Mermaid Birthday Patry

Two birthday parties for the two year old! Her actual birthday was a Wednesday, so we just had a very casual dinner at Barb's house with my and Patrick's parents. Ava's "real" birthday party wasn't until Saturday, and I didn't want her to have nothing to open on her actual day, so I got her a few things. Well, I should have known!! Everything else did the same thing! She had TONS of stuff to open!

Bobbi made some cupcakes, and we sang Happy Birthday (which she now sings to herself almost daily)! She got lots of good stuff----the nosiest gift from Uncle Pat- a keyboard! Just wait 'til HE has kids! ;) I got her a few bracelets and a "princess skirt" (tutu) which she has renamed the "mermaid dress." I love it! So cute! Here she is swishing it around showing it off!


I also got her a necklace with a cupcake on it. I called it her birthday cupcake necklace, and she loved it! Here she is checking it out! I love this picture!The sweetest birthday smile in town!
Uncle Pat teaching Ava how to get ready to catch a ball!

YAY! We did it!
For her birthday party- I did another cupcake pull-away cake. I like them, cause you can make it whatever you want! I showed the lady a picture of her invitation, and she made this for us! Ava loved it!
Ava didn't really know what to think about that big 'ol cake in front of her with everyone singing!!But, she adjusted right away! She requested the "red one!" Then the blue one...then the pink one. Had to try them all! ;)
Enjoying a cupcake with Grandpa Mike!Cousin Keegan was so nice to bring this amazing blowup slide thing! They had such a fun time sliding and bouncing!!

One of Ava's big presents- from Grandpa Mike and Bobbi! A dollhouse! She loves this thing and was so sweet when she unwrapped it and realized what it was! She would play with this for hours in a day if she could!

Her other big gift- from Michee and Pop- a Wiggle Racer (which she calls her "wiggle race car"). The outfit was her Mermaid Dress she wore while she opened her presents! :)
Uncle Steve gave her a great present (and very appropriate in the baseball family)! It took her a few tries, (and Daddy had to help a little!) but she eventually it the ball! You can tell baseball is in Keegan's blood! He had NO problem figuring that out!!
Cousin Keegan was so nice to bring his new toy- this gigantic blow up climbing wall and slide!! Ava LOVED it and has not stopped talking about it since!!! She calls it the "sliding board," and keeps saying, "go on Keegan's sliding board again!!!"...followed by a giddy giggle! :) Here they are playing on the slide!!We had a great time! Ava has been singing Happy Birthday to herself ever since! Haha! :)

First Day of School!

So.....she started pre-school a few weeks ago. It was slightly traumatic...for the both of us. Her official first day was a Wednesday (when I had to work), but I took her for a trial run on Tuesday- I went with her and hung out for like 30 min and left. She didn't cry when I left, but was standing still and looking overwhelmed. When I went to pick her up 2 hours later, when she saw me she fell to pieces. It was terrible. But I didn't cry then...cause I could take her with me. :)

The next morning was terrible!! I dropped her off at 7:30 and she was supposed to stay until after nap time, around 2 or 2:30. Wellllllll.....they called me at work....at like 9:30am! NOT a good sign. They suggested that, if possible, it would be good for Ava to be picked up before nap time to try to ease her into this new place. They also suggested a "transition schedule" for the next 2 weeks. Basically, we were taking her everyday to desensitize her.....she started off with shorter times and increased over the next week to staying a full day (which is until around 2:30pm- still a 7 hour day). :( It was really hard for me. It was terrible knowing that she was there crying (still) after being there for 2 hours! She cried SO hard and so instantly the second I told her I was leaving...she reached up and said, "Mommy, hold that baby" ("that baby", of course, is her). I had to turn and leave and the tears came so fast. I couldn't even help it. I had to go to the front and still have the director lady teach me how to use the stupid security code pad...I felt retarded...but I couldn't stop. I mean, I was that mom they probably talk about after I leave- teachers I didn't even know were hugging me. :( And I didn't even bring any touch up makeup for work!!

Well, I did the next day...and I needed it. The next day, she cried as we pulled into the parking lot and said, "no go to school." We went it, her teacher took out puzzles for her (since apparently that was the only thing she wanted to do the day before), and she looked at me and said, "Mommy, sit down" and pointed to the table with the puzzles. She knew I was leaving and she was trying to get me to stay. :( I had to go and she cried again....ugh. And so did I. It was really terrible...I was so thankful for the weekend when I didn't have to take her anywhere and walk away. Thank GOD for Barb that week. Since she didn't start school until the following week, she was around and available to stop by preschool and check out the monitors and pick Ava up early (since I was working. And my mom was in Guatemala at the time). She was so wonderful and spent a lot of time talking to all the teachers and directors...she's so positive with Ava and a total blessing. I would have been a mess if it wasn't for her help.

BUT, I am SOOOOOO happy to say that, since all that yucky stuff...Ava is doing MUCH better now! The transition schedule really, really helped her. She'll still wake up on the weekend or on a Monday or Tuesday and say,"no go to school," but when I do take her now, she doesn't cry, and she actually goes to her teacher willingly...from my arms!! What a HUGE relief! For the first time- I didn't leave distraught or crying! The font desk lady even clapped for me as I left after our first successful drop off!!! :) Yipee!! I was smiling from ear to ear! Such a relief to know you're baby is ok. :)

Here we are before we left on her very first day...before she knew what was coming! When she was still smiling even though I put her "school dress" on! (Now, when I put any of her school outfits on-they wear uniforms- she'll start to get upset and say, "no go to school." Although, she's pretty easily distracted toward something more fun)!! I'll keep you posted!!

24 months!

Finally! I know...I'm so sorry. I thought life would get easier, calmer, and less busy when I was done with school...but I was mistaken! :) Anyway, sorry for the delay...

So, Ava's TWO! Wow.

I keep thinking she's still my little baby...and she is, darn it! But, she just seems so grown up sometimes! I feel like she's really changed a lot in the past month- she's doing so much, understanding everything, having real, honest-to-goodness conversations with me, singing, talking in amazing sentences, and getting SO looong! ;) She's a total handful! But, I think we're pretty lucky, because even though sometimes she really pushes my buttons, for the most part, she is pleasant, happy, and willing and wanting to please! We haven't really seen any "tantrums" to date. Every now and then, she'll let out a squeal, but it's mostly to see if we'll look at her and give her the attention she, obviously, wants! Little stinker. :) Though, we have started to implement the "time out chair." She gets 2 minutes (a minute for each year of her age)...but she doesn't seem to quite get it...or care! She'll stand up in her seat, and I'll tell her that if she does it again she'll have to go to time out. Then she'll start to stand, and I'll say, "Ava...do you want to sit in time out??" And she says...."yes." Ugh. And when she does sit there, she just sings, talks, plays with the wall...she just really doesn't care yet. I guess one day she probably will....but it doesn't make for a very effective "time out" quite yet! :) Ha!

We've really settled in quite nicely to the Lakehouse. We're enjoying it up here, and we've taken Ava out on the boat several times, which she loves! The only down side is that there's really not a good place to play outside, and I now she misses that! It's not too bad right now, because it's pretty hot, and when we're outside we're usually down by the lake or on the boat...but when the weather starts to cool off (like it kinda did today!), she's gonna want to get out and PLAY! We'll have to find a local park!!

Her little ponytail is trying to grow! :)Here she is having a lunch picnic on the screened in porch just before heading down to the boat!Loves to play Hide-and-Seek...this is her most favorite place to hide. She goes here every time!!
So, for those of you who don't already know, Ava started PRE-SCHOOL a few weeks ago! I had every intention of posting on her first day with pictures and the summary, but life got in the way! So, I'll just mention that it was a rough start (for her AND me!), but things are going much better these days! I'll make a separate post for that one! :) Promise!

She had her 24 month check up, and she's doing great! Still a total peanut, weighing in at 23lbs with clothes! That's the 8th %!! Her height, however, is in the 40th % at 33.75 inches! Then they started asking me thinking like, does she have 20-50 words, does she socialize, does she stack things, etc. The nurse (who was asking these questions) didn't have to wait on my answer for most of them since Ava WOULDN'T SHUT UP IN THERE!! We weren't really paying her a bit of attention (trying to get through all those questions!), but she didn't care!- she pointed out (and named the colors of!) all the tiles on the floor, the desk, the walls...and when that was done, she just continued to talk to herself while occasionally interrupting me to tell me about her new sticker! Needless to say, the child can SPEAK!! :) Anyway, everything looked great! We're lucky to have such a healthy little girl. Very rarely do I go many days without thinking about how blessed we are to have a healthy baby. :)

So, on to the fun stuff...I have tons of videos, but honestly, I'm too tired and too busy to figure out how to get them on my stupid computer and post them here (I just got an iMac, which I LOVE, but am still figuring out)!! But some of my favorite sayings lately are: "no like that", "no do/say that" (when we're doing something she doesn't want us to), "luh you so much too", "more blackbabies/bluebabies/strawbabies peese" (HILARIOUS!!! I mean, come ON! How can you not laugh at that?!), "put on the baby suit" (bathing suit!)....I could go on and on with the things that come out of her mouth! So innocent and sweet. :) Patrick recently downloaded some children's songs on my iPod ("iPot" as Ava says)...she sings then ALL THE TIME now and requests them when we're in the car. Her #1 requested song is the "Baby Bus Song" (which is, "The Wheels on the Bus")! She's got a great rendition of Twinkle, Twinkle and the ABC's too...I'll have to try to get them on video. For the ABC's- my favorite is the "L,M,N,O,P" part- she says "Elmo- P"!! So freakin' cute!! :)

She's also learned how to spell her name...just ask her! (Ok, so it's not like it's a hard name to spell...but I thought that was pretty good)! Her name is written on almost all of her books, and I always read it to her and then spell it out....and it just stuck! Now, when she plays with her magnet letters or her little letters in the bucket, she always searches for A-V-A! In fact, tonight, she had the 'A' and the 'V' and said, "take these in the crib!" She didn't want to put them away! So cute! She's also finally starting to say "Kindregan" and it sounds pretty good...something like 'Kin-de-gin'. One of the things that I was SHOCKED by, though, is that she freaking counts to 10 in SPANISH!! No joke. Not even kidding. One day, we were making dinner and she was watching Dora and they were counting in Spanish...they got to five, and before they said it, Ava said, "cinco." Patrick and I looked at each other like...did she really just say "cinco?" We thought maybe it was a fluke...but the next day (I didn't hear it the first time, but Uncle Ian and Uncle Pat did), she just straight up counted to 10...in Spanish! She actually counts in Spanish a little better than English! Thanks very much to Dora for that!! :) Smart little booger she is...my little bilingual baby! ;)

Laslty- we just had her 2nd birthday party last weekend...I had it at my parents house again- poolside. It was nice and chill- family only. It was a Mermaid themed party, and Ava couldn't stop talking about her "mermaid bir-day par-tee" ever since she saw the mermaid invitation! I just had too much going on to have a big to do! So, it was really nice. Ava talked for an entire week about her "racecar" she assumed she was getting (since Keegan got one for his 2nd birthday the week before). It's a Wiggle Racer...we discovered it when we went to Kiawah- they had it there and Ava loved it! So, I told Michee and Pop about it and suggested it as a b-day gift. We got one for Keegan for his b-day too. Well, Ava loves it and rides it all over the house. Her other big gift was a dollhouse from Grandpa Mike and Bobbi. She adores that and plays with it several times everyday. Really loves it. Bobbi pulled out Aunt Sarah's old dollhouse from when she was little, and Ava just couldn't get enough...so, now she has one of her very own here at the Lakehouse! I WISH I had her face on video when she realized what it was. It was so, so sweet. Then she turned around and ran right to Grandpa Mike and gave him a huge hug. A very sweet 'thank you.'

A few pictures for you!

Her pout. :) I swear she looks just like me in this picture! I've got to find some old pictures of me and post them side by side. Kinda scary sometimes! Since she loves to put all my bracelets on, she got a few for her birthday. She's tryin' em out! (Doesn't she look especially grown up here)?? :(

Loves to pretend to be like mommy, too! She's been loving to walk around in my heels. For as clumsy as she is, she's pretty good at it!
Ava has started to show interest in taking a shower instead of a bath, so I let her in with me. Now, every night, she says, "Ava take a sha-wah!" She thinks it's such a treat when she gets to get in the shower! After we get out, she likes to sit on the counter and try on my bracelets!
The perfect picture of a two year old! Tiara, Christmas PJ's (she'll cry for these!), a broom, her princess skirt, and a minivan from her dollhouse. I think she's just about got everything she needs! Here is is trying to avoid my ever-present camera! Poor thing. She's very much enjoying a left over birthday cupcake, though!

So, anyway...that catches you up (kinda)! I hope all is well with everyone! Here's a link to (quite a few- shocking!) pictures of Ava from her 24th month- it include first day of school, birthday party, and just regular pics all in one! It's a new link...I'm trying to post my pics on my MobileMe page now...instead of Picassa. One of the switches from a PC to a Mac. Let me know if it works!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY AVA!!!

Happy Birthday to my little bunny!! She's TWO!! SO crazy to think that 2 years ago, she was just a brand new sleepy little baby. It's really amazing how fast time flies! We kinda had a last minute birthday get together with the grandparents and a few aunts and uncles today to celebrate! Ava's "real" birthday party isn't until this weekend (which is also pretty chill due to the craziness of life right now!), but we had to do a little something! So, we all went to Bobbi's house for dinner, cupcakes, and ice cream cones! Ava got to open a few gifts today, which she really loved doing! She loved pulling off all the paper and got some pretty cool stuff! I'll make a bigger, better post after her party this weekend! I'm SO tired tonight and I can barely think! But I just wanted to write a little something! Thanks for all the birthday wishes from everyone!!

Here's just a sneak peak at some pictures! They're from Aunt Sarah's phone!

I promise I'll post a good one soon! I've still got to post about her first week of PRE-SCHOOL!! Lots to tell! :)

The Happy Girl

Doesn't get much cuter than this!!