Ava's first day of having her very own stroller

Ava loves pushing a baby stroller. Until today, she has had to share time with Brandon's stroller, which means whenever he isn't using it. I'd love to say he lets her use it whenever she wants it, but, well, he doesn't and she pretty much always wants it.

This one is from a few weeks ago in Newport, RI in the parking lot of a restaurant called the Mooring, after celebrating Ryan's birthday with a nice dinner out with two wiggly kids. (Does that sound like a celebration?)

This pic is from last night at PS 87, yes it's almost dark. She's using Brandon's stroller.

Ava's new pink stroller! It's a hit! She walked and walked and walked. She can't steer very well so she walks until she hits something like a wall or bench. I have to turn around and she is off like a rocket. Unfortunately, we also happened to pick a playground that was also hosting the PS 199 parent picnic. It was crazy with scooters and kids zooming around. Luckily she never got hit by one. She logged in her miles with the new stroller. Brandon thought it was pretty cool that Ava had her own and was strolling around with him!

First day of Book Buddies Preschool

Brandon had his first day of Book Buddies Preschool today. He's been pretty excited about the prospect of going to school for three reasons:

1) Riding a yellow school bus to school

2) Liz goes to school

3) Eli is at Book Buddies.

I guess 2 out of 3 isn't bad. Since he loves the subway, it wasn't too hard to convince him that riding the subway to school was way cooler than a bus. He probably didn't agree with the argument, but still loves himself a good subway ride. Liz is at NYU so not in his class nor does she ride a yellow school bus to school. I am glad, at least, that Eli is at book buddies!

This is the proverbial picture at your front door. Honestly, he's excited. I don't know what the deal is with his expression/smile.

When we got to the front of the building where Book Buddies is held, he had an attack of shyness and would not look up for the picture. It might have been the sun in his eyes, too?

This is in front of the door of Book Buddies. Notice his cute backpack. When he got out of the stroller, he had to make sure he had his backpack for school.

We were the first ones there, which was a good thing. Brandon had a chance to relax and get comfortable with the surroundings.

The first day was only an hour and all the moms were there.

Brandon loved these pegs during activity time. Of course, the first thing he noticed was that there were not any orange pegs. But he piled his pegs up impressively high!

Reading time

Free Play

Crossing the street to show parents the outdoor play area.

Motivating the kids with promises of bags of animal crackers at their destination.

Brandon would only hold Eli's or Lillian's hands and since Eli only wanted to hold his mom's today, Lillian's it was. To be fair, he doesn't really know the other kids but I hope he likes them all really soon!

Lillian and Brandon discovering green moss on the tree. No, not a part of the school lesson, just discovering on their own.

At the end of Book Buddies, what a big boy he is. I think it was a successful first day of school. As we were going to bed tonight, he said, "school, one more!"

ONE YEAR OLD!

Ava Youmee

We love this little girl. Our family has been so blessed since she entered into our lives a year ago. We can't imagine life without her. From the moment Brandon wakes up, he is asking about her, "baby Ava awake?" Her enchanting smile and personality have us spellbound as we wait for yet another moment with Baby Ava.

Ava had her one year check up today. She was a happy camper until the shots. Obviously, all these pics were before the shots. After she got the shots she cried for a few moments - added one final wail as if to remind me of what she endured and she moved on.

Ava weighed in at 21 lb 8 oz (a little above average) and 30 1/4 inches (70th percentile)

One year accomplishments:

Walks, runs, dances (does an awesome shimmy), points, waves bye, kisses, tackles, zurberts, drives toy cars and trains, babbles, buzzes her lips with her fingers, tries to sing, copies Brandon, defends against Brandon. She loves to play on the piano, hold something in her hand while she walks (usually Brandon's orange croc), but really likes any shoe or a purse (even ones larger than she is), chases Brandon or Brandon chases her, launches herself on the love sac, loves to climb, wants to feed herself, undress herself for the bath, LOVES the bath, ride on the scooter (she balances on it and we pull it around), push the baby stroller. She can box out Brandon when trying to get at a toy. They chase each other from one end of the apartment to the other. She likes "popcorn popping" and "itsy bitsy spider." She loves the beach and sand and if you dig a hole for her climb in she'll be occupied for a long time.

Personality: INDEPENDENT! Social, happy, aggressive, loving, huggy sometimes, too busy to stop most of the time. She is LOUD and can roar like a tRex! She is fearless except dogs startle her. She loves food and lots of it. Favorite foods are tofu and rice and seaweed and broccoli. Loves electronics, particularly iphones and cameras. She loves to get in the stroller and loves to leave the house and head out for an adventure. She squeals when she hears the door open and Ryan walks in from work.

Looking back:

She was an easy baby, slept easily, ate well, was happy and self sufficient, just rolled with it. LOVES her family, lights up whenever she sees Brandon, mom or dad. She took her first steps at 10 1/2 months in Colorado. She crawled a little, but by 11 months she was walking everywhere. The 2nd day after she started walking completely on her own, she sprinted after Brandon.

My mom and aunt and cousins were in town a couple weeks before Ava's real birthday so we celebrated with the family. My parents bought Ava a traditional Korean hambok. We kept tradition by having her pick from several items (such as a pencil, money, rice, etc) and she chose the $100 bill which indicates that she will have a rich life and she started down the road to riches by getting to keep the $100 bill from my aunt. Second thing she picked was a compass which indicates she will be well-traveled, like the rest of her family.

Brandon was excited to participate and he ran to find his 1st year traditional outfit. Unfortunately, a good portion of it was purple and he refuses to wear pink and purple these days so he put on the hat and the vest mixing in a chinese outfit underneath it. (Ryan brought it back when he was single for his future kid.) Ava liked the hat, can you tell?

Since we already celebrated with family, we decided we would bring treats to a playdate so Ava would have a chance to be sung to and for a candle to be lit. Guess who blew out her candle?

I think she could tell it was for her!

What a pretty birthday girl!

Ava enjoyed the rest of the playdate

At the end of the night she was happy and clean and almost one! (her bday was actually still a week away)

The best photo I had from her actual birthday on August 28th.

sipping is so easy

Ava is so funny. She is 8 months old and loves to drink water from a straw water bottle. She started off by grabbing Brandon's orange one and I noticed that she was actually sucking on the straw and drinking the water! I finally went out and got her own pink one and she loves loves loves it. As each day goes by, she gets better and better and tonight she looks like a veteran. How is she growing up so fast?

ORANGE Shoes AGAIN!

Brandon needs new sandals. His blue sandals are too small. His orange crocs are just about there too. The next size up in crocs is too big and besides they don't carry the neon orange one anymore. This evening we went to do a quick look see and we came away with these orange keens. It was not my choice. He absolutely REFUSED to try on the one I picked out. It started off with him NOT wanting to give up his orange crocs. Then when he saw these oranges ones, he refused to try any other ones on.

I did not want to get any keens for him. When we tried them on last year, his feet were way too fat for them and to squeeze them in and out was such a pain. Luckily, this year's pair - comes with a velcro tab on top (his size was the last size to have it, after which it has a draw string like the adult counterpart) and his feet have lost some of it's marshmallow quality that prevented us from ever buying slimmer shoes before. So, it's actually an easy shoe to take on and off -AND - Brandon refused any other.

When we left, they gave him an orange balloon. Obviously, Tip Toe shoe sales guy figured out the color trend with this 2 and a half year old boy. We put the old orange crocs in a plastic bag with his orange balloon attached that he had to carry on his subway adventure with dad, where they took the B, F, V and 1 train before heading home for the night.

Ava and Dad

Ava and Dad at the Lincoln Square Fountains

If you give a mouse a cookie, I'll hate you forever...

So we live in New York City, a very old city. This means we live with an occasional mouse in the house. It's not a cute thing, like in the children's book "If You Give a Mouse a Cookie, " in which the mouse is your friend. Usually, it is cleared up by trap and you move on. Well, not so, this time. During the holidays, several of our days that should have been filled with relaxation was actually full of stress and strife due to some mice that decided our pantry was their all night buffet.

Long story short, after moving EVERYTHING out of the pantry, throwing out 75% of the food (whether or not there was any evidence of mice - for the mere thought that those nasty feet touched anything that would ever enter into my family's mouth was worth rebuying everything), and disinfecting and cleaning the floors and walls and shelves - we found the entrance of the mouse lair. It's been taken care of and subsequent calls to the super have closed up two more holes we discovered.

All this to say that I have been a crazy woman around this house lately. Meaning what? I clean constantly, I check in corners constantly, I'm mumbling to myself about those darn nice all day long. I'm paranoid. So this leads into two stories that involve that kid cute named Brandon.

Story number 1. Ryan was out of town last week for several days. During the time he was gone, I made the super come over again to check more potential places for mice. I, also, cleaned like a mad woman (mad in both anger and in craziness). So every second of the day, I'm cleaning out a corner or closet or something. I still have kids, so I'm doing this in between getting them fed and such. If Brandon came close to the area I was cleaning, I would anxiously tell him to get out of there, "No, No, No, Brandon, I'm cleaning mouse poo!" Or if he was poking around a corner I was paranoid might have been a mouse's walkway, I shriek for him to get up and get out of there, "No, No, No, Brandon, yucky mouse!" Needless to say, with dealing with this mouse stuff, being sick and having no help from Ryan, who was out of town, I was probably pretty grumpy sounding.

Brandon still doesn't say a lot of words though he uses the ones he knows in multiple ways. He, also, makes up signs for things that are commonly used in his daily life. When Ryan got home, he was catching up with Brandon and asking about everything that happened while he was gone. Brandon started growling, which is not uncommon. He actually growls quite regularly imitating, a dinosaur or monster or lion. He can be quite intimidating as he has scared a few kids. So, Ryan naturally asked him if he was being a dinosaur and Brandon said "no." Are you being a monster? A lion? An animal? Both getting resounding, "No!"

Finally, Ryan asked Brandon, "Then what are you?" to which Brandon answered, "MOM!" Ryan asked him, "What does mom say?" And Brandon said "No, No!"

So, basically, Brandon is telling dad that the biggest thing he wanted to share with him during dad's absence is that Mom growled all the time, telling him "NO!"

Story number 2: Tonight as we were eating dinner, or rather, Ryan and I were eating dinner and Brandon was playing by the table - the funniest thing happened. He found the swiffer mop and was pushing it back and forth on the ground and I asked him if he was cleaning the floor. And he said yes and then touched his bum. I thought he was telling me he had a poopy diaper and asked him if he was poopy. He said no and dropped the swifter mop and did his sign for mouse and then touched his bum and then pointed to the mop.

Aha! I regularly interpret his signs and this was one that was obvious. I asked him "Are you cleaning up the mouse poo?" And he said very proudly, "YES!"

As a side note, during the time I was a maniac cleaning every corner, and Brandon kept coming into the area, I decided to show him what I was looking for and showed him what a mouse dropping looked like. I told him it was mouse poo and it was very gross and bad. "eee!" So, tonight, after cleaning the floor with the swiffer mop and telling us he was cleaning mouse poo, he then pointed to every black fuzz ball he found and made the mouse sign and pointed to his bum.

Thank goodness, none of it was actually mouse poo or mom might have gone on another mad cleaning frenzy. I haven't seen a mouse or dropping in awhile. I am hoping it's been contained and I can become a normal person or shall I say, normal mom!

the sign for sorry

A ten minute shower was all I needed to have an attitude adjustment. Ryan has been out of town for a few days and I've been sick and today my patience was short. After showering (and praying) - I came away clean (and sorry). Afterward, I went into Brandon's room, even though he had been in there for a while, and gave him a big hug. He hadn't fallen asleep yet, so I was able to hold him in my arms and talk to him about the day and to tell him I was sorry for being so grumpy. I gave him the sign for sorry (stroking the side of his head - the sign he made up for sorry) and he said, "mom" and gave it to me back by stroking my head and snuggled in. I love that guy.

is lightning mcqueen part of the nativity scene?

For Family Home Evening a couple of weeks ago - we decided to start the month of December with the Nativity Story. Ryan and I told the story using a visual aid. We received a "Little Peoples" plastic nativity scene with Baby Jesus, Mary, Joseph, 3 wisemen and several animals in a barn a couple of years ago from our friends (thanks naomi!) It was perfect for retelling the story to Brandon. However, I am not sure that Brandon caught the spirit of the story because the next morning, all the plastic people and animals were lying on the ground and Mack from the movie "Cars" had taken up residence inside the barn instead. I had to take a picture.

We have since been able to emphasize the importance of baby Jesus. I think he understands this because though all other people and animals are still strewn all over the floor daily, Baby Jesus keeps his spot in the middle of the barn. I guess Brandon's getting it.