7,8, and 9 months of Ava!

Now that Ava is NINE months old, and a completely different babe then she was 3 months ago when I was last here...figured I should update!! I suck at keeping up with this thing lets face it. Oh well.

Again, not even sure where to start here! Ava is becoming less of a baby and more of a little girl right before our eyes. I can't believe I just reserved her FIRST birthday party location and am already starting to party plan. Its crazy! She is now crawling all over the place, eating pretty much everything we eat, pulling herself up from laying to sitting ( and most recently from sitting to standing in her crib!), she's sporting FIVE almost six teeth, and never cries unless she's tired or hungry. We have been seriously blessed with theeee happiest baby on earth ! We certainly have our rough days/nights.. but for the most part she's really pretty happy!

7 months old! 

8 months old! Mommy dropped the ball on this one and totally

forgot to do an 8 month pic! ughh! So I found this one in my phone

from around her 8 month birthday. 

9 months and feeling festive for the 4th of July this weekend!!

Now for an Ava update....

sleep: 

I was reading back on my last post and had to laugh... that must have been a rough time for us in the sleep department! haha! Ava is currently sleeping through the night ( for the most part) A typical night around here looks something like this:

around 8-8:30pm we let her choose a book off her shelf ( no not really...she just grabs whatever she sees first but we go with it ;) ) she has just started recently loving books! She will sit there while we read and point to the pictures and grab them. She will actually sit there and listen too. Its so adorable! After that, Daddy makes a big bottle while mama changes her into her nighttime diaper and pj's. We then cuddle up in the rocking chair and mama gives her her bottle while papa gets her bed ready. After the bottle she goes right into her crib no problems. She might fuss for a few minutes but not usually. She loves to sleep on her belly , and has to have the fan on. Not sure if she likes the sound or the air but whatever it works ! She usually sleeps until about 4 or 5 am and will wake up for a quick bottle and back to bed until about 8 am. We are trying to cut the 4/5 am bottle out but are having difficulty on that one! Other than that I'd say her sleep is great and she's improved so much these past few months!

eating:

I'd say this category has changed the most since I last updated! Ava really is only having 3-4 formula bottles/ day and those are morning, noon and night...and that 4 or 5 am bottle. We switched her to just regular enfamil infant and haven't noticed a difference from the gentlease kind. After Ava wakes up for the day around 8 am she has breakfast which is usually a few mini pancakes cut up, blueberries ( her favorite food on the planet..this girl could eat blueberries for every meal every day and be just fine I swear..we can only give her a couple ( cut up) at a time because she will just shovel and not stop) and some yobaby yogurt. She also loves french toast sticks , apple&maple flavored chicken sausage, oatmeal, scrambled eggs, and strawberries!

Lunch is usually something like grilled chicken, mozzarella cheese, and a veggie ( her favorite is carrots!) I like to buy the Libby's brand carrots and green beans in the mini to-go containers . Super quick and easy and they are already cut up and easy for her to grab and eat. She also loves pasta & ravioli, turkey meatballs, sweet potatoes/mashed potatoes, and she loooves bread just like her mama and papa! Dinner time is usually whatever we are eating ..but with an added fruit/veggie. If its something she really cant eat she will just have any combination or assortment of the above foods she eats for breakfast or lunch. 

Pancakes for dinner ? so what! 

milestones/achievements:

Ava is now crawling all over the place! Although her crawl is a very awkward one ( she kind of does this army crawl thing dragging her legs and pushing off with her feet?) so weird, but she is super fast and can get something she wants across the room in no time. Which has opened us up to a whole different world! She of course wants everything she isn't supposed to have....cords, outlets, your phone, your drink, the random blueberry on the floor from a week ago, its exhausting! We've totally baby proofed ( all outlets covered, cords tucked away, baby gates, and we even got rid of our coffee table so the princess could have more room to crawl around and less chance of falling into it) She is getting up on all 4's and can crawl for a bit that way but I think that belly is a little heavy to hold so she ends up falling back down...she can stand supported and has recently started pulling herself up in her crib! She has also started sitting up from laying down and does it so fast now! It amazes me everyday the things she does! I know we are really in for it when she starts to walk!! 

She has 5 teeth, almost 6 ...and will bite you so hard if you give her the chance. She loves to bite ( we are working on that)haha. She says mama, papa, dada, and baba...not sure she understands what they mean yet but she definitely knows who her papa is! she also waves hi and bye bye and it is pretty much the cutest thing ever!!

she has recently discovered this spot under the end table

its her new go-to hang out ;)

Ava loves waving Hi and Bye Bye!

Crib officially at lowest setting now that little miss

can pull herself up to standing position!

likes:

Ava loves to eat ( those blueberries and carrots are her fav) she loves to go for walks and people watch ( she is totally my child and is super nosey!) , bath time, playing with her stuffed animals, being sang to , reading books, crawling all over the place (and getting into everything). She actually is not big into toys and would be perfectly content sitting in a laundry basket or a box with a water bottle in her hand ( that was today) so strange!! She loves our dog Jake and always goes right after him when he comes upstairs...hes an old dog so he isn't as excited as she is ;) 

dislikes:

still not a fan of crowds or commotion, goes nuts when you try and take something away from her she wants, doesn't like when someone walks away from her ( always wants attention) hates her face wiped, and is not a joy when she misses naps or her bedtime! 

I posted last time that she didn't like riding in the shopping cart but actually she is doing really well with that now! It is so much easier having her ride in the cart and actually have a place to put those groceries ;)

memories:

Since our last update we have celebrated a few fun Holidays with our girl, taken her on her first boat ride, taken her to Hidden Valley Animal Adventure, the lilac festival, and spent some time playing outside in the sun !

 Memorial Day 2015

I just love that little baby face!!

Hidden Valley Animal Adventure!

Ava looking at the animals!

Passed out...she never cuddles like this so mommy

didn't mind at all ;)

Mothers Day 2015-Ava giving mommy

her gift! so sweet and thoughtful!

A gold bracelet engraved from my baby girl!

she knows me too well ;)

Lilac Festival 2015! We had fun eating all the bad food

( well mommy did) and seeing the pretty flowers!!

Fathers Day 2015- Out to dinner with the family!

Picture for Daddy for Fathers Day! He loved it!

All the Dads :)

Mommy and Ava on the boat for her first time!

Avas new kiddie pool !

Playing outside with Grandma Cindy 

Avas new water table from Aunt Nicki and Uncle Dan!

4th of July family pic!

We celebrated Sara and Alan this day at their

I Do BBQ! It was so much fun and we can't wait for the

wedding next month! 

4, 5 & 6 Months of Ava

Oops ..I haven't been here in 3 months! my goodness! So much has changed ( as usual) and I'm really not sure where to start :( We now have a SIX month old baby over here. what the ?! half a year....where on earth has half a year gone? Since I really cant remember back to 4-5 months old i'm going to just give you a most recent update on little miss with some cute pictures in between ...a very random blog post probably. I really need to post more because I want to be able to look back someday  and know what she was doing and when...especially for baby #2 someday!

4 months old

1-29-15

5 months old

2-29-15

6 months old

3-29-15

Since my last post Ava has celebrated two more of her first holidays :) I don't have any cute pictures of her on St Patricks Day but I do have quite a few from Easter to make up for it! I loved putting together her easter basket and dressing her up. Even if she doesn't know whats going on I still had fun!

Pinterest is really the best ever.

Having some yogurt and peaches Easter morning!

yum!

I seriously love this Easter Dress and bunny head wrap!

Easter family selfie. Ava not thrilled.

Ava with her cousins Gina and Frankie on Easter.

Only missing 2 more in Maryland to complete the picture.

It was so fun celebrating with baby girl this year but poor honey was so sick, even if you can't tell from the pictures. Last Monday she started with some cold symptoms and a mild cough.. that quickly turned into very loud/barking cough that kept her up all night long . Took her in to the Doctor and they told us she had croup! Which there is no medicine for. awesome. So humidifier, steam from shower, cool air at night .... tried it all.... seemed to help some. But then that croupy cough became more productive sounding, her eyes started getting puffy and draining, and fever started. We woke up yesterday ( Monday) morning now a week later  and went to pick Ava up out of crib ( usually we just let her sleep until my mom gets there) and she was burning up, completely delirious and moaning in pain. soo scary....her temp was 104.8 and I panicked pretty much. haha. Threw her in a cool bath and gave her some tylenol right away. I Was going to take her to the ER but her Pediatrician got us in first thing that morning. Poor honey has a bad sinus infection. She's now on some antibiotics and we've been giving her some tylenol and ibuprofen as well. She seems to be getting better already :) Nothing worse than your baby being sick..most heartbreaking thing ever. 

At the Doctors office!

Cuddling her teddy bear.

You know she isn't feeling well when she

gets snuggly. Mommy doesn't mind

the extra cuddles though!

okay now lets get to some ava updates :)

sleep:

Ava is currently sleeping like...shit. Lets be honest. Its awful. She wakes up at such random times during the night for all sorts of different reasons.. sometimes she likes to refuse bottles during the day and make up for it at night, she knows how to roll over and when she does it during the night she gets "stuck" on her belly and needs us to come in and help her out ( this could be once a night or 5 times), or sometimes she just wants to play or be held. We also started putting her in her crib at 6 months old for bedtime instead of in our room in the rock n play. She was waking up more in the rock n play and she was just getting a little too big for it. I would say she really stopped sleeping through the night at about 5 months old. After a little while of that we decided we really needed to establish some sort of bedtime routine. About 3 weeks ago we started our nightly routine of a bath, a big bottle, rocking chair and bed at 8:30pm every night and have really tried to be super consistent. It has seemed to help a bit.. but Ava has been super sick the past week so that all went down the drain. She has been back in our room with us for a few days and hopefully once she starts feeling better we can get back to our routine and things will start looking up for baby girl....and mommy and daddy ;) 

eating: 

Ava is currently on formula full time. well I shouldn't say full time...sometimes before bed ( especially lately) i've been nursing her if she's super upset and not feeling well. We made the formula full time switch a little over a month ago and it seems to be going great. Mama couldn't keep up at work and it just wasn't keeping her full long enough anymore. She is currently on Enfamil Gentlease (because she is a gassy girl) and about 6 oz bottles every 4 hours. I also started making all of my own baby food for her and it has been a hit! I seriously love making it and she loves it so much more than the store bought kind. I just cook down whatever veggie or fruit , blend in magic bullet and freeze in trays and have baby food for a month! Currently, Ava's favorite thing is pears....and her least favorite is peas! We also have been giving her those plum organics pouch purees ( loves pumpkin/banana kind) and she's also been snacking on the gerber cereal puffs and yogurt melts. Little miss loves to eat!

milestones/achievements:

These past few months have been big in this department!! She is rolling all over the place now!...if you put her on her back, she will immediately roll onto her belly..this is really cute but super inconvenient in the middle of the night. She is sitting up all by herself and loves to sit on her floor in her room with all of her stuffed animals and toys. She is babbling and laughing more and more lately and since I last posted, has sprouted TWO bottom teeth! My favorite is the big smile with those two teeth sticking out. cutest ever! 

this is typically what we find at 2 am ;)

likes:

Ava is still loving her swing, but is quickly getting too big for it. She loves her bouncer, cartoons, bath time, music, car rides and eating! She always likes to have a toy or rattle in her hand and if it isn't in her mouth she's banging it against the high chair, floor, carseat..wherever she is. We got her one of those teething necklaces with the big chew beads and she loves it! Ava starts swim lessons tomorrow night and we are hoping she loves that too! She loves her bath time so I think she will really love swimming. I am so excited!

dislikes: 

sleep? sleeping through the night? ;-) haha! just kidding. she does not like crowds or commotion and quickly becomes agitated in those situations. The only food we have found she doesn't like is peas, and although she likes car rides she does not like them for long periods of time. Now that she is sitting up on her own, we started putting her in the shopping cart with one of those cart covers and it was okay the first few times but lately has been getting super fussy and wants to grab at everything and screams when I won't let her eat my grocery list that is in my hand. 

That about sums up the past three months in the world of Ava! Hopefully I'm back before her first birthday with some more updates!

two & three months of ava!

Well those three months flew right on by! This blog is being seriously neglected and I have to stop doing that!! Being back to work it seems like my days just fly by so fast, and the time I am home you can usually find me on Ava's bedroom floor playing/cuddling with her instead of blogging. Oh well! Can't believe we have a 3.5 month old and how MUCH she is growing/changing each and everyday. Its funny because I really don't notice just how much she is growing until I see someone we haven't seen in awhile and they say " wow look how big she is getting " or in our case what we hear the most is " wow look at how much her hair has grown!" haha! girlfriend has some serious hair on that head of hers! 

2 month picture

11-29-14

3 month picture

12-29-14

 Since our last update, Ava has celebrated three of her first holidays ( Thanksgiving, Christmas, and New Years!) So much fun celebrating with her this year and I can't wait until she is old enough to get excited and participate in them! Holidays are one hundred times better with little ones. It was so much fun dressing her up and showing her off! :) 

Christmas Recap: 

a few weeks before the actual holiday, Chris' brother Dan, Nicki and the kids came up for a wedding and to have Christmas with us! It was so nice spending time with them and having all of the kids together! 

We even took them to see Santa! Ava lasted 0.5 seconds!

Ava on Christmas Eve! We spent it with Chris' side of the family

and had so much fun showing her off and passing her around :)

Ava on Christmas Eve before bed! Every year growing up

we opened one present on Christmas Eve and it was always a new

pair of pj's to wear that night..so of course we are keeping that tradition going 

with Ava! My mom spent the night Christmas Eve at our house and we 

spent the morning with her opening gifts and having a yummy breakfast 

before heading to my Aunt Cindy's for Christmas with my side of the family.

Christmas Day! Such a little cutie! dressing up a little baby girl

is so much fun..and equally as much of a pain in the ass. She lasted appx 1

hour in that dress. Babies just wanna be comfortable and I can't

blame her.

 This is one of my favorite pictures of her. I am so in love

with those big brown eyes and chubby cheeks! How will

we ever say no to those eyes?

The day after Christmas we headed to my Grandparents to do dinner

and gifts with them. After 2 days of uncomfortable dresses we decided to

go with leggings and a comfy shirt! My grandparents had a bunch of black

and white pictures printed and framed for us for Christmas. It was the sweetest thing

ever!

Here is what we did with the pictures...Still need

to find pictures for the top left and right frames

but so far I am in love with how it turned out!

Ava got so spoiled with tons of toys, clothes and goodies this year from everyone! Chris and I bought her a new swing, a new big girl tub, some clothes and a few toys. It was hard figuring out what to buy a 3 month old! Here are some of the gifts she received that we love.

Fisher Price Cradle n' Swing 

This thing has been a god send for us! The mamaRoo is still great

but we found that it wasn't giving her enough of that "swinging" motion that she

really liked. This thing puts her right to sleep...every time! 

Aqua Scale bath tub. 

This thing is pretty awesome too. 

It has a digital scale and water thermometer built into it. 

Not sure why you need to weigh your baby when your giving it a bath 

but hey, its pretty cool..

The Puj tub was great when she was a newborn.. but Ava was getting

just a little too big for the bathroom sink and was starting to grab at the

faucet and kick everything near by off the counter. haha! 

Daddy was in charge of bath time there for awhile..this was

mommy's first time giving her a bath all alone...She's looking

at me like umm..wheres the pandora daddy usually plays..and 

he usually sings to me too lady! 

One of my favorite outfits grammy Lisa bought for her.

I love everything BabyGap..how adorable are those cloud tights?

Christmas was so much fun and I can't wait until next year ( well technically this year) with her!! Thank you to everyone who spoiled our little gal and made her first christmas extra special!! Ava is one loved little girl!! xoxo

Ava on New Years Eve! 

We went to our friends John and Katie's for some

food, drinks and cards against humanity! They also

have a baby and it was so fun watching him and Ava

interact! Oh how New Years Eve's have changed!! wouldn't 

have it any other way though :) 

Best part of 2014!

Whew! I really have to stop going so long in between blog posts! So much to catch up on... 

I guess we should do a two/three month update too since a lot has changed !

sleep:

Ava is currently (knock on wood) sleeping through the night! we were seriously blessed with this child. Most nights she sleeps from 10p-4a... she then wakes up, eats..and back down until about 8 am. Sounds good to me! She isn't on any type of routine as far as naps go...she sleeps when she wants and it works for us! She is getting really good about taking naps in her crib during the day though. She will lay in there and watch her mobile and suck on her hands and fall asleep..As for bed time she usually lays in our bed with us ( shame on me ;)) where she nurses and falls asleep..then Chris takes her ( he's got magic hands where baby doesn't wake up during transfer...I'm not that skilled) and puts her in the rock n' play. She still loves to sleep in that thing! 

eating:

Ava is eating about every 3-4 hours during the day and about 4-5oz per feeding. She

likes to cluster feed in the evening time lately we've noticed too. She will eat every hour/two it seems from about 6p-10p. Its almost like she fills up before the long sleep! Hey, whatever works! Still exclusively breastfeeding and not having any problems going back and forth between nursing and a bottle. Mommy is trying really hard to keep up while she is away at work too! ( finding time when you are a busy nurse can be a challenge but now that I am back into the swing of things and have (somewhat) of a routine its a little better!! ) 

new milestones/achievements:

She has really found her voice now and we are absolutely loving all of her baby talk! I was making silly voices at her today and I got her to giggle...I think my heart exploded right then and there. It was so precious and nobody got to see it but me :( I can't wait for more baby giggles!! She has also started to grab & reach for things she sees and wants. She loves the play mat on the floor with the toys hanging. She gets so excited and gets all of them moving at once its super adorable! She has also mastered holding her head up too!

likes: 

Ava is currently loving her swing...alot ( in it as we speak) She also loves baby einstein/ cartoons ...combine the two..and thats a happy babe! She still loves car rides and falls asleep usually before you get out of the driveway. She loves her rattles and teether rings...she always has one in her hand and immediately shoves in her mouth. Not sure if this is the beginning of teething or if she is too young? but she has some serious drool ALL of the time lately and always wants to knaw on everything. hmm..

Having some fun with my camera today! I have to learn to use

this thing instead of my iPhone all the time!!

I think thats a wrap for my extreme catch up post!! I can't believe Ava will be FOUR months old at the end of this month. Why couldn't four months of pregnancy go by that fast?? haha! We are having the best time ever watching her grow and become her own little person. I love her more than anything on earth!! I'm so lucky I get to be her Mama!