15 Sweet Things About Ava

I tried to come up with a list of 10, but the list kept growing. So, 15 things about Ava...

1. She LOVES her babydoll. She calls it her "bay-be-dah". She likes to give it (and all stuffed animals) a drink, or feed them. She brushes their teeth with her toothbrush, too.

2. She LOVES her oatmeal with dried cranberries, every morning. When we "slack" in the morning, she reminds me that she wants her "oh no" (oatmeal).

3. Lately she has been turning on her sound machine in the morning, which is within arm's length of her crib. (I wondered how it was still playing in the morning, when it automatically shuts off at night, after 30 minutes). Knowing she can reach this sound machine now (on her dresser), I have a feeling we'll have a "climber" soon. We may be destined for a big-girl bed soon...

4. She LOVES to pray, and actually requests that we pray (how sweet is that?). Before we eat, she puts one hand on top of the other while we pray, waits until the end of the prayer and says "may-men".

5. She sings her ABC's (and other songs) in the crib before she goes to sleep, plays with her babydoll and pats it on the back. Right now she actually knows to sing the letters A,B,C,D,E,F & G, but the rest of the letters all sound alike.

6. Every morning we give her an infant syringe full of Norwegian cod liver oil (in her mouth). We've been doing this as long as I can remember. She opens her mouth willingly and downs it without flinching. Some people think this is torture... Most people are amazed that she does this without fighting it. I tried it myself and almost gagged once. She seems to do fine with it! And I saw on Oprah yesterday that adults should be taking a daily dose, too. Yikes. I might have to work up to that one...

7. She loves to brush her teeth by herself, and could do this for 30 minutes every morning, if we let her...

8. At night, before she goes to bed, she'll often stand on a stepstool in the middle of the living room, dance and says "Ta-da!"

9. She is ALWAYS pulling her socks and shoes off. I hope this phase ends before Winter gets too cold!

10. She loves Elmo and The Wiggles. Whenever familiar songs come on, she tries to sing with them, dance, and spin in circles.

11. She recently started saying "hello", and now says it repeatedly. When she says it, it sounds like "hah-ro". (Think "A Christmas Story" the movie, the Chinese restaurant, "Deck the halls with balls of ha-ree, Fa Ra Ra Ra Rah, Rah, Rah, Rah, Rah").

12. She loves apples and pears. We frequently can't make it through the grocery store without Ava pointing out the apples or pears (both termed apples, at this point). I give in, letting her have an apple while I'm getting some much-needed grocery shopping done. When at a local store, Ava started crying when I momentarily took the apple away from her for it to be weighed with the rest of the apples. A woman behind me was amazed that a kid would cry for an apple. The woman asked if Ava knew what candy was, yet. We give her some very occasionally, but for some reason she just LOVES her apples, and requests them by name. :-)

13. Whenever we tell Ava we're going to the park, her eyes light up. She says "par!, par!". When we pull-in the driveway of the local park, she gets CRAZY happy with excitement.

14. When she is ready for a bath or ready to leave the house with Doug in the morning, she says "bye" to me, all the animals and objects in the house, separately. "Bye-bye, Mama," "Bye-bye, babydoll," "Bye-bye, doggie", etc. It's funny when she does this before a bath, because she'll see these things again in a matter of a few minutes... Too funny.

15. When she hugs, she often gives you a good squeeze, shakes from side to side and says "oh oh oh" (think "Ho Ho Ho" backward).

She's been some serious fun lately!

With love,
Shelly, Doug and Ava