Oh-Bla-Di

It’s her birthday!

Ava had a fun filled week of birthday celebrations, beginning with her birthday party at school on Thursday.  The kids made her cake during their morning activity and then got to eat it for snack time.  Such a great way for her to get to celebrate with her school buddies.

At the end of the week, we started gearing up for her big pizza party on Sunday night.

We made Renfro’s pizza and had lots of friends and family here to celebrate with us.  Grandma & Grandpa Caspers were here, along with the Hoffmans, Baldizans, Nicole, Tim, Cray Cray & Amber.  Grammie & Grandpa even Skype’d in for the candle blowing and present opening.

For weeks in advance, we’d been querying Ava about her cake preferences.  She kept wavering between pink and purple for her cake color so, in the end, she got both.

As she has for each of her birthdays, Ava soaked up all the attention.  She loved having her guests sing “Happy Birthday” and blowing out her candles.

After cake and homemade strawberry ice cream, it was time for opening presents.  Whoozers is a slow present opener, as she prefers to open each item and play with it for a while before moving on to the next one.  We finally opened the last of her gifts on Wednesday morning.  Our girl received such sweet and thoughtful gifts from her friends and family…people obviously know her very well.  Grammie and Grandpa sent a “Belle” dress and stereo that, along with the bug catcher and magnifying glass from Grandma & Grandpa, has kept her occupied for hours since the big day.

The helmet goes to her other “big” gift from Mommy & Daddy…a bike!  More on that coming soon…

All in all, I think Ava had a great time celebrating turning three.  Matt and I are so very proud of our girl and amazed at how quickly the years have gone.  Looking forward to seeing her grow and change between now and her next birthday…maybe by then she’ll have really learned to iron.  

To all my Helens, don’t worry….we’re raising this one right.  Apron, twirly skirt, and leopard print sparkle shoes included.

Ava, say “Helen!”

*Funny sidenotes: While cooking in her kitchen, this Helen kept getting so much food all over herself that she had to take imaginary showers.  She would open the imaginary door, step in, scrub herself off, and then return to the kitchen ready to cook.  The apron was added to help avoid the need to shower, but she finally was so covered in food that even the apron could not diminish the need for another shower.

Since Halloween, this house has been busy. It’s hard to believe that it’s the middle of November already but, I swear, I wrote the last post, blinked and now we’re here. In the interest of catching up on the last two weeks…here’s a little list of ten.

1. To get things started right, how about this charmer of a guy? He smiles on demand these days and we’re just dangerously close to laughter.

2. It’s hard to believe, but Noah will be three months old in a week and a half. He’s turning into a really fun baby too. He’s really interested in faces and expressions these days. When he wants to play, he’s going to coo and smile at you until you play too. The mobile above his changing table is airplanes and he loves that thing. If we bat it and make it dance, he gets ridiculously excited. Legs kick, fists flail and he almost laughs. Love that.

3. Noah will be three months old in a week and a half, but Ava will be three years old in one week. How is that even possible? I can’t believe that she’s gotten so big. The time has flown by.

4. Three seems so big to me. Maybe that’s why we thought that a big girl bike was just thing for such a day. Matt’s been hard at work refurbishing our Craigslist find (couldn’t see spending hundreds on a bike that will soon be outgrown) and it’s all done and ready to go. Can’t show the whole thing until the big reveal, but here’s a sneak peek.

5. Last week was Veterans Day and, while we spent the actual holiday having a jammies and TV kind of day, the day before was super busy. Matt did drop off and pick up of the kiddos so that I could orchestrate the first-ever Veterans Day celebration at UNLV. I am totally jazzed with how it turned out, the response, and the momentum the Rebel VETS program is gaining. One of my favorite things about the day was the team of people who helped me (at 0730…a big deal for non-military types!) line the quad with over 400 flags.

6. Saturday, we attended Aviation Nation 2010…the annual airshow at Nellis Air Force Base. The weather was so much better than last year and we only went for the fast fliers this year. We had a blast! Noah slept the whole time we were there…like a good Air Force baby the jet noise didn’t even faze him. During the Thunderbirds show, Ava kept saying that she wanted to get down from Matt’s shoulders so that she could go “hop in the jet.” I’m thinking Matt’s going to end up getting checked out in little airplanes sooner than we’d originally thought.

7. Today on the way to school, Ava was reenacting one of her favorite scenes from Peep & the Big Wide World. She told me she was going to show her friends how to do the scene when she got to school. I acknowledged her in a sort of offhand way. She was serious. The second we walked into her classroom she called for the attention of her friends and then did her little bit. When that went unacknowledged, she started over. Apparently this lasted a while since Ms. Jewel said her feelings were a little hurt that her friends were running instead of listening to her on the playground.

8. My good friend and fellow Bond girl, Carrie, has been ill for nearly a month with something that the doctors can’t quite diagnose. We’re very worried about her but are really hopeful they’ll find a remedy soon. Wish we could be in Florida to help and visit. Send her good thoughts, please.

9. I’m working some extra hours this week to be able to take all next week off, so Matt’s been pitching in extra around here. Sometimes that means he’s got to multitask. Star Trek movies on Netflix, a baby in the laundry basket and folding diapers is how he rolls.

10. With all the other activity around here, we’re getting geared up for a birthday party, Thanksgiving and an anniversary next week. It’s going to be super-duper busy, but I’m so looking forward to all the family, food, and fun coming our way next week. Can’t wait!

Although it’s never really been “our” holiday, Halloween was big this year.  The question of who Ava would be has been a topic of discussion for months – it was a never ending, never repeating sequence of princess titles.  We ended up doing something generic out of her dress up bin and let her call it whatever she wanted.  Matt and I spent a good while talking about who we would dress up as well.  At least all the effort and though wasn’t wasted.  With all the festivities, Ava ended up wearing her costume three times!

Friday morning, Ava’s school hosted a Halloween parade.  All the kids showed up in their costumes and then marched around the hallways for the other kids to see.  Even though we don’t go to school on Fridays, Ava got to go participate in the parade.  Matt and I were there to watch, too, so that was fun for all of us.

This girl LOVES a parade.  They do them often and they really make her day!

Here’s Ava with her teachers.  She has such a good time with these ladies!

Friday night, the Hoffmans hosted a Halloween costume party at their house.  It was a really good time and, this time, we all got in on the costume action!  As I mentioned before, Matt and I have become huge Dr. Who fans lately, so we dressed as The Doctor and his companion, Rose Tyler.  Ava reprised her role as a princess and Noah dressed as a glow-in-the-dark bag o’ bones.

Right on schedule, then, we finally got around to carving our pumpkin on Saturday afternoon.  Matt drew up several pumpkin faces for Ava to choose from and she settled on a standard Jack o’ Lantern.  Can’t argue with a classic, right?

Even Noah wanted in on the pumpkin carving action!  (Funny side note, his class at school carved a pumpkin also.  His teachers said he wasn’t really interested.  Ha!)

We collected all the seeds and roasted them since Whoozers said she wanted some.  When they were done and we offered them to her, she wasn’t the least bit interested.  Go figure.

Sunday night, we got a surprise visit from the Hoffmans just as we were getting ready to go trick or treating.  It was great because we were able to get a couple of photos of all the kids and then walk our block together gathering candy.

Ava had been practicing the sequence of trick or treating events all week in her mind and, by the time we got to the third or fourth house, she finally had the knock on the door, say trick or treat, and say thank you sequence down pat.

All in all, it was a successful Halloween.  We got rid of all our candy since Matt is a generous hander-outer and are down to just the little bit Ava gathered in her adventures.  That’s a good thing, since Matt and I have had candy bars for dinner a few too many times lately.  We’re very ready to head into the Thanksgiving/birthday/anniversary season now.  November is really our month.  Can’t wait!

It’s seems impossible that Noah is already two months old.  But, on the other hand, it feels like he’s been here forever.  So much has changed in the last nine weeks.  He’s bigger, he’s more alert, he smiles and plays.  But, he’s still very much a newborn baby – one who needs lots of sleep and lots of eating to be happy and content.

Noah started daycare three weeks ago and has been doing great.  He’s finally figured out how to eat from a bottle and he’s slowly getting better at sleeping there.  Turns out there’s a big difference in noise levels between our house with no one in it (like he had for my 6 weeks of maternity leave) and an infant daycare room with 5 other babies.  Every day, though, he sleeps a little more while he’s there…and is awake for a little more playtime when we get home.

Noah’s getting to be a champ at holding his head up.  Now, when you hold him in a sitting position, he can hold his head and follow your face around as you talk to him.  It’s sort of like hide and seek without all the running around.  

Maybe it’s lost in the fog of her newborn-ness, but I don’t remember Ava being such a smiley baby as Doozy is.  This little guy will smile at you for just about anything and they are whole-face smiles.  His eyes crinkle up and he opens his mouth into a big grin.  He’s got a dimple in both cheeks and, man, his smiles melt my heart.  He’ll even giggle a little when he wants to play instead of eat.  Totally cute at four in the afternoon…less so at five-thirty in the morning.

Speaking of five-thirty in the morning, I almost always see the little dude about then.  He’s been doing a great job sleeping.  There’s usually even a seven hour stretch in there somewhere!  He does wake up at some point between two and three a.m., though, so Mommy still doesn’t sleep all the way through.  I’m hopeful, though, that that glorious day is soon to arrive.

We had Noah’s two month well-baby appointment yesterday.  He weighed in at 12 lbs, 4 oz, and was 23.5 in. long.  He gained about two pounds and two inches from our last visit.  Not bad for a month’s work!  He also got two shots yesterday…one in each leg.  He gave a good little cry after both, but settled down pretty quickly.  Dr. Faro says he’s totally normal and developing just as he should.  Our next big milestone to watch for is the rolling over.  I keep forgetting how quickly the time between these stages goes!

We’re totally loving having this chill, happy kid as part of our family.  Keep those smiles coming, baby boy!