2 year old joys and blues

Ava is still a lightweight at less then 22 pounds. At least she's getting taller and is a little over 34 inches.

Something terrible has happened with Ava's sleep habits. I was just bragging about her sleeping so well less than a month ago and now here we are back in sucky sleep land. She takes horrible naps now and has already started sleep delaying tactics by saying "tummy hurts", "more books", "give me sippy cup", or "want some oatmeal". Ava makes requests for lullabies by saying "Mary had" (Mary had a little lamb) and "Papa" ("Hush little baby"). One can only sing all 8 verses of "Mary had a little lamb" so many times before one wants to fling oneself down the stairs. Once she's asleep, whoever is putting her to bed has to creep out and pray that she doesn't hear us. But that girl has some crazy good hearing.

We've re-entered the world of co-sleeping since Ava wakes up in the middle of the night and wants to snuggle with mommy and daddy. No one, including Ava, really sleeps well in this arrangement. Ava shouts out random words in the middle of the night ("No!", "Ants!", "Armpit"!) so I can only imagine what she is dreaming about. Although I must admit it is quite sweet to watch her sleep in the morning. She looks so beautiful and angelic. Also, when David leaves for work before 7am, she usually makes sure daddy gives her a proper goodbye by saying "give me kiss" even though her eyes are half-closed. Usually I hope Ava will stay asleep until 8am, but sometimes she'll start giving me kisses and pull my hair while she waits for me to get my tush out of bed.

Ava has a very cute little personality and likes to giggle. She is still kind of shy but once she warms up to someone, she gets a little obsessive with that person. She loves My Gym and wants to go there all the time, especially to see "Manda", who works there. She likes to say rhymes likes "Panda Manda" all day long. She says some other really sweet/funny/weird things:

"Don't be cry, mommy, be happy, mommy." I like to fake cry in front of her so that she'll listen better. That tactic will probably backfire on me soon. When I pretend to be mad at her and turn away from her, she always tries to turn my head back to face her and says, "No, no, mommy."

"Let me see armpit. Other one". She is always requesting that I raise my arms. Don't ask me why.

"Come on, stinky." She said this to me the other day when she wanted to go downstairs.

"I love you, TV". The TV gets a hug and kiss too.

When David is at work and I ask her where daddy is, she always says "mall". She must know something I don't.

Ava loves to watch music videos on the computer and her favorite videos are "Hey, Mickey" (Toni Basil), "Shake It" (Metro Station) and "Boom boom pow". We'll have to put up a video of her dancing to one of these songs.