Check that smile now, baby!

The sweet, gummy smile that Ava has spent months charming us all with is about to be a thing of the past. No, she has not suddenly decided to become one of those brooding artist types, sporting a frown and a black onesie. She is however, finally getting some teeth! Ok, so just the one tooth, but experience has led me to believe there will be more. I'll post pictures when the little pearly white gets big enough for its film debut.

I should have suspected we were close to a first tooth since Ava is currently chewing on anything and everything. Toys, books, her sleeve, me. Anything that is, as long as it's not food related. I occasionally try to sneak something into her hand that isn't pureed, and she just closes her mouth and gives me her "I'm not falling for that" face. Here she is lifting up the living room rug so she can stuff her Biter Biscuit under it.

Ava adores being read to, so I picked up a couple new books for her when we were at the mall yesterday. Her current faves have furry animal pictures that she can "pet", and today she seemed to have a particular love connection with a panda bear. She kept leaning in to give him her patented open-mouthed kisses. I tried desperately to get it on film, but she's seems to be a Smooch and Scram kind of gal, so I never was quick enough to catch it. This was snapped just a second too late, but you get the idea.

The love between a baby and her panda bear; don't you wish everything in life was this sweet?

Um, only when we put her down.

As you may know, I've been training for a triathlon. (And in answer to the question no doubt running through your head right now, yes, I probably am crazy.) I needed a place to swim, so I joined a gym with a terrific child care facility and Ava and I go there a couple of times a week. The title of this post is the answer I got when I asked one of the ladies in the day care if Ava had cried at all while I was swimming. I think our girl may be a tad spoiled. :) I don't have a picture to illustrate this point, so rather than post nothing, here's a random picture of Ava eating my camera case. Which, by the way, is the closest thing to solid food she's shown any interest in.

Ava was invited to her friend Johnny's 2nd birthday party last weekend, and she was kind enough to let her dad and I tag along. She wasn't big enough yet for the bounce house, but she did enjoy hanging out in the living room playing with some of the other kiddos. One of the dads decided we had a major photo op on our hands, so we lined 'em up and tried to get them all to smile at the same time. Any parent who's ever tried this knows that getting 3 small children to simultaneously smile is like trying to catch wind in your hand: impossible. Nevertheless, the results were pretty darn cute.

I just wish someone had gotten video footage of a room full of parents jumping around like circus clowns trying to make those babies laugh. Watching that later with a few cocktails would have been entertaining.

Have a great weekend!

Ava's first 5K

Ava ran her first race this morning. The Denver Mother's Day 5K was a happy little event filled with parents, strollers, and lots of energetic kiddos out for a morning of exercise and family fun. It was a bit chilly to start (as you might have guessed by Ava's Arctic-ready outfit), but by the time the race got going the weather was gorgeous. We crossed the finish line, excited and proud, looked into the stroller and saw this...

Running is exhausting.

Since the course was next to the zoo, we followed our run with a visit there, then took our sleepy little girl home. It was the perfect way to spend Mother's Day.

Happy Mother's Day, all. I hope yours was as lovely as mine.

No doubt she's a Daddy's girl.

Ava loves her Daddy. And at no time is this more evident than when he comes home from work. Andy walks through the door looking for his little princess, and when he finds her calls out a happy "Hi, Baby!". She grins from ear to ear, her little body positively vibrating with joy as she waits for him to pick her up and give her a kiss. The problem only comes when, instead of making a move to hold her, he turns to go upstairs and change his clothes. This breaks her heart like nothing else can. The tears are heart wrenching. As you might guess, Andy rarely makes it to the bottom of the stairs. Today was no exception.