This sums it up ... :-)

Happy 4 Months Ava!

Our munchkin is 4 months old already!! Each month I think, "Wow, she is really getting to be so much fun!" This month has been no exception ... she gets chubbier, cuter, sillier, and more curious everyday!

She has been through the ringer this month though, for sure. She started the month with a bout of the flu ... seemed to get over that rather quickly. Then about a week later she got some serious diarrhea. :( Her pediatrician said the flu bug was just running through her and it was nothing to worry about ... still eating like a champ so we thought, "okay, this should clear up in no time too." Wrong. She still has diarrhea ... and an awful diaper rash to go with it! :( We tried everything in the book ... desitin, a & d ointment, balmex ... nothing was even touching her poor bottom. Then our babysitter gave us the suggestion of using a mixture of Aquaphor & Maalox and slathering that on her bum. This stuff works like magic!! I was so pleased to see that after one night of using this concoction her bum was 75% better!! We're still battling the diarrhea ... although it has slowed down, but the aquaphor/maalox has made a big difference. Her pediatrician said the diarrhea will probably stick around for a couple weeks. :( On top of the flu & diarrhea ... Miss Ava has decided to stop sleeping through the night. Yep, our dream days, or shall I say nights, are over. We believe that she has been waking up more frequently because of the diarrhea & diaper rash ... she never used to poop at night and now we're changing her nonstop!! Isn't it funny how very weird it would be for me to be talking about anyone other than a baby's bowel habits ... hehe. So, we're adjusting to that ... and hoping every night when we go to bed that this will be the night that she starts sleeping 8-9 hours straight again. :) I also believe that she's been waking up more frequently because she is sleeping in her room in her crib now. We decided to make the transition at the beginning of this month when Eric got the flu and we didn't want to keep her up all night with his coughing.

So who knows, we'll keep trying her room a few more weeks ... if things don't get better for any of us then back to our room she goes!! We'll have to do what makes us all happy. :) Eric & I have no problem with keeping her in our room where she feels safe & cozy. :) I don't believe all that rubbish about babies developing dependency by sleeping in their parents' room ... shoot, she slept in my belly for 9 months ... why shouldn't it take her at least 9 months to be comfortable sleeping away from me. :) Just my theory. She has exceeded the weight limit for her bassinet so her crib was the next alternative...otherwise she would still be at the foot of our bed. :) The transition might be hardest on Eric, truthfully. He's so paranoid that we won't hear her wake up and cry that he gets no sleep at night ... keep in mind, her bedroom is right across from ours, we sleep with all the doors open, and we use a baby monitor -- which he turns the volume up so high on that we can hear her clock ticking on the monitor. I try to remind him of the set of lungs his daughter has ... if she really wants us to hear her she will certainly make it known! :)

We've also started rice cereal with Ava this month! So much fun! I decided to give it a try when I noticed her reaching for my food and mouthing my glass at the dinner table. Once I gave her a tiny bit of ice cream from my spoon and she got so excited for more that I thought she was going to wiggle off my lap! We decided it must be time for some cereal for this little girl! She loves it and does really well ... we haven't been very scheduled with it quite yet ... for now we're just giving her some here and there to get her used to eating from a spoon and adjusting to the texture of cereal. It's so much fun feeding her ... she gets her hands in her mouth and then touches her hair and my hair and by the time we're done she's covered with cereal from head to toe, including the inside of her ears! :)

She's a blast! We've had to buy some new toys for her lately too ... she's at the age where she's ready to explore! This past weekend was Daddy & Ava's weekend since I had to work ... he took her out shopping and came home with all kinds of goodies for her. :) He's so sweet with her... it totally melts my heart. I came home Sunday evening after work and felt so betrayed ... she hardly acknowledged that I was home the little turkey! She just carried on smiling and staring at her Daddy. C'mon girl ... you can't look exactly like your daddy and give him all your attention! :) She's funny. I feel so super blessed to have such a wonderful family. :)

I think that covers the 4 month news for Ava. We are all doing great ... we'll be even better when that pesky diarrhea clears up completely!!




Ava says, "Oh my goodness, I'm 4 months old already!?"


Chubb-o at 3 months :)


2 Months


1 Month ... lil bird legs :)


My sweet baby at 1 day old :)


Loves her bumbo ... the inventor of this one was a genius:)



Now this keeps her busy!! :)



Dinner time! You can't help but make this face when you're feeding a baby ;)


Yea! Good & Messy! :)

3 Months, 3 Weeks, 3 Days!

Today is Ava's infamous 3 months, 3 weeks, and 3 days!! It's a special day because my Grandma took a picture of every one of her children on this particular day when they were babies wearing either the pants outfit (for the boys) or the dress (for the girls). The tradition has carried on through her grandchildren (my generation) and now great grandchildren (Ava's generation). I found a picture of me in "the dress" when I was 3 months, 3 weeks, and 3 days old! It was so neat putting this dress on her this morning knowing that I wore the exact same dress when I was exactly her age. This dress has some miles on it! It looks and feels like an antique. :) It's such a precious tradition, I think.





My 3 months, 3 weeks, 3 days picture (February 1985)

A Visit From the Flu Bug ... :-(

Our family had a very-not-so-friendly visit from the flu bug this week!!! Not Cool! Eric was down and out on Sunday & Monday with fevers running around 101-102 degrees. Despite all efforts to keep him quarantined in the bedroom ... the bug managed to infect Ava as well. She started running a fever of about 102 degrees on Monday night, so I stayed home from work on Tuesday and gave her some serious TLC!! She slept most of the day and I kept Tylenol in her if her fever crept up past 101-ish. Poor girl was feeling really bad. I took her to her pediatrician yesterday who advised to keep doing what I was doing and let the nasty bug run its course. Thankfully, this morning she feels much better and is all smiles and giggles! Having a sick baby is the pits!!

I'm crossing my fingers that my "mommy immunity" will hold strong for me and I don't get sick!! I've been doubling up on the Vitamin C and Juice Plus!!



** At the pediatrician's office ... she totally doesn't feel good :(



**Sleeping with mommy on the couch.



**This baby girl never left my arms all day!



** Feeling quite chipper this morning! :-)

Cheap Entertainment :-)

I was holding Ava and eating a granola bar the other day and Ava snatched the wrapper right out of my hands and was instantly fascinated! :) She dropped the wrapper and I started walking away and don't you know she started crying, so I picked the wrapper up and gave it back to her and she was happy as a clam! :) She honestly played with that thing for an hour straight before she dozed off to sleep. She just held in front of her face and stared at it, crinkled it, and finally ended up tasting it. I thought, wow- now this is cheap entertainment!

Hallelujah!!

Our sitter hunt has ended ... we found the perfect babysitter for Ava!! We didn't expect to be this blessed and have our search over in a week, but thankfully we can breathe a sigh of relief now. :) The best part ... we can see her backyard from our house! :) She has two children of her own, 7 & 2, and is a stay at home mom. She watches one other 2 year old during the day, so I'm sure Ava will find entertainment in watching them run around and play all day. Her degree is in early childhood education and she used to run the baby room at the Goddard School here in Columbus. She knows babies. :) She was very easy to talk to and Eric & I feel confident that our families will be a great match! There is one rather large problem that we have had to put a lot of thought into, and that is ... her husband is a die-hard MICHIGAN FAN!!! Y-U-C-K! haha! I suppose we'll look past that ugly blemish and forgive him for having such bad taste in college football teams. :)

So, that's the biggest news of the week. We had a superbowl party here on Sunday. It was so nice to have friends over and just relax and watch some football... a rather good game if I do say so myself. :)

Oh, and work has been going great! Ava has adjusted really well to my being away. :) I get my daily dose of her while I'm at work from faithful picture messaging. :) She's getting to be such a big girl. She grabs at everything now! She'll reach for my glass when I'm taking a drink and she reaches for the food on my plate ... mostly just to make a mess, she's not trying to eat it yet :) Won't be long and she'll be starting on cereal!

Here's some pictures from this week ... Enjoy!

P.S. I'm sooooooooo ready for spring ...




** This picture is basically in real-time ... I took these two pictures literally two minutes before this post :) **








** Such a turkey :) **

Back to work ...

I'm sure you're all wondering how it went over the weekend. :) It went better than I thought it would:) I think it was hardest for me. I thought about her all day long and kept glancing at the clock like, "awww, right now I would be rocking and cuddling with her before laying her down for a nap" etc. ... Ava loved spending the time with her daddy and they did just fine together. It was a long weekend :) Eric was happier than ever to see me walk through the front door finally at 8pm on saturday and sunday! He was ready for relief :) He was like, "Yay! Mommy's home Ava!" he handed the baby to me and said, "Ok I'm gonna go walk the dog!" haha. 13 hrs is an exhausting amount of time to spend alone with an infant, so I totally understood! I was sooo happy to see her!!

The bad news is ... I received an email Sunday night from our very-soon-to-be-babysitter. She suddenly won't be able to watch Ava anymore. Kind of a fishy story, so we're frustrated and shocked and not exactly sure what in the world we're going to do now... since we needed her beginning the first week of February. Thanks for the last minute notice!! It is at moments like this when I wish we lived closer to family. So, now we have a rather large predicament on our hands. I may have to do some shift switching at work a couple days a week or something, I don't know, we will figure something out. Thankfully, my managers are very flexible and will most likely help me out however they can. I'm getting the feeling that this wasn't meant to be anyways. I've been dreading taking her to the sitter's house since day 1 ... I thought it was just because I didn't want to leave her with anyone who doesn't love her as much as we do... but maybe my gut was telling me something ... I think the Lord kind of whisked that situation away before it could even begin. So, the upside to this situation is hopefully we find someone really wonderful to watch Ava who I feel completely confident and comfortable with ... I would love for someone to come to our home and watch her where she loves to be! I thought this sitter was going to be great because of all the wonderful referrals I got from a couple people at work, but obviously I wasn't feeling it and neither was she.

So, keep us in your thoughts while we hunt for a fantastic sitter! It's such a lengthy decision to make (which is why we began last July!). We're open to ideas and suggestions :) Wish us luck!

Happy 3 months Ava!

Our big girl is 3 months old today! She is really beginning to blossom :) Her little personality is starting to show through more and more everyday!



** 3 months **



** 2 months **



** 1 month **



** 1 day old **







**Classic 3 month pose ... sucking her fingers and playing with her hair :) **



** Mid-giggle **



** Sucking on her bottom lip ... another one of her favorites :) **



** Happy girl loves her baths! **


Some updates on our little one ...

~She is rolling over from belly to back ... and almost back to belly... she'll be there sooner than we think I'm sure! She rolls onto her side from her back and sits there for a little bit...she can't quite figure out what to do with the arm on the side that she's rolling on, hehe!

~Still eating 4 ounces every three hours.

~As you can see from the earlier post, she is giggling nowadays! It's so cute to hear her giggle!

~She sleeps from about 8:00pm to 5:00am. Sometimes she throws in a 3am wake-up call, but for the most part she sleeps til about 5am...sometimes 6am :) She's ready to be up for the day around 7am.

~She's using her hands more and more ... she keeps them right in front of her all the time. It's cute how sometimes she holds them together in front of her, or grabs her left arm with her right hand and moves it around, hehe.

~Still has that stubborn clogged tear duct on her left eye :( I've been trying to massage it at every diaper change but it doesn't seem to be opening. Her pediatrician last month said that usually they open by 4 months, if not, then she will see an ophthalmologist by 6 months to have it opened. Hope we don't get to that point!

~She grabs the toys in her activity gym and holds onto them instead of just batting at them.

~She is getting way more vocal! I think she likes to see how loud she can be, haha, she'll screech & scream as loud as she can and then look at us and giggle. :)

~She's right around 13 lbs. We don't have a baby scale but when we weighed her while I held her it came out to be about 13 lbs.

~She's wearing size 3-6 month clothes. Size 2 diapers.

~She has recently discovered her bottom lip! hehe She sucks on that thing all the time!

~She has recently discovered that she has hair. She reaches back behind her ear and plays with her hair while she sucks on her fingers. hehe, too cute!

~She's a mama's girl :) She has been getting a little weird lately about being around people other than me & Eric. When we go visit my friend Christy, who is also going to be babysitting her here and there when I go back to work, she gets really fussy. She used to have no problem at all being away from home, but she's changing her ways on us. :) She also gets funny around Eric's dad & Christy's husband. She throws that bottom lip out and starts wailing after about 2 minutes of them talking to her! Poor Papaw :( I'm sure she'll grow out of that though.

On a side note, I go back to work this weekend. Bummer!! This will definitely be a huge adjustment for Ava, and for Eric & I. Luckily, I only have to work 3 days a week, but they're long days, so I'll be away from her for 12 hours (more like 13) at a time. :( I hope she adjusts well to the change. I hope we all do! I know many mothers work, but I feel bad for "leaving her." I've thought about not going back to work, or only going back to work on weekends, but our finances unfortunately won't allow it. I was fortunate enough to have this long off with her. We've done some wonderful bonding for sure. :) I know Ava loves her mommy & being in her own home, so I'm sure she's not going to be a happy camper for a few days at least. Poor baby...but we will get through this next transition with grace (hopefully)!

On the upside of that, I think my returning to work will be a little refreshing for me. A little adult conversation and companionship will be nice. Being able to eat lunch without also entertaining an infant might be nice as well. ;) I definitely have a new respect for stay at home moms!! It is a tough job! So, Yaaaaayyyy to all you stay at home moms!! I think you are wonderful. :)

Giggly girl!!

We just heard our first little giggles from Ava!! Eric was playing with her on the couch and she burst into giggles!!!! Soooo cute!! Music to our ears! :-) I, of course, grabbed the camera immediately & got a little video of them! It never looks as good on video as it does in real life (not to mention the lighting was bad & I wasn't prepared to take any footage:), but I got a cute clip of one of life's sweetest moments. :) Enjoy!

**Sorry it's so dark!

Guess who's rolling over!?!?!

Ava very much surprised me the other day when I put her on down for some tummy time! She rolled over from belly to back ... totally caught me off guard! :) That's because like two days before that, when I put her down for some tummy time, she just fussed about it didn't seem like she was going to do any rolling over anytime soon! Now she rolls over like a pro! :) After her first roll over I squealed in delight and put her back on her belly so I could get some footage of it! haha. I could barely grab the video camera before she was in motion again! So cute ... just reminds me how quickly she's growing!



** She's got the tilt down ...


** Over she goes!


** Yaaayyyy!!