18 Months of Pure Bliss!!

Ava-cakes is 18 months old already! She has never been more fun than she is right now. Gosh, I wish time would just stand still so I can soak up every last bit of her! She's talking, running, jumping, following directions, pretending, and changing before our very own eyes everyday.

Ava's word bank is huge! She says about 30+ words (of course we've counted!) including...daddy, mommy, kitty, bye, hi, hot, cup, dink (drink), cheese (her favorite!), cacka (cracker), orsh (portia), bobble (bottle), gah (gone), boo-boo, shoes, and many, many more that I can't recall at this very moment. She shakes her head "no" when she doesn't want something and is catching onto nodding her head "yes" when she does want something. Too cute...

She knows every part of her body and points to it when you ask her too--even her teeth! She follows directions really well...ahem--so far. :) I'll say, "take this to daddy please" or "throw that away please" and sure enough, she does it! She's started to associate things with us as well, such as daddy's clothes, mommy's purse, etc. I was folding clothes today and I was hanging one of Eric's shirts up and Ava pointed at the shirt and said, "dats daddys." So cool to see her thinking and putting concepts together. When we get ready to leave the house, she grabs her little purse, puts it on her shoulder, and says "bye keety, bye keety" and waves bye-bye to the kitty. Her and that sweet little voice of hers makes me just wanna gobble her up!! She had her 18 month checkup this week and our little heifer weighs 27 lbs and is 33 inches tall. Dr. Brown seemed pretty pleased with her development and told us to take in all that we can of her at this stage because it goes by so fast..not that we haven't noticed that already! He said she would probably catch onto potty training really quickly, so we could start trying that out if we wanted. Our baby is nearly a full fledged toddler...it won't be long before she's talking in sentences and telling us what she wants! Hmmm...makes me almost ready to fill this house with another tiny one! I said, almost ready... ;o)

She loves berries and cheese (like, with every square inch of her heart!), having lunch outside, wearing mommy & daddy's shoes around the house, just being outside--rain or shine!, playing with other kids, going on walks with "orsh", trying to dress herself (and undress herself!), running around the house half nakie, dancing! (usually half nakie!), looking for airplanes, and rough-housing with her daddy--matter of fact, she likes anything that revolves around her daddy. She's in love with him. Head. Over. Heels. It's a very interesting phenomenon. They dance together, romp around together, eat kettle-style popcorn together, tinker in the garage together, and she steals piggy-back rides from him at every opportunity...it's unbelievable. They have become best buddies. We can't walk through the garage to the car without Ava pointing to daddy's 4 wheeler and saying, "daddys," and when I load the dishwasher and she sees his favorite cup that he always drinks out of, again she says, "daddys." And when he comes home from work--oooooohhhh, it's all over...mama's immediately chopped liver! Haha! I love seeing those two together...I hope they always stay so sweetly close.

Really...you just gotta love her... in all her ornery glory.

Yummo! Tuna salad sandwich dipped in yogurt! Eww. She dips everything in yogurt!

Ava and "Orsh"

On airplane watch! She looooves looking for airplanes!

There it is!!

She loves getting under our covers on our bed...and brushing her teeth in our bed. :)

Gotta try out the foot of the bed, too!