Hiking at Lake Mead
Two weekends ago (wow that went fast!), we went hiking at Lake Mead to see the old train tunnels. It was a beautiful day, a nice level walk and, if you don’t mind having massive boulders hanging over your head, a super-cool reward toward the end.
Supposedly, if you keep hiking this trail, you get all the way (8 miles later) to Hoover Dam. Maybe someday we’ll make it. Doubt Ava will be in the backpack for that trip, though. 
Catching up
So, just catching up on archiving the latest photos and had a few to share.
Here’s Ava in a super-cute skirt that Mom and I made for her. I did the applique flower. It’s so cute it almost looks store-bought! She pretty much wears it every time it’s clean. You probably remember seeing it here. Wonder if she would choose it for herself?
We have an old digital camera that doesn’t really work anymore, so we turned it into a toy. Ava discovered it on the day I had emptied her toybox to stain it and played with it for about an hour. She just seems to like the shutter-click sound it makes. Probably because it seems so natural to her due to all the documentation of her life thus far….
Finally, Ava likes to turn on Jack FM in the guest room when she’s upstairs. In this particular series, she was working some wicked cool moves. (Really, I think she was practicing jumping, but I wasn’t there and Matt called it dancing. Whatevs.)
Yep, this girl knows how to work it.
First Day of School
Last night, as Matt and I put Ava to bed, we realized that today was a really momentous day. Today, Ava started full-time daycare at Bright Horizons. From now on, until she graduates high school and leaves our little nest (wherever in the world that nest is), she’ll be going to school all day Monday-Friday.
On the one hand, it’s exciting to see your kid grow up and know that she’s totally ready for this next little step on her road. On the other, of course, you never get to go back.
So, here they are, Ava’s first first-day-of-school pictures.
**Update: Her day went great. She cried when I left, of course, but then her teachers said she had a really good day. She’ll be exhausted by the end of the week learning the new nap routine and by playing so hard, but she’s doing great!
At 17 Months…
I think I missed this last month, but I wanted to do a little snapshot of Ava at 17 months.
*Our baby really is a toddler these days. No more bottles, at lot more “mine!”.
*Her vocabulary is getting bigger and bigger. Probably no one else would understand, but Daddy & I do (probably Sarah, too). She says house, Dolly, kinky (this is apparently what we’re calling Binkies these days), cook (this is book), car, more, hi, bye, Libby, Ellie, Grace, Sarah, poopy, potty, owie, moon, and then all the old stand-bys too. Uh-oh is still a really big hit.
*Speaking of saying poopy, on more than one occasion, Ava has notified us that her diaper is, in fact, poopy. The days of potty training are not far off. (Doing the happy dance here…not to be confused with the peepee dance, of course.)
*She can run! And, more often than not, she’s able to keep her head aligned over her feet…less road rash that way.
*Ava loves grass. We got the artificial turf in our backyard and she loves to pet it. She also loves grass at the park. She, literally, gets on her hands and knees to feel it.
*Ava is a great body part identifier. She can point to head, shoulders, knees, toes, eyes, ears, mouth, nose, neck, back, elbow, hair, bellybutton, fingers, hands, and arms. Libby is less than excited that Ava can point to eyes, however.
*The music thing is still big for this girl. She sings a lot. We still do the Chicken Dance, but also Head, Shoulders, Knees & Toes, and Whole World in His Hands. We also sing Rock-a-Bye Baby every day…she’ll sing it to her dollies on her own.
*One of Ava’s favorite games is “lick your face.” She’ll lean in to give you a kiss and, at the last moment, change to a full on face lick. Sort of gross…extremely funny. Clearly, allowing Libby to raise this one has backfired for us.
*Ava loves to brush her teeth. It’s a struggle to get her to let us do the brushing at night, but she definitely has to have a turn. She’s got good technique…future dentists will be pleased!
*Proving that she’s a girl after my own heart, girlie loves shoes. She carries them around, loves trying them on, and loves to pick out which ones I’ll wear for the day. Walking through the shoe section of a store is more dangerous than the toy aisle. Have to say, I hope she ends up being a size 8 so we can share in the teen years!
*Today, just this morning, she started trying to jump. She’d gather up her chubby little baby self, raise her fists in the air, and then one foot up, and then the other – never at the same time, of course. But, the shouts of “jump, jump” made it clear that she was working hard!
Love you, baby girl. You keep right on doing your thing.