This Little Light of Mine

I have fallen wildly in love with Ava.  I am That Mom, officially.  I cannot get enough of her.  I am constantly telling everybody who is within the sound of my voice how marvelous she is. 


LOOK HOW MARVELOUS SHE IS:

I mean really.  

She is, without a doubt, the most phenomenal child ever to walk (or bounce...) upon this earth.

We went to the Zoo, and people watched her watching the animals.  THAT is how fantastic she is.

Even her shadow is interesting and noteworthy.

She lights up the room.

She has a sense of humor about herself, though. 

 I mean, really.

Even when she is holding a flower made out of balloons, she's still the cutest thing in the picture.
 

I've never had so much fun.  Really.  She's a riot.  She says the funniest damn things.  She DOES the funniest damn things.  She doesn't walk; she scampers.  She doesn't laugh like the rest of us mere mortals; she giggles like a bottle of champagne popping open.  She's always in motion, perched on her tiptoes ready to take flight.  

She makes me gush purple prose like a big stupid fountain, and I cannot get enough.  Someday, perhaps, I'll look back at this and read through it shaking my head while I think, "where did that little girl go? and who is this person in her place?" But right now, as much as I love the silence that comes when naptime finally happens (um, new favorite book?  yeah...) I can't help but eagerly listen for the little chirps and songs that mean she's awake and ready for more.

364 Days

Tomorrow is Ava's first birthday.

Later this week, I'll post pictures from her party this weekend and talk about how much fun we had and how wonderful it was to celebrate with our friends and family.

Right now, it's about where this last year has taken us. At 11:00PM on January 11, 2009, Ava decided that it was time for things to happen and things have been happening every moment since that moment. I recently came across the little outfit that she wore home from the hospital, the one with the strawberry pattern and the little hat, the one that was so big on her. It's so small; I remember thinking as we put it on her, how will she ever grow to fit into this great big suit?

I remember wrapping her in a blanket that was doubled up because otherwise there was too much blanket and not enough baby, and then laying her down in the crib, and there was so much crib around her. And she was this little soft pink burrito in this great big crib.

I remember how long a 2-ounce bottle used to take at 4 in the morning, and how we wrote down every feeding for three months in the pink journal that I will keep for my entire life.

I remember how long 3 months of maternity seemed to be as it loomed ahead of me as I left work on that last day, and wondering how I would pass the time and thinking that maybe I'd get really good at Guitar Hero before I had to go back to work.

I remember watching Ava sleep, and knowing that I should try to sleep too, but how can I put her down when she's making all these cute little faces and she's so snuggly and I can sleep later.

I write this down because I won't remember all of it forever, and I want to make sure it doesn't disappear, because it's so precious.

We have spent 364 days getting to know this amazing little girl, and watching her figure out the world around her. We laugh because she laughs, we cry because she cries, we wake up because she wakes up, we love because she loves. It's amazing. It's exhausting, sure, but it's amazing. We're better people because we have someone watching us and learning from us.

Happy birthday, Ava. It's been the best year ever, and it's only the beginning. Let's go look at the world and see what we can see.

Meet Ava Carolyn

January 12, 2009
1:38 PM
7 pounds, 8 ounces
19 1/2 inches long

Hi, I'm Kristie and I'm a Bounce House.

You know those inflatable bounce houses that people rent for their kids' birthday parties and stuff? And the kids get amped up on whatever it is kids eat (yeah, I know, we'll learn...) and drink and then they go inside the bounce house and jump around like this but much much faster (push play):


Yeah. That's me. Oof. During the day, she's either pretty quiet or I'm moving around enough that I'm just not feeling her as much. But when I lay down, or stretch out on the couch and try to relax, this child gets inspired to jump around. A lot. Constantly. She weighs maybe a pound and a half, and she somehow managed to gather up enough velocity to wake me up last night. I am officially nervous about whether she'll be like this once she's on the outside....nice and quiet all day and then she comes to life like a Tasmanian devil once the sun goes down.

This would be a good time for all of our friends who have already done this to tell us their stories about how their active little pre-natal beans got it all out of their systems and were happy little swaddled angels once they came out.

Sugar and Spice and All Things Nice

Biggest news yet! Well, biggest news since actually finding out that a baby is going to happen...

In case you haven't noticed by the new decor, we have determined with 99% certainty (per the doctor) that Speck is a girl. Rob is already considering what convent she'll be moving into when she hits puberty, and I believe he's also eyeing the door on the soon-to-be nursery to see how hard it would be to take it off the hinges.

As the tech so eloquently labeled it, there is an absolute, unequivocal absence of certain key elements. So there we go. We're having a daughter.

We do have other pictures as well. The actual ultrasound lasted probably 45 minutes. She took a ton of measurements. Speck (we'll still call her this...) has 2 functioning kidneys, the right sort of stuff going on with her heart (aortas and veins and such) and good bloodflow through the umbilical cord. She's measuring right where she should for 18 weeks 2 days and she weighs 9 ounces.

This is her profile. She was moving around quite a bit, so we didn't really get a good clear shot of too much that translates well into still pictures. Plus, she had the hiccups. OMG so cute.


That's her foot. Awwww...

OK we're taking a leap of faith with this one, and we'll believe what the tech said about this being a really good picture of her face. I can't tell. Somebody give me a Mother of the Year award for not being able to identify my child's face.

So that's what happened today. Naturally, we would have been thrilled either way because right now all signs are pointing toward a healthy baby. I maintain that all of my friends who didn't find out what they were having are nuts because finding out today was no less of a surprise than it would have been in January.

So everyone who voted for "girl" in our poll, rock on for being right! And for the record, I knew she was a girl too. I don't know how I knew, but I knew. It's another good day :)