Lazy Sunday

We had a wonderful day with my Dad and Stepmom on Sunday. I love when things just work out, timing, weather, ya know? They arrived at our house while Ava was napping, and she woke up to me, Dad and Yvie looking at her. She was very well behaved the whole day. While Brent was working I took them out to Boca Grande just to see the island and see the lighthouses. The weather was great; hot but it didn't rain. They took some pictures at the lighthouses and on Banyan street (named because of the trees lining the street) but I didn't take any with my camera, so I have to wait until I get the pics from them before I can post.
We came home around 2:30pm and we hung out with Brent. My Dad brought me my baby book, something I have never seen before. It was so cool to look through it and see what I did at what age. It was only filled out up until I was about 1 1/2 since I guess that's around the time when my parents parted ways. But it was still nice to see how old I was when I got my first tooth and started crawling and talking, and I can see if Ava is following the same pattern. They also brought Ava a big stuffed polar bear from Seaworld and a TON of clothes! She is set on clothes for a while.
Brent cooked out, and we had a nice dinner on the patio. Dad and Yvie got to play with Ava and spend some time with her, and it was just a very nice day. I think we are going to meet up with them on Friday night for dinner before they leave for the 3rd part of their road trip, New Mexico.
After they left we hung out for a bit and then we so excited to be home together, we decided to go play. Literally. We took Ava to a playground close to our house. Ava might be too small to play on it but Brent and I aren't. We had some silly fun for a while. All in all, a really great day.
Ava & her Grandpa:


In her new high chair:

Ava & Daddy watching golf:

At the playground:

7 Months

I think she is cute all of the time, but she looks a little rough in these pictures. That is drool that soaked the front of her shirt, and her hair is kind of funny. She likes to stick her tongue out, and she can roll it too. I can't do that but her Dad can, so I guess that's where she got that from. As you can see from the second picture, she is able to get up on her hands and knees now. She doesn't do it very often or for very long, and she only really does it on the bed, but it's a start. A couple of times it looked like she was about to push herself back and sit up, but she didn't.
I think she might be starting to teeth because her nose has been running for the past couple of days. She doesn't have any other cold symptoms though. She has been drooling for months now but it has gotten worse lately.
September will be an exciting month for Ava, she will get to meet some members of the family she hasn't met before. The first ones will be my Dad and stepmom from New Jersey. They took a road-trip down to lovely Florida and will be visiting this week. We don't get to see them very often so this is exciting. The next visitor is my best friend Angie from Utah. This is also very exciting because we never see her! I hope we get to do lots of fun things with her while she's here.

This was taken on her last visit here, for my wedding.

Well, sorry if this post is short and choppy, I am so tired. I have been pretty stressed lately, some things are changing. Brent decided to leave his job and go back to his old job at the Ford dealership. He feels this is the best decision for him and for our little family. Also, today the insurance adjuster came out to look at our leak and our cabinets. He was here for all of 5 minutes and told me that we'd get his estimate soon. We are hoping to be able to replace the cabinets because I'm afraid mold is growing since they got soaked. I'm afraid it is going to be a really crappy estimate. That is what I hate about insurance companies; you pay and pay and pay and then when you need them, it's like pulling teeth to get any money from them. What the hell am I paying them for???

Play Date

Last Monday I baby-sat for Nathan who is around 8 months old. I had him at my house and Ava just loved him. Nathan seems like a really easy baby, didn't really fuss or anything. Ava would just look at him and smile, and she kept wanting to touch his head and face. The funniest thing was when they would both just look at each other, and then start making noises at each other. I wonder if babies really can understand the other's baby-speak. Anyway, they both seemed to enjoy the company.

Picture-Rama

This is what I see when Ava wakes up:

Mommy & Ava playing

This is her camera look:

Ava's first and only sink bath. She was okay with it until Brent let the water out and it made a loud noise going down the drain. Then she freaked and cried.

Splendor in the grass. She loves the grass.



Look at the big girl holding her bottle.

6 Months, 2 Weeks & 4 days old

Baby foods Ava has eaten - bananas, apples, peaches, pears, sweet potatoes (loves!), squash, peas (didn't like so much), green beans, rice cereal, oatmeal. We still feed her in her bouncy seat while we sit on the floor, but we are getting a high chair. We have attempted giving her apple juice in a cup, but she just can't figure out how to sip from a cup yet. She just puts the spout in her mouth and chews on it.

Sleep - Ava sleeps through the night from about 9pm until between 7 & 8am. She takes 2 naps a day, the first around 11am and the second around 4pm, and they last between 45 minutes to 2.5 hours. She sleeps in her crib with her binky (pacifier) and her mobile on. During naps we give her a blanket but at night we don't. We also have my ipod in her room with a "Baby Sleep" playlist of relaxing instrumental music. Sometimes we will rock her for a bit before bed, but most of the time we just give her a bottle and then put her in the crib and she's fine.

Ava's favorite toys - Ava loves to play with her Baby Einstein blocks, her soft Elmo book, and her turtle that plays a song when you push his head down. She also enjoys sitting in her Exersaucer out on the patio. She is not really into the swing or being in her Pack and Play. She loves playing with the pages of magazines and books, and she is fascinated with telephones. She also loves hands, and loves to play with our fingers. She can lay on our bed with us and play with our hands, and she loves when I take my hair down and brush it over her face. And she loves being in the infant carrier strapped to us. She will let us walk her around forever as long as she is in that thing.

Movement - She rolls over like crazy, that is her main form of moving around. She can roll around her room and turn in a complete 360. On the bed she does this weird "crawl" where she puts her face down on the bed and pushes with her feet. She doesn't do this anywhere else but the bed, I guess because it's soft on her face. She still can't sit up on her own, although she tries really hard. She can hold herself up if we put her in a sitting position.

Television - We have really limited the amount of time that Ava sees TV, but when we do have it on for her we have it on Noggin. It is TV specifically for toddlers and preschoolers, and there are NO commercials at all and it is all educational. Her favorite things on there is Moose, the host, and Dora the Explorer. She also like Blues Clues (okay, maybe I like this one a little more than she does) and Pinky Dinky Doo.

Songs - Ava has always loved the ABC's, her face just lights up into this huge smile when I sing it. She also loves the "Itsy Bitsy Spider", mostly because of the hand movements that go with it. I am the singer most of the time since Brent will not sing. She likes "You Are My Sunshine" and I just started doing "Little Bunny Foo-Foo."

Temperment - this is a hard one. The morning is definitely her happy time, she usually wakes up with a smile on her face. As long as she's not hungry or tired, she's a pretty good baby. But she does get bored easily and she likes to be entertained. She has that "first baby syndrome" where she's used to being picked up and kind of catered to. We are trying to shake things up a bit by bringing her to my work, getting her used to the noise of other kids and trying to get her to nap other places besides home. We also don't pick her up when she fusses, we let her go for a bit. Late afternoon/night time is her fussy times.

Just Peachy

It's been a long time since I've posted...sorry! We still have internet at home so I have no excuse, other than the normal business. Summer camp has ended, I am still suffering the effects of what I hope will be my last cold for a very long time. I have gotten sick a total of 3 times this summer, and thank the gods that Ava didn't get sick once. She had a little bit of a stuffy nose at one point, but that was it. I must admit that on Friday, the last day of camp, I was a little sad to see some of the kids go, I grew to really like some of them. Then there were others that I couldn't wait to see go. And of course the kids were behaving as though it were the last day of school so by the end of the day I was really happy summer was over. I will miss some of the counselors too, they were a lot of fun. So now I will be working in the babysitting room at the Y. I chose that over after-school care because I can bring Ava with me and the hours are a bit better for our schedules. Plus it's a lot less stress. I am also thinking about looking for a full-time job. As much as I loathe the idea of going back to work and putting Ava in daycare, the simple fact is that we cannot afford this much longer. The financial strain puts so much stress on us, and it is a constant effort to keep up with everything. It will be so hard to put her in daycare now, but will it ever be easy? I don't think so. But I do know that we cannot afford to be in debt, and that is where we're headed. Our house has been very neglected since I've been out of work, and it's starting to really bug me. Plus with that pipe leak, we need some dough. I think we are going to see if homeowner's insurance will pay for new cabinets since ours got wet and I am so afraid of mold growing, especially with Ava in the house. Anyway, I've gotten way off topic and this has really nothing to do with Ava.
She is taking her nap now, and I am so happy that we have a baby who goes to sleep so easily. She keeps herself on a really good schedule, and all we have to do is put her in the crib. I'm sure that now that I've said that she will change it all up on us, but for now it is great. My boss at the Y, Jason, has a daughter named Faith that is 1 week older than Ava, and we got to meet her on Friday night. Faith is already sitting up on her own, has 2 teeth, and is eating cookies! Of course this freaked Brent out since he is worried about Ava falling behind, but I assured him it was nothing to be worried about. As long as the doctor isn't worried, I'm not worried. We get a baby newsletter about every other month, and in this month's I read an article titled "Not So Fast, Mister." It described how when your baby is little, you want him to grow up. Then when he does, you wish he was little again. One line that stuck out in my mind was "The problem with all this growing up is, once you push your baby into the next step there's no turning back." The other night as I was feeding Ava in her room, she was squirming around and holding the bottle all by herself, and I just thought wow, she is so big, how much longer will I be able to hold her this way? Soon I won't need to hold her to feed her at all, she'll just do it herself. It will be exciting for her to start crawling and standing up, but I am in no rush.
We put Ava in a high chair at the restaurant, her first time being in a high chair, and she did okay. Sometimes she would kinda start to slouch, but she held herself up pretty good. When I brought her over to meet Faith, Ava just stared at her with the funniest look on her face. Faith was really happy and vocal and started waving her hands and banging the table. Faith has been in daycare since she was 2 months old, to Ava this is all new. Faith has also been sick many, many times and has had so many ear infections she might have to have tubes put in. That is one of my reasons for not putting Ava in day care yet. A sick baby is an unhappy baby and I don't want her to be unhappy. In the babysitting room at the Y, at first I was so worried about germs when I brought Ava in. I would wipe down the toys, put a blanket over everything to try to keep her from touching, and try to keep the other kids from touching her. Now, I have pretty much given up on that. I still try to be careful, but I've accepted the fact that I can't keep her in a bubble, and she will get germs and she will get sick one day. I could drive myself crazy trying to keep her away from stuff.
I'd better go, I have to update my resume before Ava wakes up. I will probably post some pictures tonight.