A girl and her pup!

Sometimes pets can become a kid's best friend. When I was 5 years old,  I got an amazing gift. My first dog, Rollie. I was so close to him and loved him with all my heart. Me and my sister have a 13 year age difference, and because of that she wasn't a playmate but more of a supervisior lol. But that was fine because I had Rollie. He was someone to play and cuddle with whenever I wanted. He was one of my best friends until he passed away when he was 15. It was hard to get over losing a pet, but I wouldn't trade those 15 years for anything. On a happy note, Ava is getting so close to Benji. I'm so glad that she might have a chance to get close to a dog like I did. They are really so cute with eachother! When we wake up in the morning, I put Ava in front of him and she crawls right over and tries to get him out of his crate. As soon as he's out he gives her lots of kisses and she LOVES it!! After they wake up enough we all go downstairs and eat breakfast. Benji loves it when Ava's eating because now she started throwing some of her food. This really sucks, but at least Ben helps clean up by eating some of it. Playtime is the best part of the day. Me and Ava sit down on the floor and play fetch with Ben. Sometimes he even drops his toy on her lap. It's almost as if he wants her to throw it. My favorite part of the day is bedtime. We all head up to Ava's room and sit down on the rug and read books. Ben sits there silently waiting for Ava to fall asleep. I couldn't be more proud of their relationship. He's still a puppy (only 2) and he still has so much energy. But he couldn't be any sweeter around her. I'm so thankful for both of them!

She adores him!!

waiting for daddy to come home

I can't wait to see your relationship with Benji grow. One day he will be meeting you at the front door when you come home from school!!

Happy 8 Months Ava!

Ok! Time needs to slow down...I can't believe how fast time is flying by. She is growing up so much. She started to do so many new things last month. She claps, waves and cruises. She can hold on to objects and take steps. She still doesn't really sleep, but instead of waking up 8 times a night she only wakes up 5. That is progress so that's great. She is all over the place. She crawls super fast. Her and Benji both follow me around the whole house. It's cute, until she tries to crawl up my leg while I'm cooking lol. Speaking of food, Ava no longer eats baby food. She doesn't have the taste for it any more. She only eats table food. So far she has had french fries without salt, mashed potatoes, all types of ravioli, hamburger meat, bananas, carrots, beef, chicken, and noodles. She LOVES it. She is also thinning out which makes me sad. She is losing most of her baby chunk. It could be because she is getting taller. The best thing that happened this month was her calling me "mama". It's super sweet, she will reach out for me and say "mama" so loud. She deff knows who me and Pete are and calls us by the correct names now. LOVE IT! She also lets go of whatever she's holding on to while standing, and will stand up unassisted. She's getting so independent. Ava's second tooth popped up early last week. It's growing in SO slow. Half of it is still covered with her gums. The first tooth came in much easier. With the second tooth, she got fevers, and had some crazy diapers. Her attitude was also MUCH worse. Here are some of her 8 month pictures...

Her hair is getting lighter!

This is something new she does. She pulls up on something than turns around so she can lean against it and stand up!

My cutie

Oh hi Benji

This is one of the cute waves she does. It's the wave from the little rascals. She waves while her hand is on her mouth cutest thing ever!!

I love watching you grow and learn new things Ava. Mommy and Daddy love you to the moon and back. 

Happy Birthday Pete!!

Today Pete turned 26 years old. This is the first birthday that I actually spent with him. Normally he is stuck at work in North Carolina and I would be up in Jersey. This is also his first birthday being a daddy. Ava left him a great present in her diaper. Two great BIG presents haha. She even got to wake up next to him this morning because she refused to sleep in her crib after 4am. Next year I'll be able to throw him a party since we will be closer to our family and friends. Can't wait to spend the rest of our lives together so I can watch him get older LOL. Since I'm sooo much younger. Don't worry Pete, I'll keep you young!!

Giving kisses to her daddy

Rubbing daddy's head

Ben taking a nap on his daddy

sad to see him go to work

We both love you so much old man!! Benji too!

Busy busy busy!!!

It's hard to get time to post as much as I would want to. Teething is really hard for Ava. She's getting the fevers that come along with it, as well as lack of sleep, being fussy, and the yucky diapers. So far she only has one tooth, but her gums are noticeably swollen and I feel so bad for her. She literally can't sleep for longer than an hour and a half straight through the night anymore. It's been hard on me and Pete too because we don't really get sleep anymore. I'm back to sleeping when she sleeps like she's a newborn again. Hopefully this will all be over soon. Not looking forward to dealing with this for every tooth lol. She's still super happy during the days (sometimes) and still all over the place.  Pete will also be going to the field this week so me and her will be alone for 3 days, that's going to be an adventure LOL.

I love her eyes! 

Little miss attitude. Your lucky your cute lol

Thanksgiving In New Jersey!!

It was so nice to finally get back home. We loved seeing the family and stopping by to see friends. The ride up to NJ was tough. Ava was restless in her carseat. She's so used to being able to crawl all around the house, that the 12 hour drive really got to her. It's normally 9 hours but there was traffic. When we got home she was tired and overwhelmed by seeing everyone. She did get used to everyone before we left, and I hope she's more comfortable with everyone when we go back up in December. Hopefully she wont be scared of men this time around. We were finally able to bring Benji (my dog) back down here with us. I missed having him here in NC. I was nervous about how he was going to be around Ava. They are amazing around each other. I'm so glad she has a dog to grow up with, like I did. Here are some pictures of our trip back home...

Ava in her carseat on the way there. Of course she sweats like a man so she needed to just chill in her onesie 

Don't mind my face here but this is Ava trying to get to Benji after our first night home

Grandma with Ava on thanksgiving. Notice her Turkey dress lol.

Ava with Mya. They adore each other it's too cute.

Niyell trying to teach Ava a little bit about technology 

Pete and Mya laying down watching Ice Age

Obviously Ava is more fun to watch movies with so she replaced Uncle Pete

Eating some puffs and stuffing

Playing in the dollhouse with Mya 

 

Now with Ashley. Pete is supervising making sure Ava doesn't eat any small toys lol

Niyell was singing Ava a song. She was really into it

Ava playing with her Grandpa

Ava sleeping on Nona. It's so hard to get Ava to sleep, I don't know how she did it.

Baby girl with Dewey. 

She got to meet Santa. I still can't believe that she wasn't scared of him!

Spending some more time with Grandma

We really had a blast being home! I wish we could've stayed there longer. I suck at taking pictures and I forgot to take pictures of some people. I didn't get any of my grandma, Kellie, Liz, Ryan, Jason, Frank or any of the Olarra's. I will do better next time when Ava isn't freaking out. I blame my lack of pictures on her teething LOL.