What the heck is a winkle?

Being a parent means adopting an entirely new vocabulary: boppy, bumbo, Bjorn, and yes, winkle. From the moment you find out you're expecting you are inundated with words that previously meant nothing to you - or to anybody else without kids for that matter. We attended our first Christmas party as parents last weekend and were informed by the other moms and dads there that the winkle was the toy for the under 1 set, and that we had to acquire one immediately. Frankly the thing looked a little dull to me, but since I'm not exactly the demographic being targeted by Winkle, Inc., I figured my opinion didn't hold much water. So, since I'm always up for an excuse to shop for pretty much anything, off we went to Baby's R Us to buy one. We gave it to Ava, and she really does seem oddly fascinated by this thing. Who knew?

And now it's confession time. Out of all the babies we know around Ava's age, our little girl is the only one that can't roll over yet. I take full responsibility for this, since it's hard for her to learn these things when I never put her down. At this rate she'll be the only kid rolling around on a play mat in the 1st grade, so it is my current mission to have her rolling like a pro by Christmas. I've started taking her down to the basement every morning (the carpeted floor down there is much more comfy than the hardwood on the main floor) to do our little baby workout. We spend about half an hour working on rolling over (front to back, and back to front), sitting up independently, and standing up while holding on to the couch. At this point she still bobbles around like one of those dashboard hula dolls, but we're getting there.

I'm sure this will come as a surprise to no one, but it looks like Ava is going to be a tall and thin. At her 4 month appointment she was 50th percentile for weight, and 75th for height. (At this point the size of her head is only in the 15th percentile, but to anyone that's ever seen me try on hats this shouldn't come as a shocker either.) She's weighing in at 13lbs 5oz, and already outgrowing the length of some of her 3-6 month pants. I can't believe how fast she's growing up.