Summertime

So far this summer has been a good one. Ava is so excited to go places and learn new things so that has been fun. I'm also feeling better than I have in a long time. 2 babies in 2 years is quite a thing to undertake but I survived and amazingly so did Chris! (survived me that is). Elise is out of her newborn fussy stage and we are being blessed for sticking with her! She is such a sweet, happy child - huge, huge smiles all of the time. I think she just wanted to be able to see everything and interact with everyone.Ava is such a girl. Here's the trademark little girl in Mommy's big shoes picture...actually, these are Aunt Kelly's big shoes. Mommy pretty much wears flip-flops right now. I do like her expression. It's hard to get her to smile for the camera for longer than a nanosecond, so this is a rare treat.

Since Ava is an age where she can appreciate it more, we've been involved with playgroup more this summer. We had a pool party at our house last week which I think turned out to be a lot of fun for the kids. We had a large turnout - which is great. The kids had fun playing in 2 kiddie pools, the sprinkler, our swingset and lots of buckets of water for the kids who are into filling containers and then dumping them out. We took a break for popsicles and watermelon. At one point, I counted 24 children in attendance.
Ava decided to eat her popsicle in the swimming pool. I saw the popsicle go under a couple of times...Ava didn't seem to mind, except when she couldn't find the rest of it. She then reached out and wanted mine. I took a bite and gave it to her. Another gross thing is when Ava was eating watermelon. I had given her a piece and then a little bit later noticed her gnawing on a piece that was definitely a different shape and size from the one I gave her...hmmm. Then, I caught her in the act of pulling a rind out of the trash can that still had some pink on it. YUCK! Then came the lesson on how we don't eat out of the trash. Still later, I saw her pick up a rind off of the ground and start eating the pink again. !!!!! I offered her a fresh piece. Apparently, I don't feed her enough.