In case you haven't heard, Ava turned T-W-O last friday!! The fastest two years of my life by far. I know I say it everyday, but she is the love of our life! It's amazing the kind of person that can develop in two short years. I can't even begin to remember all the funny & cool things she's been doing lately. I'll try to hit the highlights, though! First off, she's been talking up a storm. The first thing she says in the morning when she gets up is, "mommy, where portia?" then she says, "kitty owside (outside)?" and finally it's, "where daddy?" Faithfully, every morning she asks these three questions before I get her out of bed. She usually barely has one eye open before she starts asking her questions. ;)
She's become quite a show-off as well. She'll do things like jump off the couch (!) and say "ta-daaaaa!!" when she lands. She still loves dancing to any kind of music. She comes into our computer room while I'm on the internet and will say, "me dance mommy!" and I'll turn on Pandora for her and she shakes her booty! She is obsessed with Dora the Explorer!!!!! I'm not even sure when that started because she hardly watched it in the beginning when she first got attached to the show. But she's in love with it... and thank goodness we have a DVR. She would honestly sit and watch Dora for hours if we let her. Usually, it's an episode in the morning and one in the evening before bed... but sometimes she pulls out the super sweet 2 year old card and I'll turn it on for her at other times, too. She'll say "me watch doo-dora?! peeeeeese?" I cannot resist her sweetness! :) I'll brag on her for a minute and say that she has excellent manners. :) Always says peese (please), tank ou (thank you), and when anybody sneezes she is quick to say "besh ou! (bless you)" I'm loving her words and short sentences. She's says a million different cute things now that just don't seem to be coming to mind right now. What's funny is that I've become quite fluent in toddler language, lately. :) Me and her... we understand each other. When most people look at her blankly after she talks to them I translate what she really means. ;o) I think that's a gift of all us moms.
She has also become a little sassy with her words in her old age. The other day I told her to finish her pbj sandwich and she replied, "no mom...me watch bt (tv)" And she has recently started to say, "go way." I don't remember ever using that phrase with her... possibly picked that one up from the kiddo's at her babysitter's. It's especially nice to hear when she puts it together like, "go way, mommy!" Not cool. I'm sure there is worse I will hear, but I still correct her when she says it.
Oh, and then there's her imagination. When I'm reading a book to her, she hysterically tries to "grab" the items out of the book. We were reading a book with pictures of ice cream cones in it the other day and she was trying to grab the ice cream out of the book... and then she started licking the page and saying, "me ice ceem! mine!" Hilarious!! Sometimes she will try to be like the cows in the book who are eating grass and pretend she is chomping on the grass as well. It entertains me for sure! She love, love, loves playing mommy to her babies. Sometimes one will fall off the couch and get "hurt" and she turns into this loving, mature, nurturing little mommy. She'll bring baby over to me, snuggling it up to her chest and say, "aww mommy, baby cying (crying), baby boo-boo, me kees (kiss) boo-boo." It's the cutest thing ever. And of course anytime she gets a boo-b00 it requires immediate kissing in order to feel better. I love kissing boo-boos. :)
She's still in her crib... thank goodness. I plan on keeping her there until she's 8, unless she learns how to crawl out sooner. ;o) Okay... 8 might be pushing it... but I'm not ready for a toddler bed anytime soon. She is the sweetest kid at night. Usually, we read 3 or 4 books in her rocker before bed, and for the past, oh, maybe 3 or so months she has been wanting me to rock her before bed. I probably encouraged that when she first started asking to be rocked. I love snuggling my big girl. She began waking up at night again a few months ago when this all started. So I would go in her room, pick her up, and rock her back to sleep. So then the habit of rocking before bed started. I honestly love rocking her before bed... I don't like making bedtime an hour long ordeal though. We have gotten to the point now where we will read books and then I'll rock her for a little bit while she asks me her nightly questions like, "mommy, portia ni-night?" to which I reply, "yes, portia is going night-night" and she runs down the list of asking if kitty, daddy, and mommy are all going night-night. Then, I lay her in her crib and usually she asks for a back rub, "mommy, back?" and I of course rub her back a few minutes and leave the room and she falls asleep. :) She's growing up so fast....
And last but not least... another milestone worth mentioning... potty training has started! I think. Sorta. Well, let me start by saying that I was thinking by her 2nd birthday, if she was showing interest in it, I would start the potty training... but not push it, just see if she'd sit on the potty long enough to do anything. Last week, we put her in her Dora big girl panties (she has had a habit latley of taking off her diaper and streaking around the house:) to see what she would do... if anything. Let me also say that this kid finds much enjoyment in watching me go to the bathroom. She follows me in there, grabs me the toilet paper, and HAS to flush for me when I'm done. Maybe weird...but she loves it. So anyway, shortly after we put panties on her she yells out, "mommy me pee!" and runs into the bathroom, slams the door, and sits there for a few minutes. I thought she was just acting it out...not really going to pee in the potty. However, when she excitedly yelled from the bathroom, "mommy, mommy me peeeeee!" and sure enough the girl had peed in her potty. One proud mama right here!! So then I thought it might be just a fluke... surely she wouldn't do it again for awhile, right? Nope, she has peed on the potty several times since last week!! And the kicker? She has even pooped on the potty 3 times since her birthday party on Sunday!!!! Unbelievable!! Now, don't get me wrong... she has also peed on the couch, the carpet, the kitchen floor, the kitchen stool, and pooped on the floor as well since then. So, I'm not sure whether to consider this successful or not... but we're trying!! I'm hoping to avoid potty burn out for her and don't keep after her all day long with pottying... especially because she feels bad when she pees anywhere except in the potty. Slowly but surely we will get there someday!
Well, that's about it for this Ava update! Hope you've enjoyed reading about the wonderful life of a 2 year old!
Playing in the corn box at the pumpkin farm!
Ava's cousins Alexandria and Halee came over to play last Saturday! She calls them "sissy"... sissy halee & sissy alex... ;)
My sweet little Minnie Mouse is ready for Boo at the Zoo! She didn't keep the ears on the whole time... only short periods of time. I was kind of disappointed when I pulled Minnie's ears out of the bag to see that they were the size of nickels! I expected big pancake sized ears....
Minnie & the Dragon
Cutie pies! Despite coming home with only 7 pieces of candy, we had fun with the Seeds! It was pretty cool seeing the zoo animals at night... they were all so active!! Kinda creepy! :)
Straw maze... who doesn't love a straw maze. ;o)
A little chilly out!
Ava's birthday cake... courtesy of my mom! She did an awesome job on this cake... and it was delicious!
Two peas in a pod... they are destined to get married someday... in fact, pre-arranged marriages are on the up and up. ;o) hehe.
Playing in leaves at her birthday party! The weather was awesome, the company was fantastic, and the two year old couldn't have been happier. Successful day in my book!
New Dora tent! One more big piece of kid furniture to clutter up the basement! Yessss! ;o)
Mom's gotta test these things out ya know... make sure they're safe and all. ;o)
Dads do too! Big dad's can only get their heads in though.... ;o)
Last but not least... painting our pumpkins for halloween! You know things did not stay this neat... Ava got bored painting the pumpkin and discovered that she could paint her arms "aww, mommy me paint arm!" and at some point that morning the neat freak in me surrendered. I said, "ohhh Ava, that looks nice on your arm...how 'bout your other arm? And don't forget your belly!" I unfortunately don't have that picture to show you... my hands were too covered in paint as well. ;o)
