The Aquarium and Ava's New Trick

Today we decided to visit the Sea Life Aquarium. We went about a year ago shortly after Noah was born. I forgot how small it is and how expensive it is for how small it is. But, nonetheless, we went because Noah and Ava love going to Petsmart to see all the fish. Noah has been especially fascinated with sharks lately too. We were one of the first people there so it wasn't that crowded. We went fast through the first half to lose the other kids, but quickly realized that we were at the end and had only been there 20 minutes. oopps... There really isn't much to see but fish, sharks and sting rays in each exhibit. I guess once a year is good enough. I can't wait until it is cool enough to start going to the zoo again.

So Ava. What can I say, she is a "dandy". The past two naps she has been so funny. Yesterday, I put her down for her nap and when I went to get her up, I realized that she had a different shirt on. I asked her if that was the same shirt that she had on when I put her to bed and she said "no". She told me her other one was too itchy so she got out of bed and changed her shirt. She did it again today during her nap. Too funny. She has really been into picking out her clothes and putting them on by herself. She changed 4 times this morning and changes all day long. She will come up with some reason for changing either her top or her bottoms.

Now, when we tell her that if she has to go pee in the middle of the night that she is big enough to go on her own. Her response: "But mommy, I am not as big as you mommy. Look at me, I am small."  Ummm, so I see, you are big enough when you want to be and not big enough when I want you to be.. Oh the joys of parenting. (p.s we are still working on the night wake ups. It is becoming a nightly thing)

Leptuch Update

Here's what we have been up to:

We had a great Labor day weekend filled with family and friends.

Saturday night we met up with some of our friends at World of Beer in Tempe while my mom and Dwayne babysat. We had so much fun. I can't remember the last time we went out for drinks with friends. We all said that we need to do it more than once a year! ha! ha! So true!

Sunday we had all the family over for a BBQ and a fun game of Apples to Apples. Again, we need to get everyone together more often. It was a lot of fun.

Monday, Mike and I were both so tired that we just hung out at the house. Took Ava down to the cul-de-sac to ride her bike.

Ava has hit a stage where she wants to get dressed "all by herself" with NO help from anyone. She also wants to pick out her clothes. It makes for some interesting choices. The hard part is that on Chapel days at school, which is twice a month, she has to wear her school shirt and this week she really didn't want to wear it.  Oh, the battles are going to begin. Maybe Mike is on to something wanting to send them to a school with uniforms.

Noah is talking so much more. He is saying 2 and 3 word sentences. He is also very vocal in what he wants and doesn't want.  He is our "no" kid.

Ava is STILL waking up most nights of the week. Last night she woke up twice to go potty. Mike is so over being in charge of her monitor at night.

The weather is getting a little bit cooler so we went for walk each morning this weekend and on one of our walks we saw the littlest frogs. Mike picked one up and Ava wanted to hold it, so we put it in her hand.

This morning was nice enough that I took the kids to the park first thing and they had a blast. 

I love watching them run from behind! So Stinkin' Cute!

Since going, dairy free, I started making my own ice cream and loving it. I bought an ice cream maker and some great recipes. I also make the best dairy free chocolates. 

Ice cream cheers!

Pictures

I have gotten some great pictures of the kids lately and I wanted to share.....

Ava reading to Noah at Grammie's house

Noah going for a ride on daddy

A rare picture: all four of us

Noah taking part in Ava's hoarding. It was a whimzy toy party

Playing dress up: Ava found her footed fleece pj's that she wants to put on everyday and Noah wanted a cooking apron like mom had on

Does it get any better than that!

Ava is 3 1/2 Years Old

Our Aves is 3 1/2 years old today.  She is silly, strong willed, smart, caring and curious.  She continues to challenge us and herself daily.

Her stats:
Height: 39"
Weight: 35.1 lbs
Cuteness: a million gazillion
Known jokes: 2
Amount of items she has put on her body at one time: ummm at least 8

Isn't that the cutest smile!!1

Ava loves to play with her brother Noah. But she also likes her alone time. She will boss Noah around and he will do as she says. Many times he copies her. Ummm, which means he now climbs on the top of the kitchen table. mom fail!

She loves to read. 

She loves to hoard.

She loves to dance and sing.

She makes up stories.

She collects rocks.

She loves to color.

She loves going to school.

She loves to ask a bajillion questions.

She loves to be in charge.

Ava loves to play doctor with her animals. She is so caring with them. 

She loves to pull all her toys out and collect them in an area. 

She still has bobo, but he doesn't have to go everywhere with her any more.

She has been having trouble sleeping through the night lately.  She is still waking up 1 time a night, usually to go potty. 

Her new love is Turkey Avocado sandwiches.

We love her with everything we have and are so lucky to have he in our life. She brings so much joy to our life. I love to listen to her stories. They are so amazing and creative. 

Can't wait to watch her grow up and be an amazing women!

Ava's First Day of School...EVER

August 7,2012 was Ava's first day of school. She started preschool. I was so nervous for her. I didn't know how she would do. She has never been away from me and she has only been watched by family with a short stint with our nanny, Amanda.

Here she is: (this is the best I could do. I didn't want to push it)

And you know what? She did great. I did great. We all did great. I brought her to school. We played on the playground and then washed our hands. When the bell rang, she lined up and her teacher purell-ed her hands, I gave her a hug and off she went. She was a bit hesitant, but I told her that I would be back to pick her up. They had a meet the other parents thing in another room that I went to for an hour. On my way out, she was having outdoor play time. I asked her how she was doing and she said she was having fun. I told her Noah and I would be back in an hour to pick her up, gave her a high five and off we went. 

When I picked her up, she said she had so much fun and couldn't wait to go back. Success. Let's hope most days are like this.

It was the first day of the next 18 years of her life (if she does a 4 year college)~~

1 year, 52 weeks, 365 days...

Why is this number significant? Well, there are 2 reasons.

First, I have been working out consistently for almost that long. On September 18,2011 I decided that I wanted to make myself accountable for working out. So, being the type A personality that I am, I created a spreadsheet that had 8 weeks on it.

Let me back track a minute. I have always worked out. I love doing it. But, something would always happen around that 4-8 week time period that I would stop doing it consistently or take weeks off. You know, that time right when you are about to see the results of your hard work. Anyway, I knew that if I had to cross that day off with what I did, I was more likely to keep up with it. I didn't want to be filling in the squares with "day off." So I started working out. I would track my weights, reps and any cardio that I did. I found several workouts online that I followed along to switch it up. (Right now I am 4 weeks into following tighterassetsbytk.blogspot.com. She posts a workout everyday of the week for a Monday thru Friday workout. I love it because it is plyometrics with some weight training too. Check her out. It is tough, but I set my timer and just keep chugging along and one day a week, I go back to an old workout to see if I can improve my time or reps).

Back to now. Here I am at the end of week 47 and I have only once taken 3 days off in a row and that was post Thanksgiving weekend, but I did so much shopping that I think it made up for it. I always take 1 day off as a rest day, but workout the other 6. It is now just a part of my life. I read somewhere that it takes something like 21 days for something to become a habit. And it is now for me. I just feel better when I workout and I feel tired on the days I don't. Can you say Endorphins?!?!

Here is what my first 8 week sheet looked like. I have them all saved and still use them today!

Another reason this number WILL become significant is that my doctor wants me to go gluten-free, egg-free and dairy free for a YEAR.  I think I almost passed out when he suggested it. Right now I think I am going to make short term goals for this, because it is a huge change and I don't like change. If I can do it until Christmas which is only 4 1/2 months then I will be happy. And, if I feel good after doing that, which I know that I will, I will continue on to 6 months and the ultimate goal will be 1 year. He said that after a year, our bodies are more accepting of the food allergen and I can integrate it back in my diet.It is as if my body forgets that it didn't like it. I think the only hard thing will be giving up pizza. I love love love pizza. I have researched other ways to sub out dairy and am going to try soy yogurt, because I love greek yogurt too. Let's hope that I can do it.

Just Chuggin' Along

Bad blogger back again with some fun updates on us.

I wanted to start with last night. We had our FIRST parents orientation for Ava's school. We checked in and brought her into a nursery while we sat through orientation. We weren't sure how it all was going to go down. We brought her into the room and she was in there with only 4 other kids, but we were early. As time went on, more and more and more kids showed up. We told her we would be back and we left. Mike went back in about 5 minutes later to see how she was doing and I guess she had just started to cry and asking for us. Mike stayed with her to settle her and told her he was going to leave and come back. He did just that. She was better that time. Overall we were gone for about 30 minutes total. By the end, she was so excited to have met the Nursery school teacher. Then we went down to her classroom and met her teacher and saw her classroom. She officially starts on Tuesday. There is a get to know the other parents meet and greet for the first hour and half of school on Tuesday. This is so parents can drop their kids off and be close by, but not right with them. The director will check up on them for us and IF I have to, I can go and say hi. I am hoping that she will do ok. I will update you all.

Noah's newest fear is shiny floors that reflect the light from above. I first noticed that he was scared at the ice cream shop, but pushed it off as nothing. Then we went to the mall and the same thing happened, he would start to cry when we put him down to walk.

We bought a new car. A 2013 Hyundai Elentra last weekend. The Saab gave us a good 9 years and 121,000 miles. The air conditioner was the deciding factor. It would decide when it wanted to work and when it didn't. Mike is working a job in Gila Bend (about 2 hours from here) and two weeks ago on his way home at 3 in the afternoon and 108 degrees outside it decided not to work. It was just time. I know that some major repairs where on their way and I just want him safe when he is driving, which is all the time. If we can keep this car in good shape, it will hopefully be Ava's. It is paid off and repairs shouldn't be as expensive as the Saab or Volvo were.

White, the only color you can get in AZ

Mike had the day laborers help him wash the Saab the morning before we bought the Elentra.

Noah loves to pour water on everything. He will be quiet with a sippy cup, just pouring water out on whatever he wants. Gah!! What a mess!

Noah has learned 3 new "tricks": Shocked face, Thinking face and Muscles.

Shocked

Muscles

Thinking

Noah also has a new friend: Pinkie (I know, I hate the name as soon as I said it, but it has stuck)

Ava loves playing Doctor. She really needs a good/nice doctor set. She is always telling me what is "wrong" with her animals and calls Dr. Noah over to help her. The funniest thing by far was one day she had one of her stuffed animals, squirrel, and a blue bucket. She told me that Squirrel was throwing up. She kept telling squirrel that it was ok, just throw up in the bucket. 

Ava is also really obsessed with Noah's poops. She has been for a while, but she always wants to go with us when I change his diaper and see it. Then she says "mama, he has a rash. Look!" So now Noah always says rash when we go to change his diaper.

I have to get video of Noah saying "I do". It is the cutest thing. She says it kinda like a hillbilly. I duuuahh.

I went to a doctor about a month ago to check out my hormone levels and he ran a bunch of tests. Turns out, I don't have any Testosterone or Progesterone, so I have decided to get Testosterone shots and take Progesterone pills to see if it will even my hormones out. The doctor also said that he thinks I have a food allergy. So I did an Elimination Diet. Basically for 2 weeks, I cut out common foods that are known to cause food allergies. I was basically eating gluten free, sugar free, dairy free and all natural. I ate lots of fruits, veggies, chicken and nuts. Then after 2 weeks, I added in a food every other day until I got them all in. I would add a food in for one day and then couldn't have it again until I was all done. I got through most of them and then just couldn't do it any more. I did find out that I am allergic to eggs, dairy and wheat. I have a slight allergy to peanuts, but not sure if something else was bothering me that day. I go back on Monday to follow up from this. I am not going to completely eliminate the food allergens, but I am going to cut back dramatically. I just can't go without my protein.I am ADDICTED to greek yogurt. It was a very eye opening experience. I found that I am cranky, tired and bloated when I eat the food on the "bad list". I also just have that overall yucky feeling sometimes right after eating it. More to come. It definitely took, taking the bad foods out and then adding them back in to realize how good I felt without them and how bad I feel eating them.