She Can Do WHAT????

Never underestimate the power of Ava. In the past couple of weeks she has made remarkable progress! My girl has been EATING. Real food. Sloppy joes, cookies, deli meat, green beans. All followed by a satisfied "Mmmmm". Only families dealing with WS can really understand our (my) complete JOY at this turn of events. Woo-hoo! Yeah, the bites are tiny and she can't handle a lot of food, but she is EATING. Wow. Watching her enjoy tastes and textures is like winning the lottery. Today she gave me a kiss after I had a drink of Diet Pepsi and Laura and I had to laugh when she exclaimed, "Mmmmm." It must have tasted good!

I mentioned earlier that Ava has begun to crawl. Every day she is improving. She can crawl, pivot around into a sitting position, pull herself up on furniture, and yesterday she began to cruise from object to object. Laura tells me Ava is "into everything" but I don't believe my perfect granddaughter could possibly be naughty.

In other news, we had a couple of birthdays last week. Justin turned 21 on May 11, and I turned 43 on May 10. My age doesn't really bother me until I think about the fact that my baby is 21! It seems just yesterday he was starting kindergarten, all dressed up in his polo shirt and khaki pants, soccer-themed backpack in tow. Yes, I dressed him like a little nerd. Imagine my horror when all the other boys were wearing athletic shoes and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles short sets. Poor Justin. No wonder he rebelled as a teenager.

Mothers Day was fantastic. I, my mom, and Dominick hit the breakfast buffet. Let's just say they didn't make a profit off our table! After breakfast we did a little shopping, giggled a lot, and then visited the kids. Ava was in great form. My mom just loves that baby. It's funny, because my mother cannot seem to speak English to Ava. Usually she starts out with, "Hello precious girl! Come see da gommies!" Ava kind of tolerates it, but she gets this confused look on her face that seems to say "And they think I have problems??"

Side note: Be careful, because this could happen to you. Dominick and I were in the grocery store Sunday and I decided to check out the premade margaritas. As I was perusing the various liquors Dominick opened his BIG MOUTH and said, "Mom, you should probably get the great big bottle. At least then we won't have to come back here EVERY WEEKEND." I just know the man standing next to me thought I needed rehab. Darn kids!

Happy Mothers Day!