Taylor's 1st Haircut

Taylor got her very first haircut on Friday, 8/24.  We took her to Great Clips in Ann Arbor after Ava's well baby visit.  She did SO good for the stylist!  She sat perfectly still and listened to every single instruction.  

I could not believe how one haircut could make her look like such a big girl!  She is no longer my baby...she's officially a little girl.  So sad, and so happy!!  

She looks absolutely adorable with her little bob!

Before....

After... :)

9 Months!

I can't believe Ava Bean is 9 months old!  Where has the time gone?  

• Weight = 22 lbs 7.5 oz. (94th percentile)
• Height = 29.5" (96th percentile) - hey, at least she's consistent!
• Tooth Count = 3, all on the bottom
• She is still now in mostly 12 month clothes and Size 3 diapers - moving into 4's soon.  
• She drinks 3, 8 oz. bottles a day 2 meals.  Brunch around 11:30-12:00 is a bowl of rice cereal and fruit.  Dinner around 6:00 is veggies & fruit.  She has been doing really good drinking water out of her sippy cup and downs it most of the time.  Her new best friend is also puffs - I swear she could eat a whole can in one sitting.
• She has really turned the corner on  her sleeping.  She goes down for bedtime around 8:00 and will sleep 11-12 solid hours.  Whew!
• Naps - getting much better!  She is consistently giving us one good nap and sometimes a 2nd.  She gets sleepy around 10:30 and will sleep usually for 30-45 minutes.  Then 1:30 or 2:00 is her longer nap - usually 1 1/2 - 2 hours (on most days!).
• Ava is crawling, pulling up, cruising, and into EVERYTHING!  She wants to be where everyone else is and loves following around her big sister.  The toy fights have begun, but luckily Ava is pretty laid back.

Walk with Nana

Enjoying a beautiful late summer evening. So cute!

1st Tooth!

Ava's 1st little baby tooth popped through on June 24th.  Similar to Taylor, the 2nd one followed 4 days later on the 28th.  She looks so cute with those little toofers!!  

New roof

We finally bit the bullet and got our roof replaced.  It looks amazing!!  

Bye, bye old roof!

In with the new!

Deck

Zack's been working really hard on refreshing our deck this summer!  He replaced all of the wood that was warped or splitting, secured all the hand rails and repainted it.  It was a lot of hard work, but the end result was awesome!  We now have a beautiful new deck to show for it!

8 Months Old!

Besides crawling, standing, and playing....this month I also started eating Puffs.  I love them and can't get enough :)  I've turned into a great sleeper and I am absolutely enamored with my big sister who loves me back!

What a joy you are to have in our lives, Ava Bean!

Ava's on the move

If ever there could be 2 opposite babies....I think we've got them.  I ask myself all the time if things with Ava seem to be going so fast because I compare them to Taylor, or because they really are.  I think it's a combination of both.  Regardless, Ava is doing things in literally half the time Taylor did.

At the ripe old age of 7 months, she started pulling herself up to a stand on objects.  July 11th was the first time she did that. 

Then a few short days later, July 16th, she started crawling!  

And once she started, there's no stopping her!  She is just everywhere and getting into everything.  Taylor was always so laid back and we barely had to baby proof for her.  Not Ava - if it's around, she wants to explore it.  She's on the go and loving it!

And to add to her bag of tricks, she started standing on her own, in the middle of the room on  August 10th.  Now she will stand alone for periods of up to 10 seconds.  Crazy!  And just last night, she went from the night stand to about the middle of the length of our bed.  Just cruising around like it's no big deal!  Ahhhh!  She's growing up too fast!  There's no doubt in my mind before she turns 10 months she'll be walking.  I guess we'll have to wait and see!!

Splash Pad

I took a long weekend in conjunction with the 4th of July holiday.  It was HOT!  Like over 100 degrees hot.  We took the girls to Independence Lake splash pad and they had a blast.  Taylor was still pretty timid of the water, but Ava had fun!  We wrapped it up with a picnic lunch in the shade, then went home for naps (all of us!).

Potty Training!

Taylor has been doing so great with potty training!  We had (for months) been trying to get her to go pee pee on the potty with no success.  I went out to the movies with mom and Sherry on July 3rd and Zack sent me a text about "big news...call me".  I had no idea what it could be!  I called him after the movie and -- voila!  She had gone pee pee!  Woo-hoo!  She was so proud of herself and we were so proud of her!  Since then she has been doing pretty great.  We started her off right away with her underwear.  The first few weeks were a little rough with accidents, but overall, she did really well pretty quickly.  

Her first poop on the potty was on July 8th and it was sort of a fluke!  I couldn't believe she had done it! 

She's been doing so well and is now in underwear all day long, except for naps and bedtime.  She has been pretty good about telling us when she has to go, or at least listening to us when we tell her she has to try.  Her tell-tale sign of needing to go is grabbing her butt - haha!  We can even take her in public and she's not afraid of the public restrooms (I just have to try to keep her from touching the toilets - YUCK!!).

So proud of our big girl!

Fireworks!

We went down to the boat house for Whitmore Lake's fireworks this year.  Kevin, Meghan & Celia came along for the fun.  We had front row seats for the awesome show!  Taylor loved all the colors and had a blast!  And Ava wasn't scared at all!

Owen is 3!!

We had so much fun celebrating Owen's 3rd birthday!  His party was Sesame Street theme and was on June 30th.  Sherry & Ian made some delicious food, as per usual.  The party commenced with some swimming pool fun since it was freakin' hot that day!

Balloon Fest 2012

We went to the balloon fest in Howell this year for the first time.  We had so much fun on Friday night (without Daddy) that we decided to go back on Saturday night with him!  Fun was had by all!  I can't believe Taylor and Owen were big enough to go on rides by themselves.  They are getting so big!!

7 Months Old!

taken 6.21.12

1st Combo Bath

The first bath with both girls was on June 18th.  Aren't they cute together?!  They do pretty good for the most part (when Taylor is not trying to steal Ava's toys!).  One bath time makes things easier on mama!

Father's Day 2012

I have been horrible at my blogging lately.  I'm going to attempt to do some catch up :)

For Father's Day this year, the girls and I took Daddy to the Tigers game!  It was Ava's first game and Taylor's first game that she could remember!  It was a hot and steamy day and we even had a nice rain delay in the middle.  Taylor had a blast riding the carousel and ferris wheel!

It was the perfect way to celebrate the perfect Daddy!