I feel sick!!

Ava had her first school play today, and I took a ton of great pictures, and then...I ACCIDENTALY DELETED EVERY SINGLE ONE OF THEM!!

I felt like kicking my own butt for doing something so stupid. Ava was a kangaroo, and I got pics of her singing and doing the animal stuff, and then there was a parade. I had some pictures of me and Brent with her. I was messing with the camera afterwards, trying to figure out how to turn the pictures black and white on the camera, and I hit the button to format my memory card, which wiped out all the pictures. SO STUPID.

Break Down

I took a nice long break there. School started for me, and it seems like I am busy with something just about every minute of the day, so the blog suffers. Ava started her first gymnastics class this past Tuesday, and it was very blog-worthy, so I thought I would post some pictures.

Happy Birthday!

Happy 3rd birthday Ava! Today is Friday, and even though we had to work we still had a great day. We had a party for you at Max's house, and Isabelle, Giuliana, and Brian came to celebrate. You got some toys that you loved, including a Little Mermaid jacket, a Little Mermaid bath toy, a nice outfit from Jenny, and a pink Care Bear from Isabelle. You also got an "autographed" picture of you and Lightning McQueen! You haven't opened all the gifts from Mommy and Daddy yet - we are saving those for this weekend. You are the sweetest kid when it comes to opening gifts. You always say thank you and no matter what it is, you make a big deal out of it. When I gave you the Ariel jacket this morning, you said "I've always wanted an Ariel jacket!" I asked you if you liked it and you said, "I really do love it." Many times you open a present and say,"I've always wanted this!" We don't have to prompt you to thank people.
You also had a really cute Care Bear cupcake-cake. Mommy will post a picture of it as soon as she has time. She has lots of pictures and things to catch up on on this blog! The big thing for your birthday was going to Disney World for the first time! We went last weekend and it was so much fun. We have already started planning when we can go back. You loved most of the rides, with a couple of exceptions. I should've known better than to take you on "Snow White's Scary Adventures" and "Pirates of the Carribean." But you didn't cry, you just sat on my lap and buried your head in my neck. Afterwards, when we asked you if you liked them, you said yes, but when we asked if you wanted to ride them again you said no. Your favorite ride was "Small World" which is secretly my favorite too. It is the one thing there that will never change. We were there from the time the park opened until it closed, and you were a trooper. You lasted the whole time with no problem. We watched the parade, the fireworks, and made it through the whole place.
It's about Mommy's bedtime, but I have to share one more thing I thought was so cute. I was bringing you to preschool the other day, and the classroom had pictures of different professions (doctors, police officers, etc) and a big question - what do you want to be when you grow up? So right there I asked you what you wanted to be when you "get big." I said you could be a doctor, or a teacher...and you said "I'm going to be a mommy when I get big." I am so happy to be your mommy Ava. I hope that when you do "get big" and become a mommy, that you have a little girl as wonderful as you are. I couldn't imagine a life without my baby bear in it. Happy Birthday!

Ava and Pookie, the class dog. Kids that are well behaved and do something nice are allowed to bring him home for a weekend. We had to write about how we spent our time with Pookie. Ava was SO excited to bring him home!


We took Pookie to the Press Box with Aunt Nicky.




We are squinting really bad.


She's wearing her Flounder hat from Disney on Ice. I had to pay $10 for an old bag of popcorn to get that hat. I ended up wearing it more than her during the show.

No Pics

I haven't been using my desktop at home - because it is so slow! So I haven't been able to post any pictures. I don't want to clog up my work laptop with pics. Speaking of work, I am going nuts it is so busy. November - Feb is our busy season, and I am already missing how slow it was in the summer.

Ava is doing really good. She is loving pre-school. All of the morning anxiety I used to have dropping her off has pretty much disappeared. Now as soon as she hits the playground she runs from me, off to the swings. She is a swing addict. She still only goes 3 mornings a week, from 9am - 1pm. That is enough for me at this point.

Brent is excited to finally get his wii tommorrow (hopefully). After spending a couple of agonizing days on Ebay, and checking multiple stores in different cities, it will be nice for him to finally have one. Brent - happy early birthday? :-)

I am still absorbed in the Twilight series. I just finished the third book last night, and will start the fourth and final one tonight. I have been averaging 5 days to get through one, which is pretty good, considering how busy we've been. Although, I did stay up until 3:30am last night reading. That's not too good. I am looking forward to seeing the movie when it comes out in November - however, I know that it will probably be a lot of cheese. I feel a little cheesy just looking forward to it.

We just bought tickets to go see Disney on Ice in October. You know you are a parent when the only live shows you go to our kid shows. Last month, the Backyardigans, next month - Mickey. I think Ava will love it though. She enjoyed the Backyardigans, and Disney on Ice includes the Little Mermaid - what's not to love? Maybe one day Brent and I will be able to go to a grown up concert once again.

Dum De Dum

Counting down the days to vacation! I could so use it right now. I want to plan a little vacation with Ava too, just don't know where. Now that she's over 2 and can't fly free anymore, it needs to be something CHEAP. Three plane tickets isn't fun. Maybe we will drive to North Carolina and hang out wih Nanny for a while. Being up there forces you to relax because there is NOTHING to do. Seriously. It is the sticks.

Last night we were putting Ava to bed, and she always picks out the books to read. She loves Are You my Mother? and she recited it practically word for word. She flips through the pages and literally recited many of the sentences perfectly. I just laid there listening to her and actually got choked up. I know she's not actually reading, she's just heard the book so many times, but it was so great.

She likes to tell me "Mommy, I just want to give you one kiss." And then when I lean in for one, she kisses me a bunch of times all over my face. On Sunday I took her to the hardware store, and while the guy was helping me pick out the door hinges, Ava started kissing me all over my face. It was kinda funny. I was telling her to stop but I didn't really mean it. The bad thing is she wants me to hold her a lot when we are out. "Mommy, can you hold me?" And she will make it almost impossible not to.

Here are some pics. Everything is going well, she is doing great at school.

Want to know a secret? I have baby fever, big-time.

Ava's School Pictures

Grouch

I haven't been good about posting! Ava has been being such a bear lately that I think the terrible two's came early. Her favorite word is "NO!" and everything that comes out of her mouth is whiney. Actually, she seems to go between being totally silly and playful to the next minute being cranky and whiney. I am working so hard with her on "please" and "thank you" and it is wearing me out. She's pretty good with the "thank you's" but not good at all with "please." One amazing thing is that this week she pooped on the potty for the first time. I'm pretty sure that is baby-blog worthy. At least to me and Brent it is. Saturday we took her to Busch Gardens again and she was a grump. She had the most fun on the carousel, and she made us ride it at least 6 times. She LOVES the rides, and she shows no fear. Sometimes her cousins can go with her, but other times they are too big so she has to go on herself, and she is totally fine with that. She is my little daredevil.

She has been doing a lot better in school. I had a conference with her teachers on Nov.9 and they agreed that the transitions with the teachers has been hard, but they still feel it is beneficial for her to be there. I will keep her there as long as I feel it is still productive for her, and they believe that it is. She has not been crying when I drop her off, and Wednesday they said she didn't cry the whole time.

So it let me log on tonight but it wouldn't let me last night. I think our computer is on its way out. Anyway, yesterday was a very frustrating day all around. Ava has been weird about school. One day she'll be fine, the next day, not so much. She only goes 2 days a week, from 9am - 1pm. Ava is a girl who likes order and playing in small groups. She does not like chaos and she is very aware of her personal space. If a stranger violates it, she gets unhappy. Monday morning I was dropping her off, and she was fine until a group of 3 boys kind of surrounded her near the top of the slide, and 2 of them touched the buttons on her shirt. She looked at me and started crying. I was not happy. They are just little kids, but I don't like boys surrounding her. Yesterday she was fine until we walked into her classroom. Normally parents drop the kids off on the playground, but yesterday it was raining so they had all the kids inside, and most of the classroom was blocked off. So all the kids are in the front of the room and it was a little crazy, and it threw Ava off. She got a little clingy. I directed her to some baby dolls in an area that was out of the way, and as I departed I heard her crying. Then when I went to pick her up she was crying. So, school is not going as well as I'd hoped right now. I think it has to do with the fact that her 2 teachers that she had in the beginning, Guilianna and Jessica, both quit. Now there are new teachers, and I don't think Ava has bonded with them very much. The good news is that my bosses, Darwin & Jennifer, hired both Guilianna & Jessica to work at the house with us. Jessica works with us in the office, and Guilianna is the new Nanny to Ava & Max. Ashley is no longer with us (in a working sense). Ava LOVES Guilianna, and even better - Guilianna has a 4 year old daughter that she brings with her and Ava LOVES her even more. Isabel is like a big sister to Ava, and is a refreshing change from playing with just Max. They giggle like little girls and chase each other. Guiliana has been working with us for 2 weeks now, and Ava has been so happy. I never hear her cry or whine during the day. With Ashley, Ava cried just about everyday at some point. Today for example, Guiliana took Ava & Max to her house to play in Isabel's room, then they went to the library, the park, and then came back to the house and went swimming. They dance, and Guiliana (an artist on the side) has them doing art projects and keeping journals, and it is so cool. The only down side is that the house is VERY crowded now, and I wish I had an office to work in. I don't want to leave Ava, but it really is hard to get a lot done with so much distraction. But I am very happy with the child care situation, and so is Ava. The only time she cries now is when it's time to leave! Hopefully, the school thing will work itself out.
Ava's language has really started to develop, and she is really talking now. She sings a bunch of different songs, and learns new ones really quickly. She says whole sentences now. Last Friday night we went out to eat and she was sitting with Brent, and out of nowhere she hugged him and said "I love Daddy." It brought tears to both our eyes. Tonight she was giving me a whole bunch of kisses and for the first time she was actually kissing me, rather than just putting her mouth on my face! She learned to make the kissy noise. On Monday I took her to Publix and they gave her a helium balloon. She refused to let it go, even after we got home. I told her she could let it go, that it would be okay, and she kind of thought for a second and said, "No, Ima hold it now." Everyday when we get home she says, "Ima go in the grass now." She loves to just run around the front yard. She likes when Brent takes her on "tractor" rides (the riding lawn mower). She is also becoming so independant, and she says "Ava do it" when we try to read to her or get her dressed. The other night she pulled her diaper open for the first time, and this morning she managed to open the fridge by herself.

I am rambling now, it's late. Brent just turned off the light so I can't see what I'm typing. I'll post some pictures soon.

Bad Blogger.

Ava has been enjoying school. This was her third week - the first week went fine, the second week wasn't so good, but this week was great. I think the first week she didn't quite know what to make of it, and we had built up a little excitment. The second week she knew what it was about, she knew mommy left and lots of strange kids and adults were around, and she wasn't happy. She only had one bad morning, and it was much harder on me than it was on her. Walking away from her while she cried for me and ran to the door was extremely hard, and actually brought me to tears. However - I found out from one of the other mom's that it only lasted a minute and then she got distracted and was fine. This week, she went right out to the playground without even waiting for me, and she gave me a kiss and said "bye bye" and that was that. She only goes 2 mornings a week, so it isn't bad at all, and she does have a lot of fun. Her favorite thing to do is swing. Plus her buddy Max is there with her so she has a familiar face.
Please disregard this bragging moment, but she is so smart it amazes me. The things she picks up on and so quickly - it's a wonderful thing. She can now say 75% of her ABC's, she recognizes her name when spelled out, she can point out circles, squares, stars, hearts and triangles. She recites Patty Cake, and has learned Humpty Dumpty somewhere along the way. She also recites lines from books we read her, and is working on numbers 11 thru 15. She has 1 thru 10 down. She also tries to repeat everything we say, including the bad stuff. So far, it's been "crap" "suck" and "dammit."
Okay, and now I'm done. The posts have been seriously lacking, and I'm not sure anyone even looks at this anymore, but for Ava's sake, I am going to keep posting. I want her to be able to read this stuff when she's older.
Ava at Mote Marine