What Ava’s been up to lately….

So I thought I would give a little update on what Ava’s been up too lately…..

 

We ended up going ahead with potty training just a few days after her 2nd birthday. She had gotten to the point that she wanted her diaper OFF as soon as she woke up and and even started undoing it, so lest she start making a mess everywhere, I thought, well now is as good of time as any. I hadn’t wanted to really try any earlier than this because my August is so busy and even the month prior leading up to the conference. I knew we had a convention to go to the end of October, so a month and a half would be a good timeframe to try it out and see. I had already told myself if it proved to be too challenging we would go back to diapers and try again later. Another deciding factor was that it was still summer and I knew it would be easier to potty train in less clothes :)

The child didn’t take long at all!!! (Praise the Lord) before she even hit the 25 month mark we were pretty much done. We started by staying home one weekend and she didn’t wear any clothes and I had her potty seat in her bathroom and I kept her  portable potty in the living room so it was easy (and quick) to get too. After a few days she had the hang of it and really after about 2 weeks, I wasn’t even asking her if she had to go every 5 minutes, she was able to tell me and I could pretty much forget about. The only time I made her go was when we were getting ready to leave.

She did amazingly well- better than I would have given her credit for. We carried a little potty everywhere we went and I was always a nervous wreck when I dropped her off at Waumba Land on Sunday mornings, just because I didn’t want them to have to deal with it. But she did wonderfully. Even at the Jaguar games, she hasn’t had any accidents. Now, I will say, she has had accidents, most of the time they happen when she is too excited to stop and go to the potty or when she is just too involved in playing. I do still put a pull-up on her at night, but mainly just for extra security. I can count on my hand the number of times she has wet it, I still have some from the original package I bought so I figured I would use them up and then she is on her own ;)

She had to ‘go potty’ the other day and when I went back to check on her just moments later, this is what I found:

She had gotten her sunscreen out of the drawer and started putting it all over her self. I don’t know if you have ever tried to clean up sunscreen- but it is way worse than lotion in my opinion! Even after immediately putting her in the bath and 2 more baths over the course of the next 2 days, I think she still had some all over her! Life with a toddler is never dull!!

She is talking up a storm now, you can’t say anything without her repeating it verbatim! She loves to sing and dance. She sings and dances 90% of the time she is awake. This time of year you will catch her singing either Jingle Bells, Frosty the Snowman, or Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer. She also loves Jesus Loves Me and Old MacDonald. She is sooooo much fun! We laugh at her constantly and she amazes us with the things she is able to comprehend and do. She mimics everything we do and the way we do it. Even when you don’t realize it. She’s also a little sneaky and will try to get away with things when she doesn’t think you are paying attention.

One of our favorite things she says is when she tells us she loves us. She always says “Loves you, Mama” or “Loves you, Daddy” it is so cute and sweet. When she wants to be picked up she says “Hols you, mama” We haven’t really corrected her simply because there isn’t much about her that is still baby-ish and listening to her say things like this makes me feel like she isn’t growing as fast (even though I know the opposite is true!)

Another funny thing she says is when she is asking for yogurt she calls it “erget”. We smile every time she says it!  I’m trying to remember all of these little things she says because I know it won’t be long before she outgrows them.

If she ever bumps her head or you ever bump it for her ;) she says, “Owww! Bumped my noggin!” Haha! I’m not sure where she learned the word noggin, but that’s what she calls her head, but only when you bump it. Lol!

Waumba Land (nursery) is one of her favorite places to go now and I’m so happy that it is! I hope she always enjoys going to church. Her second favorite place to go is to the “Jaguar Game” she asks all the time if we are going to the jaguar game and then she usually does the “Move the Chains” bit we do at the games when the Jags get a first down. The girl loves football because she would just about prefer to watch football on tv than cartoons…almost…. which makes her daddy proud ;)

Last, but certainly not least, she loves all things princess and all things Disney! She asks at least once everyday if we can go see the castle, Minnie’s house, or Cinderella. It is so neat to see the world through her eyes. I know that soon enough the way she sees the world will change, too bad we can’t all see things the way a child sees them…so for now we are enjoying the excitement and magic that exists through her!