Poo Poo

Big news today - Ava poo poo'd on the potty today. Of course, I wasn't in the bathroom to see it - I was working in the other room, but Ashley put her on the potty seat and...poop. This is big news. Ava is getting to the point where she can tell us when she pee pee'd or poo poo'd in her diaper. That means she is a little closer to telling us before she tinkles or caca's, and when that happens, potty training is in full swing. So far, all of the major transitions in her life have been quick and painless (knocking on soooo much wood). Sleeping through the night, getting rid of the binky, no more bottles... all very easy. I can only hope that getting rid of diapers goes as smoothly.
She is getting very good at putting 2 word sentences together now. The first sentence she ever said was "papa sleeping." I don't remember exactly when that was - maybe May or June. Then she said "bye doggy." Now she can say "plane sky" and "dark clouds." Earlier today, I had made myself a cup of coffe at work and it was sitting on the counter. I never drink coffee at home, neither does Brent. I picked Ava up and she pointed at the cup and said "coffee." I was amazed - where the heck did she learn that and how did she know it was coffee? My favorite new thing that she is saying now is "Aw man!" She learned that thanks to Dora the Explorer and me. If you're familiar with Dora, you know that Swiper the Fox always says "Aw Man!" Then one night at home Ava was spilling the milk out of her sippy cup and I said it. She immediatley copied me. It sounds so funny. She is so verbal. She can count to ten if we are counting with her. I start with one, and she fills in most of the rest of the numbers, and when she gets to ten she always claps her hands. We are also working on ABC's and she can say a few letters, but mostly she just watches my mouth very closely as I say them and mouths along.
She goes to the doctor on Thursday for her 18 month check up. No shots, just measurements and I need to get her vaccination paperwork for pre-school. I have pictures to post, and will get on that tomorrow.

Have a Minute?

Wunder!

Poor, neglected baby blog. I feel bad that I can't keep up with it that much. Maybe you knew this - or maybe you didn't, but for a while there I was working 3 jobs. Not so much out of necessity, but more out of my sense of obligation and fear. I hate quitting jobs. One I tried to quit a long time ago but they talked me into working just weekends. The other one I just wanted to keep my foot in the door so I kept working there one day a week. For around 7 months I was working well over 50 hours a week. It was really hard. I quit one job, but kept the weekend job, so I was working 7 days a week. I would bring Ava to work with me during the week, and on the weekends I would work in the late afternoon/evenings. I finally cut it down to one normal, weekday job. It will be nice to have actual weekends to spend with my family.
But enough about me. Ava has been doing good, but she's teething so she's been a bit cranky. One thing about Ava - she has a short fuse. Even when she was an infant, she could go from perfectly content to screaming mad in a second. She is still that way. I am always trying different ways of dealing with it to help her control it a bit. So far, I haven't had much luck. I am hoping that her starting pre-school next month will help. Speaking of pre-school, I received my welcome packet in the mail and this thing is huge. There is a bunch of stuff they want us to supply, we have to attend a parent orientation, we are required to volunteer at the school a certain amount of hours each year. All of these things are good, it just makes me feel like she's starting real school, rather than just part-time pre-school. I am curious to see how her and Max are going to handle it. They will be in the same class, and I wonder if they will gravitate towards each other, or if Max will go off with the boys and Ava will go with the girls.
Tonight we had a thunder storm, and Ava was starting to get scared of the thunder. At first she is intrigued by it, and she kept repeating "wunder!" each time she heard it. But some of it was pretty loud, and it was the kind that after the initial bang would rumble for a good 10 - 15 seconds. Our windows were rattling. She didn't like it so much then, but she did good. She went to bed without a fuss.
It is SO hot here in FL. People think that FL is so great because it doesn't snow so they think you can be outside year round. However, the heat in the summer is so bad that you don't want to be outside. When I walk out the door in the morning, it is already in the high 80's and very humid. When you walk outside at 10pm, it is still in the high 80's and extremely humid. During the day Ava gets pink being outside for 10 minutes. Any longer and her face gets very flushed and she sweats like crazy. You sweat just standing still, in the shade. I take her for a bike ride every evening around 7:30pm, and it is hot and I sweat. It is not enjoyable. Luckily the lovebugs are gone and the wildfires are over so we are no longer covered in smoke and bugs. I love Florida.

Happy 4th (sort of)

Last year Ava was too small to take to the fireworks. This year it rained. I am hoping for better results next year. I feel the same way my friend
Angie does - fireworks are overrated. We had planned on taking Ava, but we ended up going late, and while it wasn't raining at our house, it started raining on the 10 minute drive to the fireworks, so we just ended up going back to Brent's parent's house. Luckily, on a whim I had bought a cheap box of fireworks at Walmart, so Brent gave us a little show. We had prepared Ava for the fireworks. For a few days leading up to the 4th we told her about them and how loud they are. She would kind of get this look of amazement on her face just thinking about them. She wanted nothing to do with being outside. We tried to get her to hold a sparkler and she did, but she was scaring the heck out of me and I was holding her arm straight out. I have always harbored a secret fear of sparklers - something that you ignite and hold in your hand can't be good. And what would happen if one of those sparks flew in your eye? Eh. We let Ava hold one and she was done, she wanted back in the house. She ended up sitting on my lap in the garage while we watched Brent light fireworks in the street. One of the neighbors was putting on a really good show, so she got to see those too. She calls fireworks "works." Maybe next year she'll see the big ones.
I have bunches of pictures to post, so here are some of Ava's favorite things to do.

Tumbling



Lounging in bed watching Sesame Street (just like her mama):

Helping with the laundry:


Ambushing the cat while she eats:


And best of all - Jumping on the bed! She's in her 4th of July outfit, obviously.