2 Little Monkeys Jumpin' On The Bed

Here are some pictures of my two little monkeys playing on the bed at the end of March. Luckily, neither of them fell off and bumped their head. I think this is Ava's favorite time of the day, as she and her Daddy play together on the bed every single night before she goes to bed...

More giggles

Here's Ava laughing once again. She laughed for about a minute straight and then I got out the camera and she stopped. You'll hear Matt's commentary about her stopping because I got the camera out (I think he says something about me spoiling the fun). She would laugh and laugh and as soon as I would pull the camera back out, she'd stop (this happened about 5 times, no lie). I wish I could have captured her complete laughing spell. It was so funny. Playing with her daddy makes her laugh uncontrollably and to her, he is the funniest person in her little world.

Giggly Girl

Ava Holt loves to laugh. It sounds a little like whinging sometimes, so we usually do a double take to see if she's annoyed or just laughing. Here is some footage of Ava laughing at me while we were playing last week. Just hearing her laugh and seeing how excited she gets makes us laugh...it's contageous!

Ava's 5 months old!

I can't believe it...Ava's already 5 months old! It seems like it was just yesterday that we were in the hospital and she was about to be born. The months, days, minutes, and seconds that have made up the time since Ava Holt was born have flown by so fast. They've actually flown by way TOO FAST for our liking. Ava keeps changing and growing and as excited as we are that she's becoming more independent and fun to play with, we still miss the days of her being so little, new, and fragile. Long gone are the days of her sleeping on our chests or curled up in a ball zipped up in my North Face fleece jacket. Things like that make us sad but having her laugh, giggle, smile, and talk to us make our days so much fun.

Our tradition continues (much to Matt's chagrin) of celebrating Ava's monthly birthdays. Here she is with her birthday 'cake' and candle. As you can see, at first she doesn't realize that her 'cake' and candle are in front of her--but as soon as she realizes that they're there, her 'cake' gets demolished (not to mention her clothes get covered in chocolate!).

This is Take #1...

Take #2: Ava informed me that she was missing her Mater hat, so I had to go get it and put it on her head. So here she is with her complete Birthday gear...

Take #3: After a change of clothes and a nap, Ava said that she wanted to play with her cake again and that she wouldn't destroy it this time...that'll be the last time I listen to and trust a 5-month old!

Yes, that was both the candle and her 'cake' in her mouth. Don't worry, she didn't get any wax in her mouth...only a little chocolate on her face.

As you can see, she's had a very Happy 5 Month Birthday. She got to play with her Daddy all morning (Matt's night flying tonight so he didn't have to go in until noon), she got to go to the park to see the ducks, and she got to play with not one...but two birthday 'cakes.' Good thing Mommy had a back-up!

Here are Ava's 'official' 5 month pictures. She's such a big girl now--sitting up all by herself--but some things never change, like her refusing to smile for the camera like her Daddy. Ava's so spectacular and our hearts have grown with love over these past 5 months more than we ever thought possible. She never fails to make us smile.

Another Big Girl Feat

On March 25th, Ava sat up all by herself! She's been sitting up with our assistance for a while now, but on the 25th, she did it completely unsupported by us (for longer than a few seconds)! Since then, she's done really great--although she does tumble over after a few minutes (partially because she wants a toy that's across the floor and really wants to get it and partially because she gets off balance). When Matt's parents were here two weeks ago, Laura kept saying that she felt like she was experiencing deja vu while playing with Ava. Apparently she takes after her Daddy in the motor skills, dexterity, strength and determination departments! Laura would just laugh at Ava because she said that Ava had the same looks in her eyes as Matt did when he was her age. It's as if she resents being a baby. Ava wants to walk, but she can't understand why her legs can't take her to where she wants to be yet. When playing with her, it's as if you can see the wheels turning in her head, as she wants to be everywhere, playing with every toy, doing everything, with every limb on her body.

Here are the pictures we snapped of her sitting up all by herself for the first time (we put pillows behind her so that she wouldn't bonk her head on the hardwood floors if she fell over--she's already done that once and that resulted in a trip to the ER!). In one of the pictures you'll notice that she's leaning onto her left arm..she's already figured out how to support herself and not completely topple over when she gets off balance (as Matt's cousin, Melissa, would say, 'she's just so advanced')...

(Yes, that's a Wii in the background. It was Matt's birthday/Easter present. It's still sitting in the original packaging, as we're trying to decide if we're going to keep it or return it to the store.)

And here is some video footage of her sitting up playing with her new blocks...







Here are pictures of her sitting up again on March 26th (the next day) playing with her toys...




Here are some pictures of her sitting up again playing with her new toolbench that she got from the Easter Bunny! The random piece of paper in the background is my 'cheat sheet' for Ava's songs, fingerplays, and nursery rhymes for Baby Lapsit (storytime) at the library. I've somehow managed to forget almost all of the nursery rhymes I ever learned as a child (I think most mommies have, which is why the librarian is incredibly nice and prints them out for us to take home to either learn or spark our memories so that we don't look foolish trying to read the words off the storyboards at Baby Lapsit!).

And of course, here's some video footage of her playing with her toolbench. I didn't really capture on video how great she is at pushing the buttons or pulling the lever on the far left hand side (you can see her pulling it in the 2nd photo). She gets so excited when she pushes the buttons and the characters pop up and talk to her. She hasn't mastered the art of hitting the shapes with the green hammer yet--she's still trying to figure out how to hold it, much less use it! You'll see that she tumbles over at the end of one of the videos, so we're still working on mastering our balance--it's tough work when you've got a long torso and short legs!





As you can tell, we're so proud of our little cupcake. She amazes us each day with her new abilities and incredible strength.