I decided to see what Aviva would do if I plopped her down in front of the computer, since she was eyeing me earlier while I was on it. Quite a typing prodigy, she is:
dzdddddd..gcd
vbc\x]]]/q\\’z
/
Not quite sure what that means, but I’ll take it :)
Look at me!
Typing away!
As I alluded to in the previous post, Aviva took her first trip to the East Coast last month. Joelle had a conference for work in Baltimore, and since both her parents live in the area, she made an extended trip out of it, spending time at each of their houses, and took advantage of getting Aviva some excellent grandparent time during the conference days as the grandparents played nanny (quite excellently, I might add). I had to work at the beginning of the trip, so this also served as Joelle and Aviva’s first time flying together solo – quite successfully, from what I am told. I joined midway through, and got to spend some nice time exploring Baltimore (National Aquarium, Inner Harbor, etc…) along with a quite wonderful weekend in Potomac, MD with Joelle’s dad and stepmom (and new dog Waldo – quite a character!).
As always, pictures tell the story:
Joelle and Aviva spent the first part of the trip at Grandma Sue's in Virginia - had a great time!
Got to ride a train around Burke Lake Park
Went to the AAPA Conference (American Association of Pathologists' Assistants) in Baltimore, where Aviva met some of Joelle's old grad school friends
Spent Labor Day weekend in Potomac with Grandpa Allan, Grandma Barbara, and their new dog, Waldo! Waldo was quite intrigued by Aviva, and the feeling was mutual :)
Smiley time with Grandma Barbara!
Aunt Amanda came in for the weekend to see Aviva; she got to see Aviva's new game of "everything goes in the mouth!"
Took Grandpa Allan and Grandma Barbara out for their anniversary for some very good Lebanese Food
Aviva had a great time at Girls Shopping Day out!
Took a great trip to the National Zoo to see the animals
Had to cover Aviva's eyes for this one!
Just relaxing on vacation!
More relaxing :)
Hard to believe Aviva is 5 months old already! Lots to talk about over this past month. To start with, of course, our monthly photo with the giraffe:
Over this past month, Aviva took her first visit to the East Coast (Baltimore and DC), along with having her first experience swimming, and then also starting “swim lessons” (more like organized play time in the water) at the pool down the street. She’s also become a ton more interactive and talkative. Pictures and videos show this best, of course: (as always, you might need to visit the actual post to see the videos)
Aviva as the talkative one:
Aviva’s first visit into the water, at the hotel pool in Baltimore:
Aviva’s first swim lesson:
And of course, pictures:
Meeting Caleb, Grandma Sue's dog
Hanging out with Eytan
In the pool with mommy, in Baltimore
Always warmer with a hooded towel
Silly Hats with Daddy
Aunt Amanda and me
At the pool at Aunt Elana's new place
Hanging out with Idan
Reaching for the face
Holding Hands
I love tummy time!
Grabbing Molly
Happy Aviva!
As a followup to my previous post about the pics Eliza Truitt took of our family, she just posted a blog entry about her favorites of the pics; worth clicking on to see many of them in larger form:
elizatruitt.wordpress.com/2009/08/31/joelle-aaron-aviva/
A couple of our closest friends were extremely generous, and hired our wonderful wedding photographer, Eliza Truitt (you might remember her from the post on our wedding pictures) to do a formal family picture shoot of Joelle, Aviva, and I (and since we did it at home, Molly snuck into a few shots as well – she couldn’t stay away!). The pictures turned out great, and are well worth flipping through; you can also order hard-copies straight from the link below as well:
(Note: the link above will expire mid-October, so the pictures won’t be available after this time).
As today is the 23rd of August, it’s yet another monthly milestone for Aviva. She’s really been growing, and her interactivity has us enthralled. To start with, here’s her 4 month pictures, with the giraffe, of course, as with all previous months:
(You might need to visit the actual post to see any of the videos below).
She’s really getting to “talk” and “find” her feet as well, as this video shows:
She’s also starting to giggle back at us, which is very, very cute:
Bubble blowing with her saliva is one of her favorite things to do:
Finally, Aviva loves to just lay outside (with us watching of course), and hang out with Molly – they are really becoming best friends; in fact, Aviva smiles and talks when Molly comes by:
With the growth of the Sounders FC in Seattle, it is only natural that Aviva would want to play soccer (by Aviva wanting to play soccer, we mean, I want Aviva to like soccer of course; so does her Zayde (grandpa); he refs tons of soccer games each week). So after getting a pair of soccer-ball decorated shoes, on her feet they went!
Sleeping with a newborn is always interesting, but Aviva’s been pretty good all in all – she’s been getting up just once during the night for a while now, and sometimes not at all – she definitely sleeps through the night fairly often; such a relief!
We transitioned her to her crib (out of the co-sleeper in our bedroom) a few weeks ago, in general, which went well; she never really complained about it much – which is a good thing; we’ve heard horror stories from other friends.
We are still swaddling Aviva, but more and more she’s “Houdini’d” herself, and gotten out of the swaddle (or straightjacket as some friends call it!) on a nightly basis. It’s actually pretty darn cute!
Due to the excessive heat of the last few days (hottest day ever in Seattle was Wednesday) – we all moved downstairs to sleep as it’s about 20 degrees cooler in the basement than in the bedrooms (as with most homes in Seattle, there’s no such thing as A/C at our place). Because of this, we put her back in the co-sleeper for sleeping, as it was easy to move to the basement.
Aviva took the opportunity for a new step; she’s rolled over each night and ended up sleeping, quite contently, on her tummy by the morning (we’ve been following every doctor’s recommendations and placing Aviva “Back To Sleep” exclusively). Given the head control she has, this is nothing to worry about, as she turns her head to make sure she can breathe quite fine. It will be interesting to see if this continues when we go back to the crib tonight; it’s possible the closeness of the co-sleeper walls is helping her bounce off of the walls to turn. Or more likely, as I like to think, she’s figuring out how to do this all on her own :) (This is likely true; my mom, who’s in town, just saw her turn onto her stomach all on her own without using the walls).
Pictures:
