15 Months

Ava turned 15-months last weekend and there's so much going on in her world right now. She has just taken her first steps just a week after she started standing up on her own. Since she was later to develop those skills, I think she just put it all together so quickly once she got the confidence to try. She observes the world around her closely and then cautiously tries them on her own when she's ready. Ava is on her own schedule!

Here are some pictures of our play date at the park with my friend's 18-month old daughter. Ava got to ride in a swing for the first time! She loved it. She even walked in the grass, which I was very excited to see since she only took her first steps the day before.

Growth:
22lbs 2oz (gained 1 lb in 3-months)
32 inches long (grew 1 1/2 inches in 3 months)
46 1/2 cm head size
Clothing - 18months to 2T on the top, 12/18-months on the bottom

I just took Ava for her 15-month check-up. She was very upset during the appointment, but her pediatrician said that it's very common for 15 and 18-month old babies to react that way because of their stranger anxiety. Even before the shots, she got very upset. We nursed through the beginning the the visit so she could calm down and then after her shots, which put her to sleep. Poor girl! The doctor and staff were amazed to see her relaxed and sleeping in her sling as we were leaving since she was so upset before.

I always say, thank goodness for nursing! In fact, I'm happy to report that she's extremely healthy. She's never had an ear infection in her life or anything other than colds and some elevated temps. And at 15-months, we're nursing while we're together that I still express at when I work in the office. At daycare, she has made the switch to sippy cups and eating a really good lunch and snacks. She's never had cow's milk since we're nursing. But she does well with water in her sippy and still ramping up on drinking expressed milk in her cup. She tends to take smaller amounts of milk now, but we nurse a lot when we're together. I save all the extra milk to donate to the milk bank for the babies.

Ava is very vocal and expresses herself by talking and singing. Listening and dancing to music is one of her favorite activities. Her favorites are the Veggie Tales songs, especially the theme song. She sings the song all the time and points to the iPod so we'll turn on the music. Aaron and I can't get the song out of our heads, but it's worth it because she loves it! Today, at Meijer, we saw a box of Veggie Tales fruit snacks and when she saw the box, she started singing the song. It was so cute!

New words:

• Bena - her favorite and she says it at daycare all the time
• Stop - to the babies that are bothering her at daycare
• Go - when we're getting in the car
• Bye-Bye (with the hand wave) when we're going somewhere
• Jacob - Ava's friend at daycare and she says it really well!
• Ma - that's me
• Da - Aaron
• "That?" - when she's pointing to see what something is and we do this over and over again!
• Uh-oh - she says that when she drops something.
  
• Light - she pronounces yight

It's funny that she doesn't have a word for nursing yet. She just either points to my boob or pulls at my shirt when she's desperate. Usually, I can read her body language before we get to that point.

What Ava is eating:

• Fruit and yogurt smoothie: We share a breakfast smoothie together. Her favorite is berry, but she also likes the banana-pineapple with OJ.
  
• Yogurt-mashed banana combo: and sometimes I add almond butter. I mix in a dab of maple syrup because I use plain yogurt. She also likes vanilla yogurt with unsweetened apple butter.
  
• Fruit: peaches, orange slices, plum (new), my homemade cinnamon applesauce, and freeze dried strawberries.
  
• Snacks: yogurt melts, puffs, graham crackers, cinnamon school book cookies from Trader Joe's, honey wheat pretzels.
  
• Dried fruit: cranberries and pineapple
  
• Veggies: Beets, zucchini, carrot-apricot puree, sweet potato (sometimes I add mashed black beans), and a combo of potato, leek, and pea.
  
• Meat/protein: just started to eat chicken (pureed). I mix in lentils in her food too.
• Bread: she just started eating bread a little bit.
  

Breastfed babies get a sampling of family foods from the flavors in their mother's milk. They say that after an hour of a mother eating a banana, its flavor is in her milk. I guess it's not a surprise that Ava loves fruit and yogurt so much because I make a smoothie every morning and eat lots of fruit. We always have seasonal fruit on the dinner table and offer it to Ava to try. It takes us many attempts to get her to warm up to new foods so we offer her what we're eating and see what sticks. It's still hoping for her to like avocado! Her way of eating is interesting. You give her a large piece of food and she breaks it up with her fingers and mashes it and then puts the small pieces in her mouth. Lots of food ends up immediately on the floor so it's a good thing for Bena! We call her the hoover!

Ava enjoys the outdoors, especially with her Daddy and Bena. She loves watching Aaron throw the ball for Bena in the backyard. Aaron pulls out the playpen and she stands in it happily watching the fun action. We've had lots of rain powerful storms this year and she likes to watch them on the front porch with Aaron. Sometimes we all sit out there together. We're hoping to get a porch swing so we can sit out there together.

Overall, we're having a great time. She's really enjoying her Daddy-time!