April 2011

Tickle Torture

A Is for Alphabet

Today in Ava

 After swim class, in the men's locker room, Ava yells to Brian, "I want to see penises!"

Ava's 26th Month

This month brought snow, birthday parties (happy birthday Maisie and Ava's class!), and lots of play time with Ava's pals. It also brought out more of Ava's personality, for better and for worse. Now that she can pretty much say whatever she wants, we've developed some favorites:

• "My tootsies are cold."
• "This is tasty."
• "Actually..."
• "Yah, cuz..."
• "2 MINUTES!" when you ask her to complete any task at all.
• "Please," with her hands placed together as though she were praying.
• "I'm proud."

We haven't addressed Ava's milestones in a while because it seems like there aren't many to talk about. Lest you think she's just sitting around on her heinie, not achieving greatness, here's what our girl can do:

• The hand jive.
• Put on a shirt. Take off her shirt.
• Pull up pants and take them off, but she's still mastering zippers and snaps.
• Put on boots and shoes, take them off, put them in the right place (if we badger her).
• Put on her jacket by flipping it over her head. Very cute.
• Pour liquids from a pitcher into a small glass.
• Wipe down the table after pouring liquids from a pitcher into a small glass.
• Recite some of her favorite books, adding in new endings as she sees fit.
• Go down a two-story wavy slide by herself.
• Wash and dry her hands.
• Wash dishes, as long as you're not too worried about the quality of the job.

A couple from the vault

Technical difficulties delayed the posting of some December-ish videos. These are a little out of date but so stinkin' cute we're posting them anyway.

Obstacle Course

Ever wonder what our weekends look like?  They look like this...

Ava's 25th Month

Ava's second year got off to a rough start with a Happy Birthday bout of pneumonia and two ear infections. Other than that, everything was smooth sailing. So long as the destination you had in mind was a super whiney 2-year-old. In between those whiney episodes, though, she really is quite sweet. Honest, she is.

This month's highlight for Ava was her transportation field trip. We melted some hearts riding the bus downtown and then hoofed it to the waterfront to check out the boats. Then we boarded the streetcar and headed back across the river on the bus. Ava was beyond excited about her adventure and talks about her thrilling ride downtown almost every day.

A new development this month was Ava's interest in storytelling.  She now averages one 10-minute story a day, drawing from her narrow range of experience. Her latest story had her changing Brody's diaper while he stole her cereal at Nana's house. Gripping stuff. Not that it's easy to determine the subject, however, as her main focus seems to be on delivery and showmanship. During these monologues she forgoes using her vocabulary in favor of ample hand gestures and plenty of vocal inflection. It appears we have a talker on our hands.

Yarr!

Ava's Second Birthday

We may have slacked on the Christmas card, but we're coming in strong with the birthday card. Enjoy.

Ava's 24th Month

1. Ava never stops talking.
2. Until she's out in public.
3. Ava just recently stopped shunning her mother.
4. Ava is a tattletale. So much so that she tattles on herself. "Aya-Vah...get down from table."
5. Ava is short. The Internet predicts she will reach 5'1" at age 18. Gymnastics classes anyone?
6. Ava is slight of frame but gradually gaining weight. At 21.6 lbs (with clothes), this month she made it onto the growth chart.
7. Ava thinks cupcakes are "Yucky." At her birthday party, she requested an orange instead.
8. Ava loves to paint.
9. Ava knows her alphabet but refuses to go past S.
10. Ava says, "8, 4,7 GO!" before she throws a ball.
11. Ava is a poor counter.
12. Ava is very particular about what she wears and could easily go through her entire closet every morning if we let her.
13. Ava uses Brody as a couch.
14. Ava is a music snob. In the car, if she doesn't like a song she repeats "New song. New song." If we don't change to her favorite song, she just sings it over what we're listening to.
15. Ava tucks her classmates in for nap.
16. Ava sets the table for dinner and busses her plate after meals.
17. Ava calls all types of juice "apple juice." She just doesn't get it.
18. Ava always congratulates herself with a heartfelt "good job" after she eats her no-thank-you helpings.
19. Ava still hates jackets. Maybe more than anything.
20. Ava's favorite food is bacon.
21. Ava now asks "did we get it" after we take a picture.
22. Each night, Ava says goodnight to our neighbors' cats.
23. Ava helps in the kitchen while we cook dinner.
24. We have taken more than 6,000 pictures of Ava. Be happy we don't make you sit through more.

Dog's Breakfast

If Brody's spirit wasn't broken before, it certainly is now.

Tis the Season. Again.

As we sit down to write this post about Christmas we realize that we've given Ava a rather odd view of the event. To coordinate with family from afar we've staged "Christmas" five times in her two years of life: February 14 2009, December 20, 2009, December 25, 2009, November 25, 2010, and her most recent one. This girl's cleaning up!

The concept is still pretty vague in her mind, but she was over-the-top excited that the Christmas season starts off with a bunch of lights. Her (self-appointed?) role during the season was to scream out "Lights!" whenever we passed some. Bless the eagerness of a child, she seemed just as surprised and proud to call out the 2,000th house as she did the first.

Tom, Emily (+1), and Ian flew in to Portland on Christmas Eve. Ian was so eager to start opening gifts that he woke up at 5:00 a.m. and started knocking over tall towers of stackable cups. It was a few hours before we actually started the festivities but Ava seemed truly excited to walk us around the tree and point to gifts saying, "That's Ava's present." With every gift, she let out a gasp as she ripped off the wrapping paper and then finished with an exclamation of joy of some sort. That is, until she opened the apron that Helen handmade for her (might I point out, my first sewing project ever). To that present she cried "Don't like it!" and actually ran away from the gift. A mother's heartache begins here.

Ava was, of course, very excited to spend a week with grandparents and the Boston gang. Weather aside (7 straight days of heavy rain), we had a great time hanging out with family. We spent almost all of our time inside, but that was fine by Ava--it just gave her more time to mother Ian. Here's the two of them in the bath together, with Ava kindly attempting to wash Ian's hair.

While the Edwards family was together, we had a photo shoot. We haven't seen all the photos yet, but here's a preview: 

 

Ava gets a haircut!

At long last, Ava got her first haircut! The build-up to the moment--kicking, screaming, and so so many tears--lasted a good 15 minutes while the haircut itself took 30 seconds. And at the end of it all, you could barely tell she'd had a haircut at all except for this beaming face and quite a grand certificate.

"This certifies that Ava bravely received a hair cut with high honors for great conduct and grown up behavior from Miss Aubrey on December 28th, 2010"

Little Clippers apparently has very low standards for grown up behavior.

Hula Girl

A week after our trip to Chicago, we were off again.  This time to sunny Hawaii. What can we say about Hawaii? It was pretty awesome.

Ava is totally a resort girl. She wows in a tankini. She loves the pool, but she likes to at least have the option of a sand castle on the beach. On cooler days, a game of tennis might be in order.

When it comes to hitting the surf, there's no doubt Ava loves the idea of the ocean. It's fun to look at, and, if you're lucky, you might just come across a sea turtle or two popping their heads up. Getting in the ocean, however, is a completely absurd notion to our cautious child. Not only did Ava not set foot in the waves, she also advised the rest of her party to avoid doing so. When we ignored her advice, she looked slightly horrified, screaming after us, "Mama, you okay? Daddy, you okay?" Ever the swimmer, Helen views this as a personal failure and has since vowed to head back to the pool for more starfish lessons.

Ocean animals, on the other hand, are right up Ava's alley. Here she is at the Maui Ocean Center:

But more than the beach, the pool, and the sharks, Ava enjoyed lots of east coast grandparent time. They spent their days eating on the lanai, coloring, reading, feeding koi fish, and playing games like "I'm Hiding" (more accurately, "I'm sitting under a glass table with my eyes shut"). All in all, pretty cute stuff.

 

Ava's 23rd Month

Ava was quite the jet-setter this month, logging plenty of miles with trips to Chicago and Maui.  As much as we would like to convince ourselves that all this departure from routine is the root of Ava's recent outrageous emotional outbursts assertiveness, we fear the terrible twos are upon us.  Wish us luck.

Thanksgiving

In honor of the arrival of cousin #2 (Monica) and in celebration of Thanksgiving, Ava took to the skies again this November. Her trip to Chicago started with "Monica's first tailgate," complete with Big 10 family and friends from around the country. Rivalries aside, Ava quickly embraced her new cousin.

Ava's motherly instincts kicked in and Monica was subjected to unrelenting bottle feedings and diaper changes - with limited success. Ava also served as some sort of human baby monitor in reverse, standing by Monica's crib shouting "Aca sleeping!"

When it came to sharing the spotlight, Ava reluctantly agreed so long as Monica stayed away from Ava's toys. A deal was reached.

It was too cold to play outside (especially for a small child who refuses to wear jackets) so Ava joined in with such Rabold holiday traditions as card playing and puzzles. As you can see here, she's not all that bad.

Ava also tried her hand at another Rabold tradition - heavily posed family portraits. As you can see here, she's not all that bad.

Ava's 22nd Month

Our camera broke this month so you'll have to use your imagination to recreate the majority of the scenes from the past few weeks.

All in all, it was an eventful month as "Machines At Work" (one of Ava's favorite books), was played out in real life. We took a field trip to the closest construction site so Ava could check out all of construction equipment, which made her a very happy girl. Thinking we were on to something, we followed up with a hayride, to which she responded, "All done. No like." into Helen's shoulder as she clung on for dear life.

Unintentionally, we gave a Ava another introduction to large machinery a few weeks later when Helen and Ava were in a car crash (boooo).  About an hour after the crash, just when hanging out on the side of a road became not so cool, our tow truck arrived and was greeted by Ava's screams of "MACHINES AT WORK!"  Sure, we lost our car that day. But Ava got to ride in a tow truck!  So maybe it wasn't such a bad day after all.

A Day in the Life - October 21

 

• 7:30 a.m.- 8:00 a.m. - Ava wakes up, plays with her stuffed animals in the crib
• 8:00 a.m.- 8:30 a.m. - Brian gets Ava up, she demands "dinner," has yogurt and granola for breakfast
• 8:30 a.m. - 8:50 a.m. - Ava colors at her table, correctly identifies the orange marker, beams with pride  
• 8:50 a.m. - 9:10 a.m. - Ava stacks our prep bowls in different formations, one of her favorite pastimes.
• 9:10 a.m. - 9:40 a.m. - Typical Ava diaper change. She is informed it is time for her diaper to be changed, she requests to skip to the bedroom instead of walking, then she changes her mind, thinking that hopping would be a better idea.  The rest of this time is spent trying to get clothes on Ava as she screams and rolls around on the ground.
• 9:40 a.m. - 10:00 a.m. - Snack time.
• 10:00 a.m. - 10:15 a.m. - Getting socks and shoes on.  Yes, it really does take this long.
• 10:30 - 11:45 a.m. - Indoor play park with our friends Jolie and Carolyn.
• 12:00 noon - Home again, Ava announces she has pooped.  She sits on the potty and we sing Twinkle Twinkle Little Star and read books.
• 12:15 p.m. - 12:30 p.m. - Lunch: bulgur, beans and applesauce
• 12:30 p.m. - Ava requests a nap.
• 12:30 p.m. - 2:15 p.m. - Nap time
• 2:15 p.m. - 3:00 p.m. - Ava wakes up and practices putting a diaper on her doll.
• 3:00 p.m. - 4:00 p.m. - Shopping
• 4:15 p.m. - 4:30 p.m. - Skype with Tom, Ian and Emily
• 4:30 p.m. - 4:45 p.m. - Snack time
• 4:45 p.m. - 5:00 p.m. - More coloring
• 5:00 p.m. - 6:00 p.m. - Family walk
• 6:00 p.m. - 6:30 p.m. - Ava washes dishes at the sink while dinner is prepared.  Side note: she's not all that bad.
• 6:30 p.m. - 7:00 p.m. - Dinner: spaghetti and meatballs
• 7:00 p.m. - 7:15 p.m. - Bath time
• 7:15 p.m. - 7:45 p.m. - Getting ready for bed...diaper change, brushing teeth, reading books
• 7:45 p.m. - Ava gets tucked in for the night.  She goes to bed in her turtle jammies with 3 pacifiers, a small doll, and 3 stuffed animals.

Tinkle tinkle little star

As they potty train the kids at school, Ava's teachers have been singing Twinkle Twinkle Little Star to keep everyone seated.  Here is Ava's re-enactment:

Transcript:
A: Hi
H: Can you sing to her?
A: Twinkle Twinkle. (Baby): Yay.  I did it.  I pee peed potty.
H: Ohhhhh.  Baby pee peed on the potty?
A: Yay.
...
A: There.
H: There she goes.  She's not sitting inside the potty now.  She's sitting on the potty.  That's good. Okay...let's sing to her.
A: Twin
H: Kle.  Twinkle.
A: Twinkle. How I wonder what. Up above.  Ba-bove. Ba-ba-bove. Up-babove. How are you. Won't you. Twinkle. Up. How I. Yay!

A lot of people suggest that your brain turns to mush when you talk to a kid all day but I think we can all agree this video tells a different story.  Pretty riveting stuff.