First plane ride

What gave me anxiety about our trip to Yellowstone National Park was the flight to Salt Lake City. The last leg of my return trip from Argentina was difficult for a young set of parents because the changing air pressure hurt their infant's ears so much she cried all the way from Chicago to Dallas. We made sure to have a bottle ready for Ava so that the sucking motions would pop her ear drums as the cabin pressure changed. To my relief she traveled extremely well with no problems (other than getting fussy when I didn't get her bottle to her quickly enough.)

Little Games

Last night Ava and I came up with a fun game: she sits in her high chair and I walk up to slowly moving my head back and forth making funny noises until I kiss her on the neck, which she finds ticklish. She laughs and laughs as I do this. I got tired of doing it after a little while, but I continued playing because I love to hear her laugh and to see her big smile.

Growing Up

Ava interacts so much with her environment now. She will turn her head towards the person speaking in a room, or she will gaze around looking for me while I stand at the pulpit at church. I absolutely love to find her looking at me from across the room, then smiling when our eyes meet.
When she is lying on the ground, I like to put my face close to hers so she can reach me with her little hands. She likes to grab my nose or chin and can get a surprising good, strong grip on the skin on my neck.

She does pretty good in different surrounds with groups of people. There are times, though, when she needs to adapt before going to someone other than us. I felt bad one evening while meeting my family at a restaurant in College Station because Ava cried and cried when she saw my mom. We also have learned to maintain low volumes of sound when together with others. This last weekend we hosted the 2nd Annual Kennedy Reunion and we upset her a number of times when laughing at funny stories or her goofy Granddad.