Birthday Blowout

I had a great birthday weekend. Friday night Brent, Ava and I went out to dinner. Ava has officially outgrown a high chair. She can technically still fit in one, but she hates sitting in them, so now we get her a booster chair. She sat in it about half the time, and the rest of the time she stood in the booth or climbed on me. It's okay as long as she's not holding a fork. At home, we stopped using the high chair and use a little booster chair too, and I just bought one for her to use at work. Now she is sitting at the table like a big girl. Once she learned she can climb up on a chair, there is no stopping her. She can climb up on the bed now too. Today she said her first 2 word sentence - "bye doggy." We were leaving work today when Bear (the neighbor's dog) came running over. Ava was waving at him and said it. She is really telling stories now, when she is babbling you can make out some words, and she goes on and on. She sings sometimes too. I love it. When I say "one..." she says "twooo...bee!" Today she learned the word circle and can pick out the circle from other shapes. I love watching her learn. I have to remind myself that she is now a little person, and absorbing so much. I have to talk to her like a little adult, and I make sure to explain things to her.
Today she was back to more of her normal self. No melt-downs at work, and she was in a great happy mood all day. We went to Walmart and she randomly waved at a bunch of people, and said bye to some of them. I hope this is a good sign!
Saturday we spent the day together and then Ava went over to Grandma's for the night. Brent and I and a couple of friends went tarpon fishing on my brother-in-law's boat. It was really fun. Unfortunately, I did not catch my birthday fish - however, I two good bites. On one of them I probably would've had it but my line got tied up with my friend's. Brent is the only one that actually caught one and brought it to the boat. Some people thought it was odd that that's what I wanted to do for my birthday, but I really enjoy the tarpon fishing.
Sunday, we pulled ourselves out of bed (we didn't get in from fishing until 3am) and drove to Tampa to go to the aquarium. Although Ava slept the whole ride up there, she was still pretty cranky. We had one melt-down. She loved it though! She ran from tank to tank, and her head was spinning. The aquarium has a kid area where they can play in water and we let Ava play in it for a while. She does really well around older kids. She mostly just stares at them and then tries to copy what they are doing. She got knocked down once accidentally, and she's a trooper about it. She just pulls herself back up without a whimper.
I am a little nervous about next week, I am going on my first ever business trip. I get to go to beautiful Jackson, Mississippi for 2 days, with a co-worker that I have never met before. It is a recruiting event, and a bunch of managers and directors will be there, and we might have to give a presentation. Brent will be dropping Ava off at my work as usual, and Ashley will be watching the kids. His Mom will then pick her up when she gets off of work. I know she will be fine, she is there everyday so it won't be anything new. It will just feel weird knowing she will be there all day without me. One thing about not having your child in daycare is that there is a very strong attachment between the two of you. Leaving her is hard, even when I know she will be well taken care of. She is used to me being there, and I am used to being there with her. Oh well, baby steps.
Pics from the weekend:
Here fishy fishy