Baby's First Halloween!

Well, Halloween has come and gone - along with my birthday which was nice. Halloween was really fun. Ava was Raggedy Ann to Hunter's Andy. We had maybe 5 trick-or-treaters but that was only because we were out trick-or-treating ourselves with Ava's cousins. Ava did not dress up Halloween night because it was too cold. At least it didn't rain!

Friday night we went to the trunk-or-treat at church and my Joseph Smith pumpkin won first place and "most restorative," haha! Mike's Jesus carving won "most spiritual." We had a lot of fun both at church and at the twins' school parade on Thursday.

How cute are these munchkins? I made Ava's costume from scratch! It was really fun tryingto get it just right which I didn't quite do, this dress was acctually a shirt once I got it on her and it was too snug to get it off in one piece so I ended up making another one which also didn't survive. But it was a great learning experience!

Here is the whole outfit. I must say, I am so pleased with the way it turned out!!!

Ava was 5 months old this weekend and on Monday weighed 18.10 lbs!

Two Weeks Ago

Well, Ava finally met her Noni and Grandpa Bearden. We went to Columbia and spent a few days there hiking around and exploring. We saw a squirrel fall out of a tree and hit a rock and walk away! We also saw how much Noni and Grandpa love little Ava and I can't wait 'til we can see them again. Maybe that will be Ava's first plane ride?

Grandpa was absolutely smitten and it was really really nice to have another set of arms willing to take over when mine got tired of fighting Ava's wigglies.

It was really sad to leave. I always miss my mom so much when she goes home or I leave. I can't wait to see them again.

Carvin' Pumpkins... FHE Style!

Shawny's pumpkin, mike carved for her... Tigger.


Hunter and Tara's pumkins... Tara used the drill!!!

Mike's Michael Jackson tribute! Thriller pumpkin!

My ode to the '80's... ET. "Eliot!"

I love it when Mike cuddles with Ava. It's like the two people I love the most love eachother so much. There's just so much love going around it makes me high with it. Well, I can't even explain it well. I hope that Ava gets the chance to find her soul mate and have a little family of her own so that she can know this pure sort of love. I don't think you could ever know it unless you can experience having a child with your best friend first hand.

Even though Mike's job ended and things are looking a little scary, we are keeping our spirits up. I mean, yesterday we were rearranging the living room and we knocked over the frog's tank full of 5 gallons of water. We cleaned it up then laughed about it... luckily I had my carpet cleaner to suck the water out of the carpet. But then I went to cook dinner and looked in the freezer and all our meat was defrosted. Lovely. We threw away probably 50 dollars worth of food. I called the landlord - crying - he said he'd get us a new fridge. Then I noticed that May had come and gone and we hadn't gotten out our wedding cake. It's a stupid tradition but that busted it all for me and I broke. I was getting really sad and angry trying not to cry like an idiot when I opened up the cake, got a couple of forks and fed Mike a piece of cake and with tears in my eyes said, "Happy Anniversary." We both laughed 'til we cried sitting on the kitchen floor with 16 hamburgers on the grill.

I guess I have finally learned that you can't sweat the small stuff. It's all small, right? And now we have a new fridge. And Kermit the Frog is in a new tank and is doing fine. I hope we will be ok.

Homebodies...

Ava's favorite seat in the house! Thanks for the hand-me-down Nana!


Why does she looks scared in this one??? Haha! Yep, that's me new momma do! short and less "pull-y" if you know what I mean.

Proof that we look alike?

What a funny face. This kid cracks me up. And anyone else that's within 20 feet of her.

Well, now that my wonderful husband is home from work after his job ended it seems I am spending less time online. He makes me want to do all kinds of projects and hang out with him all day and so when the baby is napping I am not blogging. Haha!

What an angel huh?

Painted her toenails and fingernails while she was sleeping. It's the only time she holds still. And she has Mike's feet. Haha, sorry kid.

This smile melts my heart. Even when she's teething she's smiling.

Yeah, drool. Mmmm.

New teethers that we keep in the fridge. She likes them a lot.

Well. I am still working on getting on top of these posts. I don't want to forget anything as this is the "journal" that Ava will someday get. I am not really keeping a paper journal but by the time she is older we'll be flying in cars right? :)

I took Ava to the lactation clinic on Monday to have her weighed and oh my gosh she was huge. My four month old weighed 17.11 lbs. Hey, I am so happy that she weighs a lot. I know that she is doing well and getting the nutrition she needs. We have fully mastered breastfeeding but are still struggling with feedings outside of the house because she'd rather play with the nursing cover than eat and when we were at Nana's house for FHE she killed me because I knew she was hungry and tired but she kept hearing her cousins playing in the other room and would not settle down to eat or sleep. It seems that our main enemy when it comes to a sucessful feeding and naptime is noise.

I have found out though that it helps her sleep longer if she goes to bed later, which she's been doing the past few days- ugh. 9:00 instead of 7:00. Thank goodness for bedtime routines placed in effect early. She has been sleeping 7 to 8 hours lately... on most days. That's nice. She's a good baby.

In other news, I wonder if she will be this needy for ever. I can't even leave a room without her crying - real tears! - for me. It breaks my heart to hear her cry but I feel so bad that she is teething and I hope she will gain some autonomy soon. Often when she gets like that I just stick her in the stroller or put on my Mobi wrap and go for a walk around the block. If I walk long enough she goes to sleep. She loves looking at nature and it always quiets her down. I just don't want her to think that crying will get her something all the time. Especially now that she is figuring out her personal relationships. I do NOT NOT NOT want a spoiled baby. I wonder when it becomes spoiling rather than just meeting thier needs. Guess I'll have to figure this one out along with Ava. I guess it helps to know that my brother was like that to my mom and he turned out ok. :)

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!!!

Back To Life As Normal?

Tara and I got a booth in the Grape and Fall Festival in St. James. Guess how much we made. $1.50... Nice huh? I guess baby blankets weren't a very popular sell.



These are the two I was able to finish in time.

Here's Ava looking cute in her hat and shoes yesterday. I ended up taking off the hat because she can't stand stuff on her head. Too bad, it's so cute!

Bath time! She loves bath time now. She kicks her feet and splashes water all over me and likes to play with this duckie while she gets her "steam treatments." Since she's been sick we have been giving her a bath and holding the shower head with hot water coming out for the steaminess. It helps her sleep a lot. This is in addition to the nighttime routine I'm putting in place so that once her internal clock stops telling her darkness = bedtime I will have our routine on my side. 8:00 means it's bath time then a massage while I sing her songs, I say our prayers, then she eats herself to sleep. It's working well so far!

Madame Trusseau will read your palm now! Getting undressed from church. :) She already prefers to be naked. I think she will be a nudist like I was when I was little.

How funny is this face?! MoMo and Ava like to stare at eachother. She started talking to him and when I took the picture she started talking to me. How funny!

Tara put Ava in the basket her "Hooter Hiders" were in at the street fair on Saturday. We needed lots of sunscreen. It was so hot and sunny that day. (This is an outfit that Shawny - Ava's 4 year old cousin - wore LAST YEAR! Well, Shawny is small for her age and Ava is big, but it still freaks me out at how big! She hit the 16 lb mark this week.)

Colds Suck... Themeparks Rule!

Nana took everyone to Six Flags yesterday for Preston's birthday. It was so much fun! The last time Mike and I were at a themepark was in Utah at Lagoon and it was before I got pregnant. It was Ava's first themepark (and definitely not her last!). Nana watched Ava when we all rode the roller coasters because she didn't like them. I hurt my neck - possibly whiplash - on one of the rides. But we all had a really great time, including Ava.

She was so good. I brought frozen milk for her but still had to feed her a couple of times and one of those there was a strange guy who sat down on the bench next to ours and tried to get a peek! Wierdo. Ava finally figured out how the bottle works toward the end of the first one. It was funny to see her twisting the bottle's nipple around her mouth trying to get it in the right position.

Nana and Ava rode the Merry-Go-Round with everyone!





When asked what she thought of Six Flags, Ava gave it a big thumbs up!

Lol, she was sleeping like this at the park.

Me on the Merry-Go-Round.

Putting more sunscreen on the baby. Ugh - this is a really bad angle of me! But look what lifting that baby is doing for my arms! :)

Ava really enjoyed looking at all the people and rides.

This was me trying out her shoes. As you can see, they're still too big.

Those ruffles are just so cute I couldn't help but take a picture. She's getting so strong and big!

When we got home from Six Flags Ava started getting really congested. She was sneezing all day but I hoped it was pollen or some other aggrivation. Nope, no such luck. It's a full blown cold. And she kept waking up and crying every hour or so last night because she couldn't breathe. Poor kid really doesn't like having the sucker bulb up her nose but it helped a little bit. I really hope this doesn't last long. She is SUCH a great baby. When she cried last night I'd turn on the bedside light and get out the bulb and she would wake up all the way and just smile so big. Through her watery eyes and snuffling shnoz she was just so happy to see me it broke my heart. I think she will be good at taking the bad things in life in stride. I'm definitely going to do my part to make sure she stays this way. I'm so lucky to have her in my life.

"The soul would have no rainbow had the eyes no tears."

"Man could not live if he were entirely impervious to sadness. Many sorrows can be endured only by being embraced, and the pleasure taken in them naturally has a somewhat melancholy character. So, melancholy is morbid only when it occupies too much place in life; but it is equally morbid for it to be wholly excluded from life. "

~Emile Durkheim

Tonight I am feeling very melancholy. I am usually very upbeat and happy but something just hit me wrong today and I havn't been feeling quite right since. I guess it's part of these hormones sorting themselves out. It could also be that It gets harder and harder to remain positive and excited everyday when it feels like my bones are breaking and my joints are fused. While I was pregnant, the relaxin hormone helped my arthritis a lot but now that's all gone and my thumb, knee, and elbows hurt almost constantly. And there's not a darn thing I can do about it.

Mike is about to lose his job. It was temporary and we knew that but we had thought by now that someone, any one of the hundreds of jobs that he's applied for would have hired him by now. But, no. He was also told that they would more-than-likely extend his position after September but it seems they lied. So at the end of this month we are looking at some really hard financial times. We may not be able to buy a house to take advantage of the first-time home buyers' stimulus. And that means that we are stuck paying someone else's mortgage.

Knowing that this may be coming we started cutting back a lot last month. Our fridge looks like a desert. Fresh fruits and veggies have been hit the hardest because they cost so much so everything in there is colorless and theres nothing alive. We finally went on a date last Saturday and it was hard to really enjoy it because I kept worrying about the money it was costing us. I feel old.

Here I am wallowing when there is a big piece of good news to share. Ava rolled from her back to tummy today. I am really proud of her because this is supposedly early. She has been rolling from tummy to back for a while now. She is also teething, something her doctor doesn't agree with me on but I know my kid. She is a really good baby and I am so lucky to have her in my life. I was made to be a mommy. I just hope I can make her happy and that her life isn't too hard. I love my baby.