This weekend I finally took the baby bumper out of Ava's crib. We have not converted the crib to a toddler bed yet because she hasn't firgured out how to scale the rails. It won't be long I'm sure. Every weekend Ava will wake up a little earlier and will play with her toys and stuff animals in her crib. That will buy us some time for about 30 minutes and then she starts screaming for Mommy. Of course Michael has this running joke that who ever Ava yells for in the morning, has to go get her. I wait for ten more minutes and then walk into her room. Nine times out of ten, all of her crib contents are on the floor and she has this "angelic" look on her face.
One day Sebastian decided to clean out his video collection in his bedroom. He put all the tapes he was too "old" for on the bookshelf and placed a note so I would know what to do with them. Hmmmm....now if only I could get him to clean out the playroom and the family room downstairs.
One minute Ava is happy as a clam and then the next second (it seems like), she's zonked out. It's amazing how they fight off sleep and then they completely give in. I love that "zombie" look right before they nod off. You know what happens next.
Uh oh...going, going, GONE! (if you click on the picture below to enlarge, you can see her eyelids literally dropping)
Here is a short video clip of Sebastian's bike lesson progress. Of course after the practice was over, Sebastian decided to take Ava's car for a spin. Let's just say a certain two year old wasn't very happy about it. I didn't have time to take a video of Ava's response. Let's just say it wasn't pretty ;-)
Sometimes we'll be in the car and I will hear all this chattering going on in the back. Well it happened that Michael was driving on this particular day and I was the passenger. I turned around to see what all the "happiness" was about and saw this. Ava dumped the content from her purse and decided to make a hat out of it.
The weather was so nice on Sunday so I procrastinated with the house chores and decided to do outdoor activities with the kids instead. Ava of course was planted in her plastic moving vehicle and Sebastian got some more practice with his bike with no training wheels. We weren't the only ones out enjoying the weather. Sara who lives down the street was hula hooping and Ava just observed everything from her seat. I love the picture of her standing up and sticking her tongue out. What a character.
It's official, Ava got her learner's permit on Saturday. Mommy got her a pink car from the children's sale on Friday night so she could get some sidewalk driving exposure. Well let's just say Ava absolutely loves her pink "beetle" car and has insisted on riding it every day since she first laid eyes on it.
What speed sign? I thought this baby could do 75 mph.
Ava has a new routine before daycare and work. For the past two weeks, when we pull out of the garage, Ava has to say goodbye to Daddy. This all takes place in the backseat and Daddy is at the end of the driveway picking up his newspaper. I have to roll down the window on her side so she can blow kisses and say bye bye at least ten times.
Ava and Sebastian were in a pretty good mood that particular afternoon after work and school. Usually Ava is whining about something and Sebastian is concerned about what he has to eat for dinner. They were both in a singing mood as well which is a RARE treat for me. So of course, I whipped out my camera (yes, while I was driving). Now mind you, I was driving on a side country road where there's usually one or two cars on it. Yes, I know that accidents usually happen close to home but hey....I am a professional videographer! I can keep my eyes on the road, one hand on the wheel and hold the camera backwards with the other hand. So no, I don't use the eyes at the back of my head to drive ;-)
It was picture day at Ava's daycare on Friday. I had forgotten it was picture day but luckily, Ava was in a cute pink dress. We didn't order the individual pictures but I did order a class picture for Ava's scrapbook. So she can look at the scrapbook one day and see her first "classroom" picture.
When I dropped Ava off in her classroom this morning, I couldn't resist taking a picture of Daryn (I think that was his name). He had a pink shirt on and his hair was spiked up. I don't know if his parents dressed him up that way intentionally. I see him almost every morning and his hair is not usually spiked up. So the teachers and I were laughing because here's this little boy wearing pink but had a "tough" hairdo. A boy who's a little rough around the edges but has a soft side (ie. the pink shirt). Oh sure, it's cute when they are two years old, but wait until Daryn comes home with a tattoo and an earring when he's 17!
This weekend I decided it was time to take off the training wheels on Sebastian's bike. His bike has been in the garage for almost two years and he hasn't shown an interest in riding it. We tried the bike lessons the Spring before Ava arrived. At the time, we raised the training wheels and took Sebastian over to the school parking lot. I actually have video clips of him riding his bike but I still have to convert them from DVD file to a mp3 file.
Anyway, here are three video clips of this morning's lesson. I don't know why youtube combined the three video files into one. The order of the video clips are backward. The first segment is Sebastian getting frustrated with his bike practice and storming off, the second segment is him actually peddling and balancing and the third segment is him trying to start the bike on his own. Of course after 20 minutes of lessons and frustrations, we both sort of lost our patience and the lessons were over. Sebastian has a lot of his Mommy in him unfortunately. This will be a "work in progress" so stay tuned....hopefully by the time the weather gets warm, we'll have a few more lessons under our belt ;-)
I ordered a growth chart for Ava because we had a growth chart for Sebastian in his room. At the time I ordered Ava's chart, I couldn't remember what age Sebastian was when we first measured him. Michael and Sebastian installed the growth chart this morning in Ava's room. We thought Ava was growing by leaps and bounds and thought it was time to take her first measurement. Her measurements are "off the charts"! So much so that she doesn't even register on the growth chart. The chart starts at three feet and Ava's last height measurement at her Wellness visit was 34 inches and a quarter inch. I didn't realize the growth chart only started at 36 inches. So she is still our little half pint. Oh yeah, and I found out we measured Sebastian for the first time when he was almost three years old. Ava is just a little over two years old. I guess we were a little too early....
This is what Daylight Saving time does to your kids. We moved the clocks forward on Sunday and it didn't hit them until Monday morning when it was time for school. Actually, the pictures were taken a few nights ago but it might as well have been Monday morning. The kids like to sleep in Monday through Friday and wake us up between 6 - 7 a.m. on Saturday and Sunday. Go figure.
The pictures were taken on two separate days. The weather has been warm the past few days so we have been moving some of our activities outside. I think we all have the slight case of "spring fever".
Michael and Sebastian were outside washing the car when Sebastian's friend from across the street, Michael, shouted out "Hey Sebastian, do you want to come over and play?" Sebastian answered, "no, I'm helping my Daddy wash his car right now." Of course I didn't know this had transpired since I was with Ava. But when Michael told me what Sebastian said, we thought it was so adorable that Sebastian still says "little boy" things like "my Daddy". We both know it won't be long before he stops calling us "Mommy" and "Daddy". It will be a sad day in our house :-P
Ava's latest "obssession" is PLAY DOH. As soon as we come down in the morning she makes a bee line to the Play Doh. It's the first thing she wants to do when we come home after work/school and it's the last thing she wants to do before bedtime. Last week when we stayed home for a snow day, I ended up cutting out cookies with every shape and cookie cutter in the house...for two hours! Grandmom came over last weekend to visit and watch Ava and got caught up in the Play Doh activity for over an hour. I tried to warn her but it was too late. The Play Doh isn't so bad, it's the little red plastic chairs you have to sit in to do the activity. Once your'e planted in those chairs for more than 30 minutes, it's VERY hard to get yourself up!
Ava has some new activities during her bath time routine. Lately she likes laying all the way down in the bathtub and lets her hair float in the water. I remember doing that as a kid and I remember Sebastian doing that as well. He still does. It's just cute to see Ava to carry the "tradition". You have to be a kid to find the joys of bath time.
Michael said Ava looked like a flower in this close up. Also the hood on the snow suit looked like a bonnet so I can see why she would resemble a flower.
It's hard to believe that last winter, Ava was just a little over a year old and she had only been home for seven months! Since we haven't gotten a lot of snow this year, Ava hasn't had much "practice" with her snow angels. So Michael tried to help her out a little and as you will see in the movie clip, she didn't want anything to do with it. This is the one time the parents torture their kids instead of the other way around. I promise, no child was harmed in the making of this video. As you will see in the second video, Ava fully recovered from her snow angel activity.
Today we received the first real snowstorm of the season. Schools were closed and we decided to take a personal day from work. Sebastian went across the street to Elizabeth's house to sled and Ava got her feet...er...boots wet in the snow.
Last year Ava had a big pink puffy snow suit which we fondly referred to as the Puffalump suit. This year she also had a big puffy pink snow suit but it hasn't been really cold enough to put on her winter boots and snow suit. In fact, she is almost getting too big for the snow suit because every time she bends over, it rides up on her. I don't what it is about toddlers and snow suits. It doesn't matter what color the snow suit is, they just look like giant lifesize Puffalumps!
She was excited about the snow for the first three minutes until she did her first nose plant into the snow.
Ava and I have attended three Kindermusic classes and she's slowly getting comfortable with the Saturday morning routine. She still sits on my lap for 3/4 of the class but she will get up for short spurts to either play with the musical instruments or hula hoops. The teacher said that some kids never "let go" the entire season and some do. I'm hoping for the latter. You can still see the hesitation in her eyes in some of the pictures.
The name of my blog page represents the journey of Mother, Son and Daughter. I have "Come Full Circle" as an orphan in Vietnam and as a parent of two Vietnamese children. I have returned to my homeland and I am starting a new chapter with my family. This is a story of hope and dreams. It is a new beginning for all of us.
