Too much assembly required.

I came to a rather unpleasant realization today: Children's toys that require assembly were invented by sadists who hated their parents. But, after several pinched fingers and a bunch of words I'm glad Ava is too young to repeat, the Baby Einstein Discover and Play Activity Center joined the toy arsenal that used to be our living room. And I have to admit it looked really fun! I grabbed the camera, scooped up Ava, and lowered her in. I had to prop her up with a blanket so she wouldn't take a nosedive into the dinosaur hand-puppet, and her feet don't touch the bottom yet, but she's fascinated by all the colors and sounds. I think she looks smarter already.

My second title choice for this post was "Sleep Schedules are for Chumps". In fact, I'm pretty sure that will be Ava's first full sentence. In a typical day she takes a few 20 minute "power naps", falls asleep at 4 or 5 in the afternoon, then wakes up ravenous and ready to hang out at 3am. At least she usually goes back to sleep for a couple of hours after a snack and some cuddling.

Remember when the doctor told us that she'd sleep through the night when she hit 12lbs? I'm thinking of suing him for malpractice. :)

So, this thing goes in my mouth, right?

Ava has spent the last few weeks trying to figure out how to get her thumb in her mouth. So far the only thing she's succeeded in doing is gnawing on her fist. We're probably the only parents on earth that are encouraging thumb-sucking (we've even tried to help), and are aware that we might as well write a blank check to her future orthodontist. But we don't care. It's cute. I did learn a valuable lesson today though: when you have a child that chews on her fist, make sure that you rinse that fist immediately after washing it when you give her a bath. Otherwise you look up from washing a foot and see her staring back at you with a mouth full of bubbles. Poor kid. She didn't even get to say a naughty word, and still wound up with a mouth full of soap. Oops.

And speaking of cute, we're also trying to teach Ava to give kisses. We pull her towards our faces, say "kiss", and make kissing noises. In response, she promptly opens her mouth. We usually wind up with a very wet nose, but that's a small price to pay.

I'm attaching a second picture so everyone can see how big she's getting. She wouldn't stop moving her hand (hence the blur), but I love the face she's making so I'm using it anyway.

By the way, Aunt Marianne drew the adorable Ava cartoon you now see at the top of the page. Thanks, Marianne! Love it!!

Don't panic!!

Same old blog, just a new format. I changed it to add a little whimsy. I'm attaching a picture of Ava in a giant bow to ease the trasition. :) Enjoy!