Crawling!!

This video is of Ava from last week. She looks like she's getting around great in this video and now she's even more into E-V-E-R-Y-T-H-I-N-G!! I love watching her chubby buns crawl around--even if she is harder to keep an eye on. :)

And, She's Off ...

Well, this is it ... our lives will never be the same again ... our little peanut is MOBILE. She just tackled the skill of rolling from her back to her belly this week. Now she's all over the place! She's like a little tumbleweed. :) She has rolled into the coffee table and conked her head, banged her head on the hardwood floors, gotten stuck in her activity gym on top of her toys, and gotten real up close and personal with Portia and our kitty, a little too close for my comfort--Portia is 140lbs of pure love-but is rather clumsy at times. So her life is much more exciting these days! She's learning cause and effect ... and what it feels like to have an "ouchie" :) It is so fun to watch her grow and develop.

We've also moved on to carrots. :) That's a fun time ... I've learned that what goes in bright orange, must come out bright orange, from both ends. Ava actually doesn't seem to like the carrots--maybe because that's her first non-green food? I'll keep trying them...she'll get used to them I'm sure.

Which brings me to my next topic --- making baby food! I have decided to make all of Ava's food from organic produce ... as long as I possibly can! I feel like her virgin intestinal tract doesn't need to be invaded by food that may have traces of pesticides, steroids, fungicides, yada yada yada. Babies absorb so much more of that junk than adults because they eat about 6 times more fruits and veggies than we do as adults. I want to provide her with the most naturally grown substances that I can and after doing my fair share of research I think organic is the way to go for us. No added preservatives, no added sodium, no pesticides, just pure and natural fruits and veggies made with TLC by mommy!

I wondered at first if I would have the time and energy to put into making all of her food. For those of you who are wondering, I can get all of her food made and in the freezer in about 20-30 minutes one night a week. It's totally worth it to me! I use a great book called, So Easy Baby Food. It's available at Whole Foods Market and I'm sure you can buy it at Barnes and Noble or any bookstore too. There's not much to it when it comes to making baby food, but this book helps those (like me!) who don't know where to start. Nutrition is outrageously important when it comes to an infant's neurological and immunological development. I don't think infant and childhood nutrition is given the attention it deserves. The type of food that goes into a baby's tummy will mold her future nutritional tastes and behavioral development. I feel great knowing I'm doing my part for her future health and development by choosing the best foods for her now. I also hate that her virgin immune system is shocked with 4 vaccinations every two months for her first year of life, but I haven't quite figured out how to get around that one. Oh, I could go on and on and on about this! Does that mean that I think anyone who doesn't feed their baby organic produce are awful non-caring parents? Nope ... just that I am pleased with what I'm doing! Different strokes for different folks, right? :) Okay, that's my soapbox for the day! ;)

Some cute pics ... enjoy!









Just a quick video of Ava's latest skill :)

Road Trip

Last Wednesday I was checking out what the weather was supposed to do for the upcoming weekend. Since I had the weekend off I was hoping to get outside and get some yardwork done or work on remodeling our half bath. Not to my surprise the forecast was calling for rain...rain, rain, and more rain. I sent Eric a text and said "Gonna rain this weekend" and he quickly texted back "Road trip?" ABSOLUTELY! That's just what we need! A weekend out of the house, whether it's raining where we go or not at least we won't be cooped up in our own house for another weekend of dreary rain! We got ahold of our friends who live in Virginia, who just happen to have a baby Ava's age ;o). It sounded like a perfect weekend ... they know just the boat we're in when it comes to maintaining a social life with an infant (quite difficult to balance the two:). We all thought it would be a blast to hang out and chill together for the weekend and see our two babies together -- and was it ever! :) We ate wonderfully...enjoyed the company...loved watching our babies together...and came home refreshed! (Even though Ava wasn't a great sleeper...we'll let that slide:) Can't thank those two enough for their wonderful hospitality ;).

Sometimes its fun to just get together with another mommy and talk nothing but baby (oh, and hair!:). Our babies were due 2 weeks apart, but Ella came 8 weeks early. So they are pretty much at the same point developmentally, even though Ella is 7 months old and Ava is only 5 months. As different as all babies are from one another they are also so similar! The same goes for mommies:). It's comforting hearing another mommy talk about the same kind of struggles as well as delights that I'm experiencing with Ava (not sleeping through the night...not a great nap taker...how difficult it is to clip those little baby fingernails!...babysitter struggles...maintaining a social life, etc.). We had a good time. The next time we get together these babies will be mobile and keeping us even busier!


The mommy's went shopping after lunch and the daddy's took the babies home. This is what we found upon our return...priceless.



Ella & Ava



Ava's other buddy for the weekend, Marley:)



Ava checking out that bald head of Ella's :)






The Coen's :)



So SILLY!



Check out her amazing eyelashes!!



The babies checking on another out :)



Ready for their mini road trip.



On top of the mountain overlooking Roanoke. Pretty cool view. A little windy out though!


We only stayed out for about 5 minutes...would've been neat to walk around a little more but the wind was whipping and taking the babies' breath so we thought we better make it a quick trip!


Ava's new favorite activity...bouncing in Ella's bouncer! She was showing Ella how to do it...Ella's a little too short yet to reach her little toes on the floor to jump...but Ava was a maniac in this thing!


Sweet Cheeks Ella

**Check this lil booger out in this jumper! She LOVED it ... we're going to trade her Einstein's jumper in for this one...she just really enjoyed this one!!

Practicing for the Riverdance ... hehe

Bounce, Bounce, Baby!

We've noticed Ava getting more and more interactive and playful lately! She really gets excited in her doorway Jump & Go! It is hilarious (to us anyways:)! She has a Baby Einstein's jumper/activity center too, but the seat isn't deep enough for her to sink down into so she kind of wobbles around in that one. I got a little video of her trying out her jumping legs ... Enjoy!

P.S. This one's for you Jennifer R.! :) Hee, hee!




**See J.R., Ava can do more than flap her "wings" ;)!**
(For those of you who are wondering, a coworker of mine jokingly commented on my video posts and said that all my videos of Ava capture her doing the same thing over and over... like flapping her arms...and it must be a mom-thing that these moments are so special. I said "Heck yea they are!" haha. ) So here you go Jen, not only can she imitate a bird, she's a pretty good frog when she wants to be too!=o)

Silly Cereal Time

I was feeding Ava some cereal the other day about mid-afternoon when a serious dose of the sillies hit her. It was cracking me up! Here's the evidence. ;)

Yes, I'm video happy today :)

Here's another cute one of Ava playing on her activity mat. She has been getting quite the personality lately! It's so fun to watch her grow and learn about everything around her! She was really getting into these fish ... so cute! Such an active girl she is :) It's bizarre that she's not even two months old yet and already she's soaking up her surroundings like a little sponge!

P.S. Don't mind my baby-talk ;) hehe.

The reason these things have seat belts! :)

Eric & I were watching TV the other evening in the living room and Ava seemed pretty happy to be in her bouncy seat! It was about 9pm so it seemed funny that she had so much energy this late in the evening, but we let her get good and tired! She played for about 1/2 hr! You know babies don't have much of an attention span so that was pretty good! :) It was cracking us up how excited she was getting about the lights & toys on her bouncy seat so I had to take a little video of it! :) And this is why these things have seat belts! hehe. At times it looks like she's just going to sling-shot herself outta that thing! :)

Just something cute ;) Enjoy!