Could it be???

That at 19 months we're on our way... our way to the TERRIBLE TWOS???

Here's a glimpse out of 4.5 minutes of my morning:

While hurriedly getting ready in my bathroom, Ava insists on carrying her toothbrush around the house and rubbing it in dirt.  Now, don't get me wrong, I'd love Little-Little to do her part in some of the household cleaning, but not necessarily with the same brush she uses on her shiny new molars, so, I tell her that she has to stay in the bathroom - where I can see her - with her toothbrush.  

She flips.  She wines.  She cries.  She wines some more. 

Now, I get down on her level and explain that if she rubs her toothbrush in dirt, then dirt gets in her mouth when we brush her teeth.

SHE HITS ME.

Not hard.  Not even a full hit.  But more of a "I'm frustrated and I'm going to half-hit you so you know it" hit.

I pause debating my next move.

She beats me to it -  she spins on her heal, starts crying, and marches into her room.  

I follow her at a distance to see what she'll do.

She - still crying - flings herself face down on her bed.

Here's where it gets interesting....

Me: "Ava, when you hit Mommy it is unkind and it hurts me.  Please say you're sorry."

Ava: "No."

Me: "Ava, then do you need a timeout?"

Ava: "Yes."

Hummmmmmmm...

Me: "Okay, let's go."

We walk downstairs to her "timeout chair" - which has only been used a handful of times - and she sits down.

I leave her.... for a while.  I've read about the whole minute-per-year thing, but clearly she is understanding how this works, perhaps more than we give credit to one year olds.  So, a couple minutes later, I go over, explain the whole you hit-unkind-hurts shpeel, and ask her to say she's sorry.  

She says it and hugs me.

We go upstairs and proceed getting ready.

This general process repeats itself in 7.25 minutes.

Ha.  Just kidding, sort of.  This was a first for the hitting either Jeff or me, and the "no, I won't say sorry," and "yes, I need a timeout" bit, but I'm learning - quickly - that toddlers are tough.  Man, gi'me a newborn; I think I'll take sleep deprivation, nursing non-stop, and an overabundance of spit up and diapers, over sass, manipulation, and generally exhausting behavior.

It probably doesn't help that I'm not completely onboard with our discipline approach, if you can even call it an approach.  I'll be very transparent here: I can't seem to get onboard with spanking.  It's not that I'm against it in theory; we actually said we probably would spank our kids before we held that little newborn girl who was looking at us to set an example of what to be in the world.  And the non-spanking camp, well, to be honest, it just seems like more of the same to me.  It's just that... this came fast.  I need books.  Books to tell me what to do.  Jeff doesn't believe in books (and I only say this half kidding); and I'd have to find the time to read them, and to be honest, blogging is more therapeutic for me right now.

I hope this gave at least one of you - likely a parent, maybe my parent? - a chuckle.  I love my little girl, and wouldn't change any of this if given the chance. I love her so much, I want more... a few more.  But, I'm coming to know - intimately, firsthand - that kids are tough.  And it seems like they just get tougher.  Perhaps this is why very few people homeschool teenagers???  :)

Jingle Bells!

We aren't letting Christmas go around here...

Merry Christmas

For to us a child is born, to us a son is given, and the government will be on his shoulders.  And he will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.

Isaiah 9:6

May you all have a blessed Christmas, shared with family and friends, celebrating the birth of our Savior.

Merry Christmas 2010.

XO,
The Ericksons

Santa 2010

It could have been worse, that's for sure.

Honestly, she did it all for the candy cane.  "Tanta," as she calls him, is okay, but he's no Mickey, and he's DEFINITELY no candy cane.  :)

Big Bear... and the Last Year I Celebrate My Birthday

It's such a shame that I'm getting older. But on the bright side, I'll never catch up to Jeff, a fact of which I like to remind him occasionally.  I will not, however, be celebrating birthdays any longer.  I draw the line at 29.

So, for the last year we celebrate, we trekked up to Big Bear with the Websters, and had SO much fun!

There was boarding, which I hadn't done in THREE years. I wasn't even as rusty as I expected either!  These old bones still got it.  :)

And fishing.

(Waitin' for a little tug on the line.)

















And lounging. Hard.

And best friends.

And CAKE!

And all-night slumber parties.  Look at that face; any chance she's going to bed in the next three hours? I don't think so.  Perhaps it was all the cake???  Thanks, Auntie Jess.  Thanks.

Basically, I got a great birthday with wonderful friends and my lovely family.  I'm one lucky girl.  ♥

Pasttimes

Here's how Ava spends many of her days...

At the Chino Youth Museum.  Seriously, you must check it out.  It's the best kept secret Pretend City doesn't want you to know about.

On Small World.  Yep, we stuck 'em all in the front row and sat back to see if anyone would bail.  Don't worry, the water's not THAT deep.

With "Micks." Yes, they're pretty close; they go by nicknames and everything.

And with "Mick's" buddy Pooh.

And, of course, with a Mouse's best friend, Pluto.


Doing glow sticks with older boys.  Shhhhh, don't anyone tell Jeff!

And lastly on "Tanta's" Sleigh.

Festivities

We kicked off the holiday season with a visit - er, an attempted visit, at least - to Santa.  We plotted this out the week before Thanksgiving, and unfortunately beat Santa to his post... we were a day too early.   Sooooo, when you have few toddlers all dressed up at Fashion Island with no Santa in site, what do you do?  Let them terrorize the giant Christmas tree, of course. 

These pictures could not do it justice.  Between Ava, and Matthew and Ollie, her accomplices in crime, we had the Mall Security over a couple times asking us to kindly remove our toddlers from behind the roped off area.  Laura and Matthew had a stand off, which I was unfortunately unsuccessful at capturing on film.  What we should have said was, "Hey buddy, get Santa out here and we'd have no problem; they'd all be petrified of him."

Instead we let them climb into the fountain.

Just kidding. It was November, remember?  What we actually did was head to Nordies.  Bad decision.  Very bad decision.

After this debacle, next came Thanksgiving.  Here's Ava snuggled up with two of her great grandparents.

Also part of this great holiday season was  Hugh and Sara's beautiful wedding.  The details were amazing, the vows were tear-jerking, the dance floor was swinging and basically everything was just right for this wonderful couple.  After successfully bribing my 18 month old down the isle with a tootsie pop (mother of the year award!) and chasing her around all night, I didn't think to take many pictures.  Here's one of our little family, but for a preview of the Bride and Groom you can visit the respective websites: His and Hers.

And this is just the beginning.  Count down to Christmas: 9 days!

Daughter

Having a daughter is so much fun.  You get to do things like:

Fingerpaint;

Craft;

(Whoa, yea, that's my dining room table.)  :/











Bake;


Have late afternoon tea parties for two;

And, have amazingly decorated, frilly, mid-week, tea parties for no particular reason, complete with dainty finger foods, pretty dresses, and fun favors.

(The girls did let one boy into this party, but that's just cause he's their Best Guy.  So really, I guess sons are fun, too.)

Little girls also turn into sticker monsters for no particular reason and without much warning.  (We're in full sticker mode over here in case you couldn't gather from the picture.)

However, daughters are also little girls who CAN go fishing with the boys (pictured here with her Best Guy, Jakey's, Daddy, Beea (aka Brandon).

But she usually takes her Mom along just in case!

Christmas...

Never worry about the size of your Christmas tree. In the eyes of children, they are all 30 feet tall.

-Larry Wilde, The Merry Book of Christmas

We're so excited to experience Christmas through the eyes of Ava this year! We've decorated, and shopped, and sipped hot cider. We've gotten a few Christmas books, and posted a new "look" on the blog. We visited the one-and-only Fashion Island Christmas tree, and this morning we got to introduce Ava to Baby Jesus, in a Nativity, at church (never mind that she was more interested in the sheep and the cow, oh well!).... and we've been listening to Christmas music since Halloween! AND IT'S NOT EVEN DECEMBER YET! Bring it on, Christmas, we're excited for you!!!

*No pictures on this post, but there will be Christmas pictures. Oh there will be Christmas pictures!  Remember last year???

Thankful

We have a lot for which to be thankful. Not just today, but always.

Jeff and I started a tradition a few years ago to sit down on Thanksgiving Eve and, over a nice bottle of wine we'd been saving, write down all the things for which we were thankful, with the idea that we'd be able to look back and see how much our lives changed and how much we had for which to be grateful. Well... I "misplaced" one or two of those lists; one year we just plain didn't do it; and, last year the craziness of life with a child set in in full force (we're never sure when both of us can sit down, much less for an extended period over a nice bottle of wine!).

This year I decided to put my list here. (Let's just see if I can manage to "misplace" this one!) Jeff has always looked at me like I've lost my mind when I mention my love for reading and writing (he doesn't share the same passion), so he won't be sharing a list (much less on a public blog). But mine can suffice for many of our common thanks. Now, some of these are serious, some are silly; more notably some have been here for years, but some are new additions. It's so neat to see how much our lives have evolved, and how some things still remain.

This year I am thankful:

■ That our God saves

■ For a house to call a home
■ For little hands to hold

■ For Mickey Mouse Clubhouse
■ For red wine.... and chocolate
■ For Target and Trader Joe's (where else would I shop?)
■ For family

■ For these girls, and many more

■ For the beach
■ For cooking blogs
■ For Christmas (it just can't come soon enough!)
■ For friends from college, who became friends for life

■ For puggles

■ For clean water, and all the other things I take for granted on a daily basis
■ For neighbors who are friends
■ For the opportunity to be a mother
■ For books
■ For nature
■ For the love that surrounds Ava

■ For unexpected encouragement
■ For washable crayons
■ For the privilege of staying home with Ava every day
■ For a husband whom I respect

■ For the men and women who sacrifice daily to protect our country













This year I am thankful for all this... and so much more.

Barbie Princesses

My grandmother surprised Ava with a set of seven Disney princess Barbie dolls when we last visited her.  Ava lost her mind...

I don't generally use the abbreviation, but OMGosh!!!

The equivalent of a 18 month old hyperventilating:

Givin' the gals a pep talk:

Getting a little more comfy on the couch:

Admiring from afar:

Now you have to know that I have had some dilemma about Barbies and all the baggage they entail.  In short, I think that kids these days grow up WAY too fast and our society obviously has anything but wholesome influences to offer (especially on girls); I want to protect my children from any undo influence of such.  One of my favorite blogs poses the issue very well, I think, and even those who shrug off such conservatism with a "we all turned out all right," might have pause after reading the author's point of view.

Well, I broke down with Ava's first Barbie when she was the tender age of seven months and dug a ratty old Barbie doll out of a tub at Children's Orchard.  Seven months?!  Really?!?!  How did she gravitate to a Barbie at that age?  She couldn't even walk!  (I suppose this could prove the point on their influence. Ugh.)

So, she had a barbie, and now she has eight.  Great.  I know that all of this can be negated by encouraging and open parenting, and, most of all, prayer.  By the start we've had, I think I may be on my knees a lot for Ava, which, after all, is a good place to be.

If you're surrounded by Barbies, you might as well be surrounded by loving family, too. (Pictured here with the donor of the Barbie Princesses, a.k.a. Lola Ann.)

18 Months!

Well, Ava is officially on her way to TWO!  And, in my opinion, this sequence proves that point...

Ha. No, really, I'm coming to think this is just what you get when you try to pose a toddler for pictures (remember 15 months?)

In truth, we've been having so much fun with Ava.  While she has, I'm afraid, entered the "testing stage," everything else makes up for it as she is becoming such a little girl with a big personality.  She is proficient at complex communication, which never ceases to surprise me.    Due to such, we're actually unveiling a new "page"on the blog called My Tot's Tales, which will record little snippets of hilarity and/or amazingness that escape Ava's mouth.  Pop over there, or to The Story of Us or The Best Year of Our Lives, if you haven't already been (oh yea, we're a four page blog!)  ;)

I'll leave you with the one decent year-and-a-half-old picture we got...