Thankful

Wow! How is it already Thanksgiving? I asked one of my students yesterday what the date was and was so shocked it was November 24! I mean, I obviously knew Thanksgiving was coming, but I literally could not believe it was actually Nov. 24! Tomorrow also marks Ava's 6 MONTH birthday!!!! Time definitely flies when you are having fun and the past 6 months have been a blast! I feel very blessed this year and am so {thankful}...

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...that I have been blessed enough to be Ava's mommy! I always wanted a daughter to share those special memories with. Each and every day gets more and more fun and special.

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...for my AWESOME husband. I have always thought he was pretty great but seeing him as a daddy has really made me love him even more. I was just having a conversation last night about how he enjoys doing things with her and it's never a situation where I have to say...will you PLEASE do this or that. He loves his baby and she definitely loves her daddy!

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...that Travis stays with Ava and gives me some ME time when I need it!

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...for my health and my family's health.

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...for my awesome friends and family. I am so thankful for all of you!

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...for my job! Not only do I feel lucky to have a job with this economy, but that it's something I do truly LOVE! Not only do I have the chance each day to be creative, but I work at a great school with an awesome principal and the kids make each day fun and they keep me on my toes!

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...and soooooooooo thankful that Ava has started sleeping through the night with NO interruptions---going on 5 nights in a row! :-) Just had to throw that one in there!

H A P P Y T H A N K S G I V I N G!!!!!!!!!

Ava and her new thing!

Little Sweetie

Misc.

I know I've been a little M.I.A. I had 800+ grades and report cards due last week, not to mention I was sick with strep throat Monday and gone Wednesday on a field trip with the 3rd graders to the art museum at U of I = 2 days of sub plans to write!

I will post some cute pics and videos of Ava soon!

She has now mastered the sticking her tongue out thing and SPITTING all over. She thinks it is pretty funny, too! Her favorite time is when you start to give her the bottle! :)

She has also experimented with almost all 1st baby foods. She loves most of them! She is even eating peas now. Usually I pair it with a fruit.

On Friday her sitter gave her some of those little Gerber 'puffs' that dissolve in their mouth and she reeeeeeallly likes those too!

She finally rolled over from her back to belly!! Travis put her on her mat one morning this past week and I was uptairs getting ready. When he went back in the room, she was on her belly. :) Little stinker! Neither one of us got to see it...but she's been so close for a while now.

I've been putting her to bed later since I bought Dr. Ferber's book about sleep. In it, it says that a 6 month old should get 9 1/4 hours of nighttime sleep. With Ava going to bed at 8pm, she was pretty much getting her 9 hours (occasionally waking up after around 8...). Anyway, I figure if she goes to bed at 9 or 10, and sleeps 8 or 9 hours, at least then she isn't up til 6 and lately even if she wakes up then, she'll go back to sleep for another hour or so while I'm getting ready. She still takes her evening nap, which is helping her to stay up until 9 or 10 and this is seeming to work well for us! I know that might sound crazy to some, but it works for us. Last night she slept from about 9:45 until 7:45!!!!!!!! With NO interruptions! Whohoo! I, of course, woke up at 7am and freaked out!

Check back soon for updated pics. :)

This is me journaling...

Just got home from a weekend crop. Mom and I scrapped all day on Saturday and today. It was fun AND I got 11 two-page spreads done! Thanks to some pre-designed pages! :) I still want the digital scrapbooking program from CM, but I really do enjoy scrapbooking the old-fasioned way, too. I started on Ava's birth and am up to about week 2...11 pages later. Something is telling me this is going to be a thick book. :)


As I was working today, I realized I want more things documented so I am going to try to blog more/journal more, so I'll have plenty to go back and print if I choose for scrapbooking purposes. Soooooo---bare (sp?) with me.


{A few sidenotes...}



Ava is getting more and more mobile. She still hasn't rolled over from back to front, BUT I know she could if she really wanted. haha! She started out on her mat in the middle of it and as I am typing she has moved pretty much off of it just by scooting around. She also will roll onto her side to get to things or see things. Won't be long before she'll be mobile!

(Here she is...her mat is the blue thing to the right where she started out). Look out! Here I Come!

• Not only is she infatuated with her own feet, but with this nice weather, I've been going without socks and she is also infatuated with MY feet. She is very intrigued. :-)
• We have been continuing to experiment with foods. She isn't really enjoying anything green too much. She even will CLAMP her mouth shut when you try. She likes green beans more than peas---but peas = NO WAY! I did read on the baby oatmeal box to "Try, try again." It said that it may take up to 15 tries for a baby to accept a new taste. It said to try mixing a new one with one she has already mastered. I did scoop a little green beans under the peaches to sneak them in but she figured that out after a few spoonfuls. She still likes ice cream---my bad! She's only had a tiny little taste, I promise! She will also clamp her mouth shut and bat the bottle away when she's full. It even went flying the other day! oops!
• She has figured out how to stick her tongue out and basically spit, making that fun spitting sound. Pretty funny!
• She is still getting there with the sleeping. The other night she did sleep from 9ish until 6am (9 hours)!!!! WHOHOO! I actually went to bed around 10pm so I got EIGHT FULL HOURS of UNINTERRUPTED sleep! OMGosh! What a great feeling. :-) Travis and I do alternate some nights, so that is nice too. She still isn't consistent and I'm not sure why. The night she did sleep through she took an 8 ounce bottle before bed so we are trying to stick with that. Some nights she takes a 5pm catnap and some nights she doesn't. Anyway, I don't know what to do if she takes say 4 or 6 ounces and then wakes up around 4am or 5am. Do I feed her or not? hmmmm. I'd say she should be able to sleep through for another hour or 2 but I admit, it is sometimes easier just to nurse her back to sleep, plus I second guess myself thinking 'well, maybe she is hungry'. I know it's a habit I guess I'll have to break later---I'm thinking, when I don't have to go to work the next day. The interrupted sleep can be hard but so is being up for an hour at 4am waiting for her to go back to sleep! I also try to take into consideration when she does wake up she has slept for 8 hours and went 8 hours without food and I guess other than my dr. telling me I could cut out the middle of the night feeding at her 4 mo. appointment, I don't know what to really expect of her at 5 months. :)
• A lady I talked to today at the scrapbooking thing said her daughter just had to break her daughter of her middle of the night feeding and that getting her out of the crib might be an option and just rock her back to sleep but get her little tummy used to not having that 4am feeding. She said after about 3 nights she got used to it. I was hesitant to get her out of the crib and rock her for fear that then she'll expect/need that but I guess I could try it to eliminate the feeding and then eliminate the rocking after that.

• I even tried the 'dreamfeeding' the other night. I thought I would just see what would happen. Well, I got her out of her crib (around 11pm after she went to bed around 8:30) and she did not even flinch!!! I was shocked...me picking her up and trying to feed her and NOTHING! haha! I didn't want to actually wake her so I just put her back in the crib. I know in time she'll get there and I'm prepared to deal with it as it comes I guess. :)

Super Ava!

Happy Halloween...from SUPER Ava! Travis actually came up with the idea for Super Girl and we found it online pretty CHEAP! I thought her tights that she already had went great and though I didn't have time to make her "A" headband, I thought her pink bow was 'super' cute.

We had to miss the school festivities, which I planned to take Ava to, since we ended up being out of town for Trav's grandma's funeral. With all of the sickness going around, I figured it was probably for the best anyway.