Arrivederci Staehlings!

Bon Voyage!

My sister Angie, brother-in-law Bret and three kids are off on a year-long world tour beginning today. They are flying to London for a week and then to Florence, Italy where they will begin 3 months in that country. They have several mini trips planned including a week at an agri-tourism villa in the Tuscan countryside, a week in the Dolomite Mountains, and a week in Venice. Then they are off to the Adriatic coast of Croatia for 3 months including the towns of Split and Dubrovnik. After their stint in Croatia they plan on taking a ferry back to Italy where they will spend another three months touring Apulia, Sicily, the Amalfi Coast, and Rome. But it's not over yet....

After Europe, they plan on flying to Miami where they will stay for a couple of weeks before departing for beautiful Buenos Aires, Argentina. They don't have all their plans figured out for South America yet but I am hoping Erin, Ava, and I will be able to visit them there. Whereas the EURO is currently at a record high versus the dollar, the Argentine peso is still very cheap...about 3 pesos to the dollar. Thus we can more likely afford a longer stay there.

How can my sister and her family do this you ask?? Well, she is a very talented artist who has a very talented husband who helps her market her work. Her art is licensed and sold throughout the world and is found in many stores such as Kohl's, Linens and Things, etc. In fact, when we were in Venice a few years ago I saw her work in a local store there! If you'd like to see some of her work visit http://www.angelastaehling.com/

As you could probably imagine I am quite envious (in a good way of course) of my sister and her family. This seems like a dream come true in many ways. I wish we could join them for every step of the way. The next best thing other than being with them is to visit their new blog which they are dedicating to their travels and experiences...http://5passports.blogspot.com/
I am also adding their blog to our "Friends" section.

Have a safe trip you all! We hope to see you soon in one of those fantastic locations!!!!

33 weeks old today!

Ava and zebra. Chillin'.

Grandma comes by and brings Ava a new toy! "This is how you do it, zebra."

"NO! Not like that zebra!" (accompanied by growling noises)

"Hm, I think I taught zebra a good lesson, don't you?"

32 weeks old today!

Ava's Eye Color

So according to Wikipedia Answers... "Almost all babies are born with blue or grey-ish colored eyes. Eye color will begin to change around 6 months of age and the eyes should have turned to their natural color by the baby's first birthday." Ava is currently 7 1/2 months.

Right now Ava's eyes are bluish-gray but I think I see some greenish-brown towards the pupils. Of course this is coming from a guy who is colorblind so who knows what her eyes really look like :). Anyway, this site predicts children's eye color and according to their calculation, Ava has a 37.5% chance of ending up with blue eyes, 12.5% chance of green eyes, or 50% chance of brown eyes. So I thought a little poll would be fun to see what you all thought. Check it out on the right-hand side. According to Wikipedia we won't find out until she is around a year old so we have 5 more months to wait.

If you want more details about the family genome, here they are...

Erin=blue eyes
Mike=brown eyes
Erin's mom=blue eyes
Erin's dad=blue eyes
Mike's mom=blue eyes
Mike's dad=brown eyes
Erin's 2 sisters=blue eyes
Mike's 2 sisters=brown eyes

A weekend of new experiences

Whew! What a weekend! Ava's introduction to new things didn't end with barley and swimming! Oh no! She continued her adventures with a swing in the park, and a visit to Grandma and Grandpa's to meet a pair of kid goats and a baby pony. Something tells me she'll be hurting tomorrow morning. We really packed it in this weekend.

Barley fan, swim fan

We tried a new grain yesterday, barley. I think she liked it! She kept lunging for the spoon. Surely she takes after her mommy, who loves barley. Daddy doesn't and kept referring to it as "barfley".

She's enjoying her new big girl chair.

We took Ava to the community pool yesterday. It really seemed to break her fussy spell. You can't really tell from this particular photo but she really had fun. She was a little overwhelmed at first. Indoor pools are so loud! Once she got used to the noise she had fun. I floated her on her tummy and back. She laughed and smiled more than she has in days.

Let the battle of wills begin

Dag nabbit! I thought I had at least a year before Ava's will reared its head. Not so! Giving her this new round of antibiotics has highlighted how much she's changed in the past three months. She last had to take medication in January for her first ear infection. At that point, she'd sit quietly in her boppy or bouncy seat and open her mouth reluctantly but with great trust. She'd make a funny face but swallow her pink goo.

Oh how she's changed! It now takes two of us to give her the medicine. She turns her head (it's surprisingly hard to hold the head of a 17 pound baby still), kicks, punches, and cries. It isn't pretty. I thought it'd be easier to get her to take the medicine now that she's been exposed to food. Not so! She's also fighting me tooth and nail each time I try to wipe her nose. Don't even ask how well the nasal aspiration process it going. Not well!

So it begins, about 25+ more years of she and I, head to head, battling it out. Mommy vs. Baby. My way vs. her way. Sigh. What happened to my amiable little girl? Why does it have to be so fleeting?

Another round of antibiotics

As it turns out, Ava's fussiness may have had less to do with the transition to the crib than I thought. She continued to be an incredibly light sleeper this week. She had to cry herself to sleep every night, refusing to be soothed in any other way. By Wednesday afternoon she had a runny nose and wasn't acting like herself. That evening she had a fever of about 99.0. My guess was that she might be teething as low-grade fever, runny nose and fussiness are symptoms. Thursday she had a rough day at day care and barely ate. We took her to the doctor Thursday afternoon and learned Ava has another sinus/ear infection. We got her antibiotics, picked up at Wise Guys "Beat the Clock" pizza (seems an important detail to interject here), and headed for home. Ava had another fussy night. At day care today she ate less than 1 ounce of milk! She's just too stuffy to suck on anything so we gave her extra cereal tonight and she fussed herself to bed. I think now that she's had three doses of the drugs she'll start improving. I hope.

We'll try the crib transition once she recovered. I unknowingly timed the previous attempt very poorly!

Ava's Playlist - Victor Vito

So we've been playing songs off the Victor Vito kids album for Ava and she loves it! She gets all excited...she gets a big smile and her hands and feet flail around like she just won the lottery. We will get some video of this up soon. Her favorite songs are "Victor Vito" and "Fruit Salad Salsa". You can listen to them HERE and have them stuck in your head everyday like me :)

31 weeks old today, and a rough night

I have a confession. Ava has never slept in her crib. In my defense, I have a series of excuses. She was in a bassinet in our room until she was 3 ½ months old. At that point we were in the midst of winter and it is frigid in her room. Just ask her Aunt Megan who had to sleep in there in December. Burr! So Ava’s been sleeping in a borrowed Pack and Play next to our bed. Now that the nights are warming up I’d like to transition her into the crib. I’ve also heard that separation anxiety sets in late in a baby’s first year and I want to do this soon so as to not make it more difficult for all parties. In all honesty I’d like to leave her in our room forever but Mike tells me that might be “weird” when she’s thirteen.

So tonight I was feeling gutsy and decided to try the crib. It didn’t go well. Part of the problem is that she falls asleep nursing. We don’t have a rocker or any other nursing-appropriate piece of furniture in her room so I feed her laying down on our bed. Then I quickly transition her to the P&P and we all go happily to sleep. The walk down the hall to her room roused her out of her sleep. When I put her in her crib she wailed. When I picked her up she fell immediately asleep in my arms. I moved her into a horizontal position, she wailed. It was kind of funny actually. I would slowly lower her, her mouth would form an “O” and her little brows would furrow. I’d lift her up and she would be peacefully asleep.

Of course, the motherly guilt enters into the picture here. I know I’m supposed to let her “cry it out” but I can’t. I’m sorry. I’m away from her all day, how can I deny her the opportunity to snuggle with her mommy? It just breaks my heart. So after about 2 hours of trying to get her into her crib and giving up that and trying to get her into the P&P (at this point she was so upset that even that wasn’t working) she ended up asleep on our bed and Mike on the couch. This isn’t a good long-term solution, obviously. I feel like we took two steps back tonight. She’s pooped. I finally gave up and let her sleep on the bed after 10:00 when she normally is peacefully in the P&P at 8:00.

Saturday afternoon cuteness...

A gloomy, rainy/snowy/sleet-filled weekend didn't stop Ava from being adorable.
Aunt Emily came over to giggle at Ava's dancing abililties (we'll post more on this later when we can resolve some technical issues). Note Ava's fingers in the above photo. She frequently uses her little pincer grasp, even where there's nothing to grasp. How are your biceps feeling today, today, Aunt Emily?

Ava's Eyes

In the midst of the bizzare weather this afternoon the sun shone in on Ava's eyes during her carrot feast.

7 months old!

Last month Ava couldn't keep her hands off the bow. This month she couldn't keep her hands off the camera! She kept reaching for it!

The last month was an exiting one! She learned to sit up, she discovered that her feet are both tasty and ticklish. She started eating solid foods and learned all about the Easter bunny. What adventures await us this month?

30 weeks old today!

A lovely Spring day

The weather here today was amazing. Sunny, blue skies, about 65. Perfect! We started the day sitting on the front porch and enjoying the weather. Ava held some leaves (crunchy!) and lambs ears (soft!), and watched the cars go by. A little while later I left Ava with Daddy and attended my first sorority function. After years of scratching my head at the "beer bus" concept, I finally got to ride one! My sister Emily (known as "Aunt Emily" here) invited my mom, my sister Megan, and me to attend Moms Weekend at her sorority. We had a huge lunch in the house and then took a school bus out to the winery. The winery was swarming with people, as you can imagine on a day like today. We had a good time! Here we are (note our chariot in the reflection):

When I got home Mike started working on a perennial garden he's putting in on the south side of our house. Ava helped warm up the wheelbarrow.

We ended the day with a wonderful, made from scratch, Sicilian pizza that I stupidly forgot to photograph. All the slices are in our bellies. You'll just have to trust me when I say it looked (and tasted) delicious!

First date, busy girl

Ava visited her friend Sam on Thursday. He'd been looking forward to seeing her all week but when she started eying his toys he had second thoughts. She found his ear to be quite fascinating.
Here's the busy girl picking blocks and Easter eggs out of a loud metal bowl. Hours of fun!