Falling behind on my blogging...

With the onset of the holiday madness, I realized it would not be wise to slack anymore on my blog.

Joe went hunting last weekend and Ava and I spent a fun filled "girls weekend" at home, filled with a trip to the mall, Happy Meals from McDonald's and lots of jumping on mommy's bed... Ava's favorite! yes, those are her tighty whities and she is doing a fabulous job using the potty. She is still using Pull Ups at naps and bedtime, but we have not had an accident in about a weekend. Go Ava Mae!

Thanksgiving was this weekend and we woke up to about an inch of snow on Thanksgiving day. The ground is still warm so it didn't stay very long, but Ava enjoyed it. We visited Joe's aunt's house for some delicious food, but not before we saw Brett Favre and the Pack go to 10-1. Let's not forget the Browns actually have a winning record this year and are playing for the playoffs as I write this... I miss Bernie Kosar.
She actually posed for me here on Thanksgiving Day. She is a girl after my own heart and becoming fond of the camera.
When she does something silly, she'll say, "take it a picture of me mommy."
Here is the princess on Friday night in her crib for the LAST time. :(
We ended up getting a toddler bed for the simple fact that a twin bed will not fit in her room. We were waiting to see how the sale of the house would go but considering the market is still so crappy and winter is officially here, we may be here until at least next summer. I was always against buying a toddler bed b/c I think they are a waste of money (and still kinda do) but at $50 (from Wal-Mart), we couldn't go wrong.
Here she is posing for us again... this time pretending she's asleep in her new Big Girl bed. This is also the first time she is using a pillow and she loves it. Actually, she loves the entire concept of her "new" room. All weekend, she kept saying, "I wanna play in my room!" It helps that we took the rocking chair out to give her more space. She can now play in her room while I sit here a room away wasting my life away on this computer. Sweet freedom.

Busy with life... and potty training

This past week was a blur; so much going on. I'll be brief and let the pictures tell the stories. Last weekend, Ava and I traveled to Wausau to visit my cousin, Todd, and his family. It was Kayla's 5th birthday party. Ava not only enjoyed the toys Kayla received, she fell in love with the cake as well.
This past week was our first official week of "big girl underwear" for Ava. She's worn them a few times in the past but with our inconsistencies, we've made no progress. I realized we have to create a balance between encouraging her to use the bathroom and her telling us she needs to go. Based on words of advice from my cousin's wife, we decided to praise Ava for keeping her underwear dry rather than praise her for using the potty. The more we were telling her to go, the less likely she was able to experience the urge to go. Monday and Tuesday, Ava had 2-3 accidents at daycare. We are still using a Pull up for sleep time and I'm not going to stress about that at this point. I told Ava Tuesday night that I would take her to Target to get a toy if she kept her underwear dry the next day at Miss Ruth's. Although she had 3 more accidents on Wednesday, she stayed dry all day Thursday and today!!!!! I think I scared the crap out of her when I realized she had on the same pair of pants when she got home from Miss Ruth's as she did when I dropped her off in the morning. I just about cried. Off we went to Target for a Play-Doh set; her choice.

This is my little pumpkin sleeping last night with "Baby". I love how Baby is facing her.... aww.

I had read in the paper earlier this week that Santa would be at Mayfair Mall tonight. I understand it's a bit early, but it seemed to tie in well with Ava's recent obsession with Santa/Christmas/holiday music and a reward for staying dry again today. I also wanted to see if she'd be freaked out by him; maybe she'd get used to him so we could take pictures in a few weeks. Might be wishful thinking. This particular Santa is my favorite. He is so "real" and cute as a button. Ava was in awe the entire time; I'm not sure if she was scared or just thinking, "what the heck is going on?" Not only were there alot of people, Santa and Mrs. Clause were joined by four elves who took it upon themselves to make several attempts at entertaining the crowd.

I tried to take a picture of Ava with Santa in the background, but after asking Ava to look at the camera and say cheese, this is all I got of her. She was quite intrigued!
Here she is making friends and grooving to some music. The next picture is Santa and Mrs. Clause jamming to music, too, right there in the food court. LOL!

Happy Halloween!

Ava was the cutest little ladybug for Halloween. We had practiced the proper "trick or treat" technique for a week and it was a success. She seemed hesitant at first, but with my prompting, she said, "trick or treat" and "thank you" at every house. After she received candy at the first house we visited, she turned around and yelled, "I GOT TREATS". It's amazing what kind of trance candy will put you in. Little Miss Shy Girl spoke to strangers tonight!

As soon a we got home, I let Ava rummage through her bucket and pick out one treat. She immediately picked out her favorite, M&M's.

Trick-or-treat was a success!

Relaxing weekend...

My birthday weekend was fabulous. The reason? I got a nap in Saturday and today! Okay, it was also wonderful because my husband spoiled me with a gift card to Target AND one for a facial and a massage at a local spa!!!! He also took us out to breakfast yesterday and then he and I had a date last night after dropping Ava off at Nanny Vicki and Grandpa Tony's house for the evening. We went out for Mexican and we were serenaded by a Mariachi band... cute.

Ava was a princess while she was visiting the G-rents... I'm sure it had something to do with the cookies, M&M's, donut and cake she had. For some reason, she didn't fall asleep until 2pm today for her nap... hmmm... I wonder why?

After her nap, she helped Joe and I rake the leaves. Truth be told, I raked and Joe used the leaf blower but I won't tell. She was a bit hesitant at first of the noisy leaf blower and of the entire leaf raking process, but soon realized how much fun it is to run into the pile of leaves. She offered some minor assistance with the rake then spent the rest of the time playing in the pile of leaves by the curb. She also got a kick out of daddy blowing the leaves on her.

At dinner this evening, Ava proved once again how particular she is about so many things. She would take one to two bites out of each "square" of her tuna sandwich, then proceeded to line them up like a train. Fortunately, I had the camera right there at the table to capture her goofiness...

Cry me a river!

That's what my husband said to me today when I asked if he read yesterday's blog. Nice. I had to remind him that the Packers won a championship in his lifetime. Oh wait, maybe they won three, if you include the 1st two Superbowls. That was YOUR lifetime, right honey?

NO more sassy-ness or I will show more pictures like this:

It wasn't meant to be... again.

In the words of a Cleveland fan, I'm sure representing many Clevelanders today:

The Cavs ... Jordan ... The Browns ... The Drive. The Fumble ... The Indians in '97 against the Marlins in extra innings ... This year's sweep of the Cavs by the Spurs ... Ohio State getting blown out against Florida.

...I can't be doing this all the time. At least the other losing baseball teams have another sport to fall back on. We got nothing. Boston had the Celtics, the Pats, the Bruins.

Cleveland's combined losing records over the years for all sports without a champion ... 60 years for the Tribe. ... 50 years for the Browns. ... 40 years for the Cavs ... wow ... We are pathetic.

I don't get why we still sell out games.

We got nothing.

Pumpkin Picking

I took Ava to a Pumpkin Farm today; Joe stayed home as his walking is still limited at this point. The weather was beautiful and according to the ad in the paper for the place I choose for our Saturday adventure, it would be a child's dream. Suffice to say it was average at most. I asked the price for the hayride... I was told $5.00 a person. I told her we we would be interested. She asked if I wanted to buy two tickets; did she think Ava was going by herself? So we went on a hayride... those picture taking opportunities they bragged about in the ad were difficult with all the bumps we encountered. Ava hung on for dear life but seemed to enjoy this new adventure. We then went looking for pumpkins since we were at a Pumpkin Farm. They had about 15 pumpkins left; no lie. I recalled seeing a nice pumpkin stand on the way there so I put that thought in my head for our drive home.

Fortunately, they had a mini petting zoo which consisted of about a dozen animals in a small fenced in area that you could pet outside of the fence. This kept Ava entertained for some time and she really enjoyed the assertiveness of the goats. We fed the goats their "food" then Ava attempted to feed them the rocks off the ground and some of the hay that was nearby. They didn't buy it.
Before heading home, we stopped at a stand on the side of the road that offered seasonal vegetables and a ginormous variety of pumpkins... yeah!!!! I was excited at the prospect of some picture taking opportunities and Ava was lovin' the pumpkins.

M-a-Mem's!!!!

Ava is officially crazy for M&M's. She could be in one of those commercials where a million things are going on around her and she would be sitting in the middle of it all quietly munching on her M&M's... completely unaware that life exists.

When life gives you lemons make lemonade, right?

So we've been starting to give Ava M&M's when she uses the potty. I'll admit that we are still quite inconsistent but we're making progress. Miss Ruth is also on board at daycare, so this much I know... as soon as I ask her to use the potty, she says, "I get M-a-Mem's if I go pee pee on the potty, right?"

The inconsistency on our part definitely has kept this at a snail's pace but I think I hit the jackpot tonight. After picking Ava up at daycare today, we stopped at the grocery store to get a few things. We passed the candy aisle and I let her pick out a small bag of M&M's. We talked right then and there what they were for. She told me (and everyone within ear shot) that she gets "M-a-Mem's when I go poopy on the potty". I let her carry the bag to the checkout and carry them in the car on the way home but she knew she had to earn them. As soon as we got home, she made a beeline for the toilet, yelling "I got to get it out of my tummy, mommy". I think she meant poop, but we'll never know.

Fast forward to bath time... she sat on the toilet for 20 minutes so she could earn those M&M's... and she did!!!

Autumn has officially arrived...

October is my favorite month of the year and so far, it has not disappointed. The weather is pleasant, the leaves are changing, I can actually wear work clothes that are suitable for the weather (pants in summer suck) and the Indians are in the ALCS!

Ava came down with some sort of virus just over a week ago that included a fever and a hoarse voice. She seems to be on the mend but unfortunately, both Joe and I woke up this morning feeling achy. I made some chicken noodle soup from scratch today and just got done putting some cream cheese frosting on some pumpkin bars. Nothing like comfort food to make one feel better, right?

I took Ava to the park today and finally took a few pictures of her. She looks so grown up to me these days. There's nothing 'baby' or 'toddler' about her anymore. She is still quite shy around others and just wanted to stare at the other kids at the park rather than join along in their fun.
She's been doing alot of imaginary play lately, specifically with her baby dolls and her "telephone". She "called" so many people on her phone today including: Nanny Vicki and Grandpa Tony, Grandpa Bob and Grandma Nancy and her friend Lilly. She was able to hold about a 20 second phone conversation before hanging up. She was especially talkative with Grandma Nancy on her phone, asking her if she had a big owie, telling her about Daddy's owie and mentioning the scratch she got on her thumb when she fell on the sidewalk today.

I think we may visit a pumpkin farm within the next week and I'm crossing my fingers for decent weather next weekend as our trees are expected to be at peak, i.e. 100% color.

I don't want to smell you...

I got home from work tonight and was baffled to hear my child speak. She picked up an entire new language today at daycare. Granted, she has always been well spoken for her age but today, she not only was having complete conversations, she was doing it with a MAJOR attitude!

Here, we were sitting down on the couch watching Sound of Music when she realized she wanted the entire couch to herself:
Ava: Don't sit here mommy. Get away mommy. I don't want to smell you.
Me: You don't want to smell me?
Ava: No, I don't want to smell you.
Me: Well, that's not very nice to say. I'm gonna tell daddy.
Ava: You can sit here mommy. I not gonna smell you anymore.


Then, I told her it was time for her bath and she was quite upset that we had to pause the movie:
I sick mommy.
You're sick?
Yeah, I sick.
Where are you sick, honey?
I sick with mommy. (I think she meant, 'sick of mommy')


So now it's time for bed and were rocking in the rocking chair when she tattles on one of her friends at daycare:
Elizabeth pushed me like that. (pause) I hit her.
Honey, we don't hit people. If she pushed you, tell her 'don't do that.'
She push me and Ava say 'don't do that'. Elizabeth get time out. She pushed me. That's not very nice.


Okay, honey, it's time for night night.
No foolin' around?
No foolin' around, honey.
No singing?
No singing, honey.
Just a little bit?

That's my girl... reaching for the stars!

(Miss Sassy, 2 years ago today)

The end of September...

I can't believe today is the last day of September. While I'm looking forward to so many things in October, we all know what's after that... WINTER. Boo hoo.

This week was a busy one. Work is controlled chaos at this point but I feel comfortable knowing in just a couple of weeks, things will calm down. I'm still transitioning between the new and old place so I'm not feeling "planted" anywhere. I strive for structure and that's definitely missing right now.

We had a wonderful football weekend. Ohio State, Wisconsin, Packers and Browns all had big wins for us. Those big wins helped ease the pain of the Brewers late season nose dive. The Cubs were literally saying, "Here, take this. It's a free pass into the playoffs" but for some reason, the Brew Crew couldn't do it when it mattered most. So now we look to next year...

The Indians start post season play on Oct 4th!!!!

The weather continues to be beautiful here. I was frantic buying Ava some fall clothes and winter pj's a few weeks back when the temps dipped, but she hasn't really had to wear any of it yet.

Ava had a fun weekend and was able to play outside today and yesterday. We went to Culver's for dinner tonight and she had her first taste of "real" ice cream, a.k.a. custard. We brought it home and she didn't let me forget for a second that I put it in the freezer. She wanted it right away. I figured we would have shared but I was only lucky enough to have two small bites.

Ava also has a new movie to watch thanks to Grandpa Tony and Nanny Vicki. They stopped over on Friday night with The Sound of Music! She has watched it a few times this weekend (not all the way through) and has shown great interest. Here she was before bedtime tonight... watching it intently.

I can't start my blog without a big congrats to the Indians!!!! Considering the Brewers recent nose dive, I'm more ecstatic than ever to know they'll be baseball in October in our household. Any of my Cleveland family reading this, please feel free to let me know if you come across any "extra" playoff tickets. I'll be there in a heartbeat...

We had a decent week here. The weather has been summer like although today was the first official day of fall. The leaves are starting to change and some nights you can smell autumn... while I'm looking forward to it, I know that we'll have 6 months of snow to follow. Yuck.

Joe's knee is healing as scheduled. He doesn't have to use the traction machine anymore and impressed the Physical Therapists with his range of motion during his first visit on Thursday. He has to go once a week for PT for the next three weeks. Hopefully he can be crutch free in three weeks as well. He's obviously bored and jumped at the chance to ride along with me to the grocery store yesterday. LOL! Ava continues to take care of daddy while he's home bound. She gets very worried about him and wants to see him the minute she wakes up.

She had a good weekend and got very excited today when Joe and I yelled when the Packers won. She woke up from her nap just in time to see them win. She also had her new favorite snack... remember those little 'snack packs' with the cheese and bread sticks? Her pack had pretzels and cheese and she devoured them. She made sure there wasn't an ounce of cheese left either; same thing I used to do! We watched Annie for the 167th time tonight. I have considered getting Ava an Annie costume for Halloween but didn't want to spend the money for the dress (that I saw on eBay) knowing she'd never complete the outfit with the red wig. Maybe next year...

We rounded out our weekend with a visit from Uncle Brian, Aunt Charisse, Soleil and Dominic. We had breakfast with them this morning to celebrate Brian's birthday. After breakfast, we compared our new minivans as we've both purchased new ones within the last month.

The Passante Family Blog, PART 2

A sincere apology to those of you who have shown interest in my blog. I can't believe I have let 5 months slip by... I'm starting a new chapter with a (pseudo) clean slate. I didn't want to start a brand new blog and lose the information I had already documented, but I also felt bad that so much time has passed. Nonetheless, it's time to move on.

There's no way I can discuss all the happenings of the past five months so I'll start with the most recent news...

I was recently promoted from Supervisor of the Community Support Program I had been at for 6 years and will now be a Program Manager at a similar CSP... it's still with the same company and just 15 blocks down the road. The CSP I had been with assisted the developmentally disabled adult population (mentally retarded and behavioral issues). The newer CSP serves the chronically (and severe) mentally ill population. I am now working full time again which was quite a difficult decision, but I realized this was an opportunity I could not pass. I will no longer be doing clinical work; my focus will be on the program itself (audits, licensing) along with building related issues. Also, I will no longer have a caseload of consumers... I will miss the daily contact but will not miss the daily visits to the ghetto, car beak-ins, flat tires, unsafe situations, etc.

Our other newest (biggest) news was Joe's knee surgery on Friday. He's had problems with his right knee forever and he finally got up enough nerve (and sick time) to get it taken care of. I don't know the medical terminology of what was exactly done, but there was something about a a completely torn meniscus, missing cartilage and holes drilled into the exposed bone to create scar tissue (and act as cartilage). Joe was hoping he'd be out no more than 1-3 weeks but the surgeon told me it was worse than they thought and he'll be out at least 4 weeks. He has "no weight bearing" orders for 4 weeks which means no driving and non-stop crutches. Ugh. He's hooked up to some sort of contraption about 8 hours a day that helps his knee bend (to precisely 110 degrees) and ices it in between. Ava is quite concerned about her daddy and any chance she gets, she runs into the room saying, "how you doin' daddy?"

Speaking of the princess, she's just about 2.5 years old now and runs the house. She is quite independent, stubborn as all heck and has quite the vocabulary. As most of you witnessed from the recent video, she is absolutely obsessed with the movie Annie. She has probably seen it about 50-60 times since we bought it less than 2 months ago. She has also seen Happy Feet and Cars, but her heart is set on Annie. She still attends daycare with Miss Ruth and is now going 5 days/ week. Her favorite activities are: watching Annie, coloring, painting with water colors, reading books with daddy and going to the park. She can't live with her "juice and a snack" every morning and is still addicted to mac n' cheese.

No Duckies

We've had 2 spring-like days in a row here so no complaining. Daddy was on-call all weekend so Ava and mommy spent some quality (and quantity) time together. She also took over a three hour nap both Saturday and Sunday... she had been getting up so early in the morning and falling asleep so late.

Grandpa Tony and Nanny Vicki visited yesterday afternoon and stayed for dinner. Ava enjoyed their visit and had then both wrapped around her little finger. She got to play with her markers and crayons while mommy cooked.

Today Ava went to daycare and had a great day. She was anxious to see Mrs. Ruth and her friends b/c Mrs. Ruth was on vacation last week. She had a good lunch and 2.5 hour nap. After mommy picked her up from daycare, we played outside on the slide then went for a long walk. We purposely brought a few slices of bread but there were "no duckies".

Ava ate one of those Gerber Graduate meals for dinner and licked it clean which really surprised me. Her dessert was a home made *popsicle* mommy made from drinkable yogurt. She enjoyed it but it got to be too cold for her after awhile.

She enjoyed reading "Wheels on the Bus" with daddy before bed and didn't put up much of a fight once in her crib.