Ava At 1 Year!

Well, today is Ava's birthday!! Jeremy and I woke up this morning to the sound of her cooing in her crib. We both walked into her room and sang "Happy Birthday" to her. Her hair was all in her face but she smiled from ear to ear! Jeremy went into work shortly after that and I got ready for story time. Ava and I enjoyed getting to spend time with our story time friends! She came home and immediately took her first nap of the day. When she woke up, she had a surprise visitor! Daddy came home from work a little early to drop off a gift and then he had to go back to work.

One beautiful flower for our beautiful little one year old daughter. Next year, he will buy her two flowers! :)

 Up close and personal!

I let Ava touch it and look at it, but she tore off one of the baby's breath buds. I put it away immediately before she could inflict more damage to it!

Here are the milestones that Ava has reached at this point in her life:

• Words: Datttttt (dad), momomom (mom, cry for help), neh-neh-neh (no, no, no!), bye (bye), uh-oh (uh-oh), uh-huh (yes, more food please!), EEEEEEE (I'm not happy)
• Ava can wave bye-bye. She does a great job with it too! She really moves her whole arm!
• Ava walks EVERYWHERE! She is still a bit clumsy, but her walking will iron out over time.
• Ava can push herself up to a standing position without assistance from a person or object.
• She still sleeps about 12 hours a night with two 2 hour naps during the day.
• She has 8 teeth.
• Her hair is down to the middle of her back at the longest point.
• She hates socks and hair bows!
• She does not like for anything to be pulled down over her head. 
• For the past few weeks, she has been very clingy to Jeremy and me. If someone is talking to her, she will turn her head away from them. I do realize that this is just a phase, but I try to turn her back around to the person talking to her. Manners don't just happen, they have to be taught.
• Most of the time, a simple "no-no" will do the trick. She will usually walk away from whatever we are telling her to leave alone. Sometimes, though, she likes to push Mommy's buttons and I have to give her a pop on the hand or thigh. I never do it out of anger, I do it out of love. I truly believe that children (even ones Ava's age) can tell the difference between an angry reaction with no thought behind it and correction out of love.
• She is getting pretty good at sitting through a whole church service. It is still hard work for me, but  it is worth the effort to make her sit. I do not want to encourage getting up and leaving worship for every little noise she makes.
• Ava is really good at pointing to an object and making up a word to go with it. It is really cute and is probably my favorite part of this stage.
• Ava is Daddy's girl!! She LOVES her daddy! I am so proud of this because it is so important for little girls to have a strong relationship with their daddy. When Daddy walks through the door in the afternoon, Ava starts bouncing up and down and pointing at the door. Her eyes get really big and she points at him. I encourage it by making Daddy's entrance a big deal every day!
• Ava can "dance" to music.
• She can tap her leg to a beat.
• She recognizes familiar songs and phrases.
• She has started tossing her head from side to side during worship when Jeremy is leading singing. It almost drives me over the edge with laughter and several times I have almost had to get up and leave. I know that is probably bad, but sometimes life happens during serious moments.
• Ava understands simple commands: "Ava, shut the door." "Do not touch the Christmas Tree." We have had our tree up for a week, and I have only had to tell her "no" a couple of times. When she gets too close, I will give my command and she will obey. I know that sounded like a dog command, but I promise I don't treat her like a dog! :)

I know that I have forgotten something. If I think of anything else, I will add it to the list and re-publish this post. :)