Little Reader

Ava enjoying her bedtime story...

and yes she does look at the book as I am reading:)

Real Quick

Just wanted to share a couple of cute pictures from this past weekend...

Ava talking to Daddy

She loves to stand up and listen to Daddy make duck sounds

Starting to enjoy her jumperoo...Thanks Gamma and Pap-Pap!

XOXO

T-Ball, Daddy and Three

are the magical words this week.  I have so many things to tell about in this post so let me get straight to the point!
Saturday Ava and I ventured to big ole Thomaston to watch Ethan play his first t-ball game of the season.  He seems to enjoy t-ball a little better this year, but he still hates standing out in left field.  He tried telling the coach that his stomach hurt, but that did not work with Robyn, she sent him right back onto the field lol.

Ethan crying in left field because we made him keep playing

He always enjoys when he gets to bat though, and he is actually pretty good at it.  He did get to run in to score after his first time at bat!  

Ethan batting

Running to 1st

After the t-ball game we went to spend some time with my Nana.  Ava has not had the opportunity to meet her great-grandmother until Saturday so they were both very excited!

Sunday was Father's Day, and like Mother's Day we did not do anything special at all.  We just laid around the house and rested.  As a matter of fact I believe that Tim got up with us that morning and ended up going right back to bed and staying there until around 1.  We didn't take any pictures since we didn't do anything special.  Ava and I LOVE you Timmy!  You are the best daddy that a little girl could ever ask for...thank you for all of your help and support!

Tuesday was a very big day for our Ava bug...she went to her first sick child doctor's visit AND she rolled over all by herself for the first time!  The sick child visit was just for a little cough and some congestion that I had noticed Ava had in the mornings.  The nurse practitioner said Ava is too little for medication, so we should just try propping her up at night to allow the drainage to go down.  Propping Ava up has proven to be impossible, but what else is new...she likes things the way she likes things lol.  As for rolling over...wellllll she started trying to roll from her back to her tummy Saturday while we were in Thomaston, but she could never figure out how to move her arm out of the way.  So Tuesday night I put her on her tummy time mat and went into the kitchen to start cooking dinner.  (Disclaimer:  Our kitchen and den are opened up to one another so I can stand at the stove and see Ava in the floor in the den.  She is not just left laying around unsupervised.)  As I'm cooking and listening to her babble I look up just in time to see her flop over flat on her tummy!  I was so excited and proud!

Ava right after she rolled over

Silly me put her back on her back and went back to cooking without thinking, "Hey she might do it again.  Stick around with the camera so you can video her."  So of course later she had rolled back over and wiggled until she got comfortable and passed out.

Notice that her other arm did not make it out from under the pillow before she was asleep...too cute

Annnnnddddd three is a magical word because Ava is three months old today!  Can you believe it?!  So of course here are pictures of her in her chair...

Some things she can do now:

- She is a smiling baby.  She smiles all of the time now for all different kinds of reasons.  Of course the earlier in the day you see her the more likely you are to catch one of these smiles.  

- She can roll over from her back to her tummy (still perfecting this skill, but she can do it)

- She holds her head up on her own now.  

- She can sit up as long as she is propped on something.  

- She enjoys her bebePOD for short periods of time (15-20 minutes).

- She really enjoys watching TV.  Her favorite shows to watch are Super Why and Dinosaur Train on PBS, Wonder Pets and the Backyardigans on Nick Jr. and of course she L-O-V-E-S to watch the Braves play with her daddy.

- She enjoys standing when someone will hold her so that she can.

- She does not like to lay down when she is awake unless she is laying on her tummy time mat in the floor where she can see everything that is going on around her.

- She has found her hands and chews on them constantly.

- She will hold a rattle if you place it in her hand, but she hasn't quite grasped the concept of picking it up herself.

- She will sometimes hold her bottle now, especially at her bedtime feeding.  

- She is sleeping until 6:30 or 7:00 in the morning most nights now.  

I am sure that there are other things that I am not thinking of right now, but these are the big ones.

Here are a couple of pictures to show proof that she can do the things I have listed above...

Sitting in her bebePOD watching TV

Holding her bottle

playing with her rattle

Until next time...

XOXO

Chillin...

in her carseat on her way to daycare.  This picture was just too cute not to post for all to see:)

XOXO

Morning Sunshine

I keep telling everyone that they miss Ava at her peak.  Sure she is cute during all other times of the day, but her happiest is between the hours of 9 a.m. and noon.  Last night I tried to get her smiling on video because her smiles come and go so fast and they are so unpredictable that you can't capture them in a picture quite yet.  It just was not happening so I started to think..."How can I get her smiling face out to the world?"  PING! The light bulb went off...when she starts stirring around in the morning grab the camera and video her when you say "Good morning!"  She always smiles big when I tell her good morning:)  So that is exactly what I did this morning and it worked!  The first part of the video is kinda dark because I wasn't thinking about my shadow being cast over her, but I did think about it a few seconds in and moved out of the way...Yay me!  So enjoy this cuteness...

XOXO

HAPPY BIRTHDAY...

to a very special lady!  We love you Nana Patti!  Hope you have a day as beautiful as you are!!!

XOXO

Dinners, Cousins and Poolside FUN

What a weekend?!  

It started with dinner Friday night with the wonderful Rumer family.  I always love my time with Meghan and William, and I was so glad that Tim and Sam finally got to join in on our fun time:)  In retrospect I cannot believe that neither me nor Meghan thought about taking pictures...I MUST remember the next time William and Ava are together that they have to have a picture together!  William was too cute crawling all over the place (it was my first time getting to see him crawl), and then we got to witness him enjoying his berry cobbler (making a complete mess). Oh what we have to look forward to lol.  And of course the food and visiting with Sam and Meghan was SUPER too;)  Since we didn't take any pictures here is a picture of the Rumers (stole it from Meghan's Facebook).  Aren't they a gorgeous fam?!

New Baby Recognition at St. Paul this past Sunday

Saturday Ava and I packed up and headed to T-Town.  She was such a good baby and slept the whole way there.  Of course everyone was SOOOO excited to see her, especially Ethan.

He loves his "Aba".  

No one but Robyn has seen Ava since Ethan's birthday party at the beginning of May so they were all  amazed at how much she has grown and changed.  We just sat around the house and walked through Momma and Papa's garden.  It was a very relaxing day (other than the driving there and back home).

Sunday we went poolside at Sissy's house.  Ava had eaten right before we got there, and she slept in her travel swing (under an umbrella of course) for the first two hours.  Poor Brodie had been waiting for two whole weeks to see his "best baby", and it just killed him to see her laying in that swing and he couldn't touch her.  He kept taking his little chair and sitting beside her so that he would know the second that she woke up.  Of course she woke up hungry so he insisted on helping feed her...

Such a good little Mann

Blayd even joined in on the Ava festivities yesterday.  He normally just runs by saying "Baby", but yesterday he took a few seconds to stop and "pet" her as Brodie likes to say (because all babies like to be "pet" lol).  We L-O-V-E our time at Casa de Mann and our Nason-Paul-Dixon-Gaines-Mann family!  

After our fun day at the pool we went home for some much needed rest...

She fell asleep while sitting up bless her little heart

XOXO

Week 10

Ava L-O-V-E-S to sit (straight) up, so while reading mommy blogs (I am addicted) I came across something called a bebePOD and I decided that Ava MUST have one.  Off to BabiesRUs Tim and I went Wednesday afternoon to find one, and after 30 minutes of staring at the assortment of rubber chairs we decided on this one.  Ava likes it, but only for small amounts of time.  I think it will grow on her once she can hold herself up a little better:)

Isn't she too cute

Last night after giving Ava her bath she was overly talkative so I ran and grabbed the camera to get a quick video of her babbling away.

Note that she was trying to eat the towel and talk at the same time lol.

After that I realized how big she was getting and decided to snap a picture of what she looks like on her changing pad now...

Just 4 days old

10 weeks old

It is amazing the difference that just a few weeks can make in the life of a baby! 

Just had to add this one for good measure, and because she is just too darn cute!

XOXO

Ava found her mobile!

I have found that if I put Ava back in her crib with the mobile and its cool blinking lights on after her 3 am feeding she will go back to sleep, no crying or anything.  This led to my brilliant idea of doing the same thing Sunday afternoon while Tim was cutting grass and I was trying (operative word here is "trying") to put away laundry.  It was the first time that I noticed that Ava actually stayed awake and enjoyed looking at the mobile.  So here is a two minute video of her watching her mobile (there is some talking and smiling involved too).

XOXO

Our Little Graduate

Ethan is an official graduate of Pre-K!  Congratulations Bubba, we LOVE you, and are so very proud of you!!!

XOXO