and then ava turns two!

The morning after our last Christmas party was Ava's birthday!



This girl. What a delight she is to us. She is cherished deeply by each one of us. Her "boe-eez" as she calls her brothers, especially when she is beckoning them to entertain her latest whim, think she is the princess of the world. Her daddy is smitten ending each day with a comment about how hard it is to believe she could be so cute. And her momma, is just so thankful to have this amazing girl for a daughter.


Ava is really different at home than she is out in public. When we go someplace, Ava stays quietly right by my side. She acts like she is shy. I am still not used to this because this is so different than how she acts at home with the family. At home Ava is in command, loud, and boisterous. It is fun to observe the complexity of her personality.


Ava is really good at loving those around her. She helps her momma, wrestles with her daddy, plays soldiers with Ethan, allows Luke to take care of her, and kisses Aidan's owies. She notices other people and what they are interested in, what they are doing, wearing and saying. She is an attentive sister.


Her birthday this year was very low key. It was Sunday so we worshiped in the morning and in the evening and napped in between. This left dinner time to say "Happy Birthday" and share some cake. Actually, at every meal we put a candle in her food and sang to her. She loves the birthday song and enjoyed that part of it very much. However, she hated the candle. I think we have done too well of a job explaining the dangers of "fire" and "hot" because she wanted nothing to do with the candle while it. So at breakfast Aidan blew out, at lunch Luke helped and at dinner when two candles were on her cake Ethan was happy to do the job. Funny girl.


We did not get super pictures of Ava on her big day. But we did take this (really poor quality) video which serves to record the occasion. It's kind of amazing that we (for once) have no good pics of the biggest picture magnate in the family.

Since this post is about a month late, there have been some new developments. About 1 year ahead of our traditional timing, Ava has decided to become potty-trained. The process was so very different than with the boys. Aside from being a year early, she takes particular joy in doing it ALL by her self (as in the video: "Ava do it.") For us it's a little unbelievable how easy it's been, but she just seems to get it and care about it a little more than the boys, who I honestly think would sometimes still prefer diapers so as not to disrupt a particularly intense time of fighting bad guys, slaying dragons or whatever.

We're so blessed to get to share in the experience of raising up this little lady.