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.