Two months since the last update!

Oh my gosh! I can't believe its been two months since my last update! What a two months its been! We've done so many things! Balloon Races, Juno's birthday party, Color Me Rad 5k, Keurig House Party, Gymnastics for Ava twice a week, Madison's birthday party, we participated in a bowling event to help raise money for families in Tahoe, Ava had her tonsils out on October 2nd, we got our backyard done, mommy had Lasik, we went to Apple Hill. Its been an exciting past couple of months! Ava's favorite book is Pinkalicious- Pumpkin Patch Ava's favorite activity is probably play-do or playing outside Favorite song she likes to make up her own! All the time Favorite food candy or chicken nuggets

Just putting it out on the table.

I am human. Over the last year and a half I've had to deal with things I never ever thought I'd have to deal with. I've sat with my mom in ER not knowing if she would make it through the night. I took my mom to her last doctors appointment. I asked the hard questions. I sat there with my mom the night before she passed holding her hand telling her how much I loved her and how much I appreciated everything she's ever done for me. I called an ambulance to take her away. I was there when she didn't wake. I held her hand and hugged her as she passed away. A few months later my husband became too sick to work. He could hardly get out of bed. I sat with him stroking his hair, holding his hand. Scheduling doctors appointments and taking him to his tests. At appointments I asked the hard questions "Is it cancer" "Does he have to live with this the rest of his life?" "How is he supposed to work when he can't even stand up without turning three different shades of green and white?" I've spent nights reading with Ava, and doing projects. I've been an "only parent" for a while. This summer. I became human. My outward shell has been shed. I cry when no one is watching. I ball up and wonder "why did this happen to me? My mom was supposed to be here for this and my husband is supposed to be at my side?" I became human. Each day I appreciate all that I have. The time I have with my husband, no matter how its spent (usually watching him try and sleep), the time I have with my daughter (while trying not to get too frustrated with the attitude that comes along with being 3), and remembering that family is only a click or phone call away.

Time for a quick update

Hello! Its time for a quick update. Ava is doing fantastic! This week at gymnastics she kind of showed off her stuff (flipping on the bars, climbing like no other, somersault after somersault so the teachers and I decided together that its time for her to move up! She will be with the 3.5-5 year olds! OMG! I'm nervous but Ava is doing such a great job with gymnastics. She conquers everything she sets out to do (probably gets that from her dad). This week her favorite book is Pinkalicious. Last night she read almost the entire book back to me word for word. When we wait around, we pick up magazines and look through the pages, we point out items we know (umbrellas, shoes, boys, girls, mom's, dad's, dogs, cats, backpacks, computers, video games, cell phones etc). She does a really good job doing that. We've been back to walking with the neighbor, Ava loves her little neighbor boy friend. They have a great time walking together. Ava is doing ok at school. Some listening issues this week. Tomorrow is Ava's last day of swimming. She is really bummed out. I think she really likes the swimming class. Unfortunately I think she will have to wait another year to get in the next class. She has to be able to stand at the shallow end of the pool to progress, she is several inches too short to be able to do that just yet. Naps have been hit and miss. Today must have really hit her hard because she napped for 4.5 hours at the every end of the day. Here it is almost 11pm and she is still awake. Anyways, just a quick update.

Quotes

This is just a blog of Ava quotes "I'm Ava. What's your problem?" "We go to dancing class on Saturday, because I'm beautiful" "Lay down mom. I turned off the dang light." "Where is my princess dress?" "Mom, I want to learn guuuutar" "Can I ride a motorcycle?" "We go to dancing class on Saturday" "We have water play day after morning" In Ava's preschool class they ask each child a question This weeks question: What do you find in the sky? Ava's answer: kitties, clouds

Time for an update!

Ava is officially 3! And boy how she has blossomed in the past several weeks. Talking, singing, sing-talking, repeating everything (for example books, that we read the night before, she will recite on the way to school). Favorite book this week: Duckling Gets a Cookie - if you haven't read it, its hilarious! Favorite show on TV: Gumball (if you haven't seen it, please don't look it up). Favorite activity: Reading Favorite food: This week its hard to say, we had a sick episode which put us back in the saddle a tad bit. But she tried sushi yesterday, she liked the cucumber salad and edamame. Favorite drink: Water What impressed me the most this week: We looked through photo albums Ava was able to point out "Gingka" (my dad), "Me-Ma" (my mom), and "Nanna" (my Grandmother) without me having to point to the picture that they were in. Ava still likes to sort. Oh my gosh! She lines up rocks, she lines up colors, shapes, shoes. One morning I went in her room she changed her diaper by herself and lined up all 5 dirty diaper in a row. Ava had her 3 year check up on July 30. 24.2 lbs 35.2 inches She is healthy and is ALMOST on the chart for weight! She gained 1 whole pound in the last 3 months! Wahoo! Developing normally. Ava got strep throat (for the third time this year) on Thursday. She stayed home with us on Friday and was well enough to start her swim class on Saturday. Those are all the updates for now. I'm sure I'll write another blog with funny Ava quotes later on.

Trying to make this positive

So I'm going to do my very very best to make this post as positive as I can! I have a feeling Ava's 3's are going to be a bit more challenging than anything we've encountered so far. Ava is doing pretty amazing. She does well with the potty 95% of the time! She uses the potty all day long and we just put her in a pull up at night, unless she decides to take it off at night then we have accidents. At school Ava is doing well. She participates, she really likes her friends. We can drive by her school on a weekend now and she says "Am I going to school today?" Instead of "I don't want to go to school!!!" Ava's love for clothes has come out in the past few weeks. The other night she tried on most of her clothes in her dirty laundry basket. She likes dresses these days. She will put on the clothes that she picks out. We've had some interesting outfits but she's actually been pretty good about matching. Some of her new favorite words and phrases are: Pinky (imaginary friend or toy) Actually "You are so beautiful" "I love you so much" One of my all time favorite quotes from this past week: Mommy: "Ava, mommy really wants to take a shower." Ava: "No" Mommy: "Please let mommy take a shower?" Ava: "FINE THEN" *waving her hands at the shower* Yup...teenage years are going to be a blast. But I'm trying to stay postive. Another favorite is when I put Ava to bed, if I lean down and tuck her in and kiss her she rubs her hand on my cheek and says "Mommy, you are so beautiful". Or I was laying down on the floor and she was playing hair dresser (yup, hair dresser and coffee maker are her specialties) and she said "Mommy, you have such beautiful hair". If I ever need a positive boost, I just let her do my hair or hug her goodnight. :) Her best friend: Addison (Addison feels the same way, Addison told me so yesterday). Favorite book: Hard to say right now because Miss Ava had a birthday party and all of the presents were books! YAY!!!!!! I think the Hello Kitty puzzle book tops it right now, but the Leap Frog Tag it reader book comes in at the top, Pinkiclious, Fancy Nancy, the princess and Disney books. They are all up there. She loves reading so much. I find no less than 10 books in her bed. Sometimes ALL of the books are in her bed (close to 50, at least the books in her room). Ava has a very vivid imagination, she loves playing coffee shop or Tea party. She isn't really into dolls all that much, books, painting, stickers, toe nails. We still haven't gotten her a present this year, maybe we will do a dress up box. That might be fun. She loves to read. She rather read, play coffee shop or hair dresser than sit down and play with toys. We've gone outside a few times in the backyard, we have to run from snakes, and allogators. We rush away from bee's and fly's. We turn on the hose and water the dirt, and pretend its raining when its not. Ava loves pizza. Pizza day at school last week, she ate three slices. I'm pretty sure we had pizza almost everyday last week. She still loves fruit, watermelon, strawberries, blueberries. I mentioned above, Ava had her 3rd birthday. It was a Tea Party! So much fun. Mostly 2-4 year olds. I guess we didn't really have a tea party. I guess you can't expect that much out of 2-4 year olds, but it was a lot of fun. The kids made noodle necklaces, my friend did the food and the noodle craft. I had someone come and take pictures since I knew I'd be out of sorts to do that on Ava's birthday. Hopefully next year, I can get myself more together and I'll be able to do that. But it was fun. Ava got to blow out 3 candles. We've been practicing for about 2 months now. She knew what to do. Ava is a lot of fun. She totally has her moments though...like yesterday when she flooded my friends bathroom. Fun times. But she has lots of good moments.

So much good stuff!

Well we are at it again! Three weeks before Ava turned 1, she started sleeping through the night. Two weeks before Ava turned 2, she got rid of the pacifier. This year, two weeks before Ava turns 3 she is potty trained and learned how to ride a bike with training wheels!! We are some happy parents over here! Ava has really broken out this summer. In the pool she tries to take off swimming on her own, she is loud and wants to be heard, she dances, she always asks if we are going to dance class or if we are going to go swimming. I'm still undecided if Ava should do gymnastics, swim lessons or dance classes. Ava is one active little thing. She is crazy! She runs all over the place, if she isn't bouncing, she is dancing, if she isn't dancing she is singing. If she isn't singing, she is reciting poetry. If she isn't reciting poetry she is reading books and if she isn't reading books she is playing with dolls or lining up rocks, cereal, crackers or fruit. Yup, 3 is going to be fun. And maybe my question shouldn't be what class should I put Ava in, but rather, what times do all the classes start and can we fit them all in? Ava has so much energy! I'm hoping we can channel all this extra energy. Ava has been doing really well. She is doing better at school. She is eating breakfast, she is now eating her lunch. Still having trouble with dinner, but breakfast and lunch are good! Last week we had a lot of fun. Ava was invited over to swim with Addison. The girls had a blast! Ava and Addison were flirting with the boys. Addison, Ava and their friend Avany got to attend the first Music in the park at Lazy 5 this summer. The girls had a blast running all over the park.

Quotes and Favorites

I know I recently did a post but sometimes late at night I remember a few things I want to remember about Ava that I forgot to write down! At the park today it was really windy (I'm guessing 40 mph) Ava was walking along and all of the sudden she says "Hey MOM! I'm blowin' up!" Ha ha! I think she meant that it was really windy and the wind was blowing against her, but it was funny how it came out. Also we went to a birthday party for the little boy across the street today. The kids found the wagon (aka Dragon) and one of the times Jakob was trying to get in the wagon, Ava walks over to him and asks "Do you want uppie?" Ha ha! Also all the kids took turns in the wagon and all of the little little kids got in the wagon. All three of them. It was super cute! Ava also learned how to dress herself this week. I mean really dress herself. Take her clothes off, put them on. So now her favorite thing is to change clothes (oh god.....flash backs of my childhood are starting to surface). She color coordinates pretty well. Its interesting to watch her dance around the room trying to get her shirt off and over her head. LOL Its funny. I should tape it one of these days. She is very independent. She doesn't let anyone get the best of her but she doesn't bully or push other kids either. Dispite the few tantrums she has had over the past several days, she is truly amazing. Couldn't ask for a better daughter. She did great at school this week. She ate! She played with her friends. She talks about her friends. She mostly talks about Jakob, Addison and Avany. Interesting trying to follow her conversations at night. Funny stuff!

On the way to 3

I'm almost afraid to say this! Ava is pretty amazing. While she has some quirkiness, she is pretty good. This morning I went to get Ava out of her room (yes, she stays in her room ALL night long, and won't come out of her room unless her dad or I go to get her) and Ava had made her bed. Ava's bed was made. I've never, ever taught her or told her to make her bed. But maybe she was so excited with the new bedding I put on yesterday she wanted to make sure it looked pretty. Ava is actually pretty good. Most of the time, she will clean up after herself, throw (literally) her dishes in the sink (good thing they are plastic), she mostly picks up her toys in her play area. Ava loves to read. The only problem we have is that she likes to read so much she pulls more books off the shelf than she can put away! :) No problem, really. My mom and Grandfather were avid readers. I will not discourage this behavior in anyway. Actually, we use book reading as a reward. If Ava brushes her teeth she gets to read books at bed. This works really well because Ava loves to read so much that she will usually brush her teeth, unless she is already grumpy and unreasonable. Thinking back, I wonder if her behavior is changing because she is now eating. We've come up with a new routine in the morning. We bought a huge box of the mini cereals from Costco. She gets to pick her box of cereal for the morning. She gets to school, we open a container with milk in it, she pours in her cereal and usually will eat ALL of it! This week has been successful with lunch too! She has eaten lunch everyday this week. Dinner on the other hand has been a bit more difficult. But she still drinks pedi-sure in the mornings and if she doesn't eat dinner she drink 1/2 a bottle of pedi-sure. This week has been pretty good. We've had a good routine going. Cereal in the morning, drop off at school has been pretty good, pick up around 3:30 or 4pm. We usually do something or go somewhere for a little bit. Come home, eat dinner and then at 7pm go on a walk with the neighbors. By the time we get home Ava gets to spend a little time with daddy then off to take a bath, blow dry the hair, read stories and go to bed. Ava still sleeps anywhere from 9pm-6 or 7am. She takes about a 2 hour nap at school. Her naps have been going well. I think eating more has been helping her attitude. I also think a lot of it has to do with her hair. Mornings and nights are no longer a nightmare. While Ava and I still battle sometimes, we battle a lot less now that her hair is short and not tangled. Ava is a lot of fun. Her favorite thing this week is playing outside in the water. She learned how to spray the hose. We also learned that Ava likes to kill bugs. Poor bugs. I guess its really "poor" bugs now. We had the exterminator come out today. LOL The bugs were a little out of control. Moths, flies, carpenter ants, etc. Yuck. Still can't believe Ava will be 3 in a little more than a month. Hard to believe!

Love little Ava

Have I ever just come out and said how much I love and adore Ava?! I'm pretty sure I have. But I love her so much! This week my favorite Ava quote is "I want to go see whatch you want" (meaning she wants to open the pantry, and she wants me to ask her what she wants to eat). This week our trouble has been food. The food she will eat: Strawberries, fruit roll ups, fruit snacks, popcorn, almonds, cheese its, string cheese. Her favorite lunch this past week was a pre-packaged meal I got from walmart. It had whole wheat chicken nuggets, apple slices and pretzles. Her teacher said she ate the whole thing. Ava still drinks pedisure/ensure 2x a day. She didn't eat lunch at school until Thursday. Her favorite movie is Strawberry Shortcake Fairy Tales Favorite book this week is a toss up between several, "The Belly Button Book" "Good Night Moon" "The Good Night Book" Ava has had several fun events this week. Thursday we went to the farmers market with her little friend Alison. Saturday morning we met her friend Ava at the park. Saturday we also had "Gingka" (aka Grandpa) over for dinner. It was the first time he came over since we had the house re-done. It was nice. Favorite activity this week: water. Ava learned how to squirt the hose outfront. She loved playing with the water. Except for a small incident of Ava getting sick on Monday and staying home on Tuesday the week went pretty well. Ava has been so great since we cut her hair. The tantrums don't happen quite as often as they used to.

Not sure where this entry should go....

Like the title says, I'm really not sure where this entry should go. All my emotions for the past year have finally caught up with me. Phil is doing so much better and is now up for the call of duty of "Dad". He has done amazing the past few weeks stepping up to help with Ava. He even stayed up with Ava most of the night when she got sick and he even tucked me into bed. This week I've faced reality. With all the roles I've taken on over the past year, Mom, "Dad", Wife, Caretaker, Daughter etc etc etc. I've done it all. Now I'm having trouble letting go. Phil is willing to take Ava more often, but now I have attachment issues. I'm a control freak. If I'm not driving, I freak out. Now that we are doing more things as a family instead of Mom and daughter, its hard for me to get past that point and get past all my control issues. I've even picked up food as my scape goat. I eat and eat and eat. Its been a rough week. I feel bad for Ava. I know she needs more time with her dad. I'm just used to doing everything without Phil so its been a hard adjustment for my brain to adjust to adding one more to our outtings or find stuff for us ALL to enjoy not just what I think Ava will want to do. What a week. Broken. Crumbled. I'm going to be re-born. A better person, who can take it on without feeling so overwhelmed.

Getting closer to 3

Getting closer to 3! A little over a month away, and our little girl won't be so little anymore. She is saying so much! Tonight on our walk (we try and walk nightly with our neighbors who have a little boy named "Jigga Jakob" aka Jakob) I heard the phrases: "Get out of my face" "I don't know" "Thanks for coming over. I had a good time". "I wanna kick the bird" Yup...those are the kinds of phrases we've delt with tonight. Normally she is a beautiful little girl with a fun imagination but tonight was a whole different story. We won't talk about tonight too much. Its one of those days that might not need to go in the record book. Ava has a great imagination. She covers the cat with a blanket and pretends the cat is a baby. She talks to her babies, plays mommy, and her favorite is still tea or coffee shop. Food that she will eat this week: Cantalope Popcorn Some multi-colored noodles with butter and salt Birthday cake pops (my bad....) We have a new "tradition" that will be broken tomorrow. Ava loves to get the birthday cake pops from starbucks. She gets it, we sing happy birthday, blow out the birthday cake pop and pretend its a candle. She really is excited for her birthday. And this year is the first time I haven't had anything planned 6 months ahead of time. How crazy. I still can't even come up with an idea for her birthday party. Over the weekend we had our first trip to Lake Tahoe- the beach area. Ava and Addison had fun playing in the sand and on the beach with their beach toys. Ava was not a fan of the water, Addison didn't seem to care for the water much either. It was a nice first trip. Both girls passed out in the car on the way home.

All About Ava

Ava is nothing short of AMAZING. I'm sure I'm bias but she lights up our life. Literally. We love her more than words. She is smart. I hope, that in the long run she doesn't have trouble learning. Sometimes she gets things confused, but she is only 2 years and some change. She can count to 20. She can count backwards from 5. 5,4,3,2,1. She can sing several songs: Bringing home a baby bumble bee Twinkle Twinkle Little Star Wheels on the Bus Itsy Bitsy Spider A,B,C's The Good morning song- a song they sing when they get to their classroom She knows several others but I can't think of them at the top of my head. She loves to dance. She learned how to "skip" last week. Her skipping is more like galloping. She LOVES books. She rather sit down with a book than play with toys. Although she has a weird obesession with her toys. She packs them all up in purses and bags and tries to see how many bags she can carry. Her favorite books this week are: Goodnight Moon Curious George goes to the zoo Because of her skin "condition" she takes a bath daily. We've learned to curly her hair. Its the only way we don't end up fighting at the top of our lungs at each other. Ava likes to wear dresses. Ava is mostly potty trained. I say mostly because for some reason she has reverted back to NOT telling us when she has to go to the bathroom. She had an accident on the floor at home this week. Last week she had an accident in her pants in public. We ended up throwing away her pants and underwear. It was horrible. Usually its only the BM we have an issue with. The accident this week involved pee. Then last night she took the liberty of taking off her dirty diaper, put it on the floor, tried to clean herself went back to bed and had two more accidents in bed. I kind of wanted to rip my hair out only because I thought the TWO mattress protectant covers were water proof, but they weren't. Disappointed in myself for not knowing that earlier. She is truly a blessing. This weekend we've had fun, mostly hanging out at home. Today we had fun, we took a drive, then went to the store, then we hung out at home for a bit, took a long long walk, and off to bed for a nap. This afternoon was a lot of fun. Phil painted her toe nails, we went on anotehr walk. She tried on her dress up shoes and walked all over the house. She played tea party, she colored and played with legos. The only thing we are really having a problem with is her eating. She won't eat meals. She relies on pedisure/ensure and then thinks we will give her fruit snacks, cakes, cupcakes for the rest of the day. Not happening. We gave in with the fruit snacks. She only thinks she can have cake now because she has been deemed egg free (or able to have eggs) and we've been to birthday parties every weekend for the last several weekends. We are pretty good about not getting her candy. She is doing pretty good.

Progress

This week I finally learned what we pay so much for at Ava's pre-preschool. We had a parent teacher confrence. Oh my gosh! While Ava is doing fantastic (uh, maybe we are slightly bias) they give her grades. Like they would in Elementry school. Language, correct usage of pronouns, nouns, verbs, etc. - Ava sometimes get these right. Words- she is up with everyone in her age group. She knows over 2,000 words. Social- She does well Music/singing/dancing and rythm- Great, she gets a lot of that from Phil since they play music together. She just needs to work on her hand motions with the songs. Math- Is a subject they really haven't gotten to just yet. Colors, shapes, pre writing skills- need work. :( So Phil and I have been working on her colors with her this weekend. To work on her pre-writing skills they have suggested we take fruit loops and have her string them on a string to make a necklace which she then can eat. They were concerned that Ava gallops instead of skips. Also they encourage the kids at this age to know what kind of learner they are. Ava apparently doesn't know what kind of learner she is so they are still working with her to help her recognize that she learns a certain way and needs to ask for things that help her learn a certain way. (HELLO!!! Why on earth didn't they do this with me in school?!) So now I know why its so dang freaking expensive. I'm glad she is learning all that she is learning. I'm glad she is doing well. No real behavior issues. She is 2, well almost 3. No development issues. She was shy but is learning to stand her ground and express her emotions with words. At home she is a hoot but I'll save that for another time.

Better late than never

I guess I never got around to part two from our San Diego venture. I will still have to get to that. April was a crazy month. Absolutely crazy. April 1st we started remodeling our home. The first week the furniture was moved, everything went to the center of the rooms. The moulding was removed. Then the moulding upstairs was put up. We were slightly uncomfortable. Second week: Painting. We moved into a hotel. Our house, well, all I can say is that with a almost 3 year old running around, it was panic stricken for us parents. Third week: Floors. We continued our stay in hotels, we hotel hopped a bit. Fourth week: Floors. Took longer than projected. Which was a little irritating to me, but the final outcome was totally worth it! Our house looks amazing. We didn't have to do the hard stuff. And we get to enjoy our amazing house.

The Wedding Post 1

I'm going to break our weekend down into bitty parts.
I get a bit overwhelmed writing a whole lot at one time, especially late at night, right before bed.
Tonight I'm choosing to write about my cousin's wedding Julie to her wonderful husband Jon. Jon has two beautiful kids. A girl named Hana and a boy named Calvin. They are pretty amazing kids.
The wedding was beautiful. Everything about it was perfect. The flowers, the table note cards, the food, the lighting, the music, dancing, dessert, photo booth and even the kids had a blast!

The wedding was amazing. It was beautiful. My Uncle did the ceremony. Both parties looked amazing.
I had total anxiety the whole time. Bringing a 2 year old to a wedding?! I kept thinking to myself, what was I thinking?
Good thing my dad stepped in. he took her out for a bit of the ceremony. Then she ran the courtyard when the ceremony was finished. My Aunt (I think that is her relation) Regina and I spent a good amount of time running after the little toddler. My dad tried to keep up with all of our moments but I think he sought after Pam and Megan who weren't running around. :)
The wedding was so beautiful. It couldn't have been any better. I feel so blessed that I was allowed to bring Ava.

We were all let into the space where we ate dinner and danced. We found our name tags, our tables then the wedding parties came in, they had their first dances, couple, then mother/father and husband/daughter and son. It was cute and done really well.
Then the tables got food. Ava decided to run everywhere! She literally did not stop running all night. I have no idea where she got all this energy from. No nap!

After dinner, she started the party. She danced all night. She dances with Emily's cousin's kids. She dance with Aunt Claire and Uncle Jamie and the girls. She danced with Calvin the robot and she even tried to get the security guard to come and dance with her! LOL

The wedding was a blast! We had so much fun. Ava had a great time.
I was a little anxious about how Ava would do. And I was worried about her running all over, but I'm thankful for people being understanding and helping me keep extra eyes on her when my high heels just didn't do the trick! I'm really thankful. I had a great time meeting everyone. I had a blast watching Ava dance. And most of all, I'm happy we got to spend time with our family. I miss them so much. I'm really glad we had a good time.

March 2012

Ava finally weighs over 23 lbs on our home scale!!!
While this makes me both happy and sad at the same time, it makes me realize how fast the past two and a half years have gone. Our little girl is growing up.
She had an ok this past week at school. There is a new teacher in her class so there were a few adjustment issues.
Also, still no potty at home.
We had some issues with Phil's health last week so maybe Ava was acting out because of that. I'm not sure.

Ava's favorite food this week was pizza.
I ordered Pizza from the new Blind Onion pizza on Friday, she ate three slices! THREE!
She ate half of a cupcake on Saturday and about 1/4 of a bagel with cream cheese.

I need to get back on the cooking streak again, but after last weeks episode with Phil's health, I kind of took a mental break from almost every aspect of my life. Last week took a lot of out me.

My favorite quote of the week "Mommy, I have a baby in my tummy. The baby's kicking."
Ava's teacher is pregnant so she gets to feel the baby kick.

Favorite moments- just before putting Ava to bed. She is such a ham. She loves to pretend. She will break out the blankets and pretend to be on magic carpet. Or she will dance or do yoga. She loves pretending to take care of her baby.
Tonight she wanted to throw monk monk (her favorite blanket) and monkey (a small tiny blanket with an elephant head. Yes, I don't understand why the elephant is a monkey....) in the air at the same time. Then go and fetch them and do it all over again.

Friends she talked about most this week: Addison, Ava K., and Ari.

This past week was kind of a blur in our house so I apologize to Ava (since this blog is mostly for her sake) for not remembering more.

A new week

Ava did great with the potty this week, at school anyways.

Ava's favorite things this week:
Still loves tutu's. So much so that she will rummage through the dirty laundry to wear tutu's.

Her favorite books are still:
Chicka Chicka Boom Boom
and The Little People's Christmas pop up book

Favorite foods:
Pizza

My favorite Ava quote of the week was:
"Look Mom! I found nuggets!" (she found gum under the table at a restaurant)

Ava still counts from 1-20
Can sing her A B C's

Best attitude situation this week:
We went out to a pizza place, and we had almost 0 issues! Best outting yet!

Greatest Accomplishment this week:
Learned to put a shirt on all by herself! YAY!

Decided that she is too cool to listen to Mom and Dad. So we bought 1-2-3 Magic!

End of the week update

Five steps forward, three steps back!
We made such great progress this week with potty training. Monday-Wednesday Ava went potty ALL day at school, and even after school at home. At night time, we reverted to diapers because I knew she would not wake to go potty. She did great Monday-Thursday at school. Then Thursday night she had an accident, followed by another accident, then it was time for bed.
Friday we tried again with underwear at school, success at school! Then threw a major temper tantrum leaving school, we had to go back in to use the potty. She then refused to go to the bathroom when asked for over an hour, she went to time out and had an accident.
Today- Saturday I probably did the wrong thing, but I stuck her in a pull up. Potty should not be a fight. I didn't want to risk an accident (especially on our couch, again!) if she threw a fit.
She does so good at school, at least with potty. I'm not sure what the deal is at home. And she refuses to sit on a big person potty, at all.

Hopefully soon we can get back on track.
Potty trained kids, are officially awesome! I hope she can avoid the attitude and get back with the program.
Her attitude, is up and down. Not sure if we did something wrong, or if she's teething again (she's been chewing on her fingers and drooling a whole bunch).

Today we had a fun outing with "Cereal" aka Cheryl and Addison.
Ava and Addison had such a fun time, and us grown up girls did too!

Tonight Ava and her daddy are going on a date. Daddy is getting pizza for Ava! So happy for the two of them venturing out to do something fun.

Fun facts about Ava:
Potty use: 70% of the time
Favorite thing to do at home: play tea- she brings Phil and I tea or coffee.
New favorite past time: Dumping everything out, scattering it around the house, and refusing to pick it up.
Bed time: 8pm we head up stairs, every other day or every two days she takes a bath (she has really bad dry skin), brush teeth, get dressed, play for a few minutes, and then read a book or two or three, turn on music and say goodnight.
Wake up time: Between 6:30am-7am
Nap time: School: 2 hours, give or take. Home: 2-3 hours
Favorite food: Pizza, macaroni and cheese, fruit snacks, strawberries
Favorite drink: Milk (aka Ensure).
Favorite book: Still likes Christmas books a whole lot.
Special talent: Ava can name all of the kids in her class, and the two classes below her, she remembers the directors names too.
Favorite saying: Holy Moly

Quick Thursday Update

This is just a quick update.
Ava is doing AMAZING with potty training! My biggest fear as a parent, is officially going smooth. :)
We are almost 8 days into potty training, with a minor set back of one accident last Thursday and Saturday was a fail on my part because we went out of town and I just put a pull up on her. No public potties for Ava just yet.
But Ava is doing amazing! She goes to school everyday in underwear, and returns everyday in the same outfit and same underwear. Good job little girl!

Also this week is great! While we've had some attitude issues, it isn't nearly as bad this week as it was last week.
Ava is talking a WHOLE lot! She says the most random things. She also sings A LOT!

Ava is obsessed with tutu's, and hello kitty. She would wear a tutu everyday if I let her. And she was super excited to see that I went out and got her more hello kitty underwear (pretty much, the only underwear she will wear).

Her favorite book are Christmas books this week.
One is a Christmas Little people pop-up/flip book.
The other book is "Ho Ho Ho Tucker".
She also still really likes "Chicka Chicka Boom Boom"

Favorite movie this week: Toy Story
Favorite song: Bringing home a baby bumble bee
Favorite food: Strawberries, chocolate and marshmellows

Today we got out some hand-me down shoes (washed of course!) that looked like shoes that another little girl in Ava's class wears. So Ava nick named these shoes the Murphy shoes because of course they are pink converse shoes just like Murphy wears.

This week Phil and I have had a lot of fun playing with Ava when she gets home from school. Ava will lay next to Phil on the couch and play peek-a-boo with the covers or have tickle wars, yes, Ava tickles us too!

We have so much fun! We are truly blessed.

Attitude, Potty Training and the Zoo

Ava begun potty training this week!
Ava did great with the potty at school this week. She stayed dry all day at school! She had one night of accidents on Thursday. I just wasn't on the ball. She had a number 2 accident and when she asked to use the potty afterwards I dismissed it and 15 minutes later she had a number 1 accident. Oh well. We live and learn. Both as parents and kids!
Yesterday (Saturday) was Ava's first trip to the zoo in Sacramento!

We went with our friends Cheryl and her daughter Addison, and Cheryl's 5 month old nephew Kaden. At the zoo we met up with Cassandra and her daughter Avany. We all had a really good time. The kids got tired at the end, but they did really good for 5 hours. Cheryl made lunches for the girls.

I made peanut butter, and peanut butter sandwiches for us adults. So we had a really good day visiting the zoo, and eating our home made lunches! It was awesome!

Ava has some attitude issues...we are working through it. I hope this phase ends quickly.
Ava is doing really well with her big girl bed though.
Trying to focus on the positive things this week.
We've had some issues with public nudity (lifting of the shirt then twirling around) and ability to stay focused in public (again, dancing and twirling around the isles in the stores).

Ava is amazing

Ava is amazing!
She has gone through a few phases in past couple of week.
First week she was sick. She didn't so much of anything.
The next week she got sassy and started talking back to her teachers at school.
The following week she was nice but bouncy. Bounced everywhere, and started dancing and running and once in a while that sassy attitude would sneak in.
This past week has been pretty mellow.
We changed her bed from crib to toddler bed. Ava loves her big girl bed. She has done really well with her transition. She gets up each morning/ most of the time she sits on her bed and when I come in to get her, she gets up, runs over to me then yells "my big girl bed!" and runs and jumps on her bed! I guess she likes her new bed a whole lot.

This week she has also begun to really express herself. She can speak clearly. She tells us exactly what she wants. She is kind of bossy and demanding (no idea where she gets that! ;0) )

She can count object 1-20 no problem.
She can say the alphabet.
She can sing a few songs
She loves pretend talking to "Gingka" on the phone.
She can read or recite up to three books.

She is starting to eat other things besides mac and cheese.
She still likes her Pedisure/Ensure drinks. She will drink, if she has to, Vanilla Soy milk
She loves cheese. She likes pita chips, and these fiber cookies. She loves fruit. And will eat and eat and eat pizza.

We've done a couple of really fun things with Ava recently.
Ava and I went on a hike one weekend in the morning when the weather wasn't too cold.
Ava also had a school dance, she had so much fun jumping up and down the stage and dancing with the kids in her class.
She has also had a few nights and some days with Gingka. She sure loves her Gingka. They have so much fun together. They watch movies, eat food, make cookies, then Gingka lets her bring out her toys and spread all over the livingroom. He's good to her.

She is so much fun!
She loves to play in her play room. She loves playing Tea Party. She makes Phil and I tea and brings "tea" to us and gives us refills. She loves her dolls. She plays school with them, often she yells at them and puts them in time out. But then she will ask them to color with her or she will ready them stories.
Ava today got into dress up AND tea party. It was fun. We had a blast!

She is a pretty good girl. She is cute. She talks so much.