Growing up!

Ava is already half a year old! I really can't believe how fast time flies. She had her six month well-child check-up recently and was 27 inches long (90th percentile for height) and weighed 17 lb 12.5 oz (75th percentile for weight).

She can sit up like a pro and has quite a reach. She eats baby food and loves Cheerios. Lately she is really attached to me.

Her sleeping is getting a little bit better, but we still have a ways to go. We started "sleep training" again (the cry-it-out method) and after two nights of waking up and crying twice she had a night of sleeping for 11 hours without waking up! It was amazing. I wish it would have lasted, but it didn't. Last night and the night before, she woke up and cried again. It is really frustrating because our whole family needs better sleep! It breaks my heart to hear her cry and it is so hard to know if we should go in and check on her or help her when she wakes up and cries. Nash wasn't nearly this stubborn, so I don't really know how to handle it and still get the results that I want!

Okay, back to my sweet little girl. Other than the hard time getting a long stretch of sleep, she is really fun. She has a beautiful smile and lately she has really been interested in watching other kids play. She lights up when I start singing songs, too. I am so adoring of my beautiful Ava!

Singing, etc.

My calling (assignment) at church is that I am the Primary chorister. So that means that every Sunday I get to spend about an hour total teaching and practicing songs with children ages 3-11. I love working with kids and enjoy spending time with them. I am not very "musical" but as it turns out, I have enjoyed the experience. Once a year, the Primary kids get to present a program in church. They spend one hour saying thir speaking parts and singing songs all based on the yearly theme. This year, the theme is "My Eternal Family." Since I am the chorister, I have the songs running my head all the time and quite frequently sing them around my home. The other day during lunch, I started singing one of the songs and Nash joined in. I had no idea that he could sing the words! I was so impressed that I secretly turned the video camera on to get this video as we sang it for the second time together. It is amazing how much kids learn without you even knowing it!

Speaking of kids learning without you even knowing it, Ava picked up a new thing recently. She has started shaking her head. She did it one morning (below) in response to Steve shaking his head when he was talking to her. Now she does it a lot when she is happy or excited about something. It is really pretty funny.

Today we went to visit Steve's work so we could see his office. We had a good time. He works in a building that has industrial style decor and is nice and open and light. We had a nice time visiting his work and meeting some of his colleagues.