a - v - a

a few months ago, bryce and i started to notice how well ava knew her letter sounds. i mean, we knew she knew some but it caught us off guard when we realized that she knew every letter and the sound(s) it made. she is only three years old, and we weren't too concerned with getting her to learn all of the letter sounds quite yet. she had a toy and a computer game that she liked to play that really helped her memorize these letters' sounds. she also had a letter puzzle and she would pick up a letter tell us what sound or sounds it made, put it aside and then pick up another letter. if she came to a letter she wasn't sure of she would ask us what sound it made, repeat it, then moved along. she loved doing this little made up game and did it over and over every day. after a while, she became very competent, so bryce decided to see if she could try to sound out small phonetically correct words. before bed one night he grabbed her little princess magna doodle and wrote out a few words.... and to our amazement, she read them, one after another. she loved doing it so much that it became a part of her nightly routine. she's getting so good at it and is now starting to pick out words on her own when we're out and about. it's been a few months but i finally captured it on video. please excuse her mini meltdown towards the end when i tell her that it's time for bed.

i am so amazed, and so proud of her. she has even learned how to spell and write out her own name. i love to see the pure joy on her face from that sense of great accomplishment, this picture captured it perfectly.

now, if i could just get her to stop sucking her two fingers.