E is for Ears; E is for Errands

E is for Ears:

Ava is 2 years and 2 months old, she says some words but not as many as she "should" at her age so at her 2 year check up in April the Dr suggested that maybe she had a blockage in her ears. After a big struggle and many tears the Dr looked and sure enough her ears were rather red, so she put her on some antibiotics to see if she could clear them up but it didn't work, so after trying a different type of antibiotics and no change she decided that she should see the ENT (Ears, nose and throat Dr).

Meanwhile she was sent for a hearing screening which we had done last week, it was another case of kicking and screaming which I really don't blame her for. She was put into a small dark room where voices would come onto the speakers, and little flashes of things would pop up, if I was 2 I might be scared as well. So after a stressful session we found out her hearing is "grossly normal."

Now we have to wait until August 4th to see the ENT and find out what they have to say, here's hoping for the least traumatic solution for someone who's ears hear perfectly well.

E is for Errands:

I used to enjoy going shopping and running errands, but that was before I had a two year old! I didn't realize going from place to place would be so difficult with a whiny impatient little one. I don't blame her its not fun doing stuff that is mundane like paying bills or dropping off books but they are things that need to be done. When Ava was a baby people used to be so happy to help because she was a baby and just sat there patiently looking so sweet. Now she's 2 and I feel like I'm one of those mother's who gets shunned because I'm out with my energetic little girl who doesn't have time for waiting in a line. I must say she was pretty good today, I brought along a little Dora colouring book and then bought her a treat at the end of the errands so I only had to deal with an eensy bit of complaints, but even that tiny bit made me cringe.

A friend of mine told me that it does get better, but you just have to lower your expectations, I think that's a good piece of advice!

D is for Daddy; D is for Derek!

Time to pay homage to our favourite man!

D is for Daddy:

Ava loves her Daddy, he makes her giggle, he reads to her, plays with her, he knows how to get her to cooperate, he is such a fun Daddy!

Ava's Daddy knows how what to say that will make her giggle, its always something silly, they've even started to watch Sponge Bob together!

Derek is also really good at getting Ava to cooperate with him by making things fun and distracting her when she doesn't want to do as we ask, he is great at making a game of things and getting her to listen or reading a book to her to distract her from something else. Derek is a wonderful Daddy and Ava loves him very much :)

D is for Derek:

What can I say? I'm a lucky woman to have such a fabulous husband. He's been having a rough month, thanks to seasonal allergies wreaking havoc on him, but he still manages to do so much for me. We went shopping this weekend and he bought me all sorts of things, whether he had planned on it or not is another story, but he still was very good to me despite feeling like crap from "allergyville".

I'm so proud of his work achievements this year, becoming the News Director and all the plans he has for taking the news in a new and exciting direction and I can't wait to see it all come to fruition. Since last August when I had to go back to work he has taken on so much more responsibility between his own job and taking care of Ava and it amazes me every day how much he does. I really am so proud of him.

This August we will be celebrating our 5 year anniversary and I can't believe how fast those 5 years have gone, so much has happened in those 5 years: wedding, bought a house, had a baby and through it all we've remained strong. It makes me happy to have such a wonderful and supportive partner to go through life with. I could only hope for the same kind of love for my family and friends. Here's to another amazing 5 years my love.

C is for Colouring; C is for Coffee

C is for Colouring:

Ava loves to colour, she loves to be creative and colour and draw. As I type this she is colouring a new colouring book we bought her today. Colouring seems to soothe the craziness of being 2 and calms her down, for some reason I tend to forget to bring her crayons when we go out to eat which means we usually end up chasing her around whichever restaurant we are in. I love to see how much her art work has progressed, you can tell now that she is trying to draw objects opposed to just scribbles. On occasion she even draws a face or a letter that you can actually make out. I think she's going to be very artistic when she's older...

C is for Coffee:

I had a hard time deciding what I should do for my letter C, until my friend Dese told me I should do something fun like coffee, thanks Dese, so my post today is all about coffee! I don't know why I hadn't thought of it myself, guess I hadn't been drinking enough of it lately! I really do love coffee these days, I didn't understand it until I had Ava and began to lose out on sleep, but coffee really is wonderful!

I used to spend way too much on coffee by going out to the local cafes or Starbucks, but these days I have been using my Tassimo or making myself iced coffees! I love iced coffee, so yummy and the great thing about it is you don't burn your tongue on it. I love my Tassimo because you can make yourself a variety of drinks in a matter of minutes and if your the only one who wants any you don't have to worry about wasting a pot of coffee. I am really enjoying the lattes and cappuccinos that the Tassimo serves up, but you can also buy decaf, regular blends as well as Starbucks pods for the machine.

Gee, all this talk about coffee is making me want one, guess its a little late for one now....

B is for Barnyard Fun, B is for Babies

B is for Barnyard Fun

Today Ava and I went to the opening day of the Filberg Park Hands on Farm. She had a great time, and loved chasing around the animals. There were goats, sheep, pigs, bunnies, a cow, a donkey and even a turkey there! She really has no fear as she would run right over to the animals and get a closer look. During the opening speeches she decided to climb up the ramp where there is a platform for the goats to go on, of course I worried what other people would think about letting her run wild, but lets face it, she's a two year old and we're at a petting farm; those two things don't really go hand in hand with long drawn out speeches. Needless to say, I stopped worrying about the other parents and let her have a good time, the other Mom's can worry about their own little ones.

B is for Babies

When you get married everyone wants to know when your going to have a baby, then after you finally do have a baby, people wonder when your going to have your next baby. I wonder that myself, I wonder if want another, or if I'm happy with it being just the 3 of us. When I see babies I get that little knot in my stomach telling me yes, you want another, but when I'm having a rough day with Ava, I think am I nuts to want another? I know that for the first few years it will be tough having 2 little ones, but then I look ahead to the future during the teenage years, or when they are adults, when Derek and I are really old and really gray and I know that I don't want Ava to go through all of that without having a sibling to share it with...

A is for Ava, A is for Aging

I've wanted to blog for awhile now but I didn't really have any idea what to write about. I used to write all the time, then once life got busier I stopped, no reason other than being too busy and not really needing any kind of outlet. Then today as I was sitting in the car with a sleeping Ava in the back seat, I had time to think since I had nothing but time to think while I waited for Derek to return from getting groceries. I would write about the two things I know best, myself and my sweet little girl. So here it is, my inaugural post :)

A is for Ava.

The reason for this blog my beautiful little girl who brought new meaning to my life. All those cliches people tell you when they have kids, they may be cheesy, but their true. Time moves differently when you watch something you've created grow up and change on a daily basis. It's not about the future, its about the present, every day they grow and change a little more. Ava amazes us every day, for some one who is 2 she sure acts a lot older! She is so creative and loves to draw and colour, she loves to read, she loves to play with hair (especially mine) and she loves to be outdoors.

She is very smart and has been quickly learning sign language as a way to communicate since she doesn't say a whole lot. We've only been teaching her for a little while, but she already can sign at least 10 different words and every day she gets better at them :) She really is a wonderful little girl and I can't imagine my life without her.

A is for Aging.

As I was sitting in the car waiting for Derek with Ava peacefully asleep in the backseat, I had time to take a look in the mirror and to be honest I didn't like what I saw. Well, actually when I took a quick look I did, but as I looked closer with the natural light pouring through the windows, I saw a couple of things I didn't like. I saw many gray hairs and I saw some tiny wrinkles under my eyes. It seems that along with turning 30 last November, I also got some bonus gifts in the form of gray hair and wrinkles. I always figured that going into your thirties you would take some sort of maturity with you, but I didn't realize that all of these bonus "gifts" would start so soon. It also made me realize its time to dye my hair again.