You would think she would show some signs that she isn't feeling well, but she still is just as happy as Ava ever could be!

Anyway happy to see the new year!

OH and we are coming up on 3 years since I was diagnosed with my Pseudotumor Cerebri and I can say I've been off my meds since about May and so far so good. No reoccuring headaches. I had a few spells at the beginning of December but turns out they were just from stress! YAY

More pictures from our trip

Ava's 1st Christmas

I can't believe Ava's first Christmas is already over! It was so much fun! We couldn't have asked for a better day and a happier Christmas. Ava is so loved and for sure a first and only grandchild in this family! She quadrupled her toy count and was so happy to see everyone and play today! She even needed 4 naps today! We love Ava so much and what a wonderful day we had. I am also so thankful we were able to spend this Christmas in Arizona with my family.

9 Months

Its amazing how LONG 9 months feels when you are pregnant and how short it feels when you have a 9 month old!

On Wednesday Ava will be 9 months old and that will also be the same day that I will have officially had Ava out of my body longer than in it. She was born 39 weeks and 1 day and Wednesday she will be 39 weeks and 2 days old :)

I always wonder if a 2nd pregnancy goes by faster than the first because waiting for the first was the longest 9 months of my life!

OH and today is my wonderful Mother's birthday!!! AND one year ago today was also the very first time Dan felt Ava kick. Yes I was almost to my 3rd trimester but he was never patient enough to feel her move till then or he wasn't awake for it. She was most active in the middle of the night. Funny thing (or not) she still is. That girl kicks and wiggles and moves more in her sleep than any other person I've ever met. You cannot cuddle with her while she is sleeping or she will hurt you!

Ear Infections

It seems like since we have moved we are often dealing with Ava getting sick with one thing or another. She had never gotten sick in her first 4 1/2 months and it seems like the last 4 1/2 months have been trips to the doctor every few weeks for something.

She's got a double ear infection this week... This is her 3rd or 4th go around with ear infections in the last 4 months. It makes me so sad. She is in so much pain and wakes so often when she has ear infections. She cries so hard and I hate to know she is in pain.

Thankfully this time we caught onto her signs within 2 days of them starting. The first time it took me over a week to figure out she had an ear infection :(

So big

My baby is getting so big! She hardly seems like a baby anymore. I could tell you numerous stories of people assuming she is older than she really is. If we go out to eat we are always asked if she wants a children's menu and something to color.

Last week I was asked by a 7 year old "what was wrong with her" because she can't walk. I told her she is just a baby and she responded with "she's bigger than my 2 year old cousin" which I later found out is very true.

I also asked a photographer this week at a studio in the mall when I stopped there with my friend Stacy about doing cake smashing photos for Ava's birthday in March. His response was "well we usually only do those for 1st birthdays, but I guess we could do it" :( it is her first birthday dude!

ANYWAY my nearly 9 month old weighs almost 23 pounds, probably about 30 inches tall, just starting to wear size 4 diapers today because size 3 are just way too short. She has just started to pick up cheerios with her finger and thumb, she says dada all the time but never mama. She has no teeth, she doesn't pull up on furniture, she doesn't crawl on her knees, she doesn't cruise and she doesn't eat table food very well. So ya thats my baby :)

OH and tonight is the 3rd night going to bed without a pacifier. No crying at all tonight :) just went right to sleep! YAY. She is pretty much pacifier free now aside from possible nap time use! Over are the days of plugging the pacifier back in, finding it for her in the car, getting up in the night to give it back to her, endlessly cleaning it, melt downs because she doesn't have it.

Breakfast with Ava

Ava loves bananas. She loves them more than any other fruit ever. She is also a very serious eater. Don't feed her fast enough, she will yell at you!

Pacifier Weaning

Ava has pretty much had a pacifier clipped to her everyday of her life up until about a week and a half ago. We decided she was done with the pacifier because she kept treating it like a toy 90% of the time. I've never been too fond of her using a pacifier, especially at the amount she has used it.

We restricted the pacifier just to in crib use for the last week and a half and that went REALLY well. I didn't think it would be so easy but it was, so she for sure does not need her pacifier while she is awake or in the car!

Tonight was the first night of not giving her a pacifier in her crib. I would really love to be completely done with pacifiers. Tonight it took about an hour longer to do bedtime than usual but she finally by some miracle fell asleep without the pacifier!!

If it doesn't work I'll gladly go back to pacifiers in the crib only but I hope by some chance this is the end of our pacifier use.

Its Christmas Time!

We took Ava to see Santa tonight. I know she can't talk and doesn't have a clue whats going on but I love pictures with Santa. They are so cute. Anyway, the photographers are smart and told us to take her in with her back towards Santa so she couldn't see him till after they got her picture. This was great since once she saw him all she wanted to do was stare at him and grab his beard :)
Oh and we have a tiny Christmas tree this year. Its our first time putting up a tree and we got a little one up high so that to avoid any issues with Ava pulling on the tree. We'll deal with that another time :)