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

So Much Fun!

Right now I am keeping my neighbor's 2 dogs while she is out of town for a few days. So, I currently have 4 dogs in the house. As you will hear in this video clip, Pancake got pretty excited playing. Every time she barks Ava kind of startles a little and blinks. Once I shut Pancake in the bathroom Ava was free to resume her laughing without so much interruption. :)

Kick it, Baby!

Ava is using her newly discovered feet a lot now! This video will show how she kicks the ball hanging down, which she really enjoys. :) She is also rolling from back to tummy multiple times a day now. If I lay her down and put a toy just out of reach she will roll and/or squirm to get to it and pick it up very much on purpose. (She used to pick things up if they accidentally ended up in her hand or were put there by me, hehe.) I gave Ava some squash today, which she seemed to like quite well. She's getting better and better at eating off a spoon with less and less ending up down her chin and on the bib. So that's what's happening now! More to come soon, I'm sure!

More Shots

Well I took Ava for her doctor's appointment today. She had to get her round of 4 month shots. I scheduled the appointment for a time when she would be hungry and tired, so right after the shots she could nurse and then take a good nap. The plan worked perfectly. I nursed her in the waiting room after the shots and right now she is napping peacefully in her crib. She is now 24 inches long and weighs 13 lbs 4 oz. Our little girl is growing up! Holy cow, how the time does fly.

New Toys

Lil A found her feet yesterday, so now she has 2 new (free!) toys. She also rolled from her back to her tummy last night! Then she got upset soon after that because she didn't actually want to be on her tummy, hehe. A couple times in the morning I have gone to get Ava from her crib when she wakes up and her head and feet are opposite from the way I put her down the night before, so she is starting to get around a bit too. Hmm... what else... oh I started feeding her a little bit of baby food a couple weeks ago. She had bananas for a week, then peaches for a week, and we're going to try pears starting today. I don't give her much at each sitting (one tiny jar of baby food lasts the whole week), so the bulk of her calories and nutrition still comes from breastfeeding. I'm just trying to get her used to eating from a spoon and trying new tastes. She seems to like bananas best so far.
Playing with her new toys


Eating some bananas baby food

More Laughter :-)

When I want to get the pups some more exercise, sometimes I'll sit at the bottom of the steps and play fetch with them up and down the stairs. Tonight Ava very much enjoyed this. I sat her in the Bumbo seat and when the pups would go out of view (up the stairs) she would look and wait and then when they came back down she would smile and laugh. Kind of like a big game of peek-a-boo. Very fun. :) :) :) :)

The Beginning of Laughter

I really can't believe how much and how fast Ava is growing and changing. She is kind of playing in her jumper thing, although her balance with sitting straight up is still not great. She reaches for things and holds things but doesn't really know what to do once she has something. Sometimes she cries out of boredom, just needing some Mommy play time, something to hold, or something new to look at. She has recently started laughing a little bit! The recording I got is on my digital camera (rather than the video camera) so it's not very clear but still fun to watch. She gets the hiccups somewhere near the end which cuts off her little laugh sometimes.