18 month stats

28 lbs, 10 oz (90th percentile)
35 in (still off the chart)

Ava is right on target with development, the doctor says she's healthy and doing well! She didn't get any vaccinations this time (HOORAY!) but was very apprehensive of the doctor. She gave him mean looks and shoved the instruments he was trying to use (stethoscope, otoscope, etc) away and whined when he tried to feel her stomach, etc. Can't really blame her, since every time she's been to the doctor it was for a bad ear infection or to get a bunch of shots. :-/ Anyhow, they are spacing the appointments out more now and we don't have to go in until she turns 2! Yay!

In other news, the next two days are going to suck for me...I've had persistent stomach problems for about a year now (I've always had a wonky stomach but it's gotten really bad), among other things I get stomach bugs at the drop of a hat, am constantly nauseated, and have started losing weight as a result. So I went to a GI doctor who has decided that I need an endoscopy (stuff shoved down my throat), and a colonoscopy (stuff shoved...nevermind). Thankfully, this requires being under general anesthesia (oh goody! Another bill from an anesthesiologist! This one BETTER work more than my stupid epidural) but being put under scares me. I have to be on a liquid diet today and then drink something tonight that will entirely flush out my system. I'll spare the details but it's not going to be fun. From about 6pm tonight until Saturday morning, Craig will be running the show, since I'll either be trapped in the bathroom or sleeping off the sedatives. Come to think of it, maybe a forced resting period will be nice...hmmm...not sure I really want to be probed but whatever. Hopefully they can find--and correct--the problem.

Continuing the word list

Bubble, wow, and whoa. And she says, "YEAH!" when you give her a high five. :) Doc appt today so it'll be interesting to get those stats!

I almost forgot...

I KNEW there were more words in Ava's vocabulary!!! She's recently learned to say "No" and sometimes actually uses it correctly, though I think it's just coincidence....she mostly just likes to say it randomly. She also says--and identifies--the following body parts:

• Eye
• Mouth ("mow")
• Nose ("no")
• Boob ("boo")
  

...that last one is totally my fault. She developed this fascination with looking down my shirt and I kept saying, "Can you please stop looking at mommy's boobs?" It wasn't a big deal until she looked down my mother-in-law's shirt....I don't want her to think that they're BAD, but I also don't want her to think it's okay to peek under people's clothing. Oh well. As long as she's not doing that when she's, like, twelve years old or something...

She can also identify ears and belly buttons but does not say the words.

Also, speaking of Thomas the train from my previous post, I found this completely random video on YouTube the other day: clips of Thomas set to Michael Jackson's "Thriller." Um...weird, but amusing! (Mary...this is for you! ;o)

Ava at 18 months

I'm a very, very bad poster. I know. I didn't even post once in June. I'd promise to post more but maybe I won't...most of my updates are on Facebook nowadays...it's just easier. ANYHOW...here's an update, if anyone still comes around! ;o)

• Ava has her 18 month checkup on Wednesday....just a guess, but I'm thinking she's still off of the height chart, in the 90+ percentile for weight, and if there was a foot size chart, she'd be off of that as well. Poor kid is destined to have giant duck feet like her mother. :-\
• She does not respond to spanking. Keep in mind, she doesn't get "real" spankings yet as I don't think she's old enough to really get it. Just swats on the butt or hand. And she doesn't care. She either screams in my face or laughs, so I rarely even bother. What does work? Being banished to her crib...she HATES being forcibly isolated and on a bad day, one or two trips to the crib will get her back in line! It's funny though...I was terrified of spankings as a child.
  
• She says the following words/phrases: Mommy, Dada, bye-bye, hi, doggie, duckie, where did it go ("woo doh?", complete with hand gestures), thank you ("nankoo!"), ball, popsicle (pop-po), kitty (keekee), water (wawa), and either poopy or potty (poppy), but we haven't figured out which one she means when she says "poppy." We're taking preliminary steps to potty training...when she has a dirty diaper, we empty it into the toilet and she helps us flush, and we tell her "poopy goes in the potty!" Sorry if that's TMI. We need to do something...I have a feeling we're going to be in way over our heads with the whole potty training thing. Okay, sorry for the tangent, she also says Thomas ("noh-nah") in reference to the utterly bizarre children's show, Thomas the Tank Engine. I think there are a few more but I don't remember at the moment....she does a LOT of babbling with words mixed in and seems to believe she's having full-on conversations with us. ;o)
  
• She has a scream that sounds remarkably similar to a dentist's drill and is about as painful
• She gives kisses...sometimes she actually puts her lips on us, sometimes they are just air kisses, but they're always accompanied by an exaggerated, "mmmmmmuh!" SO. CUTE.
• She loves babies and animals and both can expect to receive many hugs and kisses from her. Except poor Winston, the pug belonging to Craig's grandparents. She tried to touch his eyeball and pull out his tongue when we were up visiting in NJ last month.
• She is extremely inquisitive, unafraid, and stubborn. I wish she'd be a *little* afraid of things, like maybe strangers or water. When she sees a pool, she tries to jump right in, regardless of the fact that she cannot swim
• She is tough, more what I would expect from a little boy. Unless she's in a mood, she can take a pretty good spill and cries very little or not at all. She doesn't get that from me...I'm a wuss.

We are having so much fun with this little person of ours! Sometimes it makes me sad that she's not a baby anymore, but mostly it's so cool watching her grow and learn that I don't think about it too much...however, that has not gotten us any closer to a verdict on if/when we will have a second child. Sometimes when I think about it I feel really guilty, as if having another kid would somehow betray Ava. I know it's ridiculous, because she'd be thrilled with a sibling (she LOVES other kids) and we'd still love her as much as we do now, but I can't help it...I have no idea why I feel that way. I never felt betrayed or any less loved when my brothers were born....weird. Having said that, if we do have another one....I really, really want a girl! :o) I just think having same-gendered kids would be nice (and we're not having more than two kids, period)...if Ava had been a boy, I'd probably want another boy as well.

ANYHOW--in non-Ava-related news, we are settled into the new home, have just arrived back from our annual trip to Chicago, and I have one more week of trackout before beginning another school year, which I am just not ready for. Bleh. Also, I'm having some procedures done on Friday to see if the doctors can figure out my ongoing stomach problems...I'm not looking forward to it but am hoping for some answers!!

That's it for now....pictures eventually. I'm trying to find something better than Bubbleshare because it's annoying that I have to individually resize and then individually upload all of the pictures, and it can take HOURS. Any recommendations would be welcome!! I tried Picasa but could not figure out how to work it. Ugh.

We've Moved!

Our new address is:

Craig, Melissa, and Ava Haynor
125 River Watch Ln.
Youngsville, NC 27596

We still don't use a house phone, and our cell phones will stay the same....we're only 15 min or so from our old house. I will start doing regular updates and posting photos again once we're settled in, it's just been too hectic the past few months to keep up with everything! :) Ava LOVES the new house, especially running around and screaming (it makes a really annoying echo when she does it, she apparently thinks it's great) and licking the windows. Yes...licking the windows. I'm not sure why. Ahhhh.....toddlers! ;o)

I'm not being purposely neglectful...

....it's just crazy, crazy busy right now. We're moving in 13 days (was supposed to be 5 days but, oh, SURPRISE, they screwed up AGAIN and we're moving the day before my mom has to leave. Note: she's flying down to help us move, based on the closing date of the 18th that they ASSURED us was accurate. CRAPWEASELS!!!!!) So anyhow we're busy with packing, wheeling and dealing with realtors and home-buyers, working, and Ava-wrangling. She's getting her eyeteeth and has turned into Damien the devil child. She's thrown a number of tantrums to the point of not being able to breathe for reasons such as:

• not being allowed to climb on the table
• having her diaper changed
• having her teeth brushed
• not being allowed to eat inedible things that could cause her to choke (rocks, computer parts, dead leaves, garbage, etc)

A few days ago she got so mad at me while she was in the bathtub that she took revenge by SHOVING HER HEAD UNDER THE WATER. Which caused her to choke and cough and subsequently barf in the tub. I swear to you, if anyone gets on my case about the likelihood of a baby #2, I will probably punch them in the head.

It's not all tough though....on Mother's Day, she started saying "mommy" which was pretty freakin' cool. (Doesn't hurt that Ava and Daddy gave mommy a trip to the spa for a facial this Saturday!) She loves to snuggle on the couch with me, and I LOVE chasing her around just to hear her laugh. I can't believe how fast she's growing up! Not just physically--we're up to 27 lbs--but she's such an independent little girl: now, at bedtime, she doesn't usually like it when I rock her. We read, we say prayers, and more often than not when I try to rock her she squirms and reaches for her crib, just wanting to go to bed! :-( On one hand it's kind of sad, but on the other hand, we must be doing okay if we're raising a kid who is capable of (and enjoys) going to bed! Even if she's the demon-spawn while awake...... ;-)

I'll get around to pictures eventually, probably after we move, and I can include house pictures. Don't know if anyone even reads this anymore but if so, I owe you some pics. :)

Little Miss Personality

In addition to hitting all of her milestones on time and growing like a weed, Ava has developed *quite* the personality at the tender age of 15 months. She may look like her daddy, but her attitude is all mommy's...that's not necessarily a good thing! I was hoping that by some genetic miracle, maybe she would end up not being strong-willed with a bad temper and the desire to get into everything, but alas, no miracle. Here's a sampling of what I see from her:

• Randomly decides she doesn't want to get in the car seat and stiffens her body like a board and SCREAMS. The only thing that calms her down? I have to sing "Ten Little Monkeys" over and over again. I don't even have to do it correctly...she just needs to hear something that sounds vaguely like it.
• Enjoys coming into the kitchen when I'm cooking and grabbing things off of the counters, climbing on top of the stove via the handles on the oven, and crawling through my legs. I think she gets that one from the cats....she also like to attempt to move me around the kitchen by pushing on my legs and yelling.
  
• After eating a full meal and being placed on the floor to play while I finish eating MY meal (which is now cold from taking care of her), she will then run up and steal food off of my plate. Yesterday she grabbed a giant slice of roast chicken and was running around the living room with it, laughing and attempting to eat it. Note: she refused to eat the chicken I placed on her tray during dinner.
  
• She tries to climb on EVERYTHING. A few weeks ago, she pushed a giant diaper box next to the piano and tried to climb. Last night, she pushed her toy fire engine thing over to the back of the couch, climbed on top and balanced on the STEERING WHEEL while trying to climb the back of the couch.
  
• She knows that I'm "mama." She can say "mama." She refuses to do so. I'll say, "Ava, where's mama?" Or "Ava, say mama!" and she'll give me a sly look and say, "DADA!" Every now and then she'll do it but really I think she likes to torture me.
  
• She LOVES going outside now that the weather is warm. A couple of weeks ago we got home from somewhere and I took her over to some flowers we have in the front yard (light purple phlox....it's very pretty) and she was enthralled. Except now, whenever we arrive home from someplace, she expects to get to run around outside and look at the flowers. If I don't allow her to have a substantial amount of time before I carry her inside, she screams.
  
• "Out of sight, out of mind" rarely works anymore. She knows darn well when we've taken something from her and goes crazy trying to get it back.
  
• She is fascinated with spit. The other day I watched her spit repeatedly on the coffee table and then smear it all over the place. Yes, I stopped her. Yes, I Cloroxed the coffee table. ;o)
  
• For a kid who is so reckless and mischievous, she has a lot of very bizarre fears: pumpkins, balloons, the dustbuster (but she loves the vacuum), and a ball popper toy that plays music and shoots balls into the air. I think she's also afraid of the cute little jelly sandals I bought her recently, she screams if they get near her feet and swats them out of my hands. Well guess what, I lost the receipt so we'll be working on conquering her fear. ;o) The funny thing is that when noisy things scare her (like the dustbuster or ball popper), she runs TOWARDS them instead of AWAY. Hmmmmm.
  

On the other side of it, she also does some incredibly cute things:

• Yesterday she got a framed wedding photo of Craig and me off of the sofa table and sat on the floor with it, saying, "Mama, Dada! Mama, Dada!" It was really cute...and more proof that she CAN say "mama"...
  
• She says "hi" and "bye" to anyone and everyone. And anything, come to think of it. The other day she was playing with my car keys and kept hitting the "lock" button, which causes the car to beep its horn. Every time she heard the beep, she looked up and waved and said, "Hi!"
  
• She hugs her dollies, gives them bottles (she used to stick the bottle in their ears, like she was giving them ear drops...we blame her numerous ear infections for that one. Poor kid.), and carries them around. She also attempts to give them kisses, which in Ava-land means putting her mouth right up to their heads and spitting on them.
• She still loves to cuddle with us on the couch when she first wakes up in the morning. I will never get tired of this.
  
• She loves feeding us her food. Usually snacks. Sometimes already half chewed. But it's the thought that counts.... ;o)
  
• If she sees a camera, she gives a big cheesy grin. If she sees a video camera she runs up to it and starts "talking" (a few words mixed in with lots of babbles that are almost words)...she's either very vain or destined for television in one way or another! Actress? News anchor? Who knows....
• She loves closing doors. Can't stand when they're open. Sound familiar? ;o)
  

Finally, here are a few pictures from Easter. Enjoy!

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