Where did my baby go?

We had a great day with our new little four year old! I went in to work late so I could hang out with Ava in the morning and take her to preschool at 9. We let her open a couple of presents then - she got a 48 piece floor princess puzzle and the game Cootie. We tackled both before it was time to go. And at one point she thoughtfully remarked on being four, "I feel like the same girl?" At preschool, she got to decorate a crown with some stickers and wear it the rest of the morning. She wasn't afraid to tell everyone that it was her birthday and that she is FOUR! After work, we thought maybe we'd take her to a play area or something, but Reese has been under the weather for what seems like forever, so we opted to stay home. We asked her if she wanted anything special for supper and she said "cereal". We threw some pancakes and mandarin oranges at her instead and Scot and I had a frozen pizza (she might be the only child on earth who does not like pizza). Then we settled in to watch another one of her birthday presents - Beauty and the Beast on dvd. We also got her the Aristocats movie, a Laurie Berkner cd (she likes her music that they play on Noggin) and some Tinkerbell dolls. I'm sure she'll get plenty more loot at her party on Saturday!

It's hard to believe that I had my little girl Ava four years ago - so much has happened in our lives since then, but in some ways it feels like it was hardly any time ago at all. And the difference in Ava in the past year is quite staggering, it seems like kids learn SO much between 3 and 4 and can articulate it so much better. And we all know Ava excels at articulating...well, at least in talking. She still sounds like she's from Jersey (not a lot of "r" sounds come out of her mouth) and throws in a lot of "fw" sounds for "th" mostly. "Fwee" for three, that sort of thing. She's really gotten on a computer game kick lately (we like nickjr.com) - I'm surprised how well she's using the mouse now. Considering I started using a mouse in like, um, 11th grade or something. It's so much fun - as challenging as Ava can be, she can make us laugh and tug at our heartstrings like crazy. I'm really excited to see what "four" brings.

My apologies for the lack of posting lately...the moving process was exhausting, but we are finally getting settled in our new house and really loving it. We enjoyed our first Halloween here 2 days after we moved in and invited some of our friends over for pizza and trick-or-treating. It was a lot of fun and an easy way to meet some of our new neighbors.

And I hoped to post some pictures too, but I cannot locate the thing that links the camera to the computer (whatever that is called). Sorry Lisa S.! ;-)