Ava's Third Month

Our baby is a genius

Ava is now discovering that she has hands! This might not seem like much, but to those of us who have watched her curled up like a pill bug for the last ten weeks, this is a pretty exciting development. Watch as our genius-baby plays with her toys.

What are you putting in that bottle?

When Ava visits the grocery store, she inspires a great deal of unsolicited conversation. We would expect each exchange to center around her extraordinary beauty, but surprisingly everyone is only interested in discussing her sleeping patterns. Every dialog takes an eerily similar track: "WOW...she's a little one! Is she sleeping through the night?"

So, to all our fellow grocery store customers, we are happy to report that Ava is no slouch in the night sleeping department. In fact, she routinely slumbers for five hours and has been known to go for seven. And yet, we are still tired.

Better Living Through Chemistry

We here at the Rabold household would like to extend a big thank-you to the good people at Boehringer Ingelheim for blessing us with Zantac. Although we joke about ear-piercing screams, earplugs, and projectile vomit, we are quite happy to have less material to work with.

Miss Popularity

Some might describe Ava as "colicky" or "fussy" (see March 14). We prefer to think of her as passionate, spunky, and outgoing. She's a real people person. Not content to sit around the house, she has friends all over town and spends most days in some sort of playgroup or mom's group.

There's the Tuesday/Thursday playgroup:


The Wednesday/Friday mom's group:


The every-other Sunday playgroup:

And the impromptu play dates:

Ava and Elliot on a shopping spree.

Ava's first chaperoned slow dance with Alex.

Quite the social butterfly!

Ava's Second Month

After a bout of acid reflux, and the resulting nights of incessant ear-piercing screams and projectile vomit sessions, I think we can safely file Month 2 under "No one said it would be easy."

Lucky for us, our little Ava is the cutest baby ever. Vomit and all.

This week we love...

...earplugs.

Little Feet

And in the pink corner, weighing in at 8 lbs 8 oz

Despite some initial setbacks, Ava has built herself up to a whopping 8 1/2 lbs!! She has made the move from the 5th percentile to the 12th percentile for weight. For those of you who haven't taken a California Achievement Test lately, that means that if we lined up 100 babies of her age, there would be 12 smaller than her. Take that, smaller babies.

This heft has not come without hard work. Here's an idea of her workout routine, which involves a little bit of dancing:



along with a regular regimen of push ups with her workout partners:

It's a great big world out there

Ava is a pretty small lady. In fact, most things are larger than our girl...clothing, almost all humans, many pets, and even some fruits and vegetables.

Here's how Ava stacks up against the competition:

Ava is bigger than an iron.

Ava is smaller than a small chair.

Ava fits inside of a laundry basket.

Ava is bigger than an eggplant.

But Ava is much smaller than her friend Elliot.

Ava's First Month

Bath Time

Download the Ava ringtone!

To really get the full effect of the ringtone, we recommend setting up your phone so it rings dozens of times throughout the day for unpredictable lengths. Give yourself a break at night and just have it ring at 10 pm, midnight, 3 am, and 7 am. Have someone else program your phone so you have to press all the buttons before finding out which one silences the ring.

Brotherhood looks good on Brody

We've been fielding a number of questions about how our dog Brody is reacting to Ava's arrival. These questions are not without merit. This is how Brody responded to the news that we were adding a family member:

Initial progress was slow.

We admit we were a bit worried ourselves when Brody spent the first 24 hours of Ava’s homecoming matching her every cry with a whimper, whine, or bark of his own. And, sure, we weren’t exactly ecstatic when he tried to hop in the bassinet with her. However, things have calmed down significantly over the last few days. Just don’t expect him to be babysitting solo anytime soon.

What can we say? Brotherhood looks good on Brody.

Little Hands

Captain Hiccups

Is that what they mean by "Patty Cake?"

The news of Ava's arrival was met with excitement, love, and words of wisdom from near and far. Here's our favorite response:

OMG! You are a mom. Crazy. Last night I had a dream that I was pregnant with twins--but they weren't in my belly, but rather kept in a deli case and looked like raw hamburger patties. I have no idea what this means...

We couldn't have said it better ourselves.

Introducing...

...the shockingly beautiful

Miss Ava Kate Rabold
Born on Sunday, January 18, 2009
11:11 p.m.
6 lbs, 7 oz, 19 inches

Ava is keeping Brian and Helen overjoyed and under-rested. Don't be fooled by the sleepy eyes!

All systems go