Ava & Mila

Our little Ava is now 23 weeks old. She had tons of fun this week hanging out with family, reaching yet another milestone and smiling with her mommy and daddy.

Ava finally got to meet her two aunts this week.

Here she is with her Aunt Connie. Ava tried to flash me but she forgot that she had an onesie on underneath. hehe.

And here she is giggling with her Aunt Catherine. They were wondering why Kelsey didn’t make the trip for the gigglefest.

During the visit, Grandpa Jwu was video chatting with Ava and the girls all the way from Sydney.

Ava has been trying to shove pacifiers into her mouth lately the wrong way. Maybe it’s fun for her now that she has a tooth. Here she is biting away at Green Thumb.

She also had fun playing with 2 pacifiers at the same time. She was trying to figure out how to get both of them in her mouth at the same time. It was quiet amusing to watch her.

And when the pacifier is not around, Ava has been rolling her tongue over her tooth. Occasionally she will stick it out like a little lizard. I haven’t been able to get a picture of it yet.

Ava’s sitting has also improved this week. I place the boppy behind her just in case she decides to tip over.

Doesn’t she look drunk in this picture?!?

Ok, here is her next milestone. Ava has figured out how to get on her knees and lift herself up… which means that crawling is just around the corner. She can scoot herself in reverse and in circles but hasn’t figured out how to go forward yet.

Here is a picture of Ava’s hand while being held by her teacher at daycare. She was passed out but somehow managed to make a gun with her hand. Stick ‘em up!

The other day I explained to Ava that I was a vegetarian before I was pregnant with her… but she ignored me as she ate bear meat… teddy bear meat to be exact.

Uncle David and Carrie also came up for a visit. We had a mini wine tasting of his homebrewed strawberry wine which he calls Jerkovino. It was tasty. And he brought over a CD of a children’s song he wrote. We will have to post a video of her listening to it soon.

And lastly, here is Ava during one of her naps this week. She somehow managed to roll onto her tummy for the first time. The sleep training book didn’t mention tummy sleeping as a side effect… Laku noc.

Ava turned 22 weeks old this week. On saturday, we spent the day in Ojai in order to get away from the June gloom in Ventura. We watched volleyball in the park and went to the Lavender Festival, which brought back good memories for us of the Island Hvar.

At daycare, Ava made a shirt with her picture on it for Dan for Father’s Day. She is dressed in a crown and is only wearing her diapers… and the shirt says Daddy’s Little Princess. I love her fat rolls. hehe.

On Sunday, Ava gave Dan more gifts for his special day. A mug with her picture on it and a couple daddy books that he can read with her.

After the present opening, we packed a picnic basket and headed up to Lake Casitas. We spent the day eating, avoiding ants, relaxing, sailing and bird watching.

Afterwards, we headed out for some Sushi at our favorite joint, Sushi Marina and Ava wore her sailboat dress for her daddy. Ava was all smiles with Mama San. She couldn’t believe a baby could smile that much.

Ava’s new thing to do is to stick her hands in our faces.

Her goal is to get her hands in our mouths

And she also loves to play peek-a-boo.

Since teething began, Ava went from a great sleeper to a not so good sleeper… which I can only blame myself since I started nursing her to sleep. A big no-no. So we went out on Monday to buy a book called the Sleepy Planet. It basically tells you how to teach them to soothe themselves by the cry-it-out method. During the first night of the experiment, Ava cried for 40 minutes straight before she fell asleep. It was torture because you are not supposed to pick them up or even touch them, just check on them in pre-planned increments of time. On the second night, it only took her 11 minutes and on the third night, 1 minute to fall asleep. It worked, it worked!!! And last night, she whimpered twice and fell right asleep. This method is also helping her wean off of her night feedings and improve her naps too. At day care, Ava only falls asleep in the swing. But not this week, here she is finally sleeping in her crib at daycare.

Ava can sit up momentarily without support now. After some time, she will tip over… but until then she enjoys her new found independance.

Now that Ava can sit up well when supported, we placed her in a shopping cart cover and she rode around Costco like a big girl. No more car seat on the shopping cart. Good thing because she was getting a bit heavy to transport that way.

Dan thought it would be a good idea to get her a life vest since we spend a good amount of time near the water. Here is Ava trying it out in the bath tub. She always makes silly faces in there.

And lastly, Ava’s hair is out of control. It sticks up like she stuck her finger in the electric socket. She doesn’t mind it so much because she likes to look like her giraffe.

Check out Ava getting tickled by her mommy in this video clip. Her laughs are so sweet.

Happy Father’s Day to all the dads out there. Ava and I are so lucky to have Dan in our lives. He is an amazing father who makes Ava light up as soon as she sees him.

Ava turned 5 months old this week. So crazy. We had a pretty quiet week due to Ava’s teething. She has had lots of trouble sleeping, excessive drooling and a bit of a runny nose. Her crankiness peaked over the weekend but still no 2nd tooth. It should be showing up very soon. We will keep you posted.

Ava and I spent the weekend in San Pedro for Nathan’s Baby Shower…. Here she is just after a dose of Tylenol for her teething. I must say that it worked quite well except for the fact that it turned her into a mini Rodney Dangerfield.

We sat next to Carrie at the shower, one of Ava’s favorite people.

Ava also spent time with her always vacationing Grandma Ester.

On Saturday, Great Grandpa Slavo turned 85 years old so Ava made sure she said ‘Sretan Rodjendan’ to him. That’s happy birthday in Croatian.

Ava also got the chance to meet little Ian and they sure did hit it off.

She got his attention by screeching and smiling at him… and then he tried to untie the ribbons on her shirt. ohoh.

She also had fun with her Great Uncle Frank, who made her ‘fly’ in the air. It was cute to watch.

And soon enough, her Tylenol stopped working and she was quickly reminded that she was still teething. Poor thing.

Back at home, Ava still loves smiling at the animals. She really loves Rudy. I don’t blame her.

Here she is still enjoying the Exersaucer.

Her favorite toy on it is the cell phone. I wonder who she is trying to call. Maybe she is trying to order a burrito…

… because at the mall, she sure was trying to get a taste of Dan’s burrito but he wasn’t sharing because she is only allowed to eat Chipotle. hehe.
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Our little Ava turned 20 weeks old this week… and she yet again reached another milestone. At just before 2 months old, she rolled over from tummy to back. And now at just before 5 months old, she has rolled over from her back to her tummy. It is a pretty big milestone for a baby and she has done it a bit early… which is not always a good thing because now we have to watch her like a hawk. I didn’t have the video camera handy for this event but I did have the digital camera. Here is Ava turning over for the very first time.

Besides her rolling, Ava also started to scoot her way from the middle of her gym to the floor. She does it at daycare too and sometimes ends up under the feeding table.

Here she is making a pyramid on the couch. She thought it was very funny.

Dan took a sailboat out from Long Beach this weekend in preparation for his big birthday trip to Catalina Island… so we decided to spend an extra day in San Pedro. It just happened to be Rudy’s 10th birthday (Happy Birthday Rudy!!!) so we picked up Marko and Anthony and went for a walk around the cliffs of Point Ferman.

Ava’s first tooth is poking out a bit more now and it is quite sharp. I think her second bottom tooth is about to arrive because her night sleep pattern is still off. She used to only wake up once around 3am and now she wakes up twice at random times. Stupid tooth. Here is Ava chowing down on her new toy.

Since Ava is not a big fan of the swing anymore and the floor gym is just a starting point on her scooting adventures, we thought she was ready for the ‘exersaucer’. Thanks to the kindness of little Grace, she let Ava borrow it to see if she likes it. And boy does she ever. At first she was a little intimidated by it…

…but then she really got into it and told me she doesn’t want to give it back to Grace ever… jk.

One of Ava’s other favorite things to do is to scratch. She has been scratching her bumper in the crib, the couch and anything else in arms reach.

Here are a couple sad pictures of Ava that made us crack up this week. We couldn’t help it. Here she is with a super sad face. Doesn’t it look like her cheeks are melting?!?

And here she is at daycare, waiting impatiently for her bottle to be warmed up…

Speaking of daycare, here she is playing at the feeding table. This is where the ‘big’ kids get fed solid foods. Ava still has a month or so before she becomes a ‘big’ kid.

This week Ava has been hanging out a lot with her daycare buddy Hannah. They are about the same size even though Hannah is 2 months older than Ava.

Since Ava loves the water, Dan introduced her to the kitchen faucet. I think he was trying to convince her to start doing the dishes. She didn’t fall for it though because I have already convinced her that dishes are a man’s job.

A few days this week Ava hated bath time, which is very unusual for her. Dan thinks the doctor gave her an anti-water shot last week. hehe. So we tried to distract her by singing Old MacDonald had a Farm and by placing a bowl on her head… and it worked!!!!

Doesn’t she look like a long lost member of Devo. I say whip it.. Whip it good.

Another video of Ava singing with uncle David