Happy 3rd Birthday!

Jumpy, jumpy, jumpy! The bouncy house showed up at noon and was not left empty except long enough to eat pizza and cake and ice cream... until it was deflated at 7pm. Happy 3rd birthday to my little girl who is not so little anymore! I love you Ava Grace - I love your joyful personality! I love that you enjoyed every second of your day from the bouncy house, to your friends being over, to the gigantic pizza, to sticking your fingers in the frosting of your cake, to singing happy birthday to yourself, to dressing up in your doctor uniform, to painting yourself with bath soaps, to snuggling up with your stuffed Rudolph and blankie and falling asleep faster than ever before. ThoughI know you won't remember every second as vividly as I will, I hope it was as fun to turn three as it was to watch you turn three! Love you buddah!

Happy 3rd Birthday cont'd...

Happy 3rd Birthday cont'd...

recent comments and conversations...

"no problymo" (while handing daddy a the tool he has asked for)

"we love your pudgy toes mommy" (while giggling with daddy at the top of the stairs as they discuss my slightly swollen feet)

"I am talent mommy" (as daddy and I are fixing the metal baby gate that our cats managed to knock completely off the bottom of our stairs) "while you two fix it, I will decorate the gate"

"with what?" I ask...

"frosting!" she responds.


"I am not talking to you no more!" This one is usually stated loudly with arms acrossed her chest and as she walks out of room or turns her head away from me while she glances at me sideways to make sure I am looking and sufficiently crushed that she will no longer be talking to me. I usually respond with "that is probably a good idea." She returns in less than two minutes, smiles coyly and says "I love you mommy."



"I won't be your friend no more!"

"Who are you talking to Ava?"

"The four girls sitting right there" she says as she points to the ledge in front of the fire place.

"What four girls?"

"Those four girls!" she responds exasperatedly. "maneesha, beesha, monie, and teeta" (I am guessing on the spelling here) she responds matter of factly.


Between her growing vocabulary and her imagination, I spend the majority of my time with her asking questions just to see what kind of craziness she might come up with. As she stood in the middle of my closet last night twirling in her monkey pajamas and my high heels she stated loudly "ladies and gentlemen" and proceeded to do what looked like some sort of interpretive dance with her hands and knees and singing about a 'miracle'... Greg and I just laid in bed watching her and laughing. I am certain no one but us would find her quite as adorable or entertaining, but she truly makes me smile. Her little brain is taking on more and more every day and presenting more of a challenge to her pregnant mother's patience, but I wish I could take these silly, fun moments and put them in a box to go back and experience again and again. I am certain she will be grateful that no such box exists. :)

Easter Sunday...

Oh Easter! I bought a beautiful dress with a matching headband and gold shoes. She danced in circles and called it her wedding dress. If only we hadn't been the family carrying our crying daughter out of church. Oh yes, it was us. She began wailing (loudly!) when she realized her mimi would not be coming to sit with us and would instead be staying up front to sing in the choir. Devastated.... that is the only word to describe how she felt. Previous to the crying fit that ended with her and I taking a lap around the outside of the church until the service was over... she actually tried to join her mimi up front. They were about to give the Children's Church sermon up at the front and Greg looked at me and said, 'do you think she'll go up there by herself?' Definitely, I though to myself. When they called them up and I leaned down to ask her she said 'yes!' without any hesitation and as soon as she left the pew - Greg and I both realized why. She headed straight past all the other kids and about knocked over the sweet teenage girl about to tell them all about the importance of Easter and ran straight to her mimi who luckily was sitting in the front row of the choir. My mom gave her a hug and told her to go sit by the other kids. She smiled sweetly and proceeded to sit directly behind the girl talking to the kids. She took off her shoes and turned to face her mimi - oblivious to the 400 people (including her mortified parents) watching her antics from the pews. She spun in circles throughout the children's sermon as Greg looked at me with that 'you go get her' look on his face. I waited until the story was over and as all the other kids stood up to leave she sat contentedly smiling at her mimi from her new seat on the stage. When I realized she wasn't coming back, I had to go up and get her to bring her back to us and that was when the weeping ensued. "I want my mimi!" she wailed all the way out of the back of the church. Happy Easter!

spring break at mimis...

Up close... what mommy?

Cheesing it at the horse park!

I have so many pictures to post of our trip to mimi's over spring break and into Easter weekend. These are a few of my 'ava favs'! The collage is my step-brother's daughter, Sari, and Ava having a goofy time while hanging out in mimi's bed watching movies. Apparently the movie got old and wrestling seemed more fun! More to come.

proud to be painting...

I did get her to stop concentrating long enough to give me a smile. And below is the finished mural! I love it so much I wish we could keep it! Daddy said no.... he's such a fun spoiler! :)

yes, we're still alive...

Basketball season is over and spring is on its way... and I am no longer puking on a daily basis! YEAH! All things to celebrate for the Melton's this month. The I have much more to post about the happenings in our lives, but I only have a couple of minutes here so I am making this one quick. As you can see in the above picture - my little girl is hardly little anymore. She is growing like a weed as is the baby boy who will be joining us in a few short months. Her latest announcement to everyone we see is that "it is not July yet!" Followed by "in July I will have a baby brother!" Though we have been through many a name for the little guy coming to join our family she also tells people that "we don't know what we will all him yet" and that seems to be okay with her for right now. Today, she helped us start painting his bedroom and managed to do a pretty good job. Photos are below and more to follow! Love you all and yes, Megan, I will get a picture of my belly posted as soon as I am brave enough to let someone photograph it!

sweet love...

Marriage is not easy and the addition of a child makes it just that much harder... and that much sweeter. No photo with this post, just a moment to make permanent how blessed I am because in the craziness that is my life right now, it can be difficult to take the time to do so. First, as most of you already know, we had an ultrasound on Wednesday that revealed I get to do a lot of shopping for the baby boy who will be joining our family in July. Despite Ava's first sentiments "I don't want it to be a boy, I want a baby girl" - she seems to be warming to the idea and picked out the name "fruit snack" for our coming arrival. She is fully aware of the fact that there is a baby in my belly and already sings and kisses on him. Although I am sure there will be some jealousy, I think she is going to be a great big sister. Greg had fully convinced himself it was a girl, but I am pretty certain his smile swallowed his face when the nurse said it was a baby boy. I have to admit, I am thrilled and though I hadn't gotten my hopes up, I had been rattling off baby boy names for weeks.

Now, to my sweet, sweet weekend. Greg surprised me Friday night with a dinner at Siam Square... Thai food. Yes, my husband eats Thai food - shocked me too! And it was wonderful! Life has a tendency to feel wrapped up in responsibility these days... parenting, teaching, coaching, homework, taking care of dad... doing something with my husband just for fun and not because we 'have to' was a feeling I have missed. It was a perfectly quiet evening just for us. Saturday I had a basketball tournament all day. Yes, I spent my Valentine's day coaching 8th grade girls to a tournament win in overtime. I have coached my girls in this tournament the past four years and we have come in second place every year. Because this is my last year coaching... and because I hate to lose... I was determined to go home with a trophy this year. My girls were incredible and I have never felt so proud in my whole life. They earned it and though I am sure it is mostly hormones, I cried. And then, to make the day even more incredible I came home to a daughter and husband who had spent the entire day cleaning the house, filling a vase with pink tipped white roses, and made lasagna and homemade blueberry pie. And after all that, my husband didn't even complain when I fell asleep on the couch at 8pm.

Some time soon, when my life is a little slower and probably when I am a little older, I will give back to my husband all the love he has, so unselfishly, given to me. My pathetic thank you's and proudly telling other people about it are not nearly enough. I love you, Greg and I hope that some day you know and feel just how much.

to see Santa...

So today we made the trip to the mall to see Santa. "I want a baby doll, a kitty, and a dump truck!" she stated proudly before she even got on his lap. Santa looked at me wide-eyed. "A dump truck, huh?" She climbed up, smiled for the picture, hopped off his lap and said thank you as he handed her a peppermint sucker. Sometimes I am amazed at how she does new things like she has done them every day of her life... without any hesitation. It is probably the same reason she spends 10-15 minutes of every day with her nose in the corner. :) It would never occur to her to be nervous or scared. She just does it! We sat down on a bench about 5 minutes after we had seen him and she looked at me with utter concern.

"Mommy, we have to go back to see Santa!"

"Why?"

"I forgot to tell him I love him!"

Oh, Ava, don't grow up! Don't ever grow up!

end of the night...

These are my last two favorites. I won't bore you with any more of this gushy stuff!

being silly...

I love this man!

Oh, look, he loves me too... even with this ridiculous look on my face!

love this shot of Tierny!

and this one of Matt!

a night out...

So, it was Matt's 30th birthday and we unloaded the kids with grandparents and headed downtown for a night out. We went to St. Elmo where we ate shrimp cocktail (world famous, according to the sign) that burned the nose hairs right out of my nose. Still now, sitting here thinking about it, my eyes start to water. Fantastic steak and even better was the company! Matt and Tierny are our closest friends with whom we probably spend an unhealthy amount of time. I'm certain to people who don't know us (or even people who do), our relationship is strange. Despite this, we feel completely comfortable spending time together and acting like idiots. Probably because we have been friends since before we had kids, before bills piled up, before jobs changed, and as life has become more and more complicated. We know the good and the bad and we still manage to laugh together... sometimes hysterically! So, we took the cameras and got a few crazy shots and enjoyed every second of our child free evening.