Little Lins!

What kind of shoes do frogs wear?

Open toad!

Hehe. (Maybe the blog title should of read “Stupid Joke Time”!!!!)

You know, there’s an upside to our November heatwave.

Ice cream!

Enjoy it while it lasts!

Hello there! Our crazy little maniac is now 96 weeks old.

On Friday night, Ava and I packed up the car and hit the road without our partner in crime, Dada.

We had big plans to breathe in smoke all day down in LA. (Yes, that’s all smoke from the LA/OC fires. Only a sliver of sky was left untouched on that catastrophic weekend.)

Ummm, just kidding. We were there for other reasons. Like to sing songs about eating apples with Nona.

We also spent the morning saying good-bye to a special lady that is no longer with us. Ava and I and the Nonas sat in the sound proof kid’s room in church during the service. She did pretty well in there. The other kid in there was way louder than Ava. Ava was content with her Little Red Riding book and the attention of her Nonas. I hope they join us in that room for Christmas mass… or Ava might be the ‘loud one’.

Ava got a special present from her Dida too. A desk from the border! Ava and her Nona Dinka spent lots of time tracing their hands.

My mom saved a bunch of my old toys from when I was a kid. She took out an old doll of mine for Ava to play with. Ava thought it was silly to walk around holding the baby with Dora stuffed under its blanket.

By the evening, the winds started to die down and so did the falling ash from the sky. So, we drove down to Ports O’Call to enjoy some pina coladas and mexican food. Ole! Here are Ava and Deets giving me the best cheese face they had.

And then, one of Ava dreams got full-filled. She got to ride a choo-choo train!

Here she is with Deets and Carrie on the Red Car Line trolley. I couldn’t get a decent picture of her looking at me, let alone showing some excitement… so Deets was kind enough to almost twist her head off turn her head gently for me.

The trolley picked us up in front of the restaurant and dropped us off at the water fountains. And once again, it made Ava want to dance and run and make wishes.

One the way back to the car, we passed by the Los Angeles Maritime Museum. Deets threw her on this gun thing and showed her how to turn and aim it.

For some reason, her Dida had no idea that this thing actually moved in all the years he’s lived here… so the girls spent the next few minutes tapping our feet and trying the convince Dida and Deets that we needed to go. Boys and their toys.

Oh Sunday, Ava and I were back at home and Ava was ready for some play dates. Her first date was with baby Cole and Grace. Grace and Ava had tons of fun pushing around strollers… well, until her wheel got caught under Cole’s activity center. Help Mama, help!

Ava’s next play date was with her cousin Nathan. They had a blast riding cars around the house. I just LOVE Nathan’s expression in this photo!

The amount of time she says ‘mine’ in starting the decrease with Nathan. She says it more with him that with anyone else. Not sure why. Maybe because they are closer in age? I don’t know but it’s slowly lessening and that’s all that matters. We’ll see how they do opening Christmas presents together in a few weeks. That will be the true test.

And for her third play date, we met up with Grace again at the park. They had a blast running across this bridge and screaming their heads off.

They also went down the slide a million times together on the count of 1, 2, 3. Ava would ask ‘pomoc’ (help) each time she was ready to slide down and I would have to hold her hand. But with some convincing, Ava went down the slide, sitting, for the first time ever. New milestone. Yippee!!

The combination of my convincing skills and Grace’s slide fearlessness helped do the trick. Good job Ava!

When picking Ava from daycare this week, we caught her outside on the playground.

And what did she do when we asked her to go down the slide again like a big girl? She slid down the stairs and screamed ‘weeeeeeeeeee’. That’s my silly Ava.

They also have bikes in the older kid playground area. Bikes with pedals!

Our Ava is still trying to get a hang of using the pedals. Until she perfects it, she will be using her feet on the ground and will be holding up traffic. Beep beep.

At school this week, Ava’s best friend there, Ava R, celebrated her 2nd birthday. Her dad rented out ponies and farm animals for day and they rode it around together.

I hope she doesn’t get any ideas from this for her birthday. Not sure if Dida would appreciate pony poop on his lawn. Hehe.

This week we also took Yoda to the vet to get micro-chipped and vaccinated for upcoming trips in the Airstream. As soon as the nurse showed us to our room and closed the door, Ava started to cry. I think Ava thought we were there for her.

At home, Ava rediscovered her old toys from last Christmas and went to town. I think I need to hide her toys more often to always have a ‘fresh’ batch for her to play with.

Here is Ava talking about and re-enacting the water show we saw over the weekend. As you can see, Ava’s still a Chatty Cathy this week. She started to say ‘Ava voli’ (Ava loves) while tapping her chest when she sees something she likes. She is starting to answer all of our questions with ‘yeah’ instead of ‘da’, which is driving me crazy but it’s my fault. I say yeah instead of yes all day long. She also started to call Dan ‘Daddy’ instead of ‘Dada’ which he sorta likes. But me? I still prefer Mama to Mommy. So I asked Ava if she could call me Mama instead of Mommy and so far it’s working pretty well. I couldn’t believe it. All this time all I had to do was ask nicely. Imagine that! So for now, we are Mama and Daddy instead of Mommy and Dada. How’s that for confusing.

Alright. Time to go.

There’s a pea stuck in someone tooth. Bye!

Hi. I’m Ava and we are going ghost hunting. You think I’m excited? Well, check out Carrie in the back. She’s super excited.

Where here! Where here! Hello Silver City Ghost Town!! Mama, put down the camera. We have work to do.

Ghosts? Come out, come out, wherever you are.

Ummm, hi cat. Your name is Izzy? Well, it’s nice to meet you Izzy.

Will you come ghost hunting with us? Yes? Cool!

I don’t see any ghosts on that wood pile, Izzy.

Nor do I see ghosts under this rock.

Ummm, Izzy. I really don’t think there are ghosts in the outhouse with Deets.

Silly cat. Get out of there!

Oh, the jail. Mama thinks there HAS to be ghosts in here for sure.

I see something weird up there. Look!

I’m getting the hell out of here. NOW.

Do you think this baby choo choo train is haunted?

No way. Not this baby choo choo.

Hey Mama? Take a picture quick. I think there is a ghost in this old building. Zoom into the picture and you’ll see it.

You see it? Looks like a Native American screaming on the bottom half with a head piece on his/her head in the top half. You see it? I TOLD YOU SO!!!

Thanks for the great time Silver City Ghost Town. And thanks to you too Izzy for ghost hunting with me.

Hi. I’m Ava and I am going to walk my doggie now.

Woah! Slow down doggie. Too fast!

Ummm. Too slow doggie. Hurry it up!

That’s much better. Thanks doggie. Not sure why all the neighbors are pointing a giggling at us. Let’s just smile right back at them.

Hi. I’m Ava and I love Dora.

Come here Dora.

Muh.

Muh. Muh.

MUH!

Do you know what time it is?

It’s…

… tickle…

… time!