Easter Picture

I wish we were the type of family that color coordinated. Maybe one day... :) Actually, we had just arrived home from our trip to Memphis and we were extremely tired! I am 31 weeks pregnant in this picture! Happy Easter!!

Maternity Pictures at the Birmingham Botanical Gardens

This past Saturday, Jeremy took Ava and Me to the Botanical Gardens to have our maternity pictures taken. Since my birthday was the next day, we also went out to eat at P.F. Chang's at the Summit. I will be unable to post pictures of my session with Terri (because of copyright laws) but I did take some cute pictures of Ava and Jeremy with my own camera. I was really disappointed because I took about 8 pictures and my camera flashed that my memory chip was full!!! Uggh! Just my luck!!

Well, no use crying over spilled milk... Here is what I did get:

Ava at Sweet 16 Months...

Usually I wait until Ava is asleep to blog. Today I have her sitting here on my lap. We will see how this goes...

On Friday the 13th, Ava celebrated 16 months of life outside the womb! I celebrated by leaving her with her daddy while I got a haircut, color, and eyebrow waxing :) She had a great time playing with Jeremy and was already awake from her nap when I got home.

Here's the news for this month:

• New words: Bow, Nana, Gigi, Alex (A-yee), Bee, and Bird (Bir) She reminds me of Bambi learning to talk :)
• Attempted words: Purple (Pur-pe), Sister (Thisther) I can't remember the rest!
• Attempted phrases: I love you (I ya ya)
• We have taught Ava to "sing" :) Her favorite song is "la la la."
• She loves to play "peek a boo"
• She loves to blow kisses to almost everyone.
• She can now climb all the way up her slide in the backyard.
• She still sleeps 11-12 hours at night.
• Her naps have decreased from 3.5-4 hours to just 2-2.5 hours
• She was still in a size 4 diaper on Friday, but she moved up to a size 5 yesterday.
• She wears 15-18 month clothes.
• She has started eating more whole foods instead of the toddler foods that we used to transition to table foods.
• She is climbing EVERYWHERE! She can climb onto our very tall couch.
• She can follow almost every command I give: Let's go outside, Go get Grossy, Pick up your clothes, Let's take a bath, Close the door, Get the ball, Get your cup, Go play on the slide, Let's play on the swing, etc.
• She still has 12 teeth. I am waiting for those incisors to break through.
• She runs everywhere she goes!
• She loves to tell us what to do! She will point to Jeremy and me and spout off gibberish! We crack up!
• She still says "no" but it is not as bad as it was.

Things she mimics from the movie Tangled:

• Mother Gothel says, "YOU ARE NOT LEAVING THIS TOWER...EVER!" Ava shouts, "EYA!" (ever)
• When Rapunzel holds up her thumb to eyeball the amount of space she will have to paint above the mantel, Ava does the same thing.
• When Rapunzel sweeps the paintbrush across the screen, Ava sweeps her hand back and forth.

It is really funny to watch!!

I know I am forgetting some things, but Ava is now in temper tantrum mode because she is ready for a nap (She woke up at 7 this morning instead of 8 and then refused to eat breakfast. As you can imagine, she is in a foul mood. I guess today is going to be a two nap day) :)

Memphis Sights, Sounds, Art & Architecture

Two weekends ago, we visited Memphis, TN, for the Lads to Leaders/Leaderettes Convention at the Cook Convention Center. We stayed at the downtown Marriot and took the trolley everyday to go eat and shop. We did not stay long, but downtown Memphis has a lot of really neat things to see; among those neat things are Beale Street and Peabody Place. Along the way, I snapped some photos of cool sculptures and architectural details that I liked. I also got a picture of "Occupy Memphis" in one of the downtown courtyards. Enjoy!!

Greta's 32 Week Appointment!

Today at 3:45 I had my 32 week appointment with Dr. Emig. As usual, my blood pressure was low (120/70) and I only gained 2 lbs. My total weight gain with Greta has been 11 lbs. :) I am a happy girl!! Greta was asleep when the nurse checked her heart rate; it was only 136 bpm. She has been a very active little girl today, so it doesn't really concern me that it is so low. I am measuring 33 weeks which is normal. I have consistently measured 1 week ahead with Greta.

I talked with my doctor about some issues I have been having the past few days. On Sunday, I had (what I thought were) contractions all day long. I could barely walk and I actually cried twice that day. I knew I couldn't be in labor because I have not lost my mucous plug and my water did not break. I stayed on the couch all day yesterday and today and drank lots of water. That seems to have helped because I can now walk without pain. Dr. Emig did a cervical check to make sure that I was not dilated. Luckily, I wasn't. She said that it sounds more like my stomach wall muscles are having spasms. She did not think I was contracting. She recommended a pregnancy support belt to help ease the pressure on my pelvis and to help my abdomen muscles carry the load :)

So that is the news for today!!! It doesn't look like Greta will be making her big debut any time soon (which is good) Let's hold off on that until 39-40 weeks!!

New Blog

My hubby has joined the blogging world!! I am so excited!! I am completely biased and think that he is the smartest man to ever live. I look forward to reading his posts every day. I will stalk his blog. I think that you should too! 

Here is a link to his blog: http://longwindedshortcomings.blogspot.com

Check it out when you get a chance!

Ava's First Easter Egg Hunt

This past Sunday, after church, Jeremy and I took Ava to her very first Easter Egg Hunt!! It was at the pavilion on the church property and the Central Church of Christ joined us. We knew that Ava would not get many eggs, but we did want to document the experience. She was so cute with her purple easter basket and the purple plastic grass. She was so proud to carry it around. She really did not understand the concept of looking for eggs, so we had to help her. It was so much fun to watch our little lady strut around the field with her "purse" (anything with a handle, she treats as a purse) :)

Every family brought 10 plastic eggs per child. These are the ones that we started out with.

 Up close and personal

We ate lunch before the hunt started. Here, Ava is enjoying a french fry from Burger King.

She takes a sip of her milk through a big girl straw. It is so hard to believe that my baby girl is sitting on a picnic bench sipping milk through a straw! She is getting so big!!

 A picture before the hunt begins!!

One of the eggs that Ava "found." She had lots of help from Mommy and Daddy, of course!

Ava got these two eggs out of the vines that grow on the fence, and she was a happy little girl. That was all that she wanted, so that is all that she got. :)

 She dropped her eggs on the ground.

 She got one. Daddy has to help her pick up the other one.

 Family photo complete with Marty James in the background!!! :)

Ava discovered that the purple plastic grass comes out of the basket. It is a good thing it is removable because Ava sure did not want it in the basket!

 Daddy put the grass back into the basket along with one of the eggs.

Ava decided to remedy this problem by taking a seat on the ground and pulling all the purple grass back out of the basket. :) She won!! We grabbed what we could get and packed up to go home. She slept really hard that afternoon!

Greta's 30 Week Appointment!

I can't believe that I am already in my 3rd trimester!! The time has flown by so quickly! I started my last trimester on March 17th of this year. Today is April 3rd, so I have almost been in it for a month. We have about 10 weeks to go before we meet our little girl!

Today, I visited with Dr. Emig for my 30 week check-up. I am going every two weeks now! Can you believe it? It is amazing how quickly time has flown by. My next appointment is April 17th, two days after my 28th birthday! What a great B-day present to hear my little girl's heartbeat. :)

Today was a pretty normal check-up. My blood pressure has stayed nice and low the whole time and today was no exception. I did lose a pound, but Dr. Emig just thinks it is because I gained 6 lbs. at my last appointment and this is my body's way of evening things out. She also said it could be that my body disposed of fluid that I could have been retaining. Either way, it is not a really big deal. So that brings my total weight gain to 9 lbs. My fundal height is 31, so I am measuring a week ahead. She did not express any concern over that either. Greta's heartbeat was 156 BPM! She was definitely awake this morning. At my last two appointments, her heart rate was a lot slower. I was secretly hoping that it would be higher this morning. There may not be anything to it, but a higher heart rate makes me feel more secure.

I have expressed to my doctor that I would really like to go into labor on my own this time. She supports me in that decision and said she felt like my body would be more likely to do what it is supposed to do because this is my second child. Of course, I realize that if something changes, I will need to do what is best for Greta. With Ava, I was induced. I did want to go into labor on my own with her too, but at 39 weeks and 3 days, I still had not progressed past 1 cm dilated and 50% effaced. She was also measuring 4 weeks ahead of her due date. Inducing ended up being the best option because my doctor was not sure I could deliver her without a c-section. Ava's delivery ended up being completely normal and she weighed 6 lbs. 15 oz. I think I just had lots of amniotic fluid. I have complete faith that Greta's delivery will be just as great as Ava's. Whatever means it takes to get my children into the world safely, is just whatever it takes. :) So we will keep waiting on Greta :)

Good Mornings Mean Good Days! (Usually)

Ava's four molars have been a source of pain and discomfort for quite a while! I noticed right after the new year that she had four bumps under her gums where her new teeth would come in and assumed that they would just pop through like her other teeth. Not so. It seemed to take forever for her molars to come in! Jeremy would tell me that I was imagining things, but I knew that I could feel those teeth right under her gums. 

They are finally all in and I can tell a HUGE difference in her behavior and sleeping habits. She has always been a very happy baby, but the past month was very difficult. I was giving her pain medicine every night and sometimes several times a day to help ease the discomfort. If she didn't have the medicine, she was very clingy (which is fine) and could not be pleased (which is not fine)

The two weeks prior to this week, Ava was waking every night screaming in pain. I would get up with her and bring her to our bed to calm her down. I would give her another dose of medicine before laying her down in her crib. She would always fall right back asleep, but I was exhausted. Luckily, this week she has started sleeping through the night again. If she wakes up crying, it is only for a moment and she goes right back down all by herself. No parent intervention. Yay!! This makes for a much happier baby and mommy!

Here she is this morning, feeling rested and all better!!

 I love when she flashes this big grin!! It makes me so happy!

I gave her some chocolate puffs right after her fruit bar. She wasted no time stuffing her mouth completely full. She is so funny to watch!

Baby Shower for Kathleen Marie Mills

Last Sunday, several ladies from church hosted a baby shower for our friend, Heather Mills, in honor of the upcoming arrival of her daughter, Kathleen Marie Mills. We wanted this shower to be super girly because this is Heather's first daughter (she has two little boys; Ty and Talon) We had a great time showering her with gifts (lots of pink) for her little princess who will be here on April 10th! We cannot wait to meet her!

Heather is on the left in the blue dress. Ashley is on the right in the pink dress. Heather and Ashley are scheduled for inductions two days apart!!! 

Peyton created a little feature spot on the table with flowers, the invitation, and photos of Heather and Kathleen.

Janice Hubbard created delicious strawberry cupcakes with sugar lollipops and flowers for decorations. These pink confections were perfect for the occasion!

We had lots of pink flowers arranged on the table. Natalie Richardson made cucumber sandwiches using Peyton's recipe and other hostesses brought fruit, crackers and cheese. It was all delicious!

The yummy frothy pink punch was a mixture of Strawberry Fanta and Vanilla Ice-Cream. All the dips, fruit, and veggies were really good. We had a great time celebrating Heather and the arrival of her little girl!