10 Months

I feel like so much has happened in a month! A month ago, Ava started crawling for the first time. Within 24 hours, she realized the power that this gave her... true freedom of movement! And let me tell you, this girl embraced that immediately. She also started pulling up and cruising right away as well, and she will pull up on absolutely anything she can grasp. This includes the refrigerator, any shelf, the paper shredder (not a good idea!), the toilet (yuck!), my leg, lamps, and just a million other things. So, in short, she is keeping my on my toes to make sure she is safe...or to rescue her after the fact!

Now that Ava is crawling all over the place, it is so much fun to watch her explore everything and discover new things. In addition, because she is so darn curious and such a daredevil , she also bumps her head on our hard, tile floors on a regular basis, which KILLS me. I absolutely hate how much she bonks herself either by losing her balance or because she miscalculates and runs into something. I have managed to save her several times from a fall on the head, but she still seems to do it all the time no matter what. It is rough to watch! Another new thing that mobility has brought us for the first time is Ava getting into Asher's toys, and you know what that means! Asher no likey! I do my best to give Asher space when he needs it, but this can often prove to be a nearly impossible task with this girl. However, Asher is also so sweet and can often be talked into sharing with Ava, depending on his mood, of course. But I try to not take advantage of his sweetness because he deserves to be able to play by himself hassle-free sometimes. And Asher and I love to play board games, but that is also tricky now. Asher got The Matching Game (same as Memory), which is virtually impossible to do around his little sister, so we try to squeeze in a few games during Ava's naptime.

Oddly enough, my little avid thumb sucker hardly ever sucks her thumb anymore! She will do it randomly here and there for brief periods, but it's seriously been at least a week since I last saw it in her mouth. This seems so bizarro to me because I've never heard of a baby giving up the thumb like that!
Ava also loves to talk on the phone now. If I am talking, she starts reaching for it and making a persistent "yayayaya" noise. Once I hold the phone up to her ear, she is all smiles and will babble back a little bit. I think she would be thrilled if those "conversations" lasted for hours!

She also really enjoys spending time with her cousin, Grace. Grace is 4 months old now and enjoys sitting in the Bumbo, and the other day, Ava was handing her toys and playing with her, and it was just the sweetest thing! I can just imagine the fun these two will have one day!I can't believe that she will be one year old in two months. Guess I'd better start working on some party planning soon!