Watch Ava Grow - 5 months!!

Precious smiles!!

Audrey has to take over and be the big ham!

While taking pictures of Ava, I turned the phone to take pics of us. You can't tell from the picture, but Audrey is climbing on my back while I was playing photographer!

My favorite picture I've taken of the two of them! I got them to BOTH look at the camera AND smile!! I'm impressed with myself :)

FIVE MONTHS OLD!!!! When did this girl become five months old?? My babies aren't babies anymore. Audrey will be 3 in less than a month, and Ava is nowhere close to being a newborn anymore. Audrey absolutely LOVES her little baby sister especially now that Ava is able to do more stuff and be more interactive. Audrey likes doing anything and everything to make Ava smile and laugh. She loves playing with Ava and bringing her toys, and Ava pretty much loves everything that Audrey does!! They are so incredibly precious together! Audrey isn't always the most gentle with Ava, but Ava never makes a fuss about it. In fact, usually Ava is all smiles and laughs whether Audrey knees her in the head (which has been done, unintentionally), or practically lays on top of her. Oh, I did have to intervene the other day when I heard Audrey ask Ava, "Do you want me to pick you up? You do? OK." HAHAHA!!! I looked over to see Audrey seriously trying to pick Ava up off the floor. I'm sure one day it will happen whether I like it or not, but not yet. Oh, speaking of Audrey, she expects big things out of Ava. If she's trying to give Ava a toy, or if she's reading a touch-and-feel book, she'll tell Ava, "Can you touch this?" If Ava doesn't reach to try and touch it (sometimes she does, sometimes she doesn't), Audrey will immediately look at me, and say, "Mommy, she's not listening." :) Other times, she'll see Ava putting a toy in her mouth and Audrey will take it out of her mouth and say, "No, we don't eat toys. Toys aren't food." At least I know she's listening to me (even though Audrey still puts things in her mouth that she knows she shouldn't). I try to explain that Ava is allowed to put toys in her mouth because she's a baby and that's what babies do, but I don't think she quite gets it. In fact, I feel like Audrey is starting to revert back to babyhood and put more things in her mouth when she hadn't been doing it quite as much.

Ava is excelling in physical therapy. We're down to only going every other week because she's getting so much stronger. She tries SOOOO hard to roll from back to belly. Last night, I heard a lot of fussing after we put her to bed which is really unusual. I looked at her on the monitor, and she was really just trying to roll over. It sounded like fussing, but she was just working so hard and being very vocal about it. She's sooo close, but not there yet. If she's motivated enough to sleep on her tummy, maybe that will inspire her to roll quicker, or at least keep trying.

I don't know any of her measurements for this month.

Sleep: This girl is just like her big sister and fighting naps like crazy. I know she needs to be on 3 naps; I just can't figure out when those 3 naps should happen. Plus, most mornings when she should be napping, we're out running errands, so nap 1 is usually just car naps on the go. So far her afternoon nap is her really good, long nap and usually goes from about 1:30-4. I LOVE this naptime because Audrey goes down for a nap/quiet time from 2:00-3:30, so their naps coincide and I can get some stuff done (or choose to get nothing done and rest myself). She's usually in bed right at, or a little after 7pm and has been consistenly sleeping through the night for the last 2 months!! She is a bit of an early bird, and I generally hear her wake up around 6:30 or 6:45. Sometimes, she'll sleep in until 7:15 (you know you're a mom when 7:15 is "sleeping in"!).

Eating: Her eating has slowed down quite a bit as of lately. She eats 5 times a day - around 7, 10, 1, 4, and 7 or right before. Lately, she's had no interest in eating her 10am bottle, but takes the other ones just fine. Lately she's been consuming about 24oz of formula in a 24 hour period.

Clothes: She literally outgrew all of her 0-3m/3m outfits and pj's overnight!! I have a few 3-6m pieces that are the right season, but I really need to make a mad dash to the store and pick her up some new clothes.

New Achievements of the Month:
1. Mimicking our tones of voice - I say "hi" to her in a really high, soft voice and she always tries to mimic it using an "ah" sound. Well, sometimes, it really sounds like she's trying to say "hi" back to me.
2. She's showing a preference for sitting up rather than laying. Even propped on the boppy, she usually fusses until I sit her up. She can hold a sitting position for about 0.2 seconds, but I know that she likes sitting because she can see much more than while laying.

Things she likes:
1. Ceiling fans! They provide great entertainment for her!
2. Her changing table - I've never written this, but she's loved her changing table for a long time. She smiles big time at the sign that's above her changing table.
3. Anything Audrey does! That girl loves her big sister, and Audrey loves her little sister because she always has a captive audience!
4. She still loves her swing - it's by far her favorite toy.

Things she doesn't like:
1. Being hungry - she still goes from being just fine to HANGRY in about 0.1 seconds.
2. This kind of goes along with #1, but she doesn't like it if that bedtime bottle isn't given at 7:00 on the dot. She's seriously crying by 7:04. The rest of the day, she doesn't seem to get hungry, but seriously, 7:04 rolls around and she's ready to eat and go straight to bed. Yesterday, I put Audrey to bed first (because she needed it and I was by myself), and Ava was laying in bed with Audrey, and Ava was totally fine until I turned off Audrey's light. Then she lost it. I'm not sure if she was crying because it was past 7 and she was hungry, or if it was because she associates the lights going out with going to bed and knew she hadn't been fed yet. Either way, she wasn't happy until that bottle was in her mouth!

We just love this precious baby so much!!