My kid won't do that...or so I thought

Before I became a parent and I would be out and about and hear a kid in the store/restaurant throwing a fit, I would look with a glare and say to myself "my kid will never do that"...or so I thought. Having a 14 month old who can't say what they are feeling will cause that very thing that I used to judge to happen. For example, yesterday we went to Whole Foods after our walk to walk around (this is something we love to do. They just have some of the most interesting food) and Mike let Ava out of her stroller to walk around and explore. We were at the cheese section and she was holding a container of mozzarella balls. After she dropped in on the floor, I asked her to pick it up and give it to me, she wouldn't, so I picked it up to put it away, but she wasn't done with it apparently, because she screamed on the top of her lungs and ran away. It was a bit embarrassing, but I just picked her up and distracted her and all was well, but I foresaw my future. There are many more to come and probably worse. oh no! As I have now realized, at this age, they just get frustrated and how else to express that than to scream. So to all those moms that I gave a disapproving glare to, my apologies! Now, that isn't to say that I still won't give a disapproving glare if the parents don't remove their child from the situation to let everyone else enjoy their time out, because you will be sure that if Ava melts down and won't calm down after a couple of seconds, you better believe we will go out to the car to straighten her up. That is the only way she will learn and if I have to leave ice cream in the shopping cart to melt or not buy a

shirt, then I will!

The other day, I was telling Ava to eat her feet and she did just that...

Yesterday morning, Ava woke up with some crazy hair. I am hoping for a hair cut this weekend. Mike said I can get it cut after I take her to visit at his office and we are going today. So hopefully this is the end of the mullet as we know it.

Here is her snack cup that she has finally learned how to use. I used to bring baggies of snacks and feed them to her, but that makes it hard to shop and feed at the same time, so I bought these for her to use. At first, she tried to open it at the top and when she would go to put her hand in , it closes, so I just kept teaching her and now she has it figured out. It is amazing what they learn. She still spills them everywhere, because she grabs the biggest handful possible.

Ava is definitely going to start speaking soon. We can't tell what her new word means, but it is either shoes or trees, but it sounds like "sheet" or "shit". Daddy says she learned it from me.

Back to our normal self

Well, it seems that Ava is almost back to her normal self. yay!!! We had a rough couple of days, but she seems to be back to running around and doing what she normally does, but just with some extra drool and snots. Thursday was by far the worst day as she needed to be held and cried quite a bit. It was really nice to have a snugly Ava. I enjoyed every moment of it, but was sad when I couldn't console her. Friday she was a little bit better, but still needed a lot of attention. We watch A LOT of TV too. She probably watched more TV those past 2 days than she has her entire life. We don't let her watch TV with the exception of her once weekly Baby Einstein vide, so I think she was in 7th heaven (as she is my daughter!!!). By Saturday, she was acting like herself again. We kept her home all day as we didn't want to overdue it. This cold has interrupted her normal sleep schedule, which I am praying will get back to normal soon. She has been waking around 5 am and we have been putting her in bed with us. We have never done that, but by keeping her more upright in the am, she has been able to sleep another 15 mins or so, but mostly just lays there quietly laying her head against mine. I love it!!! Her naps have been short, so I know eventually she will make them up. Yesterday, Mike let me get out of the house alone. I had been holed up in the house for 2 days and was anxious to get out, so I did a little shopping...and came home empty handed, but it was still nice to be out alone. Today we decided that she was well enough to hit Target, Costco and Old Navy. We have been cleaning house to get all the germs out! I am happy that we are on the mend of her first major sickness and praying that Mike and I don't get it! Well, time does fly and as Mike pointed out there are 8 more months until Christmas!

14 months old and coughs and snots!

Ava turned 14 months old this week. I can't believe how fast time is flying by. Everyday is something new and I always wonder how she learned "that". She listens and understands most of what we say. The other day I was trying to tell her to get a block that was behind her so I said "turn around Ava",and she started turning in circles. It made me laugh. The other day she was trying to play with the plug that is next to our TV and I told her "no, boo-boo owie" and she curled her lip and made a "cry face" and tried to cry, but couldn't, so she faked it. I have never laughed so hard in my life.

Well, we made it 14 months without any colds or sicknesses until now. Ava has her first cold and it has been really hard on all of us. She was up most of the night on Wednesday night. We had to get her up around 2 am and watched Baby Einsteins videos until she tired again. She coughs and chokes on her snot that is draining down her throat. She had a temperature of 100.6 for about a day, but this morning it has seemed to have broken. We went to the doctor yesterday and he thought maybe strep, but it came back negative. We are just trying to get a lot of fluids in her. She doesn't really want to eat or drink. She is currently living off of puffs because they are bland enough for her. All that mucus in her stomach made it hard in the beginning to keep anything down. So until she is ready to eat, that is what we will keep feeding her and LOTS of water. I hope she feels better soon. It is so hard to watch her be sick. Mike and I are getting a lot of holding time in and today she seems to feel a little better because she is not crying as much. Poor munchkin!

Dreaming of beaches, mai tai's and sun!

At about this time every year, Mike and I are counting the days down to our yearly vacation. We always go on vacation around memorial day weekend and our favorite vacation spot is Maui. Before we had Ava, we used to tell people that we have kids and their names are baby Cancun, baby cabo, and baby Maui. We took vacations instead of having kids. Now that we have made the decision to have kids, we are putting vacations on hold, but as of late, I have been dreaming of our days at the pool, drinking and enjoying doing nothing. Well, this year again, there will be no vacations (in the true sense of vacation- Maui), so we had to make due in our backyard this weekend.....This is the pool that we bought for Ava from last year that I posted about a week ago. So, while she napped on Saturday afternoon, Mike and I made ourselves a drink, put on some Hawaiian music and put our feet in the pool and took the infamous vacation picture- laying down with feet looking into the water....

I know...ghetto, but it will have to do!!!! It was a nice hour and a half on Saturday afternoon...

On Sunday, we drove out to Sun City for my great Aunt Dorothy's 97th birthday... Ava was having a blast in the backseat. She kept putting bunny behind her head and laughing...

We had a nice time and while my great aunt Dorothy can't say a whole lot,she sure did smile at Ava. I think she enjoyed seeing her play. Ava took her usual time to warm up to everyone, but once she knew all was ok, she was hamming it up and playing. I took her out back to play with the rocks and sticks! We took the opportunity to get a family picture and this was the best one we could find. It is hard to get Ava to sit still and to get a good, not cheesy, smile from both Mike and I....

Nice week, but have to figure out how to change my morning body clock!?!?

Ava sitting at Daddy's chair....


I was taking pictures of her and would show it to her after I took it and this is the face she would make. She loooooooves to look at pictures of herself!!!

So every morning around 4:22am, I wake up!!! yes, 4:22AM. I just can't sleep past it. Some mornings I can fall back asleep, but just for a couple of minutes and then the alarm goes off. At first, i think I was waking at this time, because Ava used to wake up and cry for her paci. Now that she isn't doing that, I usually go into her room when I wake and put a paci in her bed and close her door. That way, if she wakes up, she can find her paci on her own, grab bunny and fall back asleep. Otherwise, she ends up crying and well, then she is up. So now I think I wake because I want to get into her room and get a paci in her bed and close the door. Hopefully I won't have to do it much longer as I keep saying I want to get rid of the paci. I just can't bring myself to doing it as I know it is going to be painful (for me)..

Other than the early morning wake ups, we had a nice week together. We went for our morning walk/runs and did a lot of shopping this week. It is getting too hot outside to go to the park in the afternoons, so we would go to the stores instead. Ava loves to shop. She doesn't last long in her stroller, so I usually let her out. She likes to push it, but if I help in anyway, she will cry. So I have to let her push it into the racks and then just distract her to something else. We will usually go and find the kid area where she plays with the toys or find an article of clothing for her to chew on the hanger. ( I know, not exactly germ friendly, sorry Mike). Today, after gymboree, we went to Buy Buy Baby to walk around and get some more energy out and she walked around the toy area just like the saying goes, like a kid in a candy store. She was going "oooooohhhh, ahhhhh" all throughout the toys. She would stop and touch one and then onto the next one. It is a hoot to watch. I have to walk fast because before you know it she is gone!!
On Thursday morning, we met up with Erin and her daughter Ella, who is almost 2, at the train park/playground in Chandler. We basically had the playground to ourselves. It was really nice. It is nice to get out and be around other moms and for Ava to "parallel play", even though they only were near each other for all of 2 minutes, but it was still fun. I am hoping we can go to the zoo sometime soon as I KNOW Ava will LOVE the zoo! She loves to see all the animals when we go for our walks.
This week I went out and bought myself a pedometer. I do so much walking/running these days, I was curious how far I walk and how many steps I take. I started it around 2 on Thursday and walked over 2 miles that afternoon. Mike was shocked when I told him how far I walked just around the house. Sometimes I think he thinks that I just sit home watching TV and eating Bon Bons. Today (@ 4pm on Friday), I have already walked 5 miles and taken almost 11,000 steps. That is crazy. I think we are going to go for a walk tonight too, which are usually about 1-2 miles long, depending how much wine we drink!!!
I am looking forward to the weekend. We are going to my great Aunt Dorothy's 97th birthday party in Sun City on Sunday to see all the family and my mom is going to come over after and stay the night and watch Ava on Monday. It will be nice to have a little "sara time" and maybe get some work done. Today, Mike actually stayed home for Ava's first nap so that I could run to Target and to Costco. It was sooo nice to run an errand and be able to take my time. With Ava, I have to keep moving or she gets fussy and wants out. So it is in and out!

Pool!

We bought this pool last year on clearance and finally blew it up this morning and filled it with water. With the weather hitting 88 degrees we thought it would be perfect. Well, it almost is. Ava didn't really like it. I think it was too cold. She is used to warm water. I was able to trick her into coming in with me and slowly I got her in the water. It will just take time, but hopefully she will get used to it, so when we go to pool parties this summer, we don't have to sit outside the pool like last year. it is way to hot here to "watch" from the outside.

Another week down

I have survived 2 weeks now of working without a nanny. It has been easier than I thought in terms of being able to get work done, but more tiring than I thought. Ava is really good at playing by herself if she can see me. We go for our long walk/run in the morning around 8 am and end at the park, which she loves. It is so nice out in the morning and I am taking the time to enjoy every minute of it as it is going to heat up really soon. While Ava explores at the park, I have been taking the opportunity to get a small workout in. I do lunges, push ups, squats,etc...

On Monday, the nanny that we interviewed and that met Ava last week called and accepted the position. I am excited. She won't start until August, but think it will be good for Ava. I am a little worried that these 2 months of Ava spending all day with me will be hard for when the nanny starts. I know she will be fine when my mom starts watching her in June and July.

Ava is getting so big and becoming more and more like a "little girl". When I look back, I just can't remember her being so small. She is laughing so much more. As most of you know she is my serious observer. She is very cautious and has to check everything out. When it is just the 3 of us, she is so curious, giggly and talkative, but when we are around other people, she has to check out her surroundings first and that can take the entire time. Although, she does do well at Gymobree, but I think that is because it is the kids that she likes to look at. The other day, I would laugh and then she would laugh, then I would laugh and then she would laugh. We did that for about 5 minutes and then I got tired.

I think we are on the downward slope of those molars. She has a fussy day on Friday and was chewing her finger and drooling up a storm. On Thursday night, she woke up at 3:45 am crying and basically cried on and off for the next hour. Just a noise here and there, not full on cries, but I think it was because her teeth were hurting her.

Today is the last day dog sitting, yay! It is like having 2 kids. I realized now what parents mean when they say you are more "laxed" with the 2nd kid, because I have definitely been more relaxed with the dog. I used to be paranoid about her 24/7, but now, I don't have the energy. As long as she is fed, walked and the given her rubs of attention, then she is all good. I am excited for a good night sleep soon. We have her sleeping in our room and she wakes in the middle of the night and shakes and then scratches to make her bed more comfortable and then goes back down, but it wakes me up:(

Looking forward to the rest of the weekend. We are going to the Ostrom's house to BBQ and our friends will be there. The Armada's daughter, Ella, who is almost 2 will be there, so it will be interesting to see how her and Ava play together. Then on Sunday, we are going over to Susan's house to see her new carpet and tile. Should be fun. We might even get Ava a haircut if I can talk Mike into it!!

Happy Easter

Happy Easter!!!!

This is a rare occasion to get a picture of the family. Here is our Easter photo.

Ava picking up her eggs! Ava had a great Easter. She didn't really understand what was going on, but she sure did like all her new presents and playing with the eggs. I had to take them away by the end of the day because she figured out how to open the egg and was sticking the whole half of the egg in her mouth. We had the family over to our house and it was quite an eventful day. Right as everyone was getting here, the dog, got a piece of a hot potato and ate it and about 2 minutes later, was puking it up on our carpet (jacy, we will send you the bill) and I yelled for help because my grandparents were showing up at the time and my loud voice made Ava cry. It was quite the beginning. The day was beautiful. It was low 80's here. We hung outside for a lot of the day. It was a bit hot to start, but cooled off nicely later. Ava loved being outside. Dwayne's family came over and his brothers daughter has a 2 month old and Ava really like looking at her. I can't remember when Ava was that small. That was about how old she was last year at Easter. She was so tiny and it is so easy to be intimidated by little ones. When you have one, holding them is natural, but once they get bigger and you don't have to be so gentle, you forget...

As i said before, we are dog sitting. Here is Ava with her new favorite "toy". She loves to see her when she gets up in the morning and from her naps. She makes the panting noise when she sees the dog. She has already knocked over her bowl of water and she hates it when Tatum barks. It makes her cry. She doesn't like loud noises.

Here are just some pictures of us!!!

Other than Easter Sunday, we spent Saturday stocking up on wine and we went to San Tan Village and Ava went and played in the outdoor play area. Daddy is always very cautious when she is playing in those places because there are a lot of older kids and they will bulldoze Ava. My mom came down on Saturday and helped us watch Ava on Sunday so we could finish cleaning. It is like having a third parent around. It was nice to clean the entire house all at once.

Last week was our first week with no help from Jaclyn. It was probably the worst week in a long time for me to have meetings, but we were able to make it work. I actually got a lot of work done. Ava has learned that mommy might have to work for a little bit, but I will come play with her, so she will play very nicely by herself. It is another story when Mike watches her. She won't let him get any work done. I am trying to teach him what to do.

Ava is babbling up a storm still. She is definitely trying to talk. I KNOW that I heard her call me mama...Her new thing is to put her hand up in the air when I say, "where is bunny" or "where is tatum". Then she helps me look for whatever I am asking her to find. She will lift one of her legs up too. She really understands so much. She may not alwasy obey, but she understands.