Ava is 8 Months Old!

Another month has flown by and Ava is now 8 months old. I cringe at how fast a year is going to be here. As you can see by the pictures, we have a little lawn chair for her. It's designed for a child a little older, but she can sit in it okay. She loves to be outside and look at everything around her. We are amazed at how fast she notices things and grabs for them now. You really can't have anything near her or she will have it and be putting it in her mouth.

Teeth: We are continuing to battle with the puddles of drool but no signs of any teeth. I can still feel a bump on top, but that has been there for about 4 months now.

Sleep: Ava still sleep really well. Usually from 8:30 pm to 7:30 am with a 2 hour nap in the morning and a 2 plus hour nap in the afternoon.

Food: The solid foods are going well. She is still eating about a half jar of stage 1 baby food once per day. She doesn't seem to want anymore than that at this point. Sometimes, it is a struggle to get her to eat that. She definitely still likes to nurse.

Movement: There are some signs of movement now. Ava is able to scoot across the floor lying on her back using her feet to shove herself towards her head. It is quite comical to watch. She sort of lifts her butt up in the air and then plants her feet and gives herself a good push. She will only go a little ways and then she has to rest and kick her feet for a little while. Heaven forbid she get too much exercise!

Ava Has Some New Habits...

It seems that between 7 and 8 months, Ava has developed a few different behaviors than we are used to. First, she is obsessed with her tongue. She loves to stick it out, and not just a litte bit, but as far as she can. I think it may be so she can spread the drool even more over her chin. She loves when you copy her when she does it. Also, she has some new sleeping habits. She almost always sleeps with a blanket over her head. We have given her a little blankie and she usually has it completey covering her head. When you slide it off of her face, even in a dead sleep, she will almost instinctively grab it and pull it back over her face. Another new thing for Ava is to sleep with the pacifier in her mouth. We have given it to her when she goes down for naps and bedtime since she was probably 3 months old. She would suck on it for a time, and you'd always find it discarded somewhere in her crib. Now, she is excited when she sees it and will fall asleep with it in her mouth. We are not sure if this is good or bad, but she loves the pacifier.

Ava's First Swimming Experience

We took Ava swimming today in the Luverne indoor pool. We just hit the baby pool as that was empty at first. It took her a while to warm up to the environment. It was pretty loud in there and lots of kids running around for her to watch. She didn't seem to mind being in the water, but wasn't in love with it either. She figured out after a while that she could kick her feet and splash a little bit and she liked that. It was entertaining for us to watch her as you could definitely tell she was unsure about what was going on. We will have to take her again soon and maybe try walking around the big pool.