Ava: 1 Year, 5 months

17 months and she has a mind of her own.

Ava continues to love independence more than anything. We give her a little freedom in a public place and her face lights up with energy. She has things to explore and they are generally NOT where we are headed.

Her vocabulary continues to grow as do hints of tantrums. Help us! She has not had anything too terrible yet but we can see the beginnings. She can get frustrated if one of her animals doesn't cooperate with her or if her purse strap is stuck on her baby's stroller. The best solution in her mind is to yell, "Uh ohhhh, NO NO NO NO!" and then throw whatever is causing the issue. Seems reasonable.

She had a fun Christmas, wired for 2 days straight as we made the rounds to everyone's house. She still isn't as excited to open gifts as the older kids are, she is more into helping move them around. After all the toys she received we still found her in her 'fort' (closet) playing with an empty gallon milk jug.

She received 2 stuffed owls for Christmas and loves to bring them places. The larger owl seems to be incredibly dehydrated as he is constantly being fed out of a small bottle. Ava is very good about making sure all of her friends have enough to drink and eat.

We are starting to make plans to give Ava a 'big girl' room as we get going with the baby's nursery. He will acquire her crib. We are going straight for the twin size bed (with bed rails) and hope to make this a very comfortable bed that she wants to stay in ALL NIGHT.

Only 4 more months until Ava is a big sister!

Ava: 1 Year, 3 months

Where did the time go?? Our Ava is 15 months old now and quite her own little person. She makes us laugh out loud daily. She doesn't just walk, she runs. She is very curious and must always explore in drawers and cabinets. Her favorite area at the moment is Mama's make up drawer. There she finds soft brushes that she so kindly cleans the floor with or even adds a little blush to Violet's cheek.

Speaking of Violet, she is Ava's best friend. They are always in cohoots with each other. Ava has no issues with sharing and is always making sure that Violet is well fed. They chase each other, snuggle together and sometimes share Violet's bed.

Ava's second best friend is Dora the Explorer. She is a little obsessed. She hands us the remote and says, 'Dora??'. She has her own chair that must be in place when she is ready to watch her program.

Ava has a large vocabulary for her age and it also happens to be a mix of German and English. She'll get tongue-tied as she points out the 'blume' or flowers in German. She kindly says, 'hatsi' when any of us sneeze. Her most frequently used word is 'doggie'. She must say it 20 times a day. She knows when we are getting close to home and calls out 'doggie!' because if we are close to home, we are close to Vi.

We will need to start being careful because Ava is learning to copy us. I was calling out for Brian the other day, "Cookie?!" and two seconds later I get Ava calling out Cookie in the same tone. She is very sweet and washes her Dora doll's hair in the tub and cleans her Froggy's nails with the nail brush. All things she watches me to do to her.

She loves helping us with any chore, let's hope this lasts! She assists with the laundry by sorting the clothes, mainly taking the clothes out of the hamper and then putting them back in. She helps with the dishwasher, mainly taking the silverware out and sometimes even putting them in their correct drawer.

We have to be very careful when the refrigerator or pantry door opens because this is a sound Ava can hear from miles away. Out of no where she is running to see where her help may be needed. We often find things in odd places, like the shoe horn in the refrigerator door or Violet's food scoop at the bottom of the recycling bin.

We are so in love!!

Who's Your Daddy?

I've said it a million times, if I didn't carry that baby in my tummy I would have to wonder if she was mine. At least Mr. Cookie will never have to wonder if I've been faithful.

Daddy Cookie

Baby Cookie

The Peanut Takes Manhattan

With Ava resembling so much of Mr. Cookie I often joke and say if I wasn't pregnant I would wonder if she was mine. She has proven herself to be mine after all.

We went to New York last week and she LOVED it. She was happiest while shopping for my new 'diaper bag' (fancy handbag that I justified as serving a dual purpose), shoe shopping and at the jewelry store.

She loved the fast pace of the city and all of its noises and the subway. We had no crying on either flight, even with delays while stuck on the plane. She managed 2 two hour car rides and an all day wedding. She is a great travel baby, good thing as we head to California on Friday and back to NYC to see her daddy run the marathon next month!

Sigh

Every morning I am slowly brought back from la-la land by a tiny baby that sleeps next to my bed. It is always a bit earlier than I would like. It is followed by 2 other wake up calls that have occurred earlier in the night. Every morning that tiny baby looks at me and smiles ear to ear. It is the biggest smile possible. After this it is time for her breakfast where she always closes her hand and tucks in all fingers except for her pinkies.

I love that kid.

What we've been up to

As you can see I rarely update the old blog now that sleep is very precious. It used to be that I would update during my sleepless pregnant nights.

The Cookies 1.0 are in town, they've been here for 2 weeks and will stay 1 more. We've been pretty busy with them and of course our normal crazy life. Here are some things we've been up to:

• Went to Sassi, the place we were married, to celebrate Barry and Margaret's 37 year wedding anniversary.
  
• Toured Frank Lloyd Wright's Taliesin West with an infant for 2 hours. She did not interrupt the tour I will have you know!


• Checked out the sights of Tempe/Mill Ave and allowed Barry to enjoy Zia Records. Just like his son he is most happy in a record store.


• Went to dinner at Los Olivos with my side of the family too.


• Checked out First Friday in downtown Phoenix, saw Rebecca's studio, watched Tato's band play at the Lost Leaf and can now say that Ava was in her first bar at 5 weeks and Violet sang back up with the band.


• Had a tour of the Arizona Biltmore Hotel with the hotel's first Lobby Ambassador ever (he's been there 6 months), it was fantastic!


• Enjoyed Spinato's.


• Watching Ava grow like a weed!

Stuff is different

Ok, so I now see that babies are harder than puppies. I was convinced Ava would be easier than Violet. I was wrong.

Violet has not made me leave Target on 2 different occasions to feed her outside. Violet has never required me to change her diaper (or ever worn a diaper for that matter) in the Target parking lot while I reached over from the driver's seat to the passenger seat. Violet also never had a poop explosion followed by a pee explosion in that same parking lot/seat just after a changing.

One year ago I was running around NYC planning my wedding without any puppy or baby to worry about. Funny what can happen in a year. As crazy and chaotic as our life is right now, we often look at each other and just laugh. Thank god for Mr. Cookie, I couldn't do any of this without him.

These days we all sleep when we can

And one of our baby girl awake!!

Ava Helaine Cook

Welcome to the world, Ava!

After some painful (but not insanely painful) contractions and an epidural our lovely Ava came into this world, just as sweet as she had been in my belly. She never caused me any sickness or major discomfort while I was pregnant and did me the same favor during labor/delivery. My labor coaches rocked!! Grandma Ini and Mr. Cookie were pros.

It was an incredibly surreal experience and I still can't believe she is here.

Funny enough it took me one night of barely sleeping to become a pretty real looking mother. I woke up and showed Mr. Cookie all my new baby handling skills. I change positions holding her like I've been doing it for years, I can walk AND feed her at the same time. Some mothers may think 'big deal!' but if you knew me you would be amazed at my mad skills.

Ava looks just like Mr. Cookie, same lips, hair, fingers...if she wasn't in my belly I'd have to wonder if she was mine :)

I don't know what I would do without Mr. Cookie, who is a natural daddy. He changes pretty much every diaper, can swaddle a baby like there is no tomorrow. All of our baby nurses at the hospital commented on his abilities. He is up with her all night and tries to let me sleep until she needs food.

Life is good.