Ava is already one year old! While this last year has seemed to fly by quickly, it has also been quite an eventful year and thinking of Ava being born last year also feels so long ago! And fills me with too many emotions...
But just in time for her birthday, just 5 days early, Ava finally started crawling! And not just scooting backwards or in circles like she's been doing the last few months, but actually moving forward! This is exciting but also extremely exhausting trying to make sure her path is clear of small legos, or stacks of papers, and so on. It feels harder keeping things out of the way with the third child than it's been in the past. But she is obviously proud of her new freedom.
You may also be able to see she got a new second tooth on the same day she started crawling. Her first tooth popped through right after she turned 10 months. She's slowly growing up, but I'm glad she's taking her time as I adjust to her not being my little baby anymore!
And seriously. These faces. She is such a little cheese and loves getting attention! She is very well aware when strangers or anyone is complimenting on what a cute baby she is, and she loves to get as many smiles and eyes on her as possible. She is also good at waving on her own all the time, and sometimes it sounds like she says "hi" too- more like "haah".
She also has found her voice and is very chatty and babbly, and often squeals and screams when we're not giving her what she wants. Pretty normal for any baby, but newer for us since she has so often been the quiet and soft crying baby. So she does give us attitude, but is overall still a great baby.
At one Ava is a great eater- she eats anything we give her and it still never seems to be enough! She's small but still growing well. She also takes about 2 naps a day and is wonderful sleeping through the night and patiently plays in her crib in the mornings until I'm ready to get her- which I love! She likes me to read her books before she goes to bed (she looks to her shelf and says "bb" which I've interpreted as "book". She can also say "nana" for her favorite snack (banana) and says "dada" quite often- but not mama! She also seems to refer to her brothers and other people as "dada" sometimes too.
She loves her pacifiers, but hates hair bows even though I insist on them. She also likes taking bottles of water, and has started sippy cups of milk, both of which she can hold up on her own.
She loves to giggle and laugh and be silly. She has an awesome deep woman laugh, or at least that's what I call it. She gets especially excited with her brothers around, and seems to like to be in on whatever is going on. She loves the extra attention they give her! She knows how loved she is in our family.
On the morning of her birthday, the boys and I came in to sing to her and gave her a big birthday balloon. This is her shy smile, she loved it! :)
It was a simple birthday- she was sharing the day with me after all, since her birthday fell on Mother's Day this year. I was more than happy to celebrate being a mom by also celebrating my little girl!
We had just a small party that evening, and since there wasn't much she really needed in terms of gifts, we went with the idea that since she is one, she gets one present! She actually figured out how to rip the paper off so fast I could hardly get this picture before she opened her gift!
And here is her cheesy smile showing how happy she is with her new toy!
The boys reminded me there was actually another gift for her- one that I bought at a consignment sale before she was born and had been hiding under her crib for over a year, so we finally presented her this cute little riding toy too!
Even the boys had fun trying out the new toy with all the buttons and sounds.
Of course we had to give Ava an opportunity to try some birthday cake, and Ava has very little patience when it comes to waiting for her food, so this is more of a painful smile as we sang 'Happy Birthday' to her. But as soon as I removed the candle and placed it in front of her, she immediately grabbed it and dug in two handed.
It was a yummy, squishy, fun mess!
We just love this girl to pieces! I know it sounds cheesy, but literally every day I think how grateful I am that Ava is a part of our family! She brings so much happiness to our life, particularly mine because I love the time that I get with her right now and I try to enjoy every little milestone as much as I can! We're happy to see Ava growing up to be a beautiful, funny, silly, and happy girl and look forward to all that she will learn and do this next year! Happy Birthday Ava- we love you!
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