Viva Valdez

Wednesday, July 22, 2009

4th of July weekend

We stayed at a hotel on the beach for 3 nights and this was the view from our room! (Thanks again Mom and Bdad!)

One of our favorite activities was people watching on the boardwalk. We also had an amazing view of the fireworks from our room.

Ava always wanted to make sure she was sitting on Bdad's lap that weekend

Coloring at dinner

sitting in the birthday boy's lap

Chris and Zach got us this atrocious ceramic dog as a joke- too funny!

We had a lot of gear to go to the beach

Our camp for the day

Ava's favorite thing still- bubbles

trying to do it on her own

gorgeous day!

This was the farthest she would get in the water

One of my new favorite pictures!

My Bdad!

I was happy to satisfy my cravings :)

So dang cute!

Don't they look exactly alike here?

Dancing at dinner with Mom and Aunt Jeannie

Ava was quite the entertainment

We got our own private gazebo for dinner for Bdad's birthday. It was delicious.

He was born on the 4th of July!

Ava helping him unwrap his presents

Ava can say "Cake" now but it sounds like she has 3 retainers in her mouth

She loved it

This was the Eel in our hotel lobby and he was terrifying.

One of the highlights of the weekend- renting a family bike for the bike trail!

Greg did most of the peddling :)

Ava was our navigator

checking out the boardwalk artwork

The Navy Exhibit on the boardwalk

Ava was showing Bdad the exhibits she was interested in

Very cool exhibit

Raining- No problem when there is an indoor pool

Ava had a blast with Gigi and Bdad

One of the highlights of our summer- Thanks again for the great family vacation Bdad, Mom, and Aunt Jeannie!

Tuesday, July 14, 2009

This weekend we started construction on "The Diva Den" We painted the room a bright sky blue, bought wall decorations, curtains etc. The colors of the room are bright blue, green, and purple. We bought Ava's twin bed this past weekend as well. She loves to play on it but refuses to go to sleep in it. She will sleep in it if she falls asleep in the car or stroller and we carry her upstairs (the sneak sleep method). The twin bed training is going to be exhausting! Hopefully she can adjust in the 4 months before her roommate comes (wow) and takes over the crib. I will post more pictures as soon as we hang up the wall decorations and get the new bedding for the crib. Today Ava got the first dose of big sisterhood. We watched baby Michael (5 months old) this afternoon and she did a wonderful job with him. She wanted to treat him like her baby doll. She only really got jealous when I gave him a bottle. I can tell that she is going to be a very loving big sister. Still anxiously awaiting the arrival of our new camera battery. We will update with plenty of pictures once it arrives.

Ava with her new big girl bed! She prefers to jump on it rather than sleep on it at the moment. (Don't worry she has rails for it we just haven't attached them yet in this picture).

Playing with Baby Michael. She is going to be a great big sister!

Friday, July 10, 2009

Playdate with Sami and Cailin

Ava loves to play with Cailin. She follows her around and wants to do exactly what she is doing.

Having a ball in Lake Montclair

Ava says "Please" now and this is the face she does it with. It is so hard to say no!

She always prefers my water bottles to hers.

Sami and Cailin being goofy

Sami is such a good Mom.

Cailin is sushing us at Tony's Pizza because we were laughing so loud

Catastrophe- Family Camera battery Dead

Unfortunately our family camera's battery is dead- yikes! No fear Ava addicts, a new battery is being shipped as we speak and we expect to have it within the week. Last weekend for 4th of July we celebrated my Bdad, Bruce Bennett's 94th birthday on the Virginia Beach Ocean Front with Gigi and Aunt Jeannie. We had a wonderful time and were so appreciative of the hotel room they got us with them on the boardwalk for 3 days. It was very relaxing and we loved the quality family time. I will post the pictures as soon as Mom and Aunt Jeannie send them to me. For the time being cell phone pics are going to have to work.

We are loving having Greg back for these few weeks in July. Lately he has been putting Ava into overtime training in the pool. She has come such a long way this summer. She can now hold her breath under water, doesn't freak out when she goes under water, can kick with her legs, jumps off the side of the pool into our arms, and tries to "swim" by holding herself up in the shallow end with her arms and kicking. Every morning the first thing she asks me when she gets up is "Momma...Momma.....POOL".

A few new "Avaisms" for you. She now checks the smalls of women's backs to see if they have a tattoo there since Mommy and several of her friends do. She likes to trace tattoos. She also calls all cameras "Cheeses" and says it as soon as she sees one. Finally, today for the first time she actually paid attention to a movie on screen that did not feature Elmo in it......it was the first Harry Potter movie! I turned it off after 30 minutes though because I don't want her to watch the movies till she can read the books with me. She is definitely our child if she is a Harry Potter fan before age 2.