Holidays are awesome! Tummy troubles stink.

Our girl is under the weather. We've had our flu shots, and the first colds of the season have come and gone, so I thought we were out of the woods for a while when, out of nowhere, a stomach bug showed up and bit us. Unfortunately, Ava got the worst of it. Poor bunny. Don't you just want to kiss those little cheeks?

On a happier note, Grandma Sally and Grandpa Mac were here to visit for Thanksgiving, and once again, I was afraid Ava was going to try to leave with them. She spent the long weekend being smothered in kisses, cuddled, read to, and unabashedly adored. And being a little sick didn't stop her from enjoying every minute of it. So cute.



As a treat for the whole family, we made an attempt to visit Santa. Being the naive mom that I am, I had visions of my daughter happily rushing up to meet the big guy, smiling widely for the cameras, as Andy and I looked on, proud grins on our faces. What actually happened was, well, the complete opposite of that. She took one look at the bearded offender, and screamed like we had just introduced her to one of those creepy flying monkeys from the Wizard of Oz. Putting her in his lap turned out to be a big mistake, and we left without a single picture. I'm pretty sure we did however, set Ava up for a few hours of therapy at some point in the future. We came home and took a few pictures in her rocking chair instead.

Please don't send anything Santa-related to Ava for Christmas. I'd hate to trigger flashbacks.

Happy Holidays!

I'm sick, not lazy.

I've been catching a little (loving) flak lately about the length of time since my last post. But in my (slightly lame) defense, it's been Sick City around here for the last couple of weeks. Andy and Ava just got over colds that seemed to hang on with a vengeance I wouldn't have previously attributed to something that isn't human, and I'm currently down with bronchitis. So rather than leave you Ava-less for yet another week, I'm offering up my version of the Reader's Digest post: short and sweet.

No whining; at least there's pictures.

Ava did Halloween up right. First she hit the zoo for the annual Boo at the Zoo festivities. Here she is in her Piggy costume explaining the elephants to her dad...

Then she had her buds Ollie and Brady over for a little Trick-or-Treat shindig.

And spent last Saturday gettin' crazy at Monkey Bizness for her friends' Emma and Kelsey's 4th birthay. Happy Birthday, sweet girls! We love you!

We're trying to get as much use as we can out of the swing set before Jack Frost renders it too chilly for little tushies...

And our Little Lady is still putting in lots of practice feeding herself. She's going a great job, but so far we still have to avoid anything involving sauces when we're not near a bathtub.

Ava's showing the first signs of wanting to dress herself. I don't have any pictures yet, but let's see if I can paint one for you: the socks wind up laying over her ankle, and the shirt rests nicely on top of her head. She has absolutely no use for pants.

Not perfect, but you have to admire the effort.

More soon, I promise!