Ava & Mila

Ava, our growing bundle of joy, has turned 27 weeks old. This past weekend, Ava was baptized at Mary Star of the Sea, which is the same church that her mommy and uncle were baptized at years and years ago. Her baptismal name is Ivanina… after her great great grandma who was very dear to my heart.

Here is Ava in her beautiful baptism gown.

She loved it because it was so long… which meant more dress to eat.

Here is Ava with her parents and godparents, seconds after being baptized near the alter. The crying started shortly after this moment and didn’t stop until the ceremony was over.

Here are some family pictures…

During the ceremony, the priest placed a special oil on her scalp. Don’t worry all the kids got oiled. It wasn’t just because the priest thought her hair was too wild for church.

I guess Ava didn’t fill herself up while eating her own dress so she decided that her daddy’s tie would be dessert.

Before the ceremony began, we had to ensure that her baptismal certificate was correct.

But it wasn’t. Her middle was spelled incorrectly… which made us think that kids might pronounce it as ‘shoeshine’ later at school. oh oh.

After the ceremony, we celebrated at Marcello’s with some dinner and dancing.

Then it was time to hit the road for a much needed nap in the car.

Dropping Ava off at daycare is still a bit hard but we know she is safe and happy there. She loves playing with kids her age and scooting around the room. But when we come back at lunch to pick her up, she starts crying as soon as she sees us through the window. I guess it is the ‘where have you guys been for the past few hours’ cry.

And napping is getting a little better there… but Ava still doesn’t sleep quiet enough at daycare probably because she wants to be in the middle of the excitement. But when she does nap, she sleeps pretty hard on her tummy and wakes up with red marks on her face.

At home, Dan started reading ‘Daddy Kisses’ to Ava this week.

And when they weren’t reading, he still gave her daddy kisses.

That tickles!

This week in the world of solid foods, we introduced Ava to pears. I really thought she was going to like pears but she didn’t. She takes 3 reluctant bites and then refuses to make eye contact and keeps her mouth closed.

Introducing yams went a little smoother than pears. She didn’t love them but decided to tolerate them. If you are wondering how solid foods are affecting the diaper situation, it a little different now… let’s just say that it molds to her bottom… and after the introduction of yams, I am a bit grossed out. Yams almost look the same going in as they do going out… but just smell a little differently.

Oh, and Ava finally got her new high chair. The first one had a rip in it and had only 3 wheels so I returned it. This one was not ripped but did only have 3 wheels. I refuse to return it to the vendor again so they are sending me the 4th wheel separately. Geez. Anyways, Ava likes her high chair even though she looks like a shrinking baby when sitting in it.

And it keeps her entertained. Ava likes scratching at the dots in between bites.

Here is Ava trying to wiggle out of her daddy’s arms so she can dance on the floor.

Our little dancing queen.

Aye Caramba! I did a lot this week!

And while we are at it, Ava just wanted to wish her uncle David a happy birthday!

Hello there. Ava is now 26 weeks old and here is this week’s story of her adventures.

Since Ava’s daddy is obsessed with sailing, our fun filled weekend started off at the the Channel Islands Boat Show. We spent a couple hours taking tours on boats that were bigger than our house and shopping at the vendor booths. One of the booths had miniature versions of anchors and boats for demonstrations. We couldn’t resist throwing Ava on a mini sailing boat and yelling “I’m the king of the world!”.

On Sunday, we went up to Santa Barbara to celebrate Lucas’s first birthday party. It was the first time they met.

Ava had a bit of stranger anxiety when we first got there. She doesn’t like it when people baby talk and make exaggerated faces when she first gets somewhere. She needs a few minutes of quite time to take in her new surroundings… and she didn’t want to smile at the strange man taking our picture… that’s for sure.

Here she is trying to remove her daddy’s sunglasses.

Oh cutie pie..

She was obsessed with the little maracas they had on the tables.

Which I had to hide once she tried to swallow it whole.

When the cupcakes came around, Ava thought it was made for her… silly Ava… cupcakes are for mommies.

Speaking of eating, Ava is still enjoying her cereal even though we had to switch brands. The Gerber Organic Rice Cereal was recalled due to some reports of choking due to lumps. The cereal I have is not lumpy at all but I got rid of it anyways and bought the Good Earth brand instead.

If I don’t feed her fast enough, Ava arches her back and squeals.

The first fruit we introduced this week was a banana. We mushed it with a fork and she ate it all up. It is supposedly the closet thing to breast milk and thus is the easiest food to introduce after cereal.

And then we introduced Ava’s first vegetable, yellow squash, which I made at home using a farmer’s market supply and our handy dandy Cuisinart. The first bite went okay.

The second bite got Ava to furrow her brow.

And the third bite got us this face.

After that she refused to open her mouth and turned her head away from us. I hope it wasn’t my cooking

We also introduced Ava to a sippy cup this week. I don’t think she got the concept of it. She enjoyed scrapping her tooth on it and gripping the handles instead.

During a normal weekday, Ava calls her daddy on the cell phone and the three of us chat on speaker phone. Hi dada.

And in her free time, she still likes to stick out her tongue at us.

Now that she is a great military crawler, she scooted her way from our play area and to the dresser where she discovered handles. Wow handles.

Ava enjoys reading too… or at least looking at pictures and listening to our voices. Her favorite is brown bear so we bought her a soft book by the same artist explaining what different animals can do… Her favorite at the moment is pulling on the giraffe’s neck.

She also likes the crocodile. We catch the Reggie. It might be time to go to the zoo soon.

Here is Ava getting distracted by the birds chirping outside. There are a lot of mama birds and baby birds this time of year chirping at the feeders near our windows.

What… The blog is over?!?

No silly. I will be back next week!

Our little baby Ava turned 6 months old this week. Can you believe it?!?!

Here is Ava at exactly 6 months old. I picked her up from daycare and waited in the car for a few minutes until it was 1:34pm for this shot. I know we are crazy.

After work, Ava and I made a quick stop at the local breastfeeding/mother’s store up the street where they have a baby scale that we can use. So, I plopped Ava on the scale and she weighed 17.02 with clothes on… and a slightly wet diaper.

We had lots of fun this week. First off, it was Dan’s birthday. We ended going to a new restaurant in town, Brooks, and told them we needed our food fast because it was close to Ava’s bedtime. Here we are enjoying ourselves… Ava and her tongue hit again.

Ava surprised her daddy with a sweet card she made all by herself

Ava is still very close to crawling. Daycare thinks it will happen any day now. On Friday, just before our Catalina trip, she did the military crawl for the first time to reach Grandpa Jack’s newspaper. First, she spots the object she needs to get to…

…then she gets onto her knees and pushes forward…

…right into the me and the camera.

Ava had a milestone that came out of nowhere this week. She pulled herself up! I couldn’t believe it. It happened on Monday but she hasn’t repeated it again. Here she is during her daily afternoon photo shoot.

And then she sees the cloth that sits on arm of the chair and and grabs it.

OMG. Who did that?

Her standing didn’t last for long. hehe.

Here is Ava right when she woke up from a nap on the chair.

The look on her face cracks me up. Check out the red marks on her face from sleeping on her tummy.

We started feeding Ava solid foods this week. Her first meal was a delicious mixture of Gerber’s Organic Rice Cereal and breast milk. Her first feeding went smoother than expected even though her high chair still didn’t arrive in the mail. Ava wasn’t too sure what to make of the whole thing.

By the second day, Ava was opening her mouth like a champ waiting for the spoon of cereal. Lol.

Yummy.

She ate the food so quickly… so I decided to thicken up the cereal a bit thinking it would fill her up more… she sure didn’t like the consistency and tried to spit it out.

On the third day, Ava turned into an impatient turtle. I could not feed her fast enough. She would arch her back and cry until the next spoonful arrived. And when the spoon was in my hand, Ava stretched her neck out really far so she could reach the spoon quicker… and that’s why in this picture it looks like her head is 5x times too big for her body.

Lastly, Ava’s friend Grace also has a blog… and this week there is a cute post called ‘ava the loan shark’. Check it out at www.gracedykes.com.

This past weekend a group of us packed up our camping gear and headed to Avalon on Catalina Island. It was quite an adventure. Not only was it Ava’s first time camping, but it was also her first time touching the Pacific Ocean and riding on a boat.

Our adventure began Friday on the Catalina Express ferry. I told Ava that she was the captain of the ship and she made everyone say ‘Aye Aye Capitan’ in their best pirate voices.

Capitan Ava decided to recruit Grace as her first mate so they can take breaks to chew on stuff together.

It was quite a hike up to the campground from the ferry dock. Michelle and I had to push the girls up the hill in their strollers. Thank goodness David and Carrie were there to take some of our heavy luggage on the trolley that wouldn’t allow two strollers aboard. Damn trolley. After dropping off our gear at the site, we ditched the strollers and headed into town for some food at Antonio’s Pizzeria and some ice cream too.

On Saturday, we headed into town for some breakfast and Ava had a blast hanging out with Uncle Eric who told her about the cool features on his new iPhone.

Next, we headed to Pebbly Beach for some fun in the sun. We brought a beach tent for Ava so she could play in the shade.

Wow, this tent is cool.

The Dramamine that Nicole took caught up with her and she decided to take a quick snooze in the tent. But Ava thought it would be more fun to play with Nicole’s painted finger nails instead of having her sleep.

Ava spent a lot of time this weekend doing her favorite new thing… sticking her tongue out.

Ava didn’t like the ocean too much… probably because the water was freezing and it was getting close to nap time.

So I took her back into the beach tent for a nap. Don’t worry… she not crying… it was just raining on her face. hehe.

She finally calmed down after about 15 minutes of crying and ended up sucking on the edge of my jeans before passing out.

The light was just right during her nap and so I got these great close ups of her.

I just love her eyelashes.

We headed back to the campsite after her nap. Here is Uncle David telling Ava a story of a one-legged chicken that grew up into a beautiful chicken.

We took one of the cots out of our cabin tent so Ava could have some tummy time… and she thought it was about time.

First Mate Grace came by to show off her sandwich eating skills to Captain Ava. Yummy.

Grace said No sandwich for you Ava… Not just yet.

Baby Diego came up to the campsite on Saturday so he and Ava could have a baby wrestling match. It was pink vs blue. Ding ding ding.

Ava was ahead in the first round when she decided to pull Diego’s eyebrows into his forehead.

But in the second round, Diego whacked Ava in the face. The baby wrestling match ended up in a draw this time…

After the kids went to bed, we headed to the camp fire pit for some 80s sing-a-longs.

The deer also showed up. Check out its lazer beam eyes. I guess Ava wasn’t the only one who enjoys sticking out their tongues.

On Sunday, we packed up our gear, headed down the hill with the strollers and great memories… and took the ferry back home. The end.

Ava touches the Pacific ocean for the first time while we were on a camping trip this last weekend to Catalina. The weather was beautiful and the water was warm. But she might not be ready just yet to get on a surfboard…

Ava is now 24 weeks old… just a week away from turning 6 months old.

Ava was busy this week with her dancing lessons. Here is our little senorita dancing to La Bamba with her mommy.

Ole!

And here is Ava dancing with Uncle David…

…they danced to the beat of an 80s song.

Ava is getting better at holding herself up into a crawling position. She starts to move her knees forward but is too scared to move her arms at the same time… so she ends up doing a face plant every once in a while.

Since everything Ava touches ends up in her mouth, Grandma Ester got her a duck teething toy. It’s her current favorite toy since it feels good on her gums.

But when the duck is not around, a water bottle does the trick.

Dan figured out that if he rolled back and forth on the carpet, Ava would laugh aloud.

It was cute to watch.

She also got a chance to meet Birdy, my cocktiel who is at least 25 years old… but it was just too bright outside to give him one of her signature smiles.

Here is Ava laying on my lap before bedtime, making fart sounds on my knees.

Thanks for the slobber Ava

Her sitting is getting better too… but if she turns her head, she can end up tipping over. Here she is mid-fall. Don’t worry, she rarely cries after a fall… too many stuffed animals to soften the fall.

And at daycare this week, Ava painted a fish. Her daycare room has a under the sea theme at the moment.

Her fish is the prettiest in the bunch, if I don’t say so myself.

On the 4th of July, we spent the day walking around downtown and having a BBQ.

And making silly faces.

Here she is ‘walking’. It amazing how she knows that one foot is supposed to go in front of the other already.

Ava also got to hang out with Grace at the BBQ. Here she is thanking Grace for sharing her exersaucer.

Alright, time to go sailing. We are off to Catalina Island now. Ava prepared herself for the trip by practicing her yacht rock move. A red sky at night is a sailor’s delight.