A few of our favorite things

I realize Ava is becoming a big girl.
She is beginning to really like things.
So I thought I would start a list of some of her favorite things:
This week Ava's favorite:
Book: "Baby Bear Baby Bear What Do You See?"
Movie: "Toy Story"
Food: "Cookies" (although I think she likes candy more)
Drink: "Hot chocolate" (chocolate soy milk, and its actually cold)
Activity: Putting the balls in her gum ball machine, and instructing mommy and daddy to sit by her and play
Bedtime: 8:30pm
Wake up: 6am-6:30am
Least favorite activity: Brushing hair (she screams everytime)
Favorite reward: Stickers
Songs she can sing: ABC's, Wheels on the bus, Ring-around-the-Rosie, Twinkle Twinkle
Favorite Toy: Monk Monk or Foofa

Today Ava started dance class.
I have no idea what prompted me to do this. It took Ava about 3 weeks to get in the water at swim class, she only started following structions for the last two classes. I guess I thought pre-school or daycare would have helped her overcome this lack of following directions.
When we first got to dance class, I started thinking, what the heck was I thinking? Ava didn't want to do anything, and if I touched her, she got mad at me for making her do something she didn't want to do. Eventually a two other little girls came. Ava started following instructions. We had one meltdown in the middle of class. It only lasted about a minute or two. After that, she listened, followed directions and even attempted to do some of the moves on her own. Since this is a ballet type class, we did "first position" where our heels "kissed" and Ava made kissing noises every time the teacher asked her to make her heels kiss.

I think it was a successful class. Hopefully more kids show up, or at least one other kid shows up next week so that Ava will continue to want to do what the other kids do. I looked for Ballet shoes, but Payless doesn't make shoes small enough for Ava. Oh well. Our socks were fine for today.

Yesterday a huge fire broke out south of town. 3,100 acres burned about 20-30 houses/structures were burned. Last night the wind brought in a huge storm. It rained most of the night, turning to sleet this morning and it snowed/rained on and off all morning. We have had small sunny patches in between the rain and snow. Over 4 inches of rain fell, and you can hardly tell. The ground was so dry, it soaked it all up in a heart beat.

Life as it is

Life sometimes gets a bit overwhelming.
I love the motto "one day at a time" for this year. Basically that's all we've been able to do.
Put one foot in front of the other. Take one minute, one hour and one day at a time.
I've seen big changes in Ava in the past several months.
She speaks more, her "monk monk" is her favorite blanket, and often times we can't even leave home with out it. Although "Monk monk" gets to keep Ava's carseat warm until she gets out of school.
We have had almost 3 weeks (with the exception of one or two days) that Ava has kept her PJ's on at night. Not just PJ's but actual, real PJ's. Like the pants and bottom kind. Not the onesie's and pants. I'm so excited for this new step! We've been rewarding her with a sticker or a doll (one that she already has) in the morning when she gets up if she still has her PJ's on.
This is such a big and exciting new adventure for us! Only one or two accidents! This is amazing, and I can't say how thankful I am.
Unfortunately with Phil not feeling so great these days, we are not very exciting people right now. We watch more TV than we should, we are on the computer way more than we ought to be, we have gotten a little bit more lazy and let the minutes, days and hours pass without us noticing.
Ava has had her friend Addison over a few times over the last two weeks. They play together ok. Ava, you can tell is dominate, bossy and an only child. Maybe having more play dates this year will help ease her out of this rut of trying to run the house-hold.

But she is very caring. She will pat your back if you are sad. If daddy is ill, she will rub his arm, get in his face and say "Are you ok, Daddy? Daddy, ok?" or "Awww, I'm sorry. Are you ok?" She gives hugs, not only to myself, her dad, and grandparents but to her friends as well. She will often times pat her friends back or head.

Over the weekend Ava and I spent most of the day with Cheryl and Addison. We hung out for most of the day. The girls played together, ate together, drank juice together, played chase.
Sunday I wasn't feeling so great and Phil wasn't really able to take care of Ava, so my dad came to the rescue! Ava and "Gingka" (Grandpa) hung out almost all day. They had fun together. They went to church, they went to lunch and went shopping. Ava still talks about her day with Gingka even today.
Last night we couldn't get Ava to sleep. So on the second time to go up to her room to give her another, hug, kiss, quick cuddle I asked her "Are you ready for bed?" Ava replied "No. I want to watch TB (TV)".
Ava says some pretty funny stuff.

I have started cooking. Its actually ok now. I'm not afraid. I haven't caught the house on fire. And Ava and Phil eat what I cook! Wahoo! I am doing something right!


Somedays I wake up thinking how life is so different today than it was at this time last year.
Last year my mom, grandmother, and our cat Fizz were all still alive. Not well, but alive. I never thought that less than a month later all three would be gone from this world ready to enter the afterlife. Just a random thought. Just can't believe how much life has changed.

Ava's happy day

I honestly wish I could have recorded Ava's conversation on the way home from school today.
Actually. I wish I could have recorded Ava from the time I picked her up.

As soon as I walked in her room at school she came running up to me. She looked at my keys and said "you have a car? Wow!"
Then one of her friends got hurt she walked over and said "Awww....Are you ok?"
As we were leaving she goes in the front office and says "Sticker?" After a process of please, and thank you and signing she gets her sticker.

On the way home she all of the sudden shouts "I want to see Olin! He's cute".
Then I proceed to tell her that we won't be seeing Olin today but we will get to visit with Addison.
She then asks "Where's Addison"
I say we have to see daddy first.
Ava says "No daddy. We see Addison"

Ava says some of the funnest things.
We got out of the car this morning, as we get out Ava says "It be hot." I of course say, "Its pretty cold". She says, "No, it be hot."

Apparently since she started back to school yesterday. She has been a total ham bone at school.
She went up to her teacher at school and pointed her finger and said "Stop it!" the teacher said "No, you stop it" and Ava said "No, my toy." Then they caught her doing an Ava dance full on with finger pokes in the air and leaning side to side.

Today she kept asking if everyone was ok. She would give hugs to everyone that got hurt. She also yelled at a kid for hitting another kid saying "That's my friend. Don't hit my friends!!"

I'm excited about all of the things Ava is learning, and saying. And I love the fact that she cares about others.
It was fun tonight watching Ava play with her friend Addison. They had total conversations with each other.

A new perspective

We are now in 2012!
Wahoo!
Way to go. Out with the old. In with the new.
Sometimes in order to move forward, you have to take a peek back at the past. Make sure you don't make the same mistakes.

As we've been heading into the new year, I've been waiting for this new year to just be eye catching, glittery and sparkly.
It hit me on day 2 of this new year. If you want things to change, you first have to make changes within yourself. Its so hard!

That thought really rang true with me this morning. Ava and I broke out her new DVD of Tinkerbell. While it was a cute story besides the attitude of the characters sometimes acted like spoiled brats; it got me thinking. The entire moral of the story is to find what you do best. Be happy with your talents, even if you aren't happy with what you do, you can still go above and beyond the call of duty with the talents that God has given.

I've been thinking about this all day. Sometimes I feel like I need to do more. I need to do something big and out there. I need to help others, I need to go above and beyond, then of course, oh I can do this and that and the other thing.
Well maybe I was only destine for one thing. Maybe I need to focus on one thing and go with that.

I have tried other things, painting (started in November, it is now January and the bathroom is only 1/4 painted), I got one page done on Ava's scrapbook. I have been keeping up with Ava's notebook from her school. I was up to date in Ava's journal (at least until November). I also get all these crazy ideas that I can cook, it turns out 50/50 of the time. I am notorious for starting something but not finishing it. I get overly excited with new ideas but either don't follow through.

This year my motto is: take one day at a time and go slower. Enjoy all the time I've got with my family.
Motivation is my key word for 2012. Some days its hard for me to get out of bed (but that might be because I'm so tired all the time). So Motivation is a good place to start I think.
Go slow. Take take to enjoy all the little things. Don't get frustrated so quickly. Learn to do one thing at a time instead of overburdening myself with 20 projects.