What’s going on up there?
Oh yeah. Happy birthday Anthony! Happy sweet sixteen!
Nathan and I were supposed to help blow out the candles but we thought staring at the cake was way more fun.
What? I get to taste this chocolate masterpiece. I love sugar!
I love sugar because it makes me want to dance. Turn up the music!
Hi. I’m Ava and you caught me trying to break into Anthony and Marko’s Playhouse.
Hey Dida. Come here.
What? You don’t have the key. Go ask someone else if they have a key.
Wah. Not Nathan. He doesn’t have the key either.
Oh good. He’s gone. If I keep twisting the door knob, I’m sure it will open magically. Right?
Oh Barba Frank! You saved the day. I knew all those mustache tickles would pay off one of these days.
What are the chances of finding Dora in here? None? Ok, I’ll settle for the soccer trophy. Go Mako Sharks!
Ava asked me to take a picture of her while sitting on this planter box ledge. As soon as I pull out the camera and ask her to say ‘cheese’, she takes off running.
Not only did I fall for it once, but I fell for it a second time. Who says we get smarter with age?
Wanna see something gross? Well, it’s too late to say no. You have no choice. Here is a x-ray of Dan’s right arm. 1 plate. 6 screws.
Wanna see something even more gross? No, not the tape covering his long incision… but the little hole to the left of it. That’s where the bone popped out and said hello.
Hello there. Our little Ava is now 20 months old. Yeah!
And I’m sure you all are wondering what she was doing at the exact second she turned 20 months old. Well, she was passed out at school. Really passed out. Poor thing. We found her sleeping on her mat, with one shoe off, with kids yelling and playing all around her.
As soon as we woke her up from her nap, she asked for milk… as she always does.
Since her nap extended an hour longer than the other kids today, she missed snack time but her teachers made sure to save her a couple cookies.
Over the weekend, we drove to San Pedro in order to take Ava to the Long Beach Aquarium…
… and to celebrate Anthony’s sweet sixteen with cake and candles.
In order to get ready for the party, we went to the Del Amo Fashion Center to buy Anthony a birthday gift. And to keep Ava’s nap time on schedule, we arrived just before the stores opened. So, we hung out on these wooden lounge chairs in front of the Urban Outfitters as we waited for the doors to open.
But Ava didn’t think they were wooden lounge chairs at all. She climbed on each and every chair there (about 10 total) and slide down each one. What chairs Dada? These are mini-slides for mini-people like me!
Once the gift was selected, it was time to decorate the gift box with scribbles. Ava isn’t too good with just drawing on the paper in front of her so we took her outside on the grass to avoid marker marks on furniture, walls and Uncle Buddy too. 
It was pretty bright out there so we both had on our sunglasses. My sunglasses offer a bit more coverage than hers, so Ava decided that we needed to switch. And yes, this could be the worst picture of me in the history of blog pictures… but I am dedicated to preserving memories… and cross my fingers that everyone just looks at Ava anyways and ignores the rest of us.
Here is my artist…
… doing some deep thinking about her masterpiece.
Ava also got to hear Deets play a few songs. In the car, she still asks for Deets. Guaranteed. She even says bye to him sometimes when we turn off of the car. One of the changes we saw this week is that Ava is really trying to sing the songs. It first started with saying ‘let go’ during Julie then it advanced to saying ‘days to come’, ‘morning’, ‘sun’ and many other words during Young Girls. She even says ‘crazy’ during his cover of Beyonce’s Crazy in Love. It is soooo cute. The first thing on my to-do list this weekend is to get a great video of her singing songs from Pink in the Sink.
While we were in San Pedro, Dida did a lot of talking about his wine making with Deets. He was positive… let me rephrase… more than positive that his wine will taste soooo much better than David’s wine. So, Dida took Ava down to his cellar to explain the wine making process to her. Ava took it all in and then said ‘Dida Kaka’. Hehehe. Hmmm, sounds like Deets might win this wine making competition after all. I sure didn’t hear Ava say ‘Deets Kaka’ this weekend.
We still like to keep up with our daily walks even when we are out of town. Here is Ava applying some stickers to Dada’s cast prior to our stroll around the block.
During our walk, Ava got to check out the neighbor’s political endorsement signs placed in their lawns. I was a bit surprised that she was obviously going to support this Holt lady… especially since she looks like her pediatrician. You know the one that gives shots and cleans her waxy ears. Go Holt!
It was nice to be in a new neighborhood and still have Ava do the same things we do in our neighborhood back home. She still looked for cats, still sat next to them on the sidewalk and still pet them like crazy.
This is Bubbles. He liked tickling Ava with his tail.
She also made sure that we all sat on a wall and said cheese for our family shot. It’s comforting to know that if we ever switch neighborhoods, cities or countries, Ava will still resume with her daily routines. Walks, cats and cheese.
But one of the things that Ava doesn’t like is change in her bedtime routine. She started to have occasional fits if her towel isn’t placed correctly on the floor after her bath or if I am laying on the mattress instead of the pillow next to her as she drinks her milk before saying good night.
One of the bad habits Ava developed over the past few weeks is hitting. She does it almost every evening while we are playing tent on our bed. One second we will be laughing and then out of nowhere we will have her hand across our faces. Here is Dan seconds before the inevitable slap. Stop smiling Dan. Here comes the slap!
Getting slapped sucks, especially when it comes from our cutie pie. We tell her no hitting and then walk away from her until she says sorry. It takes her awhile to spit it out but she eventually says it and stops slapping… until tomorrow evening when it repeats again. Ahhh!
Dan still has both arms in cast so he’s pretty much useless. Sorry Dan. It’s true. But he tries to do as much as he can. In the mornings, he ‘watches’ Ava while I take a shower. Notice how he ‘watches’ Ava… with his eye closed. If anyone needs a babysitter, I think Dan might be available on nights and weekends. Don’t bother trying to hire him for the mornings because he is all mine!
Tick tock tick tock. Gotta run. Ava is late for her coo coo clock competition. Bye!
Mama! Come into the bathroom. I need you to turn on the water for me so I can brush my teeth.
Is the water on? I can’t tell because I can’t see a thing with these bangs.
Ahh. Much better. Hvala.
I love my toothbrush. There’s a princess on it right there. See it?
Ok. All done. Put it away for me please.
Step #1: Find some inspiration. We loved the tent crafted by Sew Mama Sew.
Step #2: Find the perfect fabric. We took Ava to Fabric Town USA to pick out any fabric she wanted. It was a toss up between the owl fabric and the Olivia fabric. In the end, Olivia won. Oink. Oink.
Step #3: Have the fabric measured and cut. We always buy a little more than required in case of an ‘accident’.
Step #4: Buy some dowels. Dan got these at our local Lowe’s.
Step #5: Drill tiny holes in the dowels. Tie dowels together at the top.
Step#6: Tie dowels together mid-way down for some additional support.
Step #7: Cut four fabric triangles and sew them together. (No need to take a cheesy picture. I was delirious from all the sewing. It was a lot of pressure, people!)
Step #8: Place the fabric over the dowels and you are done!
Step #9: Oops. You are not done until your customer is satisfied……….. Ok. Now we are done!
