Ava is on the Nice List

This is Ava's reaction to Rap Music. It is her favorite. I think she loves the bass First Santa Trip! Santa telling her she is on the nice list since she behaved all 6 weeks of this year

It's a Smile!!!!! and another one! Ava & Mommy playing photo shoot in the morning She loves playing on my chest Wake up sleepy head This was the day she realized there were animals at the end of her chair and she decided she liked them... This is actually THE first smile and it's a little blurry because I grabbed my camera so fast Reading my favorite book to her "Freckleface Strawberry" She is looking at Mommy's freckles here This was the cliff hanger of the story

This week was very eventful in the Valdez house. Ava is awake a little bit more each day and learning vast amounts of things. Most notable, this week she had her first smile! I was so excited I caught it on camera ( papparazzi mommy). The smile took place after she finished eating and mommy was dancing to rap music for her. Ava loves rap and it usually works in stopping her from crying. Ava's vision is improving and can now focus on us from across the room. She follows us with her eyes and turns her head. She loves her vibrating chair now and stairs at the animals.

Finally, Ava had her first Santa visit this week. Our apartment complex had a Santa visit and Ava was almost as popular as Santa. Needless to say, she thought Santa was a bit overrated but I am sure that will change next year. We received our Christmas present to each other this past week which was a DVD Video Camera. Greg is in love with his new toy and would film paint drying if it was available. We have her first Santa visit on DVD along with other random events of our household like Penny doing the "low rider" (dog running around the house as fast as she can like she just snorted crack). We are counting down the days to return to Virginia (5 days!). It will be interesting to see how we fit all of Ava's "necessities" as well as Penny Lane Cargo into our little Mazda 3. The 15 hour trip will be quite the adventure.