Ava & Mila

Hi. It’s me again, Ava. I’m watching sea lions swim at the Aquarium of the Pacific. It’s so blue down here.

Hello.

Sea.

Lion.

You are…

…freaking me out a little bit.

See ya!

Hi. I’m Ava and I got to visit the Aquarium of the Pacific in Long Beach.

I don’t know if you know this but I love fish.

So, Mama, Dada and Marko took me to my first aquarium.

I had fun looking a tiny fish.

I had fun looking at medium fish.

I had fun looking at BIG fish too!

Until they got too close. The BIG fish made me run away and scream for Mama. Stop smiling. You would run for your mama too if you saw a fish twice your size swimming above your head.

We also got to go outside to watch sea lions sleep and bark at each other.

Hey Marko. What are you looking at?

Sharks?

Cool!

I also got to touch my first starfish…

… and we tried to touch rays too but the water was too deep for my short arms.

The aquarium also had lorikeets. They were really LOUD and gave me ouchie ears.
Huh? Did you say something? Speak up!

Hi. I’m Ava and my Dada wants a kiss.

Should I give him one?

Nah!

Just kidding. I love you Dada.

Hi. I’m Ava and I like petting horses.

Even if I only get to pet its legs. Even if it is made out of concrete. After all, a horse is a horse.

Hi there. Ava is now 88 weeks old.

Clap clap clap.

Early in the week, Ava had some issues sleeping. She woke up screaming her head off, as if she just had a nightmare or something. So I brought her in bed with us, where she tossed and turned for a good 3 hours. Here she is in the morning, sleeping with her Dada. We had her sleeping in her pack ‘n play in our room for a few weeks now. She needs to sleep with all the windows open to help settle her nighttime coughing bouts. By the end of the week, her coughing was under control and she was back in her own room.

This is Ava’s signature hair do at school. It’s the only way I can keep her bangs out of her face. And forget about using hair clips. They are long gone by the time we pick her up from school. And speaking of pick-up time, Ava always asks for ‘agua’ when she sees us so we have to remember to bring her sippy cup with us. And if we don’t, we get a million agua questions on the car ride home and that’s fun for no one. Trust me.

Ava started to get attached to her sunglasses this week. She had to wear them coming into daycare and leaving daycare. In the mornings before I leave, I ask her if she wants me to put them in my purse so she won’t lose them and she mostly says yes. But sometimes she wants to wear them all day, even at breakfast time. Everyone makes comments when they see Ava walking down the daycare halls with her shades… ‘oh how cute’… ‘oh my kid won’t wear sunglasses’… ‘look who’s cool’.

Most of Ava’s older friends moved up to the next classroom, including her best friend Ava R. We found her this week at the fence, screaming for Ava R. In a couple more months, Ava will be moved to the older classroom too. But for now, she gets to enjoy being the oldest kid in her classroom.

One of the bad things about daycare is that the kids have to fight over toys, especially since they don’t get the concept of sharing yet. Imagine one doll and 8 kids. Sounds like a headache. And even though Ava is now the oldest in her classroom, she still needs to claim her territory there by saying ‘mine’. Her use of the word ‘mine’ and ‘my’ is at an all time high for her. When we drive up to the house, Ava yells ‘my kuča’ which means ‘my house’ from the back seat. She even says it to Yoda if Yoda gets too close to her toys. That’s the one word Dan and I made sure we did not teach her at home… which is shooting us in the foot now. Maybe we should of taught her how to say ‘mine’ in Croatian so people wouldn’t understand her… and we wouldn’t be so embarrassed when she yells ‘mine’ in public. Mine!

And she is still slapping us. She even whacked Dan unexpectedly with her sippy cup… in his face…ouch. It wasn’t pretty. Ava started to say sorry on her own after her incidents but it hasn’t stopped her from doing it again. So, we are trying a new technique. We are asking her to tickle us instead of hitting us after the first incident. It’s working okay so far. Just okay. So, if you have any suggestions for us, please add a comment at the end of this post. Please.

Ava’s starting to get more and more concepts these days. What? Babies learn. Oh yes they do. Here she is telling us that there is a mouse in the tunnel or ‘miš tunnel’ as she would say it.

She also started insisting that she take off her shoes at the front door, as her Mama and Dada do, before entering the house.

She started to cover her eyes with her hand when the sun hits her face… which is very helpful in the car when I drive her to school. This time of year, the sun is rising as we drive to daycare and it hits her right in the eye. She used to scream ‘ohoh Ava’ from the backseat and I tried to create a shadow on her face with my arm. Not safe driving, I know, but she says ‘ohoh Ava’. What I am to do? So now I ask her to cover her eyes and the ohoh Ava’s stop.

She also figured out how to balance items on her upper lip by pretending to smell lemons. She loves to balance her bubble wand in the bath tub and give herself a play-doh mustache.

One of Ava’s funny new words of the week is ‘Super Buddy’. At first, she started to scream superman and she ran through the house with her arms behind her. Yes, I said behind her. It’s waaaaay more fun than putting your arms in front of you like the real superman. Try it. You’ll see. Anyways, superman somehow morphed into super buddy and it stuck. Hmmm. I just got an idea for the perfect next homemade toy idea. Make a homemade cape with a picture of Uncle Buddy on it. Heehee. I’m a frickin genius!

This blog post is long. I would recommend that you do some eye exercises for 10 seconds and then resume reading. I can’t afford any lawsuits right now. Or ever.

Ava started reading a little bit to her favorite toy of the week, her medo bear. She told him to sit down and made sure to introduce him to Dora. And then after a couple minutes, she looked at him, pulled her book away and screamed ‘mine’. Oh geez mareez.

We have a Curious George book that is all about opposites. Ava thinks it’s silly. Especially when he goes UP the wall and DOWN the wall. Hilarious, huh? So, our lesson of the week is teaching her happy and sad. Here is her happy face…

… and here is her sad face.

But one of the milestones Ava is supposed to reach soon is zipping up zippers. Zipping it over her belly I suspect is going to slow down this milestone a bit. I even have trouble sometimes. I think we need to start buying 3T. But at least she started calling zippers ‘zippers’ instead of ‘buckles’.

At the mall, Ava spotted the merry-go-round from a mile away so we put her on the duck, per her request. And as expected, she was so serious the entire time. Dan was determined to make her smile. He ran and ran in circles dancing and making silly faces and she finally smiled. Good job Dan! Not only did Ava smile, so did the ENTIRE FRICKIN mall.

After the merry-go-round, Ava went into the mall playground. This is the second time for Ava to play in these types of things. The first time, she was too small and every other time we see one of these, I turn into a germaphobe. She gets sick way too much thanks to daycare, she doesn’t need more germs, thank you. But I must of been still bright red from the crowds forming around us to watch Dan dance around the merry-go-round, that I caved in and let her loose. Things were going fine until other kids showed up and Ava yelled ‘my slide’ and ‘my boat’ over and over again.

Over the weekend, Ava and I had a wonderful girls lunch breakfast with our friend Brenda. Our waiter was nice enough to take our picture but wouldn’t do so until he cleaned up the table first.

And of course, no weekend is complete without some princess time. Here are Grace and Ava riding horses through the house. We didn’t have the heart to tell Ava that she was actually riding a bunny rabbit.

As soon as they see a blanket or a tent, they hide and scream for the Dada Monster to come get them.

Silly girls.

Have a great weekend and thanks for visiting!

Hi. I’m Ava and I need help with a little disagreement I am having with my Mama.

What do you think is better for eating yogurt?

Mama says a spoon is better for yogurt…

… and I say fingers are better for yogurt. What do you think?

You’re right. Fingers are better. I WIN!

Hi. I’m Ava and I don’t like the share.

Not even with my cousin Nathan. Mine!

But Mama convinced me that sharing is nice. Blah blah blah. So I gave Nathan a toy that I didn’t want to play with anyways.

And guess what? He left me alone for a bit so I could read with his mommy.

I guess Nathan isn’t so bad after all.

He likes knocking over blocks just like me.

And smiling too. This might be the very first time we are actually smiling at the same time. It’s a miracle.

More more more!

I love you Nathan. Let’s hug.

What? No Nathan. Get off of my dress.

WAH! I knew this sharing thing was a BAD idea.