Z is for Zoom!

Z is for Zoom:

Zoooooommmmm, that is what 2010 did. It zoomed by! As have the last 2 years, 8 months and 2 weeks! I can't believe how much Ava has grown up in the last year, let alone that the last 3 months! Its amazing how just this past summer she barely said a word but now she is telling stories, singing songs and making us laugh the whole time.

We had a nice Christmas this year. Ava had lots of fun with her "friends" (her cousins Maija and Kieran) and got spoiled by all. She got 3 teddy bears, 2 Lolaloopsy Dolls (which we found out this morning used to be called Bitty Buttons dolls), a shopping cart, clothes, lots of colouring and art type things, books and Play-Doh. We even had to leave some of it behind at Grandma's for her to play with next time. She had lots of fun telling Grandma and Granddad stories and going "ditch fishing" in all the puddles around Grandma's neighbourhood.

It was a bit sad though, as my Grandfather had passed away a week before Christmas Eve and my Grandma wasn't doing very well with her Alzheimer's. So between that and the stress of Derek's job a month before Christmas it took quite some time to get into the Christmas spirit. Ava was a great help and made everyone smile and laugh, then with the arrival of Ava's cousins the next day it was a very fun and busy time around Mom and Dad's.

Mom turned 60 on December 27th and we threw her an impromptu birthday party with 5 of her 7 brothers and sisters there as well as a few of my cousins. She said she didn't want a party but was happy that we threw her one after it was all said and done :)

That was our Christmas and it went by like a flash. We did a bit of post Christmas shopping today using gift cards that we received, and I booked my present from Santa, a new hair cut and colour at my favourite salon :)

With only 2 days left of 2010 you could really say the year Zoomed by! Derek started the year as a reporter and is ending the year running for a seat on Comox council! Ava started the year not saying much of anything and is ending it singing songs and telling stories! As for me I started the year with an almost 2 year old, working nights and weekends and not feeling very content, and I'm ending it with an almost 3 year old and feeling pretty content. We don't know where 2011 will take us but for right now, my life with a 2 year old is pretty good.

Y is for Yuletide Fun; Y is for You Never Know Where Life Will Take You

Y is for Yuletide Fun:

We are getting in to the last couple of weeks leading up to Christmas and Ava's loving it. She loves the tree, the lights and she even loved visiting Santa this year. Last year she had a tough time with Santa and Mommy had to be in the picture, this year I'm happy to report that there were no tears only sweet smiles and no Mommy in the picture :)

She is going to be one lucky little girl this Christmas and I can't wait to see the delight on her face when she gets what she asked Santa for :) She's been such a good little girl and has come so far in everything since last Christmas. It's these years that will be the most special.

Ava can even recite the 12 Days of Christmas by memory:


I love her little voice and I love making these videos of her :)


Y is for You Never Know Where Life Will Take You:

Today is our 8.5 year dating anniversary, but this week has special meaning to us, in many other ways.

Ten years ago this week I quit my job at the grocery store (you know the one that I am working at again) and moved to the Comox Valley for my first job in radio. I was so young and naive and excited. It was what I wanted though, on air at a country radio station, and it was great for awhile. I was on air from December 2000-April 2004, when I decided I would rather have weekends off with Derek and work a Monday-Friday kind of job. I left the radio station to go on maternity leave when I had Ava and never went back.

Speaking of leaving the radio station, this Friday will be Derek's last day!!!!

After over 24 years of working for the Coast group of stations he has decided its time to move on. There are many other reasons which out of respect to my amazing and brave husband I won't get into, but lets just say, it wasn't right. I am really excited about the unknown, I was really upset for a couple of days but now I am really happy and excited for him. I'm very proud of my husband.

I'll have to work more, but I am grateful that I have a job that will allow me to pick up more hours and that has been so flexible. This wasn't where I thought I'd be when Ava was born, I thought that I would be able to stay home and raise her, but now her Daddy will get to have more time with her and we'll still end up with more family time than we had before, at least for the short term.

Derek has a few ideas of what he'd like to do but we'll just have to wait and see what the future has in store, whatever he decides he will succeed!

X is for Xylophone; X is for Xanadu

X is for Xylophone:

Ava loves to play music she is a very musical little girl. She has rhythm, something that I don't possess or can normally even spell (thank you Spell check). She loves to play her keyboard and loves any sort of instrument, even xylophones! The one thing she hasn't really tried to do much of though is sing, the closest she comes is by making clicking sounds along to her favourite songs.

X is for Xanadu:

The term Xanadu comes from the poem "Kubla Khan" by Samuel Coolridge, and means an exotic, luxurious place. That sounds like somewhere I'd like to go about now. How did it become winter? Isn't it supposed to be windy and rainy here in November? Not snowing, twice, a month before Christmas?!

Yes, I would love to be somewhere warm, tropical, exotic and luxurious right about now, lying on a beach somewhere sipping a drink with an umbrella in it and spending a few days without a care. Haha, who am I kidding, I can't take the heat, so I stay out of the sun. Can't take the cold so I stay out of the snow. I guess my kind of Xanadu is somewhere that doesn't get too hot or too cold, but somewhere exotic and luxurious....hmmm sounds like a nice posh hotel room to me, with room service ;)

W is for Wonderment; W is for What a Week

W is for Wonderment:

With the Christmas season almost upon us its a magical time of year. Between warm snuggly mornings under big blankets at home, afternoons colouring and watching Christmas cartoons and going for walks to the park then finishing the day in front of the glow of the Christmas tree lights, its going to be a wonderful Christmas this year with Ava.

We decided to buy a new tree last weekend, and were going to wait until later in the month to put it up, but Ava was so excited that we decided to put it up that afternoon, she has done pretty well not destroying it, but she still manages to take some off here and add a little more to another branch. When we were finished decorating the tree she said to us "Okay, time for presents!" This one is smart, and funny :) I think we will wait a bit to put any presents under the tree, and I think it might help if we'd done some Christmas shopping first!

In more Ava news, she's become really animated in her stories lately. Last night I think she must have had a dream about bumblebee's because when she woke up this morning she told me a whole story about bumblebee's that were flying high up in the blue sky. It was so cute. She's also getting really good with her drawings, she draws faces with legs and shoes!

She is such an artistic little soul and a musical one as well. Ava loves to draw, colour and finger paint, she also loves to dance and listen to music. She also amazes us with her reading skills, we're not sure if she can read or if she just has an amazing memory, either way its impressive.

I know every year will get better for her at Christmastime, but I'm really looking forward to this Christmas. It's the first year that we have to be careful about presents, and about what we say in front of her, the first year for secrets and surprises and the first year for fun stories from Ava and neat little sayings. Christmas is going to be filled with wonderment both for Ava and for her Mommy and Daddy.

W is for What a Week:

So we had a wonderful vacation in Victoria and Seattle, but reality came crashing back in a big way this week. I started the week with no voice on Friday, it was my last day of holidays and we spent the afternoon going to a movie and a tiny bit of shopping in Nanaimo, just the two of us. It was a nice way to end the holidays, on a hot date with my hubby! However, I had no voice! My cold which had gone away for a couple of days while in Victoria, came back full force on our last full day in Seattle. So croaky and barely able to say a word, a couple of hours in a movie theatre was a great way to spend the day (for those who are wondering we saw Skyline). We ended the evening with a very upset Ava. She had fallen asleep just before we got back to Mom and Dad's and when I woke her up she wasn't ready to get up so it took quite awhile to calm her down and have something to eat so we could get on the road. By the time we were in Courtenay she had fallen asleep and didn't wake up until 7 the next morning!

Then Saturday was my first day back at work, I wasn't feeling that great but good enough to go to work. I did pretty well for the first couple of hours, other than having a rough sounding voice, then a couple of hours into my shift I had my first big cough attack, followed by another a few hours later. I ended up going home 2 hours early. I made it through the day on Sunday but had a couple of coughing fits. My cold is slowly getting better, but its a rough one and I keep running into people who say the same things about it. It's tough!

Then tonight, my cold wasn't bugging me much, but just as I was about to go on my break, I got tripped by a customer!!! I actually tripped over someone else's feet! I went tumbling down and slid across the floor with my hands out to stop me! I have a couple of sore, bruised knees but other than a bruised ego for looking like an idiot I'm doing fine. I just hope tomorrow, the last day of my work week, doesn't bring anymore surprises...

U is for Up, Up, Up; U is for Umbrella; V is for Vacation

U is for Up, Up, Up:

"Space Needle goes Up, Up, Up, Mama" my little girl would say many times. "Look, at that Daddy, Space Needle goes all the way Up". Ava loved the going past the Space Needle she thought it was so neat how high in the sky it was. Unfortunately when the time came for us to go up the Space Needle she had fallen asleep as soon as we got there. Maybe the next time we go to Seattle she will be able to stay awake.

U is for Umbrella:

I think we need our umbrella's here, on the Island, more than we needed them in Seattle. My sister lent us her good one, and of course we forgot to return it when we picked up our car on Thursday so I will have to send it back to her :)

V is for Vacation:

Since we all went on Vacation I figured this one I could group together as one word to describe both Ava and Mommy. Our vacation, was much needed and wonderful. It also made me realize how much I appreciate our life at home. It was so nice to experience new things and new adventures as a family. The best thing was having that quality time together that we don't always have between work and more work.

If you are planning on taking your little ones to Seattle anytime a few tips-

-Customs, take something to entertain your little ones so they don't throw impatient fits while having to wait in line or wait for your plane/boat to come in. Prepare to wait longer than you think you will.

-Visit the Children's Museum, but be prepared to stay for hours!!! It is a lot of fun, and there are a lot of things to do and see there.

-Room service is a wonderful convenience, especially for yet again, impatient 2 year olds!

-Don't attempt to visit the Pacific Science Centre on Tuesdays, it won't be open.

-Go shopping on Wednesdays, it tends to be field trip day in Seattle at all the tourist attractions.

-Have a wonderful time, and go at your little one's pace since you will likely have to anyway :)

In all honesty, we had a wonderful vacation and would go back to Seattle again. We may drive there next time and do the Pacific Coast Highway route, or we may go somewhere totally different, but I think we'll be staying put on the Island for awhile now. My travelling bug has passed, now I just need to get rid of this actual cold bug and then all will be well :)

T is for Talking and Teeter Tots; T is for Tired

T is for Talking:

It's amazing how much Ava can talk now, and how many words she can say. It was like the whole time she was just observing and absorbing everything we were saying and then one day she woke up and decided she was ready to start talking. She says some of the sweetest things now too, her latest things are "Mommy I miss you" when I have to go to work, and its so sweet because she says it as she put those little arms around my neck and holds on tight. We went out for lunch with my Dad yesterday for his birthday and every couple of minutes Ava would say "Hi Grampa, oh Hi Grampa" and she kept saying it until he'd say "Hi Ava!" it was too cute, and funny. Last night when she was supposed to be going to sleep she was telling me about Super Bunnies, not sure what Super Bunnies are but maybe I'm supposed to write a book or tell her a story about Super Bunnies :)

T is for Teeter Tots:

Tuesdays mornings is time for Teeter Tots! Ava loves Teeter Tots and has so much fun at the gym. It's a great way to get her out and around other little kids and its nice to see some of my favourite Mom friends (Dese) and catch up on what's new. We were running a little behind this morning since Ava didn't wake up until 9:45 when we would normally be running out the door. We did manage to have some fun times in the foam pit though, and Ava watched as a Dad tossed his boys around in the foam pit. She is getting really good with the routine of circle/song time at the end of class and then going to the stroller to get ready to go at the end of the session. It makes for a much happier time for everyone!





T is for Tired:

I'm a tired Mommy today, last night I had a restless sleep and tossed and turned a lot. Ava woke up around 4:30 and cried out a bit, but when I went in to check on her she had rolled over onto her tummy so I just stroked her back a bit and when it was safe went back to bed. I have a long week ahead of me with 4 nights and a full day shift ahead of me so I am anxiously awaiting Halloween so we can have the day off together. We are both burnt out from our jobs taking up so much of our time lately, so our vacation can't get here fast enough!

S is for Silly Sleeper; S is for Seattle

S is for Sweet Sleeper:

Ava said the sweetest thing to me today, she said "I lub you Mama", so sweet to finally hear those words and know that they came from her, not just because Mommy asked her if she could say "I love you."

In other Ava news, she has been attempting to rid herself of naps lately. She goes longer and longer without napping, until she finally gets so tired she falls asleep. Today she didn't nap all day, and she even made it until after dinner to fall asleep. I'm hoping she's asleep for the night, but I have a feeling that she is going to wake up right when we are about to go to sleep. Luckily neither of us has to get up too early in the morning, so if we have a bad night of sleep, or lack there of well then at least we can attempt to sleep in!

S is for Seattle:

I'm so excited, in two weeks we will be on holidays! This will be our first trip to the States with Ava and I'm so looking forward to checking out all the fun stuff Seattle has to offer! We will start our holiday by heading to Qualicum and staying at Mom and Dad's for the night, then driving to Victoria for the weekend. It's my birthday, as well as my sister and her husband' birthdays all between November 7th-11th, so it will be a fun weekend in Victoria celebrating birthdays. This trip we'd love to take Ava to the Museum and maybe to Miniature World as well.

We'll be heading to Seattle on the Monday of our week off but won't be getting in until mid evening as the Clipper only sails to Seattle at 5pm in the winter months. We're hoping to take in an art museum, the zoo, aquarium, Space Needle as well as a few other little places and hopefully get a bit of shopping in there as well! So we have a fun and exciting trip planned, I just hope it doesn't rain the whole time we're there, but if it does we'll be able to drink plenty of Starbucks to keep us warm!