A Picture Post

Just incase any of you are still on the fence about whether we have the most beautiful and adorable girl in the whole wide world, I will post a few new pictures to prove this. A few days ago we went to the playground that is right up the street, it had been a few weeks since our last visit and was Ava's first time REALLY loving it! She could do a lot more playing and climbing on her own and we got some great shots of her in action.

Even though this isn't the best picture I've ever taken,

I am in love with her face in this one! She looks so old in it... I don't know.

My beautiful girl and that sweet face just melt me!

There are many more new pictures in the album to the left, September 2010.

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!

Mommy's Girl

Ava has entered a stage where she won't nap well unless we play--hard. So yesterday we ran around outside for an hour, wrestled in the living room and then mommy needed a break. I laid down on the living room floor with a pillow under my head and took a breather while Ava continued to whirl with energy around me. A minute or two later, all was quiet and I couldn't see Ava in my periphery anymore so I sat up to find her. Low and behold, my little mommy's girl had pulled a pillow down from the couch, placed it on the floor behind my head and was lying down silently behind me, sucking her thumb. I nearly giggled with happiness at how adorable she was and what a sweet little heart she has!

Nurse Ava

Yesterday Ava and I were playing hide and go seek. During a particularly precarious "hide", I managed to cut myself on the faucet in the shower. Ava watched me apply Neosporin to the wound--uncap, swipe the ointment with my finger and delicately tend to my scratch.

Fast forward about two hours. I was unpacking a few things and handed Ava a box of unopened toothpaste to hold while I went about my business. I put away the other boxes of toothpaste and made my way into the kitchen. A minute later, Ava comes in saying, "Ducky? Ducky?", finds her Ducky on the kitchen floor and then disappears again into the living room. I didn't think much of it until I heard an unusual noise coming from Ava. I followed her into the living room to find Ducky splayed on the couch, the toothpaste box opened, cap flipped, toothpaste all over Ava's index finger and a delicate glob on Ducky.

My initial, "Ooh, no no" (after I saw the look of horror and disappointment on my daughter's face) was quickly replaced with, "Ava, were you putting ointment on Ducky's boo boo?" To which she replied proudly, "Yeah!"

Unfortunately what followed was a re-capping of the toothpaste-ointment and a few minutes of sobbing from nurse Ava who's supplies had been seized. Thankfully, Ducky came out of the ordeal only slightly stickier and smelling fresh, and mommy got another reminder of how smart and caring her little girl is.

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.

Snuggles and Bathtime

Two things worth mentioning this month that didn't seem to make it into the '16 Months' post. Ava is going through a phase, two actually, one which I never want to end and one which I hope ends as soon as possible.

The last couple of weeks Ava has entered the long awaited stage where she again wants to cuddle into my shoulder before she goes to sleep or when she is scared or tired. When she was an infant I thought there was nothing better but really, she had no choice--she could barely hold her head up. Now, she wants to snuggle mommy! Ahh, it melts me. The only drawback is that she weighs 25 pounds so I can only hold her for so long before my back begins to give out. I wish I had a picture of one of these moments but they are almost always right before bed and I'm sure she would lift her head as soon as the camera was in sight. Maybe I can get someone to snap a few when she is no doubt exhausted during our beach vacation next week!

The second phase (that I am praying really is a phase) is Ava's hatred of baths. She has never really enjoyed them but they've now turned into me holding her in a sitting position while she screams and I do a barely passable job at cleaning her. It takes ten minutes to get the bath ready and approximately 8 seconds for her to be soaking wet, wrapped in a towel in my arms and screaming for her ducky. Some days I can calm her down enough to be distracted by a toy while I wet her down but most times I'm not that lucky. I thought all babies loved water but that's not the case with this one! I've resorted to pouring water right over her head--she's going to cry anyway, may as well get it over with fast! Poor girl. Did no one tell her that bathtime is supposed to be fun?

16 Months

Our baby girl is growing up. Yet another month has gone by and has been filled with many new accomplishments.

New words: down, boom, no, oh no, "sh" (shoe), poo poo, up, yes, yeah, Bible, amen, puppy, brush, and her first real sentence-- "do that"!

New signs: Ava does all the signs in her book now but the newest one that she actually uses is for "help me". This was an exciting mastery for her because now she can run around the corner into the kitchen at full speed signing, "help! help!" and then lead me to the box on which she'd like to precariously balance, or point to the toy she's managed to lodge somewhere unreachable. My favorite use of the sign thus far was when we put Ava in her new big-girl carseat for our latest trip. She hasn't really seen the whole back seat since she's used to being cocooned in her infant seat. After about fifteen minutes of driving and checking out her new digs, she starts to fuss, then points to a big black smudge on the ceiling of the car... her eyes get wide and she looks at me through her little mirror and signs furiously, "help me!". Oh my sweet, OCDish little baby.

This month has marked a new stage in our communication with Ava as she's begun the inevitable "yes" and "no". Though I've yet to get used to hearing, "no no no!" from my compliant girl, it is so much fun to actually be able to converse with her and have her not only answer my questions but see her eyes get excited at the prospect of going outside or eating a treat and hearing, "yeah!". You can hear these yeah's in the video I posted of Ava eating yogurt just below this.

Some other new motor achievements have been getting up and down off of things by herself and being able to use the stairs with much more confidence. Today for the first time we caught her going down the stairs by herself... yikes! Now we know that gate can't be left open! She is also very good at holding on to me and lifting up one leg and then the other in order to step into pants or put shoes on.

Ava has visited the pool a few times this month and we have a new addition to our outdoor play: a little pink inflatable pool that is not much bigger than a large bowl but gets the job done. Ava is definitely not a water baby, she hates baths and is not one of those who loves spashing around. But, our little pool with one inch of water in it is just enough to cool her down on these hot days and still allow her to play outside. She's also started trying to drink out of a cup! This is a drenching operation but she LOVES it and I love watching her learn, cool off and be such a big girl!

A couple weeks ago we got Ava a little froggy potty and an Elmo potty book which she loves. We aren't beginning the potty-training process by any means, she is definitely not ready, but we are trying to get her interested in and familiar with the concept. For now she is learning the words, likes to stand in her potty and put her dolls on the potty!

The sweetest thing that has happened this month is Ava has started to pray. I have had a difficult time since Ava was born with my own spiritual life, finding time and energy and ways to grow in my relationship with God. Little did I know, God was providing the motivation I needed through my daughter! In the last few weeks, Ava has learned to pray and often four or five times throughout meals will cross her arms over her body and look up at me, "Peecum?". I say, "Do you want to pray?" and she says, "Yeah!". So we pray. Usually for our food, thanking God for mommy, daddy, Ava and whoever or whatever else we think of. And at the end we get a cute, "Amen" from the little squeaker. I thought it was adorable and didn't think much of it until I realized that I'm actually feeling closer and more connected to God simply by thanking him for a few small things throughout the day! It isn't a lot, but God's so blessing that time and drawing me closer to him. I am so grateful and I am even more in awe of how he's continuing to bless and surprise me through Ava. What a darling, sweet little heart, who doesn't know who Jesus is but still loves to read her Bible and pray to him all the time. It is magical to watch his name become a part of her vocabulary and to watch the whole revelation of Jesus from start to finish.

We give God all the thanks for our beautiful family, our precious girl and for blessing us so much!

Feeding herself Yogurt

This is probably one of those videos that I think is a lot more adorable than it actually is, but, here you go anyway! I still am amazed at the amount of pride I feel when my baby girl does something that non-parents would consider mundane, but to me is absolutely magical! She speaks! She eats! She puts things away in the right place! And in that moment I have the best, smartest, most beautiful baby ever to walk the earth. Really.

In this video, listen for two of Ava's favorite words, "yeah" and "yum" and witness her skills (or lack thereof) using a spoon to feed herself yogurt.

Frozen Waffles and Strawberries

I have been saying for months that Ava has been teething but with no teeth to show for it yet! This week we've had one of our worst episodes yet-- 101 fever, screaming through the night and wanting nothing but mommy to hold her during the day. Motrin only begins to take the edge off.

Of course, this round of teething happens to fall on Blair's two busiest work weeks of the summer and he has been gone for up to 16 hours a day. So, leave it to mom to pull out any and every option for calming the fussy baby. During a past teething week, I got a great tip from a friend and it has been our go-to remedy. Frozen waffles! When badly teething Ava refuses to eat most things, she will always welcome a frozen waffle to gum with her sore little mouth. Add in some frozen strawberries and you've got a perfect meal for a teething lady!

Plus, the secret ingredient for soothing my crying girl? The theme song from "The Office"! If I sing it or play it from iTunes, she is a happy camper for those thirty seconds and then says, "gain! (a)gain!"

Now if only all this energy would produce even just one tooth! I'm beginning to think they will never come...

Dad's Day

Here is a post to celebrate this home's favorite dad. Yesterday we went swimming and enjoyed a yummy dinner at the Outback Steakhouse, one of Blair's favorite spots. Ava had a blast; now that she is older she loves going out and we love it too! She was so cute waddling around in her gold sandals, waving at everyone who would pass by and eating more cheerios than could fit in her belly. After dinner we stopped at Target and for the first time Ava went cart-less and was allowed to roam the children's book section! Delight. Favorites included every Elmo book of course (especially the ones with musical buttons) and the Toy Story displays.

Ok now, back to Dad. Blair is such a wonderful husband and naturally a great father to Ava. Her eyes light up when he walks in the room and gets a high pitched, "Hiiii!" from her every time. Most often though, even without prompting, on sight of daddy Ava turns into what we call "Crazy Lady", spinning and running until she falls over, trying to run away from daddy while somehow running towards him at the same time. Getting chased by daddy is Ava's absolute favorite activity, whether or not he's actually initiated the chasing process. So, #1, daddy is FUN.

In the morning, usually after breakfast, Ava gets down from her highchair and almost always says, "daddy!" and runs for our bedroom door where daddy is sleeping. She of course lets herself in and Blair wakes up to a shriek of Ava excitement. One day a few weeks ago though I shut the door and Ava started knocking and yelling for her daddy. I said, "shh, daddy is sleeping" and so Ava followed suit and knocked lightly, whispering, "shhh, daddy?". #2 Daddy is LOVED and WANTED and MISSED when he isn't around!

Lastly, Blair is the most gentle and caring father I've ever seen and is so great with his little girl. I appreciate these qualities in his dealings with me and even more so in how he raises our baby. She (again, like me) is quite a sensitive girl and I love how Blair nurtures this part of her. #3, He is a very THOUGHTFUL and SWEET daddy and Ava loves him sooooo much!

We love and appreciate you so much dah-dee! Happy Father's day!

Yummm

In Ava's 15 month post I tried to list a comprehensive account of her words at this age. This morning she reminded me of one I forgot! YUM YUM YUM!

Also worth noting: Ava LOVES Cracklin Oat Bran and every morning talks me into giving her a few pieces of my cereal. The problem is it needs to sit in milk for at least fifteen minute before it is soft enough for her little gums to chew! But when the time comes, she devours her portion and says, "Yum yum yum...". She prefers these even over cheerios! Hopefully someday, after her teeth are in, we can snack on this treat more easily.

15 Months

Ava is 15 months old and just had her latest well baby visit. She is 24lbs (in the 69th percentile) and 29 3/4 inches (one inch taller than she was at a year). For the second time in a row they measured her wrong at the doctors office so in their records she is much taller and in the 90th percentile for her age! Not true, I'd say she's much closer to average.

Her sense of humor is off the charts and she loves to laugh and make us laugh at the simplest things. Example: Just yesterday Blair snuck up behind Ava and yelled, "Boo!", thus introducing Ava to her new favorite activity. This was quite surprising as she still cries at loud or unexpected sounds, is very cautious of new things and gets startled easily, but this she loved! We have since been taking every opportunity to scare her and she runs around the house saying, "Bo! Bo!" and laughing hysterically. She hasn't gotten the surprise factor down yet though, Blair was lying on the floor this afternoon and Ava walked over, put her face three inches away from his and said, "Bo."

Ava is getting very good at her baby sign language and loves reading her Baby Signs book and practicing. She can do the signs for milk, more, all done and please, and uses them regularly around the house. My favorite is when she looks at me with those sweet little eyes, points to a cookie or some other treat and signs, "please?". How can I resist?

At 15 months Ava has about 11 words that she says regularly including hi, hello, daddy, mama, ducky, ball, uh oh, thank you and good job (both sound very similar and resemble, "tah tu" and "do do"), banana (baba) and just yesterday, Elmo (melmo)! I feel like she must say more words than this since she communicates with me constantly but I'm realizing not everyone is fluent in her babble and body language! She has also continued this month to grow in her babbling technique; adorable sentences come out often and we have so much fun trying to translate. She loves to talk on the phone, she'll walk around with it at her ear and I'll hear gibberish with the occasional "daddy" as she talks. My favorite is when she gets sad and she'll come to me with a pouty lip and babble for a good thirty seconds as if to say, "Mommy, you said I could go outside but I'm not outside yet!"

Ava's also become very interested in dressing herself this last month, though almost everything goes over or on top of her head. She loves going through my drawers and putting on whatever she can find, though embarrassingly enough that is usually my "delicates". Just as long as this dress up party doesn't happen while company is over. She loves trying to put on and take off her shoes and oh yes-- brushing her "hair" and putting makeup on with mommy in the morning. She has her own blush brush and old foundation tub, watches me putting mine on and then brushes on her cheeks and wherever else she feels like. She is a mommy's girl and I love it!

Other big girl things that Ava is doing include washing herself in the tub (she also loves washing her feet with a wipe on the changing table) and climbing up stairs! She is however very afraid of going down stairs and trembles at the top if the gate is open. She is getting better at pointing to body parts too, her favorite of which is her belly!

I mentioned that Ava loves playing with her pots and pans, spoons and bowls, but this month she has perfected the skill of taking the lid off of a milk carton. This is one of her favorite things to do so we've given her a carton of her very own and she enjoys twisting the lid on and off. For her birthday from her Aunt Erin and Uncle Jon she received an ingenious gift, a plethora of wooden fruits, veggies and breads that are held together by velcro and come with a wooden knife and cutting board. These last few weeks she's gotten much better at actually putting each item on the cutting board and cutting through the velcro slits with her knife, and of course tasting each piece and offering up her goods!

This month we went swimming for the first time with Ava (that she remembers), and she loved it! We weren't sure what to expect since she doesn't love the bath and doesn't like getting her face wet, but she did very well. She loved bouncing through the water with us, playing with the balls and noodles that our local YMCA provides and watching all the other swimmers. We also took our first visit to the Philadelphia Zoo this month with Heather, Nat and Ava's cousin Miles. It was, again, a treat to see her react to all the new things and to seeing in person the animals she's read about. She especially loved the monkeys and gorillas and did all her animal sounds on cue! We checked out the children's petting zoo but Ava was not so sure about this whole petting-dirty-animals-among-hundreds-of-other-kids thing. She at least stretched a hand out to pet a goat and a sheep and then promptly fell and stuck her hands in goat poop. Mommy was delighted, to say the least. All in the name of new experiences!

On the matter of teeth: There are still none to speak of and frankly I'm tired of writing, "any day now!" since she was 6 months old. We've had many nights and days of tough teething and were convinced she'd pop one or two out by morning but alas... nothing. I won't say that she should have teeth in the next month or two, I am done guessing. But, I can say firmly that there are at least 6 teeth that are visible under her gums and yes, will come before she goes to kindergarten.

Ok, now on to boring details of size and schedule for mommy to keep track of her growing girl:

At 15 months Ava's between 18 and 24 mos clothes, fitting into 2T in some items. She is wearing size 4 diapers.

Her bedtime routine consists of changing into pj's, drinking milk and reading books with daddy around 7:30, then she sleeps until at least 8:30am and often as late as 9:30am! She also takes two 2-hour naps (on a good day). She has stayed true to her infant self and loves her sleep (as do I).

If you missed them with the last post, check out the most current pictures of our sweet girl in the albums to the left!

A Picture Post

There are a ton of new pictures in the albums "May 2010" and "June 2010" to the left. Here's a sneak peek of what Ava's been up to this last month!

14 Months... came and went!

I am a little shocked that Ava's 14 month birthday came and went and I have yet to update our blog. We have had a very busy month and Ava's been even busier! We have a million new pictures (stay tuned, I will get them posted eventually) and much to report of our growing girl.

Here are some new things Ava is doing:

1. Cleaning One of her new favorite activities is to ask for a tissue/wipe/cloth and go around "cleaning" everything in sight. We've known of her love for cleanliness for a few months now as she regularly comes over and hands me little "fuzzies" to throw out, but now she likes to throw things away herself! She will pick food off the floor, sometimes eat it, sometimes throw it out, and will take over to the trash anything else she deems worthy. We are working on the selection process as I've caught her throwing away tupperware and taking yogurt lids off the top of the trash to play with...

2. Cooking She also spends much of her time stirring in whatever bowl or pot she can find and then eating and offering up whatever delicious imaginative food she's made!

3. Climbing There will be pictures to follow documenting this new hobby. Ava loves to empty out baskets and bins and climb inside, and then out, and then back in, turn over anything that might get her higher and then climb on top, use her step stool to look out the window or hop up onto a chair. Pretty much anything that her wobbly little legs can climb, she has tried! She'll even turn over a puzzle and hop on top in triumph, a quarter of an inch higher than she was before. Ta da! Surprisingly she hasn't succeeded in climbing out of her crib yet and for that we are grateful.

4. Babbling In the last week or two Ava's babbling has really picked up and she now strings together sentences of incomprehensible words. It must be so frustrating, trying to get her point across so adamantly and not knowing why we don't understand! She takes it all in stride though and thankfully we can usually figure out what she means in context. I look forward to there being more real words to listen for! She is now interested in trying to say words though which is very cute.

"Ava, say strawberry"

"Bobetty"...

"Close, say STRAWberry"

"Blubunam"

"Good try honey..."

5. Walking and Jumping I know this has been a post topic for months now but we can now say that Ava is a 100% walker and very good at it! Not yet a runner but she loves walking and exploring her independence. This has made her much more gregarious in public, going up to strangers at Starbucks, picking gift cards off the rack at Giant and handing out merchandise to shoppers at garage sales we visit. Ava has also started "jumping", though her feet never leave the ground. It is the cutest thing you'll ever see, "Ava, can you jump?"--the fists clench by her sides, she squats and then pushes up with all her might and a big "Wooo!".

6. Animal Sounds These are the things we pull out and show off at parties. Ava can growl like the Nittany Lion, moo, meow, pant, and the newest addition is the cutest little monkey "ooh ooh ahh" you ever heard.

Here are some pictures of our precious girl, so proud of her new talent!