Unusual Delivery

This isn't really about Ava, but I couldn't help but post a link to this. That's not your typical 8-lb delivery.

I thought it was Winter, not Fall

After picking Ava up from the babysitter's house today we drove home and I got her out of the car. Having seen the mailman down the road when I had left to pick her up, we walked down the driveway to make a mailbox pit-stop. There I was, minding my own business* when all of a sudden my ankle rolled off the side of the driveway. Yeah, it hurt, but the problem was that my next destination appeared to be the concrete of the driveway, not the mailbox. Typically, even this wouldn't have been a problem other than the resulting sore ankle and scuffed hands. I, however, was carrying Ava when this occurred.

It is amazing how fast your reflexes kick in to catch yourself when falling. Possibly even more amazing is the ability of your mind to override the reflex when it would result in dropping your daughter on the cement. By the time I had realized what was happening, Ava was still in my arms, albeit horizontal. I was convinced we were going down, but somehow bought myself precious tenths of a second by getting my legs out in front of me. My fall converted into the fall/run that is so common on America's Funniest Videos. This was an improvement, but we were probably still going down. I forgot to mention I was falling/running into the street.

By the time I completed my 10 yard dash into the middle of the street I finally regained my balance. A quick look both ways assured me that we weren't about to become hood ornaments. Never underestimate the value of living on a quiet street.

I looked up to see my neighbor giving me a strange look. Apparently he was minding his own business when his neighbor's shoes started slapping the pavement and caught his attention. Well, that and the falling without style. I am no Buzz Lightyear.

*[Interesting side note: "There I was, minding my own business" is a favorite introduction for someone in the ER explaining how they got beat up. That and, "I was walking to church (at 3AM) when".]

Our First Saved Diaper

Earlier this week I was starting to doubt whether Ava was ready to be potty-trained. I would sit her on the toilet several times a day with nothing to show for it except for clean toilet paper going down the drain. Two days ago she woke up from her nap and her diaper was dry. As she hadn't had any bodily releases in the 2-3 hours she had been sleeping, it seemed like I might have a chance to have her urine and our toilet collide. Having just woke up, she wanted nothing to do with sitting on the toilet. About the only time Ava wants to cuddle is when she first wakes up. I cuddled her as best I could while she sat on the toilet, but she was not impressed. Admitting defeat, I lifted her off the toilet and we went to the living room to watch some Backyardigans. Within 30 seconds of sitting on the couch I heard her make the slightest grunt. A quick squeeze of the diaper revealed that I had missed my opportunity by mere moments.

When Ava woke up from her nap today she was obviously in the mood for cuddling. I took her out of her crib and we rocked in her rocking chair while she got her brain rebooted. When this finished she was done cuddling and started to try to get off my lap. I took her in the bathroom for another try at putting the porcelain bowl to use. To my surprise, her diaper was still dry! Whoa! My chance for redemption! Earlier, I had thought of letting Ava play with something while sitting on the toilet to get some more butt-to-seat time. Unfortunately, I hadn't been thinking that far ahead when I put her on the toilet.

I tried to keep her busy any way I could. First, she shoved square after square of toilet paper between her legs with my encouragement instead of my restraining her. Then I pulled the ol' "Stick the pacifier in Dad's mouth" trick. That bought me about 20 seconds of distraction. She reached for the shower curtain so I pulled it back and gave her one of her bath toys. It was a small ship that you wind the smokestack to make it propel itself through the water. Outside of water it just makes a lot of noise.

I was looking into the bathtub for something else to keep her busy when I heard what shall be referred to as "drips of joy". I quickly checked.... no, the faucet wasn't leaking. I clapped my hands and cheered to encourage her. If I'd have had Ava's pom-poms I'd have been shaking those too, but they just weren't handy. Apparently I got a little too excited because she stopped going just as quickly as she had started. However, after I simmered down a little she started right back up.

When she finished up I kept throwing on the encouragement, taking time to enunciate "Pee-pee" and "Potty" so that the significance of this event would be burned in her brain forevermore. I diapered her up and we went to the cookie jar for some oral feedback on her behavior. Right after that I cued up the most recent episode of The Backyardigans on our DVR. Why? Because she deserved it!

What'll she take on next? Saying her ABC's? Riding a bike? Writing a thesis for her doctorate? Time will only tell.

Potty Training

(Still no sign of our camera. Sorry for the lack of pictures lately.)

Since I am at home this month during the day, we decided to try to start potty training Ava. Two day ago we got a toilet-seat attachment called "Cushie-Tooshie" so that Ava can plant her little butt on there without going for a swim. Since then we've been putting her on the toilet several times a day. The problem is, I don't think she knows what she's supposed to do when she sits on the toilet.

She has picked up a couple things just from observations she has made. After sitting down she gets some toilet paper (sometimes yards at a time). Then she stuffs it in-between her legs and drops it in the toilet. She did all of this without prompting on her first time on the toilet. The only problem is, she doesn't accomplish the main objective of using the toilet. She number zero's (neither number one or number two) every time we try.

She knows what "poopy" is, but I don't think she gets what "pee" is. Since she pees 4-5 times more often than she poops, it would be great if we could ask her to pee and get through to her. Instead she just sits there smiling and looking cute as ever. Hopefully she'll start to not only like going TO the potty, but actually GOING potty soon.

Bipolar Posting / Christmas

I was thinking about how I'm getting kind of bipolar when it comes to posting to the blog. In December I had five posts in one week and now its been one week shy of a month since I've posted. And that includes Christmas! (Bad Dad! *Smack my own hands*)

We had a great Christmas, but it was good to come home after 5 days of sleeping in other people's beds. I'm not sure if I mentioned this before, but we had initially planned on having this be our first Christmas staying home. When we put our house on the market we decided to forgo decorating the house this year. It may not have made a difference if a Jewish/Atheist/Kwanzified person was looking at our house and we had decorated for Christmas, but its possible it could have. We figured that when it comes to selling our house we were better off safe than sorry. Anyway, since we weren't even going to have a Christmas tree, we decided to spend one more Christmas with family.

Ava was much more into opening presents this year than last year. The only problem she had was that in the middle of opening one present one of her other presents, opened or unopened, would catch her eye. And in her mind, all presents were her presents. She hit the motherload this year. She got a mini recliner, a Weeble castle, everything ever made with a Backyardigans on it, a music box, a doctor's-office-waiting-room-type toy, clothes, and so much more. I would tell you more, but your eyes have probably already glazed over. Doni went through her old toys and put some of them away to make room for the new ones. Still, Ava finds something "new" every day that she hasn't played with in a few days. I'm not sure if she realizes that she got it a few weeks ago or if she thinks, "Look at this amazing new toy that I've seen for the first time in my life! Does Christmas never end?!"

Unfortunately our camera went missing somewhere on our Christmas voyage to Michigan and Northwest Indiana. I guess we should have had it micro-chipped like we did Sparky. I'm still holding out against hope (does that phrase even make sense?) that it'll see the errors of its ways and find its way home like the prodigal son. If it does, we'll have a feast and promptly delete its memory card (I hope I'm not the only one that gets that joke).