lewis and clark had a journal. you, beth-annie, have a diary.

Wednesday, March 28, 2007
Five months and counting...
...and we seem to have hit teething. We can't be 100% sure until we actually see a tooth breaking through, but based on several things -- including a recent night when she started crying in her crib shortly after we put her to bed and didn't stop on her own, which is very unusual at this point -- we're pretty confident that's what's going on. In other news, she seems to be about 15 3/4 pounds (we're not bothering to try to measure her length this time) and is a little rolling machine right now.

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Tuesday, March 27, 2007
One of the perils of living in Wisconsin.
Cows in the middle of the road.

Okay, so it was only one cow. Still weird.
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Thursday, March 22, 2007
Two feet. (Or, for our Canadian friends, 60.96 centimetres.)
Last week, Ava discovered her feet. About a month before that it had been her knees, and ever since then she'd been inching her way closer and closer to those cute little toes.

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Thursday, March 8, 2007
We have a little singer on our hands.
It's funny that my mom mentioned in the previous post's comments how I used to "sing along" to the hymns in church when I was a baby, as the other day we took video of Ava doing the same thing (just not in church). She especially does it to particular songs, mainly the ones in which we've replaced the lyrics with "Hello Ava." I'm not sure if she seems to particularly like those ones because she somehow knows that's her name (ish) or if she just recognizes them more because we tend to sing them to her more than any other songs. Probably the latter. Anyway, it's so funny how she'll start "singing" when I do and then stop when I stop. This video isn't a perfect example of that, but it's pretty close (you don't often get the "perfect" stuff on video, as we've learned after multiple attempts to get her to do various things for the camera that she will, of course, do when we're not rolling :-P).
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Tuesday, March 6, 2007
Ava the 4-month-old.
As of yesterday, Ava is 15 pounds, 25 inches, and has a head circumference of 41 cm, each of which put her in the 50th percentile, which is pretty much what you want for something like this.  Those official measurements make it seem like our non-official measurements at 3 months were probably pretty close to accurate.  Yay us.  And yay Ava for gaining weight nice and steadily.

In the last month she's been smiling a whole lot more (though unfortunately not much at her recent "photo shoot"), started laughing, discovered her knees, started actually paying (some) attention to the books we read her, and noticeably improved her hand-eye coordination, especially when it comes to grabbing toys and getting them to her mouth (which is pretty much where everything goes these days).  If we stick a hand in front of her, she'll reach out and grab it with both hands, kind of inspect it, and then usually -- of course -- try to put it in her mouth.  When she's doing something like sitting in one of our laps, she'll sometimes wiggle around until she manages to get her butt on the floor, or just plain into a different position.  It's obvious she wants to be able to do more than she physically can yet, so we're going to have to really watch out once she does start to move around on her own.  We also used to only have to worry about her making noise in church if she was fussy, but she's so much more vocal now that even if she's in a good mood she can be noisy.  Yup, life is getting more interesting.

We won't be starting her on solid food for at least another month or so (waiting a little longer apparently decreases the chances of allergic reactions), but we have a high chair all bought and put together, and when we sat her in it she didn't seem averse toward it, so that's good.  And the other day I noticed her intently watching me while I ate, and each time I put the fork in my mouth, she sort of stuck her tongue out and almost licked her lips, so she might just be on her way to "getting" the whole eating with utensils thing.

Things I've Learned Since Becoming a Parent, #685:  "Jeepers" is a funny word.  :-)
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Monday, March 5, 2007
My sister isn't the only one with a "to do" list a mile long.
Now, granted, mine doesn't all need to be done by tomorrow, but some of it needs to be done pronto and some is longer term:

Write baby thank-yous (we've made everyone wait so long for them that we're going to put a new Ava pic in each one, and we get those back from JC Penney on Mar. 15, so that's my deadline).
Find time to chat with Marina and Liz, with whom I haven't since before Ava was born. Bad Bethy, bad!
Clean the kitchen. And the bathrooms. And the living room. And our bedroom. (Oh, who am I kidding? ;-))
Organize Ava's clothes better in her room.
Single-handedly save "Veronica Mars" from cancellation.
Organize and actually file some of our important papers, which are right now just sitting in a jumbled pile of unfiled important papers.
Fix up our basement a bit so we actually feel like being down there and recreating: organize and put away stuff, hang some fabric to divide storage space from "rec room" space, hang posters (Wrigley Field, "Veronica Mars" and The Truman Show) on the walls, get a nifty-but-not-too-expensive light fixture to hang above the pool table instead of the bare bulb that's there now, add "Ed" stuff (bowling pin, "Insane Clown Water Race" carnival sign, etc.), move the pinball machine somewhere the light won't glare off the glass, etc., etc., etc.
Fill in a bunch of stuff in Ava's baby book, and order prints of photos we want to put in her book.
Get caught up on all the recorded "Battlestar Galactica"s (and, um, everything else).
Catch up on both internet and non-internet reading.
Videotape Ava more.
Finish making the dining room drapes. And the kitchen curtains.
Update my blog's links (poor Kelly's link has been out of date for over a year), movies, CDs, TV shows, etc.
Finish painting the half bath (we're nixing the wainscoting for now, I think, so it's time to finally paint the bottom third of the wall). And the upstairs hallway. And our bedroom. And do all the touch-ups.
Wait to see if the tulips, hyacinths, and crocuses I planted last fall actually pop up this spring.
Never buy another large indoor plant, as I cannot keep them alive. (Small I can do okay with. Sometimes.)
Finish the last couple days of our Florida Trip-O-Logue from, um, two years ago. (I still really want to. Really.)
Do research so we can plan our next vacation for me to not finish a Trip-O-Logue for.
Stop ending sentences with prepositions.
Try the new Belle Bleu restaurant in Belleville.
Cuddle, feed, change, bathe and play with Ava.

Well, at least I know I'll get one of the items on this list accomplished. :-)
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