Monkey Toes

Well, I'm not going to mention any names, but one of us has some little monkey toes! Ava has learned that she can use her toes to grip things, move things, and remove things. She's such a strong little bugger--so when she has her toes gripped around something (in conjunction with her hands), her feet can literally pull things off her playmat and off her pram. It is so funny to watch her play using her toes and even more amazing to watch how strong she is. Matt and I aren't sure if her baby strength is normal or not because she can do some pretty spectacular things with her little body. Matt and I are guessing that maybe she'll be a gymnast, a trapeze artist, a champion tug-of-war player, or something that incorporates using both hands and feet at the same time.

When we go anywhere in her pram, this is what her new fun thing to do is...

...that's right, folks--she likes to put her feet up in the air and show Mommy and Daddy her bum. Most people only see 2 little feet popping out the top of the pram, so we're the only ones who get the derriere view. When her legs get tired (or all the blood has rushed down from her feet and toes), she brings them down to rest on the pram's handle bar--then she proceeds to try to kick the toys off the handle bar. She's in constant motion, so sorry if some of the pictures are blurry--it's her in motion!

Ava's still such a wonderful baby. She's still teething (the poor love), so our sleep has been a bit scarce, but we're hoping that she'll get through it soon. We can actually feel the sharp tips of her teeth poking through her gums, so the teeth should be breaking through completely sometime in the coming weeks. Her teething has been a bit strange though, as her gums have never gotten swollen or blistered (which is what we were expecting). Maybe it just hasn't happened yet and we're in for major blisters and swollen gums! I'm just ready for Ava to get back to her normal sleep schedule of her long stretch being between 7-10 hours and then her short stretch of another 3 hours. She's waking up about every 3 hours and I've quickly forgotten how tiring those first few months of her life were. I'm tired and should be napping right now, but there are so many things I need to catch up on around the house and online. I know that there is a light at the end of the tunnel and I pray each night that the light gets closer! I don't know how people with multiple children do it!

Tummy Time

Since birth, Ava has loved being on her tummy. We used to let her nap on her tummy when she was a newborn because she slept so much better (and longer) than when she was on her back. Don't worry, we always supervised her while she was sleeping on her tummy! Well, I guess it's a good thing that she loves her tummy because she has developed such great back and neck muscles from all the time she's spent on it. If we place her on her back to play on the floor or on her back to sleep in her crib, she'll roll over to her tummy to play or sleep. Then, she low-crawls military style to get where she wants to go (usually some place perpendicular to where she is at the moment). You can put her down on her back facing one direction and within seconds, she's rolled over onto her tummy facing the complete opposite direction. We don't know how she does it!

Oh, in addition to being on her tummy, Ava's learned how to make faces and expressions with her mouth. Her current favorites are:

1) sucking in her bottom lip
2) sucking in both of her lips
3) making a pucker with her lips
and
4) staring blankly at the camera with her 'Matt' (aka 'I'm too cool for this picture') face

She's such a goober!

Here are some pictures of Ava playing on her tummy just looking around to see what everyone else is doing (you can see her new favorite facial expressions in some of them)...

Ava's First Easter

Well, Ava's first Easter was filled with so many great surprises. The Easter Bunny came by our house and left Ava so many fun treats. Her Easter basket was filled with some new touch and feel books, Baby Einstein DVDs, a pink stuffed rabbit, a Fisher-Price Learning Toolbench, candy filled eggs, and some Japanese Kokeshi dolls and baby chopsticks that the Easter Bunny left for Ava in Matt's suitcase in Japan (he wanted Matt to bring them to Ava to give to her on Easter since he wasn't going to be able to get to America as quickly as Matt was). Kokeshi dolls are a Japanese handicraft made of wood and are hand painted. They come in every shape and size (as you can see!) and Ava already loves playing with them. Here are some pictures of Ava seeing her Easter basket for the first time...

In the afternoon, we went for a walk to the park and through the surrounding neighborhoods. The park was a mess (full of people who don't live in our community but who want to trash a really nice park in a nice community!), so we decided to just walk through some neighborhoods around ours. Towards the end of the walk, Matt took Ava out of her pram and carried her on his shoulders (which has become one of her favorite places to sit)...

Other than that, it was a pretty lazy day. Matt was suffering from major jet-lag (due to the 16 hour time difference from Japan), so we just played with Ava and hung around the house. Here are some pictures of my loves doing what they do best...

Matt and I had a great Easter. Although Easter was really early this year (the dates don't match up), it was still a special weekend for us as it was our 8th Easter together. Can you believe it? We met Easter weekend of 2001 (which was in mid-April) and have been able to spend all but one Easter together (he was deployed for Easter 2003). It's amazing how fast time has flown by--I would never have thought our lives would be this amazing 8 years ago.

Daddy's Home!

On Saturday, Ava had a very big day. Matt's parents left to go back to Texas early that morning and then late that afternoon her favorite person walked through the door to see her. Daddy was home! I was actually nursing Ava when Matt opened the door and as soon as he walked through the door and over to see us, Ava had the biggest smile on her face (and she was D-O-N-E eating for that feeding!). Ava was just beside herself in excitement to see her Daddy. She gets excited to see her Nan and Poppa, GG and Grandpa, and all her other family, but there is no comparison to the excitement she gets when she sees her Daddy for the first time after he's been gone for a while.

Of course, Matt was just as equally excited to see his little girl. Even though he was exhausted from his 2 days of travelling to get home, he couldn't wait to play with Ava. He couldn't believe how much she'd changed in just a week--especially with her ability to sit up better and her dexterity playing with her new toys. Here are some pictures of the two of them reuniting right after Matt grabbed her from my lap. Aren't they both so cute?

Oh, have I mentioned that he wouldn't stop holding or playing with her for a couple of hours? I've been replaced as the thing Matt looks forward to coming home to the most (but it's okay with me because I love watching my two loves together!).

We were both so happy to have Matt home. There's just a special bond between Ava and her Daddy and they both miss each other so much when they're apart. Luckily, Matt was only gone a week. I can't imagine what Ava would do if he were gone longer than a few weeks--she would surely be tired of me!