Ava is eating by herself & climbing stairs

Yeah, I can climb the steps!

Working her way up the stairs for the 10th time!

Texting?

Having a "serious conversation" on Mommy's cell phone

She is very proud of her new talent

Our "lefty" eating her hotdish

Ava has certainly been quite the character lately. We decided to open the gate to our stairway as it was time she learned how to climb up and down steps. Well, we didn't need to give her any invitation...she was very happy to work her way around the steps. She climbed up and down half the flight at least twenty times, and even made it all the way to the bottom and all the way back up. We finally just had to remove her from the stairs and put the gate back up or she would have continued the workout all night (just think of all the calories she burned!). She was quite excited at her new found talent. She certainly isn't ready to fly solo on stairs, but she is remarkably quick already. Ava also is exhibiting some new skills in the eating category. We have been giving her a spoon to eat with which is actually going pretty well. She uses her left hand 95% of the time, so we are thinking that is going to be her dominant hand. She can't really scoop the food up yet, but if we put it on the spoon for her, she can usually get the food to her mouth. It's obvious she is loving this new independence. Only another 5 years of disasterous meals, right?