Ava & Mila

Hi. Our little Ava is now 158 weeks old and still rocking out to Deets.

So Ava’s week began with a little test trip in our Airstream up north.

She got to play tug-o-war with a small dog at Camping World.

Eat lots of noodles… with a napkin bib. Every time I put a napkin bib on her, she has to ask me ‘Is it scratchy?‘.

Last week she was fake nursing babies and this week she is ready to put Mila in the baby carrier.

Ava got to spend lots of time doing art and playing computer games at Uncle Eric’s house.

She also got to go to Dave and Buster’s and actually play the games for her first time. She choose this one.

And look who was a big winner! Actually, our machine got stuck and the repair dude came over and made the machine give us a ton of complimentary tickets. The machine kept spitting them out and Ava kept saying ‘oh oh‘.

Look who’s not saying oh-oh anymore. Hello Winner’s Circle!

Can you say OH YEAH?!?! She chose 2 princess bracelets, a fish and a red lollipop.

We also went over to visit Nicole’s little brother. And look who was shy as always when we first got there.

But after an half an hour or so, ’shy girl’ disappeared and ‘look at me’ showed up.

Silly Ava.

Ava had fun playing with toys on her new bed in the Airstream.

And playing dress up with her sleeping buddies.

Then Dan squeezed the Airstream onto this tiny bridge in the pouring rain (while I had a heart attack/panic attack/i think i sh*t my pants attack!)

And we were home to take the girls to one last doctor’s appointment to get the last of their vaccinations before our real road trip. It was the chicken pox vaccine for Ava and her reward this time was not ice cream but a play date with Grace and Cole at the park. She kept calling this turtle ‘dude!‘.

Back at home, Ava enjoyed all the space that our little house provides.

And ice cream time with her best buddy Grace.

And actually applying her very first tattoo all by herself.

And flying in the air thanks to Dada.

And look at this. Their very first group hug. Too cute. BYE!

Hi. Our little Mila is now 21 weeks old… and I love her so. (Thanks for taking our picture, Ava.)

Mila’s week began with a little test road trip up north. Where the hell are we now, Mama?

I recognize the Airstream but what is that sound?

Oh a river. A big one thanks to El Nino. What is a river again?

Her new favorite thing is bending backwards. But this time is it not our new favorite thing. Be careful little one.

In the mornings, Mila loves to lay next to her big sister and giggle.

Hey, what are you doing here Yoda?

And before we knew it, we were home and Mila was sleeping in her crib again. This is the morning that Ava realized that Santa brought Mila the wrong gift. Oh oh. But I don’t think Mila minds.

Bye!

Mali Mish.

It means ‘little mouse’ in Croatian. And it is also the name of our Airstream.

In case you didn’t know, we are on the road now.

Doing silly things like this.

And relaxing like this.

Probably for a good couple of months. If you want to see what we are up to, you can go to www.malimish.com. We also have it in ‘our links’ over there on the right.

We are trying to blog daily on MaliMish.com (and trying to catch up on this site too! Don’t worry.)

Thanks for reading.

Bye!!

Hi. I’m Yoda and I’m sleeping.

Who the hell is making dinosaur stretching noises?

OMG. I am totally awake now.

Oh. It’s you.

What are you doing with your arm?

I don’t remember signing up for this? Someone get me a shot of catnip. On second thought, make it a double.

Hello there. Our little Mila is now 7 weeks old!!!

And she is officially smiling. YEAH! She has been smiling off and on since birth. But those don’t count. On the day she turned 6 weeks old exactly, I got not one, not two, but three smiles in a row. And three smiles in row can’t be faked. No way! And when she smiles, she puts her whole heart into it. No half -assed smiles from Mila. Her whole face lights up. Her body gets into it too. Each and every time.

Over the weekend, Nona came over to play with Mila and check out her new smiling abilities.

And Dida came over also… to hold Mila not once…

…but twice! Wow! She got a card from him with a real signature at birth and gets held twice in one day. Lucky girl.

On Saturday, Mila attended her first birthday party. Her friend Gabriel turned one. And it was a costume party. So, are you wondering what Mila is dressed up as? Well, Mila is dressed up as baby Ava. Hehe. Hand me down dresses.

On Saturday night, we packed up the Airstream and headed out to Nicole’s house on our way to Palm Springs. Mila spent her first night in the Airstream in her bassinet stroller… in the kitchen… while parked on the street. Classy.

The next morning, we spent the day with friends and she gladly showed off her smiling skills to Cynthia.

Then it was time to hit the road again in order to get to…

…Palm Springs. Here is Mila on her very first vacation. Ahhh. This is the life!

Her big sister Ava was there to show her how to enjoy vacation time.

And how to look at the camera when Mama is in picture mode.

The bassinet we use at home didn’t really work out too well in the Airstream. So I ran to Target to buy a co-sleeper for her. It was much easier for me for those middle of the night feedings. And there is a little light on it that is perfect for the pitch dark. I was so excited about it that I ran to Dan to tell him about how cool it is. He looked at me and said ‘Really? You are telling ME how cool flashlights are?!?!’. Touché, Mr. Lin.

So the nice thing about newborns is that you can place them anywhere.

And they stay there.

And stare.

And stare some more.

And smile a bit.

And receive phone calls from Cinderella.

And cross their eyes for fun too.

Palm Springs is not cold this time of year. Far from it. It was about 92 degrees every day. And heat mixed with newborn skin means baby acne flare up once again. Poor Mila. When will this end?

I guess I should show you where we were exactly.

And how we lounged all day.

And how we enjoyed this beautiful view. If I didn’t know better, I would say were looking at the mountains of San Felipe.

Alright.

Time to go.

And eat up these smiles. Bye.

Hi there! Ava is now 133 weeks old… and gives a hoot!

Ava’s week began with a nightmare. One about having to wash her hands. NOW! It was so upsetting that I could not get her to go back to sleep. So I did something that I try to avoid. I brought her to bed with us. Here are my two sleepyheads in the morning. And in case you forgot, we are still camping in the Airstream this week.

Ava woke up in good spirits. She even insisted that her ballerina was wearing one of Deets’ shirt. HAHAHAH!! We died laughing.

After breakfast, we got dressed and hit up one of the playground at the lake.

She had fun going down the slides but we avoided getting too close. Why? Crazy static electricity! Check out Ava’s hair. ZAP!!

Ava banished Dada from the playground on this day. Told him to sit on a rock. At least it was in the shade. At the beginning of this pregnancy, Ava has been a little more reliant on Dan. But things are changing. Ava has been a little more clingy to me this week. I think she senses the baby coming soon. Sorry Dada.

Ava climbed up a slide for the first time all by herself. And was very proud once she got to the top of slide.

After the playground, we went to check out the boats for rent…

… but decided to eat some lunch instead. Check out how Ava eats a corn dog. She peels it like a banana. Weirdo!

After lunch, it was ice cream time. So many choices!!

And the final choice. An orange push pop! Just like Mama and Deets would eat as kids.

And the verdict on her very first push pop?

I think this beard answers the question.

Before long it was time to pack up the waggy with Ava and our dinner…

… because Matheus was here!

The next morning, these two had a blast together. We went for a morning walk together to check out what the lake had to offer.

Here they are playing in gravel. Ava was amazed at his gravel angel skills.

And here they are following a flock of Canada geese. They got a little too close to the geese, which made the geese start honking and sent Ava running back to safety.

But no need to stay scared for long. There were more slides to distract her from the honking geese.

Oh, and she started climbing the ladder at the playground all by herself. It still scares the crap out of me to watch her do so but it’s all part of the growing up process. If I like it or not!

And the fun didn’t stop there. We had to make one more stop to make at the water park. Here is Ava pretending to be a kitty cat. Meow!

Oh. And I almost forgot. Ava roasted her first marshmallow… which she thought was too gross to eat.

Back at home, since the Airstream was off of the driveway for a bit, Dan pulled out his boat for some cleaning time… much to Ava’s delight. She loves to help. Here she is with the hose. Getting some water on the boat… and a lot more on Dada.

Bubbles!!

I swear she loves cleaning. Here she is cleaning some more. This time with her rain boots on.

Day care is still going well. There are a bunch of new kids in her class. So lots of tears from them. (My Mama Gaga Zune!)

We also spent some time with Ava at the beach looking for shells…

… and quacking at ducks.

We took Ava for a check-up at the doctor’s office too. And guess what? She finally graduated to the big girl scale. Check out her expression. She was unsure why the scale was wobbling below her. Hehe. She is now 34 pounds.

And she also had her very last ballerina class. I think we are both going miss her silly twirling.

Okay time to go. Dada is still trying to convince us that his new ‘purse’ is a just a man bag. Sure Dada. Then why do you have lipstick in there?!?!

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!!!!