Funny Ava Moment

Sometimes I wonder how in the world Ava picks up on the smallest things, she must be watching our every move.  Yesterday, Keren and I had such a great laugh at what she did.  Ava does this funny thing where she will sniff our shirts occassionally.  Normally Keren smells good and I stink, according to Ava.  Well, yesterday was no different.  (for the record I had showered and just washed my favorite drab grey sweatshirt I wear 24/7 in the house)  Ava comes up to me while I'm chillin' on the couch and does her patented sniff test.  She promptly says "NO" then "EWWWWW."  It's really funny actually and is probably the reason she gives that response because we always laugh.  Well yesterday she added a twist.  After handing down the verdict that I stink, she disappears into the bathroom and comes back out with my stick of Old Spice "sport" deodorant, then proceeds to lift up my shirt and rub it all over me.  Keren and I were almost in tears, it was too funny.  She's seen me put on deodorant but how she knows it's purpose is to combat stink is beyond me.  Kids must be sponges at this age, no action or detail goes unnoticed.

As I write this, (Sunday night), it's snowing again.  It's snowed another 2-3 inches and we've had snow on the ground for at least a week straight.  It's really nice actually and I'm glad Ava has been out in it a few times.  The weekend was fairly relaxing (except for my mid-term exam Saturday morning) and Ava seems to be singing more than ever.  Her "mean ol' mama" song is a favorite as is the ABC song.  She talked and sang in her crib this afternoon before finally falling asleep for her nap for almost an hour.  Overall she seems really happy most of the time but her emotions can be a roller coaster ride also.  She's super active (as always) and sometimes grumpy, especially after waking up from a short nap.  At nights she's usually always happy and playful but is highly resistant to going to bed.  She LOVES her Georgie snacks (Curious George gummy fruit snacks) and also loves "pop".  Which means popsicle.  Despite these highly un-nutritional snacks we feed her plenty of veggies and fruit which she loves also.  She really loves sliced cucumbers and tomatoes.  Saturday night we took her to Buy Buy baby to look at a new car seat.  I made the mistake of taking her out of the shopping car and she was WILD.  I had to keep tabs on her constantly as she was taking these playground balls out of a display, then running down the isle to the toys, then to mama, then back to the balls etc.  She was good, just extremely active.  After extensively researching the car seats we found a better deal online and decided to leave.   We then walked down to Half Priced Books and let Ava have free reign of the book store.  She stayed in the kids section but must have taken 6,498 books off the shelves which I had to go behind and pick up.  We ended up buying 2 Elmo books, a book about bears and The Happiest Toddler on the Block. (how to eliminate tantrums and raise a patient, respectful and cooperative one to four year old)   ummmmm, yeah right.   

This blog seems to be jumping all over the place, so many reflections and thoughts to cover since I've slacked on this for a while.  I did get Ava an Etch a Sketch tonight at Wally World, she loves artsy stuff so I thought she would play with it for hours.  She kept twisting the knobs in the same direction so the line always ended up in the lower right hand corner.   She really loved shaking it to clear the screen the best.  Whatever makes her happy.  

My Sweetie

Well, last blog I said I was back on track and here it is 3 months later and I'm just getting around to updating this again.  Keren and I are extremely busy these days, we have both gone back to school to become teachers.  We both attended Midway (via online classes) last semester and I am not lying when I say it was a tremendous amount of work.  I have since found out that I can complete my masters and still teach elementary education so I have transferred to University of the Cumberlands.  Keren is sticking with Midway since she thinks she will have a better chance of getting hired having gone through the undergraduate process and getting that degree.

Christmas was a blast, I think Ava sort of had a grasp on the whole concept, she was keenly aware of "Ho Ho" and really got into opening her presents on Christmas day.  As always I took tons of video and pictures, they will all be uploaded soon to my Flickr account and I'll post a link here. (someday)  Christmas was fairly laid back, not as much rushing around this year.  We went to Keren's sister's house for Christmas Eve, that was a lot of fun and Ava had a great time.  On Christmas day, my mom and dad came over to watch Ava open her presents, it was very relaxing and enjoyable.  Ava's big present was a kitchen set which she still plays with all the time.  She also got a Hello Kitty sleeping bag, Abby Cadabby doll, Mickey books with computer, a slot car track (guess who got her that :) a kids cordless drill and tool kit (me again)  a broom and dust pan (she always steals the broom when I'm trying to sweep the garage so why not?  She got a few other things but since I'm writing this a month after Christmas they escape me.  She got plenty, lets put it that way.

This winter has been awesome for snow and we've taken advantage of it.  Oh, she got two sleds for Christmas also so we've been sledding a couple times.  The first time I took her down a huge hill and we hit a tree so that scared her a little.  (we barely tapped the tree actually)  Second time was a lot more snow and she had a lot of fun.  Her boots were too big so they kept coming off which didn't prevent her from walking around in the snow, in her socks, with great delight.  Ava is talking up a storm now, it's so much fun to hear her babble on and on.  I been told a hundred times that we will regret when she starts talking because they never shut up but I absolutely love to hear her talk.  It's so cute and every word seems to have a tremendous amount of meaning to it.  I'm sure I'm biased though.  We were coming back from our last sledding excursion and I had taken off her wet socks in the car.  I was really concerned that her feet might be cold so I asked Ava how her feet were.  Her response was "Happy."  Being a dad is awesome.

Here's a little video of us sledding.
https://vimeo.com/83415336