Ava is 8 weeks today!

I've been thinking all day about how fast time flies. Ava is two months this week, and I can hardly remember where the time went! As I've reminisced, I've thought about some of the things she has learned since she was born:

1. She smiles all the time. I know she started smiling early, but now it is really evident that she is smiling at you. She will look you straight in the eyes and give you a huge gummy grin that just melts my heart every time I see it.

2. She sleeps (mostly) through the night. Ava is really good at giving me a 5-6 hour stretch at night before she wakes up and wants to eat. I think she'd sleep longer if I would just put the binky in her mouth, but usually feeding her gets me back to sleep faster because I don't have to keep jumping out of bed to re-bink her.

3. She has found her hands. Ava has started to pull her hands up to her mouth if her pacifier isn't close and she needs some soothing. It works some of the time. :-)

4. Ava has been really good at self-soothing. When she is ready for a nap, she wants to be swaddled, "binked," and put down in her bassinet. By the time I turn the humidifier on, she's usually asleep.

5. She has lots of best friends: the mobile on her swing, the air vents in the house, and the blinds in our room. Basically anything that contrasts with the background wall.

6. Ava is getting so big! I took her into a well baby checkup, and here are her stats: weight- 12 lbs 5 oz (90-95 percentile), length- 23.5 inches (95 percentile), and head circumference- 39 cm (75 percentile). What a big, healthy baby!

That's a quick run-down of our little girl's new tricks. She is so much fun and we are both having a blast with her!

In other news, we are still getting things settled. Our dressers were killed in the move, so we've been in the market for new dressers. Once thing we didn't expect was how wonderful garage sales are here out in California. We got a great deal on a bedroom set. It included the bed, box springs, mattress, dresser, tall chest of drawers (all from Ethan Allen), mirror, duvet cover, and 3 sets of sheets. We actually didn't get it during the sale, but called the lady the following day and asked about it. She didn't want to have to advertise in the paper, so she threw in a lot of extras and took $400 off. Lucky us!

We also live right next to 2 families that are in our ward, but I don't think they're active. Maybe Ben and I will have to start working on that! Time will tell.... We love you friends and family!

Oh yes- the video bar at the top has all the videos I've taken of Ava on my phone. This way, even if they aren't thrilling, you get a chance to see her in action. Mostly this is for my family.