129 weeks old…
Hello! Our little Ava is now 129 weeks old!!!
Last Friday, I had the day off from work so Ava and I spent some time at the park together. Just her and me. It’s strange to think that the two us spending time alone together is not going to be the norm in just a few short weeks.
On Saturday, the three of us parked at my work and walked down to the 4th of July Street Fair… but not before Ava posed with me and my belly at 31 weeks. Our weekly ritual.
We showed up nice and early to watch the children’s parade. But it ended up being a bunch of random people walking the street wearing patriotic colors. What the? So we ditched that to check out all the booths and buy some flags. Moments after we bought a flag, a nice stranger gave Ava this one. She promptly said ‘Thank you‘. That’s my girl!
And Ava’s favorite part of the fair. The water fountains… which are always there and not part of the special fair. I never have enough pennies for this kid. Never.
After a nice nap, we ended up at Matheus’ house for some fun and firework watching. Ava got a chance to ride his bike (which is the same one Santa bought her a few months back) and she actually reached the pedals… barely. So, I guess it’s time to retire her temporary purple bike and upgrade her to her red racer soon.
She also got a kick out of hitting baseballs with a bat.
And finally got enough courage to climb and stay in the tree house.
Ava also thought it was funny to push Dada on the swings… that is until, she pushed a little too hard and Dada bumped into her… and she landed on her behind. That wasn’t so funny.
When the sun went down, Justin entertained us with his HUGE firework display. Hehe. Which the kids actually got a kick out of. Boom!
On the 4th, we stayed up way too late. To the point that everyone got really really silly. (That’s Dan laying across two swings with two giggling kids hanging off of his legs.)
On Sunday, Dan bravely went into our packed garage and actually made it out alive… with Ava’s red bike, no less! And here is my Ava on her first bike ride on it.
So excited!!
Go Ava, go!
Since the 4th of July Fair shut down our normal farmer’s market, we ended up at the one in Oxnard for the first time on Sunday. And boy was it worth it. Fresh lemonade. Tamales. Fish tacos. Yummm. Plus fresh fruit and veggies too, of course. Ava ate an entire chili cheese tamale herself!
Since we were in Oxnard already, we decided to stop at their party store to buy some decorations for Dan’s upcoming birthday party. When I told Ava that Dada was having a party next week. She told me that it was going to be a Dora party. Awesome, I know. And so, we were off to buy Dora decorations for Dada’s party. Hehe. Here she is riding dolphins in front to the store. It took a lot of convincing to get her in the car. Thank goodness we had a Dora piñata to bribe her with.
Back at home, I set Ava in front of our dining room window with a snack to watch Dada paint our porch… and make good use of his Art Degree. Dada went to college to paint? Why Mama? Why?
At home, whenever Ava puts on an outfit or her Cinderella dress, she immediately goes looking for Dan. Once she finds him, she either stands there smiling getting ready to twirl or says ‘ Dada, look at me!’.
Except in the mornings and bedtime when Ava is nice and still while drinking her milky, Yoda still avoids Ava at all costs. This week, Yoda found a new hiding spot that invokes a lot of ‘Oh oh‘ and ‘Look at Yoda‘ comments.
On Tuesday, we continued with our Dora themed birthday party buying by stopping at Baskins Robbins to order an ice cream cake for the big day. And we couldn’t leave without a scoop for ourselves. Umm, no we couldn’t. Chocolate was still the flavor of choice this week. I have a feeling that Nona Estera has influenced her in someway. She still hides chocolate in the house to this day! Busted!!
I was going to be a smartass this week and comment on this picture of Ava sleeping in the mornings. Because during the week, this kid will not wake up before 7:15 so we can get to work on time. But on weekends, she wakes up way before 7:15. What the hell, right? But I am not going say any of those things. Erase it from your memory. Because she is actually sick this week. On Monday and Tuesday, it was the sniffles.
On Wednesday, her teacher said Ava didn’t want to participate in puppet making and thought it was very strange for our little one. We thought it was strange too but didn’t think twice…
…because we were off to Ballet Class #3.
Ava wasn’t really into the class. There was some instruction listening…
… but there was mostly a lot of not listening…
…and a lot of running to Dada instead of skipping in circles. A few minutes after this, Ava melted. She wanted to go home and eat, she said.
So we did. We ditched class and went home to eat and read books. Ava has been memorizing a lot of favorite books this week. She especially likes ‘Elmo loves you’ and ‘There’s a monster in my attic’.
And later that evening, we had a rough night. Her airway started to close off. Lots of croup-like coughing and trouble breathing. So, I whisked her to the back porch for some cool night air. It helped a bit, but not enough. So I decided to give it one more shot before heading to the ER. I put Ava in the car, covered her with a blanket, rolled down all the windows and drove (just like all her doctors’ have recommended). And it worked. But she did complain that it was too windy. I told her it was ‘this or the doctor‘. She quickly responded ‘this‘. We were also out of popsicles at home (another trick to get her airway to open) so we drove to McDonald’s for ice cream sundaes. At midnight. A pregnant woman and a small kid ordering dessert. At midnight. With all the car windows rolled down. What a site we must of been! But all the tricks worked. Dan was now home from the gym and got kicked to the couch so Ava and I sleep together in my bed.
So for the remainder of the week, we stayed home and watched a lot of TV. Especially Dora.
And when the cowboy episode came on, she insisted on wearing her hat and boots too.
We also spent time getting ready for Dada’s Dora party. She kept calling the Dora piñata a ‘fiesta‘. Hehe.
Filling her up with non-candy prizes.
Okay. Post over. Time to get back to Ava and her choo-choo train (lamb rug). Chugga chugga choo choo!!
