Ava @ 2 Years Old!!!

I have gotten so terrible at updating my blog on the girl's milestones and such. URG! I HATE that almost 5 months have passed since my last monthly update on each of the girls. But, I can't turn back time and fix it. It is better to go ahead and start back now and not beat myself up too much. This will be my last monthly update for Ava. My plan was to do monthly updates for each of my children until they turned 2. After that, it would be yearly updates. And, of course, I will post little funnies as they happen. :)

So, here is the information on my 2 YEAR OLD!!! Can you believe it? I can't! I was just holding her in the delivery room, bawling my eyes out! Ava has brought us so much joy and happiness. I cannot imagine my life without her.

• At Ava's doctor appointment on Dec. 18th, 2012, she was 33 inches tall (3 inches shy of 3 feet) and was 28 lbs. and 5 oz. That puts her in the 50% percentile for weight and the 50% percentile for height. She is exactly where she should be for her age :) This makes me happy, happy, happy! (Yes, a little bit of Duck Dynasty has seeped into my vernacular. And Ava's too because she says Happy, Happy, Happy all the time!)
• She is in size 6 diapers and size 6.5-7 in her shoes. She wears 2T in clothes and some 3T in dresses. I like for her dresses to be long, so I buy a size ahead. I believe in keeping little girls young until they are 30 :) So, for now, she will wear long smocked dresses that make her look like a little girl :) Daddy agrees with me, so we are good to go.
• Ava's hair comes all the way down to the top of her rear (at the longest part) Her hair has naturally grown in beautiful wavy layers. We still have not given her her first haircut. Call us old fashioned, but we want her to have long, girly, flowing hair. We haven't even trimmed it! As you can imagine, bath time and getting her ready to go out is a bit of work. We can't just run a comb through her hair because there is so much of it. We shampoo, condition, and detangle it. I then use a fine tooth comb to get all the pesky knots out of her hair. We were blow drying her hair a while back, but I decided to stop because I don't want my two year old to have heat damage to her hair. We let it dry naturally overnight. When she wakes up, she has these gorgeous little ringlets at the bottom of her hair. I LOVE IT!
• Ava's vocabulary has increased to the point that I can no longer count her words. She surprises me and Jeremy all the time with the things that she says:

-Yesterday, I got mad at something inanimate and was talking through my teeth at it (like that really works anyway!) Ava looked at me and said, "Mommy, don't be ugly!" I stopped immediately because she was right. I apologized to her and told her that Mommy would stop talking like that. :)

-When Greta cries, Ava walks over to her and pats her on the back. She will also say, "It's ok Greta. It's ok."

-Whenever we ask Ava to do something, she will usually respond with, "Yes Ma'am," or "No Ma'am." It is still a work in progress, but we are doing our best to teach her and positively reinforce manners. Whenever she uses her manners, I try to ALWAYS say, "You have such good manners." I want her to know that I acknowledge her manners and am proud of her for using them.

-On the same token, she almost always tells someone "thank-you" or "thank-you very much!" when they do something for her. I am very proud of her for that.

• Ava loves to look through our church directory and point to the people she recognizes. She will then give them kisses on each page. It is really sweet!
• A typical Bible study with Ava is her reciting the 12 disciples. She knows them all and can point to a picture of them and name each one. She can also name them out of turn, so I know it is more than just rote memory.
• Ava loves to learn about Jesus. She can sing several songs about him (Jesus Loves Me, and Jesus Loves the Little Children) She loves to look up the story of Jesus birth in her Beginner's Bible. She loves the picture of baby Jesus in the manger because of the cat that is perched beside him :) She also loves to see the picture in her bible where Jesus is baptized. She knows what baptism is and enjoys watching people at church getting baptized.
• In her Bible class, she is currently learning about Abraham, Sarah, and Baby Isaac. A few days after she learned about them, she decided to name one of her baby dolls Baby Isaac :)
• She loves the stories of Noah, Moses, and Jonah. She will sometimes ask me, "where did Moses go?" That means that she wants to turn the pages of her bible back to Moses.
• She is learning how to jump. It is so funny to watch!
• She is a very kind, and sympathetic child. She does not like to see people in pain. I have cried in front of her a few times and she has come up to me and laid her head on my lap and reassured me that, "it's ok." :) (which makes me cry harder because she is so beautiful on the inside and outside)
• Yes, Ava does get in trouble! She is in to everything so teaching her boundaries is really hard. She doesn't understand that she cannot get into purses and diaper bags. I have said before that it is a work in progress and it is. She is pretty nosy, but Jeremy and I are really consistent with our training in this area. She still does it, but Jeremy and I tell her "no" and give her a pop on the hand if necessary.
• Ava still LOVES movies. I am still pretty adamant about keeping the TV off for most of the day. I read a statistic somewhere that said parents who allow their children to watch TV most of the day communicate to their children 22% less than parents who keep the TV off. No, I am not trying to blast parents who let their kids watch TV. Every parent has to make this decision on their own and my decision is my decision. I do agree that if children are watching wholesome things on TV, they can learn some valuable lessons, but I don't want a puppet teaching my kids about manners. I want to do that myself. Yes, I know. I am an idealist and you can make fun of me all you want. I don't mind at all. :) With all that being said, we do watch at least 1 movie per day. It is usually when Jeremy comes home from work and it is usually a Disney movie. Some of Ava's all time favorites are: Tangled, Beauty and the Beast, and Brave. She loves to sing the songs from these movies and always asks us to play those songs in the car.
• Ava and Greta now share a room. They have actually been sharing a room for about 3 months, but I haven't blogged about it until now. They both take a 3 hour nap in the afternoon together. And then they both sleep 12-13 hours at night together. I think that sharing a room has really helped them bond better. In the mornings, I always hear Ava talking to Greta and Greta cooing back. (Sometimes Ava is shouting at Greta and I have to remind her to be sweet) It was hard work training them to sleep, but I am now glad that we did sleep training. It made the transition into sharing a room so much easier. I tell Jeremy all the time that I am now ready for Baby #3 :) He ALWAYS gives me the stink eye and says, "Ummm...No!" Ha! Maybe in a few years!

As usual, I am sure that I forgot a few things! If I think of anything new, I will be sure to add it!