29 weeks old today!

Here's Ava making that special face she makes right before I say "Mike, Ava's diaper needs to be changed!"

Easter Update

Ava had a great first Easter! She had lots of quality time with her cousins. Here is Ella (3) holding Ava. She kept telling me, "Your baby is really cute!". Ella would say "Ava just smiled at me like this" and she'd hold her fists up to her cheeks. Eventually I figured out that Ella was trying to imitate Ava's cheeks. Pretty funny. Mia (6) is a wonderful artist and she made Ava a card. Here is Ava opening it.
Thanks Mia!
Ava worked on tummy time this weekend with Cole (8). He was determined to get her to roll over. She came very close thanks to his tutelage.
Here is Miss Ava on her first Easter morning! I think she is a little skeptical of this "bunny theory" we are explaining to her. "Well I'll be...I guess an egg-laying bunny did come through here!"
Ava's first Easter basket!

Here is Ava in her Easter beret.

Finally, the "bunny cake". Yum, yum! A Barbaro family tradition. We ate WAY too much this past weekend. Bunny cake, arancini, italian creme cake, sweet potato cassarole, ham, pizza, pasta with lobster sauce, Ava's Easter candy, and on and on! It was a really nice weekend though, it was wonderful to spend time with the family. The kids were running around screaming, and conversations were had over and between them. It was crazy, but a lot of fun.

28 weeks old today!

Hoppy Easter!

She's no muggle!

Mike and I won the local Harry Potter look-alike contest this past summer. My mom had a spare pair of Harry Potter glasses lying around (who doesn't?) and thought she'd see if Ava was magic or muggle.

See any resemblance?

Here's our 15 minutes of fame: http://archive.columbiatribune.com/2007/jul/20070720feat002.asp
I have a strong suspicion we were the only people that entered the contest. And, no we are not brother and sister. Although people guess that we are siblings more often than you'd think!

60% all around

Ava had her six-month well-baby exam today. She's 16 lbs, 10.5 ounces. She is 26.25 inches long and is in the 60th percentile for height, weight, and head circumference. She had another round of shots. She recovered remarkably well. She cried, of course, but she was fine by the time we were in the rainy parking lot! We brought her home and she acted completely normal. We planted her immediately on the floor because we got a little grief from the doctor about Ava not being able to roll yet. She'll get there, I'm not worried about it. The doctor did say that she was a little advanced in her sitting abilities. Go baby! Mike blames the cloth diapers for her inability to roll. They do add significant bulk. On the other hand, they make a great wide base that is perfect for sitting!

27 weeks old today!

Dose toes!

Today Ava hit the jackpot! She found her toes and boy are they tasty! Now she has four thumbs to suck on!

What?

Why bouncy seats have safety straps...

Let the culinary adventure begin!

Ava has entered the world of semi-solid food! We started her on rice cereal on Sunday. We were a day shy of her sixth-month birthday but as my dad pointed out, it is a leap year so really we were right on time. As you can see, she was very excited!
She was a natural! She ate everything we gave her! She's been a very hungry baby recently. Out of nowhere last week she suddenly became a little eating-machine! She finished everything I sent with her to day care. Then I'd send more and she'd finish that. She just drinks whatever she can get! It became pretty obvious that it was time to introduce a little cereal to the mix. She's still drinking milk like it's going out of style but the introduction of cereal means I have a prayer of keeping up with her. If we hadn't I think I'd have to quit my day job and strap myself permanently to the pump.

So what's next on the menu? Arancini? Meatballs? Pizza? Sweet potatoes? Where to begin? I'm so excited for her, she's got a lifetime of great meals in front of her! Buon appetito, baby girl!

6 months old!

I can't believe it, but Ava is now six months old! That seemed impossible to me when she was born! Six months seems SO grown up!
It was really hard to keep her hands/mouth off this bow long enough for me to snap a photo. It'll continue to get more interesting over the course of this year. The bow may be a little worse for wear by the time we get to her 12 month photo! Saliva is rough on paper bows.
I made another fraction cake. I think this will be her last fraction cake...we'll gain way too much weight if we have a cake for every 1/2 and 1/4 birthday. I do, however, think that it is quite possibly the best way to learn fractions. Maybe she won't be a fraction flunky like I was.

26 weeks old!

Technical difficulties

Poor Mike. He spent all weekend fighting with our computer. We've been unable to upload video from our camcorder to our computer. Some kind of firewire problem(?). All the videos I've uploaded on this blog were shot with our digital camera. Anyway, after months of being annoyed by it, Mike decided to tackle the problem this weekend. After numerous re-boots, technical forums, re-installations, cursing, and (2!) drive re-formats, the problem still isn't resolved. He had the ingenious foresight to burn a DVD of all of Ava's photos early Saturday morning before the real computer disaster started happening so we didn't lose any of those. We lost all our other files, including recent iTunes downloads. So long, "This old man", you'll live forever in our heads...I do mean forever. We can't get that song out of there!

Needless to say, blogging wasn't on the agenda this weekend. I'll catch up this week. I've got a few Ava updates to pass along! Stay tuned. Oh, and back up your files. Really. Do it. Now!

Forgive me, Ava...

..but I have to do this. Mike and I have thought for awhile that Ava reminds us of a certain Star Wars character but we could never come up with the name. We hit up our friend (and ultimate Star Wars fan), Brian, for the name. He didn't disappoint.

Introducing, Ava's long lost cousin - Nein Nunb:

25 weeks old today!

Ava has a few sniffles. After this wild weather, who doesn't? Yesterday we were eating breakfast on the deck, today we're bundled up in front of the fire! A 50 degree drop in 24 hours! It is bound to take a toll on a little baby!