Suck It Up, Buttercup

Matt and I are so blessed to belong to such a wonderful church. I could write a list a mile long of all of the thing we love about Lawndale! Included in the list of things we love would be the nursery. We are very thankful that the men and women who volunteer their time in the nursery love not only Ava, but all of the other children as their own. Case and point... Cindy Casten. This past Sunday at church, I got paged out of class only to find Ava pitching a fit in Cindy's arms. As soon as I took hold of Ava, she immediately stopped crying, put on a big grin and looked at Cindy as if to say, "Na-na-na-na, Boo-Boo." Ugh! Hello separation anxiety, nice to meet you. I knew Ava was fine. I'm sure Cindy knew Ava was fine too but she was nice enough though to ask what I wanted to do. I told her I would prefer that Ava go back in the nursery so she will get used to being in there. I also said that I would hold Ava out in the foyer if they had one to many screaming babies to deal with in the nursery. Without hesitation, Cindy grabbed Ava out of my arms, looked her in the eye and said, "Suck it up, Buttercup!" I love it!

(I imagine Ava's face looked something like the above picture when she returned to the nursery Sunday morning... As if to say, "Aw, man!" Have no fear, I was told after the service that after returning to the nursery, she never shed another tear and she was happy as could be the rest of the time!)

In the four years that I taught kindergarten, I saw plenty of separation anxiety come through my classroom doorway. I can say from experience that the best thing a parent can do is quickly say goodbye and leave the room! Dragging the goodbye process out just makes it worse for everyone. Matt and I hope to nip this whole separation anxiety thing in the bud before Ava can run, hit, kick, punch, pinch and bite. And for any of you wondering... yes, all of those things have happened to me on the first day of kindergarten.

Speaking of sucking it up... Fergie is going to have to learn how to do that, and fast! She was living in the lap of luxury the week we were at the beach. She was at a house without a baby. She was surrounded by 2 other dogs. She had people who actually had time to pay attention to her. Earlier this morning, I heard Fergie go out the dog door into our garage. I stepped into the garage a few minutes later and found her under the car, like this...

Is she so depressed that she is willingly waiting under the car for one of us to run her over? Suck it up, crazy pup!

Ava and I were enjoying some snuggle time together this afternoon. I guess Ava got a little too comfortable so she enjoyed a little nap time also!

After Ava's nap, we headed over to Matt's grandmother's house for dinner. Ava enjoyed spending some time with her Gammy and likewise, Gammy enjoyed spending time with her great-granddaughter. 

Movin' on Up... And Down

Well, Ava has graduated from her infant car seat to this Big Girl car seat. We figured since she was about to exceed the length and weight limit for the infant car seat, it was time to move her on up! Ava has been in this one since last week and she seems to enjoy it!

One night several weeks ago, Matt and I heard a lot of rustling around on the baby monitor. We turned on the video portion of the monitor and found our little girl throwing her feet on top of the crib railing. So... down went the mattress. I don't have a picture of her in her new low riding crib, but the following picture is how we find Ava every morning. That girl is a tummy sleeper, just like her mama! We lay her on her back when we put her down at night, but after about 5 minutes of rolling around, she finds the perfect spot, snuggles with her froggy, makes sure she's on her tummy and zonks out.

I wish I had audio for this next picture... One of Ava's latest thing is wrinkling up her nose, smiling and breathing hard and fast through her nose for a couple of seconds. It sounds so funny! So cute. Such a ham.

Let me just say, I have an awesome family. Not only did my parents take care of Fergie for us while we were at the beach, my mom drove 2 hours to our house to come pick the dog up for me! If that wasn't nice enough, my mom, dad, brother and Kayla drove all the way back to Greensboro to drop Fergie back off the day we came back from the beach... AND they had lunch ready and waiting for us when we walked in the door! Thank you all so much!

There were definitely plenty of people willing to hold Ava which allowed Matt and I to unpack and settle back in. Ava found that sitting on Uncle Ryan's head was quite hilarious. I don't think Uncle Ryan found it quite as funny. Especially when my dad yelled out, "Oh no. She's leaking!" No worries. No leakage.

When I said that there were plenty of people willing to hold Ava, I meant just Kayla and my mom. You see, my dad was preoccupied with watching the World Cup...

And my brother was preoccupied with, well...

He he he. Just kidding guys! I know if there was absolutely no one in the room to hold Ava and she had been laying in the middle of the floor alone, covered in spit up and crying out for help, you would have stepped up. :)

Family Beach Trip, 2010

This past week, we packed up the car and headed South, to Garden City Beach, SC. Every year, since the beginning of time, Matt's family has always spent a portion of their summers at the beach. I am very thankful that I married into a beach-loving family! I, along with the rest of Matt's family, look forward to this trip every year. So many memories have been made. So many traditions have been started. I love knowing that Ava will grow up with these same memories and traditions, beginning the first year of her life. Let us share with you a brief snapshot of our wonderful time at the beach!

Wanting to avoid beach traffic, we left the house pretty early Saturday morning. Any other year, Matt and I would have parked the car somewhere in Garden City and headed straight out onto the sand. This year however, we decided to wait until we had all of the umbrellas, sunscreen, towels, toys, etc. available to make Ava's first time on the beach enjoyable for everyone involved. So what did we do? Hung out at Matt's aunt and uncle's beach place until we could get into our rental. Cousins Anna, Owen and dog, Jaco, kept Ava entertained while we waited to head over to our beach house.

After getting into our beach house and settling in, it was time to go to dinner. We typically go out to dinner on the first and last night of our trip... all 19 of us! All other nights during the week are spent eating dinner around the dining room table. Each family is designated one night to cook from Sunday to Thursday. It's great. No expensive meals. No tips. No long wait times. Just good old home cookin', family, fellowship and... you're only responsible for dishes one night the entire trip! :)

Here are Matt and Ava waiting for our name to be called at Sarah J's on the first night of our trip.

Sunday morning we always attend The Garden City Chapel for church. This place has so many wonderful memories for Matt and his family. Matt grew up going to the chapel for summer camp as a kid. During college, he spent his summers working at the Chapel as a staffer with many of his life long friends. If you've ever been around Matt for an extended period of time, you have surely heard one of his "Chapel" stories. If not, just ask him to share any of the following stories the next time you see him: Firework, Vacuum, Throwing a Dart Through a Glass Window, Susie Getting Run Over By a Bus and many, many more! They are all hilarious!

Alright, now on to the main event... the beach! Here is Ava's first-ever photo on the beach. The expression on her face pretty much sums up the rest of our week!

Our typical days spent on the beach looked something like this:

Lounging in the sun.

Splashing in the waves.

Mommy and daughter soaking up the sun and taking in the beauty of God's creation.

Playing with cousin Anna.

Cruising down the beach. (Typically, Ava didn't last more than 5 minutes in this car. It almost always put her to sleep, which leads us to the next picture.)

Morning nap. (Matt and I were fully prepared to alternate nap duty and take Ava inside twice a day. Who needs to go inside when she was happy as a clam to take 2 wonderfully long naps each day on the beach?! Ava... You're awesome!

After napping, more sun-soaking.

Ava loved watching her older cousins Boogie-Board...

...And float around in this raft.

While the raft wasn't being used to surf through the waves, Ava and I filled it with water and used it as a make-shift pool.

More time cruising down the beach... 

...Which lead to her afternoon nap.

Venturing out in the water.

We found/saw several sea creatures during the week, including this jellyfish. Other creatures that were not photographed: Dolphins, sting-rays, crabs, legless lizards and fish.

Matt and Uncle John's 5th annual Bocce Ball Tournament. In years past, the first person to win 10 games would be treated to dinner by the loser. This year due to time limitations, the tournament was cut from "first to 10" to "best out of 3." The reward was trimmed down from dinner, to a designer cookie. John, we're still waiting on our cookies! 

After spending every possible minute on the beach, we found ourselves sun-kissed, salty, sticky, sunscreened, sweaty and sandy. I am sure stinky also fit into that list on more than one occasion. We'd clean ourselves up, enjoy a great family meal and then head out to the dock off the back of our house. One word. Beautiful.

Pretty great way to wrap up a day, don't you think?

Taking advantage of the gorgeous sunset with my gorgeous daughter and handsome hubby!

Lovin' on my girl.

Family sunset photo. Can you tell it was windy?

You can pretty much take all of the photos and happenings from above and repeat them everyday of our vacation. Not a bad way to spend a week! I loved being able to spend such quality time with both immediate and extended family. Most of all, I loved that Matt was able to spend an entire week without opening up his computer. He works so hard and he definitely deserved this much needed break!

There were of course plenty of other things that filled our time at the beach. One such thing was taking the kids to Family Kingdom to ride the rides! The older cousins enjoyed riding pretty much everything the park had to offer. Ava enjoyed the lights, sounds and culture (if you've been to Myrtle Beach, you know what I'm talking about) the park had to offer. While she was about 2 feet too short for most of the rides, she did manage to take a spin on the carousel! She loved it... Laughed, smiled and babbled the whole time.

Now that I think about it, she may have just been laughing at how ridiculous her dad looked riding the horse in front of her...

Those of you who know me well, know that I experienced 2 of the most emotionally challenging experiences of my life last year while at the beach. Both happened on the same day, within hours of each other. While I feel there is no need to re-hash any of the details of these events, I do feel it is necessary to give all of the glory and honor to God for bringing me through both situations. It is amazing to see what a difference a year can make. Matt and I both praise Him for His omniscience, omnipotence, grace, mercy and love. Thank you Lord, for the blessings in our lives. Thank you for sending your Son to die on the cross for our sins. Thank you for loving us enough to pay attention to the tiny, day to day details of our life... like blessing us with yet another wonderful family beach trip!

Battered & Bruised

So far, this bruise on my leg has taken on the following colors: red, yellow, green, blue and purple. This picture was taken only hours after my incident, so I am sure that more colors and darker colors are on the horizon. Just in time for a week of bathing suits and shorts at the beach. Great. I would love to be able to say that this bruise is a battle wound from P90X. Sadly, it is just a result of my clumsiness and a run-in with the gate in our backyard.

As if my bruise isn't bad enough, my mom will also have a bruise on her chin in the near future. Sheesh, us Smith women had a rough go of it today. While collapsing the back seats in her car today, the seat hit her in the chin, which shoved her head into the door frame of the car. What can I say? Like mother, like daughter.

Other than a few bumps and bruises, Ava and I enjoyed a wonderful visit with Oma the past 2 days. My mom drove out to our house to spend time with us, but also to take Fergie back with her to take care of her while we are at the beach. What a great Oma! My mom of course LOVED getting to spend some one-on-one time with Ava while I enjoyed being able to run around town without towing a diaper bag, stroller, baby, etc. Thanks mom, for watching Ava for me. I'm sure spending time with your granddaughter was a very difficult task to put up with for a day or two! :) We miss you already and can't wait until the next time we see you!

**As I am sitting here typing, Matt is doing P90X. I have the camera right here by my side, but he keeps looking at me, making sure the camera stays put. Have no fear, someday soon I will get a shot of Matt doing his workouts! To his credit, he has been very committed to doing these videos and already, on day 13 I can tell quite a difference! My hubby is living proof that those infomercials are FO REAL!**

Peek-A-Baby

Peek-A-Boo has always been one of Ava's favorite games to play. It's not like her game-playing list is long at this point, but of the handful of games she enjoys, this one is up at the top! While waiting for her bedtime bottle tonight, this is the scene you would have witnessed had you been in our kitchen.

First, drape the towel over baby's head:

Next, allow baby to take the towel off by herself. Immediately follow with parental applause.

Then, take the first 2 steps and repeat x 100. 

Finally, baby goes from happy...

To happier...

To happiest!

Isn't it amazing what can happen with a simple kitchen towel?

If you live within a 25 mile radius of our house, I am sure you experienced the same thunderstorms that came rockin' and rollin' through this evening. Ava seems to love watching trees blow in the wind, so we thought what better time to take her outside to watch them than during a thunderstorm? Don't worry, we weren't out in the worst of it, and we stayed covered on our front porch. Once the thunder and lightning subsided, we did take Ava out to play in the rain. I am KICKING myself for not brining the camera with me! Ava was hilarious! I guess she loves water no matter what form it is in, even if it is falling on her head and face.

Completely changing the subject here... Do you remember The Police song, "Do do do, Da da da"? I think Ava was singing that today. I almost half expected her to bust out in a chorus of "Do Wa-Ditty, Ditty Dum, Ditty Do!" She has been making all kinds of funny sounds and babbles lately. I think her babble of choice is "da da." I know at this point she has no clue what she is saying and she in no way associates those words/sounds with Matt. I do have to admit however, that it warms our hearts to hear those sweet sounds come out of her mouth, knowing that someday soon she really will use them when talking about her wonderful daddy.

Oma is coming tomorrow and the beach is in 4 days! Can you tell I'm excited!?

Odor Eaters & Alphabet Soup

I know with the economy, money is tight for a lot of people right now. Well folks, let me give you a hint as to which stock to invest in down the road. Odor Eaters. Don't let these precious, chubby feet and toes fool you. You see, we believe Ava is going to have some rather stinky feet in her somewhat immediate future. Therefore, Odor Eaters will be as necessary as... air in the Gardner household.

Ever since Ava was born, Matt and I have loved kissing, tickling, nibbling and playing with her adorable feet. We immediately noticed that Ava's feet felt clamy every time we touched them, even at the hospital. At first, we blamed her sweaty feet to the fact that they were bundled up in socks and footed pajamas. After all, Ava was born in December and any first time mom is going to over-protect their little one from the cold weather. Or at least I did. Then came spring. No socks. No footed outfits, and yet the sweaty, sticky feet remained. 

I apologize in advance to any friends and family members who may have to put up with Ava's stinky feet and shoes in the years to come. Just know that her stinky feet will be a result of genetics (since she had sweaty feet at birth) and not hygiene!

Ava has been in a big girl bath tub for quite some time now. Basically because she is exactly that... a big girl. She outgrew they baby tub at about 5 weeks old. Up until recently, Ava had a little reclining device that helped to keep her head and ears out of the water. Since being able to sit up on her own and trying to roll off the recliner every time we put her on it, we kicked it to the curb and just let her stew in a big tub of alphabet soup. 

Ava loves being able to splash around and pick up the colorful letters and numbers that float by her side. What can I say? I'm a former teacher. Who needs actual bath toys when you can play with ABC's and 123's!? While I may be the teacher with education on my mind, Matt is Mr. Safety when it comes to bath time. He makes sure that whatever letter or number Ava grabs is round in shape. Notice the 8 she is chewing on? Round in shape. No long, straight sides to go down Ava's throat, like Y or I.

Again, notice the letter? Q. Don't get me wrong, I appreciate Matt's mindful eye and thoughtfulness... Guess I'll just have to find other ways to teach Ava the alphabet or she'll only learn the round letters! :) Oh, and may I just also add, it doesn't matter how many times Ava gets a bath, her feet are still clamy and sweaty. Odor Eaters. I'm just sayin'!

This next picture doesn't have anything to do with stinky feet or bath time. It's just plain fun! As you can tell by Ava's face, she loves being held upside down. It is currently one of her favorite things to do. I haven't been brave enough to hang her upside down right after eating. You know that whole, "must wait 30 minutes to go swimming after eating" thing? Same principle. So far, so good.

Hope you all are having a wonderful start to your summer! Up next for us? A visit from Oma this week and then... THE BEACH! Summa, Summa, Summa Tiiiiiime!