9 Months!

The past two weeks have been crazy busy. All sorts of stuff is happening. First, Ava started crawling as I mentioned in my last blog. She was wobbly for about two days and then she just took off. Having mastered crawling, she is now into pulling herself up on every piece of furniture we have. Toys no longer hold her interest. The first few days, she took some nasty diggers. Unfortunately, I wasn't fast enough to catch her one time and she fell face first into the table and has the remnants of a bruise. I hope it's gone by Monday (her 9 Month appointment)! All this activity prompted a quick run to babiesrus to get the necessary furniture pads and wall mounts. And I thought I had already babyproofed my house. This kid is crazy.

Ava loves to stick out her tongue and shriek. If she can do this while climbing furniture, all the better.

Climbing the tub during bath time. My little orangutan.

She does have her serious moments.

Grandma Patti and Pop Pop were in town for Mother's Day. It was a crazy fast weekend but it was so much fun. She warmed up to them in no time. They were able to see Ava crawling around and pulling herself up on the furniture. Plus, she was talking/shrieking up a storm. We made a day trip to Bozeman to see some friends of Patti and George. What a great day.

Grandma Patti, Pop Pop and Ava with the Rotes in Bozeman.


This past week Ava and I went down to Wyoming to "uncle-sit" Patrick. My Aunt Cindy and Uncle Gil (who have guardianship over Patrick) went down to Denver to see their grandbaby for a few days. Although I was happy to help them out, I was dreading it. Patrick can be sweet as can be or he can be a total terror. Fortunately, with the coaxing of Taco Johns and Dairy Queen, he was an angel and it was a great trip. The big bonus was that Aunt Cindy had a whole litter of kittens on her porch. Ava pretty much camped out in front of the sliding glass doors and watch them. I did attempt to let her pet them but she flung one across the living room so that ended the "petting".

Yeah, this picture looks sweet and innocent but Ava hammer tossed the black kitten two seconds later.


Although it isn't big or new, it has been great to have Chris here during the day. He's been able to spend so much time with Ava and she just loves it. She truly beams when he's in the room and she loves to play with him. We've made many trips to the park by our apartment as well as a hike or two.

On our hike to the pictograph caves. Supposedly there were pictures there once. Not any more. At least it was a nice chance to get out.

Tummy time with Chris.


Finally, the last bit of news is that Ava is now drinking from a straw. I'm afraid it's fairly obvious that I am in that 'first-child-amazement' phase. She just started figuring out how to drink from a sippy cup and last night she drank half of my lemonade from a straw. Isn't it a bit early for that? Every day Ava is learning something new and it's so fun to watch. But, as I've said before, it makes me a little sad that she's growing up so fast.

She was begging for food but it was too spicy and salty to give her so I thought I'd let her chew on my straw. Man, she figured it out quickly!!

Enjoy the pics and videos!!

(Sorry to those of you who look at my facebook page; a lot of this is the same!)