Three and loving it

Ava is very serious and cautious when she rides her scooter (one of her birthday presents). She gets very frantic if we walk too fast for her when she is riding. So it is obvious that she is no speedy gonzalez here.

Warning-this is a long post about all things Ava....

3 year old stats: height-37.25 inches
weight-27.5 pounds

Quick note about doctor's visit: when Ava had a 3 year old appointment a few days ago, she was terrified. She only agreed to take off her shirt and pants to get weighed after much coaxing. I don't think Ava knew what was coming when the doctor gave her a shot in one arm. Ava said "Owww!" but didn't cry. When she saw the needle for another shot on her other arm, she kept saying "just one, just one" and cried really hard after her second shot. Ava is a sensitive little thing.

I have to document this cheesy mom moment: I have said to Ava over and over again while hugging her tightly that I want her to stay little forever. Her response is always something to the effect of "I want to get bigger!" Part of me is so anxious for Ava to reach the next milestone, but most of time I just want her to be my little baby forever. I think Ava kind of vacillates between wanting to be completely independent to wanting us to help her with everything (this girl still needs me to feed her sometimes).

Even though she is not my little baby anymore, she'll still cuddle with me. She loves the whole family laying down together or cuddling on the couch and saying "let's be families". She'll say "You know I love you, right?" to both David and I and we just love that. What more can a parent ask for than your child saying "I love you" out of the blue and giving you a kiss? I call her my "sunshine" and we sing "You are my sunshine" to each other a lot. When Ava sings it to Arden, it just about moves me to tears.

Ava is the most outgoing child ever. I don't know where she gets it from. I totally rejoice that she is not socially inept like myself, so perhaps there is hope for her. She loves striking up a conversation with anyone, anywhere (i.e. the elevator, the bus, and especially at parks). If someone doesn't respond to her, she'll turn to me and say "Is he/she shy? Can he/she talk?" A lot of times we will be at the playground and she'll have no one to play with. I'll point out some random child and tell Ava she should go play with that child. Ava will go up to the child and say "Can I play with you?" Usually the child will say "No" or run away. Sometimes Ava will persist and ask "Why can't I play with you?" After being rejected, Ava will return to my side or shout back to me, "she said no" and then I'll point out the next target. I'm so glad that Ava is not very affected by the rejections at this point. She loves asking people what their names are, and lately, she'll ask "What's your last name?" Ava loves to make observations about someone in a loud voice. She'll point to the pediatrician's head "He has no hair!" or ask a nanny "Are you an old lady" or say "She has grey hair!"

I plan on keeping Ava in a crib until she is 18. I just don't see the point in putting her in a toddler bed yet. I can foresee all sorts of nighttime nonsense with her coming into our room (only one baby in the room at a time, thank you very much). Her afternoon naps are already spotty so I don't want to mess with that anymore than need be. She sleeps so well at night these days. We turn on Jewel's lullaby CD right before bed and she'll go to sleep on her own. I used to have to sing to her but I decided Jewel does a better job so the pro should do it. Ava has the random nightmare every so often ("Mommy, there's a crab in my crib!") but I'm so proud of how well she is doing. One drawback about her being in a crib is that sometimes I don't get to her in time when she has to pee. Even though our apartment is so small, her bedroom is at the opposite end, and I don't hear her screaming "I have to go pee pee!" until it is too late sometimes. Those Pull-Ups come in handy sometimes.

Ava really loves to play pretend. She likes to role play by saying she is so and so and I will be so and so. She is usually a princess and I am the queen. She is fairly good at staying in character. One time she fell and was crying but managed to say "I'm hurt, mommy, I mean, queen!" Ava likes to make up words and chant them (bee dee bye dee bee dee bye) or get in Arden's face and sing "chubby bo bo bo". I think it is a coincidence that she uses the word "chubby" with Arden. Ava will start speaking in gibberish and say "I'm speaking Spanish!" Ava also loves to make up songs and twirl around while singing them. Ava has quite a repertoire of songs she likes to sing. She has mastered "Old King Cole", "Frere Jacque"(French and English versions), "I am a Child of God", "Baa Baa Black Sheep", "Twinkle, twinkle little star" and sort of gets the hang of "Bare Necessities" (pronounced "bare necessinies"). She knows other songs but I can't think of them right now.

Funny stuff she says:

"Is the shower going pee pee?" She asks this when our shower gushes out some residual water a few minutes after someone is done showering.

"Who's here? My people!"

"Look what I doed! (did)"

"Am I laughing or crying?" Sometimes Ava will hurt herself while playing and laughing. That's when she starts having trouble figuring out what her emotions are.

Her understanding of sharing is kind of iffy. She'll grab some random kid's toys and say "I'm sharing!"

"I'm not pretend. I'm real. Cruella Deville is pretend." Ava has been overexposed to scary fictional characters recently, so we had to explain to her that all of these villains are "only pretend". It finally clicked in her mind one day.

"When I get married I will go to the marry store and get a marry dress".I think I need to stop the Disney princess movies for a while and bring her back down to 3 year old world.

Speaking of Disney movies, we started ordering Disney movies from Netflicks and she has loved watching most of them (we'll try Lady and the Tramp and The Sword in the Stone again when she is older). Her favorite books right now are "Beauty and the Beast" and "The Little Mermaid".

I'm probably forgetting so many things... but the beauty of a blog is I can do more posts later! Bottom line is, Ava is such a joy to raise and she is so amazing! I can't imagine my life without her.