Archive for September, 2005

Ava’s first friend is little Ethan. I watch Ethan on Wednesdays and his mom (Kim) watches Ava the other days of the week. This arrangement is working great and Ethan and Ava are getting used to each other. The new toy that everyone loves is this aquarium bouncer. I bought it this week, and both Ava and Ethan LOVE to watch the little fish inside blow bubbles and make noise. It has been a great purchase already.

Helen and Michael have gone back to Portland, but these photos were too cute. Ava loved spending time with her Grandma Helen and Grandpa Michael Sasser! She’ll be glad to see them when they come back to visit in December.

Ava loves her swing that our friends Ryan and Kim (Ava’s babysitter) allowed us to borrow. She is now loving to watch the mobile in her crib and this one on the swing. She even falls asleep in it sometimes (which is nice…since she is NOT a napper in general).

I know it’s been way too long since either of us posted. Actually, Kate tried to post yesterday but we were having some technical difficulties with the network here at Ava HQ. All the problems are worked out though and I’m finally getting a chance to put some photos up. See, Kate and I are all on our own now. As you all know, after Ava was born Kate had the opportunity to stay home for six weeks. At the end of that run I was able to take a couple weeks off from work and my folks were here also. But now we are all on our own…both back to work, so things are a bit more hectic. Ava get’s dropped off at Kim’s for babysitting Mon-Tues and Thurs-Fri. Kate takes Wed off and Kim brings Ethan over on that day so she can work as a nurse. Kate has Sat off and that’s the day all of us spend together as a family. Then Sun, Kate goes into work and I get to be Mr. Mom. So as you can guess, the new schedule leaves little downtime for posting. So I thought this great photo of Ava getting some love from Bella while wearing the best hat in the world might make up for the lack of news recently. Who loves Daddy?!!

This is a photo my Mom took, and I think it’s pretty crazy how it sort of makes Ava look like she’s already a grown little girl. Look at her eyes and that stare…almost like she’s thinking about something, like a mature brain behind those eyes is already processing information and forming opinions. And how pretty is she with that skirt on? Oh boy…I’m gonna have play the mean dad and scare off all sorts of boys once they start coming around. Ba’h, don’t want to start thinking about that yet. But I just can’t get enough of this little cutie. I’m definitely getting a sense of what people mean when they tell you to enjoy them when they’re young because they grow up too fast.

Last night, Ava Sasser had two milestones! We put the bassinett away and she slept in the crib for the first time during the night. Also, she slept the ENTIRE night. That’s right….from 10pm until 6am, we didn’t hear any crying. I kept getting up during the night to check on her. Our house is really small, and her crib is not really that far from our bedroom (maybe 5 paces). But, I was still worried about her since she has never slept that long. She is going to be indpendent obviously, since she clearly did not miss us! I have to admit, I kind of missed having her next to me in her bassinett, but I know she is getting bigger and its time for her to sleep in her own room. What a big baby girl!

Ava now loves to smile…when she’s not hungry or wet that is. I must admit that her little gummy grin makes the loss of sleep, inability to go to movies, and spit-up and milk stained shirts completely worth it.

Ava sure loves her Daddy! She loves to have him hold her so she is facing out at the world and can look around. She also loves to “talk” with him during the day. She is practicing her vowel sounds now. As her mom (and her main food source, I might add) I must admit that she is already a Daddy’s girl. Of course, Dave assures me that he is going to be the disciplinarian…. any bets on that one????

So my Mom really enjoys taking lots and lots of photos. Seriously! yesterday we transferred all the photos from her camera and there were over 400! Granted, maybe 50 or so were not related to this visit. And of the ones that were, not all of them are great. But several were super cute and this means I have plenty of stuff to post on the web page. So here’s the first…this is Ava sitting in her car seat getting ready for a trip. With my folks here and me taking some time off, one of the things we’ve been able to do is go out on the town quite a bit. She’s had the opportunity to see several prominent retail establishments in Columbus, including Katzinger’s Deli in German Village, and the brand new Whole Foods Market on Sawmill Rd (second largest in the country…gasp!). Ava loves this!

You’ll notice in this photo that my Mom is reading a pretty advanced book to Ava. She has already tired of plain-old nursery rhymes and is no longer interested in anything but romantic thrillers. I thought for sure she’s becoming a budding literary aficionado, so I got out my copy of Moby Dick and started to read. She grew weary after the first couple pages, whining “Daddy, nobody has died yet and for crying out loud, where are the explosions?!” Guess she’ll stick to Sandra Brown for now.