Ava...like a bird

Well, today was another typical day with our little Ava D. That's right...Ava. Before leaving for Kaz we decided that it would be wise to refer to the child by her birth name on the blog until the court decision was final, but we just can't help it! She is not Darina to us anymore, she is our Ava. We have been using the name Ava for many many weeks now and she responds to it when we call her. Her new room at home has beautiful birdies painted on the wall b/c we learned that the meaning of the name Ava is "like a bird". This seems to fit her so beautifully. In fact, the first time we met her, she was a little scared and so the caretakers took her to the window because they said she liked to watch the birds outside. We can't believe that she is the same little girl we met 2 months ago. She has come so far.


At lunch today we were able to chat with my parents via skype. We were also able to do this with James' mom last week. How nice it is to see the faces of family! It makes this great big world not seem so big after all.


Tonight we had dinner with Peggy and her parents who just flew in from Belgium. They brought Regenwormen with them so now we officially have our own copy of the game! Peggy also gave us a couple cute outfits for Ava. Thanks Peggy and Jan!


As always, here are a few pictures from our day at the baby house:



Ava watching Dada color. She can't get enough of it!



In this photo Ava is frustrated that she couldn't unfold our giant map of Pavlodar that we let her color on the back of. We get similar expressions when we tell her that Mama and Dada are tired of coloring.



Ava was quite the explorer today. She led us all around the baby house grounds.



Pretending to drink from her Play-Doh container.



The day ended by rolling around on the floor with Dada.



She found him!



.