After school fun!

Ava says "I love u" in the bathtub. These days it looks like she's bathing in alphabet soup!



Coach, Josh's dad, brought Ava this shirt at her first ultrasound. It finally fits! She had just put on Josh's socks and shoes (all by herself) and she was so proud.




This is the FABULOUS bulletin board outside my classroom. Our theme this year is "One family under the same sky." The background is Olympic newspaper pieces, and between the hands we wrote the lyrics to "With my own two hands". Thanks to my creative husband for a great display that wasn't too babyish for my 4th graders!





One of our neighbors had a birthday party. Even though Ava and one of the birthday girls were too little for the inflatable slide, they played happily in the baby pool. Ava appears to be dancing in this one.


Ava and London share big girl secrets.


So many things are happening around the Lockett house. I've been ordered not to say much about the future plans, (no, BaBa and Mimi, I'm not talking babies), but we'd love for you to pray that God will continue to reassure us of this path. Despite her unsettled Mommy and Daddy, Ava is happy and growing strong. These are her most recent accomplishments:

• Say and sing all of her ABCs
• Identify 7 or 8 of them by sight, and a few by sound (the other day she said "W mama, water, W" except she pronounces it "doublewoo")
• Count to 10
• Sign over 100 signs
• Identify red, orange, yellow, green, purple, blue, pink, gray, brown, black, and white
  
• Sing Do a Dear, Rock a By Baby, ABC, In a House In a Home, Colors of the Rainbow, Zoo Train, Signing Time theme
  
• Twinkle and poop in the potty, yes I said twinkle...it's so much more fun than tinkle. She only wears a Pull Up in public or at night, but 95% of the time it's dry when we put her back in panties (or Elmo's, as she calls them). I consider her POTTYTRAINED!
  
• Do laundry (help sort dirty clothes, transfer clothes from washer to dryer, put away folded clothes)
• Distinguish and describe things by "big" and "small"
• Log roll (thanks to Daddy)
• Jump from heights that scare everyone senseless (On the way to the ER after plummeting off of BaBa and Pop's stairs I asked her what happened. She replied, "Jump.")
• Spin
• Identify most animals and their sounds, even the bunny who apparently says "hop"
  
• Tell you who rides a school bus and what they do ("Girls and boys ride the bus, they go home to eat." exact phrasing)
  
• Keep everyone abreast of recent developments (as she runs past you she'll yell and sign "I'm running")
• Blow bubbles
  
• Identify most of the trains from Thomas and Friends
• "Dress" herself (heaven help you if you try to help her put on panties...yikes)
• Make her Mama brag like crazy...as you can see. Josh and I adore Ms. Ava James, and I'm sure if you suffered through that list you must love her too:) More pictures soon!
  

August already?

Thanks to my previous (not old) TAG teacher for helping me with the spacing issues. Rayeanne has been expanding my horizons since I was four years old!

One of Uncle Nate's friends found this baby deer, Ava loved him!

We went bowling with Luke and Mary. Ava did not understand why she couldn't pick up the bowling balls.

















Ava waited patiently for the balls to return.
















Ava rode the train with Pops.

















They also rode the carousel.






















Ava rode a fun ride with BaBa.

















Yay! Ava went potty before she went into the nursery at church.

















Look at that pretty girl! She is as sweet as her smile!






















Ducking in the rain with Pops.

















Auntie M, Papa, Daddy, Ava, Mommy, Pops, Mamaw, BaBa, Nana,
'Becca, and Nate on the front porch.






















Auntie M was making Ava laugh!

















Mommy and Ava.






















Girl talk around the table.




















Ava and Nana


























Ava and Mamaw

















On my last official morning of summer vacation Ava and Josh made blueberry muffins while I slept late. They were yummy!

































The slide was a fun addition to Ava's pool. I wish we'd thought of it earlier in the summer!

Little bird?

Josh and I decided to name our baby girl Ava, which means "little bird" or "like a bird", on the way home from the ultrasound where we found out her sex. While crossing the Twin Bridges leaving Waco we discussed all of the things she might become. World famous classical violinist? Award winning author? President? However, we never considered that she might actually become a little bird. I remember hearing a story about a mom who asked her son what he wanted to be when he grew up. He replied matter-of-factly, "I wanna' be an elephant." Ava's bird-transformation isn't quite so blatant, but existent nonetheless.

While in Fredericksburg last month I bought a gorgeous white bird feeder to hang on our front porch. We are host to a family of barnswallows, and have enjoyed watching two generations of babies hatch and fly from their nest. I thought it would be nice if they didn't have to fly to our neighbors house for viddles. Josh was at a particularly busy point in his Greek semester so the bird feeder sat on our counter for about a week before he had a chance to hang it. It was filled with seed, ready to feed our growing barnswallow family.

One morning, about three days after I'd filled the feeder, I noticed Ava crunching something in her teeth as she waited for me to make breakfast. Normally, I would have assumed that it was a stale multi-grain Cheerio she'd found in her highchair. But I'd just thoroughly cleaned it. I slyly watched her from the opposite side of the kitchen, hoping she'd lead me to her food source. I watched, in horror, as she reached her chubby little arm in Go-Go-Gadget fashion farther than I would have imagined possible. Her fingers expertly grasped a pinch of birdseed from the not so nearby bird feeder. Before I could do anything about it, the seeds were chewed and on their way to her hungry tummy.

The ease with which she enjoyed her birdly breakfast could only mean one thing. She'd been mucnhing bird seed for at least three days! We've hung the feeder outside now, and it dangles just outside our dining room window. Perhaps it's my imagination, but sometimes I think the look in her eye as she watches the barnswallows enjoying the bird feeder is one of envy. Occasionally she'll find a seed that fell from the feeder while it was in the house. Anyone who's spent five minutes with a toddler can predict what she does with the seeds. She hasn't sprouted feathers yet. I guess the birdseed didn't do any harm, just gave a little blue-eyed girl a taste of her true namesake.

Detour Post

Our good friends, Courtney, (whom Ava calls KitKat), and Patrick babysat one night while Josh and I saw The Dark Knight. Click on the link below to see pictures from her evening:

Broaddus Blog

Thanks for watching her guys!

Summertime and the livin is easy

I figured out the spacing problems...yay!

Ava loves cherries! (Either that or she just slaughtered Barney the purple dinosaur.)

















Our poor baby girl is allergic to mosquito bites. Her left eye was so swollen!

















One day while Josh was at school and I was doing laundry, Ava wore my Midway ID badge and shuffled around in my pink tennis shoes. She looked silly!






















On July 5th we went out on the boat.

















Pops, BaBa, Ava, Aunt Sarah, Uncle Brandon, and Daddy enjoy a picnic lunch while Mommy snaps a quick photo.

















After a tough day of cruising the lake, swimming, and eating her weight in watermelon, Ava enjoys a much needed nap.
















Since Mimi and Aunt Jaryn went to Houston to shop...I mean to house sit, we invited Coach to meet us for dinner. We were so disappointed that the Lyon's Park train was broken! Ava settled for the Thomas train set at Barnes & Noble. She was so excited about the train that she squeezed Coach's arm!

















Ava showed all of us where to sit. If anyone tried to stand up she would point at their empty seat and say, "Sit". I choose to believe that she's not bossy, just a born leader!


















This was Daddy's assigned seat.

















Ava enjoyed the fish tank at our pediatrician's office so much that we decided to buy her a beta fish. She will sign fish and beg to sit on the counter to watch him. We are waiting for her to give him a name. I was so excited to catch this sweet shot of Ava and Daddy observing our new pet.

June

Dear blog readers,
Mommy
is working
on her book and Daddy is taking Greek, so I'm taking over the
posts this summer.
So far we've been working on potty training (I get 4
marshmallows for tee tee,
and 6 for poop), letters, colors, shapes,
numbers,
signing, and a little
playing:)

This is me sitting on
the counter in
my Elmo panties and Aggie
shirt eating yogurt-covered
raisins...yum!

BaBa, Daddy, and Mommy took me to Lion's Park in Waco to ride
the train.
Trains are one of my favorite things, and the ride was one of
the
highlights of
my summer so far!

I stayed
with Mimi, Coach, Aunt Jaryn, and BeeneBeene while Mommy and Daddy went to
Houston to see a play. They had to stop in College Station to recharge their
Aggie-ness.

We went
to church in the country where Coach preaches. It was very hot on the front
porch.

Nan helped me cool off at Mimi and Coach's house after church.

We all
went to Austin to celebrate Becca's graduation. I loved swimming in the
pool!

I loved
snuggling on the couch with Uncle Brandon...and he didn't seem to mind too
much
either.

Uncle
Brandon, Aunt Sarah, Daddy, Mommy, and I ate lunch at Chuy's. Their queso
with
tortillas is my favorite snack.

On the
way home from Austin I experienced my first Starbucks drink, a strawberry
milkshake. My mouth would not leave the straw, even to nod the answer "yes"
to
tell Mommy how much I liked it. I kept sucking from the straw while I
moved my
head up and down. Isn't my flower headband cute?

Mommy
invited the fourth grade teachers over for brunch and I got to play with my
friend, Emma. I pushed her all around the house in my pink doll stroller.
Emma
and I are going to be roommates at A&M one day! If you look back at
older
blog posts you can see a picture of us last year in our white Aggie
panties:)

Daddy,
Mommy, and I took parent/child swimming lessons at the YMCA for two weeks. I
enjoyed splashing around with the other babies. Thanks to everyone who took
pictures for us!
Daddy threw me high in the air!

I rode
the pink noodle like a horsey!


Mommy
helped me learn to kick my feet in the water!

I'm not
afraid to jump in the pool to Daddy!

We all
love to relax in the Pate's pool.
More
pictures to come soon!
Love,
Ava James Lockett