Hello there! Our little Ava is now 2.5 years old!! Yup, that’s also 30 months… or 130 weeks old. SAY WHAT?
At the exact minute Ava turned 2.5 years old, she was totally not napping. I slowly sneaked into her room to take a picture, ninja style, but she was already awake. Coughing her lungs out. Poor thing. She was sick for 10 days and had a fever for 5. This is her reacting to me drawing up her shades. Mama, that’s too bright!
On Friday, it was Dan’s birthday. As soon as Ava woke up, she went looking for Dada’s card so he could open it right away.
She finally found him sleeping on the couch. (No, I did not kick him out of bed on his birthday… when Ava has trouble breathing, she sleeps with me in my room so I can keep an eye on her and have her sleep safely with all the windows open. Which means no room for Dada.) She kept repeating ‘Open it, Dada‘. This was no ordinary birthday card. It was a singing card. A Dora singing card and she couldn’t get enough of it. ♫It’s someone’s special day! It’s someone’s special day!♫
Since Dada was awake bright and early (not by choice), we headed out for breakfast… and castle making.
At home, we had a lot of things to do. We were throwing a little party for Dan the following day and had a lot of things to check off the list. Good thing I just bought this water color set. It kept Ava occupied for a good portion of the day.
She seriously ended up making at least twenty painting for Dada’s birthday.
And when painting got boring, she watched an animal parade. That’s her new thing. Lining things up in rows.
Before long, we had a visitor… with a serious case of sweet tooth. Much to our delight, of course. Here are Ava and Nicole making CUPCAKES!
And here are Ava and Nicole making a MESS!
Yum!
For dinner, the four of us headed to our most favorite sushi spot in town, Sushi Marina. They were kind enough to bring out a special scoop of green tea ice cream for Dan. After helping him blow out the candle, Ava moved the ice cream in front of her and kept telling me to take ‘small bites‘ and said ‘you’re all done‘ and ‘I’m going to eat it all, okay?‘ quiet a few times. That’s my girl!!!
Oh. And she used chopsticks for the first time and actually got food in her mouth. The silly thing is, she kept calling them ‘fish sticks‘. Hehe
On Saturday, Ava was super excited. Not only was it Dan’s party. It was Dan’s DORA party!!! After her nap, she woke up ready to go. She stuck a special birthday boy ribbon on Dada that said ‘Shining Star’ and made us all wear party hats.
Look at me. I’m ready to party!
She was so excited to show her friend Grace all of the party decorations… especially her new picnic table.
Hey where is everyone? Ummm, not on our dead grass.
Oh here they are. Hello everyone!
Ava had lots of fun playing outside on her rocker…
…crawling through tunnels and on wagons…
…and cruising with her bike gang.
And when she was inside of the house, she could not stop screaming for Deets to come into her room… so he can become the Deets Monster. Silly girls.
And before long, it was Ava’s favorite part of the party. The cake.
The Dora ice cream cake!!!
Happy Birthday, Dada Dan!!
The cake was a great success. You can tell by Ava’s ‘take the damn picture already’ smile… and by the other kids totally ignoring me.
For the rest of the week, Ava played Dan’s singing card and made sure Yoda knew all about it too.
On Monday morning, her fever was gone so we sent her back to school. Bad idea. Ava woke up from her nap with a fever, a peepee accident and apparently from a nightmare. When we walked into her classroom, she was sitting at the table with her bottom lip out and tears running down her face. It seriously broke my heart.
Look at my little munchkin. She was so sad. I kept asking her what was so scary. She didn’t want to say. So I asked her if she had her school bus driving too fast nightmare again. She said no. I asked her if she saw monsters. She said no. I asked her if Mama left her. And she said yes. There goes my heart again. Broken.
I kept Ava home a couple more days this week. Poor thing didn’t want to eat anything. Not even soup. Her favorite. But I had a trick up my sleeve. Smoothie popsicles. And did it work?
You betcha! She helped me make them too. Fresh strawberries, raspberries, blueberries, yogurt and apple juice. Yum.
Since she was sick, we just hung out at home all week. I placed her in the crib to see what she would do. She made sure to tell me that this was for baby and that she was a big girl who sleeps in a big girl bed.
We played grocery store a lot.
And when the toys in the house got boring, we went into the playroom… our Airstream.
On Thursday, she was finally back to her old self. We made a quick trip to the mall… where she insisted on sitting at a ‘curica stol’ (little girl table), next to our table. No high chairs today.
And we finally made it outside for some of this. Can you guess?
A bike ride! YEAH!! Have a fabulous weekend! BYE!!!!
