Sitting Up... Again

Well Ava's newest accomplishment is going from a tummy down crawling position back to sitting up again. All by herself! I just watched her do it twice in the last five minutes! She really is getting around (and into everything!) now, too. Her little knees are red from all the crawling and scooting she does. I'll have to have her wear pants some to protect them a little more. Last night I stood her up holding on to the couch and she held herself there for like 10 seconds or more. She's really developing good strength and balance. Her one tooth is really coming in now and I'm just waiting for the other middle bottom one to come in any day. Let's see... oh yeah, Ava is LoViNg bath time even more nowadays. We do our usual wash up and everything and then I fill the tub up a couple inches and get out. I leave her in there to splash and play while I'm brushing my teeth, etc there in the bathroom with her. Here are a few more pictures!

Morning Discovery

I didn't think I would updating this again so soon but I made a wonderful discovery this morning! :) Ava was in her highchair while I was making myself some breakfast. I gave her some banana puffs (little cheerio sized bits that dissolve in your mouth) to practice feeding herself while she waited for her own breakfast. She is not so great at the finger and thumb pinching motion to pick little things up yet, so those puffs often get stuck in the palm of her fisted hand while she tries to eat them. When this happens and she starts getting frustrated I usually help her out and put the puff in her mouth. Well she bit down before I got my finger out of her mouth this time and it hurt!! So I looked close and... she has a tooth sticking through on the bottom! Not much of it is out yet but it's definitely enough to make her little bite hurt, hehe. Our little girl is growing up! Of course, I already knew this but seeing her reach milestone after milestone makes it really real. She puts herself to sleep for naps and bedtime, she sleeps through the night (like 10+ hours!), she can sit up, she can crawl/roll/scoot, she's starting to feed herself... holy cow! That's a lot of stuff to learn in just under 7 months of life! She couldn't do ANYTHING just a short time ago!

Wow, okay, there were a lot of !!exclamation points!! up there... It's just so awesome to see Ava learning and growing and changing every day. I'm so blessed (thank you, Lord) to be able to stay home with her, too. Thank you, Richard, for working so hard to provide for us!

More Videos!!!

I think you will find this first video quite humorous... I'm not going to give any explanation; you'll see. :)

The second video is of her semi-crawling, which is basically her doing repeated push-ups combined with some scooting forward, hehe.

6 Month Appointment

I took Ava yesterday for her 6 month "Well Baby" check-up and shots. Among babies her age, she is in the 25th percentile for height (25.5 inches) and in the 5th percentile for weight (14.1 lbs). The doctor said he is not worried about her and developmentally she looks great, but he'd like to see her gain some weight. So I'm supposed to increase the breastfeeding and/or supplement with formula and we'll go back in a month for a weight check. She got two shots, which she ScReAmEd about, and we were good to go. Ava is a pretty resilient little girl. When she gets hurt or upset she calms down pretty quickly and easily. I guess she was pretty tired after that eventful morning cuz in the afternoon she napped from about 12:30-4:30! Then last night she went to bed at about 10:15 and didn't wake up (or at least wake me up) until about 8:15 this morning. I am LOVING getting some good sleep too. :)
This morning we took the pups for a walk. BB and Pancake are still doing great with Ava. Pancake is always nearby, like a little furry mama. BB keeps her distance a little more, but she's fine with her too. Ava loves going for walks, just riding in the stroller and looking at everything. She's usually pretty sleepy (or asleep) by the end from so much looking around and the lulling motion of traveling.
That's it for now. I'll try to keep the videos coming. I know that's everyone's favorite part of the blogs. :)

Music Table & Paper

Here are a couple videos... The first one is of Ava playing with this awesome little music table. It has legs that can attach once she is able to pull up and stand. The second one is of Ava playing with one of her favorite things - paper. :)

Moving Along

Wow, it's been a while since my last update... Let's see...

About 3 weeks ago Ava started sitting up by herself. She fell over a lot so I had to watch her close, but now she is much more stable and I can leave her to sit by herself and play with some toys. She still crashes sometimes, but she's even better at that too and usually does so somewhat gently. :) She has pushed up into a crawling position a few times but doesn't know what to do from there. So for now she is getting around by rolling.

Ava's appetite has also increased dramatically in about the last two weeks. Maybe we're coming into a growth spurt? She is eating lots of foods - baby food and regular foods that I can smash up easily myself (sweet potatos, carrots, etc), and she's also still nursing 3-4 times a day. With days full of learning, playing and eating, she is sleeping really well too. I just moved her crib mattress down lower in the crib today in anticipation that she will be pulling up on the those rails any day now. (Don't want to find her on the floor one morning!)

Richard is still in Iraq but we are definitely on the downhill now. About 3 months to go (not that we have an exact return date). I feel like time is starting to slow down but I'm trying to stay positive and keep busy. We are still able to video chat and/or talk on the phone pretty regularly and for that I am SO thankful. I love being able to point the camera to Ava playing or whatever so he can see her in her element some too. She is starting to respond some to him talking to her as well, although I think she's a little confused about where his voice is coming from.

Here are a few pictures from the last couple weeks. I'll update again soon!

July 4th waiting for fireworks (Ava ended up sleeping through them)

she loved playing with this tennis ball :)

she rolled herself all the way here under this chair