Ava building upon her incredible dancing skills....

This is video footage of Ava making herself dizzy to the tunes of The Beastie Boys while brushing her teeth!

The girl is multi-talented!!!!!!!

Halloween: It's Not Just October 31st Anymore

We had a lot of fun on Halloween. It felt like the dress-up celebrations lasted like a week; gone are the days of my childhood when Halloween was literally just October 31st. Ava was a fairy. She usually referred to the wings as butterfly wings, so we called her the butterfly fairy. I'm glad I didn't get her one of those heavy fleece costumes, because it was in the 80s that day.

We went to a special event at the aquarium with some friends, Sarah and Gabe. Ava loved seeing all the fishes and other animals, the kids in costumes, and of course, getting candy. Well, let me qualify that by explaining that she still didn't get what was happening when people actually handed out the candy, but when she realized that she had some in her bag, she was thrilled.

We also went to a Halloween party for my mom's group at my friend Alexis' house. It was really fun. I'd say Ava's favorite parts were dancing to the music, eating candy and going to see the horses across the street.

They had a really cute photo booth set up at the party, and these pics were taken by Lauren Wolf.

Baby, Preschool and Other News

I don't think this will come as a surprise to anyone reading this blog, but I don't think I've actually mentioned on here yet that we are having a baby. I'm due on Feb 1st, so I'm about halfway along now. This pregnancy has been really different than the first. I think being preoccupied with a toddler running around has made it go by a lot faster. Ava seems to have taken to the idea of the baby. She often kisses my belly and talks about the baby. When we ask her whether it will be a brother or a sister, she always answers "sister." However, when we ask if she thinks it will be a boy or a girl, she answers differently depending on the day.

Ava started preschool this year. She goes two days a week, Mondays and Wednesdays. We decided to start her a little earlier than we'd originally planned. It would help with my work schedule (I recently started teaching two classes), and she is very social and seems to enjoy playing with other kids.

We did a trial run with her backpack the weekend before school started.

Leaving for school on the first day, Ava insisted on carrying my purse.

On the first day of school, while we waited in line to drop her off at her room, a lot of kids were crying and holding on to their parents. When it was her turn, Ava ran right in the room toward the toys without looking back. I was a little sad to watch my baby run off independently, but I was also proud, and it felt like it validated our decision to go ahead and send her to preschool.

Ava Turns 18 Months, Plus What We've Been Up To

This summer is flying by so fast. I think I always feel that way every year; perhaps it is psychological from being a kid and feeling like summer breaks were never long enough. One thing is for sure -- it has been HOT here. We have had countless days when we didn't even want to leave the house between the hours of 10 am and 6 pm.

For Memorial Day weekend, we went to the mountains to visit family. We had a great time visiting with my parents, both sisters, bros-in-law and all the kids. Ava always seems like she is in her element when she is around her cousins. Here are some pics of Ava with her Nonni, Ava and Lucy, and Olive and Elijah.

In other news, we are trying to get our house ready to put on the market. It's been almost three years since we bought it, and the time has come to find something bigger. We're in the process of renovating and repairing it. With Ben off for the summer, he has time to put his DIY skills to work. :) The goal is to have it on the market by sometime in August.

When our schedules permit, we're trying to take advantage of Ben's time off to do things together. We recently visited Lewis Farm to pick blackberries.

We are getting ready for the annual Gorman family vacation to Lake Lure. We can't wait to see everyone, watch the cousins play, and enjoy some relaxation by the lake and pool. We'll post pics and an update when we get back.

Springtime in Photographs

Dancing Queen

Since Ava took her first steps about three weeks ago, she continued with the same pattern of walking a little here or there, mostly when prompted by us. Then about a week ago, she got up and took off across the room, and she hasn't looked back since. She walks (waddles) all over the house, and it's sometimes hard to keep up with her!

Ava loves music and often starts dancing as soon as she hears it. This morning Ben caught her dancing to Jane's Addiction. Here's a video of dancing Ava.

These Boots Were Made for Walkin'

The big news in Avaland is that she took her first steps this past week. It happened on St. Patrick's Day, so we like to think she was celebrating being one-quarter Irish (my grandmother on my Dad's side was off the boat). She has a walker that she has used to walk around the house for a couple months now. When she first started using it, we had to stand closely behind her helping her hold on to it. Then she could maneuver it mostly by herself, only needing help with turning it to navigate corners and doorways. Then she had it down pat and really just needed us to make sure she didn't crash.

Well, on the day in question, Ben challenged her by placing the walker a couple steps away and seeing what she would do. Determined to reach it, she took two steps solo from him to the walker. We then kept challenging her in the same way, cheering her on each time she took a couple steps. She only likes for us to do this a few times before she tires of it, but we've made it part of the daily routine to keep challenging her. Here's a video of her first steps.

Long-Overdue Update

Note to self: Don't start a blog at the same time, literally, that you start a new job. Around Ava's birthday I started teaching an English class online for DeVry University. Having been interested in breaking into online teaching for a while, I was excited about the opportunity. Overall, it was a good experience, and I plan to continue next term in about six weeks. However, learning the material for a new class I'd never taught before on top of learning the online system and policies of a new school, in addition to mountains of grading was overwhelming. Not to mention I kept all my other freelance work, because this was just an eight-week assignment that might not have gone anywhere, so I couldn't afford to quit anything in case it didn't work out.

For several weeks it was all I could do to take care of Ava and juggle all my work, nevermind keep up with this blog. But now the class is over and I have a little breathing room before the next term starts, so let the updating begin.

Ava is now 14 months, and she is talking all the time. Her favorite word is baby, and she loves pointing at pictures of herself and saying "baby!" If she is screaming her head off, show her a picture of herself and she will excitedly exclaim "baby!" and all will be right with the world again. Other words in her lexicon include mommy, daddy/dadda, juice (probably her second favorite word), ball, night-night, hi, bye-bye, uh-oh and no. She also shakes her head yes and no, but I'm not quite sure if she understands what that means. If you tell her to say bye-bye to someone, she usually waves as she says it. Lately it sounds like she is trying to say "snack," a word we use often, so we'll see if that gets officially added to the list.

As Ben's last post announced, last weekend she stood by herself for a long period for the first time. Up until then she would stand briefly for a couple seconds, but now she will stand for longer periods of time with a level of balance she didn't demonstrate before. I feel like she is *this* close to walking.

Ava standing for the first time!!!!!

This weekend Ava stood for the first time on her own for a couple of minutes. Here is video footage of her second successful attempt at standing up!

And She's Off

For about two weeks leading up to Christmas, Ava was flirting with the idea of crawling. She would scoot occasionally, and we kept waiting for crawling to officially occur. The day before we left to visit my family in Black Mountain, she not only started crawling but she crawled from one side of the room to the other. She really took off.

Ava crawling on Christmas Day at The Francis' house.

Now, if you put her on the floor, she is gone. She's fast. It really makes such a difference. For months I've been able to leave her on the floor and go into the next room for a second to grab a drink or something, while keeping a constant eye on her of course. I had a rude awakening the first time I tried to do that after she started crawling well. In a matter of minutes she was all the way across the room about to play with a bunch of inviting computer cords. Which brings me to my next thought -- this house is so not baby-proof. We haven't had to think about it much until now. I mean, we have most of our electrical outlets covered and all that, but there are so many little nooks and crannies that babies and toddlers try to get into and you just don't think about it until they are in the middle of opening the bathroom cabinet and reaching for the Clorox.

In other related news, she also likes to stand while holding on to things but hasn't mastered the art of standing alone yet. I know she was technically a toddler the day she turned 1, but I am holding on to her baby status until she walks.

Happy 1st Birthday, Bean

Today is Ava's first birthday. We really cannot believe that she is already a year old. The day is a little bittersweet for me, as I feel like time is passing way too fast. But I keep reminding myself that there is so much to look forward to with her. Soon she will be crawling faster, then walking, and talking more. My sister Jessie said that the second year is her favorite, as that is when they get unbearably cute, so I am hanging on to that, too.

On a regular basis I ask myself what did we do to get such a sweet child. I mean, obviously, every parent thinks her child is the sweetest, cutest, smartest, name-the-adjective little person alive, and I am oozing with bias. But when I watch her make eye contact with strangers in a store and smile at them, I marvel at her spirit of joy. We were shopping today and I counted the number of people who stopped and commented that Ava was smiling at them -- five people. In about 15 minutes. I promise to stop bragging/gushing now, but you get the point. What does she have to be so happy about? But I am not complaining -- I think her personality is priceless.

In celebration of Ava's birthday, let me share a few of my favorite pics of Ava over the first year.

I've always liked this picture, taken when she was about 3 months, because she looks like a little flower. :)
Ava is about 4 months old here. This picture captures her personality perfectly.

I love this picture of Ben and Ava. She was only about 3 weeks old, and he was tickling her. It was one of the first times we realized how ticklish she is. :)

This captures a nice moment with Ava and her Nonni in June, when she was about 5 and a half months.
Six months old, at the family's Lake Lure vacation

When Ava comes out of the bath, her 'fro comes out. I love her curly hair.

New Year, Take One

I really like the changing of the year. I don't feel the need to do it up big on New Year's Eve, necessarily, although we did go to a nice party where we brought in the year with a small group of friends. What I mean is I like how a new year feels like a blank slate full of possibilities. I love hearing people talk optimistically about the new year, and to feel that optimism in my spirit. 2008 was a fantastic year -- no doubt the best year of my life -- and I feel like 2009 will bring more of the same.

But I named this blog The World According to Ava to represent a blog chronicling Ava's life, and now I'm not so sure it is aptly named. Hmm. Well, it's safe to say this blog will be a glimpse into Ava's life with the occasional blah-blah-blah from me. :)

Instead of putting some catch-up posts on Ava's old site, I think I'll just post them here. Resolution #1 Billion for 2009: to blog often about Ava's soon-to-be second(!) year of life.