10 Things I LOVE about Ava at 18 months

1. I love how much her vocabulary is growing and growing. "silly mommy" and "help please" are her newest that just make me melt.

2. I love how she screams when she plays with Mimi or Abigail.

3. I love her facial expressions when she's telling Ryan and I "all about it." She's so serious and we aren't really sure what she's saying, but we play along.

4. I love how when I ask her if she's ready to be gentle (after hitting someone or something) she shakes her head yes and gives a hug.

5. I love that she needs to feed and give her babies drinks while she plays when them. And I know I've said it before, but when she makes the slurping sound for them, I have to turn away to giggle b/c it is the sweetest thing ever.

6. I love that daddy taught her to put her hand out the window when the windows are rolled down and she is learning to enjoy the cool breeze. She'll close her eyes and take it all in.

7. I love that she makes one-to-one correspondence when counting objects. Although many get counted multiple times, she'll still point to it and give it a number. AND I love hearing her count all by herself.

8. I love when she "tells" me stories from events that happened that must have had a big impact on her because she can recall them from weeks past. Her favorite one is about "mimi", "scream", "car", "elmo", and "head" (shoulders, knees and toes). We we took our friend, Mia, in our car and they happily screamed back and forth to one another, on our way to My Gym, to see Elmo and he sang Head, Shoulders, Knees and Toes. Whew, that was quite a sentence!

9. I love the song medley that we sing when we go to bed, all conducted by her. We'll get halfway through "Twinkle, twinkle" when she wants "If you're happy and you know it" ("clap, clap she calls it), and then decides it's time for "Row, row", and as we've just begun we should sing "clap, clap" again.

10. I love that I have a happy and healthy year-and-a- half-year-old. What a blessing!