Ava: 11 Months

Clothing: Still 12m and 18m. Size 3 diapers, but we'll likely go up in the next month or so.

Eating: She's eating just about anything and everything now. No more purees (except for the few left over we're trying to get rid of, and pouches once in a while because pouches = convenient). She's totally on table food at daycare, so it's nice not to have to worry about bringing in purees. Lunch and dinner are usually something like spaghetti, ravioli, turkey meat and bread, or diced chicken, and of course fruits and veggies. I can't really tell you what her favorites are because she has the same reaction to everything we put in front of her = she eats it with gusto. She also gets a morning and afternoon snack at daycare which is usually some type of cracker. 

Still drinking the same amount of formula, although we've just transitioned to all sippy cups for daytime bottles and she's doing great with that. She still gets bottles in the morning and at bedtime, and I'm perfectly fine with that for now. For some reason, the first day I started sending sippys to daycare instead of bottles seemed like a really big deal?! I usually don't get too freaked out about transitions, but this one seemed to signal "big girl" more than the others to me. I'm definitely enjoying having less bottles to wash each night though. 

Sleep: Still doing good. Usually sleeps from 7pm to 6:30am. One or two naps at daycare and two naps when she's home with us on the weekends. 

Milestones: This month was a big one for Ava. She started crawling (!), is pulling up consistently now, and finally got her first tooth! It seemed like she went from immobile to crawling/pulling up/into everything in about two weeks. No cruising yet, so I think we've still got a few months before walking, but she's definitely getting more comfortable on her feet and has started "walking" while holding onto our fingers a bit. She also got her first "incident report" at daycare. She got tripped up while crawling, hit her head on the floor and had a little bruise on her forehead. 

She started clapping while we were on vacation, but still doesn't do it a lot -- she much prefers to wave. She blows raspberries on us now instead of the other way around and gives big sloppy open-mouthed kisses. The other night I was bathing her and she paused, looked at me and leaned it for a kiss -- so sweet! And I guess we should count "uh oh" as her first word? She says it ALL the time, and in perfect context. Except now she'll be sitting in the highchair and will hold out her cup/spoon/cracker, say "uh oh" and THEN drop it on the floor. The little stinker. 

Activity: Her number one activity right now is getting into anything and everything -- rolls of toilet paper, trash cans, drawers, cords, door stopper springs, tearing all the books off the shelf, you name it. She'll actually tolerate her jumperoo again these days because she can JUMP in it like a madwoman. We discovered after several harried long car trips that she's mesmerized by Yo Gabba Gabba. (She used to be a champ at riding in the car because she'd just sleep. Now if it's not time for her to take a nap, she just whines/cries the whole time.) She watches little to no television but after an hour of screaming in the car I pulled up a Yo Gabba video on YouTube and instant silence. Win! Adding that to my arsenal for desperate times. 

A montage of standing "firsts"...

In the crib...



At the toy box...



In the tub...



Outside of the tub...



Can't leave the trash can sitting out anymore:



Or the door to the toilet open:



A visit with Easton, Brevyn and Jack:



Morning naptime:



Granny pulled an old Snuggles bear out of storage:



Reading "Honk If You Like Purple" on the way to La Grange:



Into everything:



Turban baby:



Happy to be at daycare:



Get it gurlllllll:



Hold me!



Calling to Sugar:



"See, she came to see me."



Reading "Brown Bear Brown Bear What Do You See" (our favorite):



And proof that she can crawl (this video displays Ava's "pimp crawl" which she alternates about 50/50 with regular crawling):



Ava, you've really blossomed this month, and it's so fun to see you learn something new every day. I cannot believe you'll be the big O-N-E in just a few short weeks! We love you so so very much.