Ava turned 3 1/2 last month and we love that little person more every day!  She is always cracking us up!  Everything just sounds cuter and more funny when it’s said in her tiny little voice.

Ava had an appointment with her “tubee doctor” (GI) in August and everything looks A-OK.  We don’t have to go back so see him again unless we have problems.  That’s one doctor we can cross of our list!  The place where her feeding tube was, is healing very nicely and her new “beauty mark” (scar) is in good company with all the rest on her belly/chest/neck.  Ava still tries to play with it sometimes just out of habit and we have regular conversations about how she doesn’t need her feeding tube anymore cause she’s a big girl.  We are equipment free!  YAY!  We have noticed that she is doing more things on her belly, like going down the slide head first.  She would not have tried that with her feeding tube, so having it out has given her more freedom.

Ava has started being more interested in hearing her “story”.  She has a little book of baby pictures that she looks at often and asks questions.  We talk about things very matter of factly and in terms she can understand.  So far she takes everything in stride, which I am thankful for.  She doesn’t see herself as “different” and she doesn’t see anyone else as “different” either.  I love that about her.  She will go up to anyone and everyone no matter their size, shape, color, or age.  Everyone is a possible new friend.

Her vocabulary is huge!  She’s constantly trying out new phrases and words at very unpredictable places.  She is quite the chatterbox at times and one of her favorite things is asking questions to anyone who will listen.  She will usually start off a conversations with “what’s your name?” or “who are you?” and then move into “how was your day today?” or “where are you going?” or “what are you doing?” and she will often follow up the answers for these questions with “that’s pretty interesting”.  Up until about a month ago Ava would never say her “s” or “f” sound, but she would replace those sounds with the “y” sound.  For instance, if Ava told you she was going to put on her socks and shoes it would come out like this: “I’m putting on my yocks and my yoos!”.  Fish became “yish, fun became “yun” sunshine became “yun-yine”.  It was like living in a Dr. Seuss book!  So, we started playing our “word game” mostly in the car and now she does really well.  She has other sounds that we are working on to, but nothing as confusing as those were.  Just this week she has been very interested in her name and how to say it correctly.  Ava would always introduce herself as “Wa-Wa”.  I have no idea why.  Now it sounds more like “Aaaafa”.  Close enough!  It’s a little sad watching her grow out of some of these quirks but it’s just proof every day that she can learn and grow.  Sometimes we just sit back and watch her running around, talking a mile a minute, eating everything in sight (and yes, sometimes all three at once!), and we remember how far she has come and how much God has brought her through. So many times I’ll run into someone who I haven’t seen in a while or maybe someone I’ve never met and they tell me that they have prayed for my little daughter, and that their entire church prayed for her, and then they will ask me where she is, and 9 times out of 10 I’ll say “Ava?  Oh…she’s….(scanning the area), she’s that little girl with the pig-tails running at the speed of light, chasing that boy”.  People are usually shocked by how much energy and life she has bursting out of her tiny frame.  It can’t help but put a smile on your face.

She can be sooo naughty sometimes, but she can be so sweet too.  Lately she’ll come wrap her arms tightly around my legs and say “I just love you so much Mommy!”…melt my heart! One of my other favorite moments was the other day, she was eating breakfast and I was busy doing something and Ava says “are you my best friend Mom?”.  I stopped what I was doing, smiled and said “I don’t know Pumpkin, am I?” to which Ava promptly replied “Yes.  You are my best friend Mom.”.  She got a big ol’ kiss for that!  Josiah and I were sitting in the living room the other day and Ava came bounding in and said “I have a joyful heart!”.  Hallelujah, all that talk about having a joyful heart wasn’t for nothing 🙂

(“We are friends!” ~Ava)

Ava’s imagination is really starting to come out.  She has an imaginary friend named “G-nnnn”.  He is a boy and is 3 1/2.  We have no idea where his name came from but she likes to use made up names for some reason.  “G-nnnn” likes to take a lot of naps and then we have to be quiet when he sleeps.  It’s pretty funny and a little weird, but we play along and she thinks that is funny.  She comes up with very random imaginary things too.  Like the other day she gave me imaginary earrings to wear and she told me they were pink with polk-a-dots.  She likes to “cook” for us and she also likes to pretend she’s an animal sometimes.  I think we’ve read too many books with thought bubbles in them because sometimes she likes to talk in the third person and she also likes to make her own sound effects.  Her latest one is when she things something is funny she says “tee-hee. tee-hee”.  She likes to tell long stories, very enthusiastically, that go something like this “I ran around…and theeeen, I ran into the couch…and theeeeen, I fell down…and theeeen, I crashed…and theeen, I went splat…and theeeen, I cried a little bit…and theeen, I ran around again…and theeen, a carrot seed came up!”.  I am convinced that her word count is much higher than it should be because she is making up for lost time 🙂  She’s a hoot and a half!

OK, I should stop…although I could go on and on and on of course 🙂  We just love that little girl, if you can’t tell and we praise God for her little life.  She is a joy and a challenge.  When she gets concerned about things, she always wants us to pray about it.  She is still very protective and loving to her little brother and I love that. She loves to go on “dates” with her Dad or me.  She’s still a peanut, but she doesn’t let that stop her at all. Allllright…I’m really going to stop now.  Thank you for letting me ramble about my Pumpkin!