Ava {20 months}

Words she knows as of today (RED ones are new words this month):

Jesus, uncle, airplane, egg, tractor, what's that (waz dat), two, car, orange, blue, purple, bird, bus, Misty (the horse), Oma (what she calls Becky), knee, amen, byebye, octopus, fishies, keys, sit, achoo, look, hat, kick, stick, Auntie, puppy, elbow, banana (nana), walk, eyes, hot, yeah, play (pay), swing (wee), cup, buckle up (buka uh), bubble gum (bubba guh), apple juice, happy birthday (appie day), cupcake, goodnight (nye nye), oh cute (ohhh toote), moon, bow, ouch, cookie, all done, water, happy, moo, baa, thank you, truck, duck/quack (same thing right now) car, balloon (boon), cake, please (meese), flower (wow-wee), belly (buh-bee), clicker, cup, oh no, ball, bubble, up, apple, cool, Elmo, baby, no, grandpa (says poppy), grandma (says mama), ow/owie, milk (muk), paci (she actually calls it mammy), cracker, shoes, dada, mama, hi, more, uh oh, wow, cheese, book

Highlights:

• My favorite new thing that Ava does: she points to something and asks "Waz dat?" when she doesn't know what something is. 
• She is now making two-word sentences, such as "No milk," "More juice," and "No night night." 
• Songs she loves and knows the motions to: 5 Little Monkeys, Wheels on the Bus (her favorite is saying "shh, shh, shh") Bubble Gum, 5 Little Ducks, Daddy Comes Home, Popcorn Popping
• She tries to count, but only says "two." So instead of saying, "one, two, three," she points and says, "two, two, two." 
• She has started going to bed earlier, around 8pm, and wakes up around 8am.
• We are working on her colors. She can say orange, blue and purple.
• She is starting to recognize letters. She knows A for sure, and that it says "ah." She can say most of the letter sounds.
• She loves to color. I only give her Color Wonder markers that only color on special paper, otherwise she draws all over herself, on the table and probably all over the entire house if I let her. When she is using a marker, she takes off the lid and puts it on the other end. When she is done with that marker, she puts the correct lid back on and puts it back into her little marker pouch.
• When she cleans up, she sings "Dah, eee, Dah, eee" to the tune of the "Clean Up" song.
• She LOVES flowers and picks every.single.flower in our backyard. Sad. She also loves to pick (or harvest as Bryson says) the fruit and vegetables in the garden (raspberries, snap peas, tomatoes). 
• She LOVES animals and is completely fearless around them, which is good, but also scary haha. She especially loves dogs.
• Animal sounds she can make: duck, lion, tiger, bird, cat, dog, horse, elephant, whale, monkey, bee, cow.
• Family members she recognizes and calls by name (in parenthesis is what she calls them): Momma, Daddy, Gavin (Baby), Grandma Webster (Mama), Grandpa Webster (Poppy), Grandma Schooff (Oma), Grandpa Schooff (Poppy), Uncle Blake (Uh-koo), Aunt Maddie (Aye-tee), Aunt Kaitlyn (Aye-tee), Uncle Brad (Uh-koo), Uncle Jayson (Uh-koo).
• She recognizes who Jesus is and gets excited anytime she sees a picture of Him. (Funny story: in the airport, she saw a man with a full beard and excitedly pointed to him and exclaimed "Jesus!"). When we say "Ava it's time for prayer," she folds her arms. We say family prayer every night and she lists off all her family members that she is grateful for. 
• This month she went to a little amusement park called Santa's Workshop in Colorado. She rode every single ride, and not a single one scared her, not even the ones that I sincerely thought would be too intense for her. She is truly fearless. 

Here are some random pictures from this month:

And here are some videos of Ava working on her alphabet. I love this app on Bryson's iPad.

Wow, I am so incredibly blessed to have Ava as my daughter, my little buddy. She truly brightens my life and brings completely JOY into our family. She is happy, bright, smiley, smart, funny, spunky, and full of non-stop energy. She is definitely on the go-go-go 24/7. :) And I wouldn't have it any other way! I LOVE her more than I can ever express. 

Until next month. :)

(Crazy to think, only 4 months until Ava is 2 - I don't want to think about that just yet.)

I love this girl!

Gavin {2 months}

Dear Gavin,

Today you turned 2 months old (May 6, 2013)! I can't believe how much you have changed in such a short time! I have loved watching you discover things around you this month - this is just the beginning of so much learning to come. I love that you go everywhere with me, you are my little buddy. 

When you were five weeks old, you shocked me when I laid you on your tummy and you promptly rolled over onto your back. You have since rolled from your tummy to your back many times, but not every time that you have "tummy time." You hold your head up well and bear weight on your legs already - you are a very strong little guy! I sometimes feel the need to sit you down and have a serious discussion about slowing down on the whole "growing up" thing. I need you to stay little for a while longer, please.

April 21st was your blessing day. Your Daddy gave you a beautiful baby blessing in church and you wore a sweet little white outfit that Nam made for you. Your Auntie Kait was there to celebrate your special day with us.

This month you rewarded your adoring parents by flashing us your first smile! You have since proved to be a very smiley baby, smiling every time you see me or hear my voice. Your entire face lights up when you smile, it's infectious. You have the cutest little dimple on your left cheek that really stands out when you smile. :) You also make the absolute sweetest "coo" sounds; you get so excited and kick your legs like crazy and "coo" loudly.

Recently you have started sleeping longer during the night. I feed you and put you to bed around 10:00pm. Then you sleep for 5-6 hours, wake up to quickly eat and go back to sleep for 3-4 more hours. When you sleep, you love to snuggle your face into a blanket, my arm or whatever is close. You also love sleeping in your bouncy seat because it vibrates.

You are wearing size 1 diapers and size 3 month clothes. You weigh 13lbs 12.4oz (80th percentile weight for age), and are exactly 2 feet tall (97th percentile). Your eyes are still that baby blue-grey and your hair is dark brown. The thing people always comment on when they see you for the first time is your eyebrows. You have very expressive, defined eyebrows for a newborn. :)

Here you are at 1 month, and now 2 months. Your cheeks are getting much fuller and your tummy is getting chubbier. We LOVE that you are our chubby little boy!

Well, my sweet baby Gavin. I love you more than you can ever possibly understand. I feel incredibly lucky to have such a sweet, mellow, happy baby boy. I often catch myself just staring - completely unable to take my eyes off you, this tiny person with whom I've been entrusted. Memorizing your eyes, your fingers, your nose, your lips - every nook and cranny of your little body. Every inch is perfectly perfect.

Thank you for letting me be your momma.

Love,
Mom :)