These Boots are Made for Walking...

Things are going well here in the Cunningham household. hehe! I am THOROUGHLY enjoying break and am excited to celebrate Ava's first Christmas. I am not sure if I blogged that I broke my camera on our St. Charles trip (hence no blog of that yet...short story long, I do have the pics from cousin Megan's blog and my mom's from Snapfish, but haven't done anything with them yet AND I do have my old camera but need to ask Travis about the memory card for it. It says it is full. hmmm!). Anyway, that is why I haven't blogged many pics. Well, and nothing much exciting has been going on. We will be home until Christmas morning when we'll go to celebrate Christmas with Trav's extended family, then Christmas with my extended family the day after Christmas and Trav's mom/dad/siblings on the night after Christmas. Then my b'day on the 28th. I already told Travis I want a CAMERA for my birthday...hehe, and dinner at Red Lobster.

It will be a busy few days!

We made a trip out to the mall yesterday - she loves shopping! :) Can't you tell!?

I wish her cute boots had made it (fully) in the picture. I found them at Target...and they actually stay on her feet! I told Travis that I was going to just buy the baby Uggs since I was on pair #3 of boots NOT staying on her feet but he got lucky I found these and they are really cute--and a little cheaper, too.

She loves paper but we've had to monitor her when she's playing with it (you think? LOL...) since she actually swallowed some the other day and then gagged it up. TMI!? haha

Don't you like her outfit? All we had were the dress pj's upstairs last night so I stuck some of those baby legs (baby legwarmers) on her and socks too. All of different patterns. Quite the sight! I think she's looking at me saying, "I can play with this? REALLY?"

Little Peanut

Ava had her 6 month well-baby appointment last week--finally--after being sick.

Her stats:
Weight: 15 lbs something ounces. It was right under 16 pounds. 50th percentile
Length: 25 inches. 25th percentile
Head Circumference: 17 3/4 inches. A whopping 97th percentile.

I was hoping she'd be average height (and who knows...) but so far she's a little peanut I guess. She seems pretty average to me but it is funny to talk to a few friends with babies her age that are in 9 month clothes or bigger. She can still get away with some 3-6 month clothes but is typically in whatever actual month she is in clothing so most 6 month right now. I have noticed her sleeves are often too long and pant length too long---sounds quite familiar to me!

She's back to herself--funny, smiley, etc. for the most part. She is still coughing here and there with the occasional gagging on her bottle and is continuing to enjoy solid foods so I think we are going to start with more real people food and not just baby food soon.

Ava's Favorite Things

{Ava's Favorite Things}

• Eating. She loves just about anything, well, except baby food turkey. YUCK! She actually SCREAMED the last time I tried to give her that. I would too, I guess. It reminds me of dog food. Double ICK!


• Hands and Feet. She loves loves loves her own feet and giggles anytime I tickle her belly with my foot. Who knew! She is also infatuated with hands and fingers.


• Paper. She is obsessed with paper right now.


• Cell phones. She smiles anytime you get your phone out. I can almost get a smile in a picture if I am using my phone.


• The computer. She LOVES the computer. Taking after her daddy? haha. No, I think I'm on it WAY more! As a matter of fact right now she is trying to get our of her Bumbo to get to the computer.


• REMOTES! Give her a remote and she's happy!


• Cords. Yes. Time to baby proof the house!!!


• Rolling over. She has mastered rolling over and is figuring out how to get around. No signs of crawling yet but she can pull herself up and do 360s.


• Music, singing and dancing.


• On that note, she does seem to love her own voice. I think I've even heard "Da" a few times but "Bla" (blah blah blah?) is her fave. She also still loves to stick her tongue out and spit.

Such a little character!

SHE IS MY FAVORITE THING!

Sicky Girl

Well, we have survived Ava getting sick for this first time...sniff sniff. She started with a fever on Saturday night through Sunday and then just had a stuffy nose and cough. We took her to the dr. on Monday and her strep test came back negative and no ear infection---I say THANK GOODNESS but like Dr. Emm said, if it is strep or an ear infection they can fix that in 1 day. Unfortunately since it wasn't they can't give her anything and she just has to get better. Her appetite has gone down a little but I think it'll be back to normal once she's completely better.

Poor thing! You can just tell she doesn't feel good and her cough does not sound good. So far she is breathing ok overall, but we're watching it to make sure no pneumonia or anything more severe develops. She will go back to the dr next week for her 6 month well baby check up---providing she's better. Dr. Emm said he has seen several babies this week and last with the same thing. Last week they all had strep and this week they all came back negative. Interesting!

She weighed in Monday at just under 16 pounds and from our measurements on length (we just did it while we were waiting for the nurse) she was 25 inches. So, she's grown an inch since her 4 month appointment. :) Still a little peanut I think and I swear her feet have NOT grown!?? I can't seem to find shoes that actually fit her. All 6+ mo. are huge. Hats are a different story. She is in at least 6-12 mo. there :)

Anyway, I knew it was pretty inevitable she'd get sick and we'll survive (she's building immunity, right!?), but I will say that is the most helpless feeling knowing that your baby is sick and there isn't a thing you can do about it. I spent all of Saturday night and into the a.m. just holding her and though I'd never want her to be sick, it was nice to be able to snuggle with her. The worst was when she was actually whimpering!!! Heart breaking!

I stayed home with her yesterday and I'm happy to say that was the day she decided to start rolling over ALL of the time! She has done it before (both ways) but never has been a fan of her belly and would scoot around rather than rolling over, to get to something. It's pretty funny watching her. I grabbed my phone and took these pictures so they aren't the greatest but you can see it won't be long before she'll be into ANYthing and EVERYthing!

Here I go!!!!!!!!!!!!!

She always ends up stuck on her mat in some weird position...LOL...

I think she's saying "Ooooohhh Mommy hasn't baby-proofed the house yet!!"

Super excited for her 6 mo. photos this weekend and our family Christmas picture as well as hers. She got to see Santa last week at the mall in Springfield and actually smiled. Lately she's been a little scared of men in particular, that she doesn't know. We got a smile in the professional photo. :)

Thanksgiving post coming soon. :) Why does it seem I am always working out of order here???

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