Well, today Ava is 11 months old! It is so hard to believe that almost a whole year has passed since her arrival last December. I told Jeremy the other day that becoming a parent was the best decision we have ever made as a married couple. We are both so grateful for the chance to be HER parent. She makes it such a pleasure and a joy. She is not perfect and neither are we. There are times when I tell her, "no, no!" and she does what she wants anyway. There are also times when we don't follow through like we should. We are not lazy parents, we just realize that parenting is difficult and it is not humanly possible to follow through on EVERY little thing. In 11 months, we have already made mistakes. As a parent, you will. We just choose to accept those mistakes, learn from them, and try not to repeat them. :)
Well, this was not meant to be a parenting article so I guess I will get on with what this post is really about: Ava's milestones! Here is a list of the things she is now doing, not doing, or improving.
- Ava can now stand up in the middle of a room without using a prop. I am extremely happy about this one because I got to watch her do this TODAY! Jeremy and I were sitting in our living room this afternoon while Ava was playing with her little lime green football. She was crawling from the curtains to the ottoman when I looked over to see her just standing in the middle of the room. I looked at Jeremy and said, "did she just stand up by herself?" He laughed and said, "yeah, why have you never seen her do that?" I just shook my head and continued to watch in amazement. She did it two more times before I could actually believe it!
- She will now clap when I say, "YAY!" She gets a huge, silly grin on her face and stops what she is doing to clap her hands. It is amazing that in just two weeks, she has perfected this!
- Ava can babble sentences. It is the funniest thing because she still has all sorts of babble words that she uses, but she is now stringing them together to make babble sentences. It is so cute.
- She has perfected saying "dad." When I ask her to say "mom," she will mock me with her mouth, but she won't say it! I know she can say it because when she really wants me, she will call for me, but she is a stubborn little toot! It cracks me up when she won't say it but she will grin really big and mouth it to me. Stinker!
- She has started engineering things. This past week I watched her use a hanger to try and fish out a toy from her crib. Her Bible class teacher has also told me that when Ava could not reach the top of a play center, she pushed another object over to it and stood on top. I guess we have a climber on our hands!
- Ava is not walking on her own, but she will walk while holding our hands.
- Her new favorite game is "rug running." Jeremy will tell her to climb onto one of the kitchen rugs and he will pull her around the house. She laughs so loud! Watching them play is one of my favorite times of the day!
- Ava still has just 6 teeth, but I have a feeling she will be cutting two more in the next few days. When she is ready to cut teeth, she does not have an appetite and she wakes at midnight. We have been giving her Tylenol and Motrin to ease the pain and luckily it also cuts out the night waking!
- She still sleeps 12 hours at night and takes 2 two hour naps. I am so thankful that she is a sleeper. We did start sleep training when she was about two weeks old, so I think that may have something to do with it. I also think that God just gave us a natural sleeper.
- She is so easy to deal with! YES, there are many times when I have to take her out of the auditorium during church, and YES, there are times when I have to give her a little pop on the thigh, but she is so easy! (I realize that many people may not agree with the way we discipline, but please refrain from any remarks. I won't judge your parenting, so don't judge mine.)
- Ava is NOT a cuddler! She was when she was tiny, but she is more interested in what is going on around her. I always imagined that I would have a little cuddly baby who would sit on my hip until she was two, but that child is imaginary! The funny thing is, I am totally okay with it.
- I can tell already that Ava is going to be a very strong-willed, independent child. I know many people who equate those two things with defiance and disrespect. I have to disagree. I am glad that she has those qualities. She will need them in this world. As her parents, we will make sure that she enters society having learned the lessons of submission and respect.
- Ava is a very social child. She has little to no problem going to another person. If I am standing near, she will hold her hands out for me, but she doesn't cry or fuss. She is a little bit intense with babies younger than her. She likes to talk and bang her hands on the table while she is talking. For older children, this is no big deal, but for little ones, it is a bit alarming. I am trying to work with her on being a little quieter!
I know I missed some things, but this is what I can think of now. Jeremy and I feel like God has truly blessed us with our Ava. It is such a joy to be her parent every day!
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