International "Abba" of mystery

Ava refers to herself as "Abba". Close enough. Abba also speaks a couple of different languages. According to Ava, a cat says "Muy" (like the "muy" in "muy bien"). She also says "muy" for "more". Apparently, Ava picked up some Yiddish along the way too. She says "Oy" for "ear". Ava sometimes says a cow says "Mew", which is what I imagine a French cow sounds like. Ava's new favorite word is "sushi" and says it multiple times a day. And what should be "hair" is pronounced "hana". Not sure what language that is. She has a few made up words she says all day long (and David keeps encouraging her by saying it back to her). The two words are "Otoba", which I believe is a location in Nigeria, and "Hebibi" which I believe has a Middle Eastern persuasion. Who knows what language she will pick up next?!

Here are a few pics of Ava doing some funny and mysterious things:

We don't know why she started doing this pose, but every so often, she'll do it and see what our reaction is. We now call it the "plie" (French ballet term and I don't know how to do the symbol above the "e"). Now when we say "plie" she'll do this very seriously.

Who is she trying to look good for?

Without fail, she puts her shoes on wrong each time and gets very frustrated when she can't walk properly.

She doesn't know where her next assignment might be, but she's pretty good at being incognito. I like how the sunglasses make her ears stick out.

She's ready to eat any type of cuisine that is thrown at her. She can't get enough of this seasoned seaweed. I'm totally obsessed with it too, and sometimes will eat 20 packets in one sitting. Quite a nasty aftertaste, but it goes down oh so smoothly. I dare you to try one if you're not a sushi eater.

Strawberry fields forever

Last Saturday we went to the Hall Family Farms and picked strawberries. I figured Ava would love doing that. And she sure did. She got the hang of it right away and insisted on carrying the basket full of strawberries. I don't know if the strawberry bushes were extra diminutive on this farm, but even Ava had to crouch down to pick the strawberries. Sometimes she would tug so hard at the strawberries, she would fall backwards, with the strawberry in her hand, along with a footlong stem. It was a lot of fun and we plan on going back when the strawberries are more plentiful and plump.

There was a little maze at the farm

Easter dress (kind of)

I fell in love with this dress and bought it thinking it would be her Easter dress. Not really traditional Easter colors, but the roses signify new life and spring to me. Here are some pics (she refused to look at the camera).

Eggstravaganza

Another Easter activity we went to was Eggstravaganza. Eggstravaganza was held at Beatty Park and it was super crowded. We parked so far away and walked over a mile to get to the festivities. Ava got to ride on daddy's shoulders most of the time. Didn't get to do an Easter Egg Hunt there (line looked like half a mile long..seriously). At least there was a petting zoo and lots of puppies around for Ava to scream "Puppy!" everytime she saw one. She was so excited to see each puppy but wouldn't touch them. There was also a nasty pet snake there.

Late Easter stuff

I'm late again in posting holiday photos. But post them I must. Ava and I went to the Easter Egg hunt in our neighborhood (I lovingly dub our neighborhood "Ghetto of Ballantyne"). Ava enjoyed finding the eggs but was frightened of the Easter Bunny, of course. She screamed like she was in pain when he got close to her.

Funny pics

This pose is called the "Old Chinese lady" pose. She walks around with her hands behind her back sometimes. I really have seen some old Chinese ladies walk like that!

She likes to read laying on the floor sometimes

Wearing mommy's shirt

Something about belly buttons is funny.

Very excited to wear her new shoes

Baby Einstein

Giving mommy kisses






"Why doesn't mommy brush my hair?" she ponders.

Uncle Victor's visit and trip to Atlanta

My brother Victor came to visit for his spring break in mid-March. We had to think of something to entertain an eighteen year old, so we went to Atlanta! Home of the magnificent Georgia Aquarium and World of Coca-Cola. Ava was suspicious of Victor sometimes but they still had some fun together. Ava answers "I do" to any question that starts with "Who". David and I like to ask her questions like, "Who loves mommy and daddy"? Ava would sweetly answer, "I do". Uncle Victor liked to ask her "Who smells like poo?" Of course Ava would answer "I do".

The drive down to Atlanta was fine. Ava slept a little. We stopped about an hour outside of Atlanta for some lunch at Ryan's. A slightly substandard buffet but any chance for me to go back for a fifth helping of anything sounds good to me! We went straight to the World of Coca-Cola and had to chase Ava around to get her into the backpack. We checked into the hotel after a quick tour of the Coca-Cola place, hyped up with some of the nasty beverages that the Coca-Cola company sells around the world (e.g. a sickly sweet mint drink we sampled that they sell in Africa). Some of the samples were decent, but mostly gaggable. We checked into the Hyatt in Buckhead and had an okay dinner. Sleep was awful, of course. Thanks to a certain little lady. Victor got a bed to himself while the rest of us shared a double bed because a certain little lady wouldn't sleep in the little crib! After a nice breakfast at the Flying Biscuit, off we went to the aquarium. After waiting in line with what seemed like thousands of people, we finally got into the beautiful aquarium. The marine wild life was amazing, but I was disappointed there weren't more sharks. After more than two hours of touring, we were ready to leave and say adieu to Atlanta. We were so glad Victor came to visit. We had a blast watching movies, weeding the dumb lawn with no obvious improvement (hey, we put our visitors to work), and eating junk food. Here are some pics:

Someone is happy to be in the backpack, for now

This is from Victor's camera at World of Coca-Cola

He calls Ava "little bug". I guess he squashed her. I laughed when I saw this pic.

Victor is forbidden to ever wear these shorts in public again

Coke, anyone?

The entrance of the aquarium is pretty cool.

The super thick glass that housed the marine life made me feel like I was wearing the wrong glasses when I stared too long...kind of dizzy. Just a random thought.

Hey Bro

Beluga Whales were eerily beautiful

These were the type of shenanigans Victor was up to (pic taken from laundry room on second floor back home). Don't pay attention to our ugly lawn. It is the bane of my existence right now.