Ava ♥'s Food

     Ava is her father's daughter, She has a love for food! So much so that she is loosing interest in nursing almost all together. She will trying anything, and begs anytime someone near her is eating or drinking something. Making trouble around the house being my little vacuum, I have had to pull so many things out of her month! Oh the fun of a mobile baby =)

Pulling up

     This last week Ava has really taking off! She now pulls up on anything with in reach, and will cruises along all the furniture to get to whatever she wants!! Her favorite walking stick is me! Any time I am sitting down in a chair or on the floor she thinks it is an open invite to crawl all over me! Such a cute little stinker!! Love her

9 Months

     We went in to see Dr. Santora for Ava's 9 month follow up this month. She is doing great, and they are thrilled with her progress. They were just as excited as we were to see her crawl and pulling up. She is now completely off her brace, so it is up to her and her little body how she continues to develop. We still try to stretch her out, but not as regularly as we were....try getting her to sit still for 5 minutes! They took an x-ray of her leg to see how her bones are doing, and they gave me a copy.

This is the x-ray from our very first visit, when she was 2 weeks old (so little) You can see that her bones are all developed correct, it is just the knee joint that was messed up, this is why they say it must have just developed this way from being pulled up around her neck by the cord. We needed to get the leg bending the other way, and the joints to line up.

This is her cute little leg today! Bones are lined up nicely, and her joints are almost completely together (I have no idea how close they are supposed to be) Doctors are so proud of her progress!!

She has come so far since that first scary day in Shriner's and we couldn't be more grateful for all they did for us! Truly an AMAZING hospital!!!!

Crawling

     On May 1st, 2012 Ava started crawling!!!!  Such a huge day for us, since when she was born I think our biggest fear was she might not be able to move around like she should. At first when she crawled she would stick out that left leg, and use it to push off, not really bending it. But she was mobile, so I still couldn't be happier. But throughout the last month she has started to crawl normal, she bends and pulls forward both legs. She is so silly, and still pushed off that leg if the floor she is trying to crawl on is slippery, or if she is trying to go fast. She moves faster pushing off her left leg, so she will crawl that way when she is chasing Austin or something! We are so excited to have a little mobile baby girl, and so happy that she has come so far!!!!!

First Crawl!

                                                                     Normal Crawling

6 months old

      It has been quite a while since I have updated anything about Ava, sorry! =) She is doing wonderful! She has a new brace now since she is getting so big and chunky, but I am not the best at putting it on her like I should. oops! Her leg is doing awesome! It can bend all the way now, although still a little stiff. She loves to kicks it and stand on it, and when she is on her tummy she pulls both legs up a little. Maybe she will be crawling in the next couple months =) She still have no teeth, maybe soon! She was being a whiney little girl all yesterday, so maybe there is some motion going on??? =)
   We went and got her 6 months photos done, and she was such a doll!!! Love her

Before bed Squeals

    Right before bedtime each night Ava gets very talkative, she really likes the sound of her voice. Listen and see is she reminds you of a really pissed off cat.....hahaha

Can we get any closer to a complete bend!!

  Ava will officially be 4 months old is a week and a day and after all that time of working with her poor little leg each and every day we are ALMOST THERE!!! She is doing so good and has been such a little trooper through the whole thing!!! Love this little girl

Such a little fatso!

This is the special brace that was made for Ava. The Black device constantly pulls the two halves together so she has to work her muscles to straighten her leg out.