Winnie & Papa C Visit Iowa

A few weeks ago, my parents visited from Texas!  They were the first family to come visit, and we had a great time showing them our house, neighborhood, and town.  We did lots of fun things, but we pretty much did all there is to do in the Quad Cities!  We joked that the first time anyone comes to visit, it is super fun, but any subsequent times will be a little on the boring side since we've already done all there is to do!  Midway through my parents' visit, my sister flew in from Virginia to surprise them.  She and I had been planning it for weeks, but mom & dad were REALLY surprised.  We had to tell a great number of elaborate lies to make it happen, but the surprise remained in tact, and it was pretty fun.  Come visit again soon, Winnie, Papa C, and Aunt Julia!  Warning: Picture Overload.

Morning playtime with Papa C

Mom & Dad getting a John Deere factory tour

Play time with Winnie 

Visiting the John Deere Pavilion

Saturday morning at the Freight House Farmer's Market

Walking along the Mississippi

Downtown Davenport skybridge

Out for walks in the neighborhood.  Yes, our neighborhood is in a corn field.  You can't make this stuff up.

Being silly with Aunt Julia

A little backyard pool time

Out to dinner at Iowa Machine Shed 

Lots of snuggles

Showing off our "almost crawling" skills

And, just showing off in general!

Thanks to my mom and sister for taking all of these fabulous pictures!  I didn't even get out my camera since they are such great photographers!  We had a blast... come visit again soon!

DIY Sensory Play

Now that Ava is 7 months old, our days are filled with TOYS!  Ava loves playing with toys (or really anything she can get her hands on), so I'm always trying to think of new things she can play with.  When your attention span is approximately thirty seconds, you go through a lot of toys in a day, let me tell ya.  We have our fair share of blinking, singing, dinging, moving, light-up toys, but I discovered that Ava likes plain old regular stuff as much as (if not more than) the expensive stuff.  We all know kids usually love the box something came in more that the toy itself!  In the last few weeks, I searched Pinterest and found some ideas for DIY toys and sensory activities for a 6-7 month old.  Here's what I came up with!  I love watching her chubby little hands pick things up.  Be still my heart!

Kitchen Fun

When my mom was in town, we tried giving Ava some kitchen utensils to play with.  It was a total hit!  Now I keep a pot full of "Ava's Utensils" for her to play with.  I pull it out at least once a day, and she can be happy for up to 20 minutes banging the measuring spoons, waving the Tupperware around, and chewing on the wooden spoon.  The measuring spoons are her all-time favorite toy.  She LOVES shaking them and chewing on each one.  Cost = Free (old stuff I already had)

Noisemakers

Like any baby, Ava likes things that make a lot of noise.  I bought a pack of 3 Ziploc small round containers with screw-on lids.  I filled each with jingle bells, wooden balls, and orzo pasta to provide different sounds.  Then I hot-glued the containers shut so there will be no spillage.  She loves to shake these containers and roll them back and forth.  I usually give her all three so that when one inevitably rolls away, she can play with the other two and mama doesn't have to play fetch.  Sometimes she gets really into it and shakes them really hard.  It's super cute!  Cost = About $3 for the containers and $4 for the fillers

Ribbon Sensory Bin

I saw this idea on Pinterest and decided to try it.  I know that at her age, it's important to have many different sensory experiences and the opportunity to explore things using hands, mouth, and eyes.  I went into my craft and gift wrapping bins and got out all my ribbon.  I tried to use a variety of ribbon in different colors, textures, and lengths.  I put it all in a plastic container, and Ava went to town!  Right now she loves to dump it out, pick up each piece, and put it in her mouth or wave it around.  Later I will try to teach her how to put the ribbon back in the box :-)  Cost = Free (Tupperware and ribbon scraps I already had)

Discovery Bottles

I also saw this idea on Pinterest.  I used mini Dasani water bottles since I didn't think she'd be able to lift the big ones!  I drank the water and then I took the labels off the bottles.  The Dasani bottles are cool because the bottles themselves have all kinds of textures on the outside that Ava loves to feel.  I filled each bottle up with tap water and then with other fun stuff I found on clearance at Michael's.  I filled one bottle with colorful plastic animals, one with fake gems, one with sequins and glitter (my personal favorite!), and one with pom poms and googly eyes (this one creeps Brent out!)  Finally, I hot-glued the tops to the bottles since watery glitter spilled all over our rugs would be no bueno.  Of all the DIY toys, Ava likes this on the least at the moment.  She still likes it, but just not as much as the others.  I think she's still a bit too young to handle the heavy-ish bottles and see what's inside.  Cost = about $10 for the bottles and everything inside. 

What DIY toys and sensory play ideas do you have?

Six Months

6 Month Stats:

Height :: 25 in (20 %)

Weight ::  15 lbs 11 oz (45 %)

Head :: 42 cm (50 %)

Milestones:

Ava is fascinated by all details.  She loves to watch her hands move around.  She also loves tags, watches, necklaces, faces, and anything that you are holding.  She grabs EVERYTHING.  I now do that awkward mom move where you eat cereal from a bowl two feet away from you because the baby on your lap will grab it if it's any closer.  Fun times.

She has really started to recognize Brent and me, and she shows pleasure when one of us comes into the room.  This milestone has been very good for my heart!!  She is becoming a little more clingy and attached, which I am actually super happy about.  I've been wanting more cuddles!  She does this really sweet thing when we are playing on the floor with her toys.  When she is tired of playing toys, she'll reach her arms up to me and just wants to crawl on my lap.  Melt my heart!

Ava is babbling a lot more these days and loves trying to make new sounds with her mouth.  This is all fun and games until I get a face-ful of sweet potatoes or squash.  Oh well... in the name of learning, right?

Ava is definitely a confident sitter and almost never topples over.  She loves sitting upright on the floor or our laps to play.  She is SO CLOSE to crawling - it's crazy.  She can get up on her hands and knees by herself and rock back and forth.  She can crawl / scoot backwards.  She can support herself on her hands and feet (in a plank position!)  She has the strength and the desire to crawl.  She just needs a little practice with the mechanics.  I'm pretty sure baby-proofing is in our imminent future.

Eating:

Ava is still going strong with nursing, although we are using increasingly more formula and real food!  I'm making all of her baby foods since it's ridiculously easy to steam and puree veggies and fruits.  We've been trying new foods, and now she has sampled rice cereal, oatmeal, carrots, avocados, bananas, butternut squash, and sweet potato.  Her favorite is sweet potato followed by banana.  She didn't care much for avocado.  We're going to have to work on that if she wants to fit into this Mexican-food-loving family!  

In terms of a feeding schedule, I don't know what happened, but somewhere between five and six months, we kind of threw the schedule out the window.  When we changed from 3 naps to 2 I got all confused about when I should feed her.  Then I just got tired of trying to feed on schedule and keep her happy.  So... we feed approximately every 3 hours, but sometimes it's more often.  I think she's been going through a growth spurt, and she's just much happier with a full belly, so I pretty much feed her whenever and don't obsess about the schedule anymore.  I think it served us well for the early months, but I can say that we are now probably feeding on demand.

Sleeping:

Praise the Lord, we are sleeping through the night!!!  I thought this day would never, ever come.  For the longest time, she was waking consistently between 2 and 3 every night to eat.  Everyone told me that at some point, I would just have to stop doing that and that I would know when.  Well, y'all were right!  Right after she turned 6 months, we just felt like it was time.  We've been doing cry it out for naps with a lot of success, so it was time to tackle the middle of the night.  The first night, she woke at 3 and cried for almost an hour.  It was very, very painful and not restful at all as we tensely lay in bed watching her on the monitor.  Fun times.  She went to sleep and woke at six.  The next two nights, she woke around 3 again but only cried for 10-15 minutes.  On the fourth night, she didn't wake at all!  We are now on day 4 of sleeping through the night with no waking!!  By sleep through the night I mean 10:15 - 6:00.  She goes to bed at 7:30, and then I wake her for a dreamfeed at 10:00.  She's been waking early at 6 am, but I'LL TAKE IT!  Yay, sleeping.

In nap news, we dropped from three to two naps!  It was a rough week or so, but she was definitely ready. I think we are finally in the groove.  We've had some really good days where she takes two longer (1.5 to 2 hour) naps!  She usually goes down around 9 am and then again at 1 pm.  Sometimes one nap is really short and the other is really long, but it usually works out in the end.  Now she's awake at lunchtime, so gone are the days of her snoozing in her carseat while we enjoy a lunch out.  We've taken her out with us a few times, and she usually does OK!  She is happy in the carseat for a while and then we usually finish the meal with her on our laps.  Overall, I love two naps a lot more than three.  It gives us a little more time to work with during the day!

Playtime:

Ava loves her exersaucer and has definitely gotten the bounce down.  She makes me smile so much when she is just jumping and laughing and playing in this thing.  She thinks all the little lights and sounds and toys are the most fun things in the world!  She also loves her "sassy seat" doorway jumper, especially first thing in the morning.  She bounces happily for about 20 minutes while I empty the dishwasher, make coffee, feed Blazer, and get the day started.

Ava loves to pull toys out of her toy box one by one.  If I turn the toy box over on its side, she can be content for about 10 minutes (which is big time in Ava-land!).

We are now taking walks in the big girl stroller!  She loves chilling in the City Mini and looking at everything there is to see in the neighborhood.  She loves being outdoors, and we can almost always calm her down by sitting on the deck or walking around the yard.  We have been loving our baby pool on the hot days here!

She still loves watching Blazer, making funny faces, making funny noises, singing, hand motions, and going ANYWHERE in the Baby Bjorn.