Happy Birthday, Ava!

We celebrated Ava's first birthday yesterday at Grandma & Grandpa Kingma's house and she was adorable! She sat and listened to us sing Happy Birthday and then ate one of her cupcakes with gusto. Mmmm, sugar!! She opened presents, or rather, her cousins opened her gifts for her and she watched but it was all fun. I'm not sure which thing she liked the best, the toys or the tissue paper they were wrapped in. Here's some pictures of the party. Thank you so much to everyone who came to celebrate with Ava!

The Diaper Boogie

This is my chair. I can turn it on so it vibrates.I can climb in and sit on it. I can make it rock.

And then I can climb out of my chair and do the diaper boogie! Wahoo!

A playdate with Isabel

Ava and Isabel got to hang out last week and they were so sweet! Izzy kept giving Ava kisses and hugs then she wanted to "help" Ava walk everywhere. When Ava got sick of walking it became a race to see who the faster crawler was (I'm not sure that Ava realized this was a contest). Isabel was happy to show Ava how it was done. For those of you who don't know Isabel, she is my cousin Joe and his wife Lan's little girl and she's about ten months older than Ava. It will be so much fun to watch them grow up together, just like Joe and myself. :)

Ready for the beach!

What was that? Ready for the beach!? Did we mention we live in the middle of the South Dakota tundra? Here's what you'll need for a February visit to any beach around here: fleece pants, turtleneck, furry winter coat, fuzzy teddy bear hat, and a big, warm blanket to top it all off. Don't forget to send Dad outside to start the car, Ava Reese!

The game of the day

Ava found her missing pacifier and it became the toy to play with that day. It'd be in her mouth for a while but had to be taken out often so that she could tell me stories. Then she took it to her hiding spot under the island where she played "pick it up, throw it down, pick it up, throw it down" until she bored of that game. Then it was back to crawling around and exploring with it in her mouth until she lost it once more, probably among the mess of toys in her toybox.

Hide and Seek

When you are 28" inches tall, where's the best place to hide? Under the island! You can stay standing (being on your feet verses your knees is a big deal when you're a toddler) and you can pull the island stools close in to help hide yourself (this also shows off your big muscles). Time for Hide and Seek!

Laundry

Here's Ava helping with the laundry. She takes the laundry out of the basket and then climbs in. I want to know, why does she always get to do the fun part?? Before we start in with the laundry, we play peekaboo with my robe and I can't decide if I'm laughing harder at her hair standing on end or her giggles and grins when the robe comes up and I say "Peekaboo".