Grandfather Mountain Picnic

This Tuesday, Ava (and Ani) and I went to visit the family and have a picnic on Grandfather Mountain. Here are Ava and "Dude" riding around in the Maddy Wagon at the animal exhibit. Other sightseers were treated to cute overload when they saw two babies relaxing in the wagon.
After the animal tour, we had a cookout and lounged around in the grass for a while.














Here we are playing on a rock while Pop cooks some delicious chicken.


















This is Ava playing in the grass wearing her picnic hat...it's a plastic bowl.















After the cookout, we went to the outlets to check for sales at the baby store. On the way through, the babies had to ride the helicopter out front.

Ava's Sidekick

Meet Ani. This is Ava's partner in crime. Grammie gave Ani to Ava when Ava was about 6 weeks old. I didn't want to give the toy a name right away, because I wanted Ava to be able to name it for herself. I would always just ask her, "Where is your bunny?" When she started to talk, she thought it was called "your bunny" and she would try to say that. It always came out as "Yanni"--yes, like the musician. As funny as it was, I started calling the toy Yanni too. Since her diction has improved, it is now just Ani.


Ava and Ani spend most days playing together and watching Elmo on Sesame Street. With Ava's help, Ani sometimes canvasses the house looking for people, animals, and other toys to shower with kisses. There have been times when I was sitting in the chair watching television and out of nowhere this dingy pink mass would come flying at my face with a loud "MWAH" and I would realize that I was being kissed.

As you can imagine, with all of her adventures, Ani sometimes gets dirty and needs a bath. Ava has tried to take Ani into the bathtub with her, but the washing machine really does a better job than a toddler with a bar of soap.

Today, Ani needed a bath. I put her in the new, front-loading washer and went on with my business. When I walked back in to the kitchen, I found this:


She had her little face mashed up to the glass as she cried, "Ani. Ani. Ani." Quite possibly the saddest thing I've ever witnessed.

Ava and "Dude" Go Swimming

Ava went to play with Wah-wah, Pop, Tia Peg, and Cousin "Dude" while I was at work and her Daddy was hiking in the mountains. They decided to have a little springtime fun in the inflatable swimming pool. Instead of water, though, it was filled with 300 plastic play balls like you find in the ball pits at fast food restaurants. I'm told that Dude spent most of his time in the pit throwing the balls out and watching them roll down the hill. Ava just wanted to go up and down the slide.













Dude and the dinosaurs.


















Babies at play.

Dress-up

Not too long ago, I decided it was time to clean out my closet. There were a few things in there that I thought might make fun dress-up clothes for Ava one day, so I put them in a pile in the floor. She found the pile and had a field day. Most of the shirts in the pile were long enough for her to wear as dresses. Throw in a couple of scarves and Mommy's high heels and she was ready for a night out.








Here she is in one of my old halter tops. Her daddy says with a pair of moccasins she would look like a little Indian girl.









This is her little black dress tastefully accessorized with a purple velvet scarf.













And here it is with the matching shoes. She needs a little more practice walking in heels.

Need Coffee!

And this is how she looks in the morning before her first cup of coffee. Woof!

"Dude's" Birthday Party

Here she is sitting in Pop's lap wearing her Power Suit. This was at Cousin Matt's birthday party at Untouchables. All of his cousins came and he got lots of fun toys. Chuck brought him a Maddy Wagon to ride around town. All of the good pictures are on Wah-wah's camera. We'll borrow it soon and get them posted.

Snow...Lots of Snow

These pictures were taken on March 2, 2009. This was the first time Ava had gotten to play in the snow. We took a family trip up to Blowing Rock to visit Wah-wah and Pop at their house. There was a ton of snow and we had a great time taking the babies sledding. I don't think they had as much fun as the big kids did, though.






Here, Wiley is helping me pull the sled back up to the top of the hill.








The boys take their turn.

Fire Chief Chuck

Ava Dean at Play

Sometimes we go to the park and play on the swings. This was one of the first times we went after she learned how to walk. I was exhausted when we came home.







This is why.








Artsy shadow picture.












One of the few time she wasn't on the run chasing ducks.









Her expressions are priceless sometimes.











Who? Me?

Party!

Here she is sitting in the awesome chair that her Aunt Kelly made for her birthday (it matches her room). Her Granna threw her a birthday party and invited all of her family. She even got her own cake to enjoy all by herself.

This was the real cake for the party guests to eat.

Here she is blowing out the candles (with Daddy's help) on her "smash cake".








Ever so daintily using a fork to eat her cake.








Her daddy was trying to show her how it's done.

This is how she sleeps:

Christmas 2008 photos

Since I'm just getting started with this photo blog, let's go back a couple of months. Here are a couple of Ava's Christmas pictures.

This is Ava and her Uncle Bar all dressed up for a party on Christmas Eve.

Here she is opening presents at Granna and Papaw's house.