See this cookie? Whenever we are outside I ask mommy if I can go and ring Miss Patti’s doorbell, and then when she answers I ask for a cookie, puh-leaze. And sometimes Steven will hold my hand to help me cross the road to his mom’s house. It makes miss Patti so happy when I stop by!
Hiking on the rail trail. On the way back I pushed the stroller and Keira walked on the tracks with daddy…
SmithAngels are back 
Thanks for all the kind words while we were gone (and truly sorry for those of you who worried about us, there was no need!). We had an *awesome* summer highlighted by two trips (to the Outer Banks and to Louisiana to visit Ava’s birth family).
Keira is now 13.5 months old and Ava is 2.5 years. Both girls weigh close to 25 pounds, but Ava is a whole head taller. Ava is her usual totally energetic self – she likes to be on the go (not at home) and she is a chatterbox (and has a truly remarkable comprehension of the English language and an impressive vocabulary). She knows how to manipulate her mama and daddy to get what she wants, but she does it in a very sweet way. She is very kind-hearted and really means it when she says “sorry” for things (like when grandma broke her shoulder, she kept kissing her arm and patting it and saying “sorry grandma”). She potty trained *herself* – mama would never have thought she was ready at 24 mos, but she insisted, and we are having fun with it. She is growing more striking by the day, and she is really looking a lot like her beautiful birthmommy Jenelle and her big sis Livie.
Keira is her usual sweet, loving self. She has learned to use her voice to get what she wants, and she has an inate sense of *fairness* (she is always right when she lets me know something wasn’t fair). She is walking and running and climbing stairs like a little monkey, and her cute baby fat is leaving her – noooooo! She has the most beautiful light blue eyes and the cutest wavy blonde hair. She loves giggling with her sister, and will often initiate play, such as hurling her teddies across the room at Ava, ha ha. She is *crazy* about dolls, and really loves the realistic ones like the Madame Alexander dolls that her Gammy gave her, and is crazy about kitties and doggies (both called “dat-nnnn”s).
You’ll notice Ava & Keira’s blog format is different than what you are used to – Blogger.com hasn’t worked in over 2 mos, so we moved to WordPress.com, and we feel right at home. Both girls are consolidated into *one* blog, which only makes sense (mama is smacking herself on the forehead, duh, why didn’t she think of this before?).
One quick note: once you have finished scrolling down on *this* page and reading everything, be sure to go back into the *archives* (menu on the right) to view the previous months, all the way through to April. We had last left you on April 21st and this page does not go all the way back to there
Daddy took me to Elle’s “sweet sixteen” party and I was inseparable from the chocolate fountain.
