Today was a Good Day

Ava is an Aquarius, but she acts more like a Gemini - I never know what kind of baby I'm going to wake up with. Since we've been back from NC she has been going through a phase, and it is wearing me out. One day she is the happiest baby, like today. She was so good. Then other days she is cranky, whiney, won't nap, and just hard to deal with. The past couple of days she has not been wanting to nap. She will fall asleep in our arms but as soon as we try to get up to put her in the crib she wakes up and starts crying. We've been having to let her cry it out, and it is so hard. We know she's tired, but she just will not sleep. On Saturday Brent was working and I tried to put Ava down for her nap. I knew she was tired, she fell asleep while I was rocking her but woke up when I put her in the crib. She started freaking and cried so hard for an hour! I would go in every so often and try to calm her without taking her out of the crib and make sure she had her binky. After 30 minutes I called Brent at work asking what I should do. I had to go in my bedroom and close the door and turn the TV on loud to drown out the crying because it is so hard for me to listen to, it breaks my heart. But I know it is for the best. She needs to nap, and she needs to know that crying isn't going to make us take her out of bed. It's becoming a power struggle and she has to know who wears the pants. She has never cried that long before, not even close. Ava, when you read this when you are older, please know that your crying is harder on us than it is on you, but it is for your own good! You're a much happier baby and we are much happier parents when you've had some sleep.
I know I say this everytime but Ava is learning so much and she's so smart. She is saying "uh-oh" and the other day Brent swears she said "duck." She was playing with her rubber ducky at the time and Brent kept saying duck, and he said she copied him. She learned how to operate light switches and she loves turning them off and on. When we go for walks she points at everything and we tell her what it is, and she looks like she's really listening to us and wants to know. She likes it when we read to her. Her favorite is a Dora the Explorer book. She will sit next to me and play with the pages and point to things.
She hardly eats baby food at all anymore, she doesn't like it when we feed her. She wants to do it herself. At Thanksgiving she had cranberries, mashed potatoes and stuffing and she liked them. She loves cheese and crackers. She likes everything we give her for the most part. I buy little cans of mixed vegetables and she loves those. She likes noodles, really likes spaghetti. I like it because it's so much easier to let her feed herself. Even though she makes a little mess, it gives me a chance to do other stuff while she's eating, and we can all eat together. She still doesn't have top teeth though, and it's starting to bug me. She's going to be 11 months old this month, and it seems like most babies her age have more teeth than her. I keep checking for some top ones and nothing. All she has are the 2 bottom ones. I don't want to have to have her fitted for baby dentures so she can eat real food.
We are starting to Christmas shop for her and soon it will be time to go see Santa! I can't wait to see her reaction with that whole thing.

These are old-ish pictures from the Y.


Ava trying to wear Daddy's hat. In the background is the red car from hell that has run over her fingers a few times.