One and a half!

It is jaw-droppingly shocking to me that I can now answer the question, "Oh, how old is she?" with "One-and-a-half"! My baby is truly, in age, stage and manner, a toddler.

I worked at a daycare in the one-year-old room for a number of months before Blair and I got married. There was a stark difference between the 12-18 month crowd and the 18-24 month kids. I am seeing firsthand that change taking place in my little Ava! This month she has started talking much much more, her ten word vocabulary exploding into short sentences and more confident attempts at new sounds. Without my prompting she has started saying please and thank you at all the right times (not just signing), is now speaking the word "more" and has added "baby" to most sentences: "Hi baby", "Bye baby", "Thank you baby".

Other new words and phrases include but are not limited to: water (wawa), bubble, turtle, yellow, Ruthie, Erin, Breanne (Bree), noodle (noonle), puppy, one more, excuse me (usually just "eck-use"), off, in and out. She also says "uh oh" all the time followed by whatever word makes the most sense, like "uh oh wawa" when she drops her water cup or "uh oh mommy" when I undoubtedly do something "wrong" like drop food or leave a cabinet door open. She can also say about half the letters in the alphabet and recognizes a few of them by sight. She is starting to say consecutively, "ABC" (though it is usually ABD) and "123"! It's been so fun to watch her interest in the alphabet boom all of the sudden. She loves to hear the alphabet song and will try to sing it with me but often stops with a shy smile due to performance anxiety.

As mentioned in a previous post, Ava is a big mommy-lover (I don't often complain) and likes to be wherever I am. She is also the epitome of a snuggle-bunny! Here is another picture to prove it:

One night while making dinner I looked down to find Ava lying with her head on ducky and pulling the dishtowel down for a blanket. Mommy was busy so why not snuggle as close as she could get?

Another great story of the month that shows a lot about Ava's patient, careful, obedient and tidy personality happened just yesterday. I gave her her milk cup in the afternoon and she took it into the living room. I was in the kitchen and heard, "Uuuh..." a few times as if to say, "Um, mom? Something isn't right". She makes this noise a lot so I didn't go in until she continued to do it without coming to usher me toward her problem (no doubt a lost toy, I thought). After a minute, I went looking for her only to find her holding onto the side of my desk with milk spilled all over the floor, her feet mid-puddle! I said, "Oh dear, ok, hang on", went to get some paper towels and then began wiping. I started near the kitchen and as I got closer to her feet realized I was out of paper towels. So again, I said, "Hang on sweetheart, mommy needs to get more towels". Ava replied, "yeah" and continued to hold on to the desk leg, unwavering from her milky spot. I came back and tackled the largest puddle surrounding her feet. She patiently lifted one foot, let me dry it and the floor beneath her, then the other foot and floor. Once she was in the clear she stepped back and quietly watched me clean the rest of the spatter from walls and chair legs. All of this took a solid three or four minutes and where another kid might be stomping in the milk, rainy-puddle style, or come running into the kitchen with milky feet, angry that their precious milk was no longer drinkable, my darling girl just waited patiently TWICE while I went to get towels and clean her up. It amazes me the awareness she has at such a young age, the care and again, the patience! What a sweet little heart she has!

In other news: Ava has graduated to size 5 diapers (I was so glad to use the last of those size 4's!) and is getting at least one more tooth soon. I can see it just behind the gums in the top, left-center spot. There also may be one on the bottom right but we'll have to wait and see. "Any day now" for Ava means at least two weeks from now so who knows! Her bottom two teeth which poked through two months ago are STILL not all the way up. She is a super slow tooth grower, that is for sure!