Little Lins!

Weeeeee! Our little toddler is now 140 weeks old.

Over the weekend, Nona Dinka came up to spend her birthday with her two great granddaughters… and Ava made a very special card for her.

She got to spend some time reading with her…

… and got to show off her dollhouse too.

Later that day, we got a second batch of visitors. Who says boys don’t like to play with Dora? Not me.

Then it was cake time. The kids and Nona Dinka waited very patiently for someone to find a lighter so we can get this party started.

Cake time!

Later in the day, we went out for some dinner and the kids got to run off their sugar high with some rides on wooden elephants.

During the week, Ava spends A LOT of time still kissing Mila…

…and giving her hugs.

I have also tried to buy more art supplies to help keep Ava entertained. Say hello to scissors.

And say hello to a big ass mess.

Ava also loves these little paints… and pumping out lots of paintings. She gave one to each one of us when they were dry. Even Yoda got one.

We also attended toddler reading time for the 2nd week in a row. And this time Ava got to use lots of glue…

… to make a pinata. Bueno.

And of course our week wouldn’t be complete without park time.

Which includes playing with lots of sand…

… and going down slides…

… and let’s not forget about swings. Ava has been asking to go high in the sky so she can touch the moon this week.

But with the good comes some bad. Like time outs. This is her time out spot. By the ottoman. Ava is spending less time in time outs now which is good but we all hate them. So we are trying to phase them out this week by using a new plan. We are crossing our fingers that it will make a difference.

And just because I am no longer pregnant, doesn’t mean that we no longer eat ice cream. It just means that we no longer eat just mint chip ice cream. Hehe.

Here is my silly Ava with her ‘super lasso‘. AKA her belt.

Here is Ava with her new princess toothpaste… that caused her to brush her teeth as soon as we got home from the store with it. Yes, I put away her all-natural toothpaste for this pink crap just so she would brush her teeth without me pulling my hair out. It had to be done.

Oh and Ava’s favorite time of the day is now 6:30 pm because that is the time she gets to help me give Mila a bath.

Dada woke up bright and early one day this week to hit the waves. So the girls and I tagged along. Ava had a blast making sand castles…

… and throwing sand on herself… until she realized that there were sand flies everywhere and immediately ran onto my towel screaming. Such a girl. She must’ve got that from her Dada. Hehe.

Guess what? A morning at the beach meant a real nap for Ava that afternoon.

Hahahah. I won! I won! I won!

And so did Ava. We totally showered with gifts that we were saving for such a momentous occassion… because we totally miss nap time and will do anything to get it reinstated. So say hello to Snow White. She immediately ask the ‘prince’ to stop washing dishes and dance with her. Which explains the wet shirt. I hope.

Alright. It’s time for us to play some soccer now. GOAL!!!

Hi there. Our little smiley Mila is now 3 weeks old. And as you can see… it’s baby acne time. Poor thing. But at least it’s not bothering her one bit.

Mila’s week began with a trip to the doctor’s office. Check out her new birth mark on her back roll. Where did that come from? Mila weighed in at 9 pounds 8 ounces during her 2nd appointment. An ounce less than what the doctor considered minimum weight gain for the week. Ahhh. So the doc wants to see her in a week to make sure she is gaining weight well. We both agreed she is thriving and doing well (Mila is at 98% for her weight) but the doc is just following protocol. I totally lost my piece of paper with measurements and percentiles during this trip. Bad mommy. But I do recall that her head grew into the 60% range and her height remained the same at 22 inches.

We had a few visitors over the weekend. Mila got to meet her great-grandmother Nona Dinka for the very first time.

And got to meet Maryann, Glen and Nathan too.

Did I mention that we were on Poop Watch 2009 this week? This little one didn’t go poop for days. 6 days to be exact. And on the sixth day while watching her big sister Ava paint, I thought I heard something.

Mila? Was that what I thought it was?

And then she gave me the face. The KAKA face! Yeah!! Alert the media. Poop watch 2009 is over!

The aftermath of holding it in for 6 days was not a pretty site. Let’s just say she was literally up her elbows in sh*t. So, that marked the moment for her first official bath. Until then, her belly button was still bleeding so we were holding off giving her a real bath until it was completely healed.

Mila did great during her first bath. Not one cry. Maybe it was because she loved hearing us sing Old MacDonald to her.

All clean. It’s now okay to hug again.

Time for changes of the week. Mila is becoming more alert this week.

She joins Ava and me during our bedtime routine.

Much to Ava’s delight.

Mila is starting to stare at my eyes more during the day… much to my delight.

She is also becoming more interested in staring at my black and white track pants, which I can’t wear every day for her…

… but luckily we have some awesome animal cards for her to practice her focusing skills on.

We also said bye to her nursing blister. Does that make her a professional nurser now? I think so.

Mila is still stuck in her newborn frog pose during her wake hours, which are currently three hour increments in the morning and around dinnertime.

After being awake for 3 hours or so, I have some trouble getting her to fall asleep unassisted. So, she spends some time trying to fall asleep while on my lap or in my arms.

But that is not the case with car seats and the baby carrier. As soon I put her in one of these, she passes out. Night night Mila.

And she usually stays asleep during our outings until we get back home. But during her first trip to the beach this week, she actually woke up. What what! Yup, she ate and then passed out again.

I don’t know about you but it’s way past my bedtime. Yawn. Bye.

Here are a couple videos of my ballerina… spinning and falling..

… and riding a bike and rowing a boat. Enjoy.

Hi. I’m Ava. I want to rock out with Deets.

Hey. This isn’t Deets! Turn this crap off.

Wait. I think Deets is on now.

Oh yeah. That’s smooth.

Hi Mila.

Hi Ava.

I’m glad we’re sisters.

Me too.

Hello there. Our silly little Ava is now 32 months old!

And what was she doing at the exact minute she turned 32 months old? Ava was in bed for her quiet time hour. One of the things she says now that makes us smile is ‘what is that?’. She also really enunciates the word ‘yes‘. And she says the word ‘gunga‘, which is some made up word that cracks her up for some reason.

On Friday, we sent her to school… and we were unaware that it was to be her very last day there. Here is her last official picture at daycare. Ava was going to get sick again and we could no longer handle all the germs that were taking her down. So on Monday, we gave them our required 2 week notice.

Later that afternoon, we took Ava to a pediatric pulmonologist. The doctor confirmed that some kids had reoccurring croup, like Ava did. He actually created an action plan for us for the different types and levels of coughing that Ava gets. He also did an allergy test on her and she passed it with flying colors. Thank goodness because I really didn’t want to get rid of our cat or have to wash our cat once a week.

In the doctor’s office, I introduced Ava to the hand sanitizer dispenser… which she insisted on using at least 20 times while we waited for the doctor. But she called it handitizer. A much better name if you ask me. Hehe.

That evening, we met up with Grace and the crew for some ice cream.

Silly girls. It’s all gone.

Over the weekend, our lazy butts finally bought batteries for Ava’s new computer…

… and she started to click away with her friends Dora and Boots. The mouse was still a little hard for her to use. She doesn’t understand that she needs to move the mouse to make the little arrow move on the TV.

So we actually showed her some games online on my laptop and those were actually a little easier for her at the moment. And now she asks for ‘video games‘ every day.

On Saturday, Ava asked to hold Mila as usual but then she said ‘I love you‘ to her for the very first time. And I almost started to cry.

On Sunday during quiet time, Ava actually fell asleep. What the? A few minutes into her nap, she started coughing. Bad. Out of nowhere. And we had to wake up our little sleeping miracle in order to try to help her breath normally again. Ahhhhh.

Since we went to the specialist’s office just a couple days before hand, we were ready with our treatment action plan. The action plan would help us have at-home options that would hopefully prevent us from having to rush to the ER. She did okay with the mask. It helped that the mask itself looked like Nemo.

But the treatment didn’t work so well. It caused her to wheeze a lot… and made her hyper too. So, we were back to our own action plan when croup shows up. Drive around town with the windows open. Usually this happens at night. Since it was during the day, we took a drive along the beach.

But the drive didn’t work so well for us. So we ended up at the hospital. Again. For another round of steroid shots. Ahhhh! I can not tell you how tired I am of this. Poor Ava. We all hate it so much.

So, yup, you know how the next few days go for us. Stayed home. Took walks to hunt for cats…

…and played in our Airstream.

Ava’s bedtime routine has changed a bit the past couple weeks. She still insists for my knuckles during ‘milky time‘… and Mila is starting to also.

The couch is getting a little too crowded for the 3 of us so we go to the bed now for milky time.

Once Ava started to feel better, the girls and I went out alone for the first time.

It was for toddler reading time at our local bookstore. All the kids were sitting normally… but not Ava. She was lounging.

She thought reading time was just okay… until she discovered that there were crafts after story time and it included scissors. Her new love.

Since I am starting to keep her at home, we are trying to do more things around town also. Like playground time.

And FUN stuff at home… like vacuuming. Hehe. But seriously, Ava usually hides when I vacuum. But not this week. This week she announced that she was not scared and insisted on having her turn. Let’s just say that vacuuming took us a loooong time.

We also hit up the mall for some Hot Dog on a Stick. And she took it literally. No corn please.

I also took the girls to a new place in town, called Imagine That for some kitchen play…

… and piano time…

… and she learned how to slide down a fireman’s pole. I know, I know. It totally looks like something else. LOL.

Oh, and time at home also includes some TV watching too. I love how Ava is so into the TV show and how Mila is thinking how much this show sucks. Booooring.

Alright. Time to go. I need to go watch these two girls. They are in love. Bye.

Here is a little video of Ava and Grace being their usual silly selves. This time with frozen yogurt.