Monday, February 9, 2009
Friday, February 6, 2009
Happy Birthday Daddy! 26 weeks

This has been quite an exciting week for our little doodle. She is transitioning to her own crib at night instead of co-sleeping with mommy and daddy. The first night was really rough on me but not as bad on Ava. She did have a look of terror on her face as she cried in her crib, but that only lasted about 30 minutes and off to sleep she was. I cried when I went into our room to get in bed and my little doodle wasn't getting in the bed with me. We decided to transition her slowly and put her down in her crib for the evening and then bring her back with us when she wakes up for her next feeding. Each night has gotten better and better with no tears at all the last two nights and she's done an excellent job of waking up and putting herself back to sleep. Each night she sleeps a little longer by herself. I'm really happy with her progress. One thing we've noticed that she does is that she pulls her entire body up to the bumper and cuddles with it. She'll even have her arm over the top of it like she does with me when we sleep. It's so sweet and so sad for me at the same time. She just wants something soft to cuddle with.
Look at my 2 teeth!
She's also sitting up on her own. I had been sitting her up on her rug anytime we would play in her room so she could learn to balance herself and this week, voila she was doing it all by herself!
In my sweet duds from Aunt Sara
She's scooting across the floor, not quite crawling yet, but she'll scoot and thing raise her hiney in the air like she wants to crawl. I say it's just a matter of days and she'll be crawling.
She's also figured out how to get her walker to zoom all over the place and is zooming all over the house with it. She had been doing it for grandmother for a couple of days and one evening Steve called me at work and said "she's walking in her walker!" I made him video it for me so I could see it for myself. The biggest fear of a working mom, Not being there for her firsts :( I was very sad about that. I know it's not the same as actually walking, but you know what I mean.
Yesterday Steve was working out in the garage and we took Ava out in her walker. She was up and down the driveway and all over the garage. She even scooted up to Steve and pulled on his pant leg. It was too cute!
I've got several fun video's to post but I'm having issues with the website that hosts our videos. Hopefully it'll be up and going again soon.
Peas are poop!
Thursday, January 29, 2009
24 & 25 Weeks- 6 months
Ava is now
15 lbs 5 oz - 25%
26.5 in long- 75%
16.5 in head circ-45%
Teeth Count- 2
She is a lot smaller in weight than the little boys she knows like her cousin Trent, but the pediatrician said that because she is steadily in the 25th percentile in weight that she is doing fantastic. She also said that Ava has the social/cognitive skills of a 9 month old and is pretty advanced when it comes to her movements and awareness. Dr. Finnila warned us that she did hear a heart murmur today which she hadn't heard before. We started to get a little worried when she spent several minutes listening to Ava's heart. She told us that we shouldn't worry as most children (90%) will have a heart murmur at some point in their childhood. She just wanted us to be aware of it. She said the next time we come that it could be gone and never heard again. She didn't seem to think it was much to worry about right now. Of course at her 9 month appointment I'm going to be so worried that they will hear it again!
Yep you read that right she now has two wittle bottom teeth. One has come through already and the other is almost completely broken through. The teething hasn't been too bad. She still eats and sleeps but is just a little fussier and doesn't nap as long. Ava is rolling all over the place these days. I can hardly get a diaper on her without having to roll her back over 3 or 4 times. She loves to lay on the floor and roll her way around. She now hates getting dressed and anytime we pull anything over her head and start trying to put her arms in the arm holes she starts screaming. She does not want to be interrupted when she's playing. In fact Dr. Finnila had the hardest time listening to her heart today because Ava kept trying to take the stethescope off of her neck. She is such a good eater too! She pretty much gobbles down anything I've given her and this week she's on Carrots.
After some discussion today with the pediatrician we have decided that now is a good time to break the co-sleeping habit and move the doodlebug to her own bed. I am dreading this. I know we will make it through the crying the first few nights, but I can't stand the thought of not having that time with her on the evenings I'm at work. We realize that it's better for her to be in her own crib and able to soothe herself to sleep, it's just me that needs to let go. M-W is going to be even hard for me now when I'm only spending 1 hour in the evening with her before bedtime :( So tomorrow night it is with great sadness for mommy that we begin the sleep training.
Nibbling on toast-oops Dr. Finnila said not until 8 months Ava!
Playing with my cousin Trent (2 mos)
Gig Em

National Lampoons Babysitting Adventure
Last saturday night we had dinner with some friends for my friend Emily's 32nd birthday. My mom is always dying to spend time with Ava so she gladly came over to babysit. She even came over early in the day so Ava could get used to her being there. Well out to door we go and get to dinner and mom calls and says that Ava is already asleep in her crib and that she's watching her on the monitor. 3 minutes later the phone rings again and it's my mom. I though "oh crap Ava is ALREADY awake?" but when I answered all I could hear was the alarm going off, dogs barking and Ava screaming! Apparently Steve was on autopilot on the way out the door and set the alarm before we left. When mom was all smug and proud of herself for getting Ava to bed already she decided to go out on the deck and have a smoke. Well when she opened the back door all hell broke loose. The alarm went off and woke up Ava who was freaking out! Once she got in touch with me and finally got it turned off she ran in to comfort Ava. As soon as she got Ava all quited down and nodding off again the phone rang and up Ava was screaming again. It was Brinks asking for the passcode, mom didn't know it and they hung up. She got Ava quieted down again and the phone rings AGAIN! Brinks again asking some questions which my mom answered over the sound of a very upset baby. So she gets off the phone and soothes Ava back down again and then the police knock on the door. Mom runs to the door and yells "I don't know the code!" and they tell her to open the door anyway. So she does and Magnum gets out and runs down the street. One of the cops chases Magnum down and Ava starts screaming as soon as she sees the cops at the door. The cops come in and ask mom all kinds of questions all the while Ava is screaming and crying. The finally leave and mom is a nervous wreck and so is Ava! When we got home mom was shaking like a leaf and Ava was okay but still doing her little sniffle. Mom said she didn't know she was going to have the Chevy Chase Babysitting adventure that night! LOL!
With Memaw after our National Lampoons Babysitting Adventure
Thursday, January 22, 2009
Monday, January 19, 2009
24 Weeks

When Steve gets home in the evening he always runs to the bedroom and changes clothes real fast before he comes back into the living room. Ava gets so excited when he comes in the door and so angry when walks right by her and into the bedroom. Poor little doodlebug, she just wants her daddy to hold her afterall.

Ava is loving solid foods. She is such a good eater! So far she hasn't refused anything I've given her although she isn't a big fan of green beans. Last week I gave her a piece of toast to gnaw on and she was just the cutest thing sitting there sucking on her little piece of toast. Of course the first piece I gave her was snatched right out of her hand by Magnum. He has since learned not to do that. Now both dogs sit in front of her like little vultures waiting on her to drop it on the floor so they can gobble it up. With her eating solids she was getting a little backed up so I decided to feed her some prunes on Friday night, woah...I should have only fed her half because she exploded her diaper 4 times on Saturday! I told Steve, well at least she's cleaned out now!
We are those bad parents that bought a walker for our child. I figured that since we don't have stairs and we are sitting with her everytime she's in it, that there really isn't too much to worry about. I'm glad we got it because she absolutely loves sitting in it. It puts her at eye level with the dogs so she scoots around (only backwards so far) and squeals at the top of her lungs in pure joy.Saturday was my friend Julie's little girl Audrey's 3rd birthday party. Ava was invited and it was at a place called Monkey'n around. Ava had so much fun! She loves being around other little kids and there was so many toys for her to play with. She squealed in delight and rolled around on the floor just having a blast. Here are some pictures from Saturday.




Friday, January 16, 2009
Thursday, January 8, 2009
I'm a working woman again- 23 weeks

Tuesday Grandmother arrived and when I handed her over to leave, Ava started crying and watching me. This broke my heart and cried on the way to work anticipating another rough day on my baby (and Grandmother). Well Grandmother called at lunch and said that she ony cried for a few minutes and that she went down for her nap and slept almost 2 hours! She did grea
t the rest of the day..took a little more of her bottles and took her regular naps. Wednesday she did even better, eating more, napping longer and all around happy. I know I was relieved and so was Grandmother! Grandmother was sweet enough to take pictures of her throughout the day so we could see what she'd been up to.
W
e've noticed that her baby hair is starting to fall out and she has these little bald spots randomly placed about her head. We are just dying to see what color she ends up with. She must have hit a growth spurt over Christmas because she's suddenly fitting in her 6 month clothes when before Christmas even her 3-6 month clothes were big on her. She can almost sit up by herself, but she'll topple over if you don't help her along. We bought this little mesh teething
gadget that you can put frozen fruit or veggies in and she has really enjoyed that thing. Expecially when we put frozen bananas in it. She can munch on it all she wants without us having worry about her choking. 


