1.5 - An Un-birthday!

Ava's official "un-birthday" is today... 18 months old!

Doug and I were talking the other night about someone whose birthday is near Christmas. His family celebrates his birthday in June, on his "unbirthday". Doug had never heard of the concept, so I explained the reason for the Mad Hatter's party in Alice in Wonderland. I guess we'll need to watch that movie soon!

Ava has been quite the bee-charmer, lately. She is very loving, giving big hugs and kisses and enthusiastically yelling "hi" to friends and family. It's been fun to experience the world through her eyes, especially over the past few weeks. Mel-mo is no longer, he is now "Elm-o". "Mama" is now "Mommy", "Da-da" is now "Daddy". She now says "bu-uy" for "bunny". It's kind of scary when I can understand what she's saying. "Mey-ch" is "mess". She LOVES the Wiggles, Elmo DVD's, drawing and coloring on an easel, dancing and singing. I LOVE to hear her sing. She likes to sing "Row, row, Row your boat", and a few other songs.

Height: ??? (60th percentile)
Weight: 23 lbs (40th percentile)
Head:

Learning To Co-exist with Halloween Candy

The world has been full of learning opportunities for Ava, lately, as you might guess. Hating to pull-out holiday decorations only for a few weeks, I jumped on decorating the house for Halloween early this year. Funny how non-threatening Halloween decorations have become at our house these days; no scary witches or creatures, just very happy-looking ghosts! (Ava makes the sound "oooh" when she sees ghosts).

I pulled-out the decorative Halloween candy dishes, also. And what purpose would an EMPTY Halloween candy dish serve, anyway? So, we took the obligatory trek to the grocery store to fill the dishes (yes, plural) with candy. Bright, silvery-wrappered, tooth-rotting candy. The nougatty /caramel-ly kind that gives you "sweater-teeth" (i.e.-immediate coating o' Dentist-dollars).

Upon placing the candy dish on our trunk / coffee table, Ava stood in stupified wonder and looked on. The brightly gleaming, multi-colored, reflective wrappers egging her on. Fortunate for us, she hasn't been so inclined to rip them open like her parents might...

I guess we're all STILL learning how to co-exist with Halloween candy? Is there any hope for us? ;-)

What was your favorite candy to receive while trick-or-treating? Come on, fess up! For me, mini-Snickers. For Doug, it's the Reese's peanut butter cups.

Happy decorating!

Shelly

Elmo Live!

Our little girl's dream come true. Fuzzy monsters dancing live, from Sesame Street!

Bootleg Sesame Street Live...


It looked like a toddler convention, walking through Phillips Arena. Ava was entirely geeked to see Elmo. We had seats on the main floor, second section back, fifth row in the section. Ava seemed to enjoy the crowd even before the show started. She was waving up into the stands like a little cheerleader, dancing to the pre-show tunes. She would mimic the vendors who yelled "snow cones" (boh-boh!), in her loudest little voice. She loved the atmosphere. You would've thought she had arrived.


She stood up on our laps the entire time, peering over other spectator heads in front of us. I couldn't believe she stood still for that long (one hour, then a 15 minute break, plus an additional 30+ minutes).





I leaned over and told Doug that we must officially be considered parents now, if we have attended an Elmo "concert". :-) I also had to chuckle when the entire audience (adults included) sang the ABC's together. Twice. Where else would an entire arena of adults be caught dead singing the ABC's? Out loud? Only if Elmo is involved! ;-) Doug did say he caught the eye of a few dads that were "too cool for school - aka Elmo" who tried to avoid eye contact with him by putting their arms over their eyes? Hilarious!

The Cast of Characters


Loving the Show!


A sea of Elmo balloons, most of which ended up on the ceiling

Ava kept pointing at these balloons, saying "Mel-mo!"

My personal favorite, Bert's number. He reenacted John Travolta's "You Should Be Dancin', Yeah!" from Saturday Night Fever!


I'm still stumped as to how Big Bird's mouth moves. He's too tall for someone to fit in his costume from head to toe. If someone knows how Big Bird works, let me know! (okay, so I had to look it up... this is what I found out: "Muppeteer Caroll Spinney wears Big Bird as a costume. Spinney works the mouth and eyes with his right hand and uses his left hand to control Big Bird's arms. Spinney has a microphone inside the costume and a monitor that allows him to see what he's doing." Source - http://entertainment.howstuffworks.com/how-elmo-works1.htm)



The friendliest of monsters!


Oh, by the way, the letter of the day is "J", and the number of the day is "8". :-)

Sunny day, sweeping the clouds away,
With love,
Shelly

What a Weekend!

Grandma Pam came down from Michigan and stayed with us this past Wednesday night through Sunday night. We packed more into this trip than ever! We had a picnic at the park once, went to the park once more, took a few wagon rides, went to Chuck E. Cheese, saw the Sesame Street exhibit at the Atlanta Children's Museum, ate at Frankie's, went to the Atlanta Zoo to celebrate Mei Lan's first birthday (baby panda), visited the bookstore, watched the Wiggles (DVD) and just had some great fun playing.

It was in the low 90's when Grandma Pam visited, but it didn't stop us from visiting the park a few times or going to the zoo. Ava was a trooper through our many excursions this weekend. Naptime was definitely delayed more than not; we had so much to see! It was really cute to look in the back seat and see Ava making googly-eyes at Grandma. (Ava would say "boo" to Grandma Pam, and they would go back and forth scaring each other and laughing!) Ava will definitely miss her back-seat buddy, now that Grandma has gone home to Michigan.

Rockin' Out and Singing in the Car (and this is one of her more "tame" responses to this song... It's definitely a favorite!)


Sesame Street Exhibit at the Atlanta Children's Museum


Too Much Fun!


Can You Tell Me How To Get To Sesame Street?


Ava, Grandma Pam and Elmo FOUND Sesame Street!


Gone Fishin'


Hangin' Out on Sesame Street


Okay, the Careys will love this one... Hi Mousie!!! ;-) Like Father, like daughter?


Playing with some "moon sand" at the Atlanta Children's Museum


The Farm at the Children's Museum


Gettin' Down On The Farm


A Bulldozer ride at the Children's Museum


Two actors put on a really cute skit for the kids at the museum


Blowing Kisses to Elmo and Zoe


Daddy and Ava at the Park


Hard at Work!


Ava will now open her mouth and show her teeth when you ask her to say "cheese", or inquire of her to "show me your teeth". If you enlarge this picture, you'll get a better view at those choppers...


The Zoo Crew


A Bird's Eye View of the Zoo


Zebras and a Giraffe at the Zoo


Three Girl Elephants, Up To Their Tricks


Happy 1st Birthday to Mei Lan!


Excited About Pandas!


Gorillas


These Kangaroos Were Slacking On the Job (who wouldn't in 90 degree weather?)


Walking Around the Zoo


After a Full Day at the Zoo!


Having Fun with Grandma Pam


Pointing Out the Panda Bear


Ava loves her "bee" (her bear). She was ecstatic when we saw the pandas at the zoo and laughed and danced with great excitement. She seemed to enjoy the elephants, kangaroos, monkeys, and REALLY liked the piggies at the petting zoo. As long as Daddy was within arm's-length, she felt courageous enough to pet the animals (in the petting zoo).

She LOVED the "Bob the Builder" bulldozer at Chuck E. Cheese. It didn't really matter whether we put in a token, or not. It was just her size. This made Daddy a very happy guy...a daughter interested in the building trade! She also really liked Chuck E., as he sang and danced on stage.




I think she has the title to this car somewhere...at least she thinks she does!


At the park, she is now daring enough to climb up the slide and slide down by herself. (This wasn't the case last week!) She LOVES a racecar that stands on a spring-type post. I think she thinks she owns the car... When other kids come near the car, she just runs away and plays with something else. She now fully enunciates "Dad-dy" and "Mom-my". She also said "all done" very well the other day (no longer ahh-duh). She says "My Daddy", "My Mommy", "Happy", "Open", quite often.

Slip-slidin' Away


We're looking forward to a happily busy Fall, filled with pumpkins, cool weather, crunchy leaves, fun events and family!

With love,
Shelly

Ava is 17 Months Old

It has been so much fun to watch Ava, especially lately. I can see the gears working when she watches something, trying so hard to learn all about the big wide world.



I've been determined that Ava won't become a tv junkie. We've tried to limit her tv-watching to one video or DVD a day (30 minutes total). I thought that was generous, but not to the kiddo! She LOVES Elmo! She will walk up to our tv, grab the remote, walk it over to me, walk back to the tv, point to it and say "Moh Melmo", all while doing the sign for "more". Oy! We're fortunate that the dvd's we do have are educational, but I really don't want her to rely on television for education. So, we just redirect her attention, if possible.



We bought tickets to go to Sesame Street LIVE in a few weeks. Hopefully she'll get her Elmo-fix there!



She is beginning to form short sentences. This past weekend, we repeatedly heard all about "Melmo". She now likes to repeat things over and over again, practicing. She is much more deliberate now about saying things, such as "Mama", "Dada", "Melmo", "More", "Happy", "Chomp", enunciating more and using the "appropriate" word for something. She's been great about letting us know what she needs. She looks at us directly when she is trying to communicate things, instead of babbling into thin air. Don't get me wrong, she does like to babble when she reads her books, but she also talks to us directly when she wants something.



She knows how to use a handle to open and close a door, now, too. We've had some thunderstorms lately, one which spooked her a little. She now says "dun-der" (thunder), and "awn-mower" (if she hears a lawnmower, leafblower, etc). She says "bye-bye, airplane".



This past weekend I went with a friend to some consignment sales and a garage sale. I found a Sit-and-Spin for $2. Recalling my own fond memories of the sit-and-spin at Grandmother Lawson's house, I had to buy it; she LOVES it! It also plays some fresh techno beats, surprisingly. She lugs the entire thing around the living room. I got some REALLY cute high-end smocked dresses and outfits, a Winter coat, three hand-made sweaters and some other nice clothes for her at the sales. Always good to get a deal on cute clothes! From what I understand, Atlanta is AMAZING for consignment sales compared to many other parts of the country... Not sure why? Here are some pictures of some of the finds...

















Ava seems very well-adjusted, and is ever-so-social. She says "Hieee!" to most everyone when we're out in public. She loves to kiss and carry her dolls, and enjoys taking care of a babydoll in the church nursery. She loves to know how things work. She's really into carrying purses and bags around lately, as you can tell below...



We babysat a friend's baby on Saturday. I went to check on him while holding Ava, telling Ava we needed to be quiet, "shhh". When we left the baby sleeping and closed the door, Ava would say "shhh". It was cute.

She doesn't sit still for very long. The doctor advised at her 16 month appointment that, as long as she is sitting still long enough to eat dinner, that is great; babies don't sit for long at this age, in general. It's funny, if she is interested in something, she could sit forever!



She is 22 lbs and in the 30th percentile for height and weight. This seriously surprised me, because she doesn't seem to be small in my opinion, eats well and has some meat on her bones. I guess this isn't such a bad thing, considering the obesity "epidemic" with kids these days. I'm not stressing about percentiles, but regardless of them, Ava is eating very well and seems to be growing so quickly! She has 12 teeth. I had a breakthrough yesterday when I was able to hold her down long enough to figure out how many teeth she has! I think she's working on #13, too. When we ask her to say "cheese", she now shows all of her teeth. It's a hoot! ;-)

We really try to feed her as many healthy foods as we can, with the occasional treat. I'm also determined that she will not be a picky eater, aka the "chicken nugget kid". She has been eating everything lately we put in front of her! She LOVES any kind of fruit. I would venture to say her favorite food is grapes. We have to remind her to eat only one at a time, as she gobbles them up! Occasionally she won't prefer ground beef or some meats. We just try to disguise them and she's fine with them.

(She's got a shiner on her cheek in this pic... Two on the same cheek, in one day...)


Doug and I both don't prefer salmon, so other than salmon, she's eaten quite a bit...tofu with spaghetti sauce, Fish sticks, avocado, black bean salsa, shrimp, scallops, blueberries (LOVES these), chicken breast, honey-glazed carrots, peas (loves them), chicken nuggets (I know, I know), tuna salad, egg salad sandwiches, peanut butter sandwiches, Nutri-Grain bars (an all-time favorite), ravioli.

Truth be told, it has been difficult to keep her menu varied and healthy. We've been told on more than one occasion that her food is the "best" of all kids at day care. That makes me feel great that others think she has good food... Being a first-time Mom, I would never know! She LOVES milkshakes, too. Knowing she is in the 30th %, I don't feel so guilty giving her one every once in a while... The straw doesn't leave her lips for at least 5 minutes!!!! ;-)

She's 17 months-old, and growing every day!

With love,
Shelly