We're Home!

We are back home in Florida now. We had a safe trip back to Orlando. Ava did not want to sleep on the plane at all. The only thing she wanted to do was to jump up and down the entire 3 hours plane ride. Luckily, the woman next to me was very nice and offered to hold her for awhile so that I could get a break. She even helped me change a dirty diaper on her lap!!! She was a brave woman!!! Curt was very happy to see us. Here are a bunch of pictures from our trip. Sorry there are so many but I had to share all of them. :-) Enjoy!

Ava riding Papa's motorcyle.
Ava with Great Grandpa &Great Grandma Cattanach
Ava with Great-Grandma Goetz
Ava and Great Aunt Judy
Papa, Grandma and Ava ready for a walk.

My Dad and I at the Marshfield Zoo. You can kind of see the tiger in the background.
Ava and I at the zoo. I love the color of the trees!
Great-Grandma June, Ava and I at the park.

Great-Grandma June pushing Ava through the zoo.
Ava Claire with Ava and Claire Critelli. The girls were so excited to meet Ava and thought it was great that they had the same name!
Sisters and cousins! My sister Jenn with her kids Emily and Alexander.

Great-Grandma June with all of the great grandkids.

The Cattanach cousins playing with Ava.

Cousin Emily with Ava.

Ava with Uncle Scott and Aunt Amy.

Ava with Uncle Dave and Aunt Michelle.

Cousin Jacob. Jacob loved Ava and just couldn't get enough of her. :-) I'm pretty sure that Ava loved him too.

Grandpa Cattanach

Ava's first bonfire at Great Uncle Dave's house. It was a little cold but we all had fun anyway. Next time she'll get to eat a smore.

Ava and Alexander with Great Uncle Lyle and Great Aunt Faith. Thanks for letting us come stay with you before we came back home. We had a great time and I'm so glad you got to meet the little ones! :-)

Go Packers!!

We are having a great time in Wisconsin! We have been super busy visiting with family and friends. Ava has been a good little girl and has adjusted well to the different surroundings and time change. I had to post this picture as we are currently watching the Green Bay Packers vs. Tampa Bay Buccaneers. I'm cheering for the Bucs but Ava will be a Packer fan. Isn't she adorable in her cheerleading outfit?!?! I'll post more pictures later on in the week.

4 Month Appointment

On Wednesday, Ava had her 4 month doctor's appointment. Dr. Burzynski was very excited to see how big Ava has gotten since our last visit. She weighed 11 lbs. 14 oz. and was 23 1/2 inches long. She has grown quite a bit since our last visit 2 months ago. Dr. Burzynski said that she is doing great developmentally and couldn't believe how alert she was. Ava has started noticing more and more things that are around her. She has noticed Shadow and will just watch her closely to see what she is going to do. She thinks it is funny when Shadow licks her hands and feet. Ava did get 3 shots while we at the doctors and once again, she didn't react very good. She got another fever and was very cranky for about 36 hours. About 2 weeks ago, Ava was on a feeding schedule of about every 3-4 hours but now she wants to eat at least every 2 sometimes every hour. Because of this, Dr. Burzynski advised us to start her on a "very" little cereal every other day. So, we started some cereal last night and she only had a few bites but seemed to really like it. Shadow wanted to have some too but knew she would get yelled at if she got too close. As you can see in the picture, Shadow tried to take a lick but wasn't close enough to Ava to actually get any. :-) We'll try some more cereal tomorrow night.

Ava's teething has seemed to stop for the time being. Very good timing considering we leave for WI on Tuesday. :-) I am very excited for our trip and can't wait for everyone to see Ava. It will be a very busy 10 days as we have 2 families to see in that time. Luckily, they live in the same town! :-) I will try to upload some more pictures before we leave for WI and then maybe some while we are there as well.

Teething

Ava has officially started teething! She has been drooling like crazy for the past few weeks but until now, she has never been fussy because of her teeth. It all started yesterday after we got home from church. She would not go to sleep for her normal nap time and just could not be consoled. We seemed to try almost everything (including studying with Daddy!) until finally resorting to tylenol and ora-gel. Unfortunately, neither of those seemed to work. She managed to sleep through the night but I was awake every few hours expecting her to wake up in pain. Today she woke up okay but quickly decided that her gums still hurt and she wasn't going to tolerate it today. She threw several fits and all she wanted to do was eat, eat and eat! Lucky me!!! The good thing is that we made it through the day and I got a break when Curt got home from work. A friend of mine recommended teething tables so I ran to CVS and bought a box. They work wonders!!! About 10 minutes after I gave them to Ava, she was back to her normal self and happy as can be. She is now asleep for the night and will most likely sleep until the morning.

Here are just a few pictures from the past week. As you can see in the picture, Ava loves bathtime and is always smiling of laughing. She could stay in there forever! :-) She is continuing to roll over all of the time. She is really good at lifting up her head. She moves her legs like she's going to start crawling but hasn't figured out how to move her arms yet. She likes laying on her belly more and more and has even figured out how to roll from her belly to her back (but not very often). We think she has started teething because she is constantly drooling and needs something (hands, fist, fingers, paci, blanket, shirt, toy, etc.) in her mouth at all times. I got the chance to weigh her yesterday at our Mommy and Me class. She weighs 11 lbs. 10 oz. She's getting bigger and bigger every day but is still our little peanut. :-)

Here is a picture of Ava with her best friend Bre. They are actually holding hands here and we did not stage this picture. It was so cute but it didn't last too long. Bre wanted to play with Ava but Ava just sat there and smiled.


Ava and Daddy!

Ava's Noises

Ava has found a new way to talk. She just makes me laugh every time she does this and it goes on for about 10-15 minutes. It's hilarious. She'll stop if you start talking to her and then as soon as you stop talking she'll start back up again.

I'm so sorry...

that I haven't posted any recent pictures lately. We have been busy getting on a schedule and enjoying the nice weather. We got a lot of rain last week due to Tropical Storm Fay but now we are back to our sunny Florida days. I have posted a lot of pictures that I have taken over the past 2 weeks. Ava is now 3 1/2 months old and we can't believe how big she has gotten. She had a growth spurt last week and is starting to get some rolls on her thighs. :-) She truly is a wonderful baby! She rarely cries and is always flirting with complete strangers. She couldn't stop smiling and laughing with people at church on Sunday and they thought it was the cutest thing. Now that she has started rolling over, that is about all she wants to do. Although, she still hasn't figured out how to get off her belly and back onto her back. She will lay on her belly for awhile but then will start grunting to let us know she has had enough belly time. But, as soon as we put her on her back, she rolls right back onto her belly and we repeat the process over and over. :-) She thinks it's great but her Mom and Dad are getting a little tired and can't wait for her to figure it out on her own. She loves sucking on her fingers, thumb, fist, shirt, blanket, birp cloth...pretty much anything she can find to put in her mouth. And of course, with the sucking comes drool.



These first 4 pictures were taken last night right before bedtime. She was starting to get a little tired but still had a little smile for the camera.


One of our favorite things to do at night is to sit outside on our patio. Shadow loves to chase after the lizards...and sometimes she even catches one. Curt likes to play around on his laptop and Ava and I just sit on the loveseat and play. Well, one night she was too tired to play and decided to just fall asleep. So, here is the picture of her outside sound asleep.



Ava and I made a visit to school a couple of weeks ago. The students weren't there yet and I went to help out my friend Nicole (who is pregnant and due in December)! I didn't get a picture of Nicole but did get a picture of my other friend Terri with Ava. I taught 1st grade with Terri for a year and have known her for the past 3 years.


The rest of these pictures were from Curt's sister Michelle's visit. We had a great time with her and were really sad to see her leave. We think they need to make a big move down to Florida so we can see each other more often. :-) We took Ava to the pool for the first time and I'm not sure what she thought of it. The water was really warm and she loves the bath so I thought she would love the pool. She didn't cry like she did at the beach but she wasn't too happy either. It was really sunny out that day so it was hard for her to open her eyes and see anything. We all had a great time though!


We don't have any big plans for the next few weeks. Ava has her 4 Month appointment on September 17th and will get more shots! On September 23rd, Ava and I will be making a trip to WI for 10 days!

We are very excited and I can't wait for Ava to meet a lot of her extended family.

Aunt Michelle

Curt's sister, Michelle is here for the weekend. We have had a great time already and will be sad to see her leave on Monday. Here is a picture of Ava with her Aunt Michelle after her bath. Ava has really enjoyed flirting with Aunt Michelle and always has a smile or laugh for her. We will post more pictures later in the week. :-)

Ava Can Roll Over!!!

Today was Ava's 3 Month Birthday! It was a very big day for her. We were playing on the floor and all of a sudden, she rolled over. Luckily, I had the camera nearby and she rolled over several times after the first one so I could get it on camera. Now all she wants to do is roll over. She can't roll from her belly to her back though so she gets stuck and will start to fuss after a few minutes on her belly. She learn eventually! :-) We were so proud of our little girl! Her Aunt Michelle comes for a visit this weekend and we are all very excited to see her. I will post more after the weekend. :-)

Noises

This is a video that I took today while Ava was playing on the floor. She has started to make noises and sounds. At first we weren't sure if she was upset or just having fun. We have determined that she is just having fun even though she makes a fussy face sometimes. She is getting so big and will turn 3 months old this Thursday. I weighed her last week and she weighed 10 lbs. 7 oz.. We were thrilled since she has gained more than a pound in less than 3 weeks. :-)