7 Month Stats

Ava is seven months old. I'm SO sad to say goodbye to six months. It's been the best so far. I've always loved six months in babyhood and Ava's six month was everything I expected it to be: giggly, active, cute, fun. My parent friends who are farther along on this journey than I am say that every stage is the best (well, maybe not two years old) and that it just gets better and better. I hope they're right and I have a feeling they are, but still, I wish I could just bottle up six months and let it out to play every once in awhile. Ava was ecstatic most of her sixth month. Smiling at the blinds, cracking up in her crib all by herself, pleasing strangers with her sweet smiles and waves as we walked down the street. Ah, six months, don't go.

There was something magical about the six month mark for me to. I started feeling like me again. Physically (did I mention that my jeans fit? Ahhhhh), mentally, emotionally. We're into a (fairly) predictable routine which helps with the sanity side of things. She's eating about every three hours now instead of hourly which means I can go out to lunch AND a get a pedicure with a girlfriend and not worry about coming home to a screaming starving baby. She's waking up twice a night still but just for about five minutes each time to eat and then goes right back down without a fight. It feels like everything has fallen into place, like we finally have an idea of what we're doing, like we've got this... which I realize is just asking for it to change up, but whatever. I'm enjoying it while it lasts.

Ava, at seven months you are...

• In 6-9 month clothes and still size 3 diapers
• Weigh 18 pounds
• Finally sitting. You crawled and pulled yourself up on things before you sat, which is totally backwards, dad calls it "the Russell way." Whatever that means ; )
• Crawling really fast
• Pulling yourself up on everything. You'll use anything to help you get to where you want, up. Even people. Kids, fellow babies, ponytails, pant legs, all of it is fair game in your eyes to help you pull yourself up. Kids think you're trying to give them a hug and get all excited and think it's so cute, but really you're just using them to get some leverage.
• Love tags. You find the tag on any toy and put it straight in your mouth. You'd rather suck on the tag than play with the toy. 
• Learning how to wave. It's so cute. It's delayed, usually long after someone's waved to you and sometimes it's just a sprawled out hand at your side, but we know what you're trying to do and it makes us smile. You're very calculated about it, moving your hand back and forth, slowly as your watch it intently.
• Celebrated your first Christmas! You sat through the whole church service in our arms and it was such a special time with you. You were in awe of the lights and the singing and the people. You were so well-behaved and daddy and I were so thankful to sit through a whole service together for the first time in seven months. Thank you Baby Girl. We had a great first Christmas as a little family of three!

7 Month Photo Shoot

 

Reliving My Childhood

They say one the best parts of parenthood is seeing the world through a child's eyes and sharing your own childhood favorites with your little one. These are the things I've been loving sharing with Ava lately.

Mary Rice Hopkins songs. I sang these songs from Forest Home Summer Camp all growing up. My mom bought all the cassette tapes every summer and we'd sing them all year long; in the car, in the shower, dancing around the house in our socks on the slippery wood floor. My mom knew all the words and hand motions that went along with them too, what a fun mom. One I want to be like. Now Ava and I have impromptu music times just about once a day. I blast these songs and we sing and dance around the house. Ava gets a huge smile on her face every time she can tell we're about to break into song. It's our own little episode of Glee. I can't carry a tune for the life of me but the best part is that it's just me and her and she couldn't care less... yet. Did I mention that the songs are all from 1991? Heavy on the Casio keyboard synthesizer jam sessions, just the way I like it.

P.S. This song, though extremely cheesy, now makes me cry every time I hear it. Ava just looks at me like, "What mom? I thought we were having fun..." when I go from dancing around to turning into a weepy mess the moment it comes on.

The Velveteen Rabbit. My Grandpa Power used to read this book to me when I was little and gave me the copy I now read to Ava. Even though it's long on words and short on colorful pictures for her, I'm loving sharing this classic story with my daughter. There are new memories that it conjures up now as well. This passage was read at Danielle & Gabe's beautiful wedding last summer,

"What is REAL?" asked the Rabbit one day, when they were lying side by side near the nursery fender, before Nana came to tidy the room. "Does it mean having things that buzz inside you and a stick-out handle?"

"Real isn't how you are made," said the Skin Horse. "It's a thing that happens to you. When a child loves you for a long, long time, not just to play with, but Really loves you, then you become Real."

"Does it hurt?" asked the Rabbit.

"Sometimes," said the Skin Horse, for he was always truthful. "When you are Real you don't mind being hurt."

"Does it happen all at once, like being wound up," he asked, "or bit by bit?"

"It doesn't happen all at once," said the Skin Horse. "You become. It takes a long time. That's why it doesn't happen often to people who break easily, or have sharp edges, or who have to be carefully kept. Generally, by the time you are Real, most of your hair has been loved off, and your eyes drop out and you get all loose in the joints and very shabby. But these things don't matter at all, because once you are Real you can't be ugly, except to people who don't understand."

What a beautiful description of love. This new mom can relate to drooping eyes and loose body parts and a feeling of general shabbiness. But with the love of a husband and baby like mine, it's true, it doesn't matter at all.

Swimming lessons. These are new, as in the last half an hour new. Ava had her first swimming lesson today and it was so fun to watch. She didn't love it but she didn't cry the whole time either. She's still getting used to being in the water, having it on her face, and the feeling of floating on her back. I think those twenty minutes wore her out. She nursed for a long time afterward and is now sleeping like a rock.

Sharing swimming with her is something we've very excited about. Both Mark and I are from water-loving families. I grew up spending my weekends at the beach and in the ocean in Ventura and he grew up spending his summers on the lake in Montana. Some of my favorite memories are of Power family boogie boarding sessions, playing "over or under" in the waves with my mom, and being pushed into waves on my surfboard by my dad. It's so cool to have your own family and conscioulsy decide what it will value together. Between swimming, surfing, wake boarding, kayaking, snorkeling, catching air on wave runners, speed boating, and taking the stand up paddle boards out from Grandma & Grandpa Power's dock, Ava is bound to be a water girl. Here's to many Russell family water adventures!

Ava with her swim teacher, Miss Sophia:

Little surfer girl in the making

Now I just need to get my hands on some Poky Little Puppy books and cassette tapes. This was my favorite book growing up. I must have listened to the cassettes and followed along in the book 3,149 times. I mentioned my desire to bring them back so Ava can experience them to my mom and she just rolled her eyes and mumbled that she didn't know if she could handle hearing them even once more. Ha!

6 Month Stats

Happy Half Birthday Baby Girl!

Your dad and I just sat in bed this morning marveling at the fact that you've been in our lives for half a year already. On one hand it's gone by in a blink of an eye, and on the other it seems like you've been here forever. It's cliche, but we honestly can't remember what life was like before you. We're pretty sure it involved a lot more free time, happy hour dates, and discretionary income; but all of that aside, these have been hands-down the best six months of our lives. You absolutely light up our days, make us laugh; and challenge us to be better, loving, more patient, more selfless people every single day. We love you Baby Girl!

Ava, at 6 months you...

• weigh 17 pounds, 6 ounces. This puts you in the 78th percentile for your height and weight.
• wear size 3 diapers.
• wear some 3-6 month clothes, but mostly 6 month clothes.
• had your first "solid" food. On Thanksgiving, how fitting! You had nothing but breast-milk until this month so it was kind of a big deal. We fed you brown rice cereal. You were "eh" about it. Since then you've had sweet potatoes as well. You liked them a bit more. We'll try bananas next I think.

 

• "pulled to a stand" on Thanksgiving Day! Exactly one week after you started crawling, you did this...

You're a crazy chick. That's all I have to say. You do everything big and just go for it. You're adventurous and fearless and I just sit there and watch in awe, and a bit in denial, asking myself where my little baby went. I am proud of you though. So you can now crawl and pull yourself up to a stand... but still can't sit. I think you simply can't be bothered to stop long enough to sit. How boring.

• have your own pen. After Extreme Home Make Over: Baby-Proofing Edition, this is the best solution we came up with to allow you to safely roam and practice all your cool new skills. It won't be featured in any home remolding magazines any time soon but it's worth it to keep you safe and having fun.

• had your first hair cut. You were in dire need with the Dumb & Dumber look you were rocking there for awhile. I cut your hair while dad held you down. It looks cute and is no longer in your eyes when your trying to do your thing.
• are babbling up a storm! (Please excuse the morning state Mama's in)

• are very opinionated about your toys. You chuck ones you don't like over your shoulder to get to the ones you do.
• are very independent. You aren't up for many cuddles or being picked up lately, you just want to crawl. Even at bedtime I rock you and you'll only have so much of it before I can tell you just want to be put down to put yourself to sleep. It's what the goal of the sleep training was so I'm half proud of you, half wishing for a few more moments just holding you before bed. And so the struggle between letting you go and keeping you my baby begins...
• say "Mama." Although you've seriously been doing this since about 2 months old, now I don't feel quite so silly claiming it. You don't even cry when you wake up at night or in the morning anymore, you just lay in your bed saying "Mama" over and over again until I come get you. And when I do, you get the biggest, most beautiful, gummy smile across your face. I look forward to this like you don't even know. 
• are a hip baby now. I can carry you on my hip now like a bigger baby. You cling to me like the little monkey you are. 

Lastly, I have a little milestone of my own to celebrate: I FIT INTO MY PRE-PREGNANCY JEANS! And I'm able to breath. Booyah! I remember talking to a friend early in my pregnancy, she was celebrating being able to fit into her pre-pregnancy jeans four months after having her baby. I thought, Oh that poor dear, that's so long. Good thing I'm so committed to loosing the baby weight quickly. Uh huh. One of the many, many things I've learned on this wild ride of parenthood is not to judge others. Ever. So here I am, ecstatic to be celebrating the same milestone two months later than that poor-thing-turned-hero.

Okay, back to you Ava Shay, we love you & are so proud of you!

6 Month Photo Shoot

Annnnnnnd.... She's Crawling!

Here's Baby Girl crawling at 5 1/2 months:

Mommy Fails

I forgot to add in Ava's 5 month post that she got her first cold. It was the saddest thing and all my fault. I went to the gym twice last week after a [very] long hiatus. I [stupidly] put her in the gym child care for the first time, all while thinking to myself Wouldn't it be just horrible if she got sick from her first child care experience, just in time for Cabo? Yes. Yes it would. Here she is at Chrissi & Adam's wedding all rosy-cheeked, chaff-nosed and all together lethargic...

Heartbreaking. On Sunday evening Mark and I just sat in our dark hotel room with the curtains drawn. I held Ava as her eyes seeped and she tried to sleep with her first stuffy nose and got teary-eyed myself. I prayed that God would restore her back to health and thanked Him that a common cold is what I get to worry about while other mothers are holding their infant's hands through surgeries and cancer and other horrible, heartbreaking things. She ended up sleeping 17[!] hours that night, 4pm-9am. And woke up a new baby. Yay! Then Mark and I got it. I'm fine now but watching him wake up after only four hours of sleep in between shifts to go in again, sick, makes me feel so bad for getting my family sick. I know she's going to catch colds. Therefore we're going to catch colds. But it still makes me sad and feel responsible. If you're wondering; no, the yoga class, steam room, and uniterrupted shower; while enjoyable, were not worth it.

The next "mommy fail" was actually kind of funny. I'm not a proponent of "cry it out" when my baby is in her crib crying hysterically, but I am all for allowing her to "fuss it out" or what my good friend Becky calls "sort it out." The night before last, Ava had been asleep for about four hours when I heard her start to fuss through the baby monitor. I was enjoying a much-deserved Magnum bar and glass of chardonnay and it only lasted about two minutes before she went back to sleep and it was quiet again so I didn't go in to check on her. About an hour later I'm heading up to bed and think I should check on her, but the door is creaky and I don't want to risk waking her up so I wash my face and brush my teeth instead. As I walk by her room again I think, I should really check on her. And this is what I saw...

Doh!

I've found myself praying for grace more often in my five months of being a mother than in any other time in my life.