The Great Outdoors.

Thanks to my super awesome boss, we have a pretty baller, kid-friendly backyard. Well, minus the fact that our super strange hot but drought-y weather keeps our grass nice and dead and prickly half the year. But as far as toys go, we're pretty stocked, and they were all FREE. Have I mentioned how much I love both my job and the D's? I do! I do, I do, I do!

Anyhow, now that A is like super steady on her feet and can run around with me, I thought we'd try out some of her backyard toys. It's like Christmas every day around here! Check it out:






And a super short video of my adorable monkey sliding on her own! (It had to be short because I was worried she'd topple over!

This Week (In Photos).

For all the things I don't have time to say this morning :)
This one speaks for itself:

Our new FAVORITE toy:



A horrible picture of me, but too cute not to share:

A's new chair:


In honor of fall and back-to-school:


The newest addition to our family!!!

Seriously, I'm in love. LOVE.

Major Organizational Overhaul.

This weekend, and much of today, was spent doing some major organizing and sorting through Ava's clothing and toys. We were so incredibly fortunate that we were given a ton of things from different families that I worked for, so I sorted through clothes from now until size 6-7. Yep. And I would say that she's set completely through age 3, despite the fact that my shopaholic self would surely purchase some adorable things I can't say no to between now and then. I managed to get everything through 12month into one side of her walk-in closet, and then fancy 18M and 2T things splitting the other side...geeeeez.




We also came up with three bags of donations, as well as put all her clothing we're keeping just in case we decide to go round two (which we totally will, who am I kidding) into plastic storage bins for added preservation and protection.



Then, on top of all that, I used another plastic bin and put all of the toys that are at her level or just beyond into it so that she can crawl over to it and pull things out. She's been doing that with the toybox I made for her, but it can't hold nearly enough and has a lid that's hard for her to open, so this'll work better for us for the time being. She's also been getting into the cabinets in our entertainment center as well, where we stored video games, DVD's and the likes, so those have now been moved and have given way to board books and other baby-friendly items. If you can't beat 'em, join 'em, right?

How do you make your home baby-friendly? What are ways in which you stay organized during these days of ever-changing sizes and developmental stages?

Giraffes, Blocks & Rings - Oh My!

Lots going on around here.

First off, Ava's gotten some new toys, and she LOVES them. Here's a quick pick of all her faves these days:



Notice Sophie the Giraffe nestled in there. Yeah, yeah, I swore to myself I wouldn't pay upwards of twenty bucks for a glorified chew toy, but I'm a sucker a mommy that wants her baby to be happy, and Sophie makes her very, very happy. In fact, expect to see many different shots of Sophie in upcoming pics because, well, Ava and Sophie are attached at the hip.

She also loves the stacking rings, and while she can't stack them yet, she sure as heck can take them off all day long. She's also a rather big fan of the stacking cups, and likes to pretend to drink them all day long. At least we know where she inherited that tendency...

The sorting blocks are a favorite, but not with the top on. They've also led us to discover that I'm passing on my uber anal tidy tendencies to Ava, since if you put the rings in the red blocks box (didn't know you were tuning in for a Dr. Suess book tonight, did you?), she freaks out and takes them out. Apparently only blocks can go in the red blocks box. Yikes.

One of Ava's favorite things to play with in the car is the crunchy book you see pictured. It has no words, just pics, but makes a crinkly sound she absolutely loves, and is great for teething. It also helps me to know when she's awake or not while in the backseat without having to crane my neck to access her mirror. Works for me.

We recently got her a little push car with balls that pop, but she's totally not into it yet. Which is surprising, since look what position she found her way into earlier:

What the heck. It is NOT time to crawl Ava, no matter how adorable your efforts are.

On a less adorable note, here are some recent things we've been dealing with that I'm far less fond of:

-Ava has decided it's great fun to blow raspberries at me during breakfast every morning. While I have no one to blame but myself (I knew it would come back to haunt me, but the laugh she lets out when you blow raspberries at her is just too stinkin' cute to pass up!), it's still a bit obnoxious, particularly this morning when we tried prunes.

-We tried prunes this morning, as previously mentioned, because Ava was super constipated. It's not that she hadn't gone in a while, but she was so obviously straining. I'm talking, grabbing-her-high-chair-and-turning-bright-red type of straining. Poor baby. Anyhow, I gave her prunes and pears, and over the course of the day, out popped SIX poo diapers. Geeeeeeeeeeeeez. The lesson here? Prunes OR pears, not prunes AND pears. Check.

-Ava decided last night that she wanted to party. While she only woke up once, which is fine by me, that one time lasted fro 2:45-5AM. Unfortunately, 5AM was the exact time I'd set in my mind that I was going to wake up David and tell him it was time for him to take over. She fell asleep at 4:57. I kid you not. She then proceeded to sleep in until 9:30 while I got up at 7:30AM to deal with the pest control guy. Oh, the joys of adulthood.

Anyone with any tips on how to discourage the whole spitting cereal and fruits all over mommy thing? I'm not a huge fan.

I am, however, a huge fan of this face:
(note the homemade "Argh, kiss me booty" pirate onesie and baby converse!)

And this one:

And I wouldn't have minded seeing this particular version of Ava at 3AM:


Here's hoping she'll continue to sleep better now that she's been getting some (homemade) oatmeal and rice cereal!