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Pictures that move. (Grades are mine, then Josh's) [updated: 2.2.06] |
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Tuesday, July 31, 2007 Miss Independent. In the last month Ava has grown by leaps and bounds -- both physically (roughly 20 pounds and 28 inches) and development-wise. She figured out how to go from lying down to sitting up on her own, she can stand while holding on to something, pull herself up onto her knees, and... wait for it... yep, we have a crawler! She'd been thisclose to really crawling for what felt like eons, scooting and rolling and sort of half-crawling, then on her nine-month birthday she finally crawled conventionally -- and so suddenly that we almost missed it (then we quick grabbed the video camera). In a span of only a few days she seemed to figure out the feeding herself thing (with "Puffies"). She can now get them actually in her mouth in a snap and has learned to chew them instead of trying to swallow them whole and gagging on them. She'll also drink some water from a sippy cup, but we have to hold it for her. She's started looking under and behind things, like the sheets on our bed or the quilt hanging on the wall in her room that she can now reach from her changing table. She's learned how to click her tongue, and will often do it back if we do it to her (sometimes she actally does it better than we do). She's loving (much more than she used to): looking in mirrors, playing peek-a-boo, stuffed animals, and her toys that make music or other noises. She dislikes sitting still most of the time -- unless we're reading a book to her, which she's really started taking a liking to. She'll even grab one of her books and start paging through it herself when she's playing on the floor. And right now she makes the cutest noises she's ever made. :-)  That's some pretty difficult-to-fold laundry right there.  Today: standing. Tomorrow: college. Ack. :-P  Ava was getting too difficult to bathe in the kitchen, so we moved her little tub to the big tub.  She really loves the bedknobs on the daybed at Grandma and Grandpa P.'s house. 11:38 PM || I want to be a comment. Post me! Friday, July 27, 2007 And once again Mommy has a tough time keeping the pictures trimmed to a reasonable number. Last weekend we stayed at a hotel for the first time with Ava. She slept perfectly fine in her play yard, just as she always has when we've spent the night away from home (thank goodness). The more interesting thing was that she went into a pool for the first time. She's really only been in water in her bathtub before, never enough to experience the sensations that go along with being in A LOT of water, floating and slowed movements and such.  One toe in. So far so good...  Halfway and we're looking a tad concerned...  Hmmmm, maybe this is okay...  A splish here, a splash there...  I'm floating, I'm floating! (Okay, not quite.)  I can not quite float from this angle, too!  Daddy's so proud of me!  Yup, I still like sticking out my tongue. What of it?  After swimming I was a little chilly, so Mommy and Daddy bundled me up in a nice, comfy sweater.  Live long and prosper.  Whoa, this sure is bigger than MY bed...  Just plotting world domination, don't mind me. :-) 2:28 PM || I want to be a comment. Post me! Wednesday, July 25, 2007 I wouldn't be me if I didn't gripe about the Emmy nominations. I've given up hope for "Gilmore Girls" or "Veronica Mars" getting any of the nominations they deserve, so no surprise that once again neither got any recognition in this particular forum. So whatever. What I am disappointed about is that "Friday Night Lights" didn't get nominated for Best Drama. And neither Kyle Chandler or Connie Britton (or anyone else from the show) were nominated in the acting categories. This is as much of a travesty as there can be when it comes to something like Emmy nominations, and there's simply no excuse for it. It's not a show on a perennially ignored network (WB, UPN, CW), and it hands down had some of the best acting anywhere on television last season -- so much so that the show almost felt more like a documentary than fiction, the people seemed so real. The saddest thing is that this is a show that was renewed by the skin of its teeth (Why do I always fall for those ones?) and whose outlook for future survival could have actually been helped by something like Emmy recognition (unlike, say, "Boston Legal" -- no offense to fans of that show). Just... aargh and a half. Also: "Lost" and Elizabeth Mitchell. Both should be on there. 1:48 PM || I want to be a comment. Post me! Tuesday, July 17, 2007 A girl and her balloon. (Yeah, I'm not so much with the creative titles lately.) This past weekend we went to Ames for our 10-year high school reunion. It was, you know, fun, but none of my close friends from high school were actually there, so it was more seeing a few acquaintances and casual friends, and a whole bunch of people I either barely knew or knew of, but not really personally. We took Ava with us due to the whole Babysitting: Impossible situation. She was pretty good, all things considered, and got a lot of attention since she was the only baby there. We stole one of the balloons for her, which she actually seemed afraid of at first (that might have something to do with Josh playfully bonking her on the head with it :-P). But after a few minutes the trauma appeared to be over and she was curious about both the balloon and the ribbon.    
9:38 PM || I want to be a comment. Post me! Tuesday, July 10, 2007 A girl and her kickball.  A couple of months ago Ava became acquainted with a big ball (the kind used for kickball or four-square) at Grandma and Grandpa Prins' house. Daddy started rolling it to her and she would catch it and hold it on her lap with her feet. She did it over and over and really impressed all of us.  So after we got home we got her a similar ball of her very own. Then she started not only catching it on her lap, but sort of kicking it back, sometimes even seeming to intentionally place the ball in front of her foot first. She's awesome. :-)  It's really amazing how she uses her feet to do things almost as much as her hands sometimes. She's like a little monkey. 11:08 PM || I want to be a comment. Post me! |
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Disc-shaped music. [updated: 2.2.06] |