The Pate Potpourri: Ava At 9 Months

Today is September 13th! My baby girl is 9 months old today! In just 3 more short months, I will have a one year old child!! Two weeks ago, I posted Ava's milestones at 8.5 months. Although not much has changed, I want to go ahead and keep up with posting her milestones on the month mark. So here goes (and the list will be small):

Ava can now walk from one thing to another while holding onto the edge of an object. We have a HUGE square leather ottoman in our living room that Ava loves to hold onto while walking. I think she loves it so much because we keep our remote controls there. She thinks the remote is her toy! :)
Jeremy and I have both noticed that Ava can stand by herself for about 5 seconds now. She has done it for me several times in the last few days and she did it for Jeremy while I was away at Bunco last night. She will be walking soon!
She has four teeth. The two on her bottom row are all the way in. The ones on top are not. One is halfway in and the other has just broken through the surface yesterday.
She has only been sleeping 10-11 hours at night for the past two weeks. She usually wakes up at about midnight crying because her gums hurt. I have to give her another dose of medicine and put Orajel on her gums. I also change her diaper and give her a bottle to soothe her. She will usually sleep the rest of the night after that.
She points to things and "talks" to it.
She uses her pincer grasp. We will start on finger foods soon (probably after her Dr.'s appointment tomorrow)
She drops EVERYTHING! She does it on purpose so Mommy will pick it up! It is a game to her!
She tests her limits. She knows what "no" means but she pretends that she doesn't. Most of the time, I will say, "Ava, no, no!" (in a firm but calm voice) she will usually acknowledge and crawl away from whatever she was doing. Sometimes, though, the little stinker will not even look at me!! She will just continue along and act like she doesn't hear me! In those cases, I have to get on her level, look her in the eye, say, "no, no," again, and then pop her hand. She will usually cry and hold her arms up to me so that I will pick her up. I always pick her up to cuddle and talk to let her know that I love her. Even though she cannot understand everything I say, I still explain to her that when Mommy says, "no," Ava should listen.