Growth Spurt?

This morning:

I fed her 4-5 ounces of milk and a Tbsp. of rice cereal.

I left her 7 ounces of milk in the fridge.

I returned at 10 am to find it all gone.

More chub to come.

Changing Table Conversations

What you would have overheard from the monitor this morning, had you been here:

"That's quite a mess. And all over the place. Let's get you out of that sleeper....Oh my goodness, don't grab that....Let's clean off your hands... No don't grab that either... That doesn't go in your mouth... Let's clean off your hands again... And wash them once this is over.... No, don't put those in your mouth..."

Such an adventure.

This Face

Ava makes this face about 10 times a day, and it cracks me up.

Why I Hate Grocery Shopping, But Love Safeway

My second least favorite thing these days is grocery shopping. I say second least favorite (which almost certainly the least eloquent way I could say that) because my first least favorite thing is not having any food to eat. I mean, besides what's in the half-rusted unlabeled can in the back of my pantry and the bread that taunts me at every turn.

We were down to bare bones, so I had to go to the grocery store. It's hard to do with a little one. I can't imagine how you do it with three, Corrie. Hopefully they at least help you get the bigger items in the cart.

My friend very graciously lent me her Baby Bjorn to try out for the day. I untangled it, put Ava in, got a cart, and went in to Safeway. Below is an account of my trip. I share it not because I want sympathy. I'm over it now that my headache is gone. I share it mostly for your amusement. Here is how you go shopping with a little one:

Aisle 1: Realize baby and grocery cart are drifting to the right. Grunt and grit teeth in an effort to get it to travel straight.

Aisle 2: Turn baby to face out, and wear self out throwing 15 cans of beans in the cart.

Aisle 3: Realize baby wouldn't flop around so much if her arms went through the holes in side of Bjorn. Put arms through the holes. Clean Safeway out of canned tomato products. Lean down, and fling 20 pound bag of rice into the bottom of the cart. Grunt some more.

Aisle 4: After baby's chin hits her chest, decide to turn her around, yet again. Try unsuccessfully to get Bjorn to open. Try to pull her vertically out of it. Sit on the floor. Heave ho. She's out. Paci rests on the floor. Sigh.

Circle aimlessly through the rest of the store, trying to bounce baby enough to distract her.

Checkout: Stand in line, rubbing temples to soothe headache. Look pathetic. Sing God's praises as clerk comes to take you to his newly open lane. Realize that he has taken you to the "express lane," and you most definitely don't have an express basket. Load 45 cans of vegetables on to conveyor belt as the people behind you in line with only a case of beer look on with annoyance. Say "thank you for having mercy on me" to the kind checker, both to show your appreciation and to let the people behind you know this wasn't your idea. Gladly spend a small fortune because shopping at Safeway is just so much easier than shopping at Daiei, and the people that work there seem not to resent your presence in their store. Enthusiastically accept help out to the car. Drive home and collapse.

Cereal

All of sudden Ava seems hungry. Ravenous, actually.

I usually feed her about 7:00 am, and she has been waking up hungry at 9:00 or 9:15. She has been routinely draining every bottle I leave for Heide. She drained a 5-ounce one the other day.

I ran into one of the girls from my Bradley class, whose daughter was born the day after Ava. She said that her daughter, Kyla (who, incidentally, makes Ava look small), started wanting to eat every hour and practically lunged at the spoon when she decided to give her a little cereal.

I started thinking that perhaps the reason that I'm having trouble getting her down for naps is that she is actually hungry. We decided that she was close enough to six months to give it a shot. So, for the first time, we gave her some very runny rice cereal. It's fun to see her trying to figure it all out. She's been staring longingly at everything we put in our mouths (especially Tostitos) for the past 4 months. Thought you guys might like to see some pictures of her first adventures with (semi) solid food.

After we gave her cereal in the morning, she took a two hour nap, and things have been going much better in the sleep department since. Probably not a magic bullet, but I think it might help. I've heard it said that introducing solids won't help them sleep, but my guess is that, at a certain point, not introducing them might keep them from sleep.

Anyway, it's been a fun few days. Now I've got lots more to clean out from under her chin. And the more solids she eats, the more chins she'll have.

That Darn Cat

I would punish the cat if he knew what he was being punished for. Maybe I'll punish him anyway.

Cats just do their own thing. It's maddening sometimes. You tell them not to do something. They do it anyway. You remove them from somewhere they shouldn't be. They go right back. They sense exactly where they shouldn't be and that is where you find them.

Ava didn't go to sleep this morning before I left for class. Heide, whose twin boys I have in my algebra class, has been watching Ava while I'm teaching. This morning, she very patiently patted Ava until she was almost asleep. Then...

Kitty unexpectedly jumped into the crib. Heide had left the door cracked so as not to make noise when she left. The cat pushed open the door and jumped into the crib. Of course, large black-and-white furry object was extremely interesting to my little girl. More interesting than dreamland.

She took about a 10 minute nap in the stroller after that. It's going to be a fun day.

Ava Chats

I decided to let Ava try to sit up a little more today, and she did wonderfully. I still have to make sure she doesn't face plant, but she's pretty strong. We celebrated with a web chat with Nana and Poppy. She seemed pretty amused by the whole thing:


She's getting big so fast. Pretty soon I'm going to be fussing at her for being on instant messenger at 2 a.m. Serves me right, eh Dad?

Sitting Up (or Sitting Duck?)

Click Here

Popp Ohana user note: if you like any of the pictures we post, clicking on them shows a bigger, better version which can be downloaded for printing (this is for you, Mom and Dad).

If Ava Could Talk...

...it would go something like this:

Me: What's wrong, Ava?
Ava: I'M TIRED!
Me: Why don't you go to sleep then?
Ava: I CAN'T! SOMEONE'S SCREAMING!
Me: That's you.
Ava: IT IS?
Me: Yes.
Ava: HOW DO I MAKE IT STOP?