What's In a Name?

We finally finished the 'name' canvas in Ava's nursery! For those of you who have not seen her room, Ava has canvases covering the walls with Bible verses from friends and family written on them. Above her crib, the canvas pictured below has hung without a name since long before Ava was born. Since we did not know if Ava was going to be a boy or a girl, we had to wait until after her arrival to paint the name. Well, she was born and almost 6 months later, we finally painted her name! I think it's pretty nifty if I do say so myself!

The other night, Ava was in a crazy happy mood. She was laughing at everything Matt said and did. While strapped in her car seat, I got about 20 pictures that look exactly like the one below. Bright eyes. Mouth open wide. Filled with excitement. We love our happy girl.

Here is one of Ava's new favorite toys, Clifford. Matt's grandmother gave this stuffed animal to me 5 years ago when I started teaching kindergarten. After being washed, fumigated and sanitized, I am passing this beloved character on to Ava. She can spot him across the room and she immediately smiles and coos in Clifford's direction.