Ava's politics

The other night I had the democratic national convention on tv.  Ava started applauding with the audience.  She asked who people were so I told her Barack Obama's name.  Last night we were all in the car.  It was late and Ava was pretty much talking to herself to stay awake.  Here was her conversation with herself.  I will just translate it, though most of the words she said are very clear.

"I think I like Obama.  Yes, I like Obama.  Obama likes wronies and hot dogs."

Apparently Ava has very strict criteria on who she will vote for.  You must like macaroni and cheese and hot dogs.  She also either saw some interview that I didn't, that disclosed Obama's enjoyment of macaroni and hot dogs, or she just assumes that her favorite meal is so great, that everyone must like it. 

Justin also says he is in trouble and needs to make more money.  We went into Gymboree last night and she immediately started walking around picking out things that she likes.  She is generally very opinionated in her clothing.  She usually picks out at least part of her outfit or gives us a color that she wants to wear on any given day.  She also tells me how to do her hair most of the time.  She pretty much always decides which shoes she is going to wear.  She also gets excited when she finds out we are going shopping. 

Perfect Strangers

I just finished the book Perfect Strangers (author...I have no idea) and it was entertaining.  I got way into it in the end.  I would give it a 3 for entertainment value.  It is in the same category as Bridgette Jones Diary (but definitely not as funny!).  I was a little surprised after I finished how much of a romance type book it was.  A little more in the general romance category than I generally read.

I have read a couple other books that I never said anything about.  I can't remember where I left off, but I know I didn't say anything about Enchantment by Orson Scott Card.  It is fantasy and no something I normally would read.  Justin really wanted me to check it out to see if it would be any good.  It was an adaptation of the story of Sleeping Beauty.  I liked it.  It was a good read.  As with other things I have read by Orson Scott Card, the writing isn't pretty writing or anything like that, but it is still a good story.

baby book data

Ava had her 2 year well visit last week.  She was considered healthy and ahead developmentally.  She is 24.4 pounds and 31 1/2 inches.  She is right around the 20th-25th percentile for both height and weight and once again the 97th percentile for head circ.

I had my prenatal visit last week also.  New baby's heartbeat was once again 145 bpm.  I actually lost some weight this time.  Total gain of 13 pounds.  Blood pressure 110/60.  Nothing too exciting.  My sciatica is relatively better if I just don't carry Ava or other babies very long, lift things or do sit on strange surfaces...like the ground. 

Once again, another post that is really only for my future reference. 

The big present

So as I write this, Ava is at the Wiggles concert with Justin.  We bought her the tickets a couple months ago as her gift.  They have floor seats.  Justin has sent me some video on his cell phone and she is just staring at all the people.  He sent me a text saying that they were right by Murry and Jeff and Jeff said hi to her!  He said she just stared at him though.   I am excited to hear her talk about it later.  I am sure, just like with everything else, she will just sit back and take it all in.  I am a little sad that her favorite Wiggle, Greg, doesn't tour with them.  She was asking earlier if he will be there.  We said there will definitely be a yellow Wiggle.  Should I be capitalizing Wiggle?

Last night Justin had a meeting thing to go to, so Ava and I went out.  We went to dinner at Panara and then to the movies.  She has never been to a theater before, Justin has been leary of her making it through a whole movie.  We went to see Wall E.  I think she got a little bored/tired towards then, and asked to leave, but she was sitting still so I just told her we had to wait until the end of the movie.  On the way home, she talked all about , "waahey, Ava, the babies, the big people, and Mommy and cah corn"  Over and over and over again.   I think she would have totally made it through with no problems if they hadn't shown 20 minutes of previews first.  There was a cartoon at the beginning and she loved that.  She just sat next to her giant bag of popcorn and was cracking up.   She clapped when it was over, it was pretty cute.   At bed time, when we were done praying, she said, "Thank you Mommy for woovie."  I am guessing she liked it.  When Justin was telling her to get her shoes on, they had to go do something special, she said all hushed, "to a woovie?"

Justin's guest post about The Wiggles

BEFORE YOU READ THIS - READ THE POST PRIOR TO THIS ONE TO HAVE SOME OF THE STUFF I'M TALKING ABOUT MAKE SENSE. THERE WAS VERY LITTLE TIME BETWEEN POSTS, SO YOU PROBABLY HAVEN'T READ IT YET. UNLESS YOU OBSESSIVELY READ THIS BLOG.

So, yea. Em asked me to "guest post" about Ava's and my trip to go see the Wiggles. Because, you know, it's a virtual baby book and whatnot.

So for the first 20 minutes of the ride (it was at the Allstate Arena, which was about an hour drive (or rather was supposed to be, we got nailed by a storm on the trip so it was about an hour 10)), Ava could not be convinced that we were not going to see Wall-E again. So, I gave up and just drove.

Let me back story a little bit - we had originally planned to get 3 tickets for all three of us to go. We couldn't get 3 good seats together to save our lives. We would have been a few rows up in the middle section (they didn't sell tickets to the top section) directly to the right of the stage. We would have been looking longways at the stage, and a lot of profiles of those on stage. No thanks. So, I had Em look for just 2 tickets, and figured just she and Ava could go. So we got the two tickets, dead center, in the back row of the floor. I figured, well, that will work. They'll be good enough, better than the alternate.

At some point in there, Em decided that because I'm the one who watches the Wiggles with Ava more often (Em has very low tolerance for children's television), that I should be the one to go with her. To be honest, I had been kinda sad that I wasn't going to be there to see Ava get to see the Wiggles in person. So, I accepted. Mostly I just felt bad that Em couldn't go.

Back to today. As we walked into the arena, we walked in almost straight across from the seats we would have had, and I started thinking, "oh... those probably wouldn't have been so bad... hmm..." And then we actually got to our seats. I changed my mind. The seats we got were VERY good. I expected "back row of the floor" to be pretty far away... For those who go to our church - when I'm doing slides, where I'm sitting, in comparison to Ronn while he preaches - we were a little bit closer than that. For those who don't go to our church... I don't know... 60 feet? Something like that. Back row, but almost dead center, right in front of the sound board. Excellent seats.

I was impressed that Ava was rather patient waiting for the show to start. I hadn't stopped for any snacks, and Ava started asking for popcorn. There was now way... there were only 2 entrances to the floor section, and they were jam packed with people coming to the floor section (yes, my "emergency route" Spidey sense was tingling severely, but enough of that). There was no way we could go get popcorn. But, as Em said via text message, once the show gets going, she'd totally forget. Which was true.

The first thing that opened the show up with was a couple of the "Wiggley Dancers" doing the whole "get one half of the audience to cheer louder than the other" deal, but were not speaking, but rather using sports whistles to get everything across. It was actually pretty funny - between the way they did it, and the costumes they wore, it was very "Cirque du Soleil" clowny, if you've ever seen that. If not, then disregard. In any event, Ava (and many of the other small children) didn't like it. But once the Wiggles came out, with "Big Red Car", in the appropriately named vehicle, all bets were off.

(The pictures make us look further away then what I said above, but that's our crappy camera hard at work. I tried to zoom, but was left with the inevitable blurry garbage pictures)

Mostly she just stared, but at various points she clapped, and did a bit of singing, and towards the end of the night, plenty of dancing (particularly to "Hot Potato", "Do the Monkey", and "Point Your Fingers and Do the Twist").

For what Em mentioned in her last post, during one of the songs the dancers were all on stage, and the wiggles walked up the various rows of the floor, then all came around the back of the floor seats to all go back to the stage from the same side. Anthony came up the row just to our left, and went around behind further to our left, so came within about 15 feet of us or so. Murray came up the row to our right, and so crossed directly behind our row, since we were the back, so crossed within about 1 foot behind us. I pointed him out to Ava as he was about to come by, and tried to get his attention as he passed, but didn't catch it. Murray's looking OLD btw... Jeff came around from the row far to our right, and then likewise came across directly behind our row. I pointed him out to Ava too as he was coming up, and just as he was passing I yelled "Hi Jeff!", and he very briefly paused, gave one of his giant Jeff-smiles, and waved to Ava, again, about 1 foot away. So that was fun. But you know, Ava just stared. I don't think she quite got it.

As far as Greg's replacement, Sam, for those of you out there who might at some point have followed the Disney TV show, Sam was often on the show as one of the Wiggley dancers, and was also both "Dapper Dan the Pirate" and more recently "Professor Singalottasonga". Oh, and honestly, Sam is a much better singer than Greg, but sounds (and looks on stage) fairly similar. Also for those who have seen the TV show as far too often as myself, the Wiggley Dancer regulars (and pirate regulars) Benny and Katarina were there as well. Benny's stinking hilarious on stage, btw - 200% energy.

NOTE: Yes, I realize I'm a huge dork-nerd for knowing the names of the songs and the names of the performers and all of that but gimme a break I watch with Ava! Yes I had fun I admit it leave me alone!

OK, this is already WAY too long of a post, but I wanted to add without detail that I thought it was pretty fun that they left some good room for ad lib (at one point leaving Jeff, who was supposed to be sleeping, cracking up on stage), and also throwing in some stuff that only the parents would get (for example Murray needing to "make sure his guitar was working" by, lights down to spotlight and disco ball, playing the opening riff to "Stairway to Heaven").

OK too much post. Justin, out. You can stop laughing at me now.

She's 2

Ava says she had a fun birthday today.  It seemed to have gone by pretty fast.  I am glad she was in a good mood most of the day.  She woke up happy and pretty much stayed that way.  She got to watch her favorite shows this morning.  We then went shopping and she picked out a cake mix to make this afternoon.  She picked McDonald's as her lunch but barely ate any of it.  She talked to herself in her room off and on for 2 hours instead of taking a nap.  Justin came home from work early and we gave her her present.  She got a Cars couch. 

She was excited that it had Lightning McQueen on it. p>We then made her cake.

She was then spent and fell asleep on her new couch.

After her nap, we frosted and decorated her cake.  And ate some sprinkles and icing.

Eventually, we sang blew out the candles.

And there she is, my big girl.  She is in a constant state of turmoil right now over whether or not she is a big girl or a baby.  She likes to pretend to be a baby including making strange baby noises.  All you have to do is to ask her about the new baby and she goes straight into baby mode.  I am not even going to entertain the idea of potty training until after the new baby comes.  She really shouldn't feel threatened.  I am excited about the new baby, but I am just as excited about Ava growing up.  I love who she is right now and look forward to watching her grow.  She is my big helper and friend.  She is so polite right now, most of the time, and is fun to be around.  Her birth has given my life clear direction.  I have never felt more content or settled than I do right now. 

same old, same old

We are already into August.  It is now regularly 90 degrees outside, so we have stayed inside way more often than I would have thought towards the beginning of the summer.  I think if we had our own back yard where Ava could have toys out there all the time, she would definitely be outside more.  Maybe next year, who knows.  I prefer fall so much more than summer, that I am looking forward to August being over, or at least the August weather.  We do all seem to have August colds which is kind of weird.  Those can go too.

This weekend we got to see the proofs of Ava's 2 year pictures.  I am in love with them.  I am going to have a horrible time deciding what to get.  I have always imagined having a photographer follow us around just doing normal-ish things so we could get cool pictures, like the famous people and that is essentially what happened.  They really got Ava as she is right now.  It is awesome.

Justin and I both got new cell phones today.  I have been able to get an upgrade for 6 months now.  I was holding out for him to qualify for the full upgrade.  I would just rather us be able to get them at the same time because it saves any confusion later.  His phone was essentially dying, so we just went ahead and did it now.  I was very tempted to get sprint's equivalent to the iphone, but I really thought it would just be indulgent and more phone than I really needed. 

Ava has made definite improvements in the last month or so in the church nursery.  She will finally stay the whole time without crying.  She actually walked in by herself today.  She gets excited to go, which is a very good thing.  I think she will do even better when she moves up to the 2's in September.  She likes their toys better. 

I am off to take cold medicine and go to bed.  Hopefully Ava will sleep in tomorrow fairly late and it can be a good start to a good week.