Happy Halloween!

Ava is 17 weeks old today and we're going to start trying her out on baby rice and porridge. I really need to keep on top of these updates more frequently than once a month! It's just so hard when I barely have time to make lunch let alone sit down and type away on the computer.

During October we've been very busy. Ava went on her first plane ride on the 6th of October. We went in Graham's plane from London to Belgium where we picked up his boss's mother and then we all flew to Blackpool for one night. The next day we did the trip in reverse and when we got home around 7pm we had to hurry and pack our bags because Ava and I were flying to Canada early the next morning!

We spent Thanksgiving in Canada and Ava got to meet the rest of the family. It was such a nice trip and it was great seeing my family again. My mom has spoiled us rotten and even through a beautiful baby shower for Ava and I the Sunday before we left to go back to the UK. It was really great to see everyone and show the baby around. She got so many gifts that I actually had to leave half of them behind! When I finally packed everything into my suitcase and weighed it, it came out to 60 pounds and I'm sure that about 55 pounds of that was all Ava's stuff.

Here are some pictures from the past month:

In Blackpool at Pleasure Beach theme park

Having a look out over the water in Blackpool

This is one of my favourite pictures :)


They had some sort of light festival going on

I think they called it the Illuminations or something

At some point in time this was the largest rollercoaster in the world

This was the hotel we stayed in. The rollercoaster actually went past our window, only about 6 feet away.

The biggest disco ball I've ever seen.


~*~

Ava's first trip to Canada
Ava doing her best Daddy impression

My highschool friends at the baby shower

(L to R) My Grandma Bowman, my neighbour growing up Edith, and my Grandma Reid.

(Great) Grandma Bowman

My Aunt Debbie

Me with my good friend Jenny

(L to R) Christina, Jen, Me, Saba, Lisa, Sarah and Carli


Saba and I with our babies. Her little guy Rayyan is 8 weeks younger than Ava

Mom (a.k.a Grandma Karen)

(Auntie) Ruthie, Edith and (Great) Grandma Bowman


Ava and a very sleepy Rayyan

We had a great time in Canada and are very much looking forward to going back again at Christmas, and this time with Daddy!

3 Months

My little Ava Bug is 3 months old! I can't believe how fast the time has gone and how big she is now. She's going to be walking before I know it and then going to school... driving... moving out... and having babies of her own! Yikes. I feel very old all of a sudden.

Ava sitting with the teddy bear Grandma B gave her

Ava's Photoshoot

I was cleaning our bedroom today while Ava watched me from our bed and I decided to get the camera out while she was being well behaved.











She's changed so much since she was born!

Time is flying!

Ava is now over 12 weeks old and keeps me so busy I barely have time to brush my teeth! She's finally asleep next to me on the couch right now so I'm taking this chance to update here.

She's changing so much all the time, it's hard to believe she's the same baby I met for the first time only 3 months ago. She responds to our smiles and has started baby babbling, it's very cute. She's happiest first thing in the morning and I often wake up to her smiling away at me.

She has started sleeping better at night over the past 2 or 3 weeks. She tends to wake up around 4:30 or 5am every morning to eat and then is awake on and off from about 7am until we finally get out of bed.

She's outgrowing everything she owns too! I feel like everytime I put her into an outfit she only wore 3 days before, she's too big for it! I measured her a couple of days ago and she is 64cm long. I don't know how much she weighs but I would guess around 13 lbs.

Such a cutie! I love my little Ava Bug so much <3

10 and a half weeks

My goodness... I cannot believe how much time babies take up! My life isn't my own anymore, that's for sure.

I'm starting to get used to spending 100% of my time and energy on her though and although it can be really frustrating at times (like when I really need to go to the bathroom, or when I just want to sit down and eat a meal at a normal pace) I do really enjoy spending time with her :)

She's growing and changing all the time. She smiles so much now and has started making new 'talking' noises. Some almost sound like real words sometimes! I'm sure it won't be long now before she starts to laugh. She already does a happy squeak when she's pleased about something. (Usually when one of her mobile toys makes her smile.)

As much as her toys make her happy, it never lasts. Before I can even finish washing my hair she has already decided that her toys have upset her and she'll start to cry so it's mommy to the rescue.

She's sleeping on the couch right now and all I can think about is the zillion page long list I have of things that need doing! Unfortunately most of them involve making noise around the house and I just really don't want to take that chance.

Anyway... maybe I should go sort the laundry before she wakes up. It's amazing how fast you learn to do household chores when you have a baby :P

8 weeks old!

Ava is 8 weeks old today! I can hardly believe how fast time is going. Maybe it's because every day seems to blur into the next due to lack of sleep...? I think I must be getting used to not sleeping because I actually feel okay these days. In the beginning I was exhausted all the time but now I don't seem to notice it so much.

I think we're getting better at figuring her out now, she has different cries for different reasons and has even started smiling at us :) She tends to have a fussy period in the evening around 7pm which can be pretty frustrating because it seems to always line up with dinner and it either ends up not being made, or not being eaten.

On Friday she had her 8 week check up and she was 11lbs 3oz, 59cm long, and 29cm around her head. Apparently she's tall for her age which isn't too surprising considering her dad is 6'4".

I started a youtube channel for Ava so people who don't get to see her often can watch videos of her whenever they want. This is the link for anyone who wants to go see:

http://www.youtube.com/user/avalouball

I'll put some on here too whenever I get a chance. At the moment she takes up about 99% of my time and the other 1% is spent frantically doing laundry, showering, and trying to eat.

Anyway, I'm going to try and update this more often. I just need to find the time really! :P

1 Month Old

Well Ava is 1 month old today! I can't believe it. It's incredible how fast the time has gone already and it's crazy how much she's grown too. When she was weighed 9 days ago she was up to 8lbs 11oz so she's probably nearing 10lbs by now!

We're starting to see a pattern with her sleeping now, so I'm trying to get it settled into a routine where she's awake in the evening and goes to sleep at the same time as us. It's been tricky but last night it sort of worked. Also I was told if I give her a bottle of formula before bed she'll sleep longer, so I did and she slept from 12 until 4!

She's sleeping on the couch next to me right now, her little bum is sticking up in the air :) Hopefully she'll wake up within the next hour (by 1pm), then be awake until 4 and sleep from 4 to 7, then awake until 10:30 or 11. This is the pattern I'm trying to get her into.

Baby's first jeans :)

Daddy feeding Ava in the park

Ava and her first bottle of wine

Baby had too much to drink :)Those are just a few of the zillions of baby photo's we've taken this past month. We're lucky to even have them. Our house was broken into last week and they stole both our laptops, our video camera and Graham's sister's iPod. It looked like they dropped the camera on their way out the window because it was sitting on the couch and I had left it on the table by my computer.

We think I might have disturbed them because I had got up with Ava at 5:30 to change her and feed her and when I was in the baby's room I remember hearing something fall on the floor but I thought it was maybe Graham knocking his cell phone off the bedside table or something. We realised afterward that it was probably the sound of the iPod falling on the floor when they picked up Graham's laptop. The iPod had been plugged into it.

It was pretty scarey to think about afterward. Especially because I very nearly walked right into them. When I got up with the baby I was so thirsty I was about to go down to the kitchen to get some water before changing her, but she was being so fussy I decided to sort her out first.

When I did go downstairs half an hour later I remember walking past the couch and noticing my laptop wasn't there anymore. At the time I thought it was a little strange, but I was really tired and didn't think too hard about it. I figured maybe Graham had moved it before coming up to bed or something.

It's really heartbreaking to think that I've just lost hundreds of photo's and videos of the last year and a half. I know some people keep saying you shouldn't put your pictures on the internet because then they're out there for everyone, but I have to say I'm glad that I did. Otherwise I would have nothing left.

I've decided to back up my new computer once a month in case something like this ever happens again. It really, really sucks :(

Thankfully no one was hurt at least. It could have turned out a lot worse if the robber was violent and I had bumped into him.

Anyway, lesson learned: Don't leave window's open - even if you are home, and it's the size of a shoe box. Some freak will figure out how to get in!