3rd Annual Bluebonnet Pictures

We braved the chilly wind and found a little patch of Bluebonnets, roadside, to snap some quick pics. I love how these pics totally capture her personality.

Letting the wind blow her arms, it was THAT strong!

Running through the bluebonnets, though "high stepping", in an attempt to follow mommy's directions of "be gentle with the flowers". That worked.
Giving us her best smile.

Okay, enough smiling.

Austin Fair and Rodeo

On a whim, we went to the final day of the Austin Fair and Rodeo last weekend. We had no expectations other than to walk around, eat some good food, and pet some animals. However, our little girl is brave, brave, brave. Standing at almost 35 inches tall, one inch short of the minimum to ride, she was aloud onto her first ride. I truly did not think she was going to ride all by herself. Well, she had a thing or two to teach me. Not only did she ride, and all by herself, but she wanted more and more and more and more.

Here is Ava on her first ride. READY!

SET!

GO! Check out that smile!
This next ladybug ride series are my faves b/c you can see how fast these "little" rides were and how much she was enjoying them.

Next, were the boats.

Then, the carousel, or "merry go round"

Lastly, the airplanes, which were WILD! She went up and down and around and around. She told daddy, "I not scared" one minute and the next, "All done" while it was still going.

When it was time to say goodbye, well, you can see how that went over.

Until next year, little girl.

This was just one part of our Rodeo experience. I will update the animal pictures later.

Sink Helper

Thanks to Charlotte and Carissa for this idea, it is now one of Ava's favorite afternoon activities while helping mommy clean up the kitchen. She loves it in there. Thanks girls!

We love Gymnastics!

Thanks to Keri who recommended her friend, Kim, for gymnastics. Every Wednesday we attend gymnastics at Kim's Gym.

Ava loves to jump and run and bounce and hang and crawl. It's no suprise that it's a great outlet for Ava, as physical as she is, so it was a no-brainer for us to start gymnastics. If she could hang out and do it all on her own, all day, she would. I was a little thrown back at first because she is so not into the group participation part of it. This shouldn't be a surprise though, because just like her mommy, she likes to stand back and watch, all on her own time and will come when she's ready.

Which reminds me of something else...what a person she is! It's moments like these, where she makes her own choices based on her feelings and emotions, that shows me who she is and what makes her comfortable. I can't (and won't) very well make her do things (like group participation--she stands back in music class a lot also) that don't make her comfortable and don't really matter in the grand scheme of things at 2 years old. She has that personality where if she doesn't like something, she'll let me know. What can I say? She marches to the beat of a different drum. It just makes me realize what an independent little girl I have. She just responds amazingly to making her own choices.

Anyway, attending organized extra-curricular activities and seeing pictures such as these totally remind me of who she is, so spirited and determined, serious and hard-working. All while maintaining a silly side.

So here she is jumping. This girl has been jumping for such a long time that, as you can see, her feet come up to almost higher than the bar. She loves to jump. Everywhere.
Here is Ava hanging out on the bars.

A look of detremination as she conquers the balance beam.

Running to step on the "bubbles"

Doing the high balance beam with Keri.

All ready for stamps, this is a highlight of each session.

Walking out with Mia. They MUST hold hands. Again, Kim's Gym is such a fantastic place that truly nurtures and facilitates the children's interests and abilities, providing an outlet for us (both moms and kids) who need it.

"I'm Getting Tired"

This first time EVER in her almost 25 months has she EVER admitted this. I know she's only been talking for a little over a year, but even through non-verbals as a baby did she ever, EVER tell us she was tired. NEVER. She could be exhausted with her eyes half shut, bb in hand, and sucking the life out of her lip (what she does) and we'd ask her if she was tired. "No!"

Just needed to document this.

That's all.

Enjoying a Spring Morning

One of Ava's favorite Friday hot spots includes going to the duck pond, usually followed by story time at the Wells Branch Library since it's so close. This was such a lovely spring morning. While we are there she just loves to explore and feed the ducks. I usually hang out a step or two behind her (except for when I'm in her face snapping pictures, lol) while she does her own thing, makes observations and asks question after question. It is a great time and place for just the two of us.

I love this picture of her walking alongside the water looking for anything and everything to pick up and observe. It's serious business.

She is getting really good at throwing the bread right in front of the ducks.

Taking a rest on a rock.

A brave girl feeding some brave ducks. I guess when the duck bit her finger when she was a baby, it didn't traumatize her after all.

I just love this little neighborhood park. I thought this picture captured the pond perfectly, a little girl exploring, a mother pushing her baby in a stroller and a little elderly lady sitting on the bench while watching her husband fish.

Ava telling the lady on the bench all about the duck on the wall. Ava thought this was hilarious. After all, it IS a duck on a wall, how silly is that?!

She was mesmerized by the elderly woman. It was so sweet, they were both in awe.

Her Newest Masterpiece

As I was cleaning the bathroom one day, something of which is not out of the ordinary, I noticed that it had been several minutes since I had heard from Ava. Like I said, I can do something for a few minutes away from her and she, for the most part, is playing by herself and keep herself occupied.

However, this silence seemed a bit different. I could feel something wasn't quite right. I stopped my cleaning and looked over to see her little back to me, head down, concentrating on something. As I got closer I realized that she had a BLACK PERMANENT marker and was drawing on herself. I can't believe I'm going to say this but the first thing that came to mind was thank goodness she didn't decide to do a masterpiece on the walls or furniture! I can handle bodies. I calmly (after a few breaths) explained that this is a special kind of marker that stains and she does not need to use it. We have markers for Ava, I said. If you want to draw, just tell me.

You can tell by the second pic how sad of a moment this was for all involved. I was trying so hard not to laugh at her face when I told her I needed to take a picture of it to show daddy when he got home. She was not happy about daddy seeing it.

He walked in the door and she immediately said, "daddy happy?" Since he already knew about it, he had to do his best to act disappointed and not laugh.

Oh, and for the most part it came off immediately. There were definitely residuals that lasted a few days.

The not-so-perfect days

I debated on whether or not to publish the previous post (A Perfect Day) because I don't want to make it sound as if our days are filled with absolute perfection, day in and day out. Sooo not the case.

So I thought I would sieze the opportunity and talk about a few 'imperfections' we are battling right now. You may have heard of them......you know......the terrible two's? Since 'terrible' sounds a bit dramatic, let's fluff it up and call them 'taxing' or 'trying' two's.

I was inundated with the "Trying Twos" about the week she turned two, ironic enough. Some 'trying' behaviors that I speak of include:

-hitting

-defiance (ex: "Aves please don't dump that out". Looks right atcha.....DUMP!)

-refusing anything and everything (We joke that the word of the year is "no", it has such a new meaning now than it did when she first spoke it as a baby.)

-frustration with others leading to physical aggression (i.e. pushing, hitting)

-day-to-day tasks, like putting on a diaper, are 'taxing'

Sooo, I know these behaviors are normal as they seek boundaries and figure out the world around them. And as for Ryan and I, we are reading, talking, researching, asking questions, etc. all related to how to handle this. It is slowly getting better and of course we have our setbacks, but I have to remind myself that she is TWO (thanks Amanda). It's going to happen and we just have to be prepared and consistent, which is really helping. I actually set up a modified behavior management chart (don't laugh) that she really understood. Stickers were rewards for listening to mommy (our biggest need at that point) and once she got that, it helped. I can't help it, it's the teacher in me, poor girl.

However, the mother in me knows that this is the same girl who is pushing a friend one moment is giving bear hugs the next. And the same girl who hits the cat one moment and in the next is telling him "I sorry Boo". She can go from an upper-cut (a little exaggerated) to a eskimo kiss all in a matter of minutes.

Once we get through this, she's going to be fine, absolutely fine.

I know it.

(Although I *hear* 3's are even more taxing, ::wink, wink:: Jill and Kara)

A Perfect Day

This morning was one of those perfect days with Ava. She woke up around 7:30 this morning and we did our morning ritual of laying in mommy and daddy's bed and watching Sesame Street or whatever is up to her liking that day. This morning we actually ate Cheerios in bed straight out of the box at Ava's request to "eat them like a big girl". I don't know why she thinks this is how big girls eat Cheerios, who knows.


Then we showered where she loves to "wash" the shower and herself w/ mommy's shaving cream. Our shower discussion included asking her what she wanted to do today and she wanted to go to the "pet tore". (store)


Next we packed a picnic and headed to Starbuck's so Mommy could get a Frappacino and Ava a milk. Before we got in the car, it started to drizzle. So much for an outdoor picnic, mommy should really check the weather more often. Ava HAD to play in it. So after about 10 minutes I didn't want her to be too soaked, we loaded into the car and headed off.


Got our Starbuck's and went to Petco at the recommendation of Aunt Jill. We usually hit up PetSmart, but a new Petco opened and she said cousins Abby and Emmy really liked it because of the child-size carts there. Sure enough, those were a hit with Aves. And we got to see everything from ferrets to turtles and geckos to rats (yuck!). Ava was loving it. I had planned to try to make it to story time at the library, but she didn't want to leave the Pet store.


Once I persuaded her to "buy" her item and get back in the car we headed home to have our indoor picnic. Only, once she stepped foot out of the car, she saw rain puddles. So we strapped on the new rain boots (see previous post) and played in the rain puddles for just short of an HOUR! No doubt it took about 15 minutes for the boots to come off and for her to sit in the puddles only to insist on getting "nakey", but I did insist on her keeping her clothes on if nothing else. She obliged.


Then we had our indoor picnic; pb&j, goldfish, watermelon and raspberries. She wanted to "talk about my party", which is her conversation of choice these days. And so we did.


I am so amazed by my little girl. I catch myself just staring at her and wondering if anything so perfect has ever existed. She is the cutest thing in the whole world and I can't believe how fortunate I am to be able to experience perfect days like these. Absolutely. Perfect.

Rain Dance

It finally rained! It must have been a combination of buying rain boots and dancing in the rain because it POURED last night. Here are some pics of the "calm" before the storm, literally.

Ava showing Mia the "gigi poppy dance" that was taught to her by Gigi and Poppy. You know the one, where you move your knees back and forth and switch your hands off and on. Hard to describe, but oh so cute! Aves will stop in the middle of a store and whip out this dance.

FUN times in the rain mist!

"Hey Mia, look what we can do next!" "SPLASH!!"

So much fun!!

Such good friends.

Wordless Wednesday: Picture Perfect!