Ava is 11 Months Old!

Ava turned 11 months old today. It's so hard to believe in one month we will be having our first birthday party. We will no longer have a baby at our house, but move into toddlerhood. It's so exciting to see her move through all the milestones, but bittersweet that she is not a cuddly little baby anymore. Here is the lowdown at 11 months...

Teeth: Still not a one. The only characteristic she inherited from her mommy. At least I have something...

Eating: Ava has taken a liking to people food. She still likes her baby foods, but is having a little bit of a tough time with the stage 3's we tried this week. Maybe it was the flavors, but she has not been a big fan so far. She keeps a close eye on what we are eating and we usually always give her a sampling. She loves pizza crust with a little sauce, all veggies, cheerios, and drinking from her sippy cup (just water usually). She is a disaster all the time in the high chair, but she enjoys herself. She is getting better at picking things up off her tray and about 50% of what she picks up makes it into her mouth and stays there. She still nurses 4-5 times per day, but is getting to be less all the time.

Movement: Of course, she has the crawling down pretty well although she gets a little lazy if she has to go too far to keep up with me around the house. She has pulled up to standing in the crib for the past 10 days or so, but just started pulling up on the coffeetable today. She is so proud of herself when she gets to the standing position. It is pricesless to see her grin! I have seen her take a couple of side steps in her crib, but I wouldn't say she scales along furniture yet.

Sleep: With the milestones has come some disturbances in Ava's sleep. She wakes up crying several times in the night for no apparent reason other than she lost the pacifier. She is also struggling with naps. She is not really taking an afternoon nap right now, or if she does, it is much shorter than usual. She appears to be exhausted, but will not even go to bed any earlier. I am hoping it is a phase! Time will tell...

I gave Ava a little haircut a couple of days ago. I had to trim her bangs. It won't be long and we will have to evening out the rest of it.

Ava is Crawling & Addison's 2nd Birthday Party

We traveled to Orange City to celebrate Addison's second birthday last Sunday. While Addison was opening her gifts, Ava was playing on the floor. All of the sudden, Ava started crawling. She certainly didn't crawl all the way across the room, but she crawled a little bit. By Wednesday of this week, she was crawling across the living room floor. It is amazing at how fast she seemed to catch on once she started moving. She also loves to try to pull up on things. She has not been terribly successful yet, and she'd certainly like to be doing more. These new skills seem to be affecting her sleep. She is now burdened with the need to practice her pulling up and moving skills in the crib instead of napping. Hopefully, this is a phase and she will nap well again. It will only be a matter of time before she is in to everything I am sure!

Ava is on the Move...

Ava is practicing her fish face Ava is turning into a little monkey. While she is not an above average mover, she certainly is moving a lot for her. It seems she is constantly trying to go somewhere. It is so fun to see her developing more skills each day.

At 10 1/2 Months - We Finally Need to Lower the Crib Mattress...

At 10 1/2 months, Ava is finally somewhat able to get out of her crib (although we haven't really seen her get close) so we thought it was best to lower her mattress down. After it was lowered, she thought it was pretty neat to stand up and look over the sides. Before we know it, we'll be moving her to a bed!

A Visit to Cousin Sam & Addison's House

Getting a smooch from Addison (almost 2 years) We had a very nice overnight getaway to the Dakota Dunes last weekend visiting Jason, Shelly, and the kids. Bedtime was a bit rough as we attempted to have Addison and Ava sleep in the same room. That proved to not be a winning proposition, so Ava ended up sleeping in the pack-n-play in our room. We had a good visit and Aunt Shelly & Unlce Jason were amazed at how much Ava has progressed in moving since the last time they had seen her. It was fun to see all the construction progress in the Dunes. We even got to tour a couple of new homes which was fun.

Full of Expressions!

Ava has so many faces she makes....we can only imagine when she is able to voice her opinion what we may hear to go with the faces. She continues to be quite a giggler when we play with her. I also had to take the last photo because there are a couple of photos of Brad sleeping like this when he was a baby. Makes you wonder how that could really be comfortable, but it is one of her favorite positions to sleep in.

10 Months has Brought Some Milestones....

It seems that ever since Ava has turned 10 months old a couple of weeks ago, we have seen some dramatic changes. She really seems close to crawling. Of course, we are being optimistic first time parents, but for the first time it seems that she would like to crawl. She really tries to get herself going when she is on all fours, but hasn't quite been successful. She also will walk while we hold onto her hands which she wouldn't even think about doing two weeks ago. We continue to be amazed at the places she can wiggle and squirm her way into. She quite often pins her legs under the end tables. The rest of her is too thick to fit, but she can squeeze those legs under there. She loves to horse around with daddy. Her favorites are spinning around and being tossed into the air.