April's News

Ok... so I'm a bad blogger. It's been too long since I updated. But there's a lot to report about Ava. We've been keeping really busy lately. We have met a ton of new moms many of whom share my feelings about mothering which really helps. I love having other moms like me to bounce ideas off of and it really helps to keep me feeling great about the mothering choices I make. I know it shouldn't matter what other people think and ultimately it doesn't but I love having a support group.

Here's a sweet picture of Ava asleep in the backpack. She always falls asleep in there. Mike and I were messing around in the yerd the other day and she just konked out so I set her down and put the umbrella over her to keep off the sun and she slept like that for a while.

In other news, Ava in really getting mobile now. Not walking by herself but hse loves to hold my hand and walk me around everywhere. If I forget to hold her hand and try to walk past her it really makes her upset. So I try to include her in everything I do and we've been having fun with that. She really likes to help me. She likes to sit on the counter while I cook and she comes to the bathroom with me and sits on her own little potty. We've been working on getting her used to the potty for a little while now and she seems really excited by it. Monday, I put her on the potty before her bath and she actually peed in it! I thought that was just a fluke cause she usually pees when the water for her bath is running but then this morning right when she woke up I thought she might need to go and, sure enough, she went in the potty. Then, I was in there earlier today and she tried to climb on by herself to I thought I'd try it just to see if she had to go and she did it again! She knows what to do on there now so hopefully I can figure out when she needs to go and we'll be using less diapers in no time. I spend a lot of my energy on helping us to communicate better. I always tell her what I'm going to do or what we are doing and it's making us so in synch. She points at everything and I tell her what it is. She's started brushing her hair and her teeth now. When we are doing our bedtime routine we put her in the tub and daddy always blows the washcloth off the bar where we hang it so she coppies him. It's so funny to see her look up at it and try to blow it down like daddy. Then when she's done in the tub I clean her ears. She LOVES having her ears cleaned. Her eyes roll back in her head every time. Then we put on her PJ's and she sometimes helps me by pushing her arms through. After that I comb her hair and she tries to do it herself. Too adorable. And I brush her teeth. She loves to brush her teeth. I put the little nubby thing on my finger and she grabs it and moves it back and forth to brush her teeth - still non-existant though. We read a book then she goes down so easily. We've been having a hard time after I go to bed though. She want so badly to cuddle. I'm hoping she grows out of this bad sleeping pattern. I'm just biding my time. I'm really not sleeping well but if I have to sacrifice that's ok. A friend of mine just had to wean her almost 2 year old because she wasn't gettign any sleep and I dread doing that to Ava now. Maybe if she was older...

She's turning so quickly into a little kid. She signs what she needs all the time. She comes up to me and signs "milk" or "diaper" when she needs to. She signs "drink and eat" when she wants those. She's saying "bye-bye" now all the time. Yesterday I was busy and I guess she got bored but, she crawled over to the door and started saying "bye-bye." I guess she wanted to leave. She gives kisses and hugs to people she knows well. And she learns things so quickly! I credit the mommy milk. On the 15th, she said her own name for the first time. She was sitting on the counter and she kept pointing at her picture on the cabinet and I'd say "that's Ava" and pretty soon she started to say "dat Abba!" And today she started saying "wa Abba?" when she covers her eyes because that's the game we play. She covers her eyes and I say, "where's Ava?" and she uncovers her eyes and I say, "peekaboo!" It's so sweet to see her learning and talking so much. She also says "light" although it sounds like "ite" because she's obsessed with lights. And she loves to be outside. She cries when I make her come in from playing in the front yard.

Speaking of outside, we have been planting this week. We have two smallish boxes that Mike built for raised beds. In one we've got a Japanese eggplant, three zucchini, some lemon balm, mint, and three rows of onions. In the other box I just planted rows of watermelon, basil, lavender, cucumber and carrots. Inside, I am starting some garlic to see if it will grow. We need one more box for the last few things I need to plant but then we should have a respectable garden!

This is what happened when daddy left his chocolate milk glass where Ava could reach it. We've forgiven him. :)