Sleepytime to awake!

Catching up

With the past three weeks being a bit of a blur (what with two trips to VA and a week in-between), I've only now downloaded photos from the past few weeks. Ava is napping now, so after I downloaded them, I played around with them for a bit.

Enjoy!

Wa-POW!

Ava LOVES reading! Here she is with her daddy as they visit the circus. She and I have delightful moments when I recite lyrical poetry (her favorite is Shel Silverstein's Where the Sidewalk Ends). She especially loves the one that starts, "Someone ate the baby."

We also enjoy quieter reading before naps and bed. So far our favorite is Kiss Goodnight - "Kiss goodnight, Sam. Kiss goodnight."

"Does this outfit make my head look fat?"
or
"A girl's gotta do what a girl's gotta do (until her hair grows in)!"

Peaceful slumber as Ava has been taking naps each day this week! Woohoo! Today was the best so far - she went down for a nap twice without a fuss! I'm ever hopeful that increased quality of daytime naps will ultimately lead to more "sleep through the night"s and 8 hours of shut-eye for me!

Good night (after some lousy ones)

Had a *really* good night last night - for the past week, we've been in VA visiting my family and Ava's sleep has been thrown off a bit. Each night was different (some nights she was up for 2 hours at a time; others she was waking up every 1.5 hours - frustrating because she was on a good roll at home before we left). So, we got home and decided to jump into the shift to her own bedroom (she's been in the pack-n-play in our room). We figured now was as good a time as any as she was already thrown off her normal sleep, so let's start "normal" sleep in her own room.

It worked! Following Saturday night (waking every 1.5 hours) she went to bed at 8:15 and didn't stir until 3am! Woohoo! Then she nursed very well and went back to sleep right away. Not even a peep!

This week we're working diligently on getting the nap situation under control. Right now she's snoozing in the living room so that's 1 of 3 naps I can check off the list! Whew! Problem is she'll take a good nap in the middle of the day but refuses to nap in the afternoon. May end up having to impose "quiet time" at 4pm.... that gets Ava some good resting time in the late afternoon and gets me some Oprah time. Ava can learn to love Oprah like I do - nothing wrong with that!

More Photoshopped Ava (from Joe!)

Hrm...I don't think Dale knows that I know her password to edit blog entries.

I can has . . .

Paying homage to a funny site, Joe created this in Photoshop last night using a cute picture of Ava while she napped and a fun effect we stumbled upon the other day.

The funny site: I can has cheezburger

From the archives

Was busy doodling in Photoshop and Illustrator and when I closed the programs, I realized that Photo Booth had been turned on. Photo Booth turns on the camera on the computer so you can take a picture of yourself in real time working at your desk. Not sure why folks would want that (I've never been one to gets snapshots of myself at a photo booth, but I guess some folks like that). I went to shut down the program and saw a picture that Joe had taken of us a while back (I can only say it was pre-Ava as Joe has short hair in the picture and he's been growing hair since her birth). It's actually a cute picture, so here's our photo booth picture.

1 glass of wine + 10pm = 8 hours!?

Our first "through the night" sleep last night! 8 hours, baby!! Woohoo :)

Joe and I had date night as Michelle and Jason offered to watch Ava. I had a glass of wine with dinner. We picked up Ava just short of 9 and then I fed her again around 10. Not a peep, a grunt, a squiggle or a squirm until 6:30 this morning.

8 hours, baby! WOOHOO!

Tummy time defeated!

Ava: "If mom insists on putting me on my tummy (which I clearly dislike given the amount of grumbling I do), I will insist on lying there sucking my fingers (which I've suddenly discovered). Oooh... fingers!"

Glimpse of spring

Some tulips that bloomed today - a lovely gift we received when we arrived home on Saturday.

Pictures of Boboy with Granny

Here are a couple of pictures of Granny and Boboy taken over the past few years. I only hope that Joe and I are lucky enough to live well into our 70s and still enjoy each others' company as much as Granny and Boboy did.

England 2002

Our wedding 2005

South Africa 2006

And one with me taken the day that Joe and I flew home from our trip to South Africa

One last donut

On February 4th my family lost a very special person. My grandfather passed away suddenly early Monday evening after suffering from a heart attack. When I was little and learning to talk, I named him Boboy - not sure where the word came from, but it stuck and so now I say goodbye to Boboy with a fun story.

On Friday afternoon, my sister and her husband, Joe and I went to the funeral home to pick up Boboy's ashes. When we got to the funeral home, we discovered a typo on the death certificate (!) and had to wait while the typo was fixed at the courthouse (which luckily was just around the corner). While we waited, I suggested we all go to Dunkin' Donuts and get a donut each - Boboy loved donuts! I thought it would be a fitting way to celebrate his life while waiting for the new paperwork. So, off to get our donuts and back to the funeral home's parking lot. We started unloading the donuts - one plain glazed for me, one for my sister, a peanut donut for Joe and Boston creme for Pern. After we all had our donuts, we realized there was one donut sitting at the bottom of the bag - none of us had ordered a second donut, so it was very obviously Boboy's last donut.

Here are some pictures of Boboy as we will remember him.

Holding his great-granddaughter hours after her birth

Sitting proudly in his new VW van

Being goofy on Christmas morning, playing more with the packaging than the present - none of us are really sure what he's got here!

Having fun at our wedding almost 3 years ago

Another first

A THREE hour nap in her own bed! Ava has been sleeping in the pack-n-play in our room since she arrived home. Ava has not been a very good napper. She's started sleeping really well at night (usually from 7-8pm until 2-3am) but during the day she's a little monkey. Will not nap and if she does, it's for maybe 20 minutes if you're lucky. I decided to start transitioning her from our room to hers by putting her down for naps in her room and then moving her during the night after a few days. Today was the first day for a nap in her room and she's still sleeping! When she was a newborn, we used to wake her for feedings; now I say "let sleeping babies lie" - I've gotten so much done this morning. It feels wonderful!

Another note on having baby sleeping in our bedroom - boy is she noisy when she's going to sleep (sometimes, she'll be mostly asleep when I put her in bed, but often she's fighting sleep or working on some gas or poop). She grunts and snorts and squirms. It's a wonder anyone of us gets any sleep at night! The good thing with having her in her own room and having the monitor nearby: the monitor has volume control!