At 13 months our little Ava is busier than ever! The biggest news is she has officially begun walking now. Though she's not walking exclusively, she does often prefer it over crawling. She can walk across the living room or take up to 10-15 steps but is still very wobbly. She's definitely on her way though, claps for herself when she takes a few steps and is now much more excited about walking. She also loves to walk with her stroller, shopping cart or car push toys and has just recently learned how to steer them. She will tear off down the hallway, banging into the walls and doors, get to her room, usually pick up a stuffed animal or something else and put it in her stroller/cart and then come on back to the living room, kitchen, turn around, back down the hallway... endless fun!
(here is ava with one of her carts, carrying her ducky and a box!)
A few days ago Ava learned how to rock her baby doll and it is the sweetest thing to watch her rock her baby, feed it a bottle and give it kisses. She will hand me her "baba" and ask me to rock it, then she will take a turn. She is also saying a few other semi-words such as "sh" (shoe), "ba" for banana and ball, "bigun" (big one) when she wants a big piece of banana in the morning instead of little pieces, and the old standby's "daddy", "hello", and "duck". She's also now saying "this" and "that" and we spend many hours a day pointing at "that?" and mommy says what "that" is. It's clear though that she understands 99% of what I say during the day and can follow pretty complex directions which is so neat to see. She can also answer yes and no questions by nodding so that adds to our conversational abilities. Often throughout the day Ava will point to a "no touch" item in the house and shake her head "no". A particularly special example of this was when she picked up a shoe, put her tongue out to lick it and then stopped, pulled her tongue back in and shook "no"! She didn't know I was watching and it was a priceless moment to see our little girl actively make a decision between right and wrong and exercise some self-control.
We are at the age now where we can teach Ava pretty much anything we want and she'll repeat it so we are taking advantage. She initiates most of these cute show-off-for-company types of talents but we run with them! One of these is, we can say, "Ava, show me your muscles!" and she will curl up both biceps and shake feverishly while she flexes her little arms!
Ava learned the motions to the song "If you're happy and you know it..." and can clap her hands, stomp her feet and pat her head at the right times. Also, up until a few days ago the only animal noise she knew was how to pant like a dog, but now she can "moooo" like a cow! She also has a newfound love for bugs and likes to try to "buzzzz".
Ava LOVES to kiss, now regularly offers kisses to mommy and daddy and has kissed such things as the bathtub, the slide at the playground, the TV, her highchair, her bottle of baby motrin (this is warranted) and daddy's "ouchy" on his finger. She is a sweet-hearted little girl and loves to show affection (we love it too)!
Finally, after a long long wait, Ava is actually getting teeth! There are four that I've been able to spot (with Erin's help), her bottom two center teeth and the top two canines (aka fangs). None have poked through the gums yet but the bottom two are clearly visible and the right canine comes down to a nice gummy point. That one I'm sure is painful, it's literally sticking down half the length of a tooth but has yet to break through so she's been getting lots of motrin, tylenol and love. She's been pretty fussy and hasn't been napping well because of it but today I tried a great new remedy--frozen waffles! She likes the taste so it keeps her interest (more than an ice toy) and it feels good on her gums to gnaw on the cold hard waffle. Mom's, take note! Though I'm ready for it to be over, all in all Ava has been a much better teether than expected. She is still sleeping well through the night and the whole process hasn't been the "horror" we'd been warned about.
Here's a final precious picture of our cutie pie at the park. There are also a few new pictures in the April 2010 album.
