Ava & Mila

Hello. This is Ava and she is 32 weeks old now.

At 32 weeks old, she sure does look like a big girl now… kinda.

Here is this week’s story. On your marks… get set… go!

Well, Ava still loves remote controls and who can blame her?

And she still has crazy hair.

We can’t help it. It’s just crazy…

… but it is nothing a little water can’t fix… at least for a few minutes.

Ava has started to dance and sing this week. The dancing is more like rocking back and forth but it is way better than the dancing that I can do.

We bought her this prison yard, I mean, play yard a few days ago. At first she didn’t know what to think of the whole thing, mainly because she couldn’t chase Yoda around the house.

But then Ava found a mirror and started practicing her french kissing. Ooh la la.

It is such a treat to watch Ava’s amazement by every day things. You can’t help but be more observant and appreciative of your surroundings.

She really loves staring and reaching for the engraving in our head board.

Guess who finally got her first piano?

Here is Ava playing with a block… until something else catches her eye and she decides to drop it and start crawling.

But she usually doesn’t drop her blocks to the side before crawling. So she bulldozes over the block, which lodges under her stomach, and eventually makes it to her legs, where it stays for a few seconds. Hehe.

And all this crawling on the hardwood floor can make her little knees red, but not when she wears her baby leg warmers.

Here is Ava trying to pick up sunshine off of the floor.

How sweet is that.

Ava is supposed to start picking up her own bits of food soon. All the books say to start when she shows an interest in it, like when she starts to grab at her food bowls. So we gave it a try with avocado and butternut squash. She thought it was a bad idea and decided that mashing the food with her hand was a better idea.

Ava loved eating on her own… not.

When she is done with a normal feeding, she either sticks her thumb in her mouth or shoves her bib in it. In this picture, you can sorta see a bruise on the left side of her forehead. She got a little boo-boo at daycare.

Leftovers anyone?

Every once in a while, we will catch Ava in the buggy at pick-up time.

But this week we also caught her in a wagon. Our baby is growing up too too fast.

At daycare this week, Ava loved shoving this giraffe in her mouth. I guess she needed a change of pace from the usual plastic fish she devourers.

One of our favorite times of the day is taking Ava out of her crib in the morning or after a nap. She rolls onto her hands and knees so she can peek over her bumper, waits for us to open her squeaky door, and then flashes her pearly white. Get me out of here.

Here is the scariest picture we have ever taken of Ava so far.

Who turned off the lights?

Our little Ava is now 31 weeks old.

Ava’s mommy has been sick this week so they didn’t get to spend as much time together as usual. So sad. Ava the 31 week old baby handled her sickness much better than her 31 year old mommy did… so Ava made her a get well soon card… and it worked!

Friday was a self-proclaimed sad day for Ava’s daddy. He said bye bye to his vintage 1966 VW bus. It is making its way to the UK as we speak. Here they are saying their good byes to the bus bright and early in the middle of the street.

I suggested a day at the pool to raise their spirits but they didn’t want to smile for the camera. Ava actually enjoyed the pool from the getgo this time. Splashing water at the side of the pool is still her favorite thing to do there.

Over the weekend, Mikey drove up to celebrate his birthday. After finishing our chowder bowls and fish & chips at lunch, Ava decided it was a good idea to dance.

At home, Grace thought she would look for any fish particles that might of stuck between Ava’s toes during her dance. What a true friend.

Ava has a thing for silver objects. She will dive for a remote control if there is one in sight. She especially loves changing the channel while we are watching TV.

One of the things Ava is getting better at is standing. Here she is holding onto her crib. If she lets go and is standing correctly, Ava can stand unassisted for 3 seconds or so.

Ignore the hair please. Ava’s hair stylist was late to the photo shoot today. She is so fired.

Also this week, Ava is in love with walking while we hold her hands. It first started as us pushing her feet forward, to her moving them on her own, and now she runs so quickly. It’s funny to watch because she giggles and runs. And just a few hours ago, I put her into a standing position to practice her balance and she thought she would start running instead. Thank goodness for good mommy reflexes.

And just today, our one-tooth wonder FINALLY got her second tooth. They are supposed to arrive in pairs but her right one was three and a half months late. I know it’s hard to see so you will just have to believe me on this one.

Ava’s artwork collection is expanding and she got to bring home ‘dots’ this week. Here she is showing it off before it goes up on the fridge. Nibble nibble.

At daycare, we made Ava go through the tunnel in the obstacle course. She didn’t know what to think of it while inside.

Or what to think when Max the tunnel toll-collector asked her for two dollars.

Ava still loves crawling and still loves giggling as she rounds corners.

She can’t get enough of it.

I’m a fish. I’m a fish.

Since last Friday Ava’s mama has been feeling a little ill. Over the weekend it got worse so she finally had to go to the doctor’s office today. The doctors prescribed her some heavy duty antibiotics and she should find out what the problem is when the lab results come back. In the meantime Ava is spending a lot of time playing with dada and trying to make mama feel better. This week’s photos might be a little light which means we will only take a few hundred photos instead of a few thousand Hopefully mama feels better soon.

Ava, our little croasian baby, is now 7 months old!!! Are you asking yourself what a croasian is? Well, it is a croatian-asian baby. I think we coined the term so we bought the web domain… which just links back to this blog.

Wondering what Ava was doing as she turned 7 months old? She was busy pulling off her socks at Hamburger Habit.

Over the weekend, Nicole drove up to join Ava at the Ventura Fair. At the fair, Ava had a chance to meet a goats. These goats were stealing their neighbors hay.

And saw pygmy goats too. Just my size.

She stared at the huge mama pigs with never ending supply of nipples.

And one cute sheep was baa-ing so loudly and then came over to say hello.

Ava even had a chance to judge to cow contest and placed a first prize ribbon on the handsomest in the bunch. hehe.

Afterwards, we went back home and laughed at all the silly animals we saw that day.

Dan was suckered into buying a controller that holds 67,000 games including Super Mario Brothers at the fair. Here is Ava learning how to save the princess and step on koopa troopas.

Here is Ava on her Daddy’s boat. He has it slipped for the month so we can enjoy dinner aboard and sunsets.

We continued the quest for Ava to eat peas this week. She still gags every time… and eventually starts crying…

… which causes Yoda to meow like crazy. She doesn’t like crying or singing. It makes her meow uncomfortably but it is funny to watch.

Ava hates peas even from afar.

So Ava’s crawling is getting so much better. Here is her crawling action shot.

Her tour around the house always starts in her bedroom. We have to tuck in her dresses into her underpants so she doesn’t trip on them.

Once she leaves her bedroom, Ava goes straight for the heater. I guess because it is shiny but it must hurt her hands a bit to stand on it.

Then she rounds the corner usually with a smile. I’m free! I’m free!

Then she sees Rudy laying against the chair and laughs at her.

Once she reaches Rudy, she takes a break to recharge.

Then Ava is off to the highchair where she flicks at the sticker on its leg.

Besides crawling, Ava has improved on her pulling also. Whenever there is a chance to pull up on something she takes it… which most of the time is our legs when we are sitting on the floor with her. But she will try to use the couch sometimes. She has no trouble getting up onto her knees but still needs to work on getting from her knees onto her feet.

At daycare, Ava is flipping over toy boxes so she can use them to pull herself up. She will do anything to stand up these days. But she still doesn’t grasp the concept that she needs to hold on to the object she pulled herself up with… which causes a few tumbles here and there.

I bought Ava a new type of sippy cup. The tip is made of a softer material which she chews on now that she is teething again.

I think she might of got some water out of it because she made a few funny faces.

Ava is still having fun at daycare. Here she in the kitchen area as we arrived to pick her up. She still doesn’t know we are there.

Then she sees us and bursts into tears.

After a few seconds, she remembers that she can crawl and speed crawls to us. I have never seen her move so fast.

There is even a mini obstacle course there. Dan encouraged her to go across it while I waited at the opposite end.

Ava might be a good crawler but she still needs to work on graceful finish line photos.

Last month Ava was baptized and we invited family to join us for dinner. Since Uncle David was Ava’s godfather, here is a little spiritual inspiration of a toast he made during the meal.

I went to Matheus’ first birthday party this weekend and boy was it fun!! Look at all the fun things I did there…

When I first got to the party, I sat next to Matheus on the floor. Umm, why do I have to wear socks when Matheus doesn’t have to? Not fair.

Then we got to play with one of his cool toys.

I don’t mind sharing but playing with this toy by myself was pretty fun too. Check out how fast I can move my hand.

Uncle David isn’t the only one in the family that has musical talent anymore. Just call me ‘super novi split’.

Oh, and I play drums now too. I wonder if I can fit these in mommy’s purse so I can play with them at home. Babaloo.

It wasn’t all fun and games there. My hand accidentally got stepped on… that was in addition to me sticking my hand in mommy’s coffee this morning. Ouchie.

Check me out riding on a Dora the Explorer car. I think someone just cut me off. Beep Beep.

What is all that singing about?

Oh, it is for Matheus. His Elmo cake is the coolest thing ever.

You are not going to believe that happened next.

Hehe. I take it back. THIS is the coolest thing ever. I can’t wait for my birthday. Can’t wait, can’t wait, can’t wait!

After the party, I saw Elmo open up and drop candy all over the floor. I sure hope he is alright?!?

Oh, it’s only a pinata. Silly me.

Ava having been sick for a few days during the week has saved up a ton of energy and is now crawling everywhere! Here is a little video of her on a self-guided tour…