Ava {9 months}

Example #1 of Ava's personality: Monday morning I was getting ready in the bathroom while my little one pulled herself up to my bathtub. I heard a "thud" as she managed to lean far enough forward to fall in head first. At this point, any of my other babies, would have been screaming either from the shock or pain of the fall. Not Ava. She merely uttered a muffled, "uugh", and proceeded to try again after being rescued.

Example #2: Isaiah asked if he could dance with Ava. I told him that was fine and headed off to put some laundry away. I shrieked in horror when I came back in the room to find him holding her hands and swinging her rapidly around in a circle, feet dangling from the floor.

Isaiah, clueless to the medical condition of dislocated shoulders, looked up with an innocent: "What's wrong?"

Ava looked up at me with an equally confused look on her face as if to also say, "Is there something wrong?"

That's my girl.

Our lives have been brighter and filled with more laughter because of this adorable, fearless little girl. At 9 1/2 months, she's walking around my walls and furniture though often resorting to jet-speed crawling to get to whatever has struck her fancy. She has a knack for making the goofiest faces. She adores her older siblings no matter what kind of new, crazy ideas they come up with in an effort to "play" with her. At my house, you'll often hear me reminding the children: "Ava is a person and NOT a plaything!"

Ava now says, "Ma-ma" and "Da-da" (her favorite person). She also will give a high-pitched "HI!!" But my favorite word introduction was when she crawled up to something that she knows she is not allowed to touch. And for the first time I heard her say, as she reached for the forbidden, "No-no-no-no."