9 months and On the Go!

Someone thinks it is very funny to giggle and stick her tongue out...pretty cute too!

Our little stinker is 9 months old!  We have seen her grow and change so much in the past couple of weeks.  To begin with, I got everyone in the house sick with the flu. :(  Yuck!  Thankfully, Ava got the least of it.  She actually chose that week to learn to crawl.  Her new favorite games are crawl to the stairs, look back to see if you will get her and bang on the window.

Come and get me!

She loves to stand up on the stairs!

Loves banging on the window.

This past week she learned to crawl up the stairs.  Now we spend a lot of time on the stairs and the landing with her crawling up and then standing by the bars.  Unfortunately this new found fun has also led to a few face plants that we weren't quick enough to prevent.  She got her first mini bruise on her cheek from just such an incident.  

Playing on the landing.

How you doin'?

Little Bear butt going up the landing stairs.

We have also had so much fun with October activities!  We carved pumpkins (Ava liked playing with the spoon the best) using her handprints as Jack-o-lantern eyes and of course, dressed up for Halloween.

What do I do with this?

I'll just eat the spoon.

Very excited to get her hands on her pumpkin.

Ava's pumpkins

Little duck butt

We went Trick-or-Treating at Daddy's bank 

Puttin' their heads together

Who doesn't love a ride on a hot dog?

Going back for seconds

We have been enjoying our family time and just playing around the house.  Our living room is now Ava's personal toy box.  :)  She doesn't seem to mind.  Another favorite of hers is to stand up by the couch.  Since Ava has been mobile, Scooter tends to get out of the way as fast as he can.  She loves his paws!  Usually he will come up on the couch away from little fingers, but she still tries to get him.

You get my toes...

I'll get you!

Helping in the kitchen

The best toys are empty boxes

On the move

Our 9 month check-up is next week.  I can't wait to see how much she's grown!  Happy November!  I sure have a lot to be thankful for!

Pumpkin Head

She is cute enough to pick!  Had to get a picture of her in her pumpkin coat.  Ava went for her flu shot last week.  I learned that before age 1 they actually get 2 of them!  We have to go back for another one!  She was a champ!  No tears, just a little whimper when the band-aid went on.  Ava's main source of enjoyment at the doctor's office is the crinkly paper on the table.  She LOVES this stuff!

We always leave a mess!

They went ahead and checked her height and weight.  She is now a very long 28 inches (90th %ile) and 17.15 pounds! (50th %ile)  It's good that she's gaining weight, since she's been moving around so much now she's gone down in the percentiles.  She is a healthy girl!

Ava has also begun to pull herself up.  It's really cute, she scoots right up to us and will "crawl up" us to a standing position.  Speaking of crawling, she will army crawl across a room like nobody's business!  Just in the past few days she has started moving her knees to crawl, too!  She will still resort to her belly for quickness, but it's scary how quick she is growing and changing.  She is so much fun to watch!

She has started crinkling her nose and sniffing in and out when something is funny.

She then follows the nose crinkle and smile with a tongue out.

We love fall!

Fall Fun!

She was trying to eat the hay :)

We had a weekend of fall fun!  We definitely had our share of pumpkins - making it to Harms farm and to Goebberts.  I don't know if Ava had as much fun as I did, but hopefully she will in the years to come.  We started out with a play date at Harms Farm with our friends.  Ava got her first pumpkin there - a baby sized one!

She couldn't move - she was stuffed in!

Her 1st pumpkin!

Not one of them looking...

We also went to Goebbert's with Aunt Katie, Uncle Kevin and Ava's brand new, baby cousin, Nathan!  Our day was filled with fun animals, wagon rides and picking pumpkins!

Fall fun for our family!

Brother and sister with their babies

My little pumpkin

She was cracking up when she touched the goat.

She loved the wagon ride!

All smiles

This is right before she fell over.

On the way back with our pumpkins.

Uncle Kevin, Aunt Katie and Nathan

 Can't wait for more fall fun to come!

8 months

8 months have flown by.  Ava is getting so big!  She is figuring out new things that she is able to do each day.  Our little peanut is now scooting around everywhere on her belly.  She will get up on her knees and rock, even on tiptoes, but then she just falls over.  It's really cute.  When she gets it in her head to get something though, look out!  She will wiggle over like a worm at a surprisingly fast rate.  She especially loves being on the hard wood floor - she must think that the texture is nice, she will just hit the surface over and over with her hands.

This month she also got her first little cold.  She had a fever for a couple of days that stayed around 102-103.  The doctor prescribed her some medicine and a few days later she started feeling better.  The only good thing about her being sick was that we were able to get her weighed again and she is up to 17.4 (about 2 weeks ago).  She's still not taking the bottle very well but she is doing better.

Ready for swimming

We are looking forward to October and the slow down of our busy weekends.  We are planning to go to a pumpkin patch so Ava can pick out her first pumpkin!  We also started Ava on her 2nd stage foods.  When we first began baby food, we tried each of the stage 1 fruits and veggies - there were about 10 of them.  So when it was time for stage 2, I thought we'd do the same thing and try each flavor.  I started at the top shelf and just grabbed them in order...needless to say I had no idea there were so many flavors.  Ava is excited for the variety though.  :)

All of the 2nd Stage foods

This was her daddy's when he was little

Bundled up for chilly weather

It has been so amazing watching her discover things each day whether it be movement or noises she can make with her mouth.  (She loves to "talk" and says ma, da and ba often - but not to anyone specific - and she makes all kinds of noises with her tongue and high pitched squeals.)  I love her joy at her discoveries, her grin is infectious.  I know that the coming weeks will bring even more changes for her.  She has been on the brink of crawling for weeks, getting her first tooth for months and pulling up on things for a while now too.  

Possibly my favorite picture ever

She "crawls" backwards and ends up in the funniest places

Hopefully I'll update again sooner than a month.  Still working on finding balance in my life between home and work.  I'll get there...