Tuesday, May 10, 2016

Happy 3rd Birthday to Ava!

What a great weekend we just had.  Ava turned 3, it was Mother's Day, and Beau's baby dedication at church brought in family. The weather was perfect and gorgeous.  We celebrated Ava's birthday with a donut and trip to the zoo, after she got a birthday call from Dora!! (Thank you, nick jr.) We even got in the Zoo for free, as someone's  "+1" so that was awesome.  He just walked up and asked if we wanted to do that, and I was like, sure! (Certain annual passes have a +1, so you can bring anyone. I knew about it so it wasn't weird.)  We walked in, said thank you and parted ways.  Ava even got a free train ride for having a birthday!  It was so much fun.  Saturday we had some family over and this party was definitely all about all about Ava. She got a tricycle from Nana & Papa, a trampoline from Gibby (grandma), and an easel from Uncle & Aunt.  We got her a lot of Sherrif Callie things, who is her favorite Disney character. P.s. a note to anyone who cares, the Disney stores don't have her in there. Target and Wally world do, though. I was so disappointed when I  called and asked.  I pulled it off, though. Callie dress,  guitar, microphone, cupcake decorations.   It was so much fun.
I will not say that Ava is a "threenager" becausewe will not set ourselves up for that disaster. 2 was hard enough on us.  Ava is a strong willed child, but she's typical. I don't think it's anything out of the ordinary for her to be so... challenging at times, I just notice it because we are together All. The. Time.  Her meltdowns are not fun, I'm over her crying in the middle of the night, and her saying "hold me, holdmeholdmeholdmemommmymommymommy," is beyond annoying.  I've realized that she's either hungry or tired, or just bored. So I've started asking her, calmly trying to get her to use words.   It's working, because she says it a fraction of the time. Thank goodness! 
Another milestone : she's using the potty! She's only wearing pull ups at nap and bedtime, and sometimes when we go on errands or to a park I'm not sure about. And we change her as soon as she goes. So that's pretty great! Our little girl is growing up! She's beautiful,  bright, smart, curious,  creative, and so funny. I love her more than anything!