Just a cute photo of Ava and Daddy hanging out. She was allowed to watch a Winnie the Pooh show for a while since she's been sick this weekend and was a little cranky. With age, her attention span is lengthening and she will actually sit still for 30 mins or more to watch a show. She's feeling better today, but I think she's getting a little stir-crazy from being in the house all day for the last 3 days! Poor thing.

This is really only her second illness of the school year so far (not including the pink eye). So I'm pretty impressed with Kinder Care, because I know other kids in daycares who seem to be sick more than they are healthy. We are so fortunate to have a clean, safe, fun, educational place to take her. And she enjoys her time there, too. I would heartily recommend our center to anyone.

Feeding the Cat

Ava loves the cat a lot more than the cat loves her back. She tries very hard to pet Li-li, and to get her to sit in her lap. That NEVER happens :) Ava sees Li-li sitting in my lap, and so she pats her own lap saying "li-li, li-li, up, up!". It is so cute.

In these photos she was intrigued with watching Li-li eat her food. Then she sat down right next to her and started patting her legs saying "Li-li, li-li, lap, lap, up, up!" But Li-li was much too focused on eating her breakfast to worry about what Ava wanted.

Coloring

Coloring is a new favorite activity. Part of the fun is dumping all the crayons out and trying to put them back in the box. But she also does scribble around on the page. She almost always uses her left hand when she holds a crayon so we think she may be left-handed even though Perry and I are both right-handed.

Mr. Potato Head

Meet Mr. Potato Head, aka "taboe" - it always sounds like Ava is saying the word "table" but she is in fact talking about the Potato Head.... ALL THE TIME!! She is pretty much obsessed. We gave her a large bin with 4 potato head dolls and assorted body parts for Christmas. She loves them all, and I guess it has helped her learn the body parts and where things go on a body too. She loves the mustache and calls it "stash". The potato in this photo is actually a female, sporting feminine shoes, visor, and eyeshadow, but Ava insisted that she needed a "stash" so she has one.

Her other favorite thing to do is to make her toys "sleepy" and then pat their backs and cover them with her Pooh lovey blanket. This is cute and fine, but with the larger Potato Head dolls that have the butt flap in the back (so you can store things inside them), the "butts" fall off when she pats them too vigorously! This upsets her, and she then cries "butt, butt, butt!" until one of us puts the butt back on. Then she makes the butt fall off again. They really do not stay attached very well. I believe that this is a design flaw, and Perry and I do not remember having this problem with our Mr. Potato Heads back in the 80's!!!!

Mommy and me sweatshirts! The future 5th generation of Penn women :) This cute Penn sweatshirt was a gift from my grandparents to Ava for Christmas.

It is very hard to snap a good photo of her these days! She's either covering her face, reaching for the camera, or squirming around. Hence my weird face in the second photo - it was the best one we got so I just kept it.

New Dining Room Light!

I have the most wonderful husband! He is such a good handyman and is so smart, even with jobs he's never done before!

Our chandelier was half dead - fewer than 50% of the lights were functional. We picked out a new light fixture that is a cute mini-ceiling fan with a light. Perry installed it with absolutely no problems whatsoever!

Here's a pic of the old crappy chandelier:


And here is Perry next to his handiwork - the new fan/light!! Isn't it cute?



And here's a cute, happy Ava picture, just because :-)

Christmas festivities

Spent Christmas at the Pendley house in Evergreen, CO!
Ava had a great time playing in her indoor tent/house/tunnel playset.



Christmas day in CO. We had a white Christmas (although, ironically, with less snow than we got back east).


Pendley family photo shoot for the Christmas card.

A later Christmas celebration at the Hodge house over New Years.



Ava LOVES her little duck stuffed animal/pillow/ottoman!

Great family photo taken at a New Years party at Aunt Susan and Uncle Andy's house.

Three of the little cousins at the New Years party. They are watching Elmo on Katie's iPhone!!! How cute! They had such a great time together, it was hilarious.