How is it that Aviana is yet another month closer to being a year old?  Aviana has had an amazing month.  Aviana and I went back to the UK for a work trip whilst Aviana hung out with Granny and Grandpoo.  Aviana has been going through that phase where she doesn’t want to be left alone as well as great frustration at not being able to get where she wants to go.  She isn’t crawling still, but she can get somewhere if she really wants to by scooting around on her bum.  She can pull herself up, but is very awkward about it all.  She can stand on her own for a few seconds and is pretty confident now when I just hold onto one hand whilst she stands.  She can push herself along whilst holding onto her A frame walker, as well pushing herself on her ride along car that my parents bought her.  Having seen her have lots of fun on it, Chris immediately went out and bought her a little giraffe trike – her feet just touch the floor, it’s pretty cute watching her poot along.  But she still can’t get herself up from lying to a seated position which is very frustrating for all of us!

Aviana was a trooper on the flight back to the UK.  We ended up having an entire row of the whole plane to ourselves! She slept the whole way, thankfully.  I got very little sleep because I was paranoid about her dying in her sleep whilst in her car seat, so I kept checking her all the time.  The return flight I was dreading.  Firstly because we didn’t have seats next to each other because the plane was pretty much full, but when I checked in they had two bulk head seats available.  This was amazing because it meant that Aviana could sit on the floor and play at my feet without toys rolling under the seats and down the plane!  We walked up and down the aisle and she was the star of the plane.  She literally stopped to say hello to EVERYONE and everyone was obliging in talking to her.  Too cute.  My heart was melting.  It was a very friendly flight, I had so many offers of help!

I met a US Navy man on the flight who had a daughter who was one week younger than Aviana, and he was returning home after a short deployment.  Prepare for tears!!!  His daughter literally just cried when his wife gave her to him.  She didn’t recognise him!  Well, funnily enough Aviana did the same the next day with Chris when she woke up from her nap once we got home!  It had only been two weeks, but it was enough to make her cautious.  However, the next day, it was all about the daddy hugs.  She was probably just punishing him for him being missing for past two weeks.  I hope the sailor’s daughter forgave him soon after too!!

Aviana has started to refuse solids, she prefers feeding herself with finger food and doesn’t like mushy food.  So sweet potatoes and mash potato that she used to like? Nope.  Salmon? Nope.  But she will oblige to oat meal/porridge, risotto and yoghurt being spoon fed to her, but very little else!  The past week day care have not been able to get any food in her unless it is bread or rice cakes.  Fortunately she is still drinking her milk so I am not worried.  I’ve looked into it and it’s very normal at this age.  We just need to be relaxed about it, keep offering her a variety of foods, make dinner fun still, but not stress or force feed her.   We’ll also keep trying to get her to learn how to spoon feed herself when we have the chance to be messy, so hopefully that will help.  Luckily peas, cheese and blueberries are still a hit, as well as falafel!  So I’ll take that as a winner.  She’s great at drinking water and milk from her munchkin 360 cup by herself, so I think transitioning away from bottles will be easy.

I love how interactive she is now, so much fun. She has learned how to high five and wave hello and goodbye and my favourite is that she has learned how to squirt water from her squeezy toys, squirting herself and making farting noises on her tummy with the air!

Aviana still fits in some of her 3-6 month clothes where they were dresses she can still wear as shirts, and her trousers still fit her, but are more like shorts!  But length wise she is in 9-12 months, but they swamp her arms and body!   I also finally found some shoes for her to walk in that actually fit her long skinny feet…of course, I found them in the UK, size 3-6 months.

My heart is so full, this girl amazes me 🙂