October 25 - Ava went through about a two week phase where she would sniff at us a lot. (That's the best way I think to describe it; the video shows what I mean.) She doesn't really do it anymore but it was funny while it lasted. :)
November 21 - Well it took a lot longer than I had expected (based on when she started pulling up and cruising along furniture), but Ava started standing on her own and taking a couple little steps as you see in this video. I used Cheerios and a lot of cheering and excitement to keep her interested in standing. :)
November 21 - The rocking dog in this video was mine when I was Ava's age... and she loves it as much Mom says I did. :) "Rock, rock!"
November 22 - Ava likes to play hide and seek with her paci. I put it at the bottom of this bucket and then put all the blocks on top of it. She pulls the blocks out one by one until she finds the paci. Then she holds it up - victory! She falls over at one point in this video and I get really tickled because she has been proficiently sitting up for months now and pretty much never falls over anymore. I guess it's comparable to an adult randomly falling down walking; pretty funny.
November 27 - In this video Ava takes more steps in a row. She usually dives for whoever she's walking to in the last few steps. :) She's gaining confidence in herself.
November 28 - Getting better and going further! She is starting to like the fact that she can do it all by herself.
Today, November 30, she is letting go of furniture on her own and walking without much enticing. She still knows that crawling is her fastest and most reliable way to go, but she's trying the walking a lot more. :)
I cannot believe she is almost a year old. Ava eats pretty much whatever we're eating at meal times. I just make sure it's small enough and soft enough and let her have at it. She has the mashing motion of chewing down pat so despite not having many teeth she can eat just fine. And she's a very good eater; a bottomless pit, really, hehe! We are down to nursing just twice a day now, morning and night. I plan to go down to once a day in a week or so and phase out completely probably by the end of December. We'll see how it goes... I called the hospital today to see about getting her 12 month check-up and shots but we have to wait until January based on the time I got her 6 month shots, so she gets to avoid that a little longer. That pretty much sums up the past month and a half, I think. We are just enjoying being a family of 3 (well, 5 including pups of course) and hope Richard won't have to go anywhere any time soon. :)
Richard is finally home!!!! His flight's welcome home ceremony was last Monday night (9/28). It was SO amazing. It was so cool to be there with all the excited families and friends, and I can't even begin to describe how it felt to finally see Richard run out in formation. 
It was an emotional reunion and such a relief to see him and touch him face to face. Now that he's been home almost a week, I can't believe he was gone a year! In some ways it feels like he never left.
Ava has adjusted quite well to her daddy being home. She was a little wary for a couple days and would look to me for reassurance when he would hold her or something but now she's totally good with him. It is so awesome to watch them interact - reading books, playing with her toys, petting the pups, etc. Richard is such a good dad. Seeing him with her makes me fall in love with him all over again.
Anyway, Ava is still not quite walking on her own but she is pretty speedy walking along furniture. She lets go every now and then and stands on her own for a few seconds before sitting down.
Let's see, what else... oh yeah, Ava is a great little eater. She eats anything and everything I put on her highchair tray. She's good at the chewing motion, mashing up food, even though her two little teeth are no help. hehe :) Well, that's all for now. I'll update again soon!
I can't believe this deployment year is finally almost over! Right now it sounds like Richard won't be staying later than the rest of his battalion after all. (Hopefully not!) So hopefully we will be reunited sometime in the next month or so!!! He is not going to believe how much Ava has grown and changed. He sees her often via video chat but obviously that cannot compare to actually seeing her. I'm so excited to see them see each other! :)
Ava has two teeth now. Her second one finally cut through the skin about a week ago. It's so funny to see a little toothy smile now. Ava is very interested in BB right now. She likes to try to follow her around and laughs when BB makes any sudden movements. She is starting to understand my "serious" tone and when I tell her "no" about things. For instance, BB was trying to eat this morning and Ava speed-crawled right towards her going for the food. When she got close to BB I said "Ava, no." She stopped crawling and sat up and just looked at me. Then she looked back to BB. I told her no again and she looked back at me. She sat there for a few more seconds and then went for the food again. So... I'm thinking she semi-understands but it doesn't quite stick with her yet. We'll definitely keep working on it.
Hmm.... what else?... Oh yeah. I started letting Ava practice feeding herself with a spoon this morning. I scooped some oatmeal on the spoon and set it on her tray. She grabbed the oatmeal with her hands first but eventually put the spoon in her mouth to get the rest off. It's a very messy process but there's only one way to learn and just trying is fun for her and builds her confidence. 