Uh-oh, Spaghetti-o!

Even though Ava doesn't have any teeth yet, I thought it was time that she move onto the stage 3 food. Stage 3 just means that there are larger pieces in there that she can feel in her mouth, and mash with her jaws.

Our first attempt with stage 3 foods was MESSY! The 1st thing we tried was the spaghetti with meat, in a tomato sauce. Ava wasn't sure about the noodle pieces, so she kept them hidden in a corner of her mouth, and every once in a while, we'd see a noodle appear from nowhere on her high chair tray. She would just poke it with a finger, mush it a little, and then put it back into her mouth. The hardest thing about this process was allowing her to get messy, and not constantly cleaning up after her. Tomato sauce just stains so much...argh. I don't know how I'm going to handle it when she starts feeding herself. Strip her down to her diaper and let her go nuts???

She seems pretty happy even with the sauce all over her chin!


Scott has a game where he likes to toss her (gently, of course) into all of the pillows on our bed. She appears to love it!

She's also learned how to open her toy box that is full of all of her soft, stuffed animals. The other day, I found her poking around in it. I'm not sure if she was looking for something in particular, but at the end, we thought it would be easier to just put her in it! :)

Yesterday afternoon, Ava and I checked out a couple of parks in the area, with the goal of finding an infant swing. It took 3 parks before we found one, but it's still within walking distance. She really seemed to enjoy swinging, and watching the other kids play. I have a feeling we will be spending a lot of time at the parks this summer, as well as in the baby pool we'll be setting up in our backyard. We just need to get her used to walking on the grass - it must feel so strange to those soft, little feet!

Enjoy your day!