The Moore, The Merrier: Ava is One Month Old!

Ava Grace is one month old today!

This has been the shortest and sometimes longest month. I actually took this picture on Saturday when you were at exactly four weeks old. We were having record high temps which is the reason for the summerish outfit, but believe me by today you were back in warm snugglies.

At three weeks, you were up to your birth weight of 7 pound and 5 ounces. I would imagine that you are close to 8 pounds now since you are such a good eater. In fact, you eat every three hours and sometimes 2 3/4 hours. You can usually make about 3-4 hour stretches at night.

However, sleeping is another issue. You sleep great in my arms, your bouncer, and even sometimes laying on your play mat. You are a champion sleeper in your car seat and have slept through a couple of church services so far without hardly a peep. However, you do not care for your cradle. You will fling your arms and rock yourself into a frenzy. I can manage to get you to sleep once maybe twice in there during the day. I do find that feeding you, then keeping you awake for a little while and then laying you down while you are awake works fairly well. I am also having you nap in your crib once a day. Seeing as though we typically sleep in the chair off and on during the night, I have to do lots of back and neck stretches.

You are still in newborn clothes and newborn diapers. You are long everywhere - long torso, long fingers, and long toes, but are starting to get little rolls on your legs and filling out quite a bit. You like to sleep on your side even though we lay you down on your back. One day you managed to roll yourself to your stomach.

Today, I heard the first few coos. Up until now, it had pretty much been all grunts. One night you sneezed so loud, you had your daddy and I cracking up laughing.

You perk up at the sound of Gavin's, or your daddy or mommy's voices. Since the day you were born, you seemed fixated on Gavin. That affection, he loves to give back. He even talks baby talk to you and will hold your hand. When we were praying one night recently, he whispered to you that you needed to close your eyes. I am sure he will be full of more brotherly advice as the years go on.

Although some days I don't think you are so sure of what to think of him.

You have the tiniest dimple on the right side of your mouth and a faint one appears on the left. Ava, you are holding your head up better now. And that head of hair is very brown with the slightest ting of red in the sunlight. It's cute how it spikes up in the back and garnered you the nickname Spunky Brewster. Daddy calls you Boot Scoot but I'm thinking we might need some girly nicknames.

You remind me so much of your brother as a baby in terms of your looks, but your personality seems vastly different at such a young age. Here are the two of you at approximately one month old.