Recap of our Easter...

I wanted to share a bit more about our holiday and a few of the 500+ pictures I've taken over the last few days.

Last week was filled with egg hunts, our church rescheduled our egg hunt for Wednesday evening after youth activities and fellowship meal and nugget had her class egg hunt on Thursday evening.

Our daycare was closed Good Friday and Easter Monday so I had an extra long weekend with Ava, we had such a great time together, I realized how much I miss thoughout the day.  I still think daycare is the best option for us - she loves to play with her friends all day and her teachers are great...but I enjoyed this treat of four full days to hang out with my nugget.

Easter morning she woke up to a surprise...

Then we got dressed in our Sunday Best for church. Gramma came over and gave Ava her Easter gifts including a little yellow bunny embroidered with her name.

Followed by lunch at R's grandmother's house.  R's mom made everyone extra large peanut butter eggs as a take home Easter treat.

And a cousin egg hunt, it was awful weather - dreary with a side of rain so the eggs were hidden inside.

After such a busy day our little family crashed, we were going to do our traditional Easter dinner but we just didn't have the energy so we had leftovers and went to bed early instead.  Ava was so exhausted she gave us almost nine hours of sleep with only 1 night feed...unheard of these days!

Ava Rose at 11 months...

 Our little bear turned 11 months on March 1st - of course I had to have a picture of her Easter ensemble!  I'm so late getting this posted, it recaps the full month of February.

Eleven month facts:

• Two bottom teeth and toward the end of the month a top one made an appearance.
• She loves to use sign language and understands Kitty and doggy - she can even do the finger snap.
• Loves to sing, hum, blow raspberries, and talk...she is most vocal right before she goes to sleep.  She can converse and answer you when you talk.
• Sleeping 4-5 hours straight most nights sometimes more, sometimes less.  We usually wake at least twice and now that she can crawl and sit up in bed, it can make it even harder to get her back to sleep.
• Prefers smooth textured foods, sometimes when she tries something new she will reach in her mouth and pull the food back out just to squish it with her fingers.
• Mostly eats what we eat but if it isn't suitable then she loves eggs, yogurt, and fruit so it's an easy "go to".
• Favorite meal is probably cheesy grits and eggs - you can't feed it to her fast enough.
• Can pull to stand and "cruise" along furniture, all month she got better and better at it.
• Will walk with her new walker but it also scares her a bit.

Nicknames - all the same as last month, maybe with the addition of "boogie"

Weight: unknown, we go to the doctor in April

Length: We will find out soon

Eyes:  Same as they were at birth

Clothes: 6-9 month, her 12 month summer clothes are washed though since the weather will be warming up soon.  I put away everything that wasn't 9 month and shed a few tears.  We are moving to 12 month jammies this month. 

Diapers: size 3, they fit better than size 2 for sure.   We love pampers most but Luvs fit nicely as well.

Sleeping: In her crib until the 4am feeding then she usually stays in bed with me.  But she is sleeping at least 4 hours at night and we but her down between 7:30 and 8pm.

Likes: nursery at church, her "grandma" day every week, being read to, a back and feet massage, getting her hair brushed, bananas, a warm bed (we use a heating pad before we lay her in it to warm the sheets), playing in the bath.

Dislikes:  peas, being ignored, being alone, waking up at night, getting her nails clipped, the "witching" hour after 8pm, and she hasn't cared for yogurt melts in the past several weeks

Feeding: Everything. She still takes 3 bottles a day, unlimited water from a sippy, 2 snacks at daycare with at least one of them being fruit, usually a jar of food at school and another big meal at home when we eat dinner.  Unlimited nursing and she likes teething wafers, I think it helps her to chew something since her gums have been so swollen.

Ava's Favorites: Happy Tot pouches, vtech walker, Bubble Guppies, Nuk sippy cups, Little People, Highlights Hello magazine

Milestones: First stomach flu - she was sick quite a bit between a stomach bug and colds, first Valentines Day, pulled up by herself the first time and can walk along furniture while holding on, and went to the church nursery for the first time.  We had our first incident report at school where she fell and received an "ouchy" on her upper lip - the teacher assured us it would be the first of many.  Oh it was Ava's second time seeing snow but her first time "playing" in it.

Extras from our little photo session, because I had a difficult time picking a favorite-

Postpartum - back to my pre-pregnancy weight and back in my regular clothes - woo hoo!

Easter basket 2016

Woo Hoo!  My first Easter basket hop...

I've already posted some of the goodies that are in the basket but here is the finished product that Ava Rose woke up to yesterday morning. Some of the items I didn't previously mention include a Childrens' Bible, Target dollar spot bubbles, stamps, felt eggs, and bunny ears, Crayola my first crayons, Sweet N Swag Moccs, and a bathing suit with rash guard from Ruffled Butts.  She loved the ears and that set of Tomy Hide N Squeak eggs most.

And a look at our baskets:

R and I make baskets for each other every years filled with our favorite seasonal treats - I like peanut butter eggs and he loves the Butterfingers eggs (not seen but they are in the bottom of his basket).  He also got a set of weight lifting gloves that aren't easily seen in the picture.  I loved my new journaling bible and travel coffee mug.

I'm linking this one up, can't wait to see what everyone else came up with for our 2016 baskets!

Just for fun, here is a flashback to Easter 2015 and a very small 4 day old nugget.

I just love her!

Preparing for Easter 2016...

I may have had more fun planning Ava's Easter basket than I did planning Christmas.  I put a basket together last year before her birth just in case she came out in time and she received it at four days old, of course this year she will be more involved and I can't wait!

Ava's basket is from Michaels but the liner is this sweet bunny applique from PBKids, it doesn't show well on the screen but is very pretty in person. She's getting some new Sweet N Swag moccs one size up from the rose gold pair she received at Christmas. I picked up this board book during the fall scholastic book fair at her school and saved it specifically for Easter.  The lamb sippy cup was a random Target purchase but is so cute that I may have to go back and get her the bunny too.  She's been using crayons at school so I bought a set for her to play with at home (supervised of course). The egg set and the ballet bunny were bought on Amazon along with a new outfit for her baby Stella.  She has some plastic eggs that I will fill with melts, puffs, and a few small toys.   Best of all, Ava Rose is getting a Genevieve doll and I'm so excited to give it to her - they are coveted and frequently out of stock.  I think she is going to love that puffy tulle skirt.

FYI - I bought the cutest set of finger puppets from the Easter section of Target but they must be available in store only because I can't find them online.  Each set has a blue and a pink bunny, lamb, chick, and turtle. I bought several sets and used them to fill eggs for her class egg hunt, but I saved a bunny and a chick for Ava's basket.

Gifts ideas for our almost birthday girl...

So my beautiful baby will soon be a beautiful toddler?  What?  Where has the past year gone?  I have been in full party planning mode for a few weeks; invitations have been sent out, RSVPs are rolling in, cake and trays have been ordered, and festivities have been planned - but it hasn't actually sunk in that my daughter will be a year old.  She blossomed since Christmas  - she can move and groove and has personality to boot.  I'm starting to see her lean towards certain toys and I update my personal Amazon list with ideas for future gift giving occasions.  With all the toy and book options out there, I think it makes perfect sense to pair down to items that will grow years with your child instead of months.  However we didn't go all out on her presents this year - I found her a beautiful doll along with some 12 month clothing because she needed them, and of course we are throwing her a fete!  Plus, it's a week after Easter and she's getting all the goodies from the Easter Bunny.  But I'm sure these items will make it into our house eventually.

Melissa and Doug Stir and Serve.  Because she loves banging our utensils around and we like to remind her that she has her own play kitchen.

Snow White - fresh out of the Disney vault for 2016.

Melissa and Doug Pots and Pans.  Mama has drank that wholesome M&D kool-aid, I just love their toy line and these pots and pans look just like ours.

LL Bean Original backpack, monogrammed of course.  As soon as our little crawler becomes a little walker she can bring one of these to use at school.  My favorite color packs are the Dahlia purple shown or the Brilliant Blue - how to decide?  I really think Ava leans toward the blue, it's a pretty aqua similar to her lunchbox.

Baby Stella clothing. Yes Manhattan Toy has several outfits available but I'm loving Twinflower Designs on Etsy, she makes a lot of doll clothes that fit Stella.  Btw, in our house "Stella" is actually called "Dolly".

Little People anything.  Ava loves little people and she likes to crawl around the house carrying at least one of them with her.  We have the doll house with the three piece family and it's been loved the past three months, I think she would love to have anything from the princess line.

A water table, these are a hit at daycare and our child loves playing in the bath so I think water play is a given favorite.  We definitely want her to have one of these for some outdoor activity.

Sand play?  Ava is going to the beach in a couple of months and I thought we would try it, most babies her age either love or hate sand with a passion.  This brand, Hape, is such a great toy company for safe eco friendly materials.

VTech walking toy.  We have the fisher price elephant and she loves it - like really loves it for standing and bouncing.  But her friend has this one and when we visit she enjoys playing with the activity table, I really like that it comes apart so it's like two toys in one.  I honestly didn't think she needed two walkers but this one has a lot of features.

Our girl is far too little to be picky and we want her to be grateful of any gift, especially with friends and family coming in just to have cake with her.  But I like having a few ideas when I get the inevitable - "what does she want?" question.  This time next year she will be able to answer that question for herself.