My Gentle Giant

My Ava has earned the name Avacakes since she turned the mark at one. She was born with chunky dimply cheeks and a round little body that pretty much stayed the same until she stopped breasting at at year. Ava was adamant about not receiving milk from a bottle, cup, or any other feeding source but me. She puked breast milk out through her nose if I tried to sneak it in during a feed so someone other than myself could feed her. She's a smart one... She knew what was happening, and would invoke an ear piercing yell to announce to us and the rest of our neighbors that our actions were truly uncalled for and were not allowed ever again.

I called the doctor several times over the next few months to get advice and make sure she wasn't being deprived from any certain vitamins but he seemed to think that if I fed her plenty of cheese and dairy she would be just fine. This was easy since Ava loved anything dairy, so I made sure she ate plenty of yogurt, cottage cheese, string cheese... the typical baby dairy items. It did not take long for my round little baby to become plump and juicy and acquire the title, "Avacakes".

So yes she's healthy, big boned, alotta love, squishy, and non the less very happy. She fits in the 4T clothing I buy for Olivia. When friends visit who haven't seen her in awhile they gush over her telling me how they just love round full babies. When I look at her I think how wonderful it must be to be a baby and to be free from all of the societal pressure to be thin. She's beautiful with her little rolls under her butt, and her second chin, and her darling little dimples on her cheeks. She may be huge but she is my gentle giant.

Friday's Lesson For The Day...

Today I asked my sweet daughter to be quiet for a few minutes because Mommy had to poop. Yeah Mommies poop, just like bears in the woods, and dogs at the park. Anyhow, Olivia whispered softly, "ok mommy make a poop." Just as I was getting ready to stand back up violent screaming ensued. Olivia had been bitten by Ava.

For the last two days the little fanged Ava has used her chompers to take a few really good bites out of Olivia's hand. There hasn't been any blood thank god but there has been a lot of screaming, tears, and requests that the baby takes a time-out.

Realizing that a quiet peaceful zip-up of my pants was not going to happen, I went to the crime scene, did a swift peak at the wound- not too deep- and wrangled Ava for her time-out. I don't even think she gets the idea of these time-outs but Olivia knows that if someone breaks the rules they get punished and she was going to make sure that her sister did her appropriately deserved time-out. Anyway, I sat Ava down and proceeded to explain to her that biting is not ok, it hurts people, and she needs to use her words instead of her teeth. Meanwhile, Olivia is standing in front of her waiting for the signal to give the 1-5 countdown with her finger just waiting to wag. Gee where'd she get that from? Must be something her father does...yeah that's it.

Soon the two were on their way to playful bliss as I thought back about a conversation I had with Dave regarding taking a dump. I clearly remember saying to him, "when you are at work and you have to shit- you shit and no one bothers you. When I'm at home with the kids and I have to shit I have to make an appointment, call a sitter, and get clearance." So the lesson for today is: when you have to shit- bring earplugs.

Wacky chocolate mess

How can such a small chocolate chip make such a huge mess on a one year old little body? I went upstairs to find Ava her shirt, as I had dressed her in Olivia's identical shirt but just had not realized it every time I wondered why Ava was taking it off, and on my way back downstairs I discovered my normally lily white angel, smeared with a chocolate trail from front to back.

Would you like some fried chicken with that?

My husband loves fried chicken. Today I decided I'd try to make it again and see if I could get the batter to stay on. This time I used the Japanese breadcrumbs that I normally use for crabcakes. Oh my God. The chicken turned out beautifully fantastic. Dave came home, saw his favorite dish, mouth watering, eyes fixated, and I knew right there- he's gonna wanna do the naughty tonight. For some reason he associates sex and chicken to be one in the same. Not any old chicken fills this quota though. It must be fried chicken- not necessarly made by me either. Just good old fashioned fried chicken.

As we eat dinner, Ava is drenched in her nightly ketchup dip and Olivia is requesting, "get more daddy mommy, mommy daddy..." For some reason Olivia started calling us both names, maybe to see which one of us will respond. It's been going on about a year now and I am usually called "daddymommy" most of the day.

Anyway, I look over at Dave and he gives me the smile/wink rwalll sound and says, "sex and chicken". This post might be late tonight. We will see how quickly we can get the girls to bed.

Pancake on a stick?

Today Dave went off to work and the girls and I slept in until 9am. It felt extremely wonderful to sleep past 7am. We got up, dressed, and headed downstairs to only find out that duh- we don't have any fruit or veggies. So I asked the girls if anyone wanted a pancake on a stick. Olivia replied, "No mommy. I want popagottle."

Ok so I said that her vocabulary is booming. Maybe I forgot to mention most of it is not recognizable to anyone but me. Olivia wanted a popsicle and Ava snarfed down her pancake on a stick.

Weekend Recap

Whew. 4th of July weekend was a long a weekend. We headed North to visit my parent's house and swim in their pool. The sun was a scorcher, the water was warm, and the Corona's were flowing. It was in fact the perfect weekend.

My parents had gone out of town so we brought along some friends. They have two kids, 10 & 4 months. It was nice having them around. The 10 year old spent the first entire day in the pool. 9 hours to be exact. The baby was cute too. She has begun lifting her head, rolling over, eating rice cereal, staying awake longer, you know all the cute stuff babies do. It was nice having a baby around again. Yes, it does bring up the idea of a third child for us, but it also makes me really appreciate where Olivia and Ava are in their lives. Olivia is so tall and her vocabulary is booming. Ava can dress herself (in Olivia's clothes of course), her growing vocabulary blows me away, her attention span is expanding, and her sweet calm nature is just rockin. I love these two little gals so much.

Anyway we left on Thursday and returned on Monday to a hot house of 91 degrees. We walked through the door and our hair became matted to our faces, our cheeks reddened, and our thirst for a Slurpee increased. I cranked on the AC and Dave shot to the minimart and by nightfall the house temperature had dropped to 84 degrees. Much better.

Heading Home

It's always sad to leave your favorite vacation spot but as with all good things it must come to an end sometime. Our friends left this morning to visit some places along the way home. We stayed to swim one last time, eat lunch, shower, and hopefully put the girls in the car for their nap. We are officially packed and ready to be heading home.