What I LOVE at 2 years, 9 months

1. I love witnessing the slow transition from being TWO to being THREE. It's like you aren't really a two-year-old any more, slowing gaining the ability to reason without putting up as much of a fight.

2. I love your out-of-the-blue "Mommy? I love you's". When you say this, usually several times a day, sometimes in the car, in the bath, or wherever, it makes me melt.

3. I love how adaptable and resilient you are. We don't leave you (with a babysitter or family) very often, but when we do, you are just fine. In fact, you have so many stories to share with us when we see you again, we wonder why we don't do it more often to get some "mommy and daddy time".

4. I love your made up songs. And that you request that we not sing with you.

5. I love your sense of creativity. Whether it's while eating Christmas dinner and exclaiming "It looks like an armidillo!!!" to the crescent rolls, arranging goldfish in a design and explaining that it's a "stingray" or making up stories to share and act out, you amaze me.

6. I love the above. I would have never guessed that I could bear a child who is so creative. I'm somewhat creative, but pretty analytical and/or methodical. I love the surprises that you hold for me.

7. I love when you want to dance. Which happens to be anywhere you get the urge. You did some booty-shaking in Target yesterday and Ikea today. What can you say? When you hear a good tune and moment hits you, you have to take advantage. Oh! And I love that the booty-shake is BACK! You used to do it when you were about one and then it slowly faded into a simple hip shake, but now the shoulders are back and it's full-fledged booty shaking!

8. I love your manners. You are great about asking "please" and saying "thank you", for the most part.

9. I love how much of a say you have in what you wear. Lately, it's been princess attire, even to the grocery store, but it boldly displays who you are. Yesterday, Cinderella accompanied me to the grocery store, pushing her new grocery cart down the aisles alongside me.

10. I love your snuggles. You weren't much of a cuddler as a baby, but now you seem to be making up for lost time. I love just laying there and snuggling with you.

The other day we were searching for the beloved and borrowed, penelope peapod baby doll. I'm loving ava's sense of humor...

Mommy: " penelope peapod where are you?"

Ava: "oh penelope soybean where are you?"

----------------------------------
----------------------------------

Here's a conversation we had about money....

Ava: "where's daddy?"

Mommy: " he's at Dell today, he had to work today."

Ava: "why?"

Mommy:"he works so he can make money for our family."

Ava: "why?"

Mommy: "so we can have things like a house and food and clothes."

Ava: thinking:: "do you work mommy?"

Mommy: " yes, I do. We are lucky enough that mommy gets to stay home and being with you is my job."

Ava: "do you make money?"

Mommy: "not really, there is noone to pay me, like there is at Dell"

Ava: ::thinking:: "hmmm, I don't have any money to give you."

I guess she knows who my boss is!
------------------------------
------------------------------

Lately aves has really been into princesses and pretending to be one.

Ava: " do princesses have bb's(blankets)?

Mommy: "they sure do!"

Wordless Wednesday: The Girls and Our Boots

Decorating the Christmas Tree

We had a pleasant morning of singing Christmas music, decorating the house and eating chocolate chip honey wheat pancakes w/ bananas on top, YUM! Ava was a wonderful helper and helped put ornaments on the Christmas tree, even if she clumped 3 or 4 on the same branch, hehehe.

Lovely Christmas memories!

That night, the finished tree.

The Polar TEXpress!

We had the honor of being invited to attend the 2009 Polar TEXpress organized by a mom in Ava's class. Ava was so excited to take part in it and see one of her best buds from school (she talks about him all the time), another friend from school that she plays with, and a whole bunch of their friends and family.

This was their 2nd year (our first attending) of hosting the party which entailed hot cocoa, Christmas music, a trainride to the "North Pole" and seeing Santa. It was so much fun. Also the weather cooperated and the rain stayed away leaving us with a perfect mid 40's winter day.

Sitting with Santa

And even smiling about it!

On a whim, we decided we needed to go to the mall before leaving from our Gigi and Poppy visit in the big D. We had no intention of visiting Santa because we had already seen him a few times this season and Ava just wasn't interested. Santa happened to look upstairs and saw Ava at one mall and waved and blew a kiss and she was on cloud nine!

So on this particular morning, we coincidentally ran into Santa's Workshop. She grabbed Daddy and said, "C'mon, let's go see Santa". We followed along right beside her and she didn't even blink, just walked right up to him, sat on his lap and told him what she wanted for Christmas. He was a great Santa too. They took lots of pictures for us and we narrowed it down to this one.

Challenges

Whew! It's been that kind of week. A very challenging week (and it's only Wednesday). A week that has shed light on a whole new set of challenges of parenthood, just when I think I've got it under control.

Control.

That's an interesting struggle between us. Both of us negotiating and manipulating to gain power of the situation. I should know better. You are wise beyond your years and have me nervously anticipating the years ahead. Seriously, are you seriously just two-almost-three-years-old?

------------------------------------
------------------------------------

-What works for some, doesn't work for others.

-Remember to see each child as their own individual.

-Praise the action, not the child.

-Be fair, consistent.

-Acknowledge the child's feelings, resist the urge to give immediate feedback. Listen.

These are recommendations that I've read and implemented, among many more; always searching for advice on what to do next because you've found that loophole in my reaction or your consequence. And for the most part, the advice from friends/books/family/Dr.'s does work; some put a band-aid on it, some are more long-term. Either way, I'm grateful. I just really need to add more to my tool box. I also know that there is no "right way". No one book alone, that I've come across, has all the answers. I just take bits and pieces and run with it.

I was reading a book the other night and it helped me to see one of your "challenges" in a different light. It said:

"Look carefully at what you consider your child's weakness; what may at first appear to be a weakness may actually be a strength for that child."

One challenge I am faced with, for which I consider(ed) a weakness, is your lack of urgency to please others (especially me, lol). Sure, you want to do the right thing and respect others and the rules, but I feel like your motivations to do so are unique. Motivations that are not necessarily embedded in my personality, so it's relatively new to me.

What if that lack of desire to please others is because you don't want to please others, for others sake. Let me clarify. Somehow, in your 2+ years of life, you've made the discovery that you don't have to do what you are told, which isn't unheard of for toddlers. But I've said it before, you have a mind of your own, you are not known as the compliant one. I'm not saying this is necessarily a positive attribute, it will present challenges to you in the future, trust me. However, you do follow rules and are respectful of others (as much as an almost-three-year-old can be), so you aren't necessarily defiant, moreover, your motivations for completing a task or following a rule are "special." You are not doing it because it makes me (mommy or whomever) happy, you just don't have that need to please.

Maybe I need embrace this challenge. Maybe I need to foster the idea that you can't really feel a sense of accomplishment if you do something by yourself just to please others. You do something, the right thing, because you do it for YOU and the sense of pride it brings to know that you did it yourself, for yourself. Being a people-pleaser and compliant may get me what I want as a parent, the easy way, but it isn't truly who you are.

Now I realize that this is way beyond your level of thinking. But it just made me see that sometimes when I am at my wits end with challenges presented to me by a child, that someday, when you are a happy, confident, self-reliant adult, you possess a(n) (apparently innate) quality that I may have once tried to deny and change. Silly me, you are who you are.

You are your own person.

A truly unique and amazing person.

Letter to Santa

We read a story about writing a letter to Santa.

Ava "wrote" her own letter to Santa AND told to me what she wanted to say, so I transcribed. I wrote word for word what she told me (up until Merry Christmas and thank you-those were prompted by me, lol). To summarize, she wants a spotted dog, spotted bunny (though we haven't heard this one since the letter writing), and some new rubber duckies.

Funny enough, she told Santa the same things (dog and duckies), as well as a doll house, and a sailboat (what?) when she sat on his lap. YES! She finally sat on Santa's lap and wanted to do it. We didn't want to make her do it this year, but after many mall sightings, she asked to go see him.

Pictures to follow soon.

Hot Chocolate....YUMMY!

To kick off December, we savored and celebrated the colder weather with a nice hot cup of hot chocolate. Ava's favorite were the tiny little (fake) marshmellows.

It was a YUMMY treat!

Rainy Days Never Get Old