26 months and stuff

Today Ava is officially 26 months old!
Such a big girl!
She has learned yet another new technique. The technique of STALLING.
When we put her to bed, she learned to STALL. She begins to ask for all sorts of things, "Teeth" (to be brushed), "Book" (to be read),
"Cereal" (to eat), "Hug"....you get the idea.
Of course, who can say no to another hug?! I'm having to learn to say no. :( Its hard. I love Ava hugs!

Ava continues to be amazing.
Next week we will be traveling the distance to San Diego! I'm so excited to return to my home town and see people I haven't seen for years, but I can't tell you how nervous I am to travel with a toddler by myself and to rent a car! All of which I have never done before! So nervous! I know Ava will love the plane ride. She loves planes, and she loved the last plane we went on. Thankfully, the trip is less than 2 hours. I've started packing, trying to get everything in ONE suit case, my purse plus Ava's princess tote for the plane. Trying to figure out the umbrella stroller AND carseat deal. But it will all work out, I'm sure.

I'm sad that Phil will not be going with us, having extra hands for traveling is always a plus, and having him out of the experience of San Diego is such a bummer. But we got our plane tickets for the week and he needs to be home to run the business.

I'm excited to show Ava the beach, and she will meet new people, and pets! I'm sure she is going to be very excited to meet my cousin's new dog! I can't wait.


Ava and I went to the American Heart Walk on Sunday. And we met Billie and Juno and walked with them and then went out for coffee afterwards. Ava and Juno were so cute together copying each other and playing well. What fun! :)


I am a huge facebook fan. Sometimes there are posts that just ring home.
I wanted to put this one on my blog because it rings true for both Phil and it did for my Mom as well.
It's hard to explain to someone who has no clue. It's a daily struggle being in pain or feeling sick on the inside while you look fine on the outside. Please put this as your status for at least 1 hour if you or someone you know has an invisible illness (PTSD, Anxiety, Bipolar, Depression, Diabetes, LUPUS, Fibromyalgia, MS, ME, Arthritis, Cancer, Heart Disease,Crohn's, Epilepsy, Autism,M.D. etc.) " Never judge what you don't understand I know which of my real friends will copy ♥

Over the weekend Phil had a very horrible allergic reaction to the antibiotics he was given to clear up his intestinal track. His face was completely swollen. He couldn't see out of his eyes, he couldn't breath. When he slept, it sounded like he would stop breathing all together. His nasal polyps grew so large it blurred his vision, he couldn't hear, and his nose...we'll you get the idea. Poor Phil.
He looks 90% better than he did over the weekend. Unfortunately he had to stop taking the medicine that was making him better so now he's back to the pain.

So many words...so little time

So much to say!
My little missy is talking up a storm!

We have now entered into a new phase. Everything is "My".
Yesterday when Ava came home our conversation went a little something like this.
Ava "I want cake"
So I give her mini cinn. buns from costco
Ava "Happy Birthday! My Happy Birthday!"

Today when I asked her to say Goodbye to her Dad, she said " Bye Bye my daddy. Bye bye my kitty".

This weekend was a pretty good one. Phil was sick, and in bed most of the weekend, which is unfortunate. I don't understand a lot of what is going on. Every time he goes to the doctor (on average, once or twice a week) they give him new medicine. He is now on up to 10 different pills each day. Thats just the different types of pills, no including how many doses are in a day or how many he has take per day. Poor Phil. I hope this passes soon.


Ava came home on Friday and we had just enough time to play with some bubbles outside. My neighbor came by and told us about the Air Races crash. Ava played a little longer outside with the water and bubbles. While I was giving Ava a bath Phil looked up the Crash and called his Dad to make sure he was ok and not at the Air Races that day.
What a crazy accident. A plane crash into the box seats killing the pilot and injuring many others. Over 50 people were taken to the hospital, care flight and ambulance.




We had a fun weekend full of bubbles, and friends!

We went to a picnic, and met some friends at the park, went to a baby shower and then had a great visit with my sister in law and the kids!
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Juno, Luka and Ava played really well together. Watching Ava and Juno play together had to be one of the highlights of my weekend. Both are at the "My" stage. "My Ava" "My Juno". It was cute to watch them together.
It was a fantastic weekend.

Ava also had fun playing with Addison at the baby shower!


Monday I got word that Ava is changing classrooms. This was heartbreaking for me. She is getting older. She is no longer my baby. She is moving up to the Squirrel classroom. It takes about two weeks to transition, her teacher, Ms Alicia said that Ava was the most well behaved kid in the classroom. Ava got to participate in the "station" part of the classroom. Ava listened, and paid attention and actually did the projects that she was asked to do. She didn't color on herself at the coloring station, which I guess it common.

This morning when I was getting her ready, she said "my turn" so she put on her pull up, all by herself. It took a few times but she got it. She put on her pants by herself. She attempted to put on her shirt by herself. She missed on the of arm holes so it looked a little funny but she did it herself. She brushed her teeth by herself. I helped with her socks, and she chose to wear her water shoes to school (which she picked out and put on all by herself).
All this independence is wonderful, but it makes me sad because she is getting bigger and older.



Monday and Tuesdays I have class. I truly miss being home with my daughter, even if its only for 2 hours. I'm thankful that I can pick her up from school early. I'm grateful for her school because she is learning so much. I honestly believe that she is learning to talk so much because of the kids she is around and the lessons she learns at school.
She is truly amazing. Everyday she comes home and says something new and amazing. Everyday I learn to look at the world from a 2 year old's stand point. Its so interesting. I love that she can communicate with us now. She can tell us what she wants for dinner. She tells us what she wants to wear to bed. She can tell us if she wants water, milk or juice.
She can tell us if she has boogies.
The other day I was getting ready to put a diaper on her and she starts telling me "pee pee" "poop" so I run with my naked child and put her on the toilet. And she peed! She said "oopsie!" I said "No no, you did great! Good job baby!" We high fived!
Everyday gets a little more interesting.
I love this stage. I love my baby girl. I love the weekends we have together.

Balloons!

Every year we go to the Balloon Races! It's so much fun!
We wake up around 3:45am and get to the parking garage around 4:30 and watch the balloons dawn patrol around 5am and its all upward bound from there!

This year, Ava is more aware of her surroundings. She knew we were up earlier than normal, she was actually excited about being up early. On our way in the car she was silent and looking outside. As we passed by buildings with lights she would say "Oh wow!" or "Cool!" but "Oh wow" was her favorite phrase of the morning.
We are usually in the house by 6:30pm and don't leave the house before 7am so the dark and the lights were really exciting to her.


I asked Ava if she was excited to see her cousins and she tried to say "cousins" and would then say "Juno" and "Luka". It was cute! She was really excited to see her cousins.

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We walked to the park, and got settled in. Either the crowd was bigger this year or we got there later than normal this year, but there were TONS of people! It could be that we went on 9-11 and they were having a special event so maybe the crowd was a little larger than normal because of the special event. It was crazy trying to find a place to sit on the grass but we got the perfect spot! It was awesome!

It was dark, but not really that cold this year. And when the sun came up, it didn't really get colder or warmer. It was weird. Usually its FREEZING (like mittens, jackets, etc) and then we are so hot walking back to the car we need shorts, and t-shirts. But this year it seemed to stay pretty moderate. Jackets before and after the sun rose, not too hot, not too cold. It was nice, and perfect.

The Balloons did Dawn Patrol, and the "twinkle twinkle" and everything that they usually do. Its amazing to see these huge balloons light up the park.
They usually play the dueling banjo song and have the balloons light up in turn with the song. It's pretty amazing.


They had special moments that went along with 9-11. Naming off the times that each plane hit and when the towers fell. The Gov. spoke. It was pretty amazing.

At sunrise the national anthem was sung, and the balloons carried the flag up in the air, and planes from the Air Races came racing across the sky. It was a pretty spectacular morning.


After all that was done, the balloons started blowing up, and taking off and the crowds started moving back as the balloons needed more space to take off. Ava is in love with Balloons. She LOVED seeing all the balloons, everywhere! It was fun to watch her as she was aware of all the balloons around her this year. It was awesome.


It was fun going with Billie, Luka and Juno. Juno and Luka get a long so well. It was fun to see Juno and Luka. :) Ava enjoyed the time with her cousins.

New words and phrases

Ava is becoming such a big girl!

She says so much stuff!
Some of her new phrases are:
"I don't want it"
"I want it"

Some words are:
"Baggins" = blanket
"Hungry" (she always signed before)
"Apple" - applied to everything fruit like
"Dragonfly"
"Heli" for helicopter
"Stroller"

She is funny. We ask her to pose for the camera and she says "Cheese" but doesn't look at the camera.

Ava has learned a new trick. She now takes off her diaper when she is put in her crib. This morning Phil walked in to find her pant less and to say the least...what was supposed to be in the diaper was in her crib (thank goodness it was lemonade not chocolate!)
Same went for the nap.
So tonight I put a strip of duct tape over the tabs. Hopefully she won't be able to wiggle out of her diaper tonight.
I'll ask at school tomorrow what the next step is from here. If they are willing to work with her, then I will too but I want everyone on the same page. This came WAY too soon!


We had a very very quite Labor Day weekend. We spent the entire weekend at home! It was so nice! Well actually, we were sort of forced to. Ava acted up every time we went out. We came home and actually we had a pretty good weekend. We saw a couple of movies, Ava played with her toys, we took pictures outside, we played on the computer. We listened to Phil play guitar. Ava colored, and played with her doll, we had hide and seek contests. We went on a couple of walks. It was nice.

We will probably be staying at home more (unless we travel) because Ava seems to be content in her home. We also enjoyed family time and we, together as a family, cleaned the house today! I had the kitchen, Phil had Ava's playroom and picked up clothes and Ava did an excellent job putting her toys away in the appropriate buckets! We had a good day.

Finding the yellow brick road....

I made have made a few posts on Facebook...or for those of you who know me all too well, this story may be something of the past.

But over the past few months since my mom has passed. My life has been an earth quake followed by many, many after shocks.

Not only was my mom my best friend, she was my life line. She was my last call, my go to gal, and the air I breathe. If I had any questions or concerns I called her. So needless to say...I called her at least 5 times a day, even when she lived less than 3 miles from my house. If I was feeling ill, and debated about going to work or staying home, guess who I called? If I applied for a job, I called her not only for reassurance to see if that was the right thing to do, but to help with my resume etc.
By now, you probably get how vital my mom was in my life.
She wasn't just my mom, she was EVERYTHING.

These past several months have been complicated, complex and full of anxiety.
Learning to live, make decisions for myself, finding myself, making life altering changes that have changed the entire way that Phil, Ava and I live, have been hard. I keep back tracking, wondering if I have made the right decisions, and wondering what comes next.
Part of it is denial. Not that the obvious has occurred, but part of me can't handle the actual fact that my mom is gone.

While my mind is still trying to process this, almost 7 months later, I now feel like I'm making some progress.
I am out of my comfort zone. Completely out of my comfort zone.
I am now going to school. Something I wasn't sure if I would ever do since I couldn't decide on a Masters program.
I am completely involved in Truckee Meadows Promotionals. While there are some changes that are occurring, I'm mostly behind the scenes doing the Admin/ Reconstruction. Believe me, when I say its not easy. I've never been involved in a business but now being in charge of a restructuring of a small business I'm learning a lot more than I ever thought.

Getting my Masters in Business Administration will help me out more than I ever thought.

I'm still not sure of the direction I'm going. I still am trying to balance everything else out. Time with Ava, time with Phil. figuring out how to clean the house to make myself sane. And homework. Oh the home work.

My life has been an after shock. I almost feel like I work more now that I'm home than I did when I was actually working.
When I go to bed, my brain is still thinking up new ideas for Truckee Meadows Promotionals.

No one takes my mom's place. I now make my own decisions (along side my husband of course!), some of them, I'm still not sure about but just keep going forward and know that I know my mom would be happy with me returning to school and having a little more time with Ava. Its been a good combo.

I'm aware the aftershocks will continue...but all I can do is the best that I can.