Ava is definitely all girl - she will talk your ear off (and maybe you will understand 20% of it) and likes anything pretty/sparkly/shiny/pink or purple. She has well over 50 words and has been saying sentences since she was 15 months old. My favorite was at Christmas, when she was opening a gift bag of clothes from her Aunt Nickie, and proceeded to tell us "I like it" and "I wanna wear it." This week after she insisted that I paint her nails pink, I told her to go show her daddy, who was watching TV at the moment. She shook her head and said "He busy." She will also tell us that she wants to watch Elmo or that she is ready to eat, and has learned her manners signing and saying "please, ""thank you," "welcome," and "cuse me."
Dad lets her pick out her outfit each morning before school, and surprisingly it almost always matches. And she insists on picking out a matching hair bow and shoes as well. Last week while she was sick she even insisted on wearing her favorite hot-pink flowered headband with her PJs. I guess even with a fever we must accessorize.
She loves to put on bracelets and necklaces at home, and even used the rings at school to wear around her wrists. When Josh bought me a new purse for my birthday, she promptly picked up my old Coach purse and carried it around the house for hours. And like many little girls, she likes to put on my shoes and try to walk around the house in them. My new boots are her favorite; she even pointed them out to her teachers at school last week.
When we go to the mall or the store, she likes to flirt with every guy she sees. Big smiles, a coy look - they are already in her playbook, even at this young age. The last time we went to the mall, she waved her Miss America wave (complete with a flick of the wrist) to everyone we passed-by and yelled an enthusiastic "bye!"
Music is her favorite - she LOVES dancing, bopping, spinning and swaying, or singing. A few months ago she began walking around singing a tune that took us weeks to identify -
Yup, that's "Wheels on the Bus."
And this week her favorites are "Head, Shoulders, Knee, and Toes", "If You're Happy and You Know it", and "Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star" complete with twinkling hands and a "wander where you are" pose.
She is enjoying art, playing with play-doh and coloring every chance she gets. She likes to sit in her big-girl chair and "read" her books, and now we are actually able to make it all the way through a board book before she runs off for another story. We bought her a few new puzzles, too, and she has already mastered not only matching up the piece to it's perfect spot, but is now able to actually get them to fit correctly, too. She points to all her facial features and also knows her tummy, hands, feet, toes and fingers, and knees. She can tell you a dog says "ruff ruff," a cat says "meeee" (without the -ow), a duck says "ack ack," and will tell you what the cow, sheep, lion, chicken, and horse say, too.
And she continues to be fearless. Since it has been so nice this winter (!!!) we have been doing almost daily visits to local parks. She doesn't even think twice about climbing up the playground equipment, no matter how high, and sliding down all the slides all by herself. She doesn't even go down on her tummy any more - down feet first is her favorite. We have been attending weekly gymnastics classes, too. Just ask her if she wants to do a somersalt and she will run right over to you - hands down, head down - ROLL! Of course she likes to jump on the trampoline and hang from the bars, but walking across the balance beam is her favorite! I love seeing her enjoy something that I loved so long ago - I can not wait for her to be old enough for dance class, too!
