Little Lins!

Hi Goat. It’s hot today.

Pardon me. What I meant to say was…

Maaaaaaa!

Hey! What is this for?

It’s so soft and cuddly. Owwwww, it must be a pillow!

It’s perfect for the floor…

…and the ottoman…

…and even for this bike seat too.

Oh no! I don’t think this is a pillow after all. I’m getting so sleepy. What! It’s a Nani Napkin?

Oh Nani Napkin you got me this time. Zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz.

Our little Ava is now 66 weeks old!

That’s old! Hahaha.

Ava’s week started off with her 15 month check-up. It was perfect timing because earlier in the day, her daycare called that she had an goopy left eye. It ends up that Ava had a pretty bad ear infection earlier in the week. I guess it made her ear drum rupture and the puss started to come out of her eye too. Gross, I know. So, shots were postponed until she finishes her 10 day dose of antibiotics. Here are her 15 month stats: weight 24.5 lbs (71%), length 30.75 inches (54%), and head circumference 19.25 inches (98%).

A couple days later we were back at the doctor’s office, not for her ear ache, but for a nursemaid elbow. We’ve never heard of it but I guess it is basically a pulled or slipped elbow and it’s a fairly common mishap for kids under the age of 5. After Ava woke up in the morning, she cried for an hour straight and refused to move her arm. Her arm looked normal but she would not stop crying. I felt like a first time mother just home from the hospital with an inconsolable baby. Poor thing. I’m sorry you got my uncoordinated gene Ava. So, we called the doctor at home and she said to bring Ava into the office at 8am to relocate her elbow. Sure enough, just minutes before her emergency appointment, Ava stopped crying and was running through the house grabbing the curtains with her ‘bad’ elbow and giggling. Oh great. Who is going to look like a dumbass at 8am now. Ummmm, not Dan. He refused to go into the the office with a giggling baby. So, I walk in and explain the miracle to the doctor and she explains that this sometimes happens and the dislocation can happen when they sleep in awkward positions and that it might happen again. Ahhh. So, in the end, I guess Ava relocated her own elbow just before our appointment. She’s tough! Really tough.

We hit a new milestone this week. Ava now says something we can’t understand, over and over again. She says ByeBye Day and then ByeBye Ay. She can’t say ByeBye alone anymore. It has to be with a Day or Ay. At first I was thinking she might be trying to say David, but doesn’t say it when she sees a picture of Uncle David. When I ask her how to say Uncle David, she shrugs her shoulders. Too cute. But, after hours of pondering, Dan came up with this great explanation… Ava is trying to say her own name! Even though I don’t want to give him credit, Dan deserves a gold star for this one. It makes sense, we ask her to say ByeBye Ava all day long.

Another new milestone this week is nodding. If you ask Ava a question, she will nod yes. It doesn’t matter what you say. You can ask her if she wants to eat poo and she will nod Yes. Lol. Ava wants to eat poo. Hehe. This will never grow old. Never.

You are probably wondering why Ava is in a cage. She is in our backyard aviary, helping me replace nectar for our two hummingbirds. These two will be released very soon. They are flying like mini-acrobats, eating fruit flies and drinking sugar water like they are the town drunks. Ava loves holding the bucket and placing nectar tubes into it. Thanks for the help Ava!

Ava started to say Yoda this week. She whispers it because she is still a little hesitant or unsure… but give her a week or two. She will be screaming it as loudly as she screams Dada. You’ll see.

And we had another new word this week. Waa waa, which is short for water. Nicole visited this weekend and Ava was obessed with drinking water from her glass. So we got out her ladybug cup and gave her a chance to drink all by herself.

The drinking part went well. It was the holding the cup steady when not drinking that was the problem.

So, we took off her dress and she continued drinking waa waa.

You got it. More spilling. So off went the onesie. And sure enough, Ava saw her belly button and more water spilled.

I got her dressed in a dry outfit and said no more waa waa… but someone was not too happy about my decision. WAAAAAAAwaa.

It was also Sal’s birthday this weekend. He came up with a few others to celebrate the occasion. Ava and I couldn’t stay up too late so we hung out during the day… and bounced on the biggest ball she has ever seen. I love her blurry hair in this picture.

We have millions of pictures of Ava. Well, not millions but pretty damn close. So she is pretty comfortable around the camera to say the least. Here she is trying to press the buttons on this camera magazine ad. How do you turn the flash on again?

Ava loves slides. So off the park we went for some family time. This was her first twirly slide all by herself.

Before we place Ava on a slide by herself, we lay her down because the combination of her head size and slide acceleration don’t really mix.

But this time we tried sending her down sitting up, with my hands supporting her noggin, and boy did she like that.

Ava likes going on the slide with her Dada too.

And sometimes, Dada likes going on the slide without her. Do you need some WD40 Dada?

Here is Ava visiting Matheus this week. Check out his cool fort.

Daycare is still going well. Every time we pick up Ava, it seems like she is dancing. But this week, she was waiting for us with a new hair-do.

And the next day, was hair-do number two. Ummm, let’s all agree that no hair on her forehead is not a great look for this little one.

Our our daily walks, Ava is still picking our neighbors flowers and examining each petal.

Run Ava, before they catch us destroying their gardens!

Don’t worry Mama, I will protect you.

YoBaby Yogurt?

YoYummy Yogurt!

Can you believe it? Ava is now 15 months old.

And as Ava was turning exactly 15 months old to the minute, she was out shopping and having lunch with her Mama and Nona. A girl can never have too many dresses or shoes.

Alright, school picture time. A few times a year, Ava’s daycare has picture day. She refuses to smile for the camera.

Check out this sweet pose.

And in her classroom, Ava loves riding this horsey. That’s her friend, Ava R, riding a dinosaur next to her.

Ava didn’t want to go home with us on this day. All she wanted to do was rock on the horse with the other Ava and giggle at Max who was playing hide and go seek with a tree.

All the kids in her classroom have a profile on themselves. Here’s Ava’s profile. She loves cheese.

Ava is still enjoying our baby hummingbirds who are flying like champs now. They actually moved to our large outdoor aviary this week, where they will be for another week or two, before flying free.

Do you think hummingbirds are hard for Ava to see since they are so small? Nahhh. That’s nothing. Here she is pointing at ants.

Ava spent Saturday afternoon at her cousin Anthony’s house for his confirmation party. Nathan was there too with his cool red car. Beep beep.

She loved that car and Nathan was kind enough to push her around in it.

More please! More!

Will you push me Dada? Will you push me Uncle David? HELLO?

Ava also got to meet her cousin Andrew for the first time who is a whole three months older than her. He showed her how fun it was to play with ice.

So cold.

Here she is enjoying the warm afternoon with her great grandfather.

Ava was in awe of Anthony’s cake. Well, she was in awe with the fruit that adorned the top of it.

Here she is eating her fourth strawberry of the night. Good thing she is wearing a red dress.

Thanks Anthony for the great party.

On Sunday, the temperature rose even higher, so we ventured out of the house at 8am to feed ducks and geese before it got too hot for us. With bread in hand, we walked to the pond and we were greeted by three geese. Honk honk honk. As soon as I turned my head to get Ava’s attention… ouch! A goose bit me knee. Not once, but three times! So, if you visit this park in the near future, beware of the guy on the right. He’s out to get you.

Luckily we managed to escape those three and found this friendly old guy who was as nice as can be…

…and so Ava got the chance to feed him all by herself.

By noon, Ava declared that it as way too hot…

…so it was off to the pool with her Nona Dinka to splish splash and pretend they were making tupperware soup.

Look who stacked her blocks nine high this week.

We bought Ava this baby tent for her to sleep in when we travel to Croatia this summer. So we decided to set it up in order for her to get used it. As soon as Dan placed it on the floor, Ava and Yoda raced towards it and jumped in. We tried to explain that it was for her to sleep in and not to play in, but I’m not sure if it sunk in yet…. for either of them.

Jeremy stopped by for a quick visit this week. Ava was sure to show him that her Dora chair was off limits. No exceptions.

Ava is doing a little better with the spoon now. I would say that most spoonfuls have some food on them, but that doesn’t guarantee that it makes it into her mouth.

We learned that eating quesadillas was A LOT more fun if you eat them like Ava does. From now on, you should bite several holes into the middle of your quesadilla and put your fingers through the holes. Yummm.

Look who likes to pretend to put chapstick on her lips and in the bath tub she loves to pretend to put soap on her belly.

Ava still loves hanging out with the neighbor’s cats.

And she really loved when he joined her for a wagon ride.

Aren’t you tired of reading this long post yet? I am. Go to bed.

…Tax Day

…and I am a silly write-off

Our little Ava is now 64 weeks old. Oh how quickly time flies.

Ava’s body part pointing abilities have expanded this week. She learned to point to eyebrows and tongue. Grabbing her tongue makes her giggle. But belly button is still her very favorite.

And Ava’s vocabulary expanded too. She now says bye-bye and ball. Her word tally is now 10. Here she is yelling and waving like a crazy woman at the trees and birds as we drive home from daycare.

Ava has way too many toys for our little house. Everyday I am on the verge of donating them to a needy family. We almost succeeded when we were in San Felipe but the sun and Pacificos got to me and I brought our donation bag back home with us. Good one, I know. I guess Nicole needs to invite us down there again. Hmmm, maybe it wasn’t an ‘accident’ after all. Anyways, we bought Ava a couple more toys this weekend (not including her new Dora chair– see previous post for some silliness). The first one is this puzzle. She can match up the animals perfectly 99% of the time…

…but has trouble actually placing them in the indented area.

Since Ava really likes all the doll house type toys when we visit other kid’s homes, we got her this barn. She loves it.

Have you ever seen a cat say Oink before? Well, here is your chance. hehe.

I showed Ava how to slide the farm animals off of the barn roof as I screamed ‘weeeee’. She thought I was hilarious. H-I-L-A-R-I-O-U-S.

The next morning, I caught her trying to slide off of the barn roof. LOL. Look who is hilarious now!

Ava got 3 new teeth this week. Her first molars on the top and a canine on the top left. We’ve noticed some drooling and whining too.

And what did Ava decide to do with those teeth this week? Well, she thought it was a good idea to bite into the lemons that came with our waters while eating at a local restaurant. I was expecting that funny face babies are supposed to make with their first bite of lemon but Ava just winced a bit and kept chewing away at it. And then the next day, she did the same with a lime wedge.

A couple months back, Ava had her first bite of ice cream and she thought I tortured her… but things have changed. Here is a picture of the moment she realizes that ice cream is a tiny bit of heaven.

Check out that mustache!

On the eating front, Ava is doing a little better with a spoon. About 1 out of 10 spoonfuls of food actually get in her mouth. Sometimes she just picks up the food with her fingers, puts it in her mouth and then shoves the empty spoon into her mouth afterwards. Good job Ava.

After devouring her meal, we noticed that she started saying ‘more’ in sign language. They started teaching the kids in her class sign language to help with the frustration of not being able to express themselves with words. I guess there are a couple biters in her room but luckily Ava hasn’t been attacked yet.

At pick up time yesterday, we found Ava asking for ‘more’ at snack time. Goldfish crackers were on the menu. The teacher saw her asking so she asked Ava if she wanted more. Ava proceeded by shaking her head no. And then the whole process repeated with the same result. I guess we should work on the difference between shaking and nodding our head next week. Once the teacher gave her more, she shoved most of them into her mouth without chewing or swallowing them, sorta like a hamster. Then she thought it was a good ideas to feed us some too… but she popped them into her mouth first. Thanks for the soggy goldfishes Ava.

Back at home, Ava is really aware of the hummingbirds, almost as aware as Yoda. She knows where the basket is and knows to say ‘chee-chee’. We have two now, Pumpkin and Bumpkin, who got upgraded to a bigger basket last week since they are self-feeding and starting to fly.

It is important for the hummingbirds to get enough sun, fresh air and water for a bath. So to pass the time, I decided the grass needed watering…

…and Ava decided that she needed a little watering too.

Silly little girl.

Ava has small feet. She has been wearing size 6-12 months since she started walking. But this week I noticed that her toes almost touch the tip of her shoes so we retired them and upgraded to 12-18 month shoes. Yeah.

Ava knows when she wears her Robeez shoes versus her regular shoes. Her old Robeez had a cat on them and she would point and say meow every time she wore them. But her new pair have birds on them (surprise surprise). So when she brought up her feet to say meow, she got a little perplexed and giggled at her mistake.

Dan spent some time sailing a little boat this week so Ava and I hung out in the park next to the marina. Here she is riding a sea horse, to whom she yelled neigh too as soon as she saw him. She must of thought he looked like a regular horsey. That’s Dan in the background with the blue-stripped sail.

Someone was upset that her wagon was upside down. It is not a laughing matter.

Ava was kind enough to visit me at work a few days ago. I showed her all the squiggly lines I analyze all day long…

…so she decided to make some of her own. These are the prettiest squiggles I have seen in a loooong time.

I got someone to help me with housework this week. Sweep sweep sweep. Ok, we are ready for a visitor. I wonder who it will be?

It’s Uncle David and his red piano. David was kind enough to watch our little one sleep while we drove up to Santa Barbara to see…

…Eddie Vedder’s first solo concert at the Arlington Theater!!!

We were lucky enough to sit just 10 feet from him. He climbed down from the balcony, ran onto the stage, played some beautiful songs and smoked a couple cigarettes. It was the first time second-hand smoke didn’t bother me. Sorry for the picture Eddie… but I needed a memento of the show for Ava. She might be a big fan one day. Thank you for the good times.