It feels like just yesterday that I posted about Ava's 8 month milestone! Summer is flying by waayyy too quickly ... I'm sure it's because this is my favorite season. :) It's almost August and we have yet to make it on vacation!! Anyway, back on topic ... Ava has been a BLAST this month! Even through teething. :) Thank goodness I'm keeping a journal for her (well, and me ;) to look back on at how sweet of a baby she has been!! I just want to quickly say that bringing a baby into this world and experiencing the joy & intense love I feel for her has been the most awesome experience of my life! If my heart was filled with any more love than this I'm sure it would explode! With that said, I wouldn't wish a baby for anyone who wasn't completely ready to shower that baby in love, affection, attention, and patience! Babies (and kiddos) deserve to feel every ounce of their mommies & daddies love for them and for each other!! Yes, okay ... that's all. :)
So, Ava has
finally cut a couple teeth!!! I knew they were coming!! Two sharp lil teethers are poking through on the bottom! I'd say they are about half way up. They are the cutest lil things! About a week of sleepless nights (okay, it wasn't
that bad, she woke up once or twice a night...so I guess that's not
sleepless) and a rather grumpy baby for a day or so just before those 2 teeth erupted. We feel more are coming ... and you can guess why.
My favorite new thing this month is Ava giving kisses!! Oh My Gooooooodness! Melt my heart!!! I say, "Can I have a kiss?" and she leans toward me with a big wide open mouth with her tongue hanging out to give me a kiss!! Sweetest. Thing. Ever. The best kisses come in the morning when I pick her up out of her crib ... I barely get the words out and she's already leaning over to give me a big wet kiss!! She gives Eric kisses, the kitty, tries to give them to Portia, but never really succeeds ... she even tried to lay one on her babysitter with a mouth full of sweet potatoes! She is a natural lovebug. ;) Gosh, I love it!
Ava loves clapping and giving high-fives, especially while she is in her highchair! She really loves listening to pat-a-cake and watching your hands do the "rolly-rolly-rolly" part. She giggles every time. And boy is she a razzberry blower!
Eric's favorite thing to do with her when she wakes up in the morning is bring her to our room and let her hang out in bed with us for awhile. She grabs the tv remote and fiddles with it for a bit ... then she crawls all over us and gets lost in the blankets. Portia, of course, sleeps in our room at night, so while Ava is on the bed with us Eric will say, "Ava, where's Portia?" and she'll get all excited and crawl up on daddy's chest so she can see down to the floor where Portia is laying...then she'll flail her arms in the air and say something like "dododabahlalado!!!" She loves that dog. :) It's really neat how she's learning and associating our words with actual things.
Ava went to her well-baby checkup this morning. Fun times. :) She is 21 lbs (80th percentile) and 28 inches (90th percentile). Chubby Wubby ;) I'm not sure where she's getting her 'height' from since Eric and I are both pretty average, but Dr. Brown said she'll plateau after her first birthday, most likely.
She still has a clogged tear duct ... I feel like a broken record. I'm
really avoiding intervention on this because she will have to be put under some type of anesthesia, obviously because babies do not hold still while they're being probed in the eye. I am not down with the anesthesia part. Nooo, thank you. It really bothers me to think about it so, I'm hoping and praying that it opens on its own. Unless I hear an option that doesn't involve anesthesia, I will not be hopping on the bandwagon with this one. I am thankful that this is Ava's only medical issue so far! A very minor issue at that!
Ava still takes about two, sometimes three, naps a day and then goes to bed around 8:00. Lately, due to teething issues I'm sure, she's been getting up a couple times a night. Usually, if she gets up twice and it's early in the night I will give her some Motrin. She seems to have trouble relaxing and falling back to sleep, which I've been blaming on teething pain. The Motrin always helps and she's able to sleep untill morning then.
Something Ava and I have really enjoyed lately is the walking group we've joined called Mommies & Munchkins. It is tons of fun!! A friend of mine introduced me to the group about a month ago. We all get together on tuesdays & thursdays (just tuesdays for me & Ava since I work thursdays) and meet up at different parks in the Dublin/Hilliard area and get some exercise & socialization! It's a christian-based group, so we start out the morning with Summer (she's the creator of the group) reading a devotion and then we stretch our muscles before the walking and exercising begins. We do lunges ... lots of lunges ... and then I'm sore for days!! The soreness process starts over the following week ... when we do MORE lunges & crunches and yada yada yada. So, picture this---a group of about 6-10 moms with their munchkins in strollers power walking around the park ... stopping every so often to get down and do some crunches ... and then back up to do some lunges ... and then we do various other exercises as well ... and this goes on for about an hour. Then at the end, we get our munchkins out of their strollers (if they're big enough) and do circle time ... so, we sing "Ring Around the Rosey," "Head, Shoulders, Knees, & Toes" and recite the memory verse of the month! This month's verse is, "We love because He first loved us." John 4:19. There are munchkins there from the age of 3 or 4 months to 8 years old! It can be a little elementary at times, but I think it's a pretty awesome group. Ava loves getting in on the action, too!! Eric gets a kick out of my group and says, "You guys have got to be a sight out there strolling around the park doing exercises with your strollers!" I agree--we are a sight to see, I'm sure! The old folks at the parks love watching us! ;) We are having a Mom's Night Out soon which I'm really excited for! Thank You Jess for introducing me to M&M! :)
Enjoy the pictures from my seriously lame old 3.2 MP digital camera!! :)
"I'm coming to get you, Momma!"
"Hi there, Smiley Bear!"
"Wait, is that a butt cheek hanging out? Or just another chubby roll?"
"I'm wearing shoes!! For the first time--real shoes!!"
"Soooo Big!"
Don't you just wanna smooch those cheeks! OouuWee!!
Blowing razzberries ... with a very runny nose--Ha!
This beach is no Siesta Key -- but, it's the best Columbus has to offer! ;~)
She loved feeling the waves come up over her toes!! Unfortunately, pictures only show so much of her reaction--she flapped her arms and hands so fast I was pretty sure she was going to approach lift-off! Huh-larious!!
She liked clapping her hands with the sand---notice daddy has buried her chubby feet in the sand. I have a feeling these two are going to be a handful when she gets a little older. ;)
She's kinda lookin' like, "Uhhhh dad, what are you doing to my feet?"
Going for a ride!!
Silly Willy :)
I cannot get enough of this girl. 0:)
