Week in Review

I think it has been closer to two weeks since I have written, but it has been a lovely, slow summer so far. And I am loving it!

The past two weeks Ava has taken swimming lessons in a friend's pool with an instructor who teaches a two-year old class. Overall, she did very well. At least she stayed in the pool for most of the 30 minutes each lesson (which wasn't always the casse with the kids), but she was adamant that she not go underwater and was pretty hesitant about putting her head anywhere near the water. Oh well, I hope that she feels more comfortable in the water now and we will try to teach her some fundamentals next year. (I will confess here I am a bad mommy and never took my camera to swimming lessons, so I don't have any fun shots for you. Boo!)

The last couple of weeks were very mild here (high of 85) and we took full advantage. After swimming class the girls and I would head to a little park down the street (Ava calls it the Twirly Whirly Park, due to some spinning toys) for a picnic lunch. I would find a shady spot under a little tree, catch a nice breeze - it was heaven! The girls would run around a bit and then would take a really long nap. It was so nice.

Ava and I went toa Super Why! event at Toys R Us last week, where we picked up some fun goodies including a 24 piece puzzle, which she LOVES. We do it after dinner each night and she is so good at it!

A lady down our street was giving away some free toys last week (I found out via an email) so I jumped on it and got a few fun new playthings for the girls. Among them was a Little People Carnival and a Fisher Price rocker in the shape of a blue dog. The girls love them (especially Lily) and it has kept them busy for hours!

Enjoying our backyard

I have been enjoying some garage saling on Saturdays, catching some good deals including a new baby swing motor for $5 (which I had decided to order this week for over $40, so it was a steal!). Yesterday I actually held my own garage sale, since I had been purging little girls' clothing and Elliott agreed to take a hard look at his closet. We didn't have any big ticket items and I have more baby clothes left than I would like (there wasn't as many shoppers as I would have liked), but we made enough to get a few things on my wish list (like new pillows) so I am happy. I think I am going to put the rest into storage rather than donate it and try to have another sale in the fall.

Lily went in on Monday for her 15 month vaccine shots and we were able to get a size update on her, which is always fun. She weighed 26 pounds 6 ounces and was almost 32 inches tall. Just for curiosity's sake, I looked up in Ava's baby book to see where she was at this stage and discovered that at Ava's 2 year check-up she weighed 27 pounds and was 33 inches tall. So Lily is as big now as Ava was at 2. Oh boy! Well, I could've told you that without any science - just to pick her up these days is an effort. Elliott will say "which one do you want?" when we go out and I don't think it really matters as far as which girl is smaller or easier to wrangle. They are pretty evenly match.

Lily is now able to climb on the couch all by herself. So I have to watch where I put things on the kitchen counter, to make sure she can't get anything. Here's where I discovered her the other day:

Last night Jack caught a bird in our backyard. Elliott and I constantly egg him on as he barks at the back door at the birds that enter his yard, but have never seen him actually catch anything so it seemed harmless. Well, last night I let him out at a bird he was barking at, thinking it would be smart and fly away. But Jack caught it. And killed it. Into several pieces. Elliott and I sat there in shock as it flopped on thre ground, asking each other what we were supposed to do and how did that happen. I tried to keep the girls' attention away from the door because it was easy to see and I knew Ava would be upset by it. Eventually the bird stopped flopping and Elliott packaged up the pieces for the trashman on Monday, but we have learned not to underestimate our hunting dog again.

And here are a few funny Ava-isms for your enjoyment:

Ava wanted a toy from the other room and after I told her 'no' she started proclaiming "Don't make me sad mom!"


After swimming lessons we talk about how fun it was, etc. Ava kept insisting she didn't want to go underwater, but that she would become a boy THEN go underwater. I tried to explain to her that girls went underwater too and that God made her a girl, not a boy. "When I go to the grave, then I will come back a boy." OH BOY! No, people I have not been talking about reincarnation or anything. I think she picked up the word "grave" from church, i.e. Jesus in the grave. This thought was solidified when she overheard me telling Elliott about our conversation. She piped up "Why you say 'grave' mom?" No reason, nobody's in the grave. "Jesus is in the grave." You're right, he was in the grave, but then he rose again and went back to heaven. "He went to heaven on a horse. Or an airplane." The theological ideas she comes up with!

Ava was running around my room and picked up a bra. "This is for my boobies." I played along and put it up to me, Is it for mommy's boobies? Do you have boobies? She pulled up her shirt, took a look and said "No, I no have boobies. They're still growing."