Another tale to demonstrate the dear, sweet, helpful and thoughtful little girl we have.
Last night we returned home from a weekend trip and hurriedly unloaded the contents of the car into the living room and hallway. I unpacked only the necessities and quickly started rummaging the cabinets and bare fridge for a suitable dinner for Ava. She was getting into things and whining (as was I after our long day) and at one point I caught her taking all of the stuff out of my weekend bag. I snapped at her to put everything back and said that I needed to take all the bags to their correct rooms and then unload them later and put everything away. She cleaned up the mess she made and I went back to making her dinner.
After she'd finished eating, Blair came home with some takeout for him and I to share, and we did so ravenously. A few minutes went by and I realized we hadn't heard a peep from Ava in awhile. I yelled out, "Ava, what are you doing sweetheart?" We heard the quick pitter-patter of feet, she whirled around the corner into view, muttered something and then booked it back to her room in a "follow me" type manner. I thought, 'uh oh' and followed quickly behind. Sure that she had made a huge mess somewhere, I went into her room and found her standing next to her diaper pail quietly with a face like that of a puppy leading it's owner to an accident on the floor. "I did that," she said, and pointed. I looked and found her dresser drawer open (where I keep her large trash bags), bags strewn, and one all scrunched and gnarled into position in her empty diaper pail. She had been trying to put a new bag in since we left it to air-out while we were away. Then I saw that she'd dragged her travel bag into her room and had tried to unpack a few things into her drawers. I looked at her with a smile and said, "Great job Ava, were you trying to help mommy?" and her puppy-dog eyes turned to a big, proud grin as she replied, "Yeah, I did!"
Love her.
Monday, June 27, 2011
Vocabulary of our two year old
Once Ava really started talking around 18 months, her vocabulary grew quickly, gradually migrating toward full sentences a few months ago. Now however, she's begun spitting out much more long and complicated words amidst clear sentences, leaving us literally speechless sometimes! Though my attempt to compile a list of the words I've heard her say over the past month or so would no doubt be incomplete, many of the words are ones that leave us wondering when she even picked them up.
One example I do remember was when she came up to me holding a vibrating massager that we have (which she hadn't played with in maybe 6 months) and said, "Mommy, I do the vibrating?" To which I of course replied, "You do the what??"
And, on our trip to Mimi and Pappy's, one of their favorite conversations with her was after she came down from a fitful nap (during which she woke and cried a lot for me to come get her). They asked her how she slept and what happened during her nap and she said, "I was frustrated!"
She's a sponge I tell you!
This past weekend we went down to Virginia for my cousins wedding and had a wonderful time. We saw many cousins and aunts and uncles but the highlight of Ava's trip was no doubt the plentiful presence of boys her age wearing dress pants and ties. Little did we know, our shy little girl is quite the little romantic. She was following around every boy she could find trying to hold their hands and get them to dance with her, turning to us to say, "I dance with boys?"
Another of my favorite stories from this past month is when Ava asked me to sing a particular song from one of her books at nap time. I couldn't remember which song went with a particular page in her book (it came with a companion CD) when finally I said, Oh, I think it's ---- . She smiled at me with the most genuine smile you've ever seen and took a deep breath and said, "Oh, you're so smart mommy!" Ha! I about lost it and thought, my two year old just encouraged me!
With the increase in language skills that Ava is possessing, she's starting to be able to recall and tell us about her dreams at night. I've always wondered what infants dream about and though that's still a mystery, it's been so fun to hear about some of the things she's dreaming of now. Though she's talked about butterflies and squirrels, my favorite (after the fact) is this. Blair and I were watching her on our new video monitor one night, she'd awoken and was sitting crying in her crib. After a minute she went quiet and started sucking her thumb. I was relieved until we realized she had fallen asleep sitting up and then did a dead fall, her little head knocking right into her bed rail. She of course starting screaming hysterically and we ran in to comfort her and make sure she was ok. She fell asleep again surprisingly quickly and I laid her in her crib.
Not ten minutes later, she awoke screaming again and this time wasn't settling so I went in. She was wide awake and when I asked her what was wrong and if she wanted to lay down, she said, "The car! The car went fast on my neck!" "What?" I said, a little perplexed and wondering if she'd suffered any real consequences from her earlier fall. She replied with vigorous hand motions, "Daddy's purple car went fast on my head." I started to realize what had happened, "Did you hit your head really hard?" I said. "Yeah, the car went really fast on my head, right here" she pointed.
What a sweet little heart, she'd slept through the whole ordeal and was now awaking from a nightmare in which her dad's car ran into her head! We did our best to stifle our laughter and comfort our baby girl and convince her that it was a bad dream. Though it was awful for her I'm sure, it was a great moment for us as parents to watch that whole thing play out and to see her use her words to communicate so well with us!
One example I do remember was when she came up to me holding a vibrating massager that we have (which she hadn't played with in maybe 6 months) and said, "Mommy, I do the vibrating?" To which I of course replied, "You do the what??"
And, on our trip to Mimi and Pappy's, one of their favorite conversations with her was after she came down from a fitful nap (during which she woke and cried a lot for me to come get her). They asked her how she slept and what happened during her nap and she said, "I was frustrated!"
She's a sponge I tell you!
This past weekend we went down to Virginia for my cousins wedding and had a wonderful time. We saw many cousins and aunts and uncles but the highlight of Ava's trip was no doubt the plentiful presence of boys her age wearing dress pants and ties. Little did we know, our shy little girl is quite the little romantic. She was following around every boy she could find trying to hold their hands and get them to dance with her, turning to us to say, "I dance with boys?"
Another of my favorite stories from this past month is when Ava asked me to sing a particular song from one of her books at nap time. I couldn't remember which song went with a particular page in her book (it came with a companion CD) when finally I said, Oh, I think it's ---- . She smiled at me with the most genuine smile you've ever seen and took a deep breath and said, "Oh, you're so smart mommy!" Ha! I about lost it and thought, my two year old just encouraged me!
With the increase in language skills that Ava is possessing, she's starting to be able to recall and tell us about her dreams at night. I've always wondered what infants dream about and though that's still a mystery, it's been so fun to hear about some of the things she's dreaming of now. Though she's talked about butterflies and squirrels, my favorite (after the fact) is this. Blair and I were watching her on our new video monitor one night, she'd awoken and was sitting crying in her crib. After a minute she went quiet and started sucking her thumb. I was relieved until we realized she had fallen asleep sitting up and then did a dead fall, her little head knocking right into her bed rail. She of course starting screaming hysterically and we ran in to comfort her and make sure she was ok. She fell asleep again surprisingly quickly and I laid her in her crib.
Not ten minutes later, she awoke screaming again and this time wasn't settling so I went in. She was wide awake and when I asked her what was wrong and if she wanted to lay down, she said, "The car! The car went fast on my neck!" "What?" I said, a little perplexed and wondering if she'd suffered any real consequences from her earlier fall. She replied with vigorous hand motions, "Daddy's purple car went fast on my head." I started to realize what had happened, "Did you hit your head really hard?" I said. "Yeah, the car went really fast on my head, right here" she pointed.
What a sweet little heart, she'd slept through the whole ordeal and was now awaking from a nightmare in which her dad's car ran into her head! We did our best to stifle our laughter and comfort our baby girl and convince her that it was a bad dream. Though it was awful for her I'm sure, it was a great moment for us as parents to watch that whole thing play out and to see her use her words to communicate so well with us!
Thursday, June 23, 2011
Summer (free) Time and a Trip to Mimi and Pappy's
I am a little shocked at the length of time between posts here on our blog, especially since it is one of my favorite things to do! I thought that once my husbands schedule eased up a bit in the summer I'd actually get some (gasp) "alone" time and maybe more time for things like this. However, the opposite has been true! Since Blair's had more time off this summer we've gotten swallowed up by house projects (this is in general a good thing) and I've been spending every moment that Ava is sleeping doing some manner of painting or gardening. This has left you, our faithful readers, longing I'm sure for some recent photos of our sweet toddler and her activities.
To quench your thirst for cuteness, here are some photos of our trip up to my mom's a couple of weeks ago. Mimi and Pappy's house is, for a two-year-old, the perfect no-cost vacation. A huge, old house brimming with nooks and crannies just begging to be explored, gardens full of new flowers and bird feeders, a waterfall and pond with fish to feed and croaking frogs, and of course the big dog and elusive kitty that lie in wait for the toddler pounce.
To quench your thirst for cuteness, here are some photos of our trip up to my mom's a couple of weeks ago. Mimi and Pappy's house is, for a two-year-old, the perfect no-cost vacation. A huge, old house brimming with nooks and crannies just begging to be explored, gardens full of new flowers and bird feeders, a waterfall and pond with fish to feed and croaking frogs, and of course the big dog and elusive kitty that lie in wait for the toddler pounce.
Eating a picnic after our hike
Feeding the fishies their breakfast
Picking strawberries for our breakfast
(and eating most of them)
Sitting by her baby pool
Playing Mimi's Piano
Taking a breather during her first hike!
Throwing rocks and wading in the creek
Looking for fish/frogs/bugs with Daddy
With no 'before' pictures, our house projects are less than exciting to write about. But, we have finished repainting our basement and carving out a spot for our new garden out front. I can't wait to show off the 'after' pictures and complete our other to-do's like painting furniture and planting flowers. I love being productive which makes me LOVE summer!
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