Good Times

It's been so long since I've written that I don't know where to begin. September was a big month for Ava. She got to meet her Grandpa from New Jersey and her Aunt Angie from Utah, and she also learned a bunch of new tricks. She sat up on her own for the first time on September 4th. I was thrilled to see it. She had been so close for so long that to finally see her do it was awesome. Then came the crawling on September 8th. She had been getting up on her hands and knees for a couple of weeks but never actually went anywhere. Last Friday while Brent was at work in the morning she actually crawled. When he came home on his lunch break he filmed her doing it. Since then she has gotten faster and more daring. At first she wouldn't leave the carpeted bedrooms, but now she ventures out onto the tile. I am so proud of her, but I am not exactly happy. Now I am worried about her getting into everything, which I know she will do. She already discovered the DVD's and has been taking those off the shelf, she has learned to open drawers, and she already pinched her fingers under a wheel on her high chair. We had the plastic thingy's to plug up the outlets, and today I went to Walmart and bought some drawer & cabinet locks, door stoppers, and rubber corners for the tables. It is so cute to watch her. You can't keep her still now. Now when I need to take a shower or do laundry, I have to strap her in the high chair or put her in the pack and play, which doesn't always make her happy.

The worst part about the crawling is bringing her to work with me. I used to be able to park her in one spot, but now she goes all over the place. That floor is not always clean, and her pretty clothes are going to get filthy. Also, whatever toy she might come across while she's crawling goes right into her mouth, so I can only imagine what kind of germs she's picking up along the way. The other day I flipped out at home because she had been crawling around the living room, I turn around for a second and when I look back at her she has my flip-flop in her mouth! Gross!!! Of course I snatched that away from her and will make sure that our shoes are in the closet from now on. Ugh.

She started pulling herself up on her feet on September 12th, I think the first time she did it was in her crib. Often when she wakes up I find her standing up. This was a problem when it came time to go to sleep. I would put her in the crib and before I could get out of the room she would be sitting up watching me go and as soon as I closed the door she would wail. I would peek in on her and she would be standing in the crib crying her eyes out. I think she stood up and then couldn't figure out how to lie back down without falling. One thing we tried that has worked for the past 2 days is giving her an extra binky when she goes to bed. One is in her mouth and the other is in the crib. I don't know why it works but it does, I guess it distracts her enough that she doesn't sit up to see us leave.

We had a lot of fun with Angie while she stayed with us. She babysat Ava while I went to work, so they had some quality bonding time. It really helped me too. Taking Ava to work has been so hard lately since now she has to be there with me the whole 4 hours. She refuses to sleep in there so she misses her afternoon nap, it throws her whole routine off and she gets SO cranky. It sucks for her and it sucks for me too, so it was nice that she could be with Angie at home and keep her routine. We took Ava to Angie's church on Sunday, and she was great. I had been a little worried. When it was time for Angie to leave, I got really sad because the next time she sees Ava, she'll probably be walking and talking! I really want Ava to have a relationship with Angie and know her as family, but she lives so far away. That sounded really lame but I do wish we lived closer so that Angie could be in Ava's life more.

Anyway, it's late and bed sounds good so I'll post pictures tomorrow.