24 months!

Finally! I know...I'm so sorry. I thought life would get easier, calmer, and less busy when I was done with school...but I was mistaken! :) Anyway, sorry for the delay...

So, Ava's TWO! Wow.

I keep thinking she's still my little baby...and she is, darn it! But, she just seems so grown up sometimes! I feel like she's really changed a lot in the past month- she's doing so much, understanding everything, having real, honest-to-goodness conversations with me, singing, talking in amazing sentences, and getting SO looong! ;) She's a total handful! But, I think we're pretty lucky, because even though sometimes she really pushes my buttons, for the most part, she is pleasant, happy, and willing and wanting to please! We haven't really seen any "tantrums" to date. Every now and then, she'll let out a squeal, but it's mostly to see if we'll look at her and give her the attention she, obviously, wants! Little stinker. :) Though, we have started to implement the "time out chair." She gets 2 minutes (a minute for each year of her age)...but she doesn't seem to quite get it...or care! She'll stand up in her seat, and I'll tell her that if she does it again she'll have to go to time out. Then she'll start to stand, and I'll say, "Ava...do you want to sit in time out??" And she says...."yes." Ugh. And when she does sit there, she just sings, talks, plays with the wall...she just really doesn't care yet. I guess one day she probably will....but it doesn't make for a very effective "time out" quite yet! :) Ha!

We've really settled in quite nicely to the Lakehouse. We're enjoying it up here, and we've taken Ava out on the boat several times, which she loves! The only down side is that there's really not a good place to play outside, and I now she misses that! It's not too bad right now, because it's pretty hot, and when we're outside we're usually down by the lake or on the boat...but when the weather starts to cool off (like it kinda did today!), she's gonna want to get out and PLAY! We'll have to find a local park!!

Her little ponytail is trying to grow! :)Here she is having a lunch picnic on the screened in porch just before heading down to the boat!Loves to play Hide-and-Seek...this is her most favorite place to hide. She goes here every time!!
So, for those of you who don't already know, Ava started PRE-SCHOOL a few weeks ago! I had every intention of posting on her first day with pictures and the summary, but life got in the way! So, I'll just mention that it was a rough start (for her AND me!), but things are going much better these days! I'll make a separate post for that one! :) Promise!

She had her 24 month check up, and she's doing great! Still a total peanut, weighing in at 23lbs with clothes! That's the 8th %!! Her height, however, is in the 40th % at 33.75 inches! Then they started asking me thinking like, does she have 20-50 words, does she socialize, does she stack things, etc. The nurse (who was asking these questions) didn't have to wait on my answer for most of them since Ava WOULDN'T SHUT UP IN THERE!! We weren't really paying her a bit of attention (trying to get through all those questions!), but she didn't care!- she pointed out (and named the colors of!) all the tiles on the floor, the desk, the walls...and when that was done, she just continued to talk to herself while occasionally interrupting me to tell me about her new sticker! Needless to say, the child can SPEAK!! :) Anyway, everything looked great! We're lucky to have such a healthy little girl. Very rarely do I go many days without thinking about how blessed we are to have a healthy baby. :)

So, on to the fun stuff...I have tons of videos, but honestly, I'm too tired and too busy to figure out how to get them on my stupid computer and post them here (I just got an iMac, which I LOVE, but am still figuring out)!! But some of my favorite sayings lately are: "no like that", "no do/say that" (when we're doing something she doesn't want us to), "luh you so much too", "more blackbabies/bluebabies/strawbabies peese" (HILARIOUS!!! I mean, come ON! How can you not laugh at that?!), "put on the baby suit" (bathing suit!)....I could go on and on with the things that come out of her mouth! So innocent and sweet. :) Patrick recently downloaded some children's songs on my iPod ("iPot" as Ava says)...she sings then ALL THE TIME now and requests them when we're in the car. Her #1 requested song is the "Baby Bus Song" (which is, "The Wheels on the Bus")! She's got a great rendition of Twinkle, Twinkle and the ABC's too...I'll have to try to get them on video. For the ABC's- my favorite is the "L,M,N,O,P" part- she says "Elmo- P"!! So freakin' cute!! :)

She's also learned how to spell her name...just ask her! (Ok, so it's not like it's a hard name to spell...but I thought that was pretty good)! Her name is written on almost all of her books, and I always read it to her and then spell it out....and it just stuck! Now, when she plays with her magnet letters or her little letters in the bucket, she always searches for A-V-A! In fact, tonight, she had the 'A' and the 'V' and said, "take these in the crib!" She didn't want to put them away! So cute! She's also finally starting to say "Kindregan" and it sounds pretty good...something like 'Kin-de-gin'. One of the things that I was SHOCKED by, though, is that she freaking counts to 10 in SPANISH!! No joke. Not even kidding. One day, we were making dinner and she was watching Dora and they were counting in Spanish...they got to five, and before they said it, Ava said, "cinco." Patrick and I looked at each other like...did she really just say "cinco?" We thought maybe it was a fluke...but the next day (I didn't hear it the first time, but Uncle Ian and Uncle Pat did), she just straight up counted to 10...in Spanish! She actually counts in Spanish a little better than English! Thanks very much to Dora for that!! :) Smart little booger she is...my little bilingual baby! ;)

Laslty- we just had her 2nd birthday party last weekend...I had it at my parents house again- poolside. It was nice and chill- family only. It was a Mermaid themed party, and Ava couldn't stop talking about her "mermaid bir-day par-tee" ever since she saw the mermaid invitation! I just had too much going on to have a big to do! So, it was really nice. Ava talked for an entire week about her "racecar" she assumed she was getting (since Keegan got one for his 2nd birthday the week before). It's a Wiggle Racer...we discovered it when we went to Kiawah- they had it there and Ava loved it! So, I told Michee and Pop about it and suggested it as a b-day gift. We got one for Keegan for his b-day too. Well, Ava loves it and rides it all over the house. Her other big gift was a dollhouse from Grandpa Mike and Bobbi. She adores that and plays with it several times everyday. Really loves it. Bobbi pulled out Aunt Sarah's old dollhouse from when she was little, and Ava just couldn't get enough...so, now she has one of her very own here at the Lakehouse! I WISH I had her face on video when she realized what it was. It was so, so sweet. Then she turned around and ran right to Grandpa Mike and gave him a huge hug. A very sweet 'thank you.'

A few pictures for you!

Her pout. :) I swear she looks just like me in this picture! I've got to find some old pictures of me and post them side by side. Kinda scary sometimes! Since she loves to put all my bracelets on, she got a few for her birthday. She's tryin' em out! (Doesn't she look especially grown up here)?? :(

Loves to pretend to be like mommy, too! She's been loving to walk around in my heels. For as clumsy as she is, she's pretty good at it!
Ava has started to show interest in taking a shower instead of a bath, so I let her in with me. Now, every night, she says, "Ava take a sha-wah!" She thinks it's such a treat when she gets to get in the shower! After we get out, she likes to sit on the counter and try on my bracelets!
The perfect picture of a two year old! Tiara, Christmas PJ's (she'll cry for these!), a broom, her princess skirt, and a minivan from her dollhouse. I think she's just about got everything she needs! Here is is trying to avoid my ever-present camera! Poor thing. She's very much enjoying a left over birthday cupcake, though!

So, anyway...that catches you up (kinda)! I hope all is well with everyone! Here's a link to (quite a few- shocking!) pictures of Ava from her 24th month- it include first day of school, birthday party, and just regular pics all in one! It's a new link...I'm trying to post my pics on my MobileMe page now...instead of Picassa. One of the switches from a PC to a Mac. Let me know if it works!