11 1/2 Months Old

I bought plates, cups, napkins, and decorations for Ava's birthday party which will be in about 2 weeks. We are having a family party on March 5th, but next Saturday we are having Ava's baby friends over for a playdate. The weather is unseasonably nice this week and I am going to take Ava up to Zona Rosa after school for a little retail therapy. She loves shopping! When we get home we might try and sneak in a wagon ride before her late afternoon nap. But more than likely we will need to sleep before we can play. Tomorrow it is suppose to be 70 degrees! Yesterday the Parents as Teachers Educator came over to check on Ava's developement. She is doing very well and is actually ahead of most children her age. The one thing they told us to work on is drinking out of a cup that does not have a lid. We are going to start practicing in the bathtub for right now. I am also going to start looking for more flashcards to work on new words and some toddler crayons for her to work on drawing.

For Valentines Day, Daddy got Ava a beautiful lavender rose and a sweet card. Mommy took her to Target and let her pick out a present too. She picked a Barney DVD and a book with lots of animals.

Ava is really starting to try and emulate words that Mommy and Daddy are saying. Some words like hot, dog, now, and yes sound like the words we are saying. Other words like Jayhawk sounds like jayha, bottle sounds like baaa. So some of her words are nothing like what we are saying, but she is making the effort to try and repeat things when we are her to. Her new obsession is to turn the tv off and on, off and on, off and on.... over and over. She also wants anything that is plugged in outlets. She is taking off walking from one thing to another. She is doing much better walking and she only falls now when she gets going too fast. She still loves looking at birds and squirrels out the window at Nana's. She continues to be a "ham" when we are out in public by waving and smiling at other shoppers. Mommy's social butterfly!