AR = 2 years

Ava Reese,

      Can you believe it! You are two years old. I have been teaching you all week how to answer someone when they ask you how old you are. You will say, "I'm 2" and hold up two cute little fingers! It's so hard for me to believe that it has been two years since you were born. You've grown up so quickly and so far, it's been one wild ride!!

In the past year you have developed such a strong personality. You are sensitive, moody, wild, and absolutely hilarious. You have the best sense of humor I have ever seen on a child and I love it! You still hate to sleep and don't do very much of it. As of now, you still take a 1 hour (if we are lucky) nap in the afternoon and you average about 7 hours of sleep a night which is usually interrupted. You hate sleeping in your room (or maybe you just love sleeping with me) so it's a battle we fight every night. A battle that I sadly loose more often than not. Mommy and Daddy have decided we are going to break down and put a tv in your room. Hopefully, that will help..Who knows?

You have undergone a lot of change this past year. Daddy isn't home near as much as we are use to or we would like but you have dealt with it so well. You still are a big Daddy's girl and love to give him kisses over the phone. You also were given a baby brother without ever being asked if you wanted one. Although in my eyes you are still a baby yourself, you have taken the big sister roll and run with it. Everyday you talk to your brother in baby talk and make him grin from ear to ear. You love to feed him his bottle and never let him go a minute without his paci, even if he doesn't want it. You have become very interested in changing his diapers and are actually pretty good at it. I can't wait to see you two grow up together! You are going to be such a great sister..I hope :)

As of now, if it were up to you, you would live on gummies, string cheese, and choc choc (chocolate milk). You have your good and bad days when it comes to eating but if any of the three are an option, you will gladly take it no matter what. You are not a very picky eater at all, you just don't always have a very big appetite. You do, however, have your mommy's love for noodles and if nothing else, I can usually get you to eat a bowl for dinner, with of course gummies on the side.

You are a very smart girl. Some of the things your do and say completely throw me off guard and makes me wonder where in the world you learned it. You love to put together puzzles, build up your blocks, sing and dance, color, and slide! You also love your cartoons, especially Dora, Kai-Lan, and Blues Clues. At the moment you are obsessed with animals. You know LOTS of animal sounds and love to feed all of Nana and Poppy Bruce's animals.

I hate to say it, but you are one handful. The stage you are in right now is by far the hardest we have been through. You are so strong willed and adamant. However, your speech is still hard to understand so you get very aggravated with me when I don't understand what you want. We spend lots of time saying, "Use your words!", "What do you want?", "Show me!", or "Go get it." Hopefully, when you begin to speak a little more clearly you won't have as many break downs and come aparts. You are my STINKER!

You are wild, you are crazy, you are beautiful!

Happy Birthday to You!

Ava Reese, YOU ARE 2!

{and Mommy is 26- OLD}