16 months

This my effort to document Ava at 16 months. I am still in a fog from that whole week of no sleep, but I forced myself to pull out the camera and take a few pictures yesterday. Getting a non-blurry shot is the hard part, as she does not sit still long enough for me to focus and get a good picture.

Ava is talking quite a bit. She picks up new words every day. While in the hospital, she screamed "Toe! Toe! Toe!" for the duration of our stay as she tried to pull the oxygen monitor off of her toe. I called J-P from the hospital and asked him if he taught her the word "toe". I knew I hadn't. His response- "yeah, we worked on a lot of things while you and Max were in the hospital".

In addition to her increase in vocabulary, she became VERY attached to J-P while I was away for three and a half days. J-P drove her to the hospital so I could run out and feed her three times a day. But that's all I saw her. She has a special place in her heart for the parent that didn't abandon her. Any time he appears, she squeals, jumps into his arms and wraps her arms around his neck. Oh how she loves her "da da".

She loves her brothers' toys the best. She fills up little dump trucks with dirt, and belts out the appropriate "vroom vroom" as she pushed them around. She takes buzz lightyear and flies him around the house while making space shuttle noises. She will play with her "babies" too, but prefers to play outside in the dirt like her brothers. She does, however, like to fill up her purse with treasures and carry it around the house.

Her favorite thing to do is read. If she had it her way, we would spend the entire day on the couch reading. She brings me books all day long and screams "Read! Read! Read!" One is never enough. Ten is never enough. She always wants more.

New phrases: "ah wa jink!" (I want a drink), "mo da da" (I want more da da), "beanie bean and max????" (where are Ian and Max?), "ah done!" (all done), jah (yeah), "nurch!" (nurse)...

She is also going through the "No!" phase. Full body exertion is observed with her head shaking and feet stomping tantrums. It's incredible that at such a young age she knows exactly what she wants. I only wish I were that decisive!