9 months

Oh Sweet Ava-Girl.




How can you possibly be 9 months old?


I want to change your name to Ava Joy because that is what you do...you bring J-O-Y to your mommy and daddy...and pretty much everyone you meet.

You are cruising the furniture like it is going out of style.

You got your first tooth on Grandma Bella's Birthday, August 13th.

You are starting to eat more foods, but prefer to self-feed. Some of your favorites are: garbanzo beans, cheese, tortillas, oatmeal with some cinnamon, and last night you gobbled up peas like they were chocolate chips!

You sing/squeal your way to sleep during the day.

You are so laid back. You just go with the flow. It is wonderful. It is refreshing.

You still are up once or twice at night, but just for a quick nursing (when will you give momma a b-r-e-a-k??)

Your brothers adore you. They drag you around the house. They make you belly laugh -- loudest, sweetest sound on earth!

Ava Shannon Best -- you have changed our lives. You have added so much J*O*Y to our souls...like, down deep, so far down deep that it hurts. Every day your personality shines more and more...and every day we love you more and more.

You are our precious daughter and we thank God for the gift that is YOU!!

Kindergartening ... at home

It is the question that somehow always gets asked right after Mason says, "I'm 5!"

"Are you going to kindergarten?"
"Are you excited to start kindergarten?"
"Where will you go to kindergarten?"

I get it. I do the same thing. It's what 5-year-olds do. I am just a little unsure of how to answer this question.

"Yes" is what I would like to say. And then just leave it at that.

But my sweet 5 year old responds, "I am kindergartening at home." Oh how I love his honesty.

Most of the time there is an awkward pause in the conversation. Or a weird glance up to me to make sure this is, in fact, what is going to happen. Sometimes the conversation is over altogether.

It has gotten easier with each exchange. I am getting {more} comfortable with the idea. I am much more confidant in our decision. I am not {entirely} terrified at the very mention of kindergarten anymore.

The truth is we will be kindergartening at home. Kindergarten came in a box to our front door. And it is now unpacked from that box and getting itself ready for a year of adventure and learning and fun.

How did we arrive at this decision? Let's just say it was a L-O-N-G road of doubt and uncertainty, of reading and information gathering, of praying and seeking wise counsel, of reflecting on our own educational experiences. And finally...to surrendering to what we believe to be the very best choice for kindergarten for Mason and for our family.

I didn't want to. I fought it. But with each new school supply purchase and with each new conversation about kindergartening at home, I gain excitement and momentum to rock this new role.

Or die trying.

One year at a time.

P.H.E.W.

******NOTE: I GAVE UP ON THIS POST. NEVER AGAIN WILL I UPLOAD SO MANY PICS TO ONE POST--THEY WERE ALL IN THE WRONG ORDER AND IT IS TOO TIME CONSUMING TO GET RIGHT. THEN AVA PUBLISHED IT WHEN THE LAPTOP WAS UNATTENDED. SO, ENJOY THE WHIRLWIND OF PICTURES WHICH ACCURATELY REFLECT THE WHIRLWIND OF ACTIVITY WE'VE HAD!! :)********

Wow! We hit the ground running upon returning from vacation. Ear Tube Surgery, Father's Day, Safety Town, Vacation Bible School, and then lots of family time when Uncle Matt & his new girlfriend Michelle came to visit. Emily & the cousins shacked up with us--and it went so well that they stayed almost a week (instead of the 4 days we had planned for)! And, we topped it all off with some good times with Tim's side of the family over a 4th of July weekend to remember .

Happy Father's Day to the BEST Daddy in the world! Mason told Tim he wanted to celebrate Father's Day for 21 days (or years)...We celebrated with a slow restful morning, a big breakfast, homemade cards, and a cookout over at Tim's dad's house. These 3 kiddos are pretty lucky to have such a patient and plugged-in providing, teaching, discipining, discipling Daddy for their Dad.

Ava first tastes of food. Homemade sweet potato puree. She didn't seem to mind the taste, but she had us all laughing when she kept her mouth open for the next 15 minutes and all of that sweet potato goodness oozed out of her salivating open mouth. She prefers chunked food-bananas, sweet potato cubes, cheerios...but, honestly, she just isn't that interested {much to my dismay}. My brother Matt and his girlfriend Michelle spent a wonderful week with us. They were total troopers since I can only imagine that hanging with 5 kids 5 and under is not what their typical Friday night or Saturday night or Monday, Tuesday, or Wednesday nights look like. We had a fabulous visit--saw the new elephant exhibit at the Cleveland zoo. Mom and Mason rocking the color blue....at the zoo:

Carnival 2011

We have a yearly tradition of hitting up the St. Barnabas Parish Festival with our dear friends (and former neighbors) Uncle Perry & Aunt Siggy. It began when Mason was a sweet 6 month old and may have just been an excuse to indulge in the a corndog or two, drink some fresh squeezed sugar lemonade, and maybe end the night with a funnel cake. But, as Mason has grown and we have added others to the mix, it has become more about the time together and the overpriced rides!

Safety Town

Oh this 5 year old year is filled with so many milestones and firsts and tear-jerking moments...it is like a year of getting slapped in the face with just how old your baby has become. You used to tell them they were a 'big boy' to encourage growth and development...as in, "What a big boy you are!" "Let's put on your big boy underwear." "Big boys eat their veggies." etc. etc. Well {GULP!} it has been this 5 year old year that has announced loud and clear that Mason has achieved official 'big boy' status.

And this week was Safety Town. 5 days in a row of 9:30a drop-offs and 11:30a pick-ups. He loved it. And I loved 5 days of precious one:on:one time with my second born while Ava napped (more on that later)!

Here are the pics of the Safety Town graduation. I admit I find all of these 'graduations' a little excessive....I mean, kids graduate more now than ever before: pre-school, safety town, kindergarten, etc. I know it is much more for the parents than the kids--which is probably why I find it annoying. But even I have to admit there is something rewarding about hearing your child's name and seeing them accept their 'diploma' when all they really want is the kool aid and traffic light rice krispie treat ;-) Well, if I am being honest, it is also quite fun to chuckle at the parents who arrive {at least} 30 minutes early to get a prime seat {on a picnic table} for this {once of a lifetime} occasion. You can see the back of these parents heads in this momma's pictures.

all systems go!

Well, here is the indisputable evidence: When I say our baby girl is crawling at 6 months of age...like, really crawling...I mean it.

She is quite proud of herself. We are quite proud of her. I guess it is time to start vacuuming and mopping every day week. :)

totally tubular

Our sweet Ava {and her poor, poor parents} have been dealing with chronic ear infections since March due to persistent fluid in the ears. I blame Tim. I blame my sister. Both of whom had poorly tilted eustachian tubes as children. I thought my children would be invincible to ear infections since they are given only the good stuff, but {ALAS!} this was not the case. We tried every known natural remedy in addition to the dreaded antibiotic route, which, by the way, is absolute torture for parents and babies alike. Most antibiotics require 10 full days of twice a day dosing--seriously??!! These fancy schmancy pharmaceutical companies can't come up with anything better--a dissolvable tablet??

And, while it took everything I had not to chug the entire bottle of 'bubblegum medicine' (the smell of the 'pink stuff' (amoxicillin) brought me straight back to my childhood), Ava's sensitive pallet was not impressed in the least. Let's just say that I have no worries that my baby girl will ever be held against her will. She learned quickly and effectively how to evade the medication and adapted her evading techniques {pursed lips, head turn, spitting it out, double head turn} as I tried every possible position and coaxing technique under the sun. I dreaded 7a and 7p each day...for a long time!

In reality, Ava handled the pain associated with these infections like a super champ, but enough is enough. In addition to not wanting to pump any more antibiotics into my 6 month old, that nasty fluid in her ears was causing hearing loss/distortion, which is not good at this age in speech development. I was proud of myself for going in for a second opinion, which luckily agreed with the first opinion.

So, today at 7:30a Ava had a new pair of ear tubes installed in her sweet little bulging ear drums. Dr. Katz also assured me that he drained lots of 'thick, yellow fluid' from behind both ear drums. He said that our happy little girl should be even happier {which is hard to believe}...but I take this to mean that she might just start sleeping thru the night....hey, I can dream, right??!?

I was so thankful that everything went off without a hitch and that my hot hubby {he even rocks a blue hair net} was there to handle the job of holding Ava while they put her to sleep and then holding my hand while we waited the 7 minutes for the procedure.

Ava was a little confused and upset upon awaking, but quickly settled down and then slept off the anesthesia for 3 hours at home.