20 months!

So, it's been a very long while since I posted last! I've had such good intentions of posting several times in the past month since we've had so much going on with Ava. But, I feel totally 100% busy to the max, and when I have an extra minute (although I really need an extra hour!), I just don't have the energy to be cute and witty on this thing. So, forgive me for the massive post today...and for not being cute or witty!

Ava is growing so fast now and is truly amazing us everyday with the amount of stuff she knows! Her vocabulary is growing by the day. She'll pretty much repeat just about anything we say, and it usually only takes us telling her one time before she's walking around the house repeating it to herself! It's such a fun time with her, but I do find myself getting a little sad that she's kinda almost (but not quite!!) a little girl. :( Here she is already stealing my money!
We've been trying to get the house ready to be put on the market, and one of the things we're fixing up is the yard. Planting flowers and laying mulch and stuff. We, when we were done, we ran the sprinklers...and Ava hasn't really seen the sprinklers since we don't run them in the cooler months...well, they turned on and she walked right into the darn thing and was totally caught of guard and ended up completely soaked! I scooped her right up and told her it was water and she recovered quickly...but here's the aftermath!
We went to a place called Paines Prairie here in Gainesville which is a huge nature preserve with wild horses, buffalo, alligators, birds, and other wild animals. It was really cool, and Ava LOVED looking at all the animals. (I can't wait to bring her to a zoo)! Here are her and Patrick checking out a small group of wild horses!Ava's starting to eat a little better lately. She's finally starting to do a good job eating meat. She mostly likes hotdogs (which she'll ask for by name now!) and chicken. She discovered that she likes pudding too! :)A week before Easter, our neighborhood had an Easter egg hunt. Ava had a great time...she got one egg. It had a balloon attached to it. You can see her blue balloon sitting in her car in the picture below. She was so fucused on that one egg that by the time I was able to get her to leave the balloon behind, all the other eggs where gone. But she didn't care! Here she is with her Elmo Easter basket and the hat she picked out all by herself! :) In her egg was a lolly pop which she lovingly called "pop!"
Catcher is a very good sport! The balloon is tied to his neck! Sweet Catcher and AvaAva carried the balloon around with her all day. We tried to tie it to her wrist or her belt loop, but she wanted nothing to do with that. So, she was in the backyard carrying the balloon around hours after she got it, and all of a sudden we heard, "help, help, help." I went outside and she was pointing to the sky....and there was her balloon floating away. I told her that the balloon went bye-bye into the sky, and she looked at me and said- "down." She wanted the balloon to come back down. Well...we watched the balloon until we couldn't see it it anymore, she took a nap, and after her nap she went right back outside and said, "down." She got upset and almost cried since the balloon couldn't come back down. So, what did we do?? We went to publix and got a new balloon. :) Then Ava's world was complete once again.

So, people still think Ava is a boy when we're out in public. I mean, I guess I can understand when she's wearing semi-neutral clothes with that straight hair that hangs straight down her forehead....but COME ON, when she's wearing pink ruffles?!?! I'm telling you, it happens all the time. Usually with older people. So, I wanted to get her some bows. However, Ava is kinda the anti-girl. She doesn't want any bows, rubber bands, headbands, etc in her hair. She loves to hold all of those things and put them in my hair...but the second I try them in her hair, she grabs them and says, "no bow, no bow" in a very pitiful voice. So, I have to try to sneak them in, and sometimes she doesn't realize they're in there....here's one of those times! So freakin' cute!
The MacMaster mouth! I love it!
Mommy and Ava just after I tricked her and got a hair clip in there! (This is the kind of shirt she wears when people say, "Oh he's so cute!" I mean, really??!?
Salsa is so wonderful with Ava, and they spend so much time together. Here, Ava is about to share her rock collection with Salsa. Very sweet.
So, everything is going so great! Ava is developing at lightening speed...it's really amazing. She completely understands everything we say. Sometimes we spell words out around her, and she's gotten to the point now where she freaking knows what we're spelling! (example: "B-O-W")! She says so many words that are truly understandable and clear. She recognizes many letters and will tell me what they are when I point. She's starting to know her colors...so far, yellow ("lello") is her favortie, but she also can pick out red, blue, and purple. Amazing. I've got some videos and I'll post some soon of the letter stuff. She's just doing great, and I'm pretty excited that I'll soon be able to spend more good, quality mommy time with her (10 weeks and counting)!! I have a billion pictures of Ava during the last month, so here's more if you're interested!