Ava's Second Birthday, February 4th

Ava turned two and we decided to do a family party to make it easier on all of us. She loves Minnie Mouse and Elmo, but since we did a Minnie theme last year, we went with Elmo and Abby. Ava was full of herself and loved all of the attention. She loved the Elmo cupcakes but never ate one (and Bella had a special request of cupcakes with no frosting- what is wrong with our kids?!)

We had chicken salad sandwiches, mac n cheese for the kids, lots of goldfish b/c Elmo loves his Dorothy (a goldfish), and some other random things. I made a little game for the kids to play with a box we had and Randy brought home some bean bags to throw. Ava got her favorite things: books, puzzles, money and Minnie Mouse stuff plus a new baby doll, a bathrobe and some other fun stuff. She really had fun and so did we!

here lately...

I have some pictures and posts that I am behind on but here are a couple things going on around here.

I had to put Ava in time out today for the first time. It was the longest two minutes of my life. She is typically a good listener and I just have to ask her once if she wants to go to time out and she straightens up but today she tested me. The strangest part is that I have no idea how she learned about time out and how she knew she had to stay there. I was prepared to have to work at it.

We also recently discovered that Ava can't say truck and I will leave it at that. You can imagine what is comes out as. Yikes.

Bella has been full of herself, as usual. She talks about listening to your heart and Jesus giving her some of His power and it just amazes me. The other day we had this conversation:

Bella: When people say things, you need to listen to your heart. ..after they talk, you listen and see what your heart says.
Me: That’s right, Bella. You need to do the right thing and sometimes people don’t tell us the right things. You are wise. Is that why you didn’t run off with your friend after school today? Because your heart said not to?
Bella: No, my heart said to but I knew I would get in trouble. It kept saying, “yes. no. yes. no.”
Bella: (A few minutes later, getting out of the van) Mommy, my heart is saying to go to my fairy garden.
Me: Okay, that is fine.

She keeps me on my toes with her questions and comments.

Big Girl Issues

As Ava's second birthday quickly approaches and a new baby has plans to arrive in the spring, we are doing big girl things! She has shown some interest in the potty but mostly scared to ever try until recently. We encourage her to try through the day but no luck until this past weekend when she finally did it! Randy is the lucky go-to and so she regularly goes to him now when she needs to potty.

We also started and have now completely transitioned her to her big girl bed in Bella's room. We had plans to move her in there around her second birthday but she started climbing into the new bed on her own a few weeks early. We would entertain her interest and let her try it out but it mostly lasted a few minutes each time. Last week we made the change by not giving her a choice anymore and making a big deal out of her being a big girl! It was a success after three short days. Nap time served to be a little more difficult until this weekend so as you can see she gave up one day and went to sleep on the floor. The first night she slept the entire night in there we found both girls watching tv the next morning together. Ava doesn't have a chance at sleeping in anymore like she used to! Big sister has her up at 7:30 now. Research suggests that children make the transition from the crib quite a while before a new baby comes to take over. This way, her move to the big girl bed is all about her and now about a new baby taking her place causing her to resent him in anyway. It worked quite well with her developing an interest on her own and then some reinforcement and encouragement.

SNOW DAY

They started calling for snow and so Tuesday morning everyone was on high alert! The girls still had school but we were waiting to hear if we would need to get there early to pick them up. They ended up having a full day but Randy's county got out early and so he was able to surprise them and pick them up! Everyone came home and we waited and waited... it finally started falling around dinner time. School was then closed Wednesday and Thursday. We went out for a little bit Tuesday evening and then again Wednesday morning. Bella is at a stage where she loves it, but Ava is not too fond of it as you will see in the pictures below.....

Pinkalicious

For school one day last week Bella was to dress up as her favorite book character. She chose Pinkalicious and because Randy was off that day we were all able to see her in the parade!

catch up

A little late posting all of these but here are the last of the Christmas photos... a few from Christmas morning here at our house and then a few from Christmas night as Randy's parents, complete with Aunt Joanne and Uncle Dick! And then a few more from my grandmother's house with my mom and their big gifts.