Ava at 2 years old

So much has changed in just a year! It’s unbelievable! At 2 years old Ava is repeating EVERYTHING we say. I love listening to her talk- such a sweet little voice! She is pretty independent and wants to do everything and figure everything out by herself. She loves books, puzzles, “colors” (coloring crayons/markers) and dolls, dolls, dolls. Her imagination has really started to grow and she loves to pretend play with her dolls. It’s so cute and sweet. It’s times like those when I watch her being a little mommy to them that I am so thankful I had a girl! She also loves Barbie dolls and dress up! She is a princess of all sorts.

Ava does NOT like anything to be messy. She is so quick to point out any kind of mess, whether it’s something I dropped on floor at home or construction that we pass while driving down the road. She is particular about things, it will be interesting to see if that changes as she gets older.

She will tell you all kinds of animal sounds and she knows the alphabet A-G, one of her favorite things for me to do is write letters and let her guess what I wrote. She does really well at it. She also knows how to count 1-10 and knows her common shapes. She loves to dance and has recently really started to love singing.

Ava loves to swim- absolutely loves it. She could easily spend 2 hours in the pool swimming an jumping the entire time and never want to get out. We usually have to make her get out- the child must be a fish!

She is right at 36” tall and weighs right at 30 pounds. We haven’t started potty training, but I know it’s getting close because of the clues she is leaving me, but I haven’t really tried to pursue it just yet.

Along with her Miss Independent attitude also comes to rebellious side that doesn’t like to listen to what Mommy and Daddy say. I’ve been told she is the perfect angel when she is off without us, but it’s a different story when she is off with us. We have had a battle of wills a few times, I just wonder if she will ever learn that I’m always going to win?! Ha!

Ava has definitely changed our lives in the 2 short years she has been here- it’s definitely more tiring and more of a challenge, but we love it and are so blessed to be her Mommy and Daddy.

Ava’s 2nd Birthday Party

Oh Wow! Ava had a fantastic time at her birthday party! It was a Minnie Mouse party and anyone who knows Ava knows how much she loves Minnie Mouse! Now that we have a pool, I love that Ava’s birthday is during the summer- it makes parties so much easier because most kids love to swim.

After taking a few of the initial pictures before everyone arrived I turned my camera over to my cousin to take pictures- all together from the party alone I had 173 pictures- haha! and almost all of them were of Ava! It’s hard to take pictures when you are running around doing a million things- so thanks to Meggie for taking all 7,459 pictures :)

I tried to narrow them down, but I still have alot, so please do not feel obligated to look through all of them!

 

For Ava’s 1st birthday, Stacey bought her an American Girl doll that was made to look like her (only she has hair :) ) Ava loves the doll. This year, I had dresses and bows made to match.

       

Aunt Ann (aka Annie – per Ava) made the trip from North Carolina just for Ava’s birthday! It just wouldn’t have been right having a Minnie party without “Annie” Thanks for making the trip!

A friend made Ava’s Happy Birthday banner- it turned out soooo cute! Everyone who came to the party commented on it.

I spent countless hours making this wreath, and I really didn’t even finish it to the point I wanted, but I finally had to just stop because I didn’t haven’t any more time to spend on it. It still turned out cute. I made it out of crepe paper. It is very simple, just time consuming and with a toddler, time isn’t something that is available in excess.

  

I had another party hat made for her this year- she thought she was something else whenever she wore it. When it arrived in the mail, she wanted to put it on immediately and wore it the entire time we were running errands (thank goodness we never had to get out of the car- I’m sure I would have gotten some strange looks!)

She got embarrassed whenever everyone started singing Happy Birthday to her!

Ever since we changed Ava’s bed to her toddler bed, she will get up in the mornings and come crawl in bed with us until it’s time for us to get up. Tina had dropped her cake by on Friday and I had everything sitting on the table, well Saturday morning she walked into the front room and I saw her looking out the window, but she never walked into our room. A few minutes later I still hadn’t seen her come in our room I got up to check on her. She had pried open the cupcake container just enough to squeeze her fingers through and was scooping the icing out! She had it all over herself, the table, and floor- not to mention, demolished the cupcake. I died laughing! I figured, it’s her birthday, I might as well let her have one! haha!

Notice her Minnie Mouse earrings :)

 

“Dot” and “RoRo”

 

Chloe is so good with Ava- and just so sweet! She will grow up to be a great mommy one day!

Kelly and Raeleigh- Raeleigh wore her Mickey Mouse outfit. She and Caden are both turning one in a couple of weeks! They both loved the balloons. We had a giant Minnie Mouse (and I mean GIANT)- they didn’t know what to think of it!

Nana and Caden

 

Ava putting on her lipstick- such a priss pot!

 

There were a few gifts Ava received that needed to be assembled. Stacey took it upon herself to put them together- not sure why she of all people attempted this task- but she did and this is a look that happened several times during the process of putting them together:

 

Haha!!! Apparently after she put everything together it all fell apart- at least we know to keep anything the needs to be assembled away from her- it’s a scary thought that she is a senior in nursing school and will be in charge of taking care of people when she has a hard time putting kid’s toys together :) She was so proud when she finally finished putting “part” of a toy together!

Blowing kisses and the Miss America wave

By the time presents were opened, Ava was worn out, however, my child who needs no sleep wanted to get in the pool after everyone had left- she sweet talked her Daddy into getting in with her while her mama cleaned up some. She swam until 9:30 when we finally made her get out and didn’t fall asleep until 10:30- 11:00. I think there was just too much excitement that she had a hard time unwinding. 50 people at a party makes for a lot of fun excitement.

Thank you to everyone who came! Ava received a lot of wonderful presents, but more than presents, our family is grateful for wonderful friends and family who came and spent the afternoon with us.  I wish I had more pictures of everyone who came, it’s just hard get it all done :)

Happy Birthday Ava!

Happy Birthday to my sweet baby girl!

Ava turns 2 today, can’t believe it has been 2 years already, time has flown by so quickly! I just wish I could freeze it so she wouldn’t get any older! She is at such a fun age, especially now that you can carry on conversations with her. There is never a dull moment when she is around. We had her birthday party yesterday- it was all about Ava and Minnie Mouse! I will do another post about her party and a separate one about her turning 2. For now, I’m going to enjoy this little princess’ birthday with her! Here are a few pictures to hold you over!