1 year and 9 months

What a full month! We've had a wonderful time traveling, celebrating and making some big changes around here.

In the last week Ava has popped out four more teeth and there are two more (that I can spy) on the way. She has been much more prone to tantrums this month and not sleeping well (more on that later)... now we know why! I suspected she could be teething but it just kept going on and on and on. Little did I know she was pushing out a whole mouth full. Poor girl! Thankfully she seems to be doing a little better and hopefully her teethers (as we call them) will give her a break soon.

Teething is almost always accompanied by troubled sleeping patterns but for about two and a half months now Ava has been fighting her daily naps. As I mentioned in a previous post, after much hesitation, I finally decided to drop Ava's morning nap. She has adjusted very well and now wakes up asking, "Gonna go? Gonna go?" since our newfound morning freedom allows for regular outings. She is still often tired in the mornings but she will continue to adjust, especially as she gets used to sleeping for longer stretches in the afternoon. For now she is sleeping for 1 1/2 -2 hours but hopefully this will lengthen in time.

Now for the third major change, Ava has started to potty-train herself! In a previous post I wrote about her growing interest in the potty and this interest has only continued. A few days ago we even spent a few hours diaper-less (after much pleading from the babe) and though we had two accidents, she also peed twice on the potty! After the holidays I am going to get serious and consistent with the potty-training, I was planning on waiting but she definitely seems ready and I want to jump on it while excitement is high. Here is a picture of the potty-training uniform and its happy donner.

And Ava reading Better Homes and Gardens on the potty:

This also marks the first month when I stopped keeping track of all of Ava's new words--simply because she says almost all of them! She repeats almost anything you say and is in a constant state of naming and conversing. It is not unusual these days for me to wake up to her role-calling from her crib, "Piggy. Light! Mommy. Daddy. Blankie. Ducky! PJs. Diaper. Zipper...". It puts a smile on my face! She is not speaking in any long sentences but has added things like, "Miss you", and "Thank you God" to her repertoire. She is just beginning to understand (or attempt) the use of words like mine and yours, me and you, and for the first time this month pointed to herself and said triumphantly, "Ay-bah!" (Ava).

In the morning Ava has enjoyed crib-time for many months now, time where she gets to play on her own while mommy takes a shower and gets ready for the day. This month marked the transition from crib-time to room-time, in which she is still barricaded in but is allowed full access to her room. It has been a learning process, the hardest part for her is having the door open and being able to see the rest of the house, the door where mommy is, etc. But, most days she plays happily with her toys and then anxiously awaits mommy's exit from the bathroom once the shower has been turned off! The idea is to move to non-barricaded room-time eventually but that is a little while off yet.

Ava loves "fire" (candles), drinking water from a cup and playing in her bin of rice with scoops and bowls. Her color of choice is purple, favorite person to pretend-talk to on the phone is Mimi, and has two new wintry breakfast favorites: meal meal (oatmeal) and toast. She has a surprising love for citrus fruits, pop songs and snow flakes (as long as she doesn't have to touch them) and a surprising hatred of the cold.

Our baby is big. Old. Independent! She spends much more of her time on her own now but still comes up to me mid-play, holding her ducky, and asks for snuggle breaks! I will never turn one down.