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?