Getting in the Christmas Spirit

We kicked off the holiday season last weekend by attending the christmas tree lighting at the domain. There were balloons, face painting, and lots of people, so we didnt get to have a turn, but oh well. The music and atmosphere were all we needed to catch the
Holiday spirit.





The fireworks were awesome!

While I can't say she's FULLY....

.....Potty-trained, I CAN say that we are almost there!

Oh My Gah, we have been using the potty for what, almost 8 months now. But these past few it has only just gotten consistent.

It all started (cue the dreamy, haze and music)...

A few months after she was two, we had introduced the potty, what it was all about, etc. etc.

One day, she ran out of diapers and I asked, "What should we do?" And Ava answered, "Big girl panties!!!" So we went out that day to the store and bought big girl panties and balloons for our little BIG girl celebration. She did great with it, having accidents every few days, but still sleeping in a pull-up at naps and nighttime.

Then, about July, regression set in. She continued to use the potty at home and at friend's houses, but would NOT go out in public potties and would prefer to just have an accident. I had to go with pull-ups when we were out and about and still at nap and nighttime.

When she started school in September, I was sending her in pull-ups, even though she went on the potty at home. However, in her daily reports, she was using the potty with the class when they went...her choice.

So I bit the bullet and decided to send her to school in big girl panties come October. Her teachers knew she wouldn't have a problem and she didn't; only she was holding it now, all morning long and into nap time. She inevitably had an accident one day and it was no big deal. It DID, however, spark her to start using the potty at school again, instead of holding it.

Fast forward to the now.

For about 6 weeks she has been using the potty throughout the day and naptime. Only recently has she decided to fore go pull-ups at nap time. She is still wearing pull-ups at night. Just like this whole process, YES PROCESS, she'll let me know when she's ready to ditch the pull-ups at night, too, I'm sure.

Ava in a (Picture Story) Nutshell

So we're on our way out the door the other day and as most moms would agree, it's not the easiest task in the world to get a toddler dressed and out the door in a reasonable amount of time.

After taking forever in deciding what she was going to wear (yes, her rockstar tshirt is on underneath the long-sleeved shirt, I had to insist she wear long-sleeves since it was chilly) she insisted, "Let's wear Mommy's scarf. I wear pink and mommy wears green".

Okay, no big deal, let's put on the scarves.

Mommy: "Oh, but you look so cute, Aves, I need to take a picture."

Aves: Gives this pouty face.

Mommy: "Oh, look at THAT face!" Aves: ::thinking:: I can do better, look at THIS pouty face

Mommy: "Oh, wow! You're so sad."
Aves: Can't help but break a smile, cracking herself up.

Aves: And gives mommy her fake, crooked smile.

Mommy: "Awww, that's a great one!"

After hearing that Mommy was pleased and just to be ornery, I might add, returns to the sad face WITH a bottom lip!

This girl of mine!

You know what I love?

At 2 years, 8 months...

1. I love YOU! I've had so many moments lately where I just sit back and observe you and you make me so proud. I love who you are and who you are becoming.

2. I love that you have a mind of your own. You will do things that YOU want to do, when YOU want to do them. It is so very two-year-old of you. Sometimes I have to remind myself to appreciate that, as it can be frustrating. Only because I know what I want when I want it also. You can see where this is going....

3. I love your creativity and imagination. I've said it before, but it continously grows and grows and we have so much fun with it. Recently, you've been intrigued by the fact that I was a teacher and now that you have a teacher at "school", you LOVE to play pretend school. You give me the name "Miss Mommy" and love to hear me read stories. Then I'll see you playing teacher with your animals. What a natural!

4. I love your teachers and school. I love that one of your teachers told me that she looks forward to Tuesdays and Thursdays because you'll be there. And that you're so cute that she just wants to squeeze you. That is a place where I want you to be. It's like you are going on playdate two days a week, learning new songs, creating "arts and crafts" like Native American jewelry, making food like peanut butter, playing dress-up, rolling around in the rocks. All these things help you learn about the world around you. You have plenty of time to learn numbers, letters, and "stuff", right now I love that you just love to play and create and we found the right outlet for it.

5. I love our bathtime. The other night we took a 45-minute bath just talking and playing. You spent 20 minutes of it telling me about school. You loved how I just sat and listened. You told me all about how your favorite part is dress-up, arts and crafts, and playing on the playground. Your teacher told me the other day that it's so neat to watch you go from being a "girly girl" and playing dress-up to going outside and literally throwing yourself into the rocks and rolling around. I like to say that you are "well-rounded", a little bit country, a little bit rock-n-roll.

6. I love your style. You are starting to have more opinions on what you wear. In fact, your new "favorite" is a Disney princess leotard (though NOT mommy's fave). In one week you wore it to dance, to school (uh...BOTH days), and then again for Grandma's visit on Friday.

7. I love your questions. When I hear you say "I wonder ....." or "Tell me about ______" I love it. Your little two-year-old mind is so inquisitive.

8. I love your many emotions. How you can change from pouty to playful in a matter of seconds. It always makes me laugh a little which yields an "it's NOT funny, mommy" from you as you're trying to carry on with your pout.

9. I love that you love dance class. Yesterday you surprised daddy and I by telling us your favorite part of dance was doing the flamingo walk and "sashay" (I'm assuming it's chasse, right?) and showing us some kind of movement of what you were talking about. Whatever it was, it was fun to see.

10. I love your two-year-old spirit! It's so neat to see your preferences, to talk to you, and to listen to you daily. You know so much and teach me new things every day.

Convos with Aves

On our way to our favorite park, we pass a cemetary. Ava has recently started to notice all the flowers placed out there and asked me what it was. So we had the conversation about how that is a place where people go to remember family or friends that they love and bring flowers to them to show them that they are loved and remembered.

The other day as we passed the cemetary she made the following comment:

"Oh! I saw a lot of people under a tent. (sad mommy) They were all together. I wonder what they were talking about. ::pause:: I bet they were talking about computers."

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I love sharing my pregnancy with Ava. She has so many questions about the baby and soaks in a little more each day. Some of them include:

Seeing me get hurt one day, she asked, "Is the baby crying?"

While we were snuggling in bed she said, "Does the baby feel comfortable with the blanket on her (she thinks it's a sister)?"

After watching a video about what the baby looks like right now in my tummy, she realized that the baby is growing and getting bigger. The next day she asked me, "Is the baby ready to be hatched yet?"

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Aves and I joke about me not wanting her to grow up. I'll tell her that I want her to stay this age forever and not to grow up. One day she said:

"Mom (we are about 1/2 mommy and 1/2 mom--sad mommy), do you want me to grow up?" Knowing that I'm going to say "Nope! I want you to stay this age forever and ever." She says, "But I want to grow up and I want to get bigger so I can be a mommy too."

So yes, my child is giving ME lessons on growing up and it all but melted my heart that she said she wants to be a mommy. (I did tell her it would be a very long time and WELL into her adulthood that she could even think about being a mommy, lol).

Not-so-Wordless-Wednesday: Just like Mommy

"Look mommy, my animals have babies in their tummies just like you!"Yes, she laid out all her friends and put felt pieces on each one of their tummies.
Yay! I'm almost 13 weeks pregnant with Ava's little brother or sister! We told her almost immediately, maybe 6 or 7 weeks, as she has been waiting and wanting a baby for a looooong time now. She has been so patient and loving and it just melts us. She says, "The baby is so small right now" and will rub my tummy and give my tummy hugs and kisses at night, totally unprompted.

This week she visually noticed my tummy was bigger and said, "Uh, the baby is getting BIGGER!". So as much as a 2 1/2 year old can understand, she does pretty well.

She has pretty much taken ownership of this baby, which is so neat and we are following her lead. She'll say things to others like, "my baby" or "Ava's baby". Oh, and on some days, she also has a baby in her tummy. She hasn't given "it" a name yet.

I KNOW she'll make an AWESOME big SISTER!

Our Annual Beach Trip

Each year, after the summer crowds have died down, we book our fall family trip to the beach with Grandma and Aunt Jill and her fam. This year, we were lucky to have Aunt Gretch join us with her great boyfriend, Wayne.

I cannot even tell you how PERFECT this trip was. The temperature was in the low 80's and there was a little breeze. PERFECT. No crowds. Just close family, good food (thanks mom and Jill), and fun talk!

Ava was in love. The only pics I took were of the first afternoon when we got there and since we were the first ones there, I don't have pictures of Ava with her cousins, grandma, or aunts and uncles. I guess we were having too much fun to take more pics. I think Grandma took some, I'll have to check. Anyway, she not only didn't hesitate getting in the ocean, but would throw herself down and let the waves crash over her. Talk about a heart-attack for mommy and daddy. We just stood right by ready to rescue, thank goodness that wasn't needed. About 15 minutes into it, she said, "I love the beach, I'm having so much fun at the beach!"

And she was.

Seeing the beach over the sand dune.

Shoes off. Running.

Diving right in. Hanging with mommy.

Chillin' with daddy. These are probably some of the best pictures my camera has captured. Absolutely beautiful.

Taking it all in. Thank you Grandma for another AMAZING beach trip!

Such a Big Girl

Creating Our Own Ocean

Since Aves and I have been doing a little reading on oceans, I found this craft to make so that we can have our own little ocean. It was so simple and a total learning opportunity from start to finish. We added some seashells that we had and that turned into a sink/float experiment (I thought they all sank, but nope). Then we added blue coloring, vegetable oil and glitter and shook it up. We got to see how water and oil separate too (though that wasn't the most interesting thing for Aves). She enjoyed helping create the ocean more than anything.

Wordless Wednesday: Cowgirl Fairy

Salt Water Experiment

We've been talking and reading about oceans lately in anticipation for an upcoming trip to the beach with Grandma. One experiment that we did was talk about the difference between salt water and fresh water. Since I like to show, we conducted a little taste test.

Here is Ava very slowly taking a drink of salt water.

Her reaction. Gag!

Now taking a sip a fresh water.

After she digested (no pun intended) this new information, she thought the experiment was really funny. We now have a little joke when she asks for water, I'll ask if she wants salt or fresh water. And she says, "Moooooommy, fresh water!".

:.:.:HaPpy HaLLoWEen!:.:.:

Happy Halloween 2009!

Wow, this year was SO MUCH FUN! Ava really got into the whole trick or treating scene and was just so giddy with excitement. It filled me up with so much joy just to see her so happy. We started off the night with some great friends, the Sterns, and went ToTing with their awesome neighbors. Cute toddlers were EVERYWHERE!

Then we went back to our neighborhood to do some more ToTing and attend the Christian's Halloween get-together. I wish I had pictures of how AWESOME they decorated their house, but I forgot all pictures while we were there, so I'll just have to leave it at how SPOOK-tacular it was.

Here is Ava so happy to show our Jack-o-lantern. She was so not into pulling out the pulp and guts but enjoyed directing me on what shape the eyes, nose and mouth should be.

Getting into the ToTing with Mimi.

Aves and Mimi. The whole "Cat-in-caboodle" telling me to stop taking pictures. After we left (round 1) of Trick-or-Treating, she was on cloud 9! She kept saying, "I'm having SO much FUN!"

The family of animals. Mommy was a mouse, Ava a cat, and Daddy was a doggy.