Pocket

Ava is so funny these days. She is picking up on EVERYTHING. We have to watch what we say and how we explain stuff to her.

Funny Stories:

We don't cuss at all anymore....don't even let it slip out. So the other day Ryan did something and said "oh shoot" instead of "oh shi*t". Well a few days later we started hearing Miss. Ava say "oh shoot".

Ryan's work shirts have a pocket and he keeps his cell phone in his pants pocket. When he gets home from work he will grab Ava and hug her. So she is right at shirt pocket level and goes straight for his pins. Also she loves to play with his cell phone. So she will dig in his pants pocket to take it. I guess a few times Ryan has told her "put it back in my pocket". Well lately we have found Ava's hair bows in her pocket......but Ava's clothes dont have pockets. She is stuffing them in her diaper. When you ask her where her bow is, she says "in my pocket". So needless to say we have tossed out many hair bows.

Ava's 2nd Birthday

As always we celebrated Ava's birthday early. I hate that her birthday is so close to Christmas. I feel bad adding another party to an already busy month for everyone. So this year we only invited family & kept it as small as we could. The theme was Gingerbread. I think all the decorations turned out really cute. Ava was such a good girl and enjoyed her special day. Especially all the sweet goodies and opening her gifts. She received lots of clothes, shoes, baby dolls, a wood table, puzzles, luggage, Dora tricycle, Dora galore and her favorite item was a broom set (lol! She loves to help Mimi sweep). So after the party her and Mimi swept the whole house. Dad said they were dancing all night with their brooms.

Pictures

I was very pleased how Ava's pictures turned out. She usually doesn’t care for the camera or for the person behind the camera making silly faces and sounds to make her smile. To be very honest, this little girl can be a difficult client.

2yr Pictures

Christmas Pictures

Big Girl

Love this girl!! She is getting so big. While daddy was out we had a girls night in. I swear she is like my litte best friend. We ordered take out and enjoyed each others company all night long.

Oh Ava girl

Funny Story - when we eat dinner at home if Ava is wearing a long-sleeved shirt I will roll or push up her sleeves. Well….Ryan informed me today that when she walks into her school she knows she is about to eat breakfast, so she starts to push up her sleeves. The ladies in the morning think its so cute. They start to chuckle when Ava walks down the hallway.

Kick off to Christmas

I wanted to start a family tradition this year by doing something fun and festive the 1st weekend of December. This year we kept it close to home and made a trip down to Galveston. My dad, mom, uncle Augustine, Ava and myself (Ryan had already booked plans with his dad to play golf & go to the SAM game) had a wonderful (and very busy) time Saturday evening. We went to Dickens on the Strand, dinner at our favorite Mexican restaurant: The Original Mexican Café and lastly The Festival of Light at Moody Gardens.
Ava was a little trooper! She enjoyed herself on the Strand watching all the characters pass while snacking on cinnamon baked pecans. She even got to pet a pony and see an elephant and camel. Maybe next year….or the year after that I will let her ride on one. By the time we made it to the festival of lights Ava was full and tired. We zoomed through the lights and called it a night.  

23 months

I can not believe my baby has 1 month left until she is 2!! 2!!! Crazy how fast time is flying by….
I LOVE this age (I know I say this all the time, but it gets better & better). She is a little mini me & me BFF. She is changing & learning so much.

Clothes Size: some 24 months, but 2yr fits her best
Shoe Size: 6
Diaper Size: 5
Eating: Ava is my child! She eats & loves everything I do. She loves her veggies…tomatoes, broccoli, carrots, asparagus, mushrooms, everything. She loves to snack on cheese & crackers. She would rather have chicken over beef. Her favorite fruits are still strawberries & bananas. Oh and candy….and ice cream.
Sleeping: she is sleeping so well (when not sick). She goes down somewhere between 8 or 9. Will sleep until Ryan wakes her up on the weekdays about 7. On the weekends we let her sleep in & she will wake up somewhere between 7:30 - 8.
Bath: she still enjoy baths and try's to swim in the bath tub
Pacy: she doesn't take it at daycare. We only give it to her at night time, when she is being super fussy or sick. I want to get rid of them after the new year.

What is new:
Can say A - G
Count to 2, sometimes 3
Can hold up #1
Non stop chatter bug: I love to hear her say I love you, good morning and anything with an "R". She sounds so cute when she says color or Dora.
Loves to say: Mine, that, no and my….followed by mama, daddy, mimi, teddy….pretty much anything
Favorite shows: Dora!!! Fresh beat band. Dora!!! Diego Dora!!! Team Umizoomi….did I mention Dora!!
Dances to: Yo Gabba Gabba - get the sillies out & Team Umizoomi - crazy shake
Likes going to shopping (she will ask her daddy for money), to the park, to play with Emma and visiting Mimi & Gramps.
Favorite toys: her baby doll & stroller, colors, guitar, Hello Kitty, bracelets and purse
Ava is infatuated with trucks, tractors, vans and school buses. We will pass one on the street and she will scream "ah..big truck" or bus…what ever it is.
Likes to run or play chase. She will say, I'm going to get you.

There is so much I'm sure I haven't listed. She is learning and exploring so much at this age. She is a little sponge.

Sickness Update

Well Ava & I have not been able to kick this sickness. I have been all stuffed up & poor Ava bug has a terrible cough. We went to the doctor this week…..and what so you know?! We BOTH have allergy issues. I have a sinus infection & Ava has sinusitis. I had to get a shot, we are both on antibiotics & allergies medicine. Ugh!

Meet Holly

I read Elf on the Shelf to Ava last night. We decided to name her Holly. She made her debut this morning. Ryan said Ava just stared at her. Ryan reminded her it was the Elf mommy said would visit you today…remember the book she read to you. Ava shook her head yes. I'm not sure Ava gets the whole story, but she will enjoy finding her every morning (and I will enjoy finding new places for her).

Thanksgiving

As always, we went to my parents house for Thanksgiving. We left Wednesday evening & stayed through Sunday. So Ava got plenty of Mimi & Gramps loving. Ryan got lots of guy and football time. I got a little Christmas shopping done, a pedi/mani and a movie date with my mom. And of course, Thanksgiving day was filled with family, food, football & great memories. I'm truly blessed!

Mommy and Ava Date

Ava and I have started going on dates to Baskin-Robbins for ice cream. I love our special time together. We order the same thing every time. Ava gets a kids soft serve cone & I get a chocolate chip scoop on a sugar cone. We also sit at the same table right by the front window and watch the people pass by or come in.

This picture is from our date Wednesday.

 

Our Christmas Tree

We put the Christmas Tree up the Tuesday before Thanksgiving. I thought Ava would be really interested in helping mommy, but that wasn’t the case. She was more interested in climbing the ladder. So I decorated the tree while Ryan helped Ava climb up and down the ladder .

Family Pictures

Rough Week

Oh Sunday….how you dragged on…and on. Little Ms. Ava decided not to take a nap. Which was not a good thing for this mama. I started feeling horrible. The up side is once she went down about 7, I went down too. Haha! Ryan had to wake her up at 7 to get her ready for school. I sure hope that is the last time she pulls that one for a long time. I'm not ready for her to skip weekend naps. That is the best time to get caught up on stuff around the house or take a family nap.
By Tuesday I was out for the count. I stayed home from work with a horrible cold. I did my best to stay away from Ava, but she caught it Wednesday and we both stayed home Thursday. Although we were both sick I really enjoyed one on one time with my love bug. We snuggled all day, watched cartoons, dad brought us lunch and we decorated the house for Christmas.

 

Tree in her room



Party FUN

Ava had a birthday party Saturday. She had so much fun. Ava is a very independent little girl. She jumped right in the mix with all the other kids as soon as we got there. She is not shy at all. She even rode on the little train all by her self. I was one proud mama!

Guess what my princess told me?!

….Shut up!! YES! I couldn’t believe it. Ryan & I were shocked. He wanted to laugh but kept it in. I told her that isn't nice to say & the next time she does she will go in time out. Well the rest of the evening she never did. Then the next morning she told Ryan while he was getting her dressed. Ryan put her in time out. Once they got to school he informed her teacher & told her how we were handling it at home to continue to do they same at school. Well then I get a call from the director who said she knew exactly where Ava could have heard that word. In the mornings all the kids eat breakfast together. She probably heard it from Michael an older kid who has been known to say that. She assured me she would monitor the situation. A couple days have passed now and Ava has only said it once or twice since.
So now Ryan and I are watching very closely what we say. Ava is a little sponge and repeating EVERYTHING. We even have to spell things out now (like "do you want to take her to the p-a-r-k", "its almost time for b-a-t-h", "I'm about to g-o" etc.) so she doesn’t know what we are talking about.

Trick or Treat

What a fun night for the whole family! The festivities started about 5 with a pre-party gathering and dinner in the cud-da-sac. Ava had a blast hanging out with Emma & Annabel. They are so cute to watch & they play so well together. Once it started to get a tad dark the moms took the girls up & down the street to trick or treat while the dads stayed to pass out candy. Ava was the leader of the pack. She would be the 1st one to knock on the door and say trick or treat. Every house that gave her a lollipop she would say "candy" and ask me to "open it". Needless to say, she went through about 3 lollipops by the time we made it back to the cud-da-sac.
The party wasn’t over yet. We hung out in the cud-da-sac with about 5 other families passing out candy. Ava enjoyed all the kids stopping by & even helped pass out the candy. I enjoyed watching my big girl experience Halloween!! She was the cutest little lady-bug EVER. She ate way too much candy and stayed up way past her bed time, but daddy let her sleep in today.

Fun times!!

American Girl Store

Ava's Nina (godmother) treated her to a special trip to the America Girl Store. Ava is very girly now, so this was right up her ally. She loved the store!! She kept pointing at everything saying baby, horsy, doggie and that. Mary & I enjoyed watching Ava run all around the store. Mary even spoiled her rotten.

Another Day Another Pumpkin Patch

We spent the past weekend visting my family. Saturday we went to a local church pumpkin patch. My dad picked out a huge pumpkin to carve & Ava picked out a little baby pumpkin. That evening she was so excited to get started. She kept telling Gramps "hurry up" and once again she had a blast cleaning out the pumpkin. Plus Ava got a Halloween Bucket from her Nina (Godmother) filled with all kinds of goodies. I would say she had a fantastic day!!

Then Sunday it was time for mama & daddy to have fun. We went to Battle Red Day to see the Texans play.