Finding Things To Do and Sitting Up Too!!!

I have been keeping really busy lately trying to find ways to help Mike bring home the bacon. I want to go back to school but we can't afford it yet so as soon as Mike has a full-time job again, finishing school will be my number one priority - right after being a mommy! I have come up with some fun was to make things I can sell. Hopefully my newfound talent on the sewing machine will be profitable, both for my educational future and Ava's.

Here is a picture of one of my soon-to-be-patented (I hope) BooBoo Bears.

You warm the rice bag in the microwave and then stick it inside the stuffed animal and it is great for earaches and cuddling and much more! I sold one today (sight unseen!) and I have another on Ebay so we will see if this takes off. I really hope it does.

I have also been spending a lot of time researching my family history. Ava likes to get out of the house and has really good days when we leave and go do something everyday so I have to try to keep up with her demands for action. I went to the Family History Center on Wednesday and got started with our family tree. When I played around with it at home I was super pleased at all the stuff I found so quickly. It all started with my paternal grandmother's brother.

I have been thinking a lot about "Barefoot Bob" Kinney ever since he passed away about 6 years ago. He was a radio DJ and produced two songs that made it into the country charts. He even knew Johnny Cash. My grandma Ring has a picture of the two of them together. Well, I had a feeling that he wanted his work done so I got to it and going through that line I have made it 10 generations back! Back all the way to William Winchester (b 1711) who came to America from England as an indentured servant.

It looks like my ancestors have always had large families. 5 or 6 was the norm until my grandparents who had 9 but long long ago my very great grandfather Brigadier General James Winchester and his wife Sarah Black had 14! So my lofty aspirations for a large family probably are in my genetics!!!

I return to the Family History Center tomorrow to see what else I can find. I can't wait to start going back through my mom's side to see what's there. My grandmother immigrated to America from Norway after WWII so it will be really interesting to see what I find and if I will even be able to read it because I'm sure most of what I find there will be in Norwegian!

I've been workin' so hard my kid gets tired!

Preston's Birthday cake after decorating... (from scratch no less!!! even the cream cheese frosting!)



Preston's cake before :)

Ava's doting cousin...

Ava weighs 16.10 lbs now and sat up all by herself last week on Thursday! My big girl was leaning against a pillow and she strained and strained and finally sat up! She gave me a huge grin like she was really proud of herself and then toppled forward. Now if I help her get there she can sit up for a minute or so without me holding her. Then the other day she did the most amazing thing. She was in her bouncy chair and playing with her rattle and she dropped it. When it fell it fell kind of under and behind the chair but Ava figured out where it had fallen and sat up and reached down and behind her using her sense of touch and not sight to retrieve the toy.

From my studies on child psychology she shouldn't even understand the concept of object permanence yet. For an almost four-month old to understand that out-of-sight is not gone is extremely early development. Piaget determined that this happens at around 8 or 9 months! I am chaulking this one up to the fact that she plays peek-a-boo with me a lot and that I try to get her to realize that I am still there. It may have been a fluke - probably was - but I am going to think it was my hard work at helping her understand her world that was paying off early! I am such a proud mommy!!!