Winter Boots

This just has to be shared. Ava LOVES her new winter boots and wouldn't take them off the day we got them (even though it was 85 degrees).

Mommy's Little Helper

Ava is doing so much these days that I thought I'd write an extra post in here rather than trying to remember everything for next month!

I remember vividly when Ava was still an infant, wondering what her little voice would sound like. Would it be quiet? Loud? Low? High? Sweet? Now getting to hear her voice is such a thrill (most of the time) and a delightful part of my day.

Ava's vocabulary is growing rapidly, as is her interest in the alphabet! She has a box of alphabet books (one for each letter) that she is very into now. She loves trying to pronounce each letter and actually gets more right than we would have thought! She loves U and I and when mommy sings the ABC's. She doesn't yet recognize any of the letters by sight but I'm sure that will start happening in no time. I forgot in my last post that Ava has been saying "Where are you?" when searching for her ducky or another toy, has muttered "Where go?" when she's lost something and just yesterday she said to me, "Mommy do!", shoving her toy in my hands and clapping with anticipation.

Yesterday Blair was working in the afternoon and evening so Ava and I had a quick dinner and went outside to play. We went for a walk and saw lots of lawnmowers and leaf blowers (her favorite), and then came back to the house. I've been working on some "spring cleaning" these last couple of days so as Ava played in the driveway I continued my work in the garage for a few minutes. I decided it was time to fix up our old, sorry looking wreath that has been hanging on our door, removing the sun-bleached berries and replacing those strands with ones from another leafy wreath. I sat on the bottom stair to the front porch picking berries off the wreath and watching Ava stomp in a puddle and work her way over to me. I told her what I was working on and with barely a word she sat down beside me, watched what I was doing and then started picking off faded, styrofoam berries, one at a time. She sat with me for a solid twenty minutes, the only words exchanged were the occasional, "You're doing a great job honey" and "Thank you so much for helping mommy". She didn't need to talk or move on to something else, she just sat and helped me work. I kept glancing at her, working hard and concentrating, and marveling at how big my little girl has become! She is almost a year and a half old--the big turning point into solid toddlerhood, and it shows. And boggles my mind.

Here is the before and after of our wreath, now much less sad and a wonderful reminder for me of our first mother-daughter project. :)

17 Months

This month was marked by our 12 day getaway to Cape May, NJ with Blair's family. Blair and I have spent time there together every summer since 1999, we got engaged there in 2005, married there in 2006 and then took our baby there for the first time last summer. It is a special, relaxing and rejuvenating place for us and it was such a treat to watch Ava fall in love with it too!

She had an amazing time, grew up immensely, loved the attention of 8 adults and all the new experiences that came with a beach vacation. Though she wasn't a fan of the roaring ocean, Ava loved playing in the sand and splashing around in her pool full of salt water. It took a day or two to ease into it but by the end of the week, Ava was covered in sand and loving it!

In the past couple of months Ava has started to enjoy having others attention but this month she has become much more outgoing, loud and eager to show off all of her toys and tricks. Her fantastic sense of humor that she's had since she was an infant is definitely turning into an adorable and well developed sense of self. She is still very observant, aware of others and their response to her, and has a quick wit even in the way she uses her eyes and body language. She is definitely the most interesting person I know and I love just watching her interact with her world!

These last couple weeks have been big on the language front. Ava does a lot of "noises" which only mom can decipher, but has just started speaking in short sentences and trying harder to make comprehensible words. She loves to sing "the happy song" ("Oh Happiness" by David Crowder Band) which sounds like this, "Happy, happy, happy" in the cutest, highest pitched little voice you can imagine. She also can say almost everyone's name in our extended family and can repeat many words and phrases. Things she has recently said on her own: get down, oh man, love you, thank you (without being prompted), and a much clearer version of mommy! For the first time in the last couple of weeks she is also actually referring to me as mama which melts my heart! Also, the other day, Blair reprimanded her for doing something and she ran full speed into the kitchen and said to me, "Daddy say no no"! I am so ready and excited to enter this time of her life, not only to watch her vocabulary develop but also to hear what sorts of things she's thinking about and wanting to share.

Oh, and have I yet to mention?! She got her first two teeth!! Alas, they do exist! I was beginning to wonder if they do toddler tooth extraction when the first ones popped through a few weeks ago, bottom center. It has been over a month now and they are still maybe a quarter of the way up (they really are just pushing through so slowly!) but now you can spot them when she flashes a big smile. I can't wait to see what teeth are next and what she looks like with a full mouth!

I will end this post with a few pictures to wet your appetite, the rest are in the August album to the left.

As for the other details... Ava is being stuffed into her 18-month summer clothes but can comfortably now fit into 24-months. I forgetting to include shoe size, she's in size 5's right now but will definitely be in size 6 in the fall. She's still wearing size 4 diapers though we are nearing the end of that era as well and soon I will try putting size 5's on her at night. She still takes two naps a day, for somewhere between 1 and 2 hours each, depending on the circumstances. Since she's been teething for so long, it's hard to know what she would do if not for that! On weeks where there are no signs of teething she usually takes two 2-hr naps, but those are few and far between. She is also still sleeping at night for 12 - 13.5 hours, sometimes not waking until close to 9am! I am a spoiled mommy, for sure.

A Peaceful Mess

My floors are covered in toys, pillows, shoes and unbreakable dishes. There is a load of laundry in the living room waiting to be folded which has long since re-wrinkled in the basket. Ava just went to sleep and I was about to google, "How to catch/kill/rid-my-kitchen-of fruit flies" when I thought, what better time to take a moment for myself? There really is no better or worse time I'm realizing, just time that if not spent being quiet, opening my Bible and praying, will no doubt be spent on something else.

As one of the illusive fruit flies ventures into my homemade trap and then back out (drat!), I decided to read in Philippians 4. I have felt God nudging me lately toward the word, the concept and the reality of contentment--something of which I am seriously lacking. Almost everything about my life is exactly what I would have chosen for myself: staying at home with my beautiful and rather (dare I say) easy toddler, a wonderful and supportive husband, a lovely home and in a word, plenty. And yet, even on the best of days I find myself wanting. And the worst of it, feeling entitled to more! My eyes are being opened to the fact though that nothing will satisfy me short of Jesus. I want a second car and yet when I have the chance to use the one we already have, I complain that it takes too much energy to actually get Ava ready and out the door. I want Blair home more but really no amount of family time is "enough". So, naturally I turned to verses 11-13 which read something like this:

"...I have learned to be content whatever the circumstances... I have learned the secret of being content in any and every situation, whether well fed or hungry, whether in plenty or in want...

Ah, yes! This is the answer I'm looking for!

...I can do everything through him who gives me strength."

At first I was disappointed not to have been delivered an action plan to blissful needlessness. But, as God nudged my heart further I realized what a blessing it is to have him as a necessary part of this process of growing in contentment, to have him as the ultimate supplier. It means I will keep going back to him when I'm feeling discontent and lacking in joy and fun and sleep. Instead of continually looking to change my circumstances (a never-ending quest), I can rest in knowing God will give me the strength to endure and even enjoy all those less than perfect days.