8.5 months!!

Well, hello there! I hope everyone is doing well! Things have been so wonderful here lately! I've been on my anesthesia rotation for the month of April, and it's a much slower pace than my usual morning-to-evening, day-to-day routine. I don't see any of my own patients, but instead I hang out with anesthesiologists and learn whatever they'll teach me! It's pretty cool, I've done quite few different kinds of intubations. I still haven't started an IV, but it's not over yet! So, anyway, it's allowed me to take a few extra breaths and feel like I actually have a little down time! No worrying about my patients, what procedure I'm doing the next day, what lab work I have to finish....it goes on and on. So, I'm just thankful for the small dental break, and I'll be refreshed and ready to get back to the grind next week. So, a lot is happening right now in Ava's world! She has become VERY mobile! Crawls everywhere....FAST! She dumped half of the dogs water bowl on herself the other day. She was crawling around my feet in the kitchen, and then I heard it. I looked over, and there she was...laying all soak and wet in that yucky dog slobber water with a look that said, "Mom, I'm not sure what happened, but I'm all wet." She's also started to pull herself up on the furniture. She likes to do this fun trick where she tries to only hold on with one hand...then she starts wobbling, and kurplunk! Down she goes. Sometimes she lands on her hiney, but sometimes she bonks her head and isn't very happy. I'm torn between always trying to break her fall and letting her learn how to fall to her butt so she doesn't hurt herself! She's had a few times where she's cried after falling, and there's also been times when I thought for sure she was going to wale but she just kept on truckin'! She's such a tough girl! Her teeth are still coming in strong...just those two, though. No other signs of any more teeth! Here they are!
We've started practicing waving "bye-bye" and playing "patty cake." She really liked patty cake for a while and would smile real big when I sang and clapped, but she hasn't been as impressed with it in the last 2 days. She hasn't waved yet, but I feel like she's on the verge! She LOVES, LOVES to play the ride-the-horsey game on my knee. We start slow (like the Ladies ride), then get faster (the the Gentlemen ride), and then go crazy and bump all over (the the Cowboys ride) and she waves her arms around and smiles and laughs! It's SO cute, I just totally love it. Here's a random pic of her sweet eyelashes and porcelain skin! :)
She's finally starting to be ticklish! Her best tickle spots are the bottom of her feet and under her arms. She giggles and laughs when I zerbert her armpit! I love it. She also thinks it's really funny when I say "mama mama mama" in a low, grumbly, Cookie Monster type voice over and over and bite her belly. I usually get home early on this anesthesia rotation, and I have loved having a little more time with her...I feel like I'm not missing anything...and I just love it! Here she is about to pull up to standing! PS. In my opinion, this pic looks like me when I was her age!
I forgot to put her weight and length on the 8 months post...so, she weighed 16lbs 3.5 oz at 8 months. She hasn't gained anything this last month. Since we've been increasing her solid food, she takes less milk, and if we reverse it, she takes the normal amount of milk and isn't interested in the food!! Stinker! Her pediatrician just said to try to break the meals up into smaller ones and make sure she still is having at least 3-4 wet diapers a day. I think she's getting 3 or 4, although not much more. Poop on the other hand...got plenty of that!

I took her outside one afternoon and took a million pictures...this is one of them....I just love it. She just sat there in the grass forever getting used to the texture before she finally started crawling around!
Here's another...I took tons like this of her crawling toward the camera with the sun setting in the back!
She does this everyday! ....crawls to the window sill and pushes up to standing (as high as she can get on the window)! She must be standing like this for at least an hour total everyday!
Here she is watching more Backyardigans.....she's particularly excited about whatever it going on! She usually watches one or two shows a day. Bad, I know!!!
I her big girl chair!!
Standing in her cute as can be outfit that Bobbi got her....with that classic Ava grin!
The up close grin! :)
Right before she got to the camera! Doesn't she look a little alien like!??! Funny! So, here's a link to some more pics of Ava. I really like this group of pics in particular...some of my favorites in the past while! Enjoy!!!