Little Lins!

We are seriously considering not visiting Grace anymore at her house… due to three little words.

Barbie Dream Castle.

Our little Ava is now 105 weeks old. Yeah!!

Our week started off with a trip to the doctor for Ava’s 2 year old check-up. And I bet you can’t wait to hear about her stats. Well, here the are. Weight: 30 pounds (84%). Length: 34.25 inches (58%). And last but certainly not least… Head circumference: 20 inches (99%). Yes, I said 99%!!! That is her biggest percentage yet. Only one away from being perfect!!

We have been out of town pretty much every weekend since November. The packing and unpacking is killing me. So this weekend was supposed to be a stay at home weekend so I can sit and relax… and clean a little too. But we got an invitation from another Airstreamer in town to go down to the Malibu area for a couple nights… and we couldn’t say no. It was so close to home. It was on the beach, literally. And it was a chance to make friends with these Airstreamers and 3 other Airstreaming  families in the area. It would have been silly to say no. So we packed up and drove down to Thornhill Broome State Beach for the weekend. It was our first time boondocking for more that one night and we survived! Here are Ava and I enjoying a snack on our ‘porch’, with Highway 1 and the Santa Monica mountains right behind us.

And right in front of us… the beach. It was great to hear the waves crashing all night as we slept. It reminded me of wonderful vacations… and living that close to the beach back in our Isla Vista days.

Since the beach right in front of our site was rocky, we walked a little ways down the beach and found a nice patch of sand. One of the reasons we decided to go on the mini-trip was that the other 4 Airstreamers were also bringing their kids. There were 7 other kids, ranging from age 3 and up. And did Ava play with all or any of them? Nope. She was still in her shy phase and decided I was waaaaay more fun than those other kids. I took it as a compliment. One of the other mom’s asked me if Ava was a Mama’s girl. I never really thought of it before but after a few seconds, I said yes. Yes, Ava is a Mama’s girl… and it’s more than okay with me.

Around lunchtime, Matheus and his family drove down to our site for some lunch and beach fun. These two don’t really talk too much with each other but sure do like smiling at each other.

Saturday night was potluck night. It was the one mandatory activity that the group had for the weekend. It was fun to eat with all of the other Airstreamers and exchange traveling stories. We were the newest Airstreamers in the bunch and gathered as much advice as we could get.

On Sunday, we woke up bright and early (thanks Ava!) and needed to make some tough decisions. Do we stay one more night or do we go? Well, as you can see, the Santa Ana winds picked up…

…and got worse as the morning progressed. It was obviously time to go.

But we couldn’t leave without saying hello to Heart Attack Hill. Yes, that steep sand hill in Malibu that people are always sliding down. The one that we drive by and wonder what are these idiots doing. Well, this time it was us and boy was that hill steep. This picture does not do it any justice. Ava decided that she wanted to follow the other kids up the hill so off she went with her Dada. After a couple minutes of slipping and sliding, her interest waviered… to her Dada’s delight.

At least they gave it a good try.

And then it was back to our site to pack up our things. And time to say good-bye to our ocean view. Nice, huh?

Since our camping trip ended before Grace could visit, we made sure the girls had ample time to play back in town. Ava got to check out all of Grace’s new birthday and Christmas gifts. She insisted that playing dominoes meant throwing them all on the floor with one quick hand swoop.

Grace has a rocking horse at her house named Jackamo. And on Sunday, Ava finally got up on it all by herself. Good job Ava.

They also had fun sitting together on Grace’s new Tinkerbell couch… which converts to a bed!

On Monday, the winds finally died down a bit so we did a little walking around on Main Street. Ava casually mentioned that she wanted some ice cream, and we couldn’t say no to a request like that. So it was off to Palermo for some of the best gelato ever. It is seriously good. Go try it for yourself.

Back at home this week, Ava is in love with fake earrings (who can blame her), sleeping like her normal self again (thank god), and is singing a brand new song (yeah). B-I-N-G-O! And Bingo was his name-o. I love it. It came out of nowhere. I love when that happens. One of the benefits of daycare.

She also insisted on trying to wear her swim diapers over her clothes.

Help me please!

And the silliness doesn’t stop there. Here she is wearing milk and orange juice carton ‘gloves’. But the funniest thing she did this week… she asked for me to go with her somewhere by saying ‘Come on Mama’… followed by snapping her fingers and making a cat call like we do when trying to get Yoda’s attention. All three of us started busting up. It was so funny… and then I told her not to do it again too. I’m no cat, thank you very much.

Ava got a lot of puzzles over the holiday season. And thank goodness she loves each and everyone of them. Puzzle in books.

Puzzles that make walking paths.

And puzzles that are puzzling. Other side Ava! One of the other things that is puzzling Ava this week is when to say please, thank you and you’re welcome. I think I may have been correcting her too much because now she has stopped saying them all. Oops. So, now instead of asking her what to say, I am asking her to repeat what I say to get her back on track.

You think you are obsessed with avalin.net? You should see Ava this week. Ava pictures! Ava video!

Here is Ava at daycare pick-up time. Mama! Dada! When we get to her classroom, we always spend a few minutes there talking with her and her friends. Dan was playing with farm animals the other day with Ava and Ava R . When he asked the girls where was the pig, Ava R answered ‘ovdje’! Which means ‘here’ in Croatian. LOL. I guess Ava has been giving Ava R some Croatian lessons at school.

This picture has made me speechless. So… good-bye!

I thought posing the kids at Ava’s 1st birthday party was impossible to do.

Yeah right.

This year…

… was way more impossible.

There is a website called Ohdeedoh, the baby portion of Apartment Therapy, that has great baby-related information for moms and dads alike. They also create birthday posts for babies… and they made a special one for Ava.

Click here to check it out.

That’s how long it look Ava to tell me that she loved me for the very first time. On her own. She laid on top of me, hugged me and said it. Out of the blue. Just for me. My heart melted.

Sorry Dada.

Welcome to ART TIME! Here is a quick and easy project that holds Ava’s interest for a good 10-15 minutes. That’s a long time in toddler time.

1. Go outside and collect leaves, petals, sticks, grass, etc.
2. Bust out a glue stick, a piece of paper and some crayons.
3. Go nuts.
4. Praise the hell of out her/his masterpiece and stick it on the fridge.

I guarantee that when it is all said and done, you will have one proud toddler on your hands.

See?

Hi. I’m Ava and here I am minding my own business.

Cheese! No Mama, we will not say cheese. We are R-E-A-D-I-N-G.

Cheese! No Mama. DADA? Come on!

Cheese! Noooooooooooooooooooooo.