Ava Trivia

Ava's favorite things to point at...

- Bunny (in the yard)
- Birds (every where)
- Airplanes (in the sky)
- Books (any books at bedtime and wake up time)
- Herself (when asked where's the baby?)

Ava's favorite things...

- Likes to say the word "Bite" in between each bite
- Likes to grab your hand and pull you up so she can take you somewhere
- Likes to go in all the kitchen drawers, spice cabinet and doors
- Loves ALL phones and pushing the buttons
- Being tickled after bath
- Being a copy cat
- Giving out kisses (especially before bedtime)
- Daddy's cereal bowl
- Being chased (the cat and mouse game)
- Puzzles
- MUSIC and dancing
- Rattle bunny and pink bear blanket
- Play dishes, cups and plastic cutlery
- Anything of Sebastian's (uh oh)
- Anyone's shoes laying around
- Coloring
- Tearing any kind of paper (drawing, paper towel, napkins, tissues)
- Throwing things in the trash can (with/out being prompted)

A song that touched me

I discovered this artist a few months before we went to Vietnam last year. I came across this song tonight on youtube and had to download the song on ITunes. The lyrics and video images of Vietnam really moved me and I wanted to post it on my blog because it has so much meaning to me. During an interview with Quynh Anh (artist) she talks about how this song really talks about what she is and how she feels. To paraphrase her, "It's about the beginning of it all. It speaks about my country of origin that I have never known. I definitely miss something, not knowing the country of my ancestors. I think that to be a really complete person, I need to go back there one day."

Last year I visited Vietnam for the first time since 1970 while we were finalizing Ava's adoption. I never really got to "know" the country and it's people during the two weeks we were there. We were focused on Ava and Sebastian and the trip wasn't about my wishes and desires. Two of my "childhood" dreams already came true. The first one was in 2001 when my son was born and the second one was in 2007 when Ava came into my life. I would like to think that one day, we will return to Vietnam and stay for a lot longer than two weeks and learn all about our heritage. In the meantime, I listen to this song as an inspiration.





SONG LYRICS:

Tell me all about this name, that is difficult to say.
It was given me the day I was born.

Want to know about the stories of the empire of old.
My eyes say more of me than what you dare to say.

All I know of you is all the sights of war.
A film by Coppola, the helicopter's roar.

One day I'll touch your soil.
One day I'll finally know your soul.
One day I'll come to you.
To say hello... Vietnam.

Tell me all about my colour, my hair and my little feet
That have carried me every mile of the way.

Want to see your house, your streets. Show me all I do not know.
Wooden sampans, floatings markets, light of gold.

All I know of you is the sights of war.
A film by Coppola, the helicopter's roar.

One day I'll touch your soil.
One day I'll finally know your soul.
One day I'll come to you.
To say hello... Vietnam.

And Buddha's made of stone watch over me.
My dreams they lead me through the fields of rice.
In prayer, in the light...I see my kin.
I touch my tree, my roots, my begin...

One day I'll touch your soil.
One day I'll finally know your soul.
One day I'll come to you.
To say hello... Vietnam.

One day I'll walk your soil
One day I'll finally know my soul
One day I'll come to you.
To say hello...Vietnam
To say hello...Vietnam
To say xin chao...Vietnam.

Ava's bubble blowing skills and other trivial stuff

Well, Sebastian survived the first day of school today. I asked him how his day was and he replied "great and no homework." In the words of Ava, "uh oh." I think I'll leave the homework delegation to Daddy. On another note, on Monday morning, as I was driving the kids to the daycare, Sebastian asked me to turn up the radio volume. He said he liked the song that was playing and I asked him how he knew this song. He replied, "they always play the Go Go's at daycare". I told him that Mommy LOVED the song "Vacation" when she was a teenager. Little did he know how nostalgic I was feeling.

Ava was in one of those funky moods again today. I tried to keep her entertained before dinner and she was able to tolerate some bubble blowing for about ten minutes until she had a meltdown. During her melt down, I accidently left my cell phone on top of the spare tire because I thought Daddy might call. I have an SUV and the tire hangs off the back door. Later on, we went out for some ice cream and I completely forgot about my cell phone being on top of the tire. Suffice to say, the cell phone fell off the car in the middle of the road and a car ran over it. I didn't realize I had left the cell phone on the car until well after we returned from the ice cream trip. We got a phone call from some guy who happened to be peddling on his bike and found my cell phone. Miraculously the cell phone was still functioning. The camera function on the phone is shot since the glass plate over the lens completely shattered. I don't know what it is about leaving stuff on top of cars lately. First Michael left his wallet on top of his car a few months back and now my cell phone. It must be contagious!

Sorry Ava, you still can't play with Mommy's red Razor phone. I know how much you LOVE it and you go bonkers every time I pull it out to make calls. Maybe next year when Mommy upgrades her phone to an IPhone! For now, you have to make do with your pink Cinderella phone.

I was able to email all the pictures I took on my cell phone and send it to my email just in case the phone does decide to crap out. As my husbands says, "as if I need more pictures!!"

This was taken outside the grocery store.




Here is a cute video clip of Ava blowing bubbles before her melt down.

First day of second grade!

Since I couldn't be with Sebastian when he got on the school bus, I took a picture of the kids on the front steps. I don't think Sebastian would have appreciated his Mom taking pictures and running and waving on the sidewalk as the bus pulls away. When I see photos like this, I can't believe I get to be the Mom to these two wonderful children.

Scenes from a country fair

Ava and Mommy enjoyed a small country fair on Saturday. We joined June and Mary and Jane and Claudia. June and Jane know each other from their China adoption network. As much as the girls enjoyed themselves, this was not a large enough fair to entertain an eight year old boy. Sebastian decided to go out to dinner with his Dad and Grandmom. Unfortunately, this will probably be the last fair for the summer since the school year will be starting up on Tuesday. But we always have Fall fairs and festivals to look forward to.

Mommy riding the first ride with Ava. I wasn't sure if she would stay on a ride by herself.


After the second ride, Ava was ready to ride all the rides.



We got the girls to stand still for five seconds to get a group shot.




A fair wouldn't be a fair without corn!

Ava's day summarized

By the looks of the pictures below, it seems like some days are "longer" than others. I can usually tell what kind of day Ava is going to have by the way she wakes up in the morning or what kind of day she had by the mood she's in when I pick her up at the daycare at the end of the day. NOTE: Ava is not smiling in both pictures. Not a pretty site! ;-)

Ava being dropped off at the daycare in the morning.






















Ava at the end of the day. (hairy scary)

Simon Says...

Ava has had the "monkey see, monkey do" complex lately. Especially around her brother. Sebastian constantly has a little shadow and she's playing the "Simon Say's" game not even realizing she's playing it.

I am my mother's daughter

Ava's vocubulary has increased significantly in the past month. She can repeat most new words but she will only repeat words she hears consistently. The words she's picked up in the past few weeks are: elbow, Marley (pet cat's name), Barney, Elmo, up, uh oh, stuck, bunny and last but not least NO. Although it's hard sometimes to differentiate Elmo from elbow and Marley from Barney. ;-) She does try to say Sebastian's name. I cannot find the letters on the keyboard to type out how she pronounces his name though. But you can usually tell when she's saying his name because she's looking straight at him!

She has observed closely how we react when we are disciplining her. Sometimes we will get a little taste of our own medicine back. Here is a video which demonstrates her "copy cat" ability. She even has the facial expressions down right. Sure it's funny, cute and adorable right now but how do we not laugh at it later when the real discipline needs to be enforced? It will be interesting to see who will cave in first. ;-P

Recurring Theme

Yep, I tortured my family by making them visit a Pho restaurant while we were on vacation. Sebastian wanted "ramen noodles" and Ava, well, she can eat noodles 24/7. Maybe I should request to relocate since the restaurant was only 10 minutes away from our beach house rental. We have to drive 40 minutes out of our way to the nearest Pho restaurant where we live. Sebastian couldn't believe it when I told him that Mommy ate Pho for breakfast every day in Vietnam. Mommy could eat Pho almost every day if I had access to the fresh ingredients!

I knew I should have ordered two bowls of Pho. The kids ate 3/4 of the content out of my bowl.













Ava tried to practice with chopsticks and then decided the old fashion method worked the best.













Michael wanted me to take a picture of the two store fronts. On the right is the Pho restaurant and on the left is a bookstore. I don't know if you can read the words on the left sign. You may have to zoom in on the photo to see it better. Let's just say it's not a place to bring your family to for recreation ;-)

Naked Baby

I had to laugh when I saw the naked baby on the beach. You don't see this too often. Although I don't think I would have done this to my own kids because I would think it would be awfully uncomfortable with sand "stuck" in unmentionable crevices.

Boardwalk Entertainment

We decided to go on the boardwalk the last two nights of our vacation. Even though the wind picked up, it didn't stop everyone from strolling on the boardwalk. There was even a band playing and all the kids got to burn off some of their energy.

Here is Ava the "exhibitionist".


Poor Sebastian, he was dancing his little heart out because he thought that he would get a coupon for a free ice cream at the end. The band had a contest earlier for the kids but we got in a little too late. But he got an ice cream later on anyway. We wouldn't want to disappoint. I think this clip was cute because there was another little girl dancing next to Sebastian and they looked like they were a "couple".

More vacation pics

Maybe it was a "calling" when I saw the Noah's arc outside this church. I think that was the same evening our streets flooded after the severe thunderstorms hit early evening. You'll see the flooded streets a few posts down. The rain water did eventually drain overnight. But it was kinda freaky to see our car practically floating in the backyard.



Another rare glimpse of siblings holding hands...it doesn't happen too often. Remember, Ava is independent and the only time she usuailly takes your hand is when she wants to take you to something she wants or somewhere.



Another beach shot just because he's so handsome. This vacation has brought back a lot of memories of Sebastian when he was a toddler. Since this was Ava's first time seeing the beach and ocean, it reminded me of the first time Sebastian walked on the beach when he was 13 months old. I still remember his little feet and hands pumping hard as he was running/waddling on the sand. The first time we brought him to the beach he was only five weeks old (but we don't really count that).



A carousel horse outside an ice cream parlor on Ocean Ave. We didn't actually have ice cream there but I wanted the kids to pose on the carousel. Ava wasn't in a cooperative mood and it took Sebastian and Daddy to stand next to her to get a 3 second shot with her.

Scavenger

Every picnic has it's scavenger. Whether it's ants or seagulls, if you leave your food unattended, it's a feast for the taking. Fortunately, it wasn't ours.

Team work

Now you see her....


Now you don't. Where'd she go?



Hey Dad, is this bucket big enough?




I think this little bucket is just your size. You leave the heavy lifting to me ;-)

Water Baby

Once Ava got the taste of the ocean, she was relentless. She didn't even want Daddy holding her and got upset when he wouldn't put her down in the waves. As long as there was someone there to swing her around, she was okay. But she kept running into the water which made it very exhausting for both parents.

The stunt man/actor/understudy

Here are some action shots of Sebastian. He kept this up for about 45 minutes. I was just exhausted from keeping myself standing as the waves kept coming in. He just loved body slamming into the waves. I really don't know where they get all that energy. But I had to go home and take a nap!

Making sand waves

I think Ava felt like she was missing out. I know they start them out that early but this is ridiculous! But, every time I told her to stand on the boogie board, she would do it. The rest of the actions was purely Ava's! She's fearless and fiercely independent. Oh boy, are we in trouble!

Riding the waves

Sebastian and Daddy really got the hang of it. They must have been out there for 40 minutes. The waves were strong at one point because Michael came back with a broken boogie board. He said the waves smashed the board so hard against his chest that it broke in half. The boards are made out of styrofoam but still....ouch! That didn't stop anything. They went out the next day and bought two more boogie boards... or body boards as Sebastian likes to call them.

Sand Construction

We finally made it to the beach...yay! Most of the family got into the sand castle construction and deconstruction while I resumed as the family photographer.

Imagination

This is what Sebastian was up to while his Dad was holding the kite. He decided that making sand angels and artworkwas much more productive and creative. Of course I told him it wasn't quite the same as making snow angels. But who am I to judge? If only we could all see through the eyes of a seven year old.




This is what Sebastian will write on the sand one day for his sweetheart. But for now, all he needs is his Mommy ;-P




And then there's Ava with her silly and super cute grin.