18 months- House possibly sold

Playing in my crib "reading" a Biscuit book of course

I'm ready for school mama!

mmmm had a little fun with the do-doot.

So much to update on my sweet little Angel child. The last few weeks she has been just a sponge and is so eager to learn! Every morning I say Ava get your lunch box and she grabs her lunch box, walks to the door and says "bye bye Magna" and off we go! As we drive to school I play her CD with kids music on it and she bobs her head and dances all the way. Then when we get to school she squeals with excitement and wants to walk in by herself and carry her own lunch box. She even takes it to her cubby by herself and puts it away. Then we go into the class and she runs and hugs her teacher. She loves books and always brings the teacher a book to read to the class. Her teacher said "Ava is always taking care of David" I asked her what she does and the teacher said that David is the one that is usually lagging behind when they come in from outside and always wants the teachers to come carry him. So Ava will wait with him and then grab his hand and walk him into the classroom. They say it's really cute how nurturing she is with him. She never leaves him in the dust, but hangs back and helps him in. Now is that a sweet girl or what?

She loves playing the name your body parts game and we'll go through all of her body parts and she can point them all out and say them. Her new words are more, door, apple, Casper (apper), down, pants, night night, book (she says this a lot and we have to read lots of books over and over again), out, moo (cow), sheep, puppy dog and bow. Her new word for shoe is now foo. She also now tells me when she is about to go "potty" by doing the "potty" sign and saying "doo doo"

She's known what hot means for a long time, but now she has figured out cold. When it's cold outside she throws her arms up and shakes them together and says "brrrrr". It's been really fun watching her do the stuff she's learned in school, like the hand motions to itsy bitsy spider. She gets the biggest kick out of it. When I dropped her off at school today the teacher was reading a book and doing hand signals with the book. Ava stood there and watched her and tried her very best to imitate the hand signals. It was so cute!

I have to say that it feels really good knowing that Ava loves school so much. The fact that she gets excited to go and runs to her teachers makes me very happy. I always LOVED school when I was younger, so maybe she will be the same.

She is also trying to dress and undress herself. She has learned how to take her shoes and socks off and really wants to put them on but hasn't mastered that yet. Last weekend she left the room and came back in just her diaper and handed me her PJ's that she'd just removed all by herself!

As for us, we finally negotiated the offer on our house and now we are just waiting to sign the contract! Our only reservation is that they want a 60 day escrow, which is really long! If we go through the next two months thinking we've sold the house and then they back out I'm going to be so P.O.'d!!!! Praying they don't do that and we can move on with all of this. Still wondering where exactly we are going to go. Commute, schools etc...tough tough decisions!!!

Coincidence?? I think not.

Tonight the strangest thing happened. I always show Ava pictures and say the name of whoever is in the picture. If she can pronounce it, she'll repeat it back to me. One picture she always knows is my Memaw. I say "Ava who is this" and she gets a big grin on her face and says "Meme!"

So tonight I had taken a few things out of the front closet and set them on the end table. One of which was the Angel that goes on top of our tree. Memaw bought it for me years ago and it was on our tree when I lived with her and then she passed it on to me. It's beautiful. Anyway..the angel was sitting on the table by the front door. Ava was sitting on my lap on the couch and when she saw the Angel she jumped up and pointed at it and said Meme!! Then she ran to it, picked it up off the table and brought it to us with a big smile on her face, pointing to the angel and saying "Meme, Meme"

Even Steve was taken aback by that one...

Just makes me feel like Memaw is still with us and watching over my sweet baby.

Night Night Daddy

The sweetest thing to come out of Ava's mouth so far "night night dada"

I noticed the other day that she would take her lovey and cover up her baby and say "night night", I was so amused and so proud of her. Then she runs and gets the baby pacifier and puts it in the baby's mouth. My little sweetie!

So now when I go to put her down for the night she gives Steve a hug and a kiss and says "night night dada" It's so sweet and just melts his heart. We can't wait to hear the words "I love you"

In other news...we got an offer on our house! We are still in negotiations, but hoping it goes through so we can move on and figure out where we are moving our family. What a tough decision it is.

Vacation is over:( but hello 2010!!

We are very sad that today is our last day of vacation. We have been home with the doodle for almost 2 weeks now and it has been so great having all of us home! Of course Steve had a few hunting days in between but he wasn't gone long and has gotten to spend a lot of time with Ava.

Things Ava loves at 17 months:

• coloring! she loves coloring and will run and get paper by the computer, and put one scribble on each piece and move on to the next. I've found color on the floor, the coffee table and the walls, oh and can't forget some of her new Christmas toys. Luckily it didn't take much to teach her that wasn't an appropriate place to color.
• letting the dogs out of their kennels- first thing in the morning she runs to their kennels and lets them out and then giggles as they run to the bed and scurry under the covers.
• correcting the pets- She likes to run after the pets pointing her finger saying "no, no apper!" (no, no Casper) and then say "bad, bad, bad" We realized we need to teach her a more positive way to talk to the pets as they are not always being bad.
• Beating Magnum with whatever object she can find (she did not learn this from us). Steve is working on this bad habit today, but yesterday she clubbed him in the head with a wooden toy. Poor dog just takes it too.
• Elmo- nuff said
• Dancing! This child dances anytime she hears a tune. The second she hears music that bootie starts shaking and the head starts bobbing.
• imitating mommy and daddy- yesterday we went to look at houses out in Spring Trails and brought all of the plans home. She had all the plans on the coffee table and was pointing at different sheets and "talking" up a storm like she was figuring out which house we wanted and what plot of land we needed. It was the cutest thing ever! She had CLEARLY been watching us very closely.
• making a mess!
• being outside- she loves loves loves to be outside. Runs to her room saying "acket, acket" grabs her jacket, brings it to me and then runs to the back door.
• jumping- she makes Steve and I put her on the bed and bounce her up and down while she says "dump, dump, dump" she loves it.
• pulling cereal boxes out of the pantry and dumping them all over the floor.
• covering Casper up with blankets, place mats, or whatever else she can stack on him.
• Telling the dogs to sit sounds more like "shit" when she says it though.

Things Ava doesn't like at 17 months

• being around people she doesn't know or see very often. Suddenly she has major stranger anxiety. Hoping it's a phase and she'll grow out of it.
• being told "no"
• sitting in her high chair while we are out - used to be an angel, now not so much.
• car seat- yep still hates it. Thank goodness for Elmo!

So as most of you know we now have our house on the market. It's been pretty slow due to the Holiday's but we are hoping with the new year here now that people will be more willing to make a move and someone will buy this house. We aren't looking forward to moving to a place where we will have to commute into town, but we are looking forward to living in a family oriented neighborhood, with good schools and having lots of space! We are trying to decide between building in a master planned community or buying an existing home that's been updated. It all depends on the commute and what we can get for our money. Lot's of friends are trying to convince us to stay inside the loop. I know that is ideal as far as proximity and property value, but for what we want in a home, it's just not happening.

So here's to 2010 may it bring us and everyone we love good health, happiness, financial freedom/security etc... Too all of my beautiful friends having babies in 2010 (and there are a few of you) may God bless you with a strong, healthy, happy baby.

fashionista

Christmas Day

Ava had a wonderful Christmas and so did we. It was cold outside and we were able to use the fireplace and spend a warm cozy Christmas morning watching doodle enjoy all of her gifts from Santa. The first thing she did was run straight to the elmo see and say from Aunt Brenda. Ran right past her car, but noticed that 2nd and wanted in immediately. Once she discovered how to get in and out of the car, she wanted to enjoy each present while sitting in the car. At one point she loaded up her drum and little piano and Steve said "our little musician is going on the road, she's packed up her instruments and taking off"

Christmas eve night we went to the church service at St. Lukes, had dinner at Pappa's seafood where Ava was a terror (that's what we get for no nap), and then off to Meme and paw paw's for a small get together. She has so much fun with her uncle Allen, something about him just fascinates her and she gets the biggest kick out of him.

On Christmas day we spent a cozy morning at home and then we were off to grandmother and granddad's for the day. Ava was sooo excited about her Elmo live doll she got from them. It sings, tells jokes, toots and tells stories. When it sings she gets down and boogies and has a good ole time. I was totally caught off guard today. Elmo was talking and singing and Ava was sitting next to me on the couch. Then Elmo said.. "elmo thinks it's a good time for a nap, bye bye" and Ava said "bye bye Elmo" I was totally surprised!!! First time I've heard her put two words together like that.

We were laughing all afternoon after we left Grandmother and Granddad's house. They have a little yorkie named Sassy and Ava calls her "Assy" so all day she would call "aaaaassy, aaaassy", now she knows we think it's funny so she does it all the time. We also found out that she has a name for Casper. We thought she had been saying Apple all this time, but she's saying "Appuh" for Casper. Little toot.

My mom (Meme) got Ava some crayons to play with in the tub and Ava is nuts over them. I have found her in the tub fully clothed coloring all over the shower walls and side of the tub. She's so funny, can't believe she was able to crawl in by herself. Also found her in the living room coloring on the coffee table, good thing they wipe right off!

Thank you to everyone for all of Ava's wonderful gifts. She loves each and every one of them.

Here are a few pictures of Ava's 2nd Christmas.

Shortly after Santa left

reading my elmo book in my new ride

little drummer girl

On her mini bed at Granddad's

Just opened Elmo live

Doodlebug in her bug

Went in to the bathroom looking for Ava and found she had crawled in the tub to color with her new tub crayons from Meme

Later in the day I found my bathroom looking like this

More Christmas Pictures

Ava is very special, she got the Calin doll from Gigi and Papi. This is the same doll that Suri Cruise and Violet Affleck tote around. Ava's mothering skills leave a little to be desired though.

Mungovan Christmas

Look Ava, look how well I can accessorize

Trent you would look so much more fashionable with this doily on your head

Look out ladies!