Halloween Preview

It's not officially Halloween yet, but people in Nebraska start early with the costume parties and trick-or-treating...I thought it would be fun to post pictures of Mayah and Ava in their costumes, even though it is only a preview. We'll post more on the real day!

Hannah Montana and Rapunzel

(Mayah and Ashley Johnson)

Ava the Flower Fairy

I have been putting Ava's hat on her all week long because I want to make sure that she leaves it on the night of Holloween. We had not been successful at all. She would laugh and look at me like she knew that she was being defiant and pull it off the minute I moved my hand. The hat in my opinion is the best part of the costume. It makes her eyes look so big! I had little hope that she would actually leave it on when Grandma Brenda and Grandpa Rudy took her trunk or treating, so it made me extreamly happy and proud of my little chubbs when Gma and Gpa said Ava left it on THE WHOLE NIGHT!!!! I am really excited for Friday when I take the girls to Clint's work for their Holloween party! I love to hear people tell me over and over how cute my girls are and now that Ava will leave her hat on I will hear it more, yeay!!!!

Ava Bava

Just thought I'd post some of the recent pics of Ava. She is really growing up and become less of a baby and more of a toddler. She is really starting to become a great communicator. She started with nods and gestures and then started picking up words. She shakes her head "no" more than we like her to, and she has this overexaggerated, super dramatic head nod that she uses for "yes." Her vocabulary always surprises us. She seems to pick up multiple words at once, kind of like phrases, instead of just a word here and a word there.

Whenever I burp, she says, "xcuse you!" Or "Ah dawn (all gone)," as she tips her little bowl upside down after dinner. I thought it would be a good reminder for me, if I wrote some of her words down here:

- Guh gurhl (good girl)

- dane doo (thank you)

- Hah Hah (hot)

- Hah Hah (cold)

- ssshoo (shoe)...which she loves! She's always picking out pairs at the store and bringing them up to me and holding them up and saying "shoe?" Oh yea, and that reminds me how much she loves purses. Clint got me a new purse that is bigger than Ava, and today at church she put it over her shoulder and walked out of the chapel (in the middle of the meeting), and said "BYE BYE" as loud as she could.

- Of course she can also say the typical words: Mom, Dad, Ball, Papa, Baby, Mama (Gma), MiMi (Mia), Maaaaa (Mayah), mom (this time it means everybody look at me), Bobble (bubbles, which she loves!), mo...? (She says NO with an M and always inflexes her voice like a question. It's hilarious.), Pup (cup), Pop pop (popcorn), Bear, Gog (dog), Kitty. I'm sure there are others.

She also knows a plethora of animal sounds, and mimics their gestures:

- Monkey: she makes a cute monkey face where she sticks her fingers in her ears and wiggles her little snout.

- Lion: RAAAAWWR

- Dog: she has a ferocious little growl

- Fish: she opens and closes her mouth really fast like a fish

- Cat: Meow

- Lizard: slithers her tongue in and out really fast

- Woodpecker: she clicks her tongue repeatedly

- Cow: muuuh

- Bird: she makes little cheeps and synchronizes her hand motion (kind of like that chicken dance)

- Bee: sssss and flies her pointer through the air

- Owl: hooo hooo

Anyway, this is all I can remember right now. I think you get the picture. It's just really fun to watch her grow up and pick up so many new tricks.

Another Alarming Adventure for Ava

So we were all standing around in the kitchen tonight looking for snacks and talking, when all of a sudden we saw this huge flash of light and heard a "pop" sound, as Ava yelped and jumped away from the wall. I dropped my spoon and watched for Ava's reaction. She slowly frowned, looked at us with a somber face and started pointing at her index finger. I ran it under the sink to wash off the black residue on her tiny finger and that seemed to calm her down. As I turned off the cold water she started to whine again and continued to pull/flick at her finger as her blue eyes teared up. It was obviously hurting her. We asked if she wanted Daddy to make it feel better and she nodded yes. He went to get Bandaids and wrapped two of them over what was forming as a blister on her pointer finger.

When Clint pulled the glade plug-in out of the electrical outlet to see why it had sparked, there was black residue all over the plastic cover and the back side of the plug-in. The prongs from the plug-in were scorched and there was a little earring just big enough to be held in place by the 2 deformed prongs. Apparently Ava, in her curiosity, had found Mayah's earring and wiggled it in between the prongs of the glade plug-in, which happened to be plugged in the electrical outlet. As you can see from the pictures, we were lucky it wasn't a lot worse. She could have been electrocuted or burned the house down!

We definitely learned our lesson, and I told Clint that he needed to go buy those child-proof plastic plug things and put them all over the house. I'm actually surprised this is the first time something like this has happened, because we are ALWAYS finding Ava hanging around the outlets and we always have to pull her away and distract her.

Omaha Race for the Cure

A couple weeks ago we decided to join the Gallup team for the Susan G. Komen Race for the Cure. We didn't have much time to prepare, but figured it was only a 5K. Mayah decided she wanted to join in, so we invited her friend Kesiah to spend the night and come do the race with us. It was a great opportunity to take on a challenge that would benefit so many people.

Well today was the big day. It was filled with crowds all clad in pink. There were a few hundred survivors and many thousand supporters. We started at the Civic Auditorium in Omaha (where Gov Sarah Palin will be speaking later today) and ran through some of the industrial parts of downtown Omaha.

Our first leg was a 1 Mile run for the little girls. At the last minute, Clint and I decided to go with them, which we thought would be an easy warm-up for the real race since Mayah and her friend would most likely walk a lot of the way. Boy were we wrong. As soon as they saw all those other people, Mayah couldn't stand being beat by anyone. We crossed the finish line in about 10 minutes and were the 2nd group of runners to come through. We were so proud of Mayah for enduring and running the entire way. Not bad for a scrawney 7 year old with legs the size of our arms. She was extra pumped up for the day since she got her very own running shoes and outfit for the occasion.

After our 1 mile "warm-up" run, we raced back to the starting line after a quick potty break and got in our place. About 1 minute later the starting gun went off and we were on our way. We hadn't prepared a lot, so we set a modest goal of finishing in 30 minutes. We got separated in the beginning because of the mass of runners and the fact that Clint tends to run in bursts rather than consistent throughout... but eventually we reconnected and ran most of it together. If Clint's stopwatch was right, he finished in about 28 minutes and I was just a few steps behind. I think we could have done under 25 minutes if we hadn't already run a mile before hand. Next time we'll train a little harder and see if we can't shave a few more minutes off.

Clint's parents came out to watch Ava while we ran. After the big event they had festivities in the Auditorium where they gave out trophies to the top finishers and all the sponsors had booths. Mayah and Kesiah got their faces painted and each came home with a bag of SWAG (Stuff We All Get), ranging from McDonald's coupons to keychains.

Now we're ready to relax and let our bodies/joints recoup.

Gymboree play day!

I always wished that I could have been so lucky to stay home with Mayah when she was a baby. I was always working so hard with Mayah on things like flash cards, and making sure that when I was not at work I was spending every minute I could with her, just playing and trying to show her how much she means to me. Now that I am lucky enough to stay home with Ava, I have started to realize that I have been taking it for granted and sometimes act ungrateful for the time we have together. I am constently looking for ME time.

Last week I decided to get online (before my computer crashed) and get some information on the Gymboree play time that I have heard many people talk about. They allow you to come for a trial run before signing up. I registered for Ava and me to go check it out today. When it came time for us to get ready this morning my lazines kicked in and I thought to myself "I don't think I am going to go." Just then, Ava crawled on my chest and gave me a completely unsolicited slobber kiss that just melted my heart! As you can probably guess from the title, we ended up going and I can't even begin to tell you how great it was for both of us.

When we first arrived, Ava was a little apprehensive. It must have felt like the child center at our gym and she was outwardly worried I would abandon her. That changed quickly. We played so hard together, jumped on trampolines, made huge bubbles, climbed on stuff and whatever else you can think of. She was the only one her age that could complete the little obstacle course, and was the only one daring enough to jump off their platform onto the mattress! We learned all about textures and shapes and it was just such a fun time!

It's always amazing to me that such a tiny little person can bring so much happiness and joy to my life. She wasn't really interested in playing with all the other kids, and it just made me feel good that she was so happy playing with JUST ME!

A big black rain cloud hanging over us....

We have had quite a week of bad luck. Now I hear that it usually follows in 3's, but we have had more than three things happen in just the span of about three days... oh it just dawned on me as I am typing that maybe that was what the 3's are all about!!

So, about our bad luck...first when we were at Adventureland our digital camera got soaked with water and no longer works. Before getting home from Des Moines, we realized we had lost the family photo we bought at Adventureland and Mayah's iPod, which she had gotten for her birthday. The next day, I was working on a blog and my Apple laptop crashed. Still haven't been able to get it to run. Then today when I was waiting for Clint to come home from work, he called and said the car wouldn't start! I mean geez... how many things can go wrong in a single week? So we had the car towed and they'll diagnose it in the morning. Next, we have to take my laptop into the Apple store to get repaired, find a new digital camera and get Mayah a new iPod!

I'm trying to stay positive here...so maybe all of this is a sign that great things are just around the corner! Cross your fingers, because I am!

If you're wondering how I am typing this blog without a laptop, I had to wait for Clint to come home so I could borrow his. It's been hard to get enough time to keep up on blogging and to make matters worse, I don't have any more cute pictures from our trip to post! = (