new found fun and 17 weeks

Ava is learning how to feed herself, with our help of course. I have prolonged this for a while as it is a messy task. We have been giving her a spoon to eat things for a while now. I will put food on the spoon and she will take the spoon and eat off of it. I am trying to remember to give her a fork or spoon with every meal so that she can practice, but a lot of times she just wants to play with it. The other morning, we gave her oatmeal and she she was scooping it up and putting it in her mouth. Oatmeal is easiest because there is not a lot of strength involved in the "scooping" of the food. Below is a picture of her eating oatmeal.

Looking at the picture, reminded me that that was probably one of her last meals in her highchair as well. We have graduated, somewhat successfully, to a booster seat at the table a little over a week ago. It has been a bit of a struggle to keep her in it as she wants to put her feet on the table and get down most of the time. Now when she is done eating, she rips off her bib and starts to get out of her chair. I have to sit next to her with clean cloth in hand,ready to go! I am hoping she will get a bit better at sitting in it. She wants to climb up into it all the time though. We luckily have 2 of them and have put one on the floor for her to play with and sit in. I think she is going through the phase of wanting to play more than eat. I know it is common. I always try to get her to take a couple more bites when she "thinks" she is done. If it is dinner time and Mike is at the table, she will want to sit on his lap and eat. I just send over her plate and try to get him to sneak some more bites. Usually she wants what is on his plate. Most of the time it is the same thing, but sometimes it's different.


She loves to sit in small chairs. We bought this car seat at target for the purpose of it going to LA to be there for us if we need it. unfortunately it was forgotten on the last trip, so it ended up back at our house and in our family room. Ava LOVES it. Here is her sitting in it watching a video of the San Diego Zoo.

I can't believe that on Saturday she will be 18 months. Time sure does fly. We are currently working on weening her from her paci. I am only giving it to her at nap time, bed time and crib time. I have to hide them when she goes into her room because she knows right where they are and goes right for them. Sometimes she will go to her bedroom door and just cry because she wants it. I have been good about it. Next will be no paci at nap time and eventually no paci at bed time. I don't have a time frame of getting rid of it, but would like to have it done before the 2nd baby is here.

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I just hit 17 weeks on Friday. Next Wednesday is the day we find out what we are having. I used to think I was having a boy, but now I am not so sure, so I guess we will have to wait until the 25th to find out! Here is me at 17 weeks. I finally got a camera battery and realized that I hadn't taken a picture in a while. Belly bump watch 2010!! I am feeling much better. I have more energy in the morning and early afternoon, but loose it around 3pm, then get a second wind at 7pm. I still have days where I do too much the day before and then don't feel so hot the next day. I just have to make sure to drink lots of water and try not to overdo it, which is easy to do after months of being so tired, I couldn't get off the couch.