Little Lins!

Ava has turned 45 weeks old…

…and still loves her papuche.

Ava had a handful of ‘firsts’ this week. Yeah.

The first of the firsts was her Indian call. I know this is not very PC but I don’t know the correct term. Sorry. Maybe I can call it wah-wah-wah instead? Awhile ago, I told someone to go sit Indian style and was quickly corrected. It’s called Criss Cross Applesauce. I’m a jerk. Wah-wah-wah.

For Thanksgiving weekend, we drove down to Ava’s Nona and Dida’s house (Grandma and Grandpa). It seems like Ava loves doing things for the first time when we are visiting and this week was not an exception. Ava was playing with her plastic animals, dropped one on the carpet and said ‘oh-oh’. And then she repeated it over and over again. I think she was as surprised as we were. I wonder if ‘oh-oh’ counts as her first word. She has said Mama and Dada but hasn’t said it solely to correct person. Ava will point and say Dada to Yoda, to the wall, to lint on the floor, etc. And she stopped saying Mama unless she is about to cry. But oh-oh actually happens when something drops on the floor. Watching Ava grow up in front of our eyes is amazing. Huell Howser would even say amazing if he ever met Ava.

She also started to climb stairs all by herself… with someone ready to catch her of course.

Ava started to do this call thing also. It started when she was standing in the hallway, wondering where Nona and Dida were. She would say ahh and then wait for a response. And if no one responded, she would wait and a couple seconds and say ahh again. I guess there was no need for this type of calling when at home since we live in a tiny house where hiding from Ava is almost impossible. But when you have a large hallway and an upstairs area in your house, Ava needs to make sure you still around, in case she runs out of people to play with.

Ava’s Uncle David is a guitar hero…. not like the video game, but a real one. At least that is what Ava thinks. He spends a lot of time in my old bathroom at parent’s house, playing and writing new songs. The bathroom door was cracked open a tiny bit and Ava and I decided to listen to his songs in secret. After a song or two, Ava pushed the door open to see what was happening…. to Uncle David’s surprise. When the door swung open, he screamed and had a super surprised look on his face… which in turn caused Ava to start crying. I guess she never scared the daylights out of someone before. hehe. After a few whimpers, Ava sat on my lap while Uncle David continued to play his guitar. Ava sat there like a statue for at least 5 minutes, not moving even an inch… just staring at her Uncle David while he played beautiful songs to her. And that is why he is her guitar hero.

Over the weekend, we were also lucky enough to attend cousin Nathan’s baptism and I was lucky enough to be his godmother.

Ava was excited but it sure didn’t show in her pictures. I forgot to take some smiley pictures.

Here is Ava with Nathan and his godfather Uncle Bobby. Ava kept her distance since she got a little sick on Thanksgiving.

Ava really misses playing with little kids when away from daycare. At the baptism, she got a chance to play with Scata. She didn’t even mind just watching Scata play from afar, just as long as she stuck around.

But when Scata let Ava play with her doll, she was elated.

Another new thing that started this week is holding onto our legs. Ava started to hold on and even peek through them like all kids do. Sorry for the butt shot Dada.

But even with all these new things, Ava still loves to listen to us read books to her. She loves turning the pages, which sometimes occurs before we are done reading the page and sometimes in the wrong direction, Chinese-style.

Here she is making silly faces with Nona Dinka.

And waiting patiently for dinner with Nona Vinka. I love having grandmas with rhyming names.

When out and about, we sometimes have to use this portable chair when a high chair is not available. It is supposed to last until Ava is three years old but it is not going to last even to her first birthday. Her belly is just a little too big for the tray to fit… sorta like Santa Claus.

And speaking of Santa, Ava got all dressed up to meet him for the first time.

Hello Santa?

But Santa was not there. But we did get this great picture of Ava running to us. Ava and Nona Ester have the biggest smiles on their faces.

Ava decided to tell us her wish list instead… reluctantly.

When picking up Ava from daycare this week, we found her trying to push her way to this corner, oblivious to her friend Evan. I guess she really wanted to play with the musical instruments that he was playing with at the time.

And on a sad note, Ava’s friend Hannah is moving to the east coast on Monday… and her friend Ava R is moving up to the toddler room. So she is losing one friend forever and the other for a month or so, at least until she is ready for the toddler room too. At pick-up a few days ago, the three of them were giggling together as usual. I almost got a picture of it but my stupid camera wouldn’t take the picture. When it did, our Ava looked away but the other two were still smiling. Stupid camera. Silly girls.

We sure did have a lot of trouble with our car this week to say the least. So we are considering trading it in for a plastic car instead. I hope Ava doesn’t mind driving us around town. Beep beep.

Our little one is now 44 weeks old.

On Thanksgiving morning, Ava spent some time reading in bed and wondering how the turkey is going to get cooked with dada sleeping in. Must be nice to be the dada.

But Ava ended up worrying about nothing. Dada got his act together and her first Thanksgiving dinner was wonderful. Thanks Dada!

Her Uncle Eric even stopped by to teach her how to play volleyball.

And watch themselves on our tiny television.

Ava spends a lot of time at our dining room window.

So we bought her some new chew toys.

She spends a lot of time moving her new animals from the windowsill to new locations all over the house.

Her favorite is the hippo. Can you tell? hehe. Get a room!

Ava also likes to pound the window, especially when her dada gets home from work.

A leaf was this week’s new discovery. Ava held onto that thing for dear life while hanging out on the grass.

Ava still loves pointing here.

And pointing there. She points everywhere, even when in a trance. Stop sleep walking Ava!

Last week, Ava starting pinching Dan’s neck. We call it ‘pinching little meat’. It was funny because she would only do it when Dan was holding her. But this week, she was kind enough to spread the joy of pinching little meat. How nice.

Ava’s babbling is at an all time high this week.

She sorta sounds like an alien.

It’s hilarious. We will have to post a clip of it soon.

This picture is priceless. Enough said.

Olie and Ava’s relationship has blossomed this week. I caught them telling each other secrets one morning.

Laughs are guaranteed when flying up in the air is involved.

And also when tickles show up courtesy of blanket fringes.

Ava walks like a super star now. But when she falls, it happens pretty gracefully. But to be on the safe side, Ava has been walking with her arms in front of her like a zombie.

A silly zombie, not a scary one.

This picture cracks me up. If you ever get the chance to catch Ava when she runs and dives into you, this is the look that will make your day.

A cold front has reached southern California this week. I know we are wimps, no need to remind me. Anyways, Ava starting wearing her house slippers this week. We call them papuche around here. That is the second Croatian word you’ve learned thanks to this blog. You’re welcome.

Why the sad face? Ava cut the inside of her mouth after doing a face plant off of Rudy’s bed and into a corner of a cabinet. Ouch.

Ava was never a big fan of the pacifier. We bought tons of them when she was little but they didn’t interest her. Ava found one laying in the bottom of her toy basket and thought it was the coolest thing ever. I guess she needed a break from eating her little hippo toy.

And she played with this doll too. Well, I wouldn’t call it playing. She just poked its eyes. This is actually a doll that I played with when I was little. The clothes were made especially for her by Ava’s great great grandma Ivka.

Alright. We are out of here. Time to listen to some tunes on our flashcard boombox.

Dan and I are so thankful for our little turkey… and for her mini hand print turkey too.

And Ava is thankful for her new windowsill friends.

Happy Thanksgiving!

My ruby slippers went to my cousin Nicholas’ wedding this weekend and so did I.

Toto, I’ve a feeling we’re not in Kansas anymore.

The wedding ceremony was beautiful and so were my shoes. After chowing down on handfuls of puffs, I pointed at the trees and yelled Ah-boo over and over again. For some reason, my mommy and me left the ceremony and played on the grass instead. How rude.

I’ll get you my pretty…and your little dog too!

Aren’t we cute?

Follow. Follow. Follow. Follow. Follow the yellow brick road.

Is that an open bar over there?

Lions, and tigers, and bears! Oh, my!

I’m melting! I’m melting!

Not really. I’m just sleeping. And it appears that my trusty babysitter was also. Nice.

When I went to bed, the fun began. I heard that Grandpa Jack boogied down.

And what is my dada smiling at now? It sure isn’t me.

Chug chug chug. Nice one dada.

Ava is 10 months old. See you all next week. Just kidding. Here is this week’s story.

Guess what we were doing when Ava turned 10 months old exactly? Ummm, forgetting to take her picture at 1:34 for the FIRST time! Damn. So as soon as I remembered, I threw her down on the nearest soft thing and snapped a picture. Here she is lounging right after her nap as she turned 10 months, 2 hours and 41 minutes exactly. Sorry Ava

Ava had three big milestones this week. And yes, we are freaking out. First off, Ava is officially walking this week.

Over the weekend, she really starting excelling. She would walk one handed around her DJ table and then take off walking to the nearest person.

Once she gets close to us, Ava gets so excited that she tries to run and ends up doing a faceplant into us.

When she isn’t walking, Ava still loves to crawl. This week Ava figured out that if she held onto her plastic rings, she could slide around on the hardwood floors.

The next milestone Ava reached was climbing. She used to step onto things to get a little taller but now she climbs on them. Boxes work very well for this milestone.

And finally, Ava has reached the clapping milestone. Last week, her clapping consisted of flapping her arms in the air like they were on fire. But not this week. On Saturday morning, while I was feeding Ava breakfast, Grandpa Jack walked into the kitchen and started clapping. And sure enough, Ava clapped back! It was so funny and unexpected.

Ava started eating beef this week. It is a toss up whether she will spit it out or not. Moo.

And she still loves raising her arm while holding onto food. Here she is so proud of her pea while her mommy and daddy were enjoying pizza.

Guess who loves flashcards with animals on them?

Wondering if Ava’s hair is still sticking up all the time? Not really. But it does float on her head like a toupee. hehe.

Pointing is now a favorite pastime. I started to point out trees to Ava and here she is pointing at our palm tree.

Ava now has to wear shoes when we are out and about. It ends up that Ava has tiny feet. All of her 6-12month shoes are too big for her but I still have her wear the smallest of the bunch and she does pretty well with them on. It is truly amazing how our ‘tiny feet-big head’ baby is already walking with these two things going against her. I would have predicted a lot more tipping over with her lollipop proportions.

At daycare, Ava and her friends Hannah and Ava R spent a lot of time giggling with each other as soon as they see each other. The giggling can be quiet contagious. Since Ava is starting to walking this week, it has brought on extra giggles from her friend Ava R. As soon as our Ava takes steps, both Ava’s start busting up.

On the weird health issue front, Ava developed blisters on her tongue this week. It affected her eating a bit, caused her to spit up and to stick out her tongue a lot. It was only bad for a few hours one night. The next day, the size and number of blisters decreased dramatically.

She also had an ear ache this week, with a bit of a cold and cough. She spent a couple days with her head on her shoulder. Poor thing.

Ava and Yoda still like to play with the same things around the house. Boxes, balls and socks.

Yoda usually will wait patiently for Ava to lose interest so she could take her turn playing with their favorite objects. But every once in awhile she will swat at socks and grab a hold onto them to Ava’s surprise.

Ava loves other kids, especially Grace. And now she can toddle around with her when we are out and about.

Read the sticker on the floor. The bull starts here. Enough said.

I think we are going to have our hands full when out to dinner from now on with these two silly girls.

Grandpa Jack made some concrete steps over the weekend and had Ava add her footprints to the top step. She is now an official member of the concrete club, which includes her mommy, Uncle David and cousin Bobby too.

She didn’t enjoy the cold concrete with her bare feet or with socks on afterwards either.

But she did enjoy playing on the carpeted stairs with her Grandma Ester and Great Grandma Dinka who was making her laugh playing peek-a-boo.

Alright, time to do chores. Bye!

Ava has progressed so much in her walking abilities this last week. She’s now walking everywhere at day care and almost making turns gracefully without falling.

Hello? Baby alone with potentially dangerous objects.

You say these are baby wipes for grown-ups. No way!

Hmmm. I don’t believe it. Let me touch it.

Ummm, I don’t think it makes a good hat.

Wait. What is going on?

I can’t believe it.

I really can’t believe it.

Why aren’t my baby wipes this much fun?

Oh oh. Someone help!

Not you too Nona!!

You forgot a piece.

I think I just won the toilet paper wedding gown game. I’m the winner!

All this tissue and I still have a runny nose. Nice.