Happy New Year

Yes, it's New Year's Eve, and I'm sitting at home on the computer. We are not really the party type, but we had a long day today. Ava spent the day at her Grandma & Grandpa's house while Brent and I went to a Buc's game up in Tampa. This was my first pro-football game, so it was really exciting for me. The Buc's ended up losing to Seattle, as expected, but it was still fun. But I am tired after sitting in the sun at the stadium all afternoon, and it was pretty hot out. Now Ava is in bed, and fireworks are going off all around our neighborhood. Brent is at his brother's house but he promised to be home by midnight. Anyway, I hope everyone has a really good and safe New Year.
Our little family had a great Christmas. Actually, the Buc's game was my Christmas present from Brent. Ava opened her presents on Christmas morning, or more accurately - Ava pulled some pieces of wrapping paper off of a couple of boxes, got distracted with one of the toys, lost interest in opening things, and I opened the rest of the present. We didn't even wrap some of her presents since we knew she wouldn't be that interested in the unwrapping. Since we celebrated Christmas with Brent's family on Friday night, we just went over to my parent's house later in the afternoon. My family made a big dinner and we hung out there. Ava got so many nice presents and lots of cute outfits. She loves her walker and all of the things that make noise!
Now that Christmas is over it is time to start thinking about Ava's first birthday! I know we are going to have a party at our house, and it will probably just be family. We are remodeling our kitchen the first weekend of January, so that will be all done. I just need to nail down an exact date for the party and figure out what I'm going to do exactly. I can't believe she is 1 already. She is so close to walking. When we hold her hands she walks so good, and she walks holding on to furniture. Lately she gets so close to letting go, but at the last minute she just goes back to crawling. I think it will happen before her birthday. She is saying things now too - she says mama, dada, and bye bye, and she says something that sounds like "duck" and "kitty." She does have a rubber ducky and we do have a kitty so I think she is referring to those things. She eats almost everything that we eat now - she likes vegetables (corn, peas, carrots)and fruit, but she doesn't really like meat. Her favorite thing is cheese and crackers. We are slowly weaning her off the bottle, but it's still tricky. I hope that the bottle will go bye-bye for good within a few months.

Oh Holy $#@!$ Night

Last Tuesday, December 12th was not the best night for Ava. First, we dressed her up and made her wear tights. Then, we put her on the lap of the monster, Santa Claus. Ava did not like him at all. We went with Linda, Bruce and Tara and Matt and their son Nathan. Nathan went first and he did pretty good. He looked scared but didn't cry. Ava was fine until we put her on Santa's lap, and then she instantly broke down in tears. We tried to calm her down, I sang to her, and at one point I even sat on Santa's lap with her, but it was no good. She would stop as soon as we took her off his lap, and start again if we put her back on. So Ava, here is your first official picture with Santa:

Doesn't she look thrilled? Little did she know that the worst was yet to come. I was finally talked into getting Ava's ears pierced, and we figured why not do all the traumatizing in one night, so after Ava saw Santa, she got her ears pierced. I still don't know how I feel about it, but they do look cute. I did not want to be present during the ear piercing, so I walked with them to the place, picked out the earrings, and then Tara and I took off. Brent held her in the chair, poor guy. I won't go in to details, but Ava did scream and I heard her from quite a distance, but she calmed down as soon as they were done. She was fine by the time I walked back. The piercing people did both ears at the same time, so it was over with very quickly. Since then they have not bothered her a bit, and it is done and over with. If she doesn't like them when she's older she can always let them close up. Here is a picture right after the event:

Besides Ava, I have gotten zero Christmas shopping done! I don't know what to get anyone, including Brent. I feel like I should be in the Christmas spirit because of Ava, but I'm not. It has been so hot here, we still have the AC on and I have been so busy I haven't had time to wrap any of Ava's presents. It just feels weird to have Christmas music on when it is so hot outside. One bit of good news is that our new kitchen cabinets are in. They weren't supposed to be in until the beginning of January and I was worried that the kitchen wouldn't be done in time for Ava's birthday party. Hopefully now it will be.
I'm going to bed, so here are a few more pictures of our baby:
Getting ready for the fun

Not having it

Doesn't she look mad at us?

Nah, just tickle her neck, she's fine

Ava with the glow worm that she got at Brent's work party. She loves it!

There was a Santa at Brent's party and we tried it again with no luck. Oh well, maybe next year!

Santa Baby

I don't have much to write about tonight, we've just been doing the same old stuff. I did some Christmas shopping for Ava today. We are only buying her a few things since her birthday is next month so she'll be getting presents then too. Plus she really isn't going to know what's going on anyway. I think she's going to have a pretty good spread of presents at Christmas though. This Tuesday we are going to see Santa at the mall with Brent's parents and probably some friends of ours will bring their son too. I can't wait to see Ava's reaction to sitting on Santa's lap. It's hit or miss with her, she might be fine, she might freak, it all depends on her mood that day. For pictures sake I hope she lets us get at least one good one to make it worth waiting in what I'm sure will be a pretty long line. Also, she might get her ears pierced that night too. I am really on the fence about that. I know a lot of babies get their ears pierced and they are fine and they look really cute. However, I can't help but feel like it's a violation of her body, and maybe it should be her choice when she's older. I also don't want them to be uncomfortable to her when she's sleeping, since they are supposed to keep the earrings in for something like 3 months or they will close up. And why put her through unnecessary pain? I will probably do it, but I told my mom-in-law that she will have to sit with Ava when they do it, I will go for a walk.

In other news, I so don't want to go to work tomorrow.

Today was a Good Day

Ava is an Aquarius, but she acts more like a Gemini - I never know what kind of baby I'm going to wake up with. Since we've been back from NC she has been going through a phase, and it is wearing me out. One day she is the happiest baby, like today. She was so good. Then other days she is cranky, whiney, won't nap, and just hard to deal with. The past couple of days she has not been wanting to nap. She will fall asleep in our arms but as soon as we try to get up to put her in the crib she wakes up and starts crying. We've been having to let her cry it out, and it is so hard. We know she's tired, but she just will not sleep. On Saturday Brent was working and I tried to put Ava down for her nap. I knew she was tired, she fell asleep while I was rocking her but woke up when I put her in the crib. She started freaking and cried so hard for an hour! I would go in every so often and try to calm her without taking her out of the crib and make sure she had her binky. After 30 minutes I called Brent at work asking what I should do. I had to go in my bedroom and close the door and turn the TV on loud to drown out the crying because it is so hard for me to listen to, it breaks my heart. But I know it is for the best. She needs to nap, and she needs to know that crying isn't going to make us take her out of bed. It's becoming a power struggle and she has to know who wears the pants. She has never cried that long before, not even close. Ava, when you read this when you are older, please know that your crying is harder on us than it is on you, but it is for your own good! You're a much happier baby and we are much happier parents when you've had some sleep.
I know I say this everytime but Ava is learning so much and she's so smart. She is saying "uh-oh" and the other day Brent swears she said "duck." She was playing with her rubber ducky at the time and Brent kept saying duck, and he said she copied him. She learned how to operate light switches and she loves turning them off and on. When we go for walks she points at everything and we tell her what it is, and she looks like she's really listening to us and wants to know. She likes it when we read to her. Her favorite is a Dora the Explorer book. She will sit next to me and play with the pages and point to things.
She hardly eats baby food at all anymore, she doesn't like it when we feed her. She wants to do it herself. At Thanksgiving she had cranberries, mashed potatoes and stuffing and she liked them. She loves cheese and crackers. She likes everything we give her for the most part. I buy little cans of mixed vegetables and she loves those. She likes noodles, really likes spaghetti. I like it because it's so much easier to let her feed herself. Even though she makes a little mess, it gives me a chance to do other stuff while she's eating, and we can all eat together. She still doesn't have top teeth though, and it's starting to bug me. She's going to be 11 months old this month, and it seems like most babies her age have more teeth than her. I keep checking for some top ones and nothing. All she has are the 2 bottom ones. I don't want to have to have her fitted for baby dentures so she can eat real food.
We are starting to Christmas shop for her and soon it will be time to go see Santa! I can't wait to see her reaction with that whole thing.

These are old-ish pictures from the Y.


Ava trying to wear Daddy's hat. In the background is the red car from hell that has run over her fingers a few times.

We're Back!

Well we made it back in one piece! We got home at 6am Saturday morning. The original plan was to leave NC Saturday around noon, but Ava was being so cranky our entire trip that we decided it would be better to drive during the night Friday night than to sit in a car with a crying baby for 11 hours. The drive up there went as good as it could go. We left FL around 8:30pm, Ava fell asleep almost immediately and she only woke up once, around 2am when we had to stop for gas. We made it to Nanny's at 7am and Ava was able to stay pretty much on her normal schedule. Tuesday at home she was so cranky, and she was cranky pretty much our whole time up there. I don't know what her deal was but she was so clingy and bad tempered. It was probably just the change of routine and the drive, and being in a new place. She has such a little temper, and it's really starting to show. She did sleep well up there though. That was the main thing I was worried about. She napped with me in bed most of the time, and she slept in her pack n play all night. We mostly just hung around Nanny's, but on Friday we took a drive to the gorge to get some pictures. Of course, our camera ran out of batteries as soon as we got there so I only took 2 pictures. We were expecting pretty cold weather since that's how it usually is, but this year was the warmest year I can remember. She looked so darn cute in her winter clothes though! I know I say this all the time but she is getting so big, she looks different everyday to me.
It was so nice to have this whole weekend off and just be able to hang out together. We never get a full weekend.Today we cleaned and put up our Christmas lights and a tree. Normally we would go buy a real tree, but last year I was pregnant and didn't feel like dragging all the Christmas stuff out. My Dad insisted that we have a tree, so we bought a fake one. This year I didn't want to put a big tree up because Ava would be all over it. She'd be pulling at the branches, pulling off ornaments, it would be a mess, so we bought a small 4' fake tree and put it on a table. It doesn't look that bad, and it's better than no tree at all. We also bought Ava the cutest Christmas dress. It is red velvet, and she's going to wear tights and little black patent leather mary janes. It is so cute!
I almost forgot to mention that Ava said her first real word while we were up in NC! She said "uh oh!" It sounds funny when she says it, but that is definitely what she's saying, and she would copy us when we said it. Of course, she said it a bunch of times that day and hasn't said it since. She also said "mamamamamama" up there a lot. It is so exciting.
I have a ton of pictures from up there and I would love to post so many of them but it takes a long time and a lot of space, so I'm just posting a few. I think I'm going to set up a flickr account so that people can view them all if they want. You might see one of these on a Christmas card soon!
Playing in the leaves!

She loved riding in this wagon



Ava & Lexi

On the Road

We hope everyone has a good Thanksgiving and eats a lot. We are heading out on what will probably end up the drive from hell. Ava has not been in a good mood today and I still have so much to do before we go. I will post when we return.

Worries

I haven't been good about keeping up with the blog lately, and I feel really bad. We've just been crazy busy. I am transitioning from working at the Y to working at that other job. I am really looking forward to having afternoons and evenings off, and getting Ava out of that baby sitting room. It wasn't that bad, but some of the kids were so bad an I could hardly give Ava attention, and a couple of times she got hurt in there. They have this little car that kids sit on and zoom around the room (they push it with their feet) and a couple of times Ava's fingers got run over because the kids weren't watching where they were going. I wanted to take that car out to the parking lot and run it over with my truck. I hate that car.

Anyway, one thing is worrying me - on Wednesday I noticed that Ava had a bite of some kind on her back. It is right above her butt and just inside the back of her diaper.It is really red, kind of hard, almost like a callous, and about the size of a nickel. I was afraid it was a spider bite. It doesn't seem to bother her at all, even when we touch it, so I wasn't going to do anything and just keep an eye on it. Well today Brent and I both noticed that she was acting a little weird. She wasn't talking as much as she usually does, and she just seemed quiet and less active. I'm afraid she isn't feeling well and I'm afraid it's because of the bite. While we thought it was getting better, Brent said it looked worse tonight than it did last night. I am definitely taking her to the doctor on Monday. We are leaving to go out of town on Tuesday and I am not going to take any chances. She could just be getting a cold, since Brent and I have both had cold this month. I really hope she is acting more like herself tomorrow. She sleeps with her butt up in the air most of the time, and the idea that a spider could have been in her crib, and crawled into her diaper disgusts me! I have never seen a biting spider in here, at least that I know of. Brent and I have never gotten bit. I am going to take a picture of the bite.

I have SO many pictures of her that I haven't gotten around to posting. I haven't even loaded them on my computer yet. I will try to do that before we leave for North Carolina. We are very excited to get out of here. I washed all of Ava's new winter clothes and she has some super cute stuff. We just have so much to do before we go. I have to pack for myself and for her, clean out my car, Brent has to find some time to load up the car, clean the house, and I need to go shopping for some stuff we need for the trip. Oh well, we'll get it done somehow.

Doctor

Ava went to her 9 month well baby check up on Monday. She weighed in at 20.6 lbs (85th %), 29 3/4" tall (95th %), and I forget what the head size is but I think it was in the 25th %. She did great, I was all happy that she didn't have to get any shots until I found out that they recommend babies get a flu shot. Since they recommend it, I said okay. Ava screamed. I hate her shots. It was kind of funny though because when they gave her to me she was crying and looking at them and babbling away, like she was telling them how pissed off she was at them. Unfortunately, she has to go back in a month to get another one, I guess they do 2 for some reason. Other than that, she was doing great and they said I can start giving her whole milk and weaning her off of formula. I was happy to hear that because it will save us a lot of money on formula. My biggest regret so far with Ava is that I couldn't nurse her, I really tried. It just didn't work for us. I am going to try again with the next baby. Anyway, we are starting slowly. She like whole milk, and we only give it to her in a cup. Our goal is to have her off formula and maybe even off the bottle by 1 year old. The hard part is going to be bedtime. I always rock her with a bottle before bed and she falls asleep. It will be a hard transition.

I am already thinking about Ava's first birthday party. I wrote out a guest list and it is close to 50 people! So I'm thinking that we are going to do something outside because that many people will not fit in our house. I don't care that it will be January and might be cold. Actually, if I remember correctly it wasn't very cold when Ava was born. I don't know if I want to have it at our house or a park or something.

It is late and I can't think straight so I am going to bed. I will write more and post pictures tomorrow. I have something I want to rant about too but that will have to be later.

Big Babies

I love Friday nights. It's the only night of the week that Brent and I are home together and can just relax. Life has been hectic and stressful this past month, even more than usual. I began yet another job, on top of the 2 that I already had. It wasn't so much out of necessity, but I just kind of fell into it. I met this couple at the YMCA, they would bring their 14 month old son Max into the babysitting room. They had both been big shots at AT&T in Minneapolis, and then he got downsized and they moved back to Florida and started a business. I won't go into all the specifics, because it's kind of boring, but the company is in the insurance field, and they run it out of their home. They knew that I had worked in a corporate setting before I had Ava, and their company is really growing and they needed help, so they asked me to come work for them. I met with them one day and next thing you know I've been working there for the past month. Like any job there are pros and cons. One of the biggest pros is that I can bring Ava. They have a nanny who comes in everyday to watch their son, so she watches Ava too. She is a very nice girl and she gets along with Ava very well. So does Max. Darwin and Jenn, my bosses, are very nice too. It is kind of weird working in their home, but they live on a saltwater canal that feeds into the bay, and I sit facing the water and see manatees playing out there everyday. A con is that it is insurance. Insurance=boring. Darwin already signed me up for the course to become a licensed insurance agent for life, health and annuities. Bleh. And their company deals specifically with medicare programs, all that Part A and D and prescription plans stuff. Anyway, I've been doing that on top of the Y, and it has been killing me. Ava and I leave the house at 9am, and then don't get home until 8:30pm. I'm afraid it's been rough on her too, it isn't fair to her that she has to be dragged around with me to these jobs. So I've decided to stop working at the Y am just work with these other people. Ava then only has to deal with one other child, and she gets personal attention from the nanny. I get to eat lunch with her and hear her playing. My hours are flexible and we get to be home in the afternoons and evenings. Plus it pays more too.
Okay, now that I've rambled on about me (maybe I should start my own blog?)now on to Ava. As I mentioned before we missed her appointment with the doctor, so I have now idea how much she's grown, but it seems like we can see her growing everyday. Seriously, sometimes I look at her and think she looks bigger than she did that morning. She's wearing 12 month size clothing one her, it's a little roomy but she is growing into it. I think she has grown into her chubbiness, if that makes any sense. Her bottom teeth still haven't grown out all the way yet, but they are definitely there. I think her top ones are coming in too because she has had a runny nose for over a week now. She crawls so fast now, and she can walk holding onto the table pretty good too. She is starting to show a wider range of emotions too. The other day she was sitting on the floor in our room and she was pulling on the cord to the blinds. She started making these grunts, and I realized she was getting frustrated because she wanted to pull the blinds up so she could see out the window and she couldn't do it. She was really trying. She also gets so excited now. She waves her hands and makes this funny noise. I bought her this Fridge Farm thing that plays banjo music when she presses a button and she loves it. She'll press the button and as soon as she hears it she gets all excited and she looks at me, because I start doing a funny dance. She kind of bops along too. She's usually sitting on her knees and she'll start bouncing up and down. She loves it when I dance and clap for her. She also loves it when I sing Little Bunny Foo-Foo, she tries to copy the hand movements. When I sing to her, especially the ABC's, she will stare right at my mouth and it looks like she's concentrating on the sounds I am making, almost like she is fascinated by the different sounds. That makes me so happy because I know at that moment she is learning something. She loves to flip the light switch off. I turn it on again, and she will flip it off, and this can go on and on.
Since we have been working at the insurance biz, Ava has been exposed to lots of different foods, some I am not so happy about. The nanny has given her tater tots and french fries. Not in big amounts or anything, but I am kind of hesitant about introducing crap like that into her diet. She of course loves them. She has also eaten lots of good stuff too though, like peas and carrots, cheese, tomatoes, and even chicken. Ava doesn't really like to eat baby food. It's either that or she just would rather feed herself than have me feed her off a spoon. She loves eating people food. Last night I was eating pizza and she crawled right over to me and stood there holding on to my leg and demanded that I give her some. I would rip off little bits of dough and put it in her mouth. I would take a bite, then give her a piece, and this went on until the pizza was gone. I have to hide what I'm eating. I am pretty glad she is beginning to eat food like that because it's a lot more fun than baby food.
Well, it is late and I should get some pictures on here. We are excited because in less than 3 weeks we are going to North Carolina for Thanksgiving! I am not looking forward to the drive, but I am looking forward to getting the heck out of Florida for a few days and shopping for winter stuff for Ava. She needs everything!
Oops, I just realized I didn't mention Halloween. We took Ava trick or treating with Skylar, her 6 year old cousin. I wasn't going to dress her up but Brent bought a costume for her. It was a purple a black dress and witches hat. Of course Ava wouldn't tolerate the hat, but the dress looked really cute. It was so hot! We didn't really trick or treat, just walked up to the door with Skylar. Ava did score a Twix from one house though!

Ava trying on Daddy's Indiana Jones hat. She doesn't like hats.

Doesn't she look excited?




Ava and her Twix

Ava and her buddy Nathan. Yes, Ava is topless. She won't be naked in front of a boy again until she's married.

Mommy & Daddy at a Halloween party

Halloween

I will post on Saturday, it is too late and I am too tired to write a big post now. Ava was supposed to have her 9 month well baby visit today at 9:30am. I rushed to get us out of the house on time and when I went to start the car it wouldn't start. I rescheduled the appointment for 1:45pm and Brent brought home a new battery on his lunch hour and changed it out. The car then started right up. Ava had fallen asleep on our bed, and since we had some time before we had to leave I decided to crawl in bed with her and lay down for "just a minute." Well, she curled up next to me and we ended up sleeping too late and missing the appointment! Grrr. I once again rescheduled it for Monday.

My Pumpkin

I always find myself on the computer late at night when I am tired so I slack off on posting, but stuff is starting to pile up so I'd better get to it. As I mentioned before, Ava is going through a tooth explosion. The 2 bottom ones are poking through, and I'm pretty sure the top teeth are ready to say hello too. I was feeding her a little bit of banana with my finger and she bit me so hard she almost broke the skin! I can't wait to see her with teeth, she will look like such a big girl. There are days when I don't see her for hours and it seems like she grew in that short amount of time. I can't believe she is going to be 9 months in 2 days. The 9 months that I was pregnant went by SO slow compared to these past 9 months.
She is crawling everywhere and pulling herself up on everything. She is getting braver and is starting to let go a little and try to stand up on her own. Of course she falls every time, but I think within a month she'll be standing up without holding on. She loves to pull all of our DVD's out of the entertainment center. I don't even bother putting them back anymore, so our living room looks like it's been ransacked most of the time. She also discovered the tupperware in our kitchen cabinets and will add some of that into the mix too.
I have been a little more daring with her food. I've begun giving her little bits of fruit and I gave her bread the other night. She won't put them in her mouth herself, I have to fee her with my fingers. If I put stuff on her high chair and try to let her do it herself she just moves it around and plays with it. Drops it on the floor, smushes it, etc. She liked the bread, she loves bananas, doesn't really care for cantaloupe. She eats yogurt too. When Brent and I eat she wants our food so bad. She goes to the doctor soon so I am going to ask them what else I can give her.
She started waving "hi" and "bye" this month, but now she has kind of stopped that. She has been very smiley lately and has started to laugh more, which we love. The other day when I took her grocery shopping she was sitting in the front of the cart and I bent down to give her a hug and I really felt like she hugged me back. She still loves the ABC song, and she also likes "Little Bunny Foo-Foo" and she will wave her hand around when I start singing it, almost like she's trying to copy the hand movements. She points at everything. She recognizes the words clock, hi, bye, mommy, daddy, fan, outside, and light. And there you have it, Ava in a paragraph.

Today we took her to a pumpkin festival at a big farm. It's a big thing this farm does every year but I had never been. Seeing as how it's nearly the end of October and technically it is "fall," I had hoped that we might have some cooler weather. I wanted to dress Ava in a cute fall outfit and take some pictures with the pumpkins. Unfortunately, it was miserably hot! Geez I hate Florida! After a short time there we were sweating like crazy, wouldn't venture out of the shade, and kept putting water on Ava to keep her cool. The farm even had a "misting station" where people could walk through and get sprayed with water mist. I am dying for some cool weather. It is hard to get into the fall spirit when you are wearing shorts and a tank top and still sweating your ass off. Of course, the weather says a cold front is due this week so next weekend will probably have the weather I'd hoped for. Oh well.

It is now 11:45pm and I am wiped out. Here's some pics:
Ava with her first pair of shoes. She doesn't keep them on very long.

Ava & Daddy. I love those overalls.

Sleeping beauty. I went in her room to check on her before I went to bed and she had her head on that little pillow and she looked so cute I had to get a picture. Unfortunately, the flash made her scrunch up her face. Still cute, and she looks pissed.

Ava and the baby pumpkins. She didn't want to let them go. This was when we first got there, before we were miserable.





Ava eating some yummies.

Busy

I will be posting again really soon. We are in the process of changing our internet, so right now I am using old school dial-up AOL. Very, very slow. We should have it up and going by tomorrow so I will try to post then. We got rid of the cable internet and are going to try DSL because cable is so expensive, but I have a feeling I might regret that decision and go back to cable in the very near future.

All is well, Ava is teething like crazy. More soon...

Teeth!

Yes, Ava is finally getting her first tooth! I was beginning to think she'd be toothless forever! It is one of her bottom teeth, but I think she will soon have a tooth-explosion and will get them all at once. She hasn't been acting that cranky or seemed at all uncomfortable, so that is a good thing. She won't really let us see it but we can feel something sharp on her gums. I can't wait to see her with teeth, and it will be good because then I can start feeding her different things. She eats her baby food and sometimes I give her these wagon-wheel things for babies, but when she sees Brent and me eating anything, she makes a grab for it. She wants whatever we have. The other night we were making pasta so I gave her some noodles. They were the corkscrew kind and I tore them in pieces and put them on her high chair tray. She didn't know what to do with them, and they got sticky and were sticking to her fingers and face, it was so funny. She hasn't quite figured out the whole "self-feeding" thing yet.
She is understanding so many words now. Of course, she knows clock and will point to the kitchen clock. Even if we're somewhere else and we say clock she will just point in the air. She now knows "mommy" and will look at me when we say "where's mommy?" Sometimes she gets me and Brent confused and will look at him. When we say "hi" she will wave. It isn't perfect, but it is definitely a wave. Everyday it seems she is making progress in the learning department, it is very exciting to see. She is doing different baby-talk too, making different sounds.
The weather has been really nice this past week - perfect summer weather in October. We might even turn the A/C off in a few days. We have been taking Ava for walks, me in the morning and Brent in the afternoon. I can't wait until we can actually do things together again. That requires me to get a different job, which I am working on. I am either going to try to get a full-time teaching job or try to work as a substitute, if we can work out the baby-sitting situation. A standard day-care center is my absolute LAST resort.
I get the feeling she is going to wake up from her nap any minute so it's random picture time.

She loves to take all of the DVD's off the shelf, but she never puts them back. That Huggies box is there to block the stereo!

Pointing

Doing the wave

Just being darn cute

Ava and the F*$#%@! cat!

Fuzzy, but again, cute.