Ava Marie- 2 1/2 years old!

Our sweet baby girl turned 2 1/2 and I have already gone ahead and reserved a date at My Gym for her Birthday party.  With all of the craziness that is going on I did not want to forget to do this so I went ahead and did it 6 months early!

Our little girl is growing up and is definitely all toddler right now.  She can do everything herself , or so she thinks, and is even wanting to pick out her own clothes some mornings.  The other day  she wanted to wear her ABC shirt, this is her pink Tennessee jersey and is her only shirt with letters on it.  She told me that her boy friend, Hudson, liked the ABC's so she wanted to wear her ABC shirt.  First off I find it hilarious that she says that someone likes the ABC's.  Secondly I find it frightening that she is already wanting to dress to impress a boy!

There are too many little things that Ava says or does to pin point my favorite.  Whenever I ask her how many she wants of anything, she tells me 2,3,4.  So I always ask her for 2,3,4 kisses!  She LOVES to sing and dance and thanks to my sister, her new favorite song is On a Good Ship Lollipop!  She has watched the You Tube video of Shirley Temple singing this a hundred times and she tries to mimic Shirley by changing her facial expressions.  Speaking of facial expressions, she has the pouty lip face down and uses it on us several times a day along with so many other cute faces.

Ava loves her toys and is so funny when it comes to her dolls and stuffed animals.  I have noticed that she plays with certain ones together and that she has formed them into certain groups that do not intermix.  She will play with her Disney Princess' together, then there are her Disney Junior Octonauts, and finally her stuffed animals.  She normally will only sleep with Minnie and Mickey Mouse but sometimes a special toy will get to join her in bed.

She is telling Neigh Neigh to smile in this picture.

 

She loves to go to the park and her favorite thing to do is swing and people watch. She enjoys watching other children play more than she enjoys playing herself.  The last couple of weeks she has been playing with bubbles and sidewalk chalk or sliding with children she does not know which makes me happy that she is comfortable enough to do this.  After having her bike in the kitchen all winter, one day she noticed it and now she wants us to take it to the park all of the time for her to ride on it.

Ava loves her family and knows that Aunt Mandy, Uncle Matt, Uncle Chace and Mimi all live in the same city.  Or that when she sees Nana she will also see Papa and that Molly and Nelson belong to Aunt Alissa.  Ava thinks that everyone lives in castles and always ask when we are driving home from school if we are going to Ava's castle and then when we pull in she yells "We're Home!" 

We have taught her a prayer to say at dinner and at bedtime.  For the dinner prayer she asks that we all hold hands and we often end up saying this prayer many times during the meal at her request.  At her bedtime prayers we pray for all of her family and then she will either mention her classmates, cartoon characters or ice cream!  Before we go to bed we always have story time but she often wants to read to us now instead of us reading to her. 

She still has her meltdown moments but as I say, it is tough to be 2!  Ava still continues to bring so much joy and always puts a smile on our face.  We are lucky to be the parents of such an amazing little girl.