Ava is 2!

The theme for Ava's birthday this year was Yo Gabba Gabba! She absolutely LOVES that show, and Aiden was adamant that it be our theme. We had a pool party and Grammy and Grandpa's house.

Ava blowing out her candles on her actual birthday. She just about burnt her lips!

Grow Bear Picture

At two years old, Ava is a little spit fire. She has more personality than we sometimes know what to do with!

Some of the things Ava loves are:

Wrestling with and being chased by Aiden - this always causes uncontrollable laughter.

Play doh. She will play with it for some pretty long stretches of time and is obsessed with sniffing it. She has been learning her colors while playing with it. My favorite word of hers right now is "turk-a-boise" (turquoise).

Stuffed animals. She can never have too many. Her favorite has grown to be "Kitty", the stuffed cat the Easter Bunny gave her. She can't go to sleep without him.

Singing and dancing. Any time she hears a beat, Ava immediately starts dancing. She also loves Mother Goose Club, which is a YouTube channel that has characters that sing all sorts of nursery rhymes. She has all of them memorized!

Chewing gum.

"Chapitch" (chapstick). Although she seems to think it goes all over her entire face, not just her lips.

Ava smells everything before she eats it. If she doesn't like the way it smells, she will push it away and say, "Don't yike it."

Frozen. She LOVES "Elsa-Anna and Oyaf". She's also pretty fond of the snow monster.

She loves to cook play food. In fact, this was the first thing she ever pretended.

She also really likes to play dinosaurs with Aiden and has learned plenty of dino sounds from him.

Ava loves to climb into my lap and say, "tickle me" or "Big X", which is a tickling game Grammy used to play with me when I was little.

Ava's favorite phrase is "No, my do it!" Although it takes great patience for me to let her try to do EVERYTHING by herself, I love how independent she is.

Jumping. She loves to jump off of curbs, the couch, the stool, really anything she can climb onto. She is fearless.

Some of her favorite phrases are, "Mama, yook dis!" "Watch dis!" and "T'mon!"

Ava hums while she is chewing her food.

She doesn't dole out hugs and kisses all the time, but when she does, she says, "Yove you...so much." It melts my heart.

Potty Training

Since the three day method worked so well with Aiden, I decided to use it with Ava as well. I stocked up on some awesome superhero undies for her and we were off! We did it at the same time as Erin and Kennedy so that we had each other for moral support, and boy did we need it! These girls were bound and determined to prove the three day method wrong! After two weeks of training, Ava is still having lots of accidents, although they are starting to become fewer and farther between. We have spent a lot of time outside swinging to save the carpet!

After a long morning of poop and pee in undies, Erin and I needed a drink when we finally got the girls down for a nap - in Pull Ups!

Although the girls are certainly not pros, there's no turning back now! We're bound and determined to have them successfully trained by the time school starts!

Off to the Dentist

Today wasn't Ava's first dental appointment, but it was her first time in the chair. She did a great job. Although she spent most of her time playing with the suction, the dentist got a quick peek at her teeth and they look perfect. So proud of my little munchkin for letting me floss and brush her teeth every night. I love big brother looking on in the background too. She was so excited to get into the chair because he went first and showed her how it's done!

These two love snuggling with Grammy after a good swim!

Big Girl Bed

With potty training right around the corner, we decided it was time to convert Ava's crib to a toddler bed. As you can see, she was pretty excited about it. I was really nervous that it would mean sleepless nights, but she went to bed so easily and fell right to sleep.

She even slept through the night without a peep! Aiden went in to get her in the morning and gave her a celebratory snuggle.

Our little girl is no longer a baby! I can't believe how fast she is growing!

I'm fairly confident we chose the perfect Godparents for Ava!

Ava and Kiki

Besties!

Our Trip to the Oregon Coast

We were so excited for our Oregon Coast trip this year. After seeing how amazing the fireworks were the last time we went, we decided to go over the 4th again.

Heading out for nine hours on the road!

We had absolutely fantastic weather. It was sunny every day and in the high 70's and low 80's. Perfect beach weather!

To say Ava loved the ocean would be an understatement. We had to take turns taking her into the freezing cold water. She would have stayed in it all day if we would have let her. 

I love this next shot so much. I have vivid memories of jumping over waves with my parents just like this when I was little.

Aiden wasn't quite as excited about the water as Ava was. He actually didn't even dip a toe in the ocean. He was still scarred by being knocked over by the waves in Mexico in October. He still had a great time building sand castles, chasing seagulls, and finding crab shells.

He also learned how to fly a stunt kite from Grandpa! He did a great job, although we all stayed far away from the kite! ;)

We decided to spend one of our mornings hiking the Lewis and Clark trails at Fort Clatsop. What was supposed to be an easy three mile hike turned into a pretty steep five miler! Oops!

We also spent a some time in Cannon Beach. On one of our visits there, we did some shopping and at at Mo's, a delicious sea food restaurant right on the beach. How have we never known about this place?

We also went to the tide pools at Haystack Rock. What a cool experience for the kids to get up close and personal with some of the marine life at Cannon Beach!

Ava spent most of her time in the backpack. She's just not quite sure how to be gentle just yet. :)

 Adien found a hermit crab!

After the tide pools we grabbed some doughnuts. Yum!

Grammy and Grandpa spoiled Mommy and Daddy and sent us out on a couple of dates. We are so lucky! We had a delicious sushi lunch and an amazing beach side dinner at Maggie's on the Prom. Grammy and Grandpa also sent us out on a run after they went on a walk each morning. We LOVED running on the beach!

And of course we spent an evening roasting s'mores on the beach.

Giggles with Grammy.

 

Late night BBQed oysters. So delicious!

Ava's first sand dollar.

Carrousel ride!

Our last day was the 4th of July. We went to the parade and hotdog feed downtown, then we cozied up on our balcony to watch the fireworks. We were so grateful to have such an awesome view so that we didn't have to spend the entire day saving a spot on the beach! We actually lost power for the second half of the day, but it came on just as the fireworks were over. Perfect timing!

Another trip to Seaside in the books. We are so blessed to be able to spend such special family time together. It is so wonderful to carry on the tradition my parents started over thirty years ago with them and my own family!