7 Months

I know I say it every time, but 7 months...REALLY??!!!  The time goes by so fast!  I so wish I had a pause button to slow down the days.  You are growing and changing and learning new things all the time and I don't want to miss any little detail.

1.  You are talking all the time.  I swear you don't stop talking all the way home from daycare any more and we love it!!  We still don't understand any of what you are saying, but you clearly know exactly what your saying.  Our famous words are still, "use your words, Ava".  You are able to tell us with your words or by pointing what you want most of the time.  Your communication is coming along.  But you still go to the automatic whining first until our reminder.  We are so impressed with your communication progress over the last month.

2.  You LOVE Madagascar...in fact I think it might be an obsession by this point!!  We try to trick you by putting in other movies, but you always figure us out.  At least you are willing to watch 1, 2, or 3.  But I'm pretty certain we've watched them a bazillion times!!  Seriously, you even know some of the lines ahead of the characters saying them :)

3.  You still love daycare, your teachers and classmates.  They love you too.  I love how they all say good bye to you at the end of the day and you blow all your teachers kisses everyday.  You bring home cool crafts daily and I know you are learning a lot.

4.  Biting continues to be an issue at daycare.  However (knock on wood) you have gone two weeks now without an incident.  Let's hope we are on a streak!!  Mama and Baba have started making you share toys at home as well to hopefully get you more used to sharing.  I have also had some good cousin and neighbor time lately in which you've had to share.  Like I said, hopefully we're on a roll!

5.  You continue to be a good eater, but you definitely have your favorites and are much pickier than you were in the beginning.  You reached the 30 pound mark this last month!!  You love applesauce, apples, chicken strips, yogurt, icecream, popcorn, and veggie sticks.
6.  Your dog, Jack went to Heaven last week.  You have looked for him a couple of times and will randomly say his name.  We all miss him and our home is so different without him.  We are thankful our house is filled with noise thanks to you.
7.  You went to your first KState football game (in fact your first 3 football games) during the last month.  You have so much fun clapping and cheering, watching people, dancing, and eating game food.  You've also made quite the friends with people we sit by.  The older couple who has sat next to us for a couple years has brought you a new toy to two games!!
8.  Books are still a favorite pastime.  It's not uncommon for you to have 10 books out at a time, all open.  You will read them to yourself, but really like to have books read to you.  Some of them you have memorized and know what we are going to say even before we say it.  We love that you love to read.  As a family, we usually spend at least an hour reading on a nightly basis.
9.  You outgrew your small blowup bathtub and are "swimming" in the big bathtub nightly for bath time.  We were going to buy a new blowup tub so that we didn't have to use a lot of water for bath time but you loved the big tub so much we didn't think we could get away with it!!  You dump out all your toys and draw on the tub walls for about 30 minutes every night.  The other part of bath time that you love is brushing your teeth.  Ok, maybe not really brushing but at least chewing on your toothbrush.

10.  You have a laugh and smile that will brighten any room.  You are seriously the happiest little girl I have ever known and I am so proud to call you my daughter.