Ava at 7 months

Today is July 13th, 2011. It is Ava's 7 month birthday! I already have her 1st birthday party planned out (the theme is the Candyland game and she will be Princess Lolly) All we have to do now is get her to that point! :) Honestly, I am not wishing it away. I do my best to celebrate every moment I have with her, but growing up is just part of it and I have to plan on being okay with that. :) I wanted to post her benchmarks so family and friends know how she is progressing:

• Ava grabs for EVERYTHING! She still uses the raking grasp. I can tell that she is developing the pincer grasp, but she has not perfected it. So, no Cheerios for now!
• She puts EVERYTHING into her mouth. I have to be so careful to keep the floors mopped and vacuumed.
• Even though it is a bit early, I believe she is getting ready for a sippy cup. She can take uncoordinated sips from a cup and does a good job of holding her bottle (I try not to let her hold her bottle too much, though, because I don't want her becoming too attached)
• She LOVES my cell phone! She grabs it and lifts it into the air while cooing at it. She gets the idea!
• She sleeps 12 hours almost every night.
• She has two bottom teeth all the way in. And believe me, they are sharp!
• She wakes up cooing every morning. I rarely walk into her room to find her crying. If she cries when she wakes up, I know that something is wrong.
• She is just now starting to play with toys during bath time. She likes the miniature inflatable inner tube that came with one of her rubber ducks.
• She has discovered that she has hair. She will often pull her own hair while a pained expression crosses her face. It is really cute.
• She can sit up unassisted. I still place pillows around her or sit near her, though.
• She can scoot backwards. She wants to crawl so bad!
• She can say, "Dada."
• She reaches for me and Jeremy.
• She loves for me to massage her ears when she goes to sleep.
• She LOVES to bounce. She bounces in her bouncy seat, my lap, the bath, etc. She actually bounces so high in her bouncy seat that her feet don't touch to ground. It is so funny to watch!
• She is ticklish under her arms.
• Ava uses inflections in her cooing. I love it! Even though it is just babbling, she is really communicating with me. She makes eye contact with me and just babbles away. What I really love is when she squints her eyes while she is babbling. I think she will be a very expressive communicator when she is able to speak with "real" words (I put real in quotes because I am talking about words that I understand. The "words" that she speaks are real to her)
• She has learned how to manipulate. She has a certain cry that means, "I don't prefer that." (I call it the spoiled cry) It sounds like she is is saying the letter "E" in a really high pitched voice. :) Daddy answers the call every time. :)

I cannot adequately express how easy Ava truly is. I feel like we brought her home from the hospital and she knew exactly what to do (which is a good thing, because I didn't) :) To this point, she has breezed through every stage. She was sleeping through the night at 7 weeks. She learned to self-sooth at about 12 weeks. She transitioned herself into 4 naps a day and then eventually 3 naps a day (which is where we are now) 

Please do not feel like I am bragging, though. I understand that every baby is different and those differences need to be celebrated. I know that if a second child comes along, his/her personality will be completely different and Jeremy and I will adapt to that and look forward to that. That is what being a family is all about!