I wonder...

...when will Ava realize she can finish chewing and swallowing the food that's already in her mouth before she moves on to a more exciting food instead of just spitting it out?
...how annoying grocery shopping will be this winter. You know, with all the snow.
...if my loved ones have any idea how MUCH I love them and if there is any way to genuinely convey that to them.
...how many presents I can realistically get made for this Christmas. I may have to outsource to Etsy.
...if a Brown/Hillam reunion (family friends, best of) followed by a Tiffany/Lauren reunion (best friends, product of Brown/Hillam bond) will make Danny and Nelson's (husbands of Tiffany and Lauren) heads explode.
...if I'm not a true foodie because I do not enjoy any olive besides the black ones out of a can.
...how old Ava will be when we can have real conversations.
...how amazing it will feel when the laundromat = my basement and not the actual laundromat (the time is approaching ever so quickly!!).
...if I have destroyed my mantel to the point of needing to just rip it off and put something else there.
...if my husband has any idea how many times a day I feel about him. (See, I don't think about him so much as I feel about him. It's more a warm fuzzy that prompts a thought.)
...how I've lived in this house for as long as I have without anything covering a majority of the windows

Blah

Dude. Update your blog already.

I'm all "bleh" about my blog right now. Mostly because I don't have a camera and I get tired of not having pretty pictures to illustrate my life. It saddens my soul.

So here is a picture-less update about Ava.
- Ava is 20 months old today.
- She talks a lot, most of it is still babbling though. She says hey, bye, mommy, daddy, ouchie, eat, where'd it go, oh, here it is, doggy, ducky, fishy (ee-ee), hot, no, uh-uh, binky (deedee), yes, pretty, and most recently i love you (i uh oo).
- She loooooves to sing songs and dance. She still wiggles when she's happy or content. Like a puppy.
- She finally likes to read books and points to everything she knows.
- She is incredibly loving - she loves giving kisses and hugs and patting you.
- She is into how she looks all of a sudden. She tries to put on my makeup and wants to check herself out in the mirror after she gets dressed and I do her hair. And then she says pretty. She also likes trying on shoes.
- She is getting really good at throwing tantrums and feeding herself. I'm sure the two are linked somehow.
- She is still busy all the time. And hates long car rides.
 - She is funny. She loves pulling faces and running away from me halfway through a diaper change. It's actually hilarious.

So yeah. Lots of work is happening on the house. It takes most of my energy so blogging hasn't really made the priority list.


So there, blog.
You are updated.

Still squeaky but a lot prettier

Man! Enough heavy posts for at least a month or two. I love all the feedback I got from the last one though. It's important to talk about these things, ladies. Helps the healing andsoforth.

So in the spirit of lightheartedness, here are my new floors:

Aren't they pretty??? The wood has a nice redness to it. No stain needed. Now all we have left to do.....oh wait.....is EVERYTHING. We are getting a lot of help with it though. Danny's dad is visiting for a while so we hope to have all the plaster in the walls fixed, sanded, primed, and painted by the end of tomorrow and my dining room is a lovely shade of "fresh butter" as I type this. We just need to paint the trim, baseboards, and built-ins, change out the overhead lighting and I then I can put my NEW TABLE and freshly painted chairs in and call the dining room done for a while. hu.zzah.

I am currently dreading the painting of the trim right now though. The ONLY room in my entire house that had white trim when we moved in was our room. The rest of the house has this gross shade of off-white enamel on the trim. That's right, ENAMEL. Bla. And the windows also have it. There are 6 windows in the living room alone. It's the price you pay for buying a house with a lot of natural light whose previous owners had turrible taste. Just turrible.


Buuuuuut. I'm really getting excited. Like, thuper duper exthited. And I'm so glad for the help. Aren't parents awesome?