I feel like I haven't posted in awhile.

We went boating on Sunday with my cousin Stacey and Nate and daughter, Taylor. We left Sunday morning for Coralville Lake. It looked like we were moving on the boat for a week with the cooler and bags of towels, extra clothes, and toys and books to keep Ava entertained. Turns out, I probably wouldn't have needed half of what I brought. She was content looking around at the "wa-wa". She took a quick nap on the boat and of course is as brown as can be now! We even got to get her on the tube and take her tubing! She loved it and was yelling "woah!" the whole time. When I asked her if she liked it, she says "YEAH!" She absolutely loved Taylor and even got to go swimming in the water for a little bit. Pictures to come.

I also wanted to write about a couple cute things Ava did yesterday. She found a bottle of sunscreen and was pretending to put it in her hand and rub it in my hair. (Which I will admit the tube looks a little like a hair product bottle) She continued to "fix" my hair for at least 10 minutes and keep saying "Pretty, Mommy" every couple of minutes. When she was finished she said "All Done!" and kissed me. What a little cutie! And let me tell you, my hair looked fabulous.

Ava has been really into playing pretend with her babies lately. In fact, this is something she's been doing since she was still in the infant room at daycare. Yesterday, she went to her room and grabbed all her diaper changing supplies (wipes, diaper cream, diapers, etc) and brought them and two babies out into the living room. She plopped herself up on the couch and proceeded to change and wipe her babies, while saying "poopy". Haha

Smarty Pants

Ava amazes me everyday with the new things she learns. Recently, she has started saying "mas" instead of "more" and after a few days, Darren said, "mas" is "more" in Spanish. No joke.

Also, recently she was doing something naughty so I started counting, giving her to three to stop or was going to put her in time out. (I've done a couple time outs with her, but they usually fail miserably. How are you supposed to keep a 1 year old in time out?) Anyway, I started counting... One... and Ava says... "Two..." It took everything I had not to laugh.

She has also recently started saying "Okay" for everything rather than "yes". Ava, do you want more milk? "Okay!" Ava, do you want to go outside? "Okay!"

She has even started calling me Mommy lately rather than Mama like she used to. Its so adorable, but sure makes her seem so old.

Pretend Crying?

I have recently discovered if I pretend to cry, Ava will drop everything and run to me to give me a big hug. This is such her lovey personality and what I love most about her. Ok, I have to admit I am aware this could and probably will blow up in my face. However, I have been having quite the time waking Ava up in the morning for day care. I offer countless things that she loves to get her out of bed, such as cuddling, milk, cartoons, going to school, seeing her friends, breakfast, etc. She still won't budge, in fact, she has mastered the art of pretending to be asleep when she's not. So this morning, I decided to try my pretend crying bit. "Crying", I said Ava, will you get up? "Ok!", she says. Keep in mind I had been trying to wake her up for at least 10 minutes prior to this.

Same thing happened this evening. She didn't want to get ready for bed and would run away from me when I tried to get her to change her diaper and put on her jammies. But when I pretended to cry, she said "Ok" and ran to me, hugged me, and laid down for her diaper and jammies.

Big Helper!

Ava is becoming such a big helper. She likes to help put the clothes in the dryer and throw things away. She also loves to dust, sweep, and help fold (or un-fold) the laundry. In fact earlier today I had folded some towels and some of Darren's t-shirts. I went to put the towels away in our bathroom and told her I'd be right back. I quickly ran upstairs to put the towels away and when I was coming back down, Ava was climbing the stairs carrying Darren's t-shirts to help put away. I couldn't be more proud.

Franklin County Fair

We were able to spend some time at the Franklin County Fair over the weekend. Ava, Rachel and I went on Friday for a couple of hours and walked around to see all the animals. Ava was a little interested, but also didn't want them to come too close either. She thought one calf in particular was hilarious because it got up to see her when we got close to it. She also love touching the bunnies through the cages.




Saturday evening I went to the Kellie Pickler concert with some of the women in my family. I had a little mishap with some of the greasy fair food (it spilled all over my lap within the first 5 minutes) but I was able to clean it up and it dried pretty fast in the heat. We were also able to get pretty close to the stage and take some pictures.



Sunday we went for a swim in the Lewis pool before nap time and then after nap headed over for rides at the fair. It was pretty hot, but Ava was having a blast. She loved the elephant ride that went high in the air and the carousel the best. I took her on the elephant ride the first time and she continued to yell "Woah" and "Yay!" the whole time. She is such a joy to be around. We also enjoyed a train ride around the fair, had some old fashioned homemade ice cream, and also a cream soda in the saloon.

Moe-Moe

Lately Ava has been calling Sophie, our dog, Moe-Moe. She'll stand next to her and yell "Moe-Moe, No!" Last night she stood outside with Sophie's leash yelling, "Moe-Moe, Moe-Moe" over and over. I find this hilarious and have even started calling Sophie "Moe-Moe" as well. I'm sure this is a horrible thing to do to Sophie, poor thing is probably so confused!

Dumont Sandbaggin' Day

We went back for Dumont Sandbaggin' Day over the weekend. Ava and I headed there on
Friday evening. Ava spent some time with Papa before going to bed and I was able to visit with my friend Wendy Miller. It was so good to see her. Saturday morning, Ava and I hit up a few garage sales and spent some time visiting with some family, including Grandma Meinders who is recovering from her balloon surgery she had done earlier in the week. Around noon, my dad took Ava for lunch and nap time while I worked in the beer garden and Tyson and Rachel participated in the bags tournament. I then went to spend some quality time in the Lewis pool and Ava joined me when she woke up from nap. I was trying my best to get a good tan that day, and well... it worked and I was slightly pink for the evening festivities.

After the parade we enjoyed dinner and then headed back to my parents to freshen up and enjoy some a/c for a little while. Darren took Ava over to his parents, as she was spending the night there. Later that night, we went back to town for the band Wild Card, street dance, and beer garden. Rachel, Lisa Lewis and I had volunteered to take tickets and money for a while. We participated in a lot of activities and were able to visit with a lot of friends and family, but my favorite part by far was Ava riding the smiley train after the parade. I thought she would be nervous or scared, but instead she was laughing and had the biggest smile on her face!