AvaLin.net

Open your mouth and say ahhhh! Ava is now 86 weeks old. Ahhhhh!

Our 86th week is going MUCH MUCH better than our 85th week. Dan is managing okay with two casts and Ava is slowly recovering from pneumonia. She is still coughing a bit, especially at night, but is feeling much better. Check her out applying lipstick. Looking fabulous Ava!

On Saturday, Ava’s Dida and Nona came over first thing in the morning so they can play kolo together. Everyone holds hands and walks in a cirlcle, Nona sings a children’s song, and when Nona says chichule, everyone falls down and giggles.

Dida had to go home to watch Croatia battle for a spot in the next World Cup, but Nona stuck around… and then Deets came over for some fun too. Ava showed off her tent once again.

And then they enjoyed playing with her new Dora Play-Doh set. I think David forgot how fun play-doh can be. Thanks to Ava, our inner child gets to pop up and say hello. Thanks Ava.

We brought out Ava’s old corral from the garage so David could drop it off for Nathan. He just started walking and needs some ‘containment’. Ava really got into the corral fun wall while it was sitting by the front door. I don’t think she was ready to say good-bye to it just yet. Check out her goldilocks hair in this shot. Did someone give her highlights when we weren’t looking?

Before Deets and Nona took off, they treated us with some homemade cheesecake and homemade lemon ice cream. YUM! My mouth just started watering again. YUM! YUM! YUM!

Over the weekend, Grace also stopped by for a visit. It’s been a while since the two ladies hung out because of our horrendous week last week.

But as you can see, the timing was not right. Ava was way over due for her nap and it showed. Wah!

So the following day, Ava took a nap at her normal time and then we went to visit Grace at her house. It was a much better visit for Ava. Here they are playing piano together.

During art time at home, Ava drawing skills are slowly improving. She still loves markers and now she REALLY loves markers because the caps fits on her fingertips perfectly.

On a daily basis, I try to give Ava a say in what happens in her day. Like crayons or markers? She always says markers. Like Dora or Elmo. She says ‘da’ to both. I guess she doesn’t want to pick between them. And like this dress, or this one, or that one? She usually tugs on the one we wants to wear. But one day last week, she tugged on one of her new dresses and said Carrie. Maybe it reminded her of Carrie. Or maybe she just misses seeing her. Either way, here is Ava in her ‘Carrie’ dress.

On our daily walks, Ava still loves ripping flowers from our neighbor’s plants. She doesn’t yet understand that it is not so nice to pick their flowers, or steal fruit, or rip leaves. But luckily we have a new trick up our sleeves.

We tell her ‘dragi’ which is what we say when we want to her to gently pet animals… and it worked! We even use it when we are out in stores now too.

Our old roommate Paul stopped by for a visit this week and got to met Ava for the first time. He lived us in Santa Barbara with his dog Nanook. Rudy and Nanook were best of friends and best of enemies too. Ava surprisingly warmed up to Paul pretty quickly, even after he said he was the Paul Monster. Bad idea. She got a little freaked out by that. Paul always hated having his picture taken when we lived with him… some things never change.

Daycare was full of drama this week. Ava cut her lip after she fell down carrying a doll. She also bit a friend at school too. I guess Ava was playing with her shoe and another kid tried to take her shoe away so Ava bit him or her. Good thing she has her rabies shot!

Ava also has a pretty bad accident this week too. Ava and I were waiting for this lady to move from the front door so we can enter daycare. Instead of walking out of the door, she started sprinting and ran right into Ava. She hit Ava so hard that Ava flew into the air and landed on her back. Ava freaked out. The lady freaked out. I tried not to freak out until the car ride home. Ava immediately got a welt on the back of her head so we put some ice on it. Poor thing. I hate the sound she makes when she falls onto the concrete. I REALLY hate watching her fly in the air and the sound she makes when she falls onto the concrete. Hate. It. She did okay at school after that incident but the next day Ava kept saying ouch. I asked her what hurt and named all the body parts she knows. When I asked her if her neck hurt, she said ‘da’. Poor baby. She had whiplash. It lasted a few days. She had some trouble moving her neck so her eyes did the majority of the moving.

At pick-up time, Ava always asks for water (which we bring with us) and sometimes asks for crackers too. There is a big basket full of crackers by the front door that she will sometimes help herself to… and then takes it outside to eat near the car.

Ava has also been answering her own questions this week. For example, she will ask ‘Do Do Dora?’ and then quickly answer her own question with a ‘da’. That goes for pasta too. She also started asking us to do different things with her during pick-up time. Like ‘Dada Slide’…

…and ‘Mama Come on Play’.

Ava also still loves playing tent with blankets. A little too much, I think. As soon as the cover is over her head, she loves screaming for Dada.

On our daily walks now, she must drag her hand on our neighbor’s Bill wall and we must do the same too.

And here she is pissed at me for taking off her hairband. Check out her new sweater. I wish they made this one in MY size.

Once I gave Ava her hairband back, she stood on the sidewalk and said ‘Mama cheese’. Okay Ava. Ham it up.

Alright, it’s the weekend.

Gotta run. Bye!

Hello there. Our Ava is now 85 weeks old and started off the week with a nice case of croup. Cough cough cough.

Her cough began the previous night and did not clear up in the morning as it would normally. On the way to the pediatrician’s office, Ava started to get upset which made her cough evolve into labored breathing. The doctor immediately walked us into his break room and opened up his freezer. I held Ava there for a few minutes, in hopes of opening up her airway. It didn’t work. Next, he started a breathing treatment on Ava but that didn’t work either. So, he made a call to the ER that we were on our way there. What? The ER again!?!

Yes Ava. The ER again. Ava and I ended up being in the ER for four hours. Dan and Jeremy (his chauffeur for the day) stopped by for a quick visit before heading to Dan’s orthopedic doctor’s office to make arrangements for his second surgery. What a wonderful day.

As soon as we got to the ER, we were whisked away to a room, just a couple rooms down from where we were just about 36 hours or so ago. Oh the fun. TGIF! Ava started off with oxygen. It didn’t help. Then she got a steroid shot in her thigh. It didn’t work. Finally, she got a special breathing treatment with a fancy drug in it. It worked. Thank goodness. Her breathing noticeably got less labored. But the fun wasn’t over yet.

It took about 2 hours to get her breathing normally again, but we had to stay for another 2 hours to make sure it did not return after the effects of the drug wore off… and we had to run a few tests. The nurse had to test for RSV by suctioning mucous from her nose with a long tube that, I swear, almost hit her brain. She was not happy about that one bit. Then Ava had to have a chest x-ray. A few weeks ago, she had one and did fine. She stood up like a big girl and the tech got a great x-ray on the first shot. But at the hospital, they didn’t allow for her to stand up like a big girl. She had to be placed in this contraption that wouldn’t allow for her to move. That way, the tech would be guaranteed one great x-ray and Ava would not need to be exposed to unnecessary radiation if they needed to repeat it. My heart sank when I saw this thing. Ava had to stand in this clear tube with her arms over her head. She looked like what I thought Baby Jessica would have looked like stuck in that well. I wanted to cry but my job was to be strong. I had to distract her. The only thing that came to mind was to put my arms over my head and say ’stretch stretch’, as we do at home when we are playing. She was understandably scared but having me stretch with her calmed her down enough for a great x-ray.

While sitting in our triage room, Ava was hooked up to a pulse oximeter the whole time to measure her oxygen levels. It is just a sticker that wraps around her big toe and shines a red light through her toenail. Ava hates that thing. She hated it at her last hospital stay in Tucson and she hated it this time. Every time she saw it on her toe, she would cry ‘ouch’. But, if she didn’t see it, she was fine. She also had to have her temperature taken rectally as soon as we got to the ER. As soon as that test surprised her, she cried ‘gotovo’, which means ‘all done’. And after that test, every other test got her to cry ‘gotovo’ too. Sorry Ava. Not gotovo yet.

So, after reviewing all of her tests, the doctor informed us that she did not have RSV but she did have pneumonia caused by croup. Since croup is a viral infection, there were no antibiotics to take. It was just going to take time and handed us our discharge papers. Ok Ava. Gotovo.

Later that day, Ava stared coughing again so we spoke to our pediatrician over the phone and gave her an update. She said that Ava might need to go to the ER tonight. Croup gets significantly worse at night… and Ava was already getting worse in the afternoon. Ahhh. She also informed us that she thinks Ava was born with a small airway which is why she is very sensitive to any type of respiratory infection. It is just going to take time for her airway to grow larger… maybe in a few more years. Don’t just love when the answer to your problem is TIME instead of a MAGIC PILL?

If your kid has croup, they recommend that you take them into the bathroom, turn on the shower and have them breath in the warm mist. If that doesn’t work, you are supposed to take them outside for cool air or stick them in front of the freezer. Neither of these things have worked too well in the past for Ava. The doctor gave us new suggestions this time and they work. Hallelujah.

The first suggestion was to bundle up Ava and have her sleep with all the windows open with a cool mist humidifier. Since, having Ava sleep in her bedroom with all her windows open scares the bejesus out of me, we set up the pack ‘n play in our room and bundled ourselves up too. Not only did Ava’s excessive coughing stop that night, Dan also stopped snoring. It was a double miracle. I don’t remember the last time I had a quiet night with no snoring and not having to elbow Dan in the ribs to tell him to sleep on his side. Ava really benefited from having cold humid air. I can’t tell you how many times you hear the opposite. ‘Keep the baby warm when she’s sick.’ No wonder she got so sick in Arizona. The dry desert and the heated trailer sure didn’t make things better.

The second suggestion was to take Ava on after dinner stroller rides around the block to help airway open with the cooler night air. Those walks were so so nice. It was the only time during the day that we left the house with Ava.

The third suggestion was to give Ava popsicles. She sure didn’t complain about this one! I ask Ava all the time if she likes things. She usually ignores me or says no. If she says no to something I know she likes, I ask her the same question over again. She then gives me an affirmative answer by repeating the word I was questioning. But for the very first time, when I asked Ava if she liked her popsicle, she responded to me with a nod and by then said ‘da’, which means yes in Croatian.

Ava was starting to feel better. It was going to take some time to get rid of the pneumonia but we were now on the right path. (Please ignore the midriff, Dada’s shoes, and popsicle drips on her sweat pants. It was a rough day.)

So, in case you forgot, Dan broke his right arm and his left thumb. So, no Ava diaper changing, no gardening, no dish washing, no driving, no showers, no liter box cleaning, no laundry, no nothing for him. And ‘no nothing’ includes no cooking too. In case you don’t know me too well, I don’t like to cook. Sure I can do it but I don’t enjoy it. So it became part of his ‘husband job description’. So, here is a picture of me cooking all by myself like a big girl. Enjoy it while it lasts people… and please ignore the tears in my eyes. Ava was kind enough to help make some invisible appetizers with a dash of crumbs from the kitchen floor.

Dan’s family was also here this weekend. Uncle Eric (whom Ava started to call Uncle Auk) helped her get the recipe just right.

So, what was the consensus of Mama’s homemade Bolognese Sauce?

Ava gave it a raving review. Yeah, I passed the test!

Since we were home bound this weekend, Ava got to dress up like a lady…

… and dress up as Super Ava.

Ava wasn’t the only one who enjoyed being a super hero. Here is Super Ava with Super Dada.

And Super Eric even made an appearance while we was making us Philadelphia Rolls.

Ava is growing up SO fast. She is starting to use a step stool to get on the couch all by herself.

Ava uses that same step stool in the bathroom to ‘brush’ her teeth. Her tooth brush technique does not really involve a lot of brushing. She mostly wets her princess toothbrush and sucks the water out of the bristles. Yum.

When getting her dressed in the morning, I started to give Ava the option of giving my choices a ‘da’ or a ‘no’. After showing Ava four different dresses, she finally said yes to this pink number which was way too short to be called a dress anymore. I threw on the jeans and she chose her pirate shoes over her apple shoes. This is the best ‘cheese’ I could get out of her. Dora just appeared on the TV and she can not be bothered when her favorite cartoon friend is talking.

On our walks, Ava is starting to want to push the stroller all by herself.

If Ava wants to watch cartoons on the television, she will hand us the remote and ask for Dora or Elmo. If we say no to Dora, she will then ask if it’s okay to watch Boots.

I finally got around to buying Ava her first set of washable markers. For some reason, I thought she was old enough and drew with them at school. But I don’t think so. It took a while to explain to her that these were for drawing lines and not for slamming into the table to make ‘dot art’ like she does at school. She had fun trying to name the color of the marker she was using.

Luckily, the markers were washable and the ink disappeared as soon as she sat in the bath tub that night.

Ava also likes to play with play-doh too. She likes telling us what to make. After we make the desired object, she usually plays with it for 5 seconds and them demolishes it into smithereens.

While playing with Dada the other day, she asked him to make her a fish. Once he handed it over to her, she decided to forgo the demolition and give the fish to her friend Yoda.

Yoda wasn’t sure what to do with her new ‘fish’ toy.

Daycare is still going well. I started to drop Ava off in the mornings since Dan is unable to drive. She started a new tradition of carrying her own lunch box into her classroom like a big girl.

When I pick Ava up from school, she gets sent home with a daily log of what she did on that particular day. I always read it in the car before heading back home so I can talk to her about all the fun things she did. I noticed that one of the activities she did on that particular day was jumping in a bounce house. So I asked her if she went into a bounce house. And boy did she respond to my question. She first said ’si’, which is yes in Spanish. After Dan and I both started to giggle, she quickly responded with ‘yeah’ and then ‘da’. Oh Ava. Sorry. It will all make sense one day. I swear.

In addition to asking Ava to use the potty before bath time, I also started to ask Ava to try to pee in her potty after bath time. On Monday, she said ‘kaka’ to me and then proceeded to pee in the potty. On Tuesday, she didn’t say a word but peed in her potty. On Wednesday, she peed on her feet as she was watching the water empty out of the tub. On Thursday, she peed on her feet again. A 50-50 chance of tinkling in the right place is not to shabby. Not shabby at all.

On Thursday, we ventured out to Target to look for some new pajamas. While waiting to pay for our items, Ava noticed a lady behind us in line that looked a bit different than us. Ava pointed to her and said ‘što to?’, which means ‘what’s that?’ in Croatian. Dan looked at me and said thank god Ava speaks Croatian. That could of been really embarrassing.

On Wednesday, Dan had his second and final surgery. It was finally time to fix his left thumb, which has been broken for a week. The surgery itself only took 15 minutes and two pins, but the whole process took 5 long hours because of what was involved with general anesthesia. When it was time to put an IV in his arm during pre-op, the nurse couldn’t put it in left arm since the surgery will take place there. She couldn’t put it on his right arm because his cast extends past his elbow. So, she had to put it into his left foot. So. So. Disgusting. The nurse told Dan sorry before she even started to try to insert the needle since they rarely put these in. It took a few tries and three nurses to finally get the IV in his foot. So, poor Dan had things on three out of his four limbs. Hmmm, I take that back. They forgot to put on his ID bracelet. Hmmm. I guess it goes on his right foot. Nice anklet Dan! (Don’t worry Dan. I won’t point out your Michael Jackson sock!)

Before surgery, we noticed that his thumb was a good half inch shorter than his other thumb. So. So. Disgusting. Thank goodness we didn’t notice it until just before it was getting fixed. And he thought it wasn’t broken. HA! I win. You lose.

Ava and I waited and waited for Dan to be wheeled out. Ava waited and waited to give her Dada a special Get Well Soon card and to get a picture with him… but this nurse would NOT slow down. What did she think I had, a digital SLR? No lady. It’s a point and shoot. Slow the f down.

So, we were back at home with Dada and his new cast. We hope you feel better really soon Dada. We miss your cooking. Real bad.

Have a fabulous weekend! BYE!

Hi. Our little Ava is now 84 weeks old. Our week began wonderfully but didn’t end that way… keep reading.

Ava is still enjoying daycare. She is really good friends with Ava R. They like hugging good-bye when we pick her up. And when I mention the word school to her, the first word she says back to me is Ava R. When she says Ava R, it sounds like Ava Eye. Hehe. She likes to hug us too. The other day, she said Mama and gave me a hug. Then it was time to say Dada and give him a hug. And then Ava said her own name and hugged herself! It was too cute.

The two of them hug so much that they even have their own “wall of hugging” at school. In the next month or so, Ava R will be moving up to another classroom and our Ava will be without her buddy for a couple months. The director of daycare said that if our Ava gets too lonely and bored without her buddies, that she might move up to the older classroom a bit early.

On Saturday, we spent the day in San Pedro. Ava got a chance to go to the park again… the one where she didn’t want to play in last weekend because sand was getting in her sandals. This time we were prepared with frilly socks and pirate shoes. She had fun going down slides with Anthony and Marko. Weeee.

Ava also got more stickers from Nona to fuel her addiction to them. Check out her Sesame Street sleeve.

She also ran around like a crazy person after dinner when I tied a ribbon to her hair. Ava had no problem saying Teta Mary before dinner time. But after dinner, when I asked her who was sitting next to her, Ava said Nona Vinka. We all died laughing. Nona Vinka is Teta Mary’s mom. She made the mistake a few times after that too… probably because she knew it made us all giggle.

On Sunday, we were back home and relaxing in the back yard. Dan lost his voice this week so he had to whisper. It was hard for me not to whisper back to him when he talked. Ava didn’t mind his whispering. She actually made up for all the talking her Dada couldn’t do. As for her vocabulary, there are two words that stick out from the others. Not because they are difficult to say, but because they are words from a dialect found on the island of Hvar. The first dialect word is pants. Ava says gaće instead of hlače. The second dialect word is milk. Ava says mliko instead of mljeko. And in case your wondering, her Dida is very proud… and he’s keeping count!

Dan finally got a chance to set up the tent we bought at Ikea last weekend. Ava loved it. At first she was a bit concerned by the grass that was poking her through the tent floor, but she soon got over it.

Dan and I also finished our homemade teepee tent project. Ava loved this one even more. She got to pick out the fabric all by herself. After hours and hours of searching thru reels of fabirc at Fabric Town USA, she finally settled on Olivia fabric. Olivia is a pig from one of her most cherished books. She likes to read Olivia while sitting on Rudy’s bed with a group of her stuffed animals by her side.

Check out Ava wearing ‘bracelets’ in her new tent.

We also spent some time at a local park. I showed Ava how to slide down the slide all by herself… on her tummy. She was so happy that she didn’t need our help anymore. So much so that she started telling the other kids at the park that these were ‘my slides’.

Having two real tents at our house is not enough for Ava. When she is not under our sheets or comforter, she is using pillowcases as mini-tents.

And mini-tents are multipurpose. They also turn to nun hats…

…and into super hero capes too.

When Ava and I are under our comforter on the bed, she screams for Dada to join us. I taught Ava how to put her finger on her lips to say shhh while we wait for Dada. I think we need to work on it some more.

On Wednesday, Dan and our neighbor Bill decided to go skateboarding. I’m not sure why two grown men wanted to relive their glory days but what the hey. Ava and I decided to join them on their adventure. The first hill they decided to go on was pretty steep, so I decided to walk back to the car so I could pick the boys up at the bottom of the hill. As I was walking back to the car, I lost my balance as I stepped onto some wet grass. I was holding Ava in my arms as I lost my balance. It all happened in slow motion. As I was going down, her back was arching and her head was nearing the lawn. I thankfully regained my balance and brought Ava up to my chest before she hit the grass. Afterward, she looked at me with concern and kept repeating ‘Ava Ava’ over and over again. Sorry little one. But as we would find out in a few minutes, this was the least of our worries.

The boys graduated to a larger and windier street. Ava had that ‘Ummm Dada. I have a bad feeling about this’ look on her face as he left the car.

And a few minutes later, she had the ‘Ummm Dada, I told you so’ look on her face. When Ava and I got to the bottom of the hill, Dan was walking towards us, shaking his head and holding his right arm. My heart sank but I was thankful that we were only a few blocks from the hospital and thankful that it wasn’t much much worse.

Dan broke his arm and dislocated his wrist. Since the bone was a bit exposed (yuck!), he had to get a round of antibiotics in him STAT and also have emergency surgery. I quickly drove Ava home and put her to bed so I could get back to the hospital. Bill stayed at our house to watch Ava for a few hours, until Jeremy arrived… who was coming over to work with Dan. Umm, change of plans Jeremy. Dan’s surgery only took an hour but the whole process from ER to prep to surgery to recovery to getting moved to a real room, took about 7 hours. 7 LONG hours. And those 7 long hours also included being moved from trauma room 3 in the ER to hall 1 in the ER. Nothing but star treatment for my professional skate boarding husband. No autographs please!

While in the Surgery Prep room, the orthopedic surgeon walked us through what was going to happen in surgery. At the end of his explanation, the surgeon asked Dan if he had any questions. And what did Dan ask? Ummm, he asked ‘When can I eat?’. That’s my Dan!

Here is Dan a couple hours after surgery. In good spirits and really sleepy… but not hungry at all. I mentioned to the nurse that Dan’s thumb on his other hand was bothering him. It was black and blue and swollen. She ordered an x-ray for the morning, just in case.

In the morning, I got Ava ready for school and made a pit stop at the hospital to visit her Dada. She was happy to see Dan but was scared of the all the tubes and machines. I think it might of reminded her of her hospital stay back in January of this year.

After a few minutes of checking out the room, Ava felt comfortable to sit up on the bed. She saw a cup of water on Dan’s bedside tray and said ‘Dada piti agua’. Haha. ‘Dada piti agua’ translates to Dada drink water. It was her first official three word sentence. But not only was it three words, it was trilingual too. English, Croatian and Spanish. Oh boy. And you thought English-only speaking toddlers were hard to understand.

After completing his round of antibiotics, Dan was free at last… or was he? He actually got a call later that day that his thumb was also broken and it needed surgery. So not only will he have 4 more pins in his left thumb in addition to the plate and 6 screws in right arm, he will also have another cast. Ummm, who is going to have to help wipe an extra ass in our house? Ummmm, not it! Not it! Not it! Not it! Maybe I can drop him off at adult day care after I drop Ava off at her daycare.

After getting released from the hospital, we grabbed a bite to eat. And what did Dan want to eat? Chicken soup? No. Cherry Jello? Nope. A double cheeseburger from Hamburger Habit? You got it.

After teaching Ava how to say cast, Dan and Jeremy talked business and Ava and I played with Play-Doh.

Check out what Ava made all by herself. This fish. And it has an eye in the right place. I swear she made it herself. No cheating. I did roll the eyeball for her but she put it in the right place. I was sooo proud of her that I couldn’t even take a clear picture!

That night, Jeremy was kind enough to help me cook. We decided to throw…. Taco Night! It was delicious if I can say so myself. We also invited Michelle, Grace and Cole over to partake in our festivities. Ole! But ignore the look on Jeremy’s face. I swear he was enjoying his meal. He ate six tacos while my Dan only ate two. What the hell? Anyways, his Ventura business vacation was a LITTLE different that his previous ones. He ended being a babysitter, a chef, a dishwasher, and a chauffeur. Thanks Jeremy! Hmmm, maybe he can come over next weekend to help me wipe butts. OH COME ON!!! Please?

After our successful Taco Night, Ava showed off her new Olivia Tent to Grace. Dan might have multiple injuries, but he sure could still play DADA MONSTER with them. Hehe.

Oh, and you know how bad things supposedly come in threes? Well they do.

#1- Dan needs surgery on right arm.

#2- Dan needs surgery on left hand.

And #3 you ask? You don’t have a #3?
Ummm, yes I do!

#3- Ava gets croup again and PNEUMONIA and a 4-hour ER visit.

If you have a heart, please drop off a box of tissues and a six pack of beers for me on the porch. You don’t even have to come into the house. I’m okay with ding-dong ditchers.

This week our little Ava turned 16 months old!

And what was Ava doing at the exact minute she was turning 16 months old? Ummm, getting ready for her afternoon nap with her prairie doggy.

We got this prairie doggy for her from the Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum during our Tucson road trip back in January. It kept her company in the hospital and she has slept with it ever since. If I forget to hand it to Ava when I lay her down in the crib, she says oh-oh. I know it is not safe to sleep with soft things in the crib so don’t worry. This thing is more like a football than a stuffed toy. And she holds it like one too.

So our week started off wonderfully. We decided to head out of town with our Tab trailer to the San Clemente State Beach camping grounds. This place is booked months in advance, as it should be, since it is just a few short steps from the ocean. We luckily found a last minute reservation, probably due to the fact that it was mother’s day weekend. We set-up our new gently used tent attachment to the trailer and it worked beautifully as play room.

Ava had a blast playing on the beach with her friends, Briar and Eli. They all took turns destroying the sand castles we constructed, or as they call it ‘being Godzilla’.

Ava was pretty quiet at the beach. Her eye infection flared up again and she had a little bit of a runny nose. Here she is watching Briar and Eli…

…watching them being silly boys.

But once they started rolling down a tiny sandhill, Ava couldn’t just sit and watch any longer. Weee.

The hillside at the campground is made of sandstone, which is not as sturdy as you would think. This sandstone carves away pretty easily. Check out our little explorers in this cave. There were tons of names carved into it. Ava looks pretty focused. I wonder if she will be the next Indiana Jones. hehe.

Ava discovered that if she sat down and pushed with her legs, she could ’slide’ down the sand hill. Here she is asking Nicole for ‘more’ sliding please.

And she was more than happy to comply.

During our first night camping, Ava developed a serious cough that sounded like a seal barking. In the morning, it was pretty obvious that she some trouble breathing so we were off the the emergency room again. No joke. This is our 3rd attempt at camping with our trailer and our 2nd visit to the ER. It ends up that Ava had croup, which she caught at daycare the week before. The doctors monitored her for a couple hours, gave her a steroid injection and breathing treatment, and then sent us on our way. So, once again our trip got cut short, and once again our ‘budget’ vacation wasn’t so budget anymore. Is this a sign? I don’t know. But we are not going to give up just yet. We have to try camping one more time I think before we sell the trailer and sign up for a spa getaway at a 5-star resort.

So after being at the campground for less than 24 hours, we packed up our belongings (well, Dan did most of the packing because I was the supervisor) and we headed back home. We stopped by my parents house for a few hours to exchange mother’s day gifts and to break up the long drive home. Here is Ava giggling at her Dida who decided to take a quick snooze on the carpet. Must of been a rough day playing bocce ball.

Ava also had a chance to eat some homemade chicken soup with her Nona.

Yummy for my tummy

The next morning was Mother’s Day and we had a little change in plans. No putting on cute dresses and going birdwatching for these ladies. Ava got a 103 fever that we could not break. She did not want to do anything but be by my side. So we sat on the couch, watched cartoons and napped together all day. This continued into Monday too. I got so many hugs and snuggles in those two days. When no good cartoons were on, I introduced Ava to ‘Rob and Big’. And when the episode ended, she asked for ‘more’. How great is that! We’re best friends too.

Ava’s new words and tricks didn’t expand too much this week thanks to her croup. She did get her 16th tooth (top right canine) sometime in the past few weeks. And when you ask Ava to say a new word, she sometimes does and says something funny instead. But other times when you ask her to say a word that seems too difficult, she shrugs her shoulders instead.

But we did have a couple new animals sounds this week. Grr for bear and roar for a lion.

I bought her this new puzzle made for two year olds and up and she does pretty well with it.

The animals end up in the general vicinity but don’t always make it in the cut-out… or even right-side up.

Ava helped Yoda celebrate a big day on Thursday… and not only by invading her personal space…

but by trying to scream “Happy 6th Birthday Yoda!” too.

Last week we released our 3rd hummingbird of the season and this week we have four baby house finches with us. They are still pretty small and need to be fed with a syringe every 90 minutes or so. When I tell Ava that it is bird feeding time, she walks over to their basket, sits on the floor and then patiently watches me feed all four. Here she is trying to feed one a binder clip that is meant to secure them in their basket instead.

Oh oh. I just got a call that the paparazzis are outside my house again. Damn this popular blog.

Thanks to this blog, I can’t go anywhere without getting recognized…. unless I wear a spinach mustache…

…or these new shades.

Are they gone yet?

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.

Ava turned 14 months old this week. At exactly 1:34pm, she was having a fit at Chipotle, thanks to teething and a slight run in with picky eater syndrome.

Later in the week, Ava’s 11th and 12th tooth finally sprouted. It ends up that her previous ‘canines’ were actually her molars and these teeth are her canines. I am an embarrassment to the dental community. Sorry Mom.

Ava didn’t hit any new milestones this week, but her Dada did. His work contract ended so we celebrated with drinks at Rookies’ for Happy Hour.

Someone doesn’t seem to be too disappointed by this milestone.

The very next morning, Ava was sick. I guess she had too many drinks at Happy Hour. We heard Ava stirring at her normal wake up time of 6:30am and found dried puke all over her. If you have ever been through this, you feel our pain. When I opened the door to her room, I almost fell over from the smell alone. Ava puked in her sleep. By morning, it looked like she stuck her finger in an electrical socket and the puke fairy sprinkled food chunks in her hair. I found myself holding Ava, wishing she was covered in poop instead. Yes, you read that correctly. I wished for poop.

Her stomach flu wasn’t like the last version she got where she did not want to eat or drink. Ava was in the kitchen, pointing and grunting at the snack area and fruit bowl. I eventually gave in, placed her in the high chair and gave her a plain pancake. After consuming a third of it, pancake puree poured out of her mouth. Breakfast time was over. A couple hours later, she really wanted a banana. I gave her the banana and she gave me puree. Lunchtime was over. By dinner time she was able to hold down chicken soup. Thank goodness.

Ava wasn’t the only one puking left and right at the house. Yoda was sick also and needed to get fluids injected under her skin for her dehydration. Ava loves the vet. She loves pointing and grunting at all the real and fake animals there. Oh my goodness!! I almost forgot. Ava does have a NEW milestone this week. She is starting to meow, woof, who, and chirp when she sees pictures of animals. And she said bubble last night in the bath tub while I was reading her “What floats?” bath book. She must of repeated it 15 times. It sounded like babo. hehe. Ok, back to this picture. She was obsessed with the doggie scale at the vet so I took the opportunity to weigh her and it read 24.5 pounds.

We finally took Ava to the playground again. It’s been a few months. Not sure why. Maybe because it got dark early or maybe because it was ‘cold’ or maybe because the last time we went to the park Rudy was still with us. I’m sure it was a combination of all of those. Ava did better on the swing this time. She lasted a minute or so before she had enough. Probably a good idea that we didn’t push it since she was still recovering from her vomit-fest.

Here she is enjoying the slide a lot more.

But the good times stopped when her feet hit the sand.

I could not convince her that standing on sand was fun, but playing with Grace’s shovel and bucket sure did the trick.

Ava has a fascination with things on her head this week. It all started with her bath time bowl and it has now progressed to buckets.

Taking advantage of the situation, I bought her a new hat. Our one year old fits in a size 2T-4T. hehe. Here is Ava snuggling with stuffed animals from the Winnie the Pooh display… and eyeing a few more.

Last week at daycare, we found wood chips all over Ava’s bed. And, when we brought her home, pieces of wood were falling out of her clothes. It was like a magic trick. But this week, we finally found out why…. twig art!

If we are reading books in her room, Ava must be sitting on Olie. No excuses. It’s Olie or the highway.

And her friendship with our neighbor’s cat is blooming. I think she waits for Ava at 5pm everyday. I hope Yoda is no jealous of this cat’s friendship with Ava or of her slim tummy.

Ava’s hair is also getting a bit longer. Here she is with pigtails.

Ava is getting taller by the day. She can grab things off of the tables and desks in the house now. Here she is trying to reach for some gnocchi.

Man, she can not get enough of them. Here she is complaining that there is only chicken left on her plate. More gnocchi!

Ava used to wear one outfit a day. But not anymore thanks to her barbaric eating technique. Her belly is back to its old glory days. You know, some women get outies when they reach the latter stages of pregnancy. Ummm, Ava is pretty damn close to having one, especially if her belly expands outward more…. if that is humanly possible.

I can’t believe she just said that? MOM!!!!

Ha choo!!! Stop reading this blog and get me a tissue!

Guess who is 55 weeks old and happy to be home? Ava!

We took Ava in for a check-up last Friday to make sure she was still holding her own. And she was. She is doing great. Thanks for everyone’s positive thoughts while Ava was fighting her battle. Based on her shrinking belly, we knew that Ava lost some weight. It ends up that she lost a pound and a half of weight.. bringing her down to 20 pounds 13 ounces from her previous fighting weight of 22 pounds 2 ounces.

Ava was never on any medications since she had a viral, not a bacterial, infection. But to help her breathe, she needs to continue breathing treatments, in the form of this inhaler, until her cough disappears. She does pretty well with it. Dan and I make silly faces while we count to five to distract her… but by the time we get to the fourth try, she usually lets us know that our silly counting is not so silly anymore.

Ava loves walking around the house holding the inhaler to her face when it is not treatment time. Go figure. She even shakes it which is something we need to do prior to administering the treatment. Ava the copy cat. Those two little red marks on her cheeks are still from the tape while she was in the hospital.

Wondering what is making Ava smile so sweetly?

It was a get well card from all her friends and teachers at daycare. She loved pointing and smiling at all the familiar faces she hasn’t seen in over two weeks.

Here she is at pick-up time during her first day back at daycare. She was busy sitting and playing with Miss Arisbeth and her friends Ava R and Evan. Her teacher, Miss Arisbeth, says that she does not talk too much and does not want to participate in any art projects… which is the opposite from what she did in the infant room. So this weekend, we are going to encourage Ava to paint and color, in an effort to see if that will help her in school. I was hoping she wouldn’t be shy like her mama.
Maybe it is a side effect of her hospital stay. Who knows. Or maybe there is a bully in her class. We’ll just have to wait and see.

We are keeping her hospital stay in the past, even though I keep talking about it in this follow-up post. I refuse to think of her as a sick little girl because she is not. No sense of living in the past. It was a learning experience and we are focused on the present and the future. But one of the side effects of it all is her need to be close to us. This is the face I see several times a day with arms outstretched… and a slight grunt to get her point even more clear. Pick. Me. Up.

At home, Ava is back to her old tricks and has added a few new tricks too… like whacking everything around the house with her new wand that her friend Camilla gave her. It plays a magical princess sound with every whack.

She also starting stomping. Yes, I said stomping. Not sure if it is more like the dance or more like a scary monster interpretation. You be the judge the next time you visit.

Ava also decided a few weeks back that she was a big girl and can get off of the couch all by herself.

Guess who decided that spending his birthday with Ava was more fun than playing bocce ball? Dida! Maybe next year she will be old enough to play with her US Champ Dida.

Fresh from Solvang, Ava got to enjoy a special treat covered in powder sugar. Good thing she just got her first canine tooth on her bottom left side!

Here is Ava with a Mickey Mouse pancake. At first she was perplexed at the idea of eating a mouse.

But after the first nibble, Mickey Mouse went bye bye, right into her belly… blueberry eyes and all. Yum.

Her eating of animals continued that day, but without the same results. Poor ladybug.

On Sunday, Ava enjoyed her 2nd Super Bowl Party at Matheus’ house.

She had fun running around and around…

…crawling through plastic tunnels…

…sweeping their clean floors…

…eating cheese and homemade pizza…

…and ignoring the game with her mama.

Ava doesn’t mind wearing hoods from her expansive sweater collection.

But it is a different story with standalone hats. Here is Ava with her new hat. This look will not last long. Don’t blink.

Here is Ava so proud of herself just after pulling her hat off of her head. I guess no fishing for us today. Thanks a lot Ava.

I sense a walk in a near future. See you next week if not sooner!