Emma Grace Edwards

Emma Grace Edwards
Born: June 14, 2010 - 8:02 pm
Weight: 8.1 Pounds
Length: 20.5 Inches

Spring!

No we are NOT potty training! I repeat we are NOT potty training Avila. However she is obsessed with potties! Evelyn (her little friend) is a little older and is being potty trained so Avila being the little copy cat she is loves to "pretend" to go potty and also have her stuffed animals and baby dolls go potty too.
I couldn't wait to use my new double stroller. This is Avila and her friend Landon. Don't let the picture fool you, we had a nice time on our walk.


Water baby! She is crazy about playing in the water. When the sun is out Avila will find a cup, bowl, or bucket and ask for "wa-wa". It's not so cute at 7am when I'm still in my PJ's and trying to finish my coffee, but later in the day it's a guaranteed to provide at least 45 minutes of fun. Can you guess what Avila will be doing while mom is trying to take care of the new baby this summer.

Learning to eat with a spoon has been fun and messy! This is when I miss having a dog to clean the floor after she eats. She's actually pretty good at it!

She loves clothes. She likes to get herself dressed, her dolls, and even the animals! Doing laundry has become quite the experience since she tries to put on everything I'm folding.

She also like putting her baby "ni-ni". Getting ready to be a great little sister.

She's having fun being the only child for these last couple of days!

Babymoon in Oregon (April)

Oregon was a 5 day trip that covered over 500 miles.
We started in Portland. Walked around town, talked, and just enjoyed being on vacation.

Highlight: Byway Cafe - best breakfast of my life and Tillamook Dairy Factory (on the way to the coast) - seriously there is NO better ice cream in the world!


The Oregon Cost was our next stop. Very different coast line than Ventura. I had NO desire to jump in this water or lay on the damp sand - but it was magnificent to look at. Great for pictures.

Highlight #1: One the hikes we did that led to a suspension bridge so high above a waterfall my toes tingled in fear when I looked over the edge right outside Pacific City.
Highlight #2: Rouge Brewery. Blair loved every minute of taste testing while I enjoyed the BEST rootbeer float of my life.

Next stop - the Alsea Valley. I do not recommend this as a vacation spot unless you get a kick out of towns that seem to be dying before your eyes. I'm pretty sure this house a few others were the only buildings still standing that hadn't been eaten by rot. This is a picture of the Bed and Breakfast we stayed in - not at all what the web photo looked like. Honestly we pulled up and drove away - we thought it looked like a scene out of a scary movie - but we ended upcoming back after diner. Looked much better inside.

Highlight: Watching Blair fly fish and reading a good book

Corvallis here we come. Cutest town. I was ready to pack the u-haul and become a farmer or raise lambs (which is a popular trade apparently). You can tell from this picture that eating "cheap" was helping the baby to get nice and plump. I think I can still hear her asking, "more fries please".

Highlight: This hike (Bald Hill Park) and the brewhouse we ate dinner at.


Silver falls state park - wow this was one of the most AMAZING things I have ever seen! 8 mile hike and 12 waterfalls. The only downfall is there was only 2 bathrooms for this 8 months pregnant mommy. This, by far, was my favorite day of our vacation.

Highlight: This moment. Standing under a raging waterfall with my hubby. Truly amazing!

The last day of the trip was spent going to Mt. Hood and the Columbia River Gorge. You'll notice there aren't many pictures......well let's just say I was ready to come home to our little munchkin. Although, I don't think my mom was ready to give up her duties. :o)

The good, bad, and ugly of new words

So like any mom, as soon as Avila said her first word I jumped up and down. Second and third word I clapped and cheered. Fourth, fifth, twentieth, I sent Blair a text message and made her perform for my friends.

Now we've reached the point where the words she knows can be used against me. They aren't always cute and fun tricks anymore, but now they're are little requests and often demands for mommy. "Mommy ow" - pick me up mom; "mommy nana" - feed me mom; "mommy wawa" or "mommy mow"; give me something to drink (water/milk).

Not bad right? Well now imagine you've been asleep for 3 hours, nice and warm under the covers and you hear over the baby monitor "mommy baba" followed by screaming, screaming and more screaming. Oh, not so cute that night. Especially because she doesn't get a bottle anymore.

So what did I do you ask? I walked right in there and told her, just like Super Nanny would have done on her show...."it's time for bed sweetheart, you already had milk, now go to sleep", rubbed her little head, and she obeyed by laying down and going right back to sleep.

Right? Reality I walked in her room, picked her up, walked half asleep into the kitchen, got out a bottle from the top shelf hiding spot, filled it with milk, and put her back in bed. Mission accomplished, never heard a peep out of her all night.

Negative part of the story? She has now done this for 3 weeks. Every night. Preparation for midnight feedings you might say? Ahhhhh, what have I done!

So much personality!

Look who's talking! It seems that as soon as Avila hit 14 months she decided to start talking. Here are some of her favorite new words....

"Choooo"

Translation: Juice please

"Mow"

Translation: Milk please

"Baaaw"

Translation Options:
(1) Bottle
(2) Ball
(3) Book
(4) Bath

"eee-ee"

Translation: Kitty

Alternate meanings: Look mom, a kitty! Or....... Come here kitty, I want to attack you.

"No-no"

Translation: You really need a translation for this?

"Bye-bye"

Translation: Are we leaving yet? Or...... please, let's get out of this house.

"Chee"

Translation: Cheese please

"Bir"

Translation: Bird

"Oow"

Translation: Up

"Mmmmmmm"

Translation: the sounds she makes at breakfast while I'm drinking my coffee and she drinks her juice.

She tries to imitate a lot of what we are saying throughout the day, which has made us very conscience of what we are saying! These are the things that she says independently or in reference to things.

She's also learned to climb the stairs at the park and go down the slide by herself. She's a bit obsessed with this activity, but I have no complaints. I've developed quite the tan this week sitting on the sidelines watching her climb, slide, and repeat. Too bad it might be a little inappropriate for a pregnant woman to lay out on a public park in her bikini with a towel and a drink. Maybe I'll start a new trend or maybe I'll be the new spokes model for helping teens not get pregnant.......sure you get a cute baby, but look what happens to you after! You'll never look the same in a bikini again, moms are the reason the invented the tankkini.

Other fun developments of the month.......

I love to play with my friends. Sometimes I attempt to say their names. La-lin=Landon and Elly=Noelle. Learning to share has been rough though.

I love to go for bike rides with ma-ma. I wave and point while she rides us around the neighborhood and to the park.

I love to go for walks with ma-ma in the morning, even if it is a little chilly. Glad that Spring is finally here!

I love to watch movies after a long of playing while ma-ma makes dinner and we waiting for daddy to come home. We LOVE Elmo!

I love to color. Washable markers were a GREAT invention.

I made a best friend. Noelle. We love all the same toys and Elmo. Perfect Match. When she comes over we love to run around the house laughing and screaming.

I love to swing. Daddy had to take it down to finish some painting. I still sat in it for a while, waiting for it to move. Every morning after breakfast I bang on the back door to go outside to run and swing.

I get invited to birthday parties. I may be the youngest, but I'm still one of the girls.

Lastly new development, she will run up to any animal and "love on it" no matter the size. Dogs, cats, but as we learned last week NOT birds! There were a few on the ground near here at the park while we were having a snack and she FREAKED out. She will run screaming if any bird lands near her while playing at the park or beach. She doesn't mind them if someone is holding her or she's in the stroller - she actually calls out to them ...... "bir, bir, bir" pointing and smiling. She's an odd character.

That's pretty much it.....

new words,
new fun things to do,
new friends,

new fear of birds,

and a new sense of accomplishment at the park.

She's been a busy kid.

Our weekend

Yes, this little girl was my weekend. And sitting on the couch looking at books and watching TV was pretty much what the weekend consisted of. This picture is from today when she started feeling better. Let me start from the beginning.

Friday:
I went to work while Grandma Nancy (my mom) watched the baby. I came home to Avila with a slight fever, but I REALLY wanted to go shopping with my mom......so like any good mommy I gave her some Tylenol and went shopping. By the time we came home her temp was up to 103.

Saturday:
8am -Slight fever, but low enough to enjoy my famous Saturday morning pancakes.
8:30 am - Temp check 102.5 - put on the Elmo movie
9:30am - We get a call from Patti (my dad's awesome lady) to find out that Hawaii is supposed to get hit by a tsunami that afternoon. Since we have family there we tuned in to the TV to watch - and admit it, we all though it would be kind of cool to watch. Problem: the only station broadcasting info about the tsunami was the spanish station, so yes we watched the news for an hour in spanish.
We spent the rest of the morning watching a months worth of TV since Avila was either sleeping, crying, or staring into space - Temp check 104.something.
8:00 - I like to think I'm a calm person, but after watching hours of TV (spanish and english) and wondering why I can't get this fever down much lower than 104 I decide to call the advice nurse... She of course says the baby is fine.

Sunday:
8:00 am - temp check 102.5 - Blair leaves for church and mom gets ready to go back to Napa
10:00am - mom leaves while Avila is sleeping
11:00 am - temp check 104.2 and she now has dark pink spots all over her arm and legs - so I calmly call the advice nurse who tells me to call 911 immediately. Nice. just what I wanted to hear.

Make a LONG story short - did not call 911, went to ER, ER Dr. thinks it is Meningitis, Avila had a urine test and blood drawn, IV fluids, and they prepared her to be admitted to the hospital. So after waiting a total of 7 hours we hear the spots were caused by the fever and the fever was caused by a major double ear infection and go home.

Deep breath, sigh, praise the Lord for good news.

What a LONG weekend!

Life after a 1 year old

Life AFTER Avila turned one has been a lot of fun. She's walking, can and will eat practically anything, and for the most part has an easy going-fun personality. It's crazy to think we've reached the easy section of babyhood and in a few months are headed back to the hungry/sleepy newborn phase of life. So we've been living it up for these last few easy, parents of 1 child, months.

We went for a hike with Adam and Ali. Talk about adventurous. She hiked through 4 rivers while 8 months pregnant. I'm only 6 months pregnant so my center of balance wasn't so off. Thankfully none of us fell into the snow run off water!

Mommy's little helper; at least that's what she likes to think. At the moment she enjoys adding toys and removing clothes from the washing machine while I'm loading. It takes a little longer, but when the pay off comes and she can do it by herself I will be thrilled. In the mean time, it keeps her busy while I am busy.

Like I said, she loves helping. This is her unloading the dishwasher. The other day she decided to take her dirty clothes and wash them all by herself - in the toilet. At least I caught her before she pulled the handle!Oh how we love hummus. While I have been craving hummus the baby has decided to become an addict to. It's been nice to share this yumminess with her.


Baby #2's first photo. 22 weeks here. I'm a few weeks late posting this.....sorry.
Raining day art! So we've been awake for atleast 3 hours at this point. Avila has been crying to go outside for about and hour - on and off (she of course has no idea that it's raining outside) and mom has run out of fun things to do. So what was my brilliant plan you ask? Give my 13 month old markers and let her go wild! I learned 3 things today.
1. Yes, crayola markers so wash off easy
2. Avila is right handed
3. And YES, babies will try to eat markers when you're not looking even if you think they understand - markers=paper, food=mouth. We'll keep working on that one. Buy I will say she did have a blast coloring. I think I will invest in crayons though.
More pictures to come soon!!!