Ava says a bunch of stuff

I'm taking pity on all of you and just posting a portion of this incredibly long video. Here's little Ava Kate saying some of the words she knows while doling out hugs to her pops.

Ava's 19th Month

This month in Ava's world:

• Ava continues to talk to anyone or anything within earshot. Her new favorite words are "smoothie," "nokay," "outside," and "oops," although at this point she can make a fairly good attempt at most words.
• Smoothies are now Ava's largest food group.  She requests them every time she sits down for a meal, walks through the kitchen, or during the odd occasional pause in conversation. In response, we now add all sorts of vegetables in with her fruit smoothies and she seems to be none the wiser.
• Scrapes and cuts are becoming an everyday occurrence as Ava attempts to gain the independence she feels she deserves.  We remain unconvinced.
• Ava's wild mane of hair is now completely out of control.  Month 20 holds the promise of Ava's first haircut. See for yourself in this month's pics...

Ava's Hot (Play) Date

Last week our good friend Alexander Cash (or "Aleh," as Ava likes to call him) came over to play. Ava found the idea of "sharing" to be a little much to handle but did allow him to play with two trains at the corner of the blanket, when she wasn't paying attention.

Ava is a quick study, though, and by snack time she had really grasped the concept of sharing.

Here she is allowing Alex to share his pretzels with her.

After exhausting all possible backyard activities, we moved to the front porch where the kids completely lost their minds.

The date ended with a romantic stroll to the park.

Camping! Or...How I spent my summer with yahoos shooting guns on the river

We have been talking about taking Ava camping for about a year now but were holding off due to overwhelming fear. Ava loves being outside but sleeping in a tent is uncharted territory for her. But, you can only put these things off for so long, so this July we bit the bullet (continue reading to see how apt a phrase this really is) and headed for the forest.

We started with a swim in a river. Keep in mind, this is an Oregon, glacier-fed river with a temperature of 50-60 degrees. Ava took a dip to her belly button but regretted the choice later.

Give me one good reason why I shouldn't wear ruffles camping.

Again, this is Oregon, so our trip also included a bunch of yahoos shooting guns into the forest where we had set up camp.

Ava and Brian.  Not pictured: yahoos.

At the campsite, Ava quickly learned that everyone has a job. Elliot was in charge of Ava:

And Ava was in charge of Maisie:

Drunk with power!

Not surprisingly, Ava had a tough time getting to sleep in the tent but did eventually doze off. That is, until she (we) woke up in a puddle of her own vomit. Twice. Ah...kids.