Snapshots at 19 Months

These past few months have been so much fun. Ava is at such an amazing age right now--curious about everything and so cute I almost can't stand it. Here's a few snapshots of the things she's doing now.

She still loves books and really any kind of printed material she can get her hands on. Her tastes include (but are not limited to): Dr. Seuss (which I consider speech therapy for me), anything with animals, Bob the Builder, Chicago Parent, The Wall Street Journal, Crate and Barrel catalogs, toy catalogs, junk mail, pamphlets of any kind, Better Homes and Gardens. And the list goes on...

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She's gaining lots of new words, but her favorites seem to be animal noises. She regularly and spontaneously will run through all the ones she knows--"mooo. Nay. Baa. Meow. DOG. duck. bug. b-dee (bird)."

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She especially likes to make cat noises. After she woke up in the middle of the night a few nights ago (teething! ugh!), she stood up in her crib and starting saying, "meow! meow! meow!" I guess she was calling Koa.

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Daniel was playfully running down the hallway upstairs a week or two ago, and Ava ran in her room. She grabbed her toy lion, wheeled around toward Daniel, and yelled, "RAWR!"

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She loves hugs, and regularly, runs through the house yelling, "UG. UG." We gladly oblige.

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She loves to play with "big Ava"--our pastor's daughter. We call her big Ava not because she is any bigger than our Ava, but because she is five days older. Their favorite thing to do together is to bounce all over big Ava's crib (they've done this four times already). It's a wonderful blessing to have friends with kids her age.

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She walks around saying "my, my, my" and "wowowow." So funny.

I love this little girl. She is such a blessing. Daniel and I don't know what we did for entertainment before her.