July Fun

The month of July marked 4 months of life for little Ava.  At her four-month appointment, she weighed 14 pounds 8 ounces (75th percentile) and measured 25 inches long (90th percentile).  Ava is such a happy baby.  She has added so much joy to our life.  We marvel every day at how much she is growing and changing.  The pictures below are from the 4th of July weekend, and boy has Ava changed even since then!  The month of July brought a lot of new experiences and new people into Ava's life.  We celebrated Ethan and Marissa's upcoming wedding with a couples' shower held at Montage Restaurant on July 23rd.  Ava was in attendance, and she had a lot of fun being passed around and meeting lots of new friends!  Unfortunately, mom wasn't so on-top of things and forgot to take photos of the weekend!  So sad we don't have anything to remember the weekend by, but it was so much fun to celebrate Ethan and Marissa with family and friends here in Cedar Falls.  It was very special for Ava to finally meet Marissa's mom Helene and sister Andrea.  She is going to visit Chicago on the weekend of August 12th-14th for Marissa's bridal shower!  We are looking forward to introducing her to the rest of Marissa's family and friends.  Ava also had 4-month photos taken by a wonderful local photographer, Jenelle Shamrell.  I am so excited to share the photos with you, and will do so as soon as they become available. 

Celebrating the 4th in Style with Uncle Ethan

Fun under the Jungle Gym with Emma

 Near the end of July, we put Ava's swing and most of her 0-3 month clothes into storage.  She no longer fits into most of her 3-month baby clothes and is rapidly growing into and out of her 6 month clothes already!  It was a little emotional for me to see the swing leave our living room (although I'm thankful for the extra space!).  Ava loved her swing as a newborn, and spent so much time swinging, listening to the music it played, sleeping, and seeing the world from its perch.  Now, she's no longer content to sit and watch the world go by!  She is becoming more and more active, and after about five minutes of sitting in my lap, she's ready to go explore the world on the floor and in her activity center.  She continues to "talk" to us and test her lungs.  She is still eating from a bottle only, as our doctor recommended that she stay on the bottle exclusively until about 6 months.  We are going to try to stick to that, however, rice cereal might be introduced later into her 5th month.  She seems like she's getting ready for solid food, so I'm sure we'll be seeing cereal on our kitchen floor soon enough!  Ava is such a doll and brings so much laughter, love, and levity to our house.  We fall in love with our baby girl a little more every day.

Cuddles with Uncle E



Ava Still Loves Bathtime!