Go, Go, Goers!

So, craptacular week #1 continued into week #2.  There was a power outage on Monday that blew the power supply to my PC, making it completely unusable.  No power = no PC.  Scott's been letting me use his PC, but I miss having my stuff readily available.  I'm learning to be flexible...deep breath in, deep breath out.  The irony is that I'm getting a new laptop in a few weeks, but I still need to be able to power up the PC to get all of my pics, Quicken, etc. to move to the new laptop.  But, it's fine - I have the power supply part, and now just need to corral Scott when he gets home from hunting so he can install it for me. But, onto happy Ava news...she's biting again.  This time it was ME.  She bit my wrist and top of my hand yesterday when I picked her up to get her ready to leave.  It didn't draw blood, but I was really hoping she was moving past that stage...but I guess she's not!  Maybe she's part vampire.  There ha...

It's been a crappy week.  There was another round of layoffs at BI, and one of my favorite people to work with was let go.  So, now the office won't be nearly as fun - but I'm thankful to still have a job. It's hunting opener up north, so Scott has been gone all weekend, but he did get a deer yesterday!  He got one a few weeks ago down south with his bow, as well.  I'm not really sure where we're going to put all of this venison!  With our wood floors, Ava's been slipping and sliding around a lot in her socks, so I decided she need a pair of slippers.  The bottoms are pretty fluffy, so it's going to take some time to mold them to her feet.  In the meantime, Scooter the Cat loves wearing them!    Ava was having fun piling up Scooter, Dollie, and Elmo into the rocking chair.  I wonder if she's too young to play with my Cabbage Patch Dolls??  I know Scott's hoping for a tomboy, but she might like playing with dolls, t...

Last year Ava was a cute lil' chick for Halloween, but she never really had the chance to show it off, since she was only 4 months old at the time.  This year; however, she was out and about, begging for candy like you wouldn't believe!  I picked up a super cute butterfly costume for her at Old Navy...plus it was a warm, fleecy costume, so she could actually spend some time outdoors in it. Here's her cute daytime Halloween outfit, courtesy of cousin Izzy! We first stopped at Grandma Deb and Grandpa Whitey's house last night for a quick visit. And then we stopped over at Grandpa Bruce and Grandma Sandy's house...they had picked up a kissing Elmo for her.  She's been kissing us and the dogs a lot lately, so this is perfect for her!  Elmo makes exactly the same sound that Ava does to kiss...a big loud "MAH!" Then we went onto cousin Greg and Dawn's house for some yummy potato soup...and a glimpse of the future when Ava is older. ...

After seeing how Ava did in Isabel's booster seat last weekend, we made the decision to have her join us at the table for meals.  I had NO idea there were so many different kinds of booster seats out there...I did quite of bit of online research to see what our options were.  I was happy that we found one that matched our kitchen decor so well! Ava made the transition with ease...she seems so happy to be sitting right at the table with us.  I also bought her a couple of cute Mickey and Minnie Mouse plates, which have separate areas, made just for dipping.  Ava is getting very good at dipping her food/spoon into ketchup/syrup/ .  She finally understands that food goes on the end of the fork/spoon, and THEN you put it into the mouth.  It's been a really big mealtime week for us! This also means that mealtimes have become a little messy...here she is dipping, and still in her highchair. We've made the move to the booster seat!  I was so hap...

This past weekend Scott, Ava and I drove down to Grand Meadow to celebate Isabel's second birthday. We hadn't been down there since June, so it was a great trip for us to catch up on everything. Isabel and Ava had so much fun together...it's amazing what a difference 8 months in age makes. Overall, they played really well together, although it was a constant struggle on who was going to push the toy strollers (thank goodness there were two!), and also to push the mini shopping cart (think Barbie-sized...) I think my favorite moment, however, was when Isabel came over to me with a dirty diaper, wanting to be changed. She laid down on the floor in front of me. Maybe 10 seconds later, Ava came over and laid down behind Isabel, copying her exact position with her legs in the air too! I think Isabel would be a GREAT influence on Ava!! The birthday party was very fun, and Isabel received all sorts of neat gifts...Ava was completely taken with the tea set, and was carrying aro...

We had a busy week taking photos and video, hence the quantity of posts in one night! Once again, and I will say this until I'm a broken record, Ava LOVES Darla. Darla is so patient and sweet, and allows her to pet, pull, grab, smush , and smooch her to her heart's content. Ava cornered Darla the other night...the last pic had me wondering if too much love is possible! I just love the sheer look of joy on Ava's face as she's giving Darla her love...that little dimple is in full force! And here are a few fun videos to round out this post... Ava's such a strong little girl...instead of rolling the pony across the floor, she picks it up and carries it! And in this one she's rocking her baby doll and the dog's pig toy in her chair...with an extra kiss thrown in!

Not only have we moved into fall, but we've also kicked off the cold and flu season.  A yucky little bug was making its way through Ava's daycare, and she finally caught it last week.  Her fever spiked around 103.5, so we kept her at home for a day to recover.  Of course, she was feeling well enough to catch up with Curious George, the Mickey Mouse Clubhouse, and Dora!  Once our tv viewing was done, she was in the mood to "play" while Mommy did a little work. It didn't really work out well to have her on my lap while I was typing, so instead we pulled out her laptop. She was nice and snuggly wrapped in her blanket while she worked away! These photos really made me laugh as my building at work is a little chilly. I often wrap a blanket around me as I'm working on my laptop...just like Ava! Since she really loves typing on my laptop, desktop, and Scott's PC, I decided she needed a real keyboard of her own.  Ava loves just typing awa...