Ava & Mila

Ahoy mate! Ava is now 71 week old.

Let’s start off this week’s blog right. Kaka. Yup. That is Ava’s one and only word for this week. She says kaka when she has a poopy diaper. Sometimes. Not always. Kaka.

Ava is not allowed to touch keyboards or remote controls. Not because she will break them in half. But because she will mess up our tivo recordings. And that WOULD be a disaster. A real disaster.

Ava has a new trick that never fails to make her laugh out loud. Lifting one foot out of the tub water. She is so silly.

As you could probably tell from the nice and clean tub in the above picture, we were not home this past weekend. No 1920′s porcelain tub with plastic walls for Ava. Our first stop was at her Nona and Dida’s house to enjoy Nathan’s Birthday Party and to feed her favorite budgie, Little Buddy.

Eat it, Little Buddy. Eat it!

Ava had fun being chased by her duck toy there. She ran and ran until her Nona and I were exhausted.

And was Ava exhausted? Nope. Here she is asking for more. Can you tell Nona is pooped out on the couch?

Present wrapping would not be any fun without tape mustaches.

Putting it on was just as much fun as taking it off herself and others.

Ava also had a chance to visit with Dan’s family in the OC. Here is Ava with her Aunt Catherine after a big lunch.

Ava made sure to save her fortune cookie for DiDi. Woof Woof.

Ava made a friend with their newly adopted 8 week old white kitten named Iceberg.

Ava had fun luring Iceberg with cat toys.

And when that didn’t work, Ava got up and tried to grab her like a mama cat. Ouch.

I couldn’t resist this blurry action shot. Ava is used to chasing Yoda but that was not the case with Iceberg. He actually chased her around and Ava loved it.

I love you Iceberg…

…but stop grabbing my socks.

On Memorial Day, Dan and I celebrated our 6 year anniversary. The sky cleared up and we decided to check out the waves at a beach down the street. Who needs the Bacara? Not me. Well, maybe a little.

As soon as we sat down, Ava started with her ‘what’s that?’ questioning. Well, I guess I can’t say that it started when we first sat down since it hasn’t actually stopped in the last two months or so.

As soon as I repeated ‘sand’ ten times, we noticed that it was a bit too windy for the beach and needed to make other plans quick. Nice blond highlights Ava.

So, plan B was to take out Dan’s little dingy into Ventura Harbor. This was Ava’s first time on a boat that actually wasn’t parked in a slip. She was very quiet and observant during the first leg of our sea adventure. She was probably not amused with her life jacket that kept riding up to her chin.

But once we reached our destination, she was back to her old self. What’s that?

What’s that?

We enjoyed a picnic and had some fabulous carrot cake. Yummy.

Ava thought it was so yummy that she needed to share it with this screaming seagull. Hmmm. I guess she learned a thing or two during our hourly baby bird feedings back at home.

We were actually prepared for our trip to the mall a few days ago. I had four whole quarters. That meant Ava actually rode the Merry Go Round in circles and didn’t have to just sit on the duck. I thought I should get a mom of the year award for it but it backfired on me. I got the worst mom of the year award instead for not having four more quarters.

Here is Ava playing gently with her koala bear. Everything was going smoothly until she pulled the baby koala bear out of the arms of the mama koala bear.

She ran across the room like a bullet, stared at the disaster and cried. Poor thing. It took a while to convince her that she didn’t break anything.

On Thursday, Dan and I were unable to pick up Ava at her usual time due to a meeting that ran late. I didn’t think Ava would notice since she doesn’t have a cool calculator watch yet. But boy was I wrong. When it was 20 minutes past her usually pick up time, Ava ran to the classroom door and started crying Mama. Mama Mama Mama. So to distract her from our lateness, they took her to the ball pit located in the Village. And when we finally showed up, an hour late, Ava didn’t want to leave.

The ball pit might be WAY more fun than Mama but it doesn’t get hugs like I do. Take that, balls!! Ava has been clingy this week. She asks for a lot of reassuring hugs. I don’t think it a phase. I think she might be teething.

Her hand has been in her mouth a lot this week. I bet those last four molars are going to hurt.

Good thing Ava loves trains because they pass by our house several times a day. As soon as we hear them, we run outside or to the window so Ava can see them. She says choo choo and when they leave she asks for more. Dan and I stopped hearing them a few days after we moved into this house. But now we are aware of them again. Not because we are annoyed but because Ava loves trains.

Alright. See you next week. It’s time for our Dora backpack race. Bye!

Hi. Guess what?

I went to Nathan’s first birthday party this weekend.

And I got to wear a party hat.

I had fun drinking with my Uncle David.

And eating chips with my Barba Frank.

But I didn’t have fun when I had to share a book with Ian.

Sharing is stupid.

I got to crawl through Nathan’s fish tunnel.

But wasn’t too happy when others used it.

But when the coast was clear, I was happy again.

Suckas!

All the kids sat around Nathan and his cake for a group photo.

I don’t know why Ian loves squeezing my cheeks.

Wahhhh. Everyone look at me. I’m mad and sad. Hands off Ian.

Things got fun again when it was present time.

And it was really fun when I stole Nathan’s new piano right from under his nose.

Don’t tell anyone, ok?

Welcome. Our little Ava is now 70 weeks old and she is as sweet as can be.

Hmmm, I hope we didn’t just jinx anything. I’m knocking on my fake wood desk right now with the hand that doesn’t have the finger that does all the typing.

Our week began with a new word. Book. Ava loves books and reading them but she doesn’t like it too much when one lands on her toes. Ouch!

To get her mind off of her throbbing pinky toe, she grabbed her favorite hat…

…and did a silly dance on the boat docks, in order to wish her Dada a safe sailing trip. Another new word this week is boat. When I point it out in her books, she says boat and then makes sure she says Dada while nodding her head.

Since Dada had plans with the boys, Ava made plans with the girls. It truly was a girls weekend and one that took me down memory lane too. Our first stop was Alice Keck Park in Santa Barbara. When I lived off of Victoria street a few years back, this was the park that Rudy and I would walk to in order to enjoy our days off together. I would read magazines in the shade next to the pond and Rudy would take a most deserved nap next to me, occasionally rubbing her back into the cool grass, stretching her head as far as it would go to get a good sniff that would eventually lead to a sneeze. Bless you Rudy. And so, now it was my turn to take Ava to our park in order to enjoy our day off together. But instead of back rubs and sneezes, we stared at the koi fish, turtles and ducks that occupied the pond.

Thanks to all the turtles in the pond (and to the bath book that got her to say bubble), Ava started to say turtle. The way she says it is just the cutest thing you might ever hear. And after she says it, she makes the best smiley face. We are proud of you too Ava. Tur-tle.

And since it was a girls only weekend, Grace knew how important good hair was this special occasion… so she took it upon herself to spruce up Ava’s pigtails.

Our girls weekend continued with a day down in the valley because it was decided that a mini UCSB reunion was long overdue. So, Nicole, Charlene and I got to reminisce over the crazy times we had together in college… spring break at the Rockadile, getting Mike D’s drumstick, Honda sunroofs, and a lot of other secrets I won’t be spilling on this blog. But what I will talk about is how Ava got to meet Camilla. They hit it off right away. And why wouldn’t they? Camilla is so sweet. Don’t you just love their expressions in this photo. hehe.

They had a blast playing Candyland together.

Well, they were not really ‘playing together’. Camilla did most of the playing and Ava did most of the shoving the stepping stones into her mouth. Sorry for the slobber ladies.

Ava also got to see what a real princess bed looks like in person, yellow snake and all.

During our visit, it was hard not to notice that Ava and Dora had a lot of similarities.

And here she is making out with herself Dora . I’m not sure what made Ava stick every toy in her mouth during this visit. Maybe the heat got to her. Oh, we can add another word to the list. She says ‘Da’ for Dora.

Since our mini reunion fell on a heat wave weekend, we were glad to have a chance to dip our feet into the pool. And congrats again to Charlene for the two baby girls that are growing so beautifully inside of her. We can’t wait to meet them. And I’m crossing my fingers that they will be named Charlene and Marlene. hehe.

Back at home, Ava likes peeking out of all our windows in order to ask ‘what’s that?’. Although, she doesn’t exactly say it like that. It sounds more like a combination of ‘what’s that’ and ‘sto je to’, which is the Croatian version.

Ava has spent a lot less time with the neighbor’s cats this week because of the fighting. Not between Ava and the cats but with Yoda and the cats. They started attacking each other through our screens as soon as we open the windows for some fresh air. So, we have kindly asking the cats to leave our yard once we notice Yoda getting upset.

And we got another batch of four baby finches this week. Some guy didn’t want these babies pooping near his porch…. so we had to remove them from his porch light… as the babies’ parents watched us kidnap their children. So sad. It is illegal to bother or adopt native birds in our country. But some people won’t hear it. So instead of having this man throw the babies away himself, we took them so they would have a chance at life. Taking care of baby birds is time consuming and occasionally heartbreaking, but one of the things that is so important to me as a mother is to show Ava how to be kind and giving, to animals and people alike… and teaching by example is the perfect way to help instill these qualities.

I let Ava pretend she was feeding the older finches this week. Everything went smoothly until one escaped and landed on her head. Let’s just say that the experience left her in tears, even after I placed the bird on my head to show her that it wasn’t going to harm anyone. Don’t worry. She is not scared for life. At the next feeding, Ava jumped back onto the horse and tried to feed them again… but she did give them the evil eye when they were trying to escape once again.

Ava likes to giggle when we do unexpected things for the first time. Like hair bands on our wrists as bracelets… or putting socks on our hands. Hehe. Here she is pulling them off like a wild animal.

Ava said a couple more words this week on top of the ones above. Poo for Winnie the Pooh and koko for chicken (kokoš). Here she is showing off her new skills to her Nona on the phone.

I went to the dentist this week and came home with a new toothbrush not only for me and my tartar build-up but also for Ava. It is a pink toothbrush with a princess on it. Cinderella, i think. Ava loves it. When I gave it to her for the first time, her eyes got sooo wide.

She is only allowed to hold it while in the bathroom or while sitting down somewhere else in the house. To let us know that she wants her princess toothbrush, Ava sticks her tongue out and moves it rapidly from left to right. It is hilarious. I guess Ava decided that toothbrush is a pretty tough word to say.

Ava went nuts for broccoli this week. She preferred to eat the little trees whole instead of having them cut up. And if you ask Ava if she wants to eat or if she wants to help feed Yoda or the birds, she smacks her lips. She is so silly.

At daycare, the teachers fill out a Toddler Link for Ava everyday. It tells us how much she ate, what activities she did that day, how many wet or poopy diapers she had, etc. In the mood section, happy and active is checked off every day, but this week Ava had her first talkative day. Yippee. I guess I shouldn’t be surprised since this week she had the most new words… 6 in total.

Ever since Ava moved up to the toddler classroom, we haven’t gotten as many stories from the teachers on her behavior since we were told that she is a bit shy and likes to dance. But not this week. Her teacher informed us that Ava tried to bite one of the other girls in the class and got in a fight over a toy with another. The teacher thinks it is because Ava is hanging out with the older kids in the classroom and has learned to be a bit more aggressive in order to keep up with them. And the reason Ava has been hanging out with the older kids is because she is soooo popular. Popular? Lol. I guess they ask for Ava to come over to their side to play. Lol. Why am I laughing? Hmm, because I secretly don’t want a popular kid. Dan and I were/are both dorks. I don’t know what to do with a ‘cool’ kid. I’m freaking out right now.

Ava has been contemplating her future this week too.

She can’t decide if she is going to grow up to be a professional chapstick applier…

…or grow up to become Scrooge McDuck. Duck tales, Woohoo!

This week our little Ava turned 16 months old!

And what was Ava doing at the exact minute she was turning 16 months old? Ummm, getting ready for her afternoon nap with her prairie doggy.

We got this prairie doggy for her from the Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum during our Tucson road trip back in January. It kept her company in the hospital and she has slept with it ever since. If I forget to hand it to Ava when I lay her down in the crib, she says oh-oh. I know it is not safe to sleep with soft things in the crib so don’t worry. This thing is more like a football than a stuffed toy. And she holds it like one too.

So our week started off wonderfully. We decided to head out of town with our Tab trailer to the San Clemente State Beach camping grounds. This place is booked months in advance, as it should be, since it is just a few short steps from the ocean. We luckily found a last minute reservation, probably due to the fact that it was mother’s day weekend. We set-up our new gently used tent attachment to the trailer and it worked beautifully as play room.

Ava had a blast playing on the beach with her friends, Briar and Eli. They all took turns destroying the sand castles we constructed, or as they call it ‘being Godzilla’.

Ava was pretty quiet at the beach. Her eye infection flared up again and she had a little bit of a runny nose. Here she is watching Briar and Eli…

…watching them being silly boys.

But once they started rolling down a tiny sandhill, Ava couldn’t just sit and watch any longer. Weee.

The hillside at the campground is made of sandstone, which is not as sturdy as you would think. This sandstone carves away pretty easily. Check out our little explorers in this cave. There were tons of names carved into it. Ava looks pretty focused. I wonder if she will be the next Indiana Jones. hehe.

Ava discovered that if she sat down and pushed with her legs, she could ‘slide’ down the sand hill. Here she is asking Nicole for ‘more’ sliding please.

And she was more than happy to comply.

During our first night camping, Ava developed a serious cough that sounded like a seal barking. In the morning, it was pretty obvious that she some trouble breathing so we were off the the emergency room again. No joke. This is our 3rd attempt at camping with our trailer and our 2nd visit to the ER. It ends up that Ava had croup, which she caught at daycare the week before. The doctors monitored her for a couple hours, gave her a steroid injection and breathing treatment, and then sent us on our way. So, once again our trip got cut short, and once again our ‘budget’ vacation wasn’t so budget anymore. Is this a sign? I don’t know. But we are not going to give up just yet. We have to try camping one more time I think before we sell the trailer and sign up for a spa getaway at a 5-star resort.

So after being at the campground for less than 24 hours, we packed up our belongings (well, Dan did most of the packing because I was the supervisor) and we headed back home. We stopped by my parents house for a few hours to exchange mother’s day gifts and to break up the long drive home. Here is Ava giggling at her Dida who decided to take a quick snooze on the carpet. Must of been a rough day playing bocce ball.

Ava also had a chance to eat some homemade chicken soup with her Nona.

Yummy for my tummy

The next morning was Mother’s Day and we had a little change in plans. No putting on cute dresses and going birdwatching for these ladies. Ava got a 103 fever that we could not break. She did not want to do anything but be by my side. So we sat on the couch, watched cartoons and napped together all day. This continued into Monday too. I got so many hugs and snuggles in those two days. When no good cartoons were on, I introduced Ava to ‘Rob and Big’. And when the episode ended, she asked for ‘more’. How great is that! We’re best friends too.

Ava’s new words and tricks didn’t expand too much this week thanks to her croup. She did get her 16th tooth (top right canine) sometime in the past few weeks. And when you ask Ava to say a new word, she sometimes does and says something funny instead. But other times when you ask her to say a word that seems too difficult, she shrugs her shoulders instead.

But we did have a couple new animals sounds this week. Grr for bear and roar for a lion.

I bought her this new puzzle made for two year olds and up and she does pretty well with it.

The animals end up in the general vicinity but don’t always make it in the cut-out… or even right-side up.

Ava helped Yoda celebrate a big day on Thursday… and not only by invading her personal space…

but by trying to scream “Happy 6th Birthday Yoda!” too.

Last week we released our 3rd hummingbird of the season and this week we have four baby house finches with us. They are still pretty small and need to be fed with a syringe every 90 minutes or so. When I tell Ava that it is bird feeding time, she walks over to their basket, sits on the floor and then patiently watches me feed all four. Here she is trying to feed one a binder clip that is meant to secure them in their basket instead.

Oh oh. I just got a call that the paparazzis are outside my house again. Damn this popular blog.

Thanks to this blog, I can’t go anywhere without getting recognized…. unless I wear a spinach mustache…

…or these new shades.

Are they gone yet?

Ava loves to ride the rocking horse at day care. When she starts rocking you think she’s gonna fling herself right off of the saddle! Here is a little video of her riding one day last week when we went to go pick her up in the afternoon. Check out the hairdo!

Peek-a-boo. Ava is now 68 weeks old!

Ava’s week started off with a couple vaccinations in her thighs. She screamed ‘babababababa’ for a few seconds but recuperated pretty quickly once she saw that her band-aids complemented her outfit quite nicely.

Ava is not one to hold grudges. The very next morning, she started to blow kisses to us from her car seat. It must of been part of Friday’s lesson plan. Here is her kiss action shot just after she says bye-bye. On Monday during daycare pick up, most of the kids were blowing kisses to us as we left the room. Too cute.

At home, Ava started placing her sheep on her bike seat…

…and giving it a tour around the living room.

She also started to make a lot more silly faces, which never fails to crack us up.

In the kitchen, Ava likes to lean against the oven door and bump it with her behind. My little troublemaker.

Over the weekend, we ventured to the local park. Ava tolerates the swings for a minute or so now…

…but still thinks they are boooooring. Not me. Swings are fun. Weeee.

Forget the swings. Slides are way more fun for Ava, especially with her buddy Grace.

Go Grace!

Go Ava!

Ava still really enjoys playing with the neighbor’s cats.

She doesn’t need to try too hard to get their attention.

And having them both there at the same time was a real treat.

Speaking of cats, we bought Yoda a new bed which she happens to think is possessed by the devil. But not Ava. Ava loves dragging it off of the couch and using it as a seat as she plays with Tad and his barn. A duck cow?

And when she is not using it as a seat, Ava uses it as her boat. No, I did not set up this shot. This was all Ava. Fantastic, right? If you don’t have an Ava in your life, you better put your order in now. They sell fast!

Ok. Now for the new words of the week. One of Ava’s new words is shoes. Well, it doesn’t come out sounding exactly like shoes. She pronounces it as choose. As soon as she wakes up, she lifts her pajama covered feet and repeats choose over and over again. Hehe. She also is saying Nana a bunch too. Not sure what it means. I mention Nona and banana when she says it but I don’t get a positive response back so hopefully that mystery will be solved soon so we can add it to her word list.

And next of the list is Elmo and cracker. Ava doesn’t have an Elmo doll or watch cartoons but gets to see him everyday during her diaper changes. And cracker came out of left field and made our day. It sounds like quack-er. I’m giggling now just thinking about it.

One of Ava’s new traits that popped up this week is a slight case of the whines. Not sure if this is part of the terrible twos you hear about or just a little fussiness from her shots early in the week.. We are trying to not react to her when she does this and are hoping that it will pass as quickly as it showed up. Sounds naive, i know, but we believe in tiny miracles.

So here is proof of her whining. Someone became upset when I removed the scrunchie she got at school out of her hair. Ignoring her whining is pretty difficult when you are fighting a smile. This picture reminds me of my seventh grade class photo. I said seventh grade, not sixth grade. Stop giggling. I said stop.

Ava still loves our daily routine of feeding the hummingbirds. She is in charge of holding the bucket of food for me as we walk from the back porch to the aviary. Here she is on the morning we set our third baby of the season free. Oh, and another new trick this week is that Ava started making smacking sounds when you ask her if she is hungry or ask her to help feed the animals.

Do you know what the worst part of never carrying cash in your wallet is? When your kid wants to ride on the mini-carousal and you don’t have any quarters for it and she has to sit still in a duck as you repeat sorry to her over and over again. Oh, and by the way, this thing would of cost us four quarters. One whole dollar! Geez, I didn’t even spend that much to play Dragon’s Lair. And Dragon’s Lair was fancy. And I’m old. And no one knows what I am talking about. Just pretend this paragraph ended at ‘One whole dollar!’.

Want to know why Ava sitting on some other kid’s blankie while reading a book is funny?

Because everyone else in her class was dancing at that moment.

I don’t have all the facts yet but I think Ava might have a tiny crush on Max.

Dan’s freaked out by this new development so he brought out the trailer and is going to get Ava’s mind off of Max with a weekend far away from him. Good try Dan. Good try.

Ava loves to dance. Especially when she hears music. When her Mama sings one of her favorite songs, Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star, she can’t help but to twist her hands in the air and step her feet to the rhythm. Her Mama might be embarrassed by her singing but looks like there is someone who doesn’t mind it for a single second

(Yes, that is Alton Brown in the background trying to teach Dada how to make her a pizza pie from scratch.)