post baby weight....

Hey gals I just had to forward on this article that Jason sent me. It speaks to me because there have been so many times in the past six months when I've been standing in line at the grocery store only to be assaulted by images of "incredibly thin celebrity moms' 3 weeks after birth!"

Oh how those images have bothered me, made me feel guilty, worried me and made me feel severely fat. But thank God there is some grace....No a lot of grace. As always, I am learning this bit by bit. Do read this article, it's fascinating.....

http://www.jonnybowden.com/2009/05/how-celebrity-moms-really-lose-baby.html

Short but sweet

Jas came home for a quick visit this weekend...Yay!!! It was completely out of his way to come up to Iowa from Oklahoma City. He could have gone  straight to Sierra Vista AZ, and it would have saved him about 14 hours of driving....But obviously we (both Ava and I) were so glad that he did! He completed his time in Fort Sill OK, and is now starting his training at Fort Huachuca in AZ. He will finish on Sept. 2nd....Three more months to go:) Ava and I will probably get to visit him at least once while he is there. So hopefully we'll get to be together at some point over the summer:) Here are a few cute pics of Ava and her favorite person, daddy. (next to mommy of course...lets be honest about that....MILK rules her little world!) 

Jas doing his best impression of Ava:)

  

 Out for Coffee....It's always a very important part of our weekends:)

  I love how she's sitting with him here, she is never this relaxed with me...

Her first ponytail!! She looks so much older to me~

solids....the silly drama of being a baby mama

she's eating solids.... FINALLY. This has been about an 3 month battle that I finally feel like I won:) It's kind of a funny story. Around 3 1/2 months Ava hit a growth spurt which is when I decided to try solids with her. Well, she hated them. But I thought that if I persisted she would come around. Then a friend of mine sent me a link on the dangers of feeding babies solids too early. The problem being that their gut's are not completely enclosed by 4 months of age, and as a result, everything they eat passes right through to their blood stream. Children who start solids this early are much more susceptible to allergies and sickness. (incredible huh?) Needless to say I was converted and decided that later was indeed better. Fast forward 2 months.  I was now on the opposite end of the spectrum......I could be heard saying things like, "I'm not going to give her solids for a year!" or "why start solids when they're this little? it's more work for me, and the longer I get to go without changing really icky diapers, the better!" No sooner had this 'wait until a year' thing become my motto, when Ava stopped sleeping through the night. And you have to know, she hadn't woken up during the night since she was 5 weeks old! So I had to eat my words, and start trying solids again. But she really did hate every thing! We've had many good laughs at her incredibly funny gag reflex, but after 6 weeks of not sleeping through the night....I was no longer laughing. OK long story getting...longer? (I hate when I say "well to make a long story short" when it's already been going on for a while. Just one of my pet-peeves:)...What the heck is a "pet-peeve" anyway?

Ok so I eventually started pumping a bottle for her at night, and adding oatmeal to it. And as of 3 days ago she's started eating it on her own, out of a dish, with a spoon. Yay! I pray we're on our way back to sleeping through the night again! 

   

  

Ava's 6 month pictures

Oh my gosh, I simply cannot believe I'm writing this....Ava, my little peanut, is 6 months old. Everyone says " Oh you just won't believe how fast it goes" but honestly, nothing could have prepared me for the way the weeks and months are speeding by. I find myself holding on to little things, trying to keep her "young" in my mind. Like I have a hard time putting outgrown outfits in storage. It's just so sad realizing that she'll never fit into them again, that she'll never be this little again! I tend to try to squeeze her plump little self into them for way longer than I probably should:) What a gift she is, what absolute & total love and joy she is. God is amazing. She is His gift to me, thank you Father, I love you so.

  

  

Hi again!

Life's been busy, which is why I haven't posted for the past couple of weeks. Quick catch up...My brother Barnabas returned home from France ! (He plays hockey there during the year)

 He came to Iowa to meet Ava for the first time. She was really funny with him. She would just stare and stare at him, for up to 4 or 5 minutes straight. In Ava time, that's practically an hour:) (She is really active, like more active than any other kiddo I've ever been around. She must have at least one limb waving at all times!) She wasn't scared of him but she also wasn't giving out any smiles for free! Here is a great pic that captures the look perfectly:)

Well the really great news is that my brother agreed to drive Ava & I down to Oklahoma city to visit Jason! Thanks Barnabas!! Even though the hotel wasn't in the best location for us, it was really good to see Jas. He was soooo relieved that Ava remembered him. When he walked into  our hotel room she just lit up. She was so happy to see him, which obviously made us both very happy:) 

Here we are taking Ava for her first swim. She loves water so it was fun, but I think she actually enjoyed her time in the whirl-pool bathtub in our room better!  A little more confirmation that we should put in an over sized tub at our house...right honey?! (we've been talking about that for a while now) Isn't her swimsuit adorable?? I had her 6 month pictures taken at Sears, and I this was one of her outfits because I love it so much!

sweet lil' strawberry with her uncle B

blue eyes

happy Jason- not so happy Ava