Ava has been having a really good week, she's been so well behaved during the day and sleeping well at night. In fact, yesterday she let me sleep until 9:45! I went in to see if she was awake, and she was just sitting in her crib playing with toys and reading her books. She has been doing that most mornings, rather than crying and whining until one of us gets out of bed and goes to her. Such a nice change!
She'll be 19 months old tomorrow, and I still can't believe how quickly that's happened. I haven't weighed her in ages so I have no idea how heavy she is, but she's wearing 18-24 month size clothing, so she seems to be where she should be.
She loves to sing songs, particularly 'Twinkle Twinkle Little Star' and 'Incy Wincy Spider'. She gets upset when the 'rainbow' (as she says) washes the spider out, but then she shouts YAY! when he climbs up the spout again.
I've managed to get some video of her singing the first part of Twinkle Twinkle Little Star, but she gets distracted by her farmyard and decides she'd rather play with that instead!
I took her to Tumble Tots yesterday and we had the whole place to ourselves! Ava enjoyed trying new things like stepping from one block to the next, sort of like stepping-stones, and she climbed a ladder to reach the top of a slide. Her favourite event seemed to be the hoola-hoops. One of the instructors was swinging it around on her arm and Ava kept trying to copy her. The ladies really liked Ava, they couldn't believe what a little chatterbox she was. Whenever she completed an obsticale she would jump up and say 'Did it! Good girl!' with a big smile on her face.
She's talking in sentences now and it's very unusual for us to have to guess what she means. Most often she'll walk into a room and say 'Hello mummies, what you doing there?' and she almost always remembers her manners: 'Like some cheese, pleeaaase?' and then 'Fank you mummy.'
She loves to hide things inside the oven mitt, and the other day I found:
- 5 spoons
- 2 fruit cups
- a plastic cup
- sippy cup handles
- a rubber mat used to suction her dishes to the high chair tray
- and Iggle Piggle
all inside one oven mitt!
It started with farm animals but I guess she figured out she could hide many more things and it's now entertainment for all of us. It made me laugh when I saw Iggle Piggle stuffed in there, upside down, feet sticking out of the top.
03/02/2011
26/01/2011
Crazy Hair!
Finally got the camera out and took a few pictures this morning. Poor Ava has inherited my insane hair. I had hoped it would settle down as she got older, but it just seems to be getting crazier by the day!
1...2...3... CHEESE!
Last week I took Ava to Wizzy's World, which is a big play barn with a giant padded climbing frame where you can let the kids loose for a while. Anyway, they had a yellow bus ride (like the helicopter from the other place) and Ava was obsessed with it so I decided to let her have some money to make it move, and suddenly a little girl jumped inside the bus and was standing next to Ava (who was in the driver seat) and Ava turned around and shouted 'Sit down!' and the little girl sat down right away! Then Ava smiled and said 'Good girl.' and went back to driving the bus. It was so funny, I wish I'd had the video camera going.
One of Ava's tv shows teaches children sign language and Ava has started to pick it up recently. She can sign the following:
- Strawberries
- Scales (weight scales)
- Red
- Hello
- Thank you
- Look
- Parrot
- You sign
That's all I can remember at the moment... I think there might be another one or two in there though.
She's such a clever little bean, always learning and surprising us with the things she has learned.
1...2...3... CHEESE!
Last week I took Ava to Wizzy's World, which is a big play barn with a giant padded climbing frame where you can let the kids loose for a while. Anyway, they had a yellow bus ride (like the helicopter from the other place) and Ava was obsessed with it so I decided to let her have some money to make it move, and suddenly a little girl jumped inside the bus and was standing next to Ava (who was in the driver seat) and Ava turned around and shouted 'Sit down!' and the little girl sat down right away! Then Ava smiled and said 'Good girl.' and went back to driving the bus. It was so funny, I wish I'd had the video camera going.One of Ava's tv shows teaches children sign language and Ava has started to pick it up recently. She can sign the following:
- Strawberries
- Scales (weight scales)
- Red
- Hello
- Thank you
- Look
- Parrot
- You sign
That's all I can remember at the moment... I think there might be another one or two in there though.
She's such a clever little bean, always learning and surprising us with the things she has learned.
25/01/2011
Play Time
Today I took Ava to her weekly Busy Little Bodies class at the village centre behind our house. The hour is spent singing songs and clapping, playing with puppets and then having tea and a cookie afterward. Ava occasionally pays attention to what's happening during the singing and clapping time but more often than not, she's running around the gym trying to play with fire extinguishers and electrical sockets. I was starting to wonder if I was wasting my time taking her to these classes, when a few hours later at home, she began singing some of the songs from the class! I suppose she is paying attention after all, even if it doesn't show.
I found out from some of the other mothers that I should have already registered Ava with a preschool in the area if I wanted her to attend one when she's two and a half. I hadn't really thought about it but I suppose it's probably good preparation for when she has to go to real school.
Earlier this evening I took Ava over to Isabelle and Cody's house, and while Isabelle and I were chatting on the sofa, Ava tried to climb up to sit with us. Suddenly she let out a shriek and started to cry. I looked down and noticed that Cody had ahold of her shirt with his teeth. I thought he was just holding her back and that it was upsetting her, so I took the t-shirt out of his mouth and noticed a very painful looking bite mark on Ava's tummy! She was very upset and kept clinging to my neck and trying to hide from Cody. Isabelle was really concerned and kept scolding Cody, but he ended up biting me a little while later and then Isabelle as well. Ava has bitten me a few times but I always squeeze her mouth and say 'No biting! No biting!' every time she does it. She doesn't really do it anymore, so hopefully my scolding is working.
Graham and I took her to one of these indoor play world places a couple of days ago and we let her run around on her own, but still keeping an eye on her. When I went to get us some tea I saw her trying to get into a little helecopter ride. There were three little boys inside (older than Ava) and one of them suddenly shoved Ava really hard and she fell backwards out the door and landed on the ground on her back! She burst into tears and came running over to me. I felt so bad for her, I wanted to go shout at the little boy for being mean but I figured it would start something with his mother - if she was even paying attention - and it's probably best that Ava learns other kids can be mean, and that's not the right way to behave. It's just so sad to see someone hurt my little girl :(
So it's been a rough couple of days for her when it comes to playing with other children, and we're going to a Tumble Tots class tomorrow afternoon, so hopefully no one will try and beat her up and maybe she'll make a friend or two.
I found out from some of the other mothers that I should have already registered Ava with a preschool in the area if I wanted her to attend one when she's two and a half. I hadn't really thought about it but I suppose it's probably good preparation for when she has to go to real school.
Earlier this evening I took Ava over to Isabelle and Cody's house, and while Isabelle and I were chatting on the sofa, Ava tried to climb up to sit with us. Suddenly she let out a shriek and started to cry. I looked down and noticed that Cody had ahold of her shirt with his teeth. I thought he was just holding her back and that it was upsetting her, so I took the t-shirt out of his mouth and noticed a very painful looking bite mark on Ava's tummy! She was very upset and kept clinging to my neck and trying to hide from Cody. Isabelle was really concerned and kept scolding Cody, but he ended up biting me a little while later and then Isabelle as well. Ava has bitten me a few times but I always squeeze her mouth and say 'No biting! No biting!' every time she does it. She doesn't really do it anymore, so hopefully my scolding is working.
Graham and I took her to one of these indoor play world places a couple of days ago and we let her run around on her own, but still keeping an eye on her. When I went to get us some tea I saw her trying to get into a little helecopter ride. There were three little boys inside (older than Ava) and one of them suddenly shoved Ava really hard and she fell backwards out the door and landed on the ground on her back! She burst into tears and came running over to me. I felt so bad for her, I wanted to go shout at the little boy for being mean but I figured it would start something with his mother - if she was even paying attention - and it's probably best that Ava learns other kids can be mean, and that's not the right way to behave. It's just so sad to see someone hurt my little girl :(
So it's been a rough couple of days for her when it comes to playing with other children, and we're going to a Tumble Tots class tomorrow afternoon, so hopefully no one will try and beat her up and maybe she'll make a friend or two.
10/01/2011
Update
Ava had another teething spell recently and as a result now has 4 new teeth! Her cheeks were very pink for a few days and she was pretty grumpy some days so we knew some teeth must be coming in.
Her vocabulary is expanding daily and she understands almost everything we say to her. She has a bit of a rebellious streak in her though and decides for herself if she's going to do what we ask her to.
She can be very sweet and loves to give us kisses. She loves her toys and spends hours playing with her new farm yard that Uncle Robin made for her. It was a Christmas gift from Grandma Sue, Roger (Ava calls him Dodgy) and Robin. She has several farm animals to play with, and she has started to find hiding places for them around the house. Yesterday I went to put on the oven mitts and found two pigs inside one of them.
She has started singing Twinkle Twinkle Little Star, and even tries some of the alphabet. Yesterday she said 'TUVWXYandZ' She also likes to sing 'And munch, and munch, munch, two three four, hurray!' which is meant to be the Teddington's Marching Band song from Show Me, Show Me. I think some of the lyrics are:
And march, and march,
And march, 2 3 4!
Hurray! Hurray!
For Teddington’s Marching Band.
I haven't got any new photos to put up, so I'll try and make sure I take some more this week, and maybe some video too. I'm so behind with all of this stuff, her youtube page hasn't been update in ages!
Her vocabulary is expanding daily and she understands almost everything we say to her. She has a bit of a rebellious streak in her though and decides for herself if she's going to do what we ask her to.
She can be very sweet and loves to give us kisses. She loves her toys and spends hours playing with her new farm yard that Uncle Robin made for her. It was a Christmas gift from Grandma Sue, Roger (Ava calls him Dodgy) and Robin. She has several farm animals to play with, and she has started to find hiding places for them around the house. Yesterday I went to put on the oven mitts and found two pigs inside one of them.
She has started singing Twinkle Twinkle Little Star, and even tries some of the alphabet. Yesterday she said 'TUVWXYandZ' She also likes to sing 'And munch, and munch, munch, two three four, hurray!' which is meant to be the Teddington's Marching Band song from Show Me, Show Me. I think some of the lyrics are:
And march, and march,
And march, 2 3 4!
Hurray! Hurray!
For Teddington’s Marching Band.
I haven't got any new photos to put up, so I'll try and make sure I take some more this week, and maybe some video too. I'm so behind with all of this stuff, her youtube page hasn't been update in ages!
08/01/2011
18 months
I can hardly believe it; Ava turned 18 months old 4 days ago! She's growing up so fast.
We had a very busy Christmas and New Years this year, even though we stayed in England and celebrated with Graham's side of the family. On Christmas Eve we travelled to Stratford-Upon-Avon and stayed at a very cute country cottage in the village of Quinton, with Graham's mum, Roger, Steve and Jenni until the 3oth. Because the cottage was so tiny, Steve and Jenni ended up sleeping in the living room, and Ava's travel cot was set up in the ensuite bathroom in the master bedroom. We thought this would help everyone get a little bit more sleep, but unfortunately the walls were quite thin and Ava had us up several times a night for one reason or another.
She seems to have sunk back into the habit of waking up screaming every couple of hours for ages and will only settle down once one of us goes in and sits with her. We've tried letting her just cry it out but she goes on for hours. Stubborn little monkey.
Last night she was perfect though - she slept from 7pm to 8am without waking us up once! When I woke up at 8:15am I had to go check on her to make sure she was okay, and I found her in her bed reading a book. If only she would do that every day!
We had a very busy Christmas and New Years this year, even though we stayed in England and celebrated with Graham's side of the family. On Christmas Eve we travelled to Stratford-Upon-Avon and stayed at a very cute country cottage in the village of Quinton, with Graham's mum, Roger, Steve and Jenni until the 3oth. Because the cottage was so tiny, Steve and Jenni ended up sleeping in the living room, and Ava's travel cot was set up in the ensuite bathroom in the master bedroom. We thought this would help everyone get a little bit more sleep, but unfortunately the walls were quite thin and Ava had us up several times a night for one reason or another.
She seems to have sunk back into the habit of waking up screaming every couple of hours for ages and will only settle down once one of us goes in and sits with her. We've tried letting her just cry it out but she goes on for hours. Stubborn little monkey.
Last night she was perfect though - she slept from 7pm to 8am without waking us up once! When I woke up at 8:15am I had to go check on her to make sure she was okay, and I found her in her bed reading a book. If only she would do that every day!
05/12/2010
Some recent cuteness
Ava is starting to form sentences now and seems to understand most of what we say to her. We're even beginning to understand what she's saying to us! Earlier this evening she kept holding her hands up to her mouth like a megaphone and saying 'Minta mental!' over and over again and I had absolutely no idea what she was talking about. Suddenly while Iwas feeding her dinner, it registered - she was shouting 'Mister Tumble!' which is the name of the clown on one of her tv shows. Whenever they want to see Mister Tumble, kids hold their hands up to their mouths like Ava was doing, and shout his name. I guess she was bored with me and wanted to see him instead.
This morning Graham went in to change her diaper while I was still in bed, and I could hear him singing the I Can Cook song from Cbeebies; 'Roll up your sleeves, give your hands a wash with slippy dippy soap - splish, splash, splosh! Have you done your hands? Washed and dried? Sleeves rolled up and apron tied! What can you do? I can cook!' He sang all of it except the 'I can cook' part which he kind of left hanging, and then suddenly Ava sang it for him!
Later, when I was changing her diaper she was looking around the room and then she said: 'What can you see?' It always amazes me when she strings words together and actually makes a sentence.
She can also have a mini conversation with us now:
Ava: Hello mummy.
Me: Hello Ava.
Ava: How are you?
Me: I'm good thanks, how are you?
Ava: Good... (big smile)
The other day she found an orange peel on the table, picked it up and looked at me with a sad face, and said: 'Oh no... broken.' It was heartbreakingly sweet.
We had her friend Cody and his mum Isabelle around for tea this afternoon and Ava spent a good few minutes chasing Cody around with his sippy cup saying 'Cody 'mere! Cody 'mere!' (Cody come here!) trying to make him drink it.
She's very sweet and sociable most of the time. She is having temper tantrums now though, whenever we try to take her away from something that she's enjoying, she drops to the floor and flops around like a jelly fish for a few minutes. We usually just stand there without looking at her and wait for it to finish.
We've put the Christmas tree up and I had fun decorating it the other day. Ava now has fun un-decorating it at least three times a day.
This morning Graham went in to change her diaper while I was still in bed, and I could hear him singing the I Can Cook song from Cbeebies; 'Roll up your sleeves, give your hands a wash with slippy dippy soap - splish, splash, splosh! Have you done your hands? Washed and dried? Sleeves rolled up and apron tied! What can you do? I can cook!' He sang all of it except the 'I can cook' part which he kind of left hanging, and then suddenly Ava sang it for him!
Later, when I was changing her diaper she was looking around the room and then she said: 'What can you see?' It always amazes me when she strings words together and actually makes a sentence.
She can also have a mini conversation with us now:
Ava: Hello mummy.
Me: Hello Ava.
Ava: How are you?
Me: I'm good thanks, how are you?
Ava: Good... (big smile)
The other day she found an orange peel on the table, picked it up and looked at me with a sad face, and said: 'Oh no... broken.' It was heartbreakingly sweet.
We had her friend Cody and his mum Isabelle around for tea this afternoon and Ava spent a good few minutes chasing Cody around with his sippy cup saying 'Cody 'mere! Cody 'mere!' (Cody come here!) trying to make him drink it.
She's very sweet and sociable most of the time. She is having temper tantrums now though, whenever we try to take her away from something that she's enjoying, she drops to the floor and flops around like a jelly fish for a few minutes. We usually just stand there without looking at her and wait for it to finish.
We've put the Christmas tree up and I had fun decorating it the other day. Ava now has fun un-decorating it at least three times a day.
19/11/2010
Christmas Shopping
I took Ava Christmas shopping this afternoon and I found a few toys for her to put under the tree. She's always trying to get ahold of the broom and dust pan when I'm using them, so I decided to get her her own mini version to play with instead. They look exactly like the ones we have so hopefully she'll be happy with them.
I also bought her a Super Scribbler, which is like a Magna Doodle. She likes to draw but makes such a mess with markers and crayons so maybe this will keep her entertained - and my house clean!
I'm having so much fun this year with Christmas, it's so much easier buying for a child. I can't wait to get a tree and set it up with lights and ornaments. I'll have to make sure I get plastic ones though...
One thing I'm having difficulty finding, is a stocking for Graham. I would like to get two with our names or 'Mummy' and 'Daddy' on them but they're impossible to find over here. I've given up on finding any personalised ones, but even the non personalised ones are crap. Maybe I'll make us some myself.
I also bought her a Super Scribbler, which is like a Magna Doodle. She likes to draw but makes such a mess with markers and crayons so maybe this will keep her entertained - and my house clean!I'm having so much fun this year with Christmas, it's so much easier buying for a child. I can't wait to get a tree and set it up with lights and ornaments. I'll have to make sure I get plastic ones though...
One thing I'm having difficulty finding, is a stocking for Graham. I would like to get two with our names or 'Mummy' and 'Daddy' on them but they're impossible to find over here. I've given up on finding any personalised ones, but even the non personalised ones are crap. Maybe I'll make us some myself.
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