The Pate Potpourri: Ava at 10 months

I am fully aware that Ava will be 11 months old on November 13th. Today is October 31st- Halloween. I am way off! Better late than never, I guess!

Ava is still cruising around furniture. I would not be surprised at all if she let go of the ottoman today and started walking, but she is still hesitant, which means that she is not ready. We work on it every day just to see if it will be the day that she lets go and takes off. So far it hasn't been, but we will continue to check! Her cruising has gotten quicker. She may skip walking and start running! Wouldn't that be fun!
She babbles all the time!
She knows about 5 words: Dada, Momma, Nonna, Neh-Neh (no no), and Bybyby. She learned bybyby about a month ago, but has since left if alone so that she can perfect Dada. She seems to learn words and then go back and perfect some before she revisits others. For example: she will occasionally say "dada." But recently she has worked on shortening it down to "daddd" "daddd" "daddd" Next week, she will probably leave "daddd" alone and find another one to work on. It comes in cycles.
She can clap her hands. She doesn't do it very often because she doesn't want to sit still long enough to play patty cake. She prefers to be constantly moving (just like her daddy) That's okay with me! Her personality is completely opposite of mine, which is refreshing. I would love her any way that she came, but it is fun to see how much of her daddy she has in her.
She loves to rock back and forth to music. To me, this is the most amazing thing so far. Rocking back and forth to music reflects advanced brain functions (No, I am not trying to say that my baby is a genius or that she is any better than anyone else's child) Rocking back and forth to a beat, means that her brain can identify a pattern. Not only that, it means that she is able to predict the moment when the beat will happen again, hence the continuous rocking. Brain development is so amazing to me!
Ava still sleeps about 12 hours at night.
She still takes two 2 hour naps per day (except Sundays and Tuesdays which mess up her daily schedule a bit)
She has 6 teeth
She can make up games. For example: The other day Ava sat behind our living room curtains and hid her face from me. She would then peek out at me and smile really big. I did not teach her that, she came up with it on her own.
She is pretty cooperative with other children. When we go to story time on Tuesdays, she will usually want to play with the other children. Sometimes, she will try to steal their toys and I have to tell her, "no." But, for the most part, she plays well with others.
She is also very content to play by herself. She does it all day every day at home. I do sit down and play with her occasionally, but she likes to pull her toys out of her toy bag and play by herself.
She doesn't really struggle with separation anxiety. There may come a point in the near future when she does, but she handles separation very well for now. On Sunday mornings, I put her in her seat in Bible class and she transitions to Mrs. Cindy, Mrs. Janiece, and Mrs. Ephie being in charge. I quietly leave the room and she does her thing!