Ava woke up this morning and requested 'mato for breakfast so she's eating tomatoes and toast for breakfast this morning. Must be the small amount of English blood she has in her coming through.
Yesterday she and I had oatmeal for breakfast and I was giving Madelyn her weekly attempt at eating some rice cereal while we ate. Madelyn has yet to become enthusiastic about eating solids and tends to just clamp her mouth shut when I bring the spoon up. Ava saw this and said, "Eat you oatmeal Madelyn. Give you muscles." Haha!
Despite not yet being willing to eat anything off a spoon, Madelyn is doing well. She's getting pretty skilled at rolling over back and forth and pushing her chest up off the floor. The other day I even caught her part way up on her knees at the same time. AND she's starting to scoot herself backwards. Not ready for that.
On Sunday she started "talking" out of the blue. Her shrieks and coo's suddenly had consonants added to them. She's been thoroughly enjoying her new grasp on language with lots of chatting going on.
The other day I gave them their first bath together. Their little noses were all stuffed up so I steamed up the bathroom and put them in the tub. Madelyn was sitting in her Bumbo seat and I took a cup and poured some of the warm water into the seat, telling Ava, "Mama's putting some bathwater in Madelyn's Bumbo to keep her warm." Ava wanted to do it so I let her and just told her to only pour it on her lap. She kept gently pouring the water into Madelyn's seat, saying "Keep Madelyn warm" for several minutes and then all of a sudden, she took the cup and poured it right over Madelyn's head. I guess she just wanted to see what would happen! Poor Madelyn was pretty startled but I could tell Ava felt bad afterward. And she did say, "Sorry Madelyn." I felt bad for Madelyn but I also had to laugh a little when Ava wasn't watching.
Last Monday Madelyn had her 6 month check up. She's doing great. She is 27 inches long and 16 pounds, so that puts her in the 90th percentile for height and 75th for weight. Both her and Ava got shots that day. I was nervous about Ava because she hadn't had any shots since she was old enough to really know what was going on. I talked to her about them a little before hand and had chocolate and Lambie available for afterward. The nurse was great though and the shot was over before I knew it and I don't think Ava even felt it. Madelyn on the other hand was ANGRY about her shots. She didn't stop crying until we were on our way home. Poor baby.
Ava will be going to her second ballet/dance class tomorrow morning. I found out last Tuesday that our friend Cheryl was teaching a pre-school dance class at the Rec Center in Carrollton and although it is supposed to be for 3-5 year olds Ava was able to join. I'd been wanting to have her do some sort of activity and be with other kids more and I was so excited for this opportunity for her. A weekly dance class at the Rec Center is cheap too! She already has plenty of tutu's but per Cheryl's recommendation we did go to Pay Less Shoes and buy a pair of tiny ballet slippers, which was a lot of fun for both us us.
The night before her first class we'd watched some YouTube clips of real ballerina's dancing and as soon as we turned it on Ava ran to her room yelling, "My tutu! my tutu!" The she came back properly dressed and she and I danced. She watched the screen very carefully and did her best to imitate the dancers in the video. And if she caught me not paying attention, she rebuked me quickly, grabbing my hand and saying, "Mama like this, like this. Dance!"
So she was very excited for her class the next morning. In fact she had a hard time falling asleep the night before and woke up about an hour and 1/2 earlier than normal that morning. I didn't stay in the class with her but peeked in at the window. She took it all very seriously and came out able to show me 1st position and a plie. We've been practicing this week so she should be all set for tomorrow.
And here's some things I'm loving about my girls right now.
I love when Madelyn looks up and smiles at me. She has the sweetest smile, it's a "secret" smile, like there's something really special that only she and I know.
I love it when Ava asks to hold my hand. She's been holding my hand a lot when we're all eating dinner together and when I'm reading to her. She says, "Mama, hold my hand!" I love it!
Ava likes to hold Madelyn's hand too. Especially when Madelyn is bugging her by grabbing at her face and hair. After patiently repeating, "No Madelyn. No Madelyn." Ava will just take Madelyn's hand and hold it. Very sweet.
Madelyn is a snuggler. When she's sleepy all she wants if for me to hold her and let her snuggle her face down into the crook of my arm. And if she's in her crib she likes to have her forehead stroked and have me cup her cheek in my palm. I have to admit she's a little spoiled and gets to snuggle a lot at bedtime . . .
Madelyn is ticklish. VERY ticklish. And she loves to be tickled. Her tummy and her neck are the most ticklish and her whole body convulses and she just laughs and laughs when you tickle her. It's so cute!
Since Madelyn was born I've been singing to her the little song, "I love you a bushel and a peck, a bushel and a peck and a hug around the neck." Only I changed to the words to "kisses on the neck" because it's much more fun to kiss a baby's neck than hug it. Anyway, now when I sing it and to her and I get to the "kisses on the neck" part she leans in and chomps down on my cheeks with those big slobbery baby kisses. I love it!
Ava is really into puzzles and I love doing them with her. She is pretty good at them, and their real puzzles not the wooden cutout kind. She has such concentration when she's working on them. She'll sit on her bedroom floor for a good 30 minutes at a time working on them. She also loves being read to and reading out loud to her baby or stuffed animals. She usually adds quite a bit of detail to each page she reads, but the other day she was reading Are You My Mother and gave the abbreviated version which went like this. "Are you my mother? No. And No. (flipping the pages) And no. And no. Yay! The End." Which is pretty much exactly what that books says. Funny how I can't get away with skipping parts when I'm reading to her . . .
