Starting Her Out Young

Ava Holt loves cell phones. If we are out walking around the neighborhood, at the park, running errands, or just playing at home and my phone rings, Ava chirps up and wants to hold the phone. As soon as I flip it open, she wants to see it, touch it, lick it, and bite it...not to mention, two of her favorite phone past times are hanging up on whomever is on the phone and pressing random numbers on the keypad. Here are a few pictures of Ava Holt 'talking' on the phone to her Nan on Thursday. I think my mom heard a bit more breathing and various gnawing noises than 'words' from Ava's end of the conversation. Nevertheless, we think her phone skills are still adorable...

More Attempts At Crawling

Over the past 2 weeks, Ava has really been trying to crawl. What we thought were great efforts last week have been overshadowed by even better efforts this week. This week, Ava has learned to support herself on all fours for a good amount of time and has even pushed off her knees onto her toes (think downward facing dog in yoga). Both Matt and I can't wait for her to start crawling, but at the same time I have come to enjoy my bits of free time to do laundry, clean the house, take a shower, update the blog, etc. I know that as soon as she starts crawling, I will no longer have those short bits of freedom (for example, right now I can sit her down with her toys and she will play with them for about 30 minutes). I keep reminding Matt that he isn't the one who will be at home chasing Ava around the house trying to get her out of things all day. Speaking of, I also told Matt that we'll need to start child-proofing everything in the house that's below knee level!

Here are some pictures that I took of Ava this morning while she was playing with her toys. We opened up her Learning Table to see if she would try to pull herself up to a standing position, but we never attached the legs to the table top. That was because she was so excited to play with the table top while sitting on the floor. She loved making the bowl in the middle of the table move and she was quite a fan of the fruit plate on the corner.

Ava's sing-along stage was put away once we gave her the table and she seems to have forgotten that it ever existed. Maybe in a few weeks we'll attach the legs to her table top and bring the stage back out for her to play with since she will probably be able to pull herself up to a standing position by then.

In the following pictures, Ava started off in the middle of the blanket and rolled/shimmied/rotated her way over to where she is in the last picture and videos. She's already a mess and into everything without being truly mobile. We're in for an adventure when she starts crawling/walking!


Because Ava's so strong and on the brink of crawling, I was able to get some great footage of her brilliant attempts. As you can see, she's almost mobile...not to mention, she really wants those blocks...



Here's Ava sitting up playing with her new Learning Table that we bought her...

Salsa Bear

In my birthday package from my parents, both Matt and Ava had presents inside--come on now, it's my birthday! Anyhow, Ava's present was a little stuffed bear that we named 'Salsa.' Salsa is made out of 100% Alpaca and is the softest, most plush little bear I have ever felt. In addition to Salsa being soft, the Alpaca fur is hypo-allergenic, so we don't have to worry about Ava getting sick or being allergic to him. Since giving Salsa to Ava on Tuesday, she has wanted to hold and play with him all the time. She gnaws on his legs and arms and cuddles with him...it's cute. Up until now, Ava hasn't established anything as a security item yet, so maybe Salsa will fill the bill.

Looking and Being Cute...As Always

Here are some pictures of Ava from this past Wednesday. She still loves her Jumperoo..

Here is some footage of Ava Holt being unbelievably cute while in her Jumperoo...

In this clip, she's telling me a 'story' about monkeys eating bugs too...

And finally, here are some pictures of Ava Holt wearing her new giraffe glasses while playing in her Jumperoo. Unfortunately, Ava has inherited an annoying Asian trait--the nose with no bridge. So, for the rest of her life, she will have to suffer like her Mommy and have to live with often crooked glasses (we straightened them up after the first few pictures). Ava did comment that everything she saw while wearing her new shades was orange...

Does this face not scream 'attitude' or what?

From the front you can't really tell her glasses are giraffe themed (there are 2 very small giraffes on the front), so we took a picture of them from the side so that you can see the giraffe pattern...

Caught RED Handed

Thumb sucking is not something that Matt and I are promoting for Ava. She seems to like her pacifiers...but on the odd day, she'll pull her pacifier out of her mouth and suck her thumb. It doesn't happen often, but when it does, we have to take pictures of her getting caught. Here's the bandit sucking on her thumb the other day while we were running errands (you can even see her pacifier resting on her left arm)...

Can We Possibly Love Her Any More?

As you already know, Ava Holt and her Daddy have some of the best of times together. Here is some video footage that I took of Matt and Ava Holt playing together last night. Ava Holt is like her Mommy in that she is incredibly ticklish. Here's Matt getting some pretty big belly laughs out of her...

Mover and Shaker

I know I've mentioned it before, but little Ava Holt is a wiggle worm. Since she can't move forwards yet with crawling, she's decided that going backwards is just about as good. So, whenever Ava is placed on the ground to play, it's only moments later that we find her in scenarios that look like the following pictures. To reference these photos, Ava was originally placed in the center of the blanket sitting up facing the TV (she was playing with her toys) with the pillows behind her for fall protection. As you can see, she flipped herself over and shimmied her was backwards in between the pillows...

Apparently, it was time to turn around...

Here's some video footage of Ava Holt right after I took the picture above...