2014, here we go!!
SHOULD need.
This child is our everything. And maybe it's not healthy that she is our EVERYTHING, as we may be temporarily forgetting the people that we are, that we were, before she stormed in and stole the show. But for now, we are finding it impossible for her to be simply a piece of our lives, instead of our WHOLE lives.
Our Ava is the happiest creature I have ever seen. She ALWAYS has a smile on her face. She has different smiles, depending on her mood, but a smile nonetheless. It is impossible to look at that face sitting on our lap, sitting across the room, or peeking at us from the rear view mirror in the car, and to not light up from the face and from the heart.
Our darling girl LOVES to dance, even though sometimes it is a sassy, bum-in-the-air dance that her Daddy worries about for when she is older. She hears music and she goes. And I love it.
She has also developed this high-pitched, something like a scream, but sometimes like a happy cough, kind of laugh. It makes us laugh, which makes her laugh. Which makes us laugh, which only makes her laugh harder and with more joy.
As I write that word - joy - I know without a moments hesitation that it is the ONE describing word for our sweet pea.
Our Ava has become a hugger. A good hugger. A lay her head on our shoulder, wrap her arms around our neck kind of hugger. And I can't imagine a better kind. She has also learned the perfect moments that a hug will allow her to get away with something or get her out of something she doesn't want to do. Like when we carry her to her change table and start to lay her down and she grips on so tight and throws that head so gently on your shoulder that you ALMOST consider just leaving the wet diaper on for a little longer.
Or when you have sung "Ava loves to sit in the tub..." for the 15th time during bathtime in order to avoid telling her NO and attempting to make SITTING in the tub just a little more fun. Our smartie pants has taken to standing up oh so smoothly and quickly throwing her hands around our necks and head on our shoulders that we just don't mind if she stands up in the tub for just a second. As quickly as she slaps that hug on us, she is sitting back in the tub with a wide, proud grin - and us? We are reveling in the perfect hug that she has just given and how slyly she has managed to stand up in the tub without our objection. Our sneaky monkey is at it already, and yes, we know we are in trouble.
Our fun Miss Ava is learning to share, and she is so good at it, when she wants to be. She likes to share her blankie, her soothers, her snacks, even the snot on her nose. She will give you anything she has, but our sly monkey also likes to thrust her things at you, only to pull it back into her tummy at the moment that you are about to take it. She thinks it is funny, and of course, what she thinks is funny, we think is funny.
As sassy and spunky as our Ava is, she is equally calm and chill. She likes to sit and examine each page in her books, and loves to play on her own without your gaze or your hands near her. But as much as she loves her independence, she does not hesitate to grab your hand and shove her toys into your hand and show you how to use it, or to offer up the sweetest drive-by hug that you ever had.
Any parent would say it about their child, and I am no exception, and am SO proud to be no exception - our little girl is perfect for us. She is such a combination of our personalities, but also so much her own little person. She is a perfect mix of crazy and calm, sweet and silly, firmly attached and fiercely independent. We love her to pieces and are so, so blessed to have been able to call this perfect little being OURS for the last (nearly) 14 months. It is unreal that we are now experiencing our seconds with her, and that we have said goodbye to 2012 with her, and now to 2013 with her. I am beyond excited to experience her seconds with her in 2014.
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