Santa was good to everybody this year. It was wild as usual. We all had such a great time with the family. Ethan's favorite toy he got this year was his razor scooter (or suiter in Ethan talk). Ava's favorite toy was her vSmile walker, even though I think she did have more fun with her box. Ava also got her very first Juicy suit from her favorite Aunt Becka.
Halloween didn't go quite as planned this year. This was the first year Ethan knew what he wanted to be and wow was he adamant. There was no persuading him. I always like to stick with the classics like indian, fighter pilot, pirate. So we went to the costume shop to pick out what my sweet little baby boy wanted to be for Halloween and what does he see as soon as we walk in the door? The most plastic looking transformer costume I have ever seen. I tried hard for a policeman costume but Ethan was having none of it. So, Optimus Prime it is.
Nana and Poppy came up to go trick or treating with us and to see Ava in her first Halloween costume. Everything was going great until about 10:00 Halloween morning. Ethan started telling us he didn't feel good and then by about 1:00 he was down for the count. My little transformer came down with the H1N1 flu. Poppy was ready to run for the hills, but there was no way Nana was going to be leaving her little man in his time of need. Needless to say, Halloween was cancelled at the Dickerson house.
Chris managed to get in contact with our good doctor friend who called in life saving tamiflu. Poppy went on a mission to find an open pharmacy and saved the day. That night was rough, but Nana never left Ethan's side and by the next morning he was already on his way to recovery.
Even though we missed out on trick or treating, we couldn't let Ava's first Halloween go by without at least a picture of the cutest little ladybug ever!
Chris's cousin Elle was voted homecoming queen for Clarksville High School. Elle asked Ethan, Nate and Claire Sosebee to be mascots for homecoming this year. I was really excited about how cute they would look in their little tuxedos, but I was a little concerned that Ethan would get nervous and not want to go out in front of all those people.
Nobody could even begin to prepare me for how Ethan handled being on stage. Lets just say he certainly wasn't nervous.
I'll let the video tell the story...
Ava has had a little bit of a cold this past week and has been a little fussy so we decided to let her sleep with us so we could all get some much needed sleep. In the middle of the night I felt Ava moving around and turned over to see what she was doing. Much to my surprise she was sitting straight up between me and Chris! I woke Chris up and we just couldn't believe our little girl is getting so big so fast. She has been military crawling for a while now and has started to really crawl over the past couple of weeks. She is going to be off and running before we know it!
Well, I finally broke down this past weekend and got Ava's ear's pierced. I made Nana go with me for moral support. We went to several children's stores and asked everybody where to go to get baby's ears pierced and we finally settled on a lady from Merle Norman who had received glowing recommendations from several people. You would have thought I was interviewing someone to do brain surgery, but those perfect little ears deserve nothing but the best! I was a little nervous just because I didn't want it to hurt her, but Jennifer assured me that it was so much easier to do at her age than when she was older. And I told Ava she would thank me when she went to prom and got to wear gorgeous earrings! It turned out okay, she barely even cried. As soon as I picked her up she was completely fine and all was well in her world again. And, she has the most beautiful, cutest little ears in the whole world!
Okay, this one is just too cute. Every time we go to the doctor for a checkup, Doctor Pilkington (no relation) checks Ethan's ears and makes a little sound. He tells Ethan that he is checking on his rabbits in his ears. Ethan completely believes he has rabbits in his ears and every time we clean his ears he looks at the q-tip and tells us his rabbits pooped!
Ethan is quite the story teller. When he was in pre-school the teacher told me that they would all be sitting at the table coloring and Ethan would go off into a 15 minute story. All of the other kids would just listen while Ethan went on and on. One of his recent funny stories was about a deer he says he saw at Nana and Poppy's house. He said he was coming inside and looked out toward the woods. He saw a big deer and his eyes went big! When he said his eyes went big, he did his hands up by his eyes and made this crazy surprised face. It was so funny! We made him tell the story several times and everytime he made the face.
Yesterday Ethan, Ava and I were having dinner. Ethan was being a bear and going grrrr to Ava. I told him Ava was baby bear and I was momma bear. I asked him what his name was and he said "Ethan Michael Dickerson bear". Priceless.
Well, my babies are officially growing up too fast! Ava has just turned 3 months old and amazes us everyday. She rolled over from her stomach to her back on June 30. She is cooing and gooing at us. Every time we smile at her she gives us this big toothless smile. It is so funny because she always sticks her tongue out when she smiles. She is such a happy baby! She has always been a great sleeper. Ava has been sleeping until about 5:00 am since she was about 2 weeks old. We went to the doctor for her first round of shots (yuk!) last week and she was such a trooper. She barely let out a little squeal and then she was fine. I think she may be tougher than her big brother was! I’m still amazed at how fast time has gone since we had her. It seems like yesterday that there was just 3 of us.
Ethan is 4 but acts like he is in his 20’s. He has definitely done some growing up since Ava’s arrival. He loves being the big man in the house. He is so protective of Ava. He always tells everyone she is His Ava. Ethan is already wanting to do everything the big guys do. Anytime Chris is outside, Ethan is right there with him.
Ethan is taking this big brother thing very seriously. He has done so good with Ava. Everyone keeps asking us if he has been jealous and the answer is NO! He calls Ava “my Ava”. He is on top of it when she lets out the littlest whimper. He loves to burp her and even helped Nana change a diaper!
Nana came home from the hospital with us for Ava’s first week. I’m not sure what we would have done without her, especially Ethan. He got some good Nana time in while Mommy was taking care of Ava. Here is a great picture of Nana and Ava when she was just 5 days old.
Today was Ava’s first bath at our home. She loved the water on her head. She wasn’t very happy when it came time for the sponge bath, though. I guess we made up for it when she hit that warm, snuggly towel. She went right to sleep. I can’t wait until she can get in the bath tub and splash around.
The newest member of our family, Ava Claire Dickerson, made her debut April 2 at 5:00 pm. Her very excited big brother, Ethan, ran into the waiting room and yelled, "Hey everybody! Ava Claire is here!" He was so happy and excited. He kept looking at her and saying, "She's beautiful. She loves me!" It was so precious.
