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!