lots to catch up on...

First, Ava had her first Halloween. We spent the weekend at her great-grandparent's house. She was a flower.
For those of you who haven't seen her in a while, she's getting SOOOO big! She's outgrowing clothes at an astonishing rate! The pediatrician says she's in the 75th percentile for her height and weight.

Ava's starting to like her tummy time a bit better now, probably because she has enough strength to hold herself up and play with her toys at the same time.

Speaking of strength, she's strong enough to hold herself in a sitting position for a few seconds at a time, but her balance is not quite there. We bought her this Bumbo chair a few weeks ago, and she's constantly trying to escape. She does the "George Jefferson"- she sticks her arm out behind her. I just hope she outgrows that before she starts walking....

We bought Ava a jumperoo. At first, she didn't know what to do. There are lots of toys on it, and it plays music and lights up if she jumps. She's now gotten the hang of it, and is actually jumping up and down in it.

She'll even try to jump on you if you stand her up on your belly or lap.

This picture is out of order, but it's been getting cold outside, so I knit her a new hat. I wish you could see how tall it is; It makes her look like a little elf.

Ava's first Thanksgiving came and went without her getting a single bite of all the good food we had (soon, baby.) But, she did get to wear her special bib Grama Mary Jane sent her-

and she spit up on it immediately.

It's hard to tell the gender of babies. They haven't developed those characteristics we humans associate with either sex. I totally understand that. But if one more person says to me
"Is it a him?"
I think I'll scream.
First off, there's something really wrong with that question. I'm no English major, but I do believe that the grammatically correct way to pose this question would be
"Is it a boy?"
Still, I have issues with that. First, "It" is a baby, so recognize that, all you strangers who approach me!!
Second, I'd understand their question a bit better if Ava was ambiguously dressed, like so:
but she's usually dressed in clothes that are definitely female. But, the second time I got that question (complete with the poor grammar), Ava was wearing a pink outfit. I guess the questioner noticed the confused look on my face as I looked down at Ava in her pink outfit, because she said to me "I get so confused on the pink and blue thing, I forget who wears what."
OK, so boys can wear pink, and girls can wear blue. But how many boys do you know that would wear this--

Better not question me now, people. Boys do not wear head bows.

Wonderful Saturday

This morning, we slept in. I had a long chat with my Grama, and Ava spent some time on her play mat, which has a mirror that she loves to look at. She had some tummy time, which is increasing in length little by little, but she doesn't seem to like it any more than she did the first time we tried it.

I spent a few relaxing hours this afternoon at the Knit Nook. Everyone there was so disappointed that I didn't bring Ava, but I wanted to actually get some knitting done, so she spent some time with her daddy at home. I started a pumkin hat for Ava, because no baby should go through a fall season without a pumpkin hat!

I took Ava for a walk this evening. It was a perfect fall evening; the air had just a little bite to it. It's been a while since I've taken her out in the moby wrap, and she looooved it! She was wide awake the entire walk, just looking around.
Here's a closeup of Ava in her cute little piggy hat Cindy made for her-

After our walk, Ava had a bath,

and then we read 'If I ran the circus.'

It's amazing how such little things add up to such a wonderful day.

Flordia, and she's mobile!!

No, she's not crawling (she's only 10 1/2 weeks old!), but she is moving around...
She's still in her bassinet next to our bed. I'm not really ready to move her into her crib- it seems so big and so far away from me, and I love having her close.
Anyway, recently I started waking up to find her head mashed into the top of the bassinet like so:
Notice that she has kicked off all of her blankets, and is fussing at me like I mashed her head up against the top. No honey, you did this all on your own!

(Don't worry though, the bassinet is soft-sided, so she can't hurt herself by doing this.)

Ava will do this same backward-scooch if you leave her on the bed too, so it has begun- NO leaving her unattended, even for a split second!

We recently returned from Orlando, Florida. Chris had a training conference for work, and Ava and I had never seen FL, so we joined him. It was a very long drive, made even longer by the fact that we had to stop every couple of hours or so so that I could nurse Ava. By the time she ate, got a clean diaper, and stretched for a few minutes, we'd lost an hour. The trip took us about a day and a half each way. However, it was worth it to be together as a family, and for these pictures-
Ava with her feet in the ocean in Clearwater

Ava's footprints on the beach

Our feet in the sand

Unfortunately, my stay-at-home-mom time is up. I have to return to work tomorrow morning. I know I will miss my little bug terribly, but I'm trying to look on the bright side- it will be good for Ava to be around someone other than me all day long, and I will once again return to the world of the working adults. The only thing that's gotten done around here for the past 10 1/2 weeks is growing a baby...which is enough for me.

It's been busy.

First, here's a picture of my pretty girl that I took today. Isn't she lovely??
A couple of weekends ago, we took Ava to see her great grandparents. Here she is with GG Viola (who, by the way does not share babies well).

And here she is with her GG Bill.

Two weekends ago, Ava went on her first plane trip to California. She got to meet her other great grandma, Mary Jane (that's why she's Ava Jane). I was glad to see my grama, but sad for the circumstances of our visit (my wonderful grampa's funeral). I am so sad that Ava won't get to know her great grampa Phil; he truly was a wonderful man. However, I will be sure she knows him through me, through stories I will tell her and memories I have of my time with him.

Ava is nearly 6 weeks old now, so we started giving her a bottle occasionally to get her used to it before I go back to work. I'm really not looking forward to that, but at least I know that my baby will eat- she had no trouble taking the bottle. Which makes me kinda sad. But, this gave her daddy the chance to feed her, which I think he really enjoyed.

Ava is doing well holding her head up. She can hold it for about 10 seconds before it starts bobbling around. I've been trying to have her spend more time on her tummy, to help strengthen those muscles, but she doesn't like it too much. I got this picture of her during the 15 seconds that she was happy on her belly.

She's starting to coo some, and I think it's the cutest sound in the world.

And this? The cutest smile in the world.

3 weeks

Can you believe 3 weeks have passed already?
Last night, Ava and I went on a walk to the lake in our neighborhood. It was the first time she'd been in her stroller for any length of time; it's about a 30-minute round trip. She seemed to like it for a while, but on the way home from the lake she started wailing. Chris was outside doing yardwork, and he said he heard her before he saw us. Poor girl, she's so mistreated.

Today I got out her tummy-time mat.
She smiled and cooed for a couple of minutes.
Then she heard the crinkle of the flower petals attatched to the mat, and she tried to eat it.

She got bored really quickly.

Don't you just want to squeeze her?

New blog

I've started this new blog to keep our families up to date with pictures. This is so much easier than e-mailing pictures to everyone individually.
If you haven't already seen the posts on my other blogs, you can see them by clicking this link.

These next two pictures were taken today, at 18 days old.
She looks so funny in this swing; it's so big, and she's so tiny.
She didn't know what to think of the swing at first. But that only lasted about 10 minutes, then she decided she didn't really care for it.

And she gave me the stink face.

Here are a few of my favorite pics so far-

Ava & cousin Dylan

Ava & her momma

Uncle Adam, cousin Emma, Daddy & Ava

Keep checking back. I'll update often.