Legends of the Crawl

We distinctly remember putting in a request for a laid-back baby. What ever happened with that?

Ava's Sixth Month

We made it! This was the finish line, right?

6 Month Birthday Edition - Flashback

6 days / 6 months

2 months / 4 months / 6 months


Then / Now

Happy 6 Months, Ava!

Some of us are more excited about the occasion than others.

In honor of this historic event, we are temporarily enabling comments on Ava's blog. Go nuts!

6 Month Birthday Edition - 25 Things About Ava

1. Ava's fingers are 1 1/2 inches long.
2. People think Ava is a boy no matter how pink her dress is.
3. Ava is a towhead.
4. It took Ava 14 weeks to learn how to breastfeed. It took Helen 6 more to forgive her.
   
5. Ava is the only member of her family with blue eyes.
6. Ava can sit up by herself for a maximum of 30 seconds.
7. Every once in a while Brody licks Ava on the face. Last week she finally licked him back.
8. Ava's favorite song is "Clap Your Hands" by They Might Be Giants.
9. As a Capricorn, Ava is quite ambitious. She generally grunts when practicing new skills.
10. Ava has many nicknames. Some of our favorites are Ava Flav, Pumpkin, Buttercup, and Bunches.
11. Ava is very sensitive to sound so we have developed very quiet evening activities, like blogging.
12. When Ava smiles she looks like a little ole lady. All gums.
13. Ava gets about 12 hours of sleep a night.
14. Ava's inseam measures six inches.
15. At 14-15 lbs, Ava is currently about the size of a house cat.
16. Ava's nose is like a tiny ski jump.
17. Ava believes there isn't enough time in the day to nap.
18. Ava was born four hours after arriving at the hospital.
19. Ava can scoot quite quickly. However, she doesn't use her knees and she only operates in reverse.
20. Ava's "I'm tired" scream reaches octaves previously unknown to man. If you are dubious, we invite you to a night of babysitting.
21. Ava always smiles when she receives compliments. She has been told she is so beautiful she looks like a "fake baby" on no fewer than three separate occasions. True story!
22. Ava loves being outside.
23. If you are hoping to upset Ava, you needn't look much further than pulling a shirt over her head. She goes ballistic.
24. Ava has inherited photic sneeze reflex, a genetic autosomal dominant trait, from Brian.
25. Ava doesn't care for sweet potato. Brody, on the other hand, likes it a lot.

Ava-cado!

At 5 1/2 months, Ava has accomplished what it took Helen 23 years to achieve: eating something green.

Free range chick

Little Miss Giggles

Sure, Brian is funny. But not that funny.

Ava's Fifth Month

Hot fun in the summertime

Summer came early this year (June!) so Ava got to show a little leg. Per her father, two-pieces are a no-no, but she still turned some heads in a ruffled pink number. Lacking a suitable body of water to frolic in (no kids, Portland isn't on the ocean), Ava and her friends took to paddle pools and city fountains all over town.

The emergence of hilarity

We wouldn't normally say that Ava is easy to please, but the bar is pretty low for making her laugh. Case in point:

Eat, eat! You're skin and bones!

Today we fed Ava her first solid foods. Or more accurately, today we smeared avocado all over Ava's face until she cried. And then we took pictures.

Tranquil

Intrigued

Engaged

Disappointed

Frustrated

Distressed

Enraged

Breakin' 3: Pediatric Boogaloo

Some people think you shouldn't spin a baby on her head. We aren't those people. We're hoping you aren't those people either.

Yo, let's serve these fellas.

Ava goes upright

We've officially run out of new poses for Ava lying down on her black, white, and red mat. We're now branching out to the excersaucer, a.k.a. the "command center."

Ava's Fourth Month

Ava's fourth month was a month of firsts: among others, her first roll, her first hike, her first trip to the bar. Most memorable was her first (and hopefully last) night waking up every hour on the hour. Not surprisingly, this led to our first realization that in a test of wills, Ava always comes out the winner.

Let me see that tootsee roll

Lord have mercy. Ava's on the move.

I guess you just had to be there

While some babies were sleeping soundly, our little bambino was getting ready to reach a developmental milestone. It may have taken 30 minutes but we can now confirm that Ava successfully rolled over from her front to her back yesterday.

No video evidence yet; however, we assure you it's legit. In the meantime, enjoy this picture of one of her practice sessions.

And no, you're not the only one who thinks she looks like a boy in this outfit. In fact, it reads "I LIKE MUD."

Shake-a-bye Baby

Since our last posting about Ava's phenomenal sleep patterns (see April 6), we seem to have hit a bit of a bump in the road. Her impressive 9 hour sleep stretches have devolved into catnaps of sometimes only 30 minutes. Not that we're complaining. Oh wait...yes we are.

More troubling still is that Ava isn't one of those babies that drifts off effortlessly at bedtime. Rather, getting Ava to sleep could be considered an Olympic sport. A triathalon of bouncing, rocking, and swaying, if you will.

Bouncing is our "go-to" technique and has produced some of our record-breaking wake to sleep conversion times. For a real go-getter, this can be accomplished in no less than 20 minutes.

Rocking has a higher degree of difficulty and looks nothing like the type of rocking that puts TV babies to sleep. The type of rocking Ava enjoys requires you to be light on your toes as you hop from one foot to another while being sure not to shake the baby. That's very important. Don't shake the baby.

If bouncing and rocking haven't worked, it's going to be a long night and you may be in hour four of the bedtime routine. The swoop and sway is for experts only and can result in repetitive stress injuries. But think about the workout you're getting! You'll thank yourself later.

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.