Nearing 6 months . . .

. . . and we are being c.r.a.b.b.y today. Ava has been fussy most of the day. She's usually pretty content playing on the floor with her toys, rolling from side to side, kicking her octopus that hangs from the blue bars, squealing with joy.

There has been little squealing today and less joy.

She's happy for a moment and then gets fussy. For a while I thought perhaps she was working on some poops. She's on baby food now so the poops are slightly different and not as frequent. While Joe and I ate lunch, Ava sat with us in her chair at the table. Then the tell-tale signs: grunting, scrunchy face, red cheeks. We have poops! Joe took her to change her diaper after we had eaten and here's what he said: "It's a little turd." Yup. Just one, small turd. No big smushy poop. Not sure if that's normal, so we'll see what transpires over the next few hours.

So, in an effort to help make her more comfortable, Ava and I headed to the pool for swim. Read: I took her bathtub downstairs, filled it with warm water and set up the "pool" in the yard, complete with bathing suit and sun hat. She has some fun splashing around in the water but not as much as she usually has at bedtime. So, back into the house for some milk and hopefully a nap.

Those are the two things that are not normal today - more naps than usual (one more this morning before lunch) and an appetite that won't quit. Ava has nursed more today in the past few hours than in a normal day. She finally went down for a nap after even more nursing. Perhaps she's going through a growth spurt, or at least gearing up for a big one!

A few things of note in her life: Ava enjoy apples and pears and finally decided that the sippy cup wasn't all evil. She's still learning the finer points of drinking from a cup, but after the bottle was deemed her mortal enemy, I decided it might be a good idea to at least try the sippy cup in the hopes of one day being able to leave the house with Joe and without Ava and allowing someone else to feed her. So far we've managed about 2 tablespoons of milk, so we're a far cry from a full meal, but baby steps . . .

Video: Ava squeals

Ana likes Ava

Just checked my email to find this darling photo of Ana, our friends' daughter who is one year older (to the day!) than Ava.

From the email: "While I was reading "Fussy Mussy" Ana walked up and said, "Baby! Watch!" so I pulled up the octopus video. Ana loved it. She even squeaked back. Then when it was over she said "more" which I take as her request for more Ava videos!! Ha ha!"

Thanks for sending it along, Carrie!

Vacation to Pickens, SC

This past week, Ava and I joined my parents for a week in South Carolina. Joe was unable to come with us as the resort we were staying at had no WiFi. So, he stayed behind with Indi and a bathroom in dire need of some sprucing up. More on that in a later post.

So, onto Pickens, SC. This was by far Ava's longest car ride with the ride there taking close to 7 hours (factor in 2 nursing stops, 1 bathroom break and 1 gas break and lots of horrible rain). We stayed on a golf resort although none of us play golf. It was meant to be a nice relaxing week and by all accounts, I think we all had a nice relaxing time. The only downside to the week was Ava's wacky sleep schedule! She decided it was cool to wake up every night at around 2am and then again at about 4:30am. For the first 10 minutes or so, I tried my best to get her back to sleep but I was right next to her in the bedroom and my bed creaked horribly, so after many futile tries, she ended up in bed with me. I was afraid I would be creating really bad habits that would be impossible to break once we returned home, but for the most part, sleep has returned to normal, with wake-up time now 5:30 instead of 6. We're working on that. The other weird thing Ava did was refuse - and I mean *refuse* - to take a good nap. We'd read her stories, sit with the pacifier - all the usual naptime routines - but she'd start screaming. Bloody murder. And the screaming would continue until you gave in, took her downstairs and sat with her until she fell asleep. The only nap I got all week was when I sat with her till she fell asleep, then fell asleep myself for fear of waking the creature if I moved. Sigh. I was just a little tired at the end of the week.

I'd never been to the mountains of SC before and I must say they are quite beautiful. So lush and green and cool. It was really a nice spot for a relaxing week. We mostly stayed at the condo, watching movies and reading magazines and sorting out recipes (Mom and I both brought along our ever-growing collections that were in need of some trimming). Most of the sight-seeing things were at least 1.5 hours drive so rather than spend 3 hours in the car each day and deal with a fussy baby, we stayed local.

On a lunch trip out, we stopped by possibly the most beautiful native plant garden I've ever seen. My garden aspires to look a little like it. Loads of native wildflowers and shrubs and most of them were waiting to bloom. I can only imagine the colors of all the flowers come summer time.

On the way home from lunch, we stopped at one of (if not the only) South Carolina's operating mills. There were several old buildings with various artifacts in each one. Had a nice time strolling the grounds.

In the evenings before dinner, we walked around the resort, hiking up the mountain a bit to find a beautiful waterfall. Another evening we strolled down to see the horses.

Another day we visited the Pickens County flea market. I was hoping for something like our flea market here, with some antique-type stuff, some yard sale stuff, some food and plants. There were some plant stands, some food stands (with yummy strawberries) but for the most part, it was filled with loads of cheap products. Tables and tables of toiletries, tissues and toilet paper, lotions, sunscreen, deodorant, formula, cookies, chips. Not sure where all these items originated, but I wouldn't buy any of them for fear of any active ingredients being long expired. As Joe said later when I was telling him about this, there were "slim pickens, in Pickens". Har har!

All in all, I lovely vacation despite the baby who would not sleep and the Mommy who couldn't get any sleep!

Enjoy the pictures!

Ava on vacation

Ava enjoyed spending time with the adults at the grown-up table at dinner time.
"Ooh ooh!" Tubby time! This is the usual expression of anticipation as we run the water into the baby tub.

Time with Grandad: BBQ & Beer

*Note: No beer was consumed during the taking of this picture, and if it's any consolation, Ava will try to shove just about anything into her mouth these days, so the beer bottle was fair game as far as she was concerned.

Out and about in Pickens, SC

Visit to the Joe and Maggie Rampey Native Plant Garden - Pickens SC

Visit to Hagwood Mill - Pickens SC

Ava loves her octopus

Ava usually loves her octopus from the ground. This time she was in the sitting up position and found him much more exciting!

With Daddy

Best Friends

Yesterday I hosted a baby playdate for moms in my Moms group. Ava has been going to playdates with the same little babies since she was about 5-6 weeks old. Yesterday she was no longer the youngest, with a 3 and a 4-month old present! Below is a picture of her and her little friend Eden. Eden is just over 9 months and crawled over to lay beside Ava while no one was watching. I imagine them growing up together as friends, first playing dress up and tea party, then giggling about boys! Yikes! Good thing that's a ways off...

The garden is blossoming

Some changes in our yard this spring - I planted a bunch of wildflowers. At first they looked like weeds, but they're starting to show signs of beautiful life! Below are a bunch recently purchased from the Farmers' Market (some salvia, whirling butterfly plant, small daylilies, and some tiny yellow daisy-like flowers). Below that are the new - and return - wildflowers. Oranges and Lemon Gaillardia; Purple Scabiosa; Black-eyed Susan; and the promise of Purple Coneflowers.

Yay!

Video: Ava rolls over

Insta-yard continues

Yesterday we had our shrubs delivered and planted. The yard is now filled with shrubs (they're still small, but they'll grow) and flowers (they're still tiny, but they're growing). No more barren wasteland!




See Insta-yard for previous pictures.

Mmm... cereal (the quest for food continues - messily)

Rollover!

First official - and fully witnessed - rollover! Two days shy of the 5 month mark, Ava finally managed to rollover all on her own! It was quite funny to see the legs kicking in the air as she figured out how to move her arm out from under her chest and lift her head. This picture was captured mere seconds after the momentous event!

The witching hour

4:30 AM

Mommy hears baby stirring in the pack-n-play. Rushes through to find baby has moved 90 degrees from bedtime position and is now "stuck" sideways in the pack-n-play. Suspicion confirmed! Mommy slowly moves baby without waking. Mommy returns to bed, pleased with herself for her stealthy act.

4:31 AM

Baby: Oh boy, my legs move up and down up and down up and down. Wait. When my legs move up and down the bassinet moves sideways. Oh fun! Up down boom! Up down boom! Up down boom!

Mommy rushes back to baby to try soothe back to sleep before baby is fully awake.

Baby: Too late mom! Up down boom! Up down boom! Oh oh fingers! Pacifier. Happiness is up down boom! Fingers, hands, pacifier. Up dow...

Mommy slowly removes hand from baby's fingers and moves away from pacifier. Pacifier slowly slides from baby's mouth.

Baby: Pacifier down! Pacifier down! Up down up down up down! Hands hands!

Mommy decides to forgo any attempts at helping baby learn good "back to sleep" techniques and takes baby with her back to the big bed. Sets up baby on daddy's side of the bed (left vacant as daddy is in Minnesota) and crawls back under the covers for some more sleep.

5:00 AM

Baby: Oh oh. New place. Ooh. There's something new and there's something new and over there, there's something new also! FUN! Up down up down! Oh wait, there's mom's hands . . . and the pacifier. Ahhh...

Moment of quiet.

Baby: Pacifier down! Pacifier down! Up down up down up down! Hands hands!

Repeat last two entries until finally . . . 5:30 AM sleep.

6:12 AM

Baby: Ok! Awake now! Woohoo! This is the MOST fun ever! Up down up down up down!

Mommy has since removed the bassinet insert from the pack-n-play. She may break her back lowering and lifting baby from the bottom now, but at least the bassinet won't move sideways when baby decides to move around.

On one positive note, baby did roll over onto her tummy and lift her head up all by herself - Mommy wonders if perhaps the gravity of having another body in bed helped baby a bit but is not 100% convinced of that. Baby started over on one side of the bed and slowly moved herself over and then rolled. Good news . . . too bad this first didn't happen during the waking hours!

Video: Ava eats cereal for the first time

Video: Ava plays

Video: Ava giggles

Notes on video

Ok, so we bought a nice little video camera before the big day with the hopes of taking lots of video so that family and friends could watch Ava. So far, we've videotaped quite a bit and shared none. Finally got around to downloading all the video and since it's a lengthy process, I managed to upload one!

Enjoy!

Disclaimer: Dale cannot be held accountable for any lasting damage done as a result of watching videos that contain a) bad hair, b) bad voices or c) a combination of the two.

Note to self: Grow out hair; short hairstyles, such as mine, are much more attractive when straight; curly is just unruly (hence the dorky ponytail).

Note to Karen: Remember that audio tape we found a couple of years after we moved here where we sounded so silly reading those stories? Well, this is just as bad! Good thing I never planned a career in broadcast journalism!

The new look

Was looking at Karen's blog last night and saw that she had a fancy new header. I asked her, "What up?" and she said, "www.scrapblog.com". Ok, so the conversation was a little more polite than that, but I figure I'd get to the meat of it.

So I moseyed on over to scrapblog.com and created my own little header. Unfortunately, the blog template I like has me working with the dark blue/green border when I create my own header . . . so I could either dive into the HTML (*shivers*) or deal with it (yes!). For now I like this new header, created with scrapbook elements from scrapblog. I might feel like designing one from scratch; I might not. For now, I had fun being creative while Ava napped.

And now naptime is over.

Sad nature day

One of the beavers has died.

Last year while Indi and I were walking really early in the morning, I heard a weird splat in the lake. When I looked over, I saw an odd shape swimming away from us. Beaver!

Since the first sighting, I've only seen them a handful of times, usually very early in the morning (and as the pregnancy progressed and the weather cooled, I decided sleep in the morning was more fun than walking, so didn't see them for a while). There have been lots of signs of the family - many trees that bear the trademark grinding marks and a couple of small trees have fallen down. Lately I have heard grumblings in the neighborhood of people unhappy with the little furry critters - my thinking: if you're going to live on a lake, expect lake creatures, and don't get too mad when they eat your shrubs (just plant shrubs they don't like!).

So I was saddened and hoping foul play was not in our midst, when I saw a little beaver floating at the side of the lake. At first I thought it was a cat or a small dog, but closer examination revealed the flat tail. I didn't poke at it to see - I just stepped a bit closer to the edge of the lake.

Poor beaver. I hope he had a long and happy life - or whatever beavers have!

Sleepy baby

Let the planting begin!

My flowers are here!



Granted, they look like weeds now (or perhaps leafy salad greens), but in a little while my yard will be blooming with these babies!

Ready for my close-up

Growing baby

Pulled out the bassinet we used for a while when Ava was little. Look how much she's grown! From an almost one-month old to an almost 5 month old! She barely fits!

Lazy Sunday

Had a great weekend - went to dinner on Friday night with Michelle and Jason and the kiddies. Ava experienced her first Hibachi grill and didn't seem at all bothered by the large flames or hot grill. She did really well - she stayed awake the whole time and all the way home and made it through 'tubby time' and only got to bed at 9pm - not a single tear. Of course, she woke up at 6am, bright and early. Still hasn't mastered the art of sleeping in...

Saturday we went to lunch at Mimi's Cafe (yummy muffins!) and then hit Lowes to get some household stuff and some plants (added two plants to the living room and repotted two plants in the entrance hall). Last night Joe and I started watching "Dexter" (a Showtime show that is now on CBS - I got the season on Netflix).

Sunday we woke up bright and early at 6am . . . again. Ava went down for her nap at 9 - funny to think that many people might just be waking up and she's already going down for her nap. Finished watching the discs of "Dexter" that we have. The rest of the day was spent puttering around the house, doing some yard work, just things that needed to be done. All in all, a good day.

Along the way I found a new guilty pleasure. I got sucked into a marathon of America's Next Top Model. I love it! Everyone needs a guilty pleasure, right?

Update on the food: Um, yeah. No food this week. Ava LOVED eating cereal the first time; the last few tries were VERY unsuccessful. I had to try making it with formula as the frozen b. milk had reached its expiration date (we had to ditch all that milk - so sad, considering all the hours spent hooked up to the silly machine). Ava pulled a face that was unlike any we've seen before: made you seriously wonder just how foul tasting rice cereal could be. We both tasted it; it's not great, but not awful, but boy does someone in the house not like it! I think we'll attempt more cereal this week - but this time with some fresh b. milk. Best haul out the old pump again. Sigh.

Sunday morning lounging in the living room.

The newest trick: "I have feet!"

On our way to lunch.

One day Indi will sit close enough to Ava to get
both Indi's ears and Ava's body in the shot.

First food!

Ava tried some rice cereal this evening. Surprisingly, I think about 1/2 the food actually stayed in the mouth! She really enjoyed herself, expressing the same enthusiasm as she does during bath time! On the menu for tomorrow: more rice cereal!

NB. As I sit here posting this, little miss had really bad hiccups (worse than usual!) and other "things" are moving too (did I mention it was whole wheat rice cereal?) . . .

Four month stats

Had the four-month check-up today. Ava and I chatted on the way there about how the vaccines would probably hurt, but that it was ok, that it wouldn't last long and that she would be alright. She screamed for a minute or two and then mostly stopped. Didn't hurt that there was yummy milk for her to help her forget all her woes.

Here are the stats: 14lbs 1oz and 25 inches long

She's in the 55th percentile for something, the 75th for something else. I know none of that really matters, but some folks like the numbers. Doctor said she looks great and although she probably won't eat much now, we can start trying her with some rice cereal. That'll be fun!

Four months!

And I finally slept through the night! Seems my brain has become temporarily hard-wired to wake up, so while Ava has been sleeping through the night (for the most part) for about a month, I still wake up at some point in the night; sometimes it seems I wake up only to check the time. Sigh. But last night . . . my brain is realizing that a) Ava is fine and b) sleep is good!

Four month doctor visit tomorrow. Not looking forward to the shrieking after vaccines. Interested to see how much she weights. My chiropractor guessed 18 but I am not sure she's quite that heavy just yet. My hips would guess 25 but that's just because they're still in a state of shock after carrying the weight around for 9 months! She's definitely getting longer as some of the 3 month clothes are starting to be a bit small. Need to pull out some larger clothes soon or naked baby will be an all day occurrence!

In the afternoon light

Just because

Ava has discovered the joy that comes with sticking out her tongue. She has also discovered joy when Mom sticks her tongue out back at her!

What do you think? Synchronized swimmer?
Ballerina? Pilates instructor? (check out those abs!)

Hello! I finally like tummy time!
This really shows off my hair!

Laughter!

With just a few days to go until the 4 month mark, Ava laughed today for the first time! She's been showing signs of the actual event for a couple of weeks (mostly when nursing, she'll pull away, smile at me and make a funny noise). Of course, I tried to discourage playing-while-eating but it was so cute, so most of the time I laughed back. Today, after much belly kissing she started putting all those funny noises together and formed a little laugh! She did it once more and then refused to make any more cute noises (she had bad naps today so was tired and cranky early). Here's hoping for more in the morning!

Kindred spirits

Just "lion" around, discussing what to do with their crazy hair!

First smiles!

As we near four months, the first real smiles were officially caught on camera. An actual real smile that stayed while the camera made its way to Mom's face, which usually would have brought about a big frown. All other smiles, though real, were captured with the super fast shutter on the camera, and while they count as real smiles, they don't really count in the photographic sense. Today Ava became a little more conversational - first at the chiropractor's office, then while sitting in her swing (in self-imposed baby time out because she refused a nap). I think she was just letting me know she'd won that battle!