Wednesday, July 30, 2008

Sunday, July 27, 2008

Crossing the great divide

We have discovered hard wood floors. Next up, the entire kitchen. Good thing the toys and Indi (both of which mostly reside on the carpet) are nice distractions to cross-room trips (at the moment, anyway).

Ava swims

I'm lazy. I'm not going to pack up the baby, the stroller, the diaper bag, find a bathing suit (for me) that fits and traipse on over to the swimming pool only to have to unpack all the above items for only 20 minutes in the water.

I was bored. Ava and I went to Wal-Mart (yeehaw!) for an outing yesterday; it's closer than Target. There was nothing else to do while Joe was out riding his bike.

I was bored and I am lazy. I bought a baby pool. Joe blew it up later. Ava had fun. All good for her first time in a pool. I'll look into swimming lessons for babies later and for that I'll traipse on over to the indoor pool, but for now, a 7 month old does not need to spend hours outside in the sun just for a little splashy time. Our deck gets lots of shade in the afternoon, and after her nap, I think she and I will have fun splashing in our own pool - we'll enjoy it even more when she can sit up on her own and splash away!

She pretty much floated in circles. This was her favorite position - much like on dry land, she figured she can spin in circles much quicker since her "little swimmers" diaper acted as a flotation device.

Don't be fooled by the drool glinting on her bottom gumline.

"My future's so bright . . ."

Thursday, July 24, 2008

Happy Baby - thinking outside the jar

I just ordered a new type of cereal with DHA for brain and eye development from a company called Happy Baby.

Upon opening the lid of the tin, I noticed a little coupon for their frozen organic baby meals. I love it! A company that "thinks outside the jar" - the coupon shows little cubes of frozen baby puree - and it actually looks like real baby food. In fact, it looks like what is currently taking over my freezer (only as small cubes versus my round pellets).

Of course, now that I believe teething has begun, Ava has grown less enamored of my homemade baby food. Hopefully it's just the teething and not the beginning of a fussy eater.

Friday, July 18, 2008

Sweetness

I've never been one to worry about Ava while she sleeps or check on her during the night, but lately I've been peeking in on her before we go to sleep. The reason: to see the little bum in the air. It's the most darling thing when a baby curls up on their belly and pushes their cute little bum into the air.

Sadly, there will likely be no photographs of that as the flash would most definitely startle a sleeping baby, but the next best thing happens in the morning: wake-up peek-a-boo!

Crazy hair has returned!

Over the past weeks, the crazy hair has become tame. It grows and it falls over; no more crazy hair - until tubby time, that is!

Reading

Our little reader . . . who has a voracious appetite for books!

From Indi

"If I sit really still and make no eye contact, perhaps it'll go away."
Indi's world was shattered recently when she realized the creature
can now shimmy her way across the floor.
She wonders silently, "Is nothing sacred?"

Fun around the house

"I think I can, I think I can!"


"Giggles with Daddy"


"Mama and me"


"Waiting for breakfast"


"Mmm. . . blueberries."

Tuesday, July 08, 2008

One day shy of 7 months

Our happy girl

Helping Dad in the kitchen

Video: More "talking"

Video: Yak! Broccoli caught on tape

Video: Ava "talks"

Not so much tricks, as more mad skills! Just the other morning after her morning nursing, Ava was lying on the boppy on my lap. Usually she shoves her fingers in her mouth and rambles on to the key of something like: "rea-rea-rea-rea" or "mnaw-mnaw-mnaw-mnaw" or "aya-aya-aya-aya." On this particular morning, she shocked us all with: "aaaada-da-da-da-da-da-da-da" and we haven't been able to keep her quiet since!

How fun it is to watch as she suddenly learns that the sounds she hears are actually coming from her mouth. She's made the da sound before; along with the ga- and ma- sounds, but this was the first time she figured out how to make a sound repeat.

Video: Ava laughs a bit

Notice dinner on the bib. Carrots smeared all over.
Miraculously, it washed clean the next day!

Video: Ava loves the cow!

Monday, July 07, 2008

Busy weekend

Had our second annual 4th of July block party arranged and hosted by Michelle. Had a great turnout this year with lots of food and ice-cream and fun! One of the best parts of having a block party on your street (right across from your house) is that you can run home to use the bathroom. No porto-potties for us! Luckily the number of attendees hasn't gotten so huge that we have to invest in one of those anyway, but it's nice to have home so close - like, for instance, when I left Ava's sippy cup at home.

On Saturday after Joe's morning bike ride, we tried out a new restaurant which was very nice. Italian, high-quality ingredients, good serving sizes and reasonable prices. I had a very tasty panini with prosciutto, chicken, arugula pesto and chewy bread. Sooo good! They also served bread with white bean spread (I guessed it was some kind of chicken pate; Joe was afraid of it until he knew what it was).

Then it was off to Target to spend some dough on the baby - new car seat as she's out-grown her first one; baby gates and other assorted baby safety things. Figure while she's only rolling now, she'll be army crawling and more mobile before too long, so may as well get the first floor set up for it all now.

Sunday we had one of those good days - you know, where you don't get showered until the afternoon - because you're busy working in the house all day! We carpet shampoo'd the living room and did a thorough cleaning of all the blinds (Joe did that; I hate blinds. All that dust.). Joe set up the baby gates which look nice, I did laundry and tended to baby. Felt good to sit down after Ava was in bed and relax for a bit.

Started some new dvds this weekend. "Weeds" on Showtime (3 seasons available on DVD) is really good! And we saw "Jumper" - not a standout movie, but it was fun and a little different.

This afternoon after naptime, we're heading to the grocery store - together. Since Ava is in a "big-girl" car seat, I can no longer pop the car seat into the grocery cart. SO... we're going to try her sitting in the front of the car, strapped into one of those puffy fabric things you see people with. I broke down and bought on. I didn't know what else to do with her - she doesn't love the sling and my back hates the Baby Bjorn. So, if the puffy fabric thing doesn't work right now (hopefully it will when she's older), one of us will just stroll her around in the stroller while the other grocery shops. All these things you learn as you go.

Wednesday, July 02, 2008

Baby scientist

This morning, the three of us headed off to Ava's first day at school - forget kindergarten, elementary, middle or high school! She started out at the top: Duke University!

I got a phone call the other day asking if Ava would like to participate in an experiment, er, research project regarding infant cognition. Basically, she would sit in front of a TV screen for about 5 minutes looking at dots. Sure. Why not!

So, one week shy of 7 months old, Ava went to college and did her part to help in the understanding of what infants understand about numbers and time. For her hard work and dedication, she received a certificate and a t-shirt. The students conducting the test said she was excellent, but I'm sure they say that to all the parents (although secretly, Joe and I - and now you - know that Ava is by far the most smartest, most genius baby EVER!) (And we didn't need no stinking certificate to tell us that!)

"I went to Duke and all I got was this lousy t-shirt."


For more info on the study: Ava sat where Pooh is sitting.

Ready for my close-up!

"Hello, bea-u-tiful!"

Ava and her new best friend

One with mom

Baby: a few shots from the week