This is my first blog post. I decided to capture Ava's life through a blog, so she will be able to look at this as she gets older and see how she grew and the early parts of her life. She is now 13 1/2 months old and growing so fast. Jake, my husband and I can't believe how much she has changed in the past year. Last summer, we didn't really go out of the house much because she was just born and we were trying to figure out how life was going to be with Ava. When we both went back to work life went very fast. It seemed like the weeks just flew by. We are fortunate that we are both teachers and are able to spend the whole summer with her. We were very excited this summer because Ava started walking at 11 1/2 months. This was just before summer began. By her birthday, June 13th, she was walking pretty well. She now is running through the house. She is able to communicate with us with certain sounds. She talks a lot, but mostly jibber jabber. She does know a few words, like daddy, mama, doggie, hi, yes, Sydney (dog's name), and stinky. (we taught her that one). She plays non-stop when she is awake. She is on a very funny schedule, with waking up at about 7 am and wanting to take a nap by 9 am. She sleeps for about an hour and a half and then it is more playing, lunch at noon, playing, and nap by 2:15. She usually sleeps for about another hour and a half and then dinner by 5 pm. We have had a great summer with her. It will be very hard to send her back to daycare on Aug. 10. I may just do half days until I am officially back at work on Aug. 13th.