Growing Like A Weed....!

Ava is so much fun!  We are really starting to see her personality develop now.  She is smiling and laughing, and has been babbling more and more lately.  It's so fun to see her express herself!  Here is a video of her "talking":

Ava is becoming more active by the day.  Simply putting her in the swing to sit and interact is not cutting it anymore!  She wants to get on the floor and move.  It has been so much fun to see her begin to play with little toys, rattles, and her jungle playgym. 

These pictures are from about a week ago, and she is just changing so fast that I can barely keep up!  The jungle playgym plays music when Ava touches her toys, so that's really been encouraging her to touch the little animals that hang down.  She likes to roll over and look at the pretty colors on the mat, too.

Ava also likes sitting in her bumbo seat.  She enjoys being able to sit up and see everything that's going on around her.  This is a cute picture of her in the bumbo.  You can see that her socks are getting too small for her in this photo!  Ava is growing so fast, and quickly outgrowing her 3 month clothes.  She is now in this in-between stage, where some 3 months clothes fit and some 6 month clothes fit.  Soon she will completely outgrow her 3 month outfits.  And we have so many cute 6 month clothes, so I can't wait to post photos of her new outfits!
Ava is also enjoying stroller rides.  We usually go for a walk through our neighborhood on a daily basis (sometimes more than once a day!) when the weather is nice and it's not too windy.  Our neighborhood was built on a large ridge, so it gets windy pretty easily.  The wind can take Ava's breath away, which always scares me!  So we try to get outside a lot when the weather allows.  Ava loves the outdoors, and she often coos and "talks" while in her stroller.  She enjoys lounging and listening to the birds, feeling the breeze, and listening to mom and dad talk to each other and the neighbors.  It's also great exercise for me!

Here is my dad and Ava on Father's Day.  We had a low-key and relaxing afternoon with Daddy, Grandpa and Grandma Jacobson, and Great Grandma Dykes.  Daddy grilled hamburgers and we just enjoyed the day together.  I'm sad I didn't get a picture of Erik and Ava that day - I guess I'm still getting used to carrying a camera everywhere and remembering to take pictures of all these great moments!

Here's a photo of Ava smiling at me, taken yesterday.  You couldn't ask for a more beautiful and well-behaved baby.  Ava's personality is developing, and I would guess that she is going to be a very low-key, mellow kind of person!  She is so easy-going, and loves to be engaged.  We often make fools out of ourselves talking to her, playing peek-a-boo, and singing her songs.  She loves music and often, a good song from one of her toys or from mom is all that is needed to keep her from fussing.  She has been sleeping through the night (8pm-8am roughly) without making a peep for the past 3 weeks or so.  She is such a happy baby when we come get her each morning, and we are so thankful she is getting the sleep she needs.  We are also grateful for the uninterrupted night's sleep!  Her naps are still getting established, and we're going to work on transitioning her to her crib for naps during the day.  She had been sleeping in her swing (turned off, of course) during the day for naps (because getting her from the arms to the crib was NOT working!), but she has now learned that crib = bedtime and that everything else means awake time.  This is so great for her to know, but now it's up to us to get her to her crib and help her sleep longer than 30 minutes or so during the day.  We'll see - I was a baby that NEVER took naps, even at a young age.  I only took short cat naps, which drove my mom crazy!  But I did sleep through the night.  Erik, however, was a great sleeper and slept through the night AND during the day.  We're hoping Ava takes after Daddy and not Mommy in this area! 

We're hoping to be able to introduce some cereal to Ava's diet after her 4-month doctor appointment in July.  We'll be sure to update the blog with photos of her first solid food experience - it should be interesting!  I'm sure her face and our floor will be covered!  But I can't wait to sit at the dinner table and eat together as a family for the first time.  This weekend, we're so excited because Grandma Feldick is coming to watch Ava all day Friday while Mommy and Daddy are at work, and then Uncle Ethan and Aunt Marissa are coming to spend Fourth of July weekend with us.  We can't wait for them to see all the new things Ava is doing since they last saw her at the family shower.  Ava will also be sitting for photos this Saturday at JC Penney!  I will be providing information on how to order photos to family and anyone else interested soon!