Merry Christmas!

(Sleeping off the excitement on Christmas day...)

Help! We're being overrun by presents! Ava's Nana, Uncle David, and Auntie Tara (TaTa) outdid themselves again this year. Ava has a ton of new presents. She loves her new toys and they are mostly learning toys so I guess they are ok. :)

She LOVES this rocking Mickey. She tries to rock on it by herself which is so cute. She can't get the back and forth momentum but she wiggles to try to go and it's so funny.

Nope, that's not a black eye, that's her make-up... haha!

This is what Ava's uncle's girlfriend, Bonny, got us. I LOVE this. It is perfect for getting the breastfeeding message out there and how cute is Ava in it?!

Nana's present. After I unpacked it Ava crawled over and pulled herself up to play with it. How fun!

A Jenny-Jump-Up from Uncle DayDay (David) and Bonny. We put this in the kitchen in front of the washer and dryer and put some magnet shape toys on the dryer. Ava really likes to push the magnets around and play with the shapes. It's nice for her to be in there with me when I'm cooking or Mike is doing the dishes. ;)

Let it Snow!

Wow, December is such a busy month. Ava is crawling and getting into way too many things! The other day she pulled a fairy house made of wood onto her head and gave herself a little scratch. It seems like she is always falling over and bumping her head on the floor, the tub, the table... etc. I'm glad babies are invincible! But she cries so badly when it happens I feel so bad.

Now she has a cold too. It is a pretty bad one. She can hardly breathe. At least she has figured out how to breathe through her mouth sometimes. It's when she sleeps and eats that it gets annoying. Last night she had a high temperature of 99.8 and I'm sure she didn't feel very good. She wouldn't let me put her down. We tried to give her a bath and she wasn't liking that so she cried until we got her jammies on and I nursed her to sleep. Once she finally got to sleep she whined a little bit until she fell into a deep sleep. My bladder was so full I couldn't lie with her anymore so I tried to put her down but that just upset her again. I had to hold her all night, poor thing. Her fever broke at around 3:00 in the morning. She seemed much happier today. I hate it when she is sick. Mike hates it when she smiles all sweetly when we know she doesn't feel good. It breaks his heart. Mine too.

She had a doctor's appointment scheduled for today to get her shots but I couldn't see doing that because if she had a reaction I wouldn't know if it was the shot or her cold. She weighed 20.9 lbs and was 27 1/2 inches long. She is still over the 95th percentile which makes us all feel great! Ava's first Christmas is coming up quickly and I still have a lot to do...

Busy Baby... Busy Days... Sleepy Nights

Seriously? It's been that long since I've posted?

Well, here is what has been going on in our little world...

Ava is so happy and healthy. She hit the 20 lb mark finally. We have both figured out how breastfeeding works. She is crawling and playing all the time. She gets one exciting (non-milk) meal a day including some of her favorite foods. Pears, avacados, bananas, and sweet potatoes top her list. She has been sleeping a little better the past week, skipping the 3:00 am feeding and sleeping right on 'til 5! Yay for mommy! :)

We spent Thanksgiving day with the Hilliards in Branson ending with dinner and a show at Dixie Stampede. We all had so much fun there. Ava slept through the first part of the show but then she watched the end and was so excited to see the horses running around. Below is one of the pictures Tara took of us while we were there. We came back home and on Saturday I made dinner and all the fixin's for everyone. That was a really fun day. We played games until midnight!



The other big thing that happened last week is that Ava turned 6 months old! It surprises me to think that this picture (below) was her 6 whole months ago. It feels like a lifetime in a moment. I was holding a little baby who was 3 months old and 10 lbs the other night and I could hardly remember Ava being so tiny.


Blast to the past right?

In other news... I am positive that Ava is an advanced baby. I may be biased because of course I think she is amazing, but she is ahead on all of her milestones. She is crawling now which is great as I read that big babies sometimes crawl later due to their chunkiness. Her crawling is still like army crawls but she does get up on all fours and rock back and forth and has taken a few tentative forward scoots using her hands but soon topples over because the back legs don't work when she wants them to. She is waving hi and bye bye and used to say "buh-buh" for bye bye but hasn't done it in a while. She has been saying "Da Da" for a few weeks now and associates it with daddy. If I say, "where's Da Da?" She looks around for him and says "Da Da, Da Da..." She also practices Da Da all day along with screaming bloody murder. She thinks it's funny to scream at the top of her lungs which delights people that call during the day.

The greatest of all things that she has done recently is that she signed milk to me yesterday. I was feeding her and she was kind of playing as she ate and so I signed "milk" and she held up her little hand and squeezed it. I praised her and called Mike in the room and asked her to do it again and she did it on cue. He then showed her the sign and asked her to do it and she did it for him too! I have never been so proud. Now I know how smart she is. I didn't expect her to mimic me or even to understand the signs until she was at least 7 months so this gives me great hope for what we can accomplish together.

Ava's First Visit to Santa

Here's the poor gator that was stuck in this small pool in Bass Pro. I didn't care a whole lot for how small his home was. It seemed a bit unfair.


Ava saw Santa for her first time! Luckily he had a REAL-ly strong beard (if you get my meaning - wink) as Ava had her little vice-grips in his hair. We all wondered if she would cry when she saw him but she was really intrigued by him! She didn't seem upset at all.

There was a big teddy bear with a bin full of stuffed animals and I thought it would be funny to put Ava in it and she looked so cute!

This tree was just beautiful all decked out hunter-style. The kids love Bass Pro because it reminds them of thier Big Daddy. This time of year is hard for us all. We mss him a lot.

Mike and I were playing with Ava last night and she was so happy. We all laughed for an hour or so! We were playing music and dancing and we tuckered her out. She slept really great last night.

As gross as this looks... Ava LOVES prunes! This is the most excited she has been about food since bananas. The other day I was eating a banana and she saw me and started begging for it so I let her take a few bites and she ate a third of it! She is really loving this eating business.

Yesterday at church Ava saw her friend Andrew. That kid can CRAWL! He's a real wiz at crawling. It was so funny, we put them on the floor together and Andrew kept crawling forward and Ava was scooting backward. Maybe I will get the pictures from Karen soon and I can post them. Too cute those kids...

Looking Forward to Thanksgiving!

What am I thankful for?

I am so thankful for healthy baby foods and a healthy baby!

Over the past few days, Ava has been happy and healthy, playing well and exploring her world. She is taking naps a lot easier and is just a real joy to be around! She now weighs 19.03 lbs. I, on the other hand, must have a cold or something because I feel a little run down and overall icky. Hopefully Ava doesn't catch it.

In new news, Ava is going to start eating rice cereal tomorrow. She has tried and loved almost all the foods I have introduced her to but she is still breastfeeding for all of her meals. She didn't like peas at all, but then again, I don't like peas either. Yuck.

I hope that by introducing cereal, she will realize that eating real food is often just as good as milk. But if she isn't ready I'm not going to push the issue. She will let me know when milk isn't cutting it. But I have a feeling it isn't holding her over because she wakes up every 3 hours for an actual feeding. She gets pretty mad when my letdown is too slow so I think that time is nearing. Today she ate 1/3 of a banana for lunch and then ate an entire milk meal too! Maybe this will hold her over for a while.

Also, in addition to learning "byebye," Ava taught herself how to wave "hello" too. At our Relief Society party tuesday, Ava suddenly waved to the ladies who were saying hello. She's such a smarty. And today she created a new game. Mike made kissy noises at her and with her pacifier in her mouth she sucked and made a kissing noise everytime Mike said, "give daddy a kiss, muah!" We recorded it but I'm not sure how to share it without first putting it on YouTube.

Peas Please?!

Well, my dinner was absolutely de-lish! (If I can toot my own spatula!) Nana Hilliard and the kids came over and Preston got seconds! He even ate more of the butternut squash! Now I have to come up with some ideas for Tuesday. Relief Society is getting together to do holiday activities and we are supposed to bring appetizers. I will probably make artichoke dip and something else. Any ideas?

Ava in her temple whites? This is what she wore to church minus the dress. She just looked so pretty in white I couldn't help but dream about her future!

Ava likes her dad's (yes that's right, this toy is 26 years old!) squeaky elephant teether.

Well, Ava has officially explored the world of - yech, peas. They ended up on her shirt, her face, her chair, and of course, mommy... as she blew raspberries with a mouth full of peas. Ew...

Ava can also (officially) wave bye-bye and say "buhbuh" when she does it. I was giving it a little time to see if it was really something she had learned and sure enough, she has it down. However, today she wouldn't do it at church because too much was going on. She did it for daddy when we said "nightnight" to him though!

Ava made this new face the whole time we were trying to get her to try to smile at the picture place. This is apparently similar to biting her lip to help figure things out. This is what she was doing when daddy was playing with the cat. She still can't figure out what Momo is and absolutely breaks her neck to see him if he miaows. See the lovely peas all over her shirt? I doubt she got any in her tummy... so funny!

Keep on Keepin' on...

Do you ever feel like you're getting in control of your to-do list?

I have a sink full of dishes to do, vaccuming, washing and putting away laundry and the rest can wait 'til tomorrow because tonight is the night that Mike and I celebrate him getting a full-time job (with benefits!). I'm making bar-b-que chicken and pineapple kabobs on the grill, roasted red potatoes, savory butternut squash and bean side dish, and of course homemade mac-n-cheese (the totally fattening kind) because it's Mike's favorite. Sounds amazing! I hope it turns out as good as it sounds.

So far today I have made it to the post office to get one of Mike's Ebay sales out and I had a small victory today. I took Ava to get her 5 month pictures. As she's now 5 1/2 months that is a little hooray for me to finally get that done.

Here are some pics...

Ava eating some store bought (Grandma Aase's corn face - mom) pears.

Ava reading. This is what she was doing when I went to get her after a nap the other day!

Momo isn't sure what he thinks of Ava yet. But she sure loves him.

Look at the hilarious outfit Shawny picked out the other day when I was at Linda's. She looks like a flower child!

Anyway, I am really excited for Thanksgiving. I have been watching Food Network nonstop (almost - whenever Ava is sleeping and I have "me time"). I invited the Hilliard's (Dave, Linda, Tara, Preston, Shawny, and Hunter - and Bonny Hill) over for Thanksgiving dinner this year. Linda doesn't want to mess with it so she usually takes everyone to Branson to Dixie Stampede but before that, like maybe a couple days before, I am going all out! Whew... hope I'm ready for all that. I love to cook though so it will be so much fun.

I'm turning into my stepmother, she always used to make a HUGE spread for the holidays and here I am continuing that tradition. I love this time of year!

Swimming Was a Bust

These pictures just 'cause she's so durn cute...

Swimming did not go swimmingly. We had to pay the day pass which was $7 per person! (Not for Ava...) And when I put her in the water she cringed and kind of whined. I think the water was too cold. She was fine until we put the water up to her chest. She acted like she couldn't breathe and then started screaming-crying. We felt so bad we cuddled her and got right back out and got our money back. The lady at the desk was super nice and although she wasn't supposed to give a refund without her supervisor, she did and that was so sweet. She kept saying over and over again how beautiful Ava was and how cute her bathing suit was - it was! She even said that seeing babies like Ava made her want to have kids because she was such a pretty baby. My ego wasn't stroked at all - right?

After all that Ava got a nice warm bath and had a snuggly nappy.

Hip-Hip-Hooray for FOOD!

Well, over the last few days we have been trying out what Ava thinks about food. The first thing we gave her to try was some bits of avacado but they were too slimy for her to pick up by herself so we ended up feeding them to her. She loved avacado. And since then she has had banana, a little piece of baby bird-style chewed up apple, and some carrots. This is all an effort to get her used to the taste and texture of food. Not much of it gets in her mouth but she likes playing with it and tasting new things. This method is called "baby-led weaning" where you give them basically what you are eating and they decide what they like and don't like - there's no force feeding with a spoon. And they also are more likely to try new things. The things I have been giving her are just as easily digested as first foods as cereals and in my mind, easier. How many people are allergic to gluten? Maybe waiting to give cereals until later is the key. Ava liked the texture of the carrots but wouldn't swallow them. Who knows? We will try them again later.

Is this a yummy carrot face or what?!

Today and yesterday have been absolutely beautiful out. Yesterday we went to Jefferson City to go to Target to get more of the Weleda Calendula Diaper Cream that works so well and spent the day window shopping. And today the goal is to go to the pool so Ava can have her first swim!

We'll keep you posted on how that goes!

Ava's Very Favorite Activity

Well... my child is a "go and do" kind of baby. I don't know why a sedentary-ish mom like me got blessed with this little mover but I am so lucky I did.

I'm also so lucky that her grandparents are so savvy. My mom (Noni) and stepdad (Grandpa) gave us this AWESOME backpack and we have gotten so much use out of it already. Everyday Ava gets cabin fever and needs to go for a walk and instead of lugging the stroller around, I just pop her on my back and go wherever. I love this thing. And you can tell from the picture, so does Ava.

Today she was crying for no knowable reason and I sat her in the pack and she stopped crying! (Hence this picture).

This gift is a Godsend! Thanks mom!

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.