Ava-21 months old today!

There's my girl! That was this morning. She loves to sit on the counter top. We have gotten into a bad habit of letting her do it, but she just likes to be in the mix. Mike was making his coffee and I gave her a small bowl of Captain Crunch. 

These past 21 months have flown by. I will probably say that every time, but they sure do. Ava is such a blessing in our lives and I can't imagine it without her. She is silly yet serious, shy yet curious, strong willed yet compassionate....

Ava's silly side. She loves to laugh. If I laugh, she will laugh.My favorite is when I am laying down next to her with my eyes closed, she will stick her face right up to mine and open her eyes really wide until I open mine and then we will laugh.  She will do things over and over again if she gets a laugh.

She is very compassionate. She currently concerned about her bunny, bobo's eye. She has torn half of it off and we are going to have to perform surgery on it next week to fix it, but every time she bites it, she gives it a sad look and kisses it.  If someone has a booboo-owie, she will kiss it. If you are sad, she will come sit next you you.

Her latest is saying oh-tay, ava speak for okay. When she plays with her toys she is constantly saying oh-tay, oh-tay, over and over again, as if she is talking to them. It is super cute.

She is communicating so much too. She will let you know what she wants and what she doesn't. The other night at dinner, she kept saying "bray", which i decoded to be "break". She was holding her red bell pepper and then would make the motion of tearing it apart, letting me know that it was too big and she wanted it broken into smaller pieces. She really does understand more than I give her credit for.

She really enjoys her veggies. She is not your typical kid in the sense that she does not like mac-n-cheese, hot dogs and chicken fingers or broccoli with cheese. She will eat her veggies really well, unlike her mama, but she likes them either steamed or with a little bit of butter. At the end of the day, if all she eats is her veggies from dinner, i am OK with that. It could be worse....

Recently on our nightly walks, we will walk around the block and when we get to the end of our street, we let her walk home. I will walk ahead with the stroller and about 1 minute after I walk away, I hear her yell, "mama" and when I turn to look, she is running as fast as her little legs will carry her to me. We make it a game of "you can't get me". I will take a video, because watching her run is the cutest thing in the world. One arm is down and the other arm is bent moving in circles like a train propelling her along!

Happy 21st Month Birthday Ava, we love you!