Ava's Words

All right, I made a list of all of Ava's words/phrases/sounds...maybe nobody cares, but I wanted to know, so I did it. ;o) It came to fifty-something...

Mommy
Dada
Papa
Will
kitty (meow)
doggie (woof woof)
duckie (quack quack)
snake (ssssssss)
bunny
bug
butterfly
Tom-Tom (choo choo)
Uh-oh
Woo doh? (Where did it go?)
Hi
Bye bye
Please (also does the sign)
Thank you
More (also does the sign)
Water
Book
Read
Star
Rock
Shoe
Blue
One, two, three!
Snack
Milk
Free (she tries to sing along with Tom Petty's "Free Fallin")
Yummy
Light
Nice
Moon
Egg
Cheese
Ball
Bubble
Eye
Elbow
Nose
Mouth
Cheek
Chin
Ear
Boob
Potty
Popsicle
Nemo
Monster
Elmo
Yay
Yeah!
Baby
Shhhhhh!
Swing
Slide
No
Mine

Her phrases so far are "Nice kitty/doggie/Dada/Mommy" and "More rock!" The second one she started saying recently at bedtime, trying to insist that I rock her more in the rocking chair instead of putting her in the crib. Yes, it totally worked, I'm a huge sucker. :) Oh, she also says, "Shhhhhh! Dada!" when I get her up in the morning, apparently she's reminding me that Craig is sleeping and I should be quiet. Thanks kid.....

What is this "blog" of which you speak?

I know, I know, it's been two months! I wish I could say I'll be a better blogger but I make no promises.....I'll try to get on here a little more often though. Part of the problem is that I'm mostly on Facebook....it's easier to communicate and post pictures there but on the downside it's less private, so I can't say how I really feel sometimes. ;o) ANYHOW, I'll just do a bulleted update and hopefully be a little better about posting....maybe once a week? Maybe not? We'll see....

• My stomach issues: I do NOT have Celiac Disease, woohoo! The doctor has placed me in the vague category of having IBS, which I think means, "We have no clue what is wrong." Ugh. But he did give me some meds to help calm my stomach when it goes crazy, and I quit taking birth control pills which has helped a lot as well. (Needless to say, natural family planning is working just fine...I should have done this years ago considering it took me awhile to become successfully pregnant while actually trying...avoiding it has been pretty easy. But it's only been 3 months.)
  
• Work: Yes, I have learned all of the kids' names and it wasn't that bad.... ;o) This group is okay but I miss the kids from last year. Not sure why but I really felt like I bonded with them, they were definitely one of the sweetest groups of kids I ever taught! Anyhow I'm on fall break right now and am enjoying the down time.
  
• The house: After next week we will be pretty much done with the inside! We just ordered more bedroom furniture for the downstairs guest room: we moved the guest furniture (full sized bed, dresser, night stand) to the empty bedroom upstairs, and that furniture will become Ava's when she's ready for a "big girl" room. Right now it's a second guest room. Anyhow the new furniture for downstairs will include a queen sized bed. We also got a "chair and a half" and an ottoman for the sitting room in our bedroom, and a loveseat for the family room. I'll have to pick up a few more lamps this week, we want to have some more of Craig's Nana's paintings framed, and we're good to go! Henceforth we will concentrate on landscaping, and probably expanding the deck.
• Craig: He now has an Associate's degree! He finally decided it would be a good idea to go to college a few years ago and in between working and being a husband and father, he's been taking classes. I think he has something like all As and one B...WOW! I'm so proud of him! He's now working towards a four year degree...we're hoping that sometime in the not so distant future, this will enable him to get a good job that does not require traveling, or at least this much of it.

And last but not least...the whole reason for the blog...AVA! ;o)

• I tried to count the other day and I think I figured out she's saying around 40-50 words, and has recently started to come up with 2-word phrases. I will have to list all of her vocabulary skills in a later post (which could be tomorrow or three years from now.... ;o) Considering she lost 4-5 months due to ear infections, I think that's pretty good. But, I don't know....to paraphrase my mom, everybody thinks their kids are brilliant but in reality, everyone else's kids are doing the same things... ;o) There IS something about watching the helpless infant you gave birth to develop into a little person though.
  
• She has a very strong personality: she's tempermental and impatient (yes, I know where she gets that from) and can be very serious and focused, but she's also a wild woman. Yesterday she invented a new game, which was standing on the ottoman and hurling herself at me.....OWWWW! She thought this was hilarious and I just did my best to catch her so I wasn't getting the full force of a 30 lb toddler in my gut! She is also very affectionate and gives kisses and hugs to me, Craig, her stuffed animals, the cats, other kids, etc. She's also friendly; we've spent a lot of time running errands (oh okay, and going to the mall) and she always says, "Bye-bye! Thank you!" to the cashier when we leave. LOVE IT!!!!
  
• She's going to be a reader like her parents: she's taken to handing us books lately and saying, "Read! Read!" Occasionally after making this request, she'll take the book back and attempt to "read" it to us instead.
  
• She's obsessed beyond reason with Thomas the Tank Engine and is constantly asking for "Tom-Tom" and saying, "Choo choo! Choo choo!" I swear I will never have that stupid music out of my head...yet, it's better than Barney. Craig downloaded a few episodes from that awful show for her and we can take about five minutes of it before turning it off. Barney is one bizarro dinosaur.
  
• I'm going to have to post a pic or two of Ava in her Chicago Bears Urlacher jersey...it's awesome and fits perfectly this season! (Thanks again Christie! :o)
• She no longer fears grass or pumpkins. So that's good.
• For almost two weeks she's been sleeping TERRIBLY at night and naptime....screams bloody murder when I leave (that's new, she rarely did that before) and wakes up multiple times at night, and it takes her about an hour to fall asleep at nap time. Not sure what's going on--I was blaming teeth but I'm not so sure although I haven't ruled it out--but I definitely think that being spoiled with lots of Mommy time while I'm on trackout is playing into it. Not much I can do about that so whatever, I hope it passes soon.

Speaking of the devil, she appears to be awake so that's all for now! Hopefully more catching up in the next few days.

A Very Brief Update

School started up last week, so the week before that I was preparing like a madwoman....now I'm recovering from a cold and because I'm a kind, thoughtful, and selfless individual I have lovingly shared that cold with Craig. How nice of me! :-\ Anyhow, it's pretty busy around here....Craig and I actually went on a date last weekend to the Melting Pot, which was cut short because I became--big surprise--dizzy and nauseated. My stomach ruins everything, all of the time. The doctor called during the week and given the results of one of my biopsies he's concerned I have Celiac disease and I have to go in on August 3rd for some bloodwork. Wonderful....seriously.....WONDERFUL. If you aren't familiar with it, Celiac disease is an intolerance to gluten that causes the small intestine to attack itself, resulting in a number of symptoms but it can cause malnutrition because it prevents the body from absorbing nutrients. Basically you can eat and eat but possibly still starve to death (though I highly doubt I have anything that severe.) Gluten is found in wheat, barley, and basically any food that actually tastes good....so if I have to go on a gluten-free diet, I'm going to have to change 99% of what I eat. Or pay someone to shoot me in the face...I'm still undecided on that one.

ANYHOW Ava is doing well, I'm tired and not really wanting to go through the whole process of learning the names of 90 new kids and training them in the ways of the Haynor classroom but they seem like a really good group so I can't complain too much.... ;o) It's not their fault that I resist change...

...and that's about all I really want to type at the moment. Ava is lugging around a giant diaper on her backside that I should probably change, due to the fact that when I took her in the pool earlier she spent more time sticking her face in the water and drinking it than actually playing. Good times! At least it was the baby pool in the backyard so she wasn't drinking chemicals and other people's germs....

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.