Ava's Six-month Photos

Ava's photos are up on www.collages.net . To access them, enter username: "Fisk" and password: "9068".

As a side note, Ava has started saying da da da da da. It's not like she understands the meaning behind it, but it still makes me feel good.

I've got your six months right here!

Holding our bottle all by ourselves, originally uploaded by Ava's Antics.

One of Ava's crowning achievements, as far as I'm concerned, is that she has figured out that she can hold her bottle by herself. It's amazing the things you can get done in the time it takes to feed a baby. We can just set her in her Boppy, give her her bottle, and get her to put her hands on the bottle and we're all set. Since this skill is new to her she does run into problems. One of the things that used to drive me crazy is that Ava would turn her head in the middle of a bottle. Either you moved the bottle with her head or it came out of her mouth and dripped on her clothes. She would do this ALL THE TIME. It wasn't rare for her to do this a dozen times in one feeding. When she feeds herself she is unable to get the bottle back into her mouth when it falls out. She holds her bottle like you would if you had nothing but stubs on the end of your forearms. Her fingers are there, but they don't contribute much to the process. We still have to put her bottle back in her mouth several times a feeding, but she's getting better.

"I can sit by myself!", originally uploaded by Ava's Antics.

Ava is also sitting up without support. She's like a Weeble. The only difference is that this Weeble wobbles and sometimes falls down. Most of the time though, she sits up straight and can stay that way as long as she doesn't have to look at something higher than her eye level. Anything above that and she loses her bearings. We're letting her sit by herself, but she must be closely supervised. It's a lot like how it will be when she learns how to drive. I may also apply this method when she begins dating.

Ava discovers her toes, originally uploaded by Ava's Antics.

As I write this, Ava is trying green beans baby food for the first time. Apparently she's not a fan because she started spitting them out. Then she proceeded to not open her mouth when the spoon approached. After several minutes of this, a switch to squash baby food confirmed that it was just the green beans that she didn't want. You almost need a back-hoe to keep up with her demand when she's eating something she likes. At six months she already fights us about eating her vegetables.

"AFLAC!", originally uploaded by Ava's Antics.

This is one of Ava's costumes. It's basically a sleeper with a beak and wings, so I don't think Ava even realizes that she's dressing up. She has another costume that makes her a jack-o-lantern. We had her pictures taken with that costume a couple weeks ago and should be getting those pictures back soon. When they're available I'll put a link to them on her blog.

Gettin' down to "business", originally uploaded by Ava's Antics.

This has got to be one of my favorite pictures of all time. Any parent should know what Ava is doing at the moment this picture was taken. Getting this picture was quite an accomplishment for me. It was a lot like when I first tried to get a picture of her smiling. She would smile, but by the time I would get the camera ready she would not be in the mood for smiling anymore. Getting this picture was a little different because it didn't depend on her mood, it depended on how fast she "did her dooty". I think this would make a good driver's license photo someday. I'm not the only one am I?

Pacifier Graveyard

Pacifier Graveyard, originally uploaded by Ava's Antics.

When Ava is a pack-rat as an adult, we'll know that its been going on for a loooonnnnnnggggg time. Last night I got under her crib because we were mysteriously running low on pacifiers. This is where pacifiers go when there is no trail of evidence to their location. It's a lot like "The X-Files". Turns out there were EIGHT pacifiers hoarded under there. Ava... We will always have enough pacifiers for you. You don't have to build up an emergency stash. Even if there were some disaster where we would never be able to buy you any more pacifiers, the ones you have would be just as safe in the cupboard and cleaner too!

Crooked Lips, originally uploaded by Ava's Antics.

Today, for the first time, Ava put her pacifier successfully into her own mouth. She has tried MANY times before, but she just hadn't got the coordination down previously. Usually she would grab one of the sides and then try to shove the other side into her mouth. Seeing as the sides are designed to keep the baby from completely internalizing and swallowing the pacifier, trying to insert them this way is problematic. Today we were driving and she was fussy in the back seat. After a little while she suddenly was content, which struck me as odd. Ba-da-boom, ba-da-bing, she had conquered the complexity of the pacifier.

Basketcase #3, originally uploaded by Ava's Antics.

On top of that, she is sitting on her own. Before when we would try to sit her up on her own she would end up with her mouth intimately close to her feet. I'm not fond of the idea of my daughter trimming her toe-nails with her teeth, so I was pleasantly surprised when she started staying somewhat vertical. Mind you, she does teeter like a buoy on water, but she's still able to keep herself up for a good length of time.

Just Hangin' Out

Just Hangin' Out, originally uploaded by Ava's Antics.

In a little over a week Ava went from rolling half-way over to a full-fledged 360 degree triple lutz with a quarter turn (ok, so maybe she's working up to that). One night this past week Doni was home with Ava while I was on call, so Ava was on the living room floor and Doni was making something for dinner. After just a few moments, Doni realized that she could hear Ava, but that she was no longer where she had left her. Ava had barrel-rolled up against our coffee table and was not content with the fact that it wouldn't move out of her way. Sparky got nervous because he knew she wasn't happy, but since he has no opposable thumbs there was little he could do to help.

Ava has been employing new tactics in her attempts to use me to get what she wants. She is especially adept at this in the mornings. First thing in the morning, as soon as she wakes up, she gets her biggest smile of the day and is so tickled pink that she can hardly stand it to see you. Or so it seems..... The moment you pick her up she completely ignores you due to her accomplishing her goal - getting out of bed. She seems to have a phobia of looking directly at anyone closer than 24 inches from her face. Regardless, she can feel free to use me whenever she wants.

She is now up to 2... COUNT 'EM.... TWO teeth! For our multicultural readers, that's one more than UNO. She's on course to have a complete set of adult teeth by 24 months and her first set of dentures by age seven.