The Philadelphia Zoo

Today was so nice that we decided to go to the zoo. Ava had such a great time. She loved seeing all of the different animals. Here are a few of our favorite pics.

Transitions

Ava is spending quite a bit of time "transitioning" these days. She's beginning the transition from the Infant Room at school to the First Steps Room. She has successfully transitioned from her bottle to a straw cup (no sippy cup for her!) And tonight she transitioned to the big bathtub. As you can see she still LOVES to splash in the water. I put some bubble bath in tonight (well, actually it was just a few squirts of the baby wash), so she really enjoyed splashing to make the bubbles...

...then she would try to eat the bubbles...

...the fruits of her labor....

Cindy Lou Who

It's Ava's first Halloween! Her school had a Halloween Parade today. It was probably the cutest and funniest thing I have ever seen. As you can see, Ava was Cindy Lou Who. (I made the cape--no laughing.)

The infant room teachers got all of the kids into their costumes and loaded them up for the big parade (apparently they even had a fire drill while they were trying to get them all dressed!)

Each of the different classrooms got their time in the spotlight as they marched (or were strolled) around the play yard. You can see all the excited parents lining the fence.

Daddy didn't get a chance to come to the parade, so we had our own parade at home tonight.

Dada

Ava is definitely Daddy's girl. (She was eating sauteed mushrooms for dinner so ignore all the food on her face.)

The Hair

Just in case you ever wondered what Ava's hair looks like AFTER the pony tails get taken out....

Going to the Milky Way for Pumpkins

We went to the pumpkin patch today! The Milky Way Farm is right down the road from our house. It was so much fun. I have never seen anything like it. There were so many other kids and baby animals, and these big, heavy, round, orange things. Daddy says that we are going to "carve" our pumpkin. I don't know what that means but I can't wait to find out.

We went on a hay ride out to the pumpkin patch.

It was a little windy, but I didn't mind.

Wow! What is this?




I'm so glad I know how to walk. It's fun exploring!


This baby calf is only 11 days old. I liked petting her.

Fall Fun

Grandma and Grandpa Reita came to visit me this week while Mommy was in Boston. It's so nice of them to help me and Daddy when she is gone. I had so much fun with them. One day we even went to play on the playground. It's getting a little chilly so I wore the coat and hat my Grandma Barker got me. It's still a little big but it keeps me very warm.

Grandpa's Birthday

Ava and Her Shadow

Ava Walks!

Well, it was just a matter of time. The official winner of the "When will Ava walk?" contest is Grandpa Jim. He guessed a few months ago that she would walk in September. We all thought he didn't know anything about child development...but once again, he was right and we were wrong. Check out the video. (You can just ignore Ken's feet....)