Archive for the ‘Ava’ Category

3 Jan

Christmas Eve

Posted by Rebecca in Ava, Family.

We spent Christmas Eve at Mom’s, along with Katie and Gramma and Grampa Great. Mom made a fabulous stuffed pork loin, along with a great horseradish cranberry sauce for dinner.

The girls donned their Christmas dresses and we opened present (after present, after present…).

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Ava had a special gift for Bryan and me–a handmade Christmas wreath.

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A toaster was at the top of Ava’s wish list this year. Fortunately my mom was able to find one, and it even came with a coffee pot, too.

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Some things needed to be tried on RIGHT AWAY.

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I helped Ava write a note to Santa, and she decided to leave him princess and Nemo fruit snacks. I have to wonder if he would have preferred homemade Christmas candy.

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Ava signed her name and went to bed after the local weatherman said radar showed Santa’s sleigh just over Boston. Here’s hoping he’ll find his way to the lake!

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29 Dec

Ava and Olivia

Posted by Rebecca in Ava, Olivia.

From Doug:

For the “hardcore Ava and Olivia fan,” a new photo gallery is up on his site.

20 Dec

As promised…

Posted by Rebecca in Ava, Olivia.

More Christmas photos.

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And, just for fun, a few outtakes…

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17 Dec

Overheard

Posted by Rebecca in Ava, Overheard.

If you’ve spent any time around Ava recently, you know she’s using a lot of made-up words–just crazy little terms for which there’s never a consistent definition. Certain ones–like “schody”–keep cropping up again and again as various and seemingly unrelated nouns. They’re becoming a running joke around the house–a joke that Ava is clearly in on.

Ava: Dad, where are your feelings?

Bry: In your brain.

Ava: Oh, and your brain is in  your head.

Bry: Right. Where did you think your feelings were?

Ava: In your schody.

16 Dec

Ava Fix

Posted by Rebecca in Ava.

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16 Dec

Tis the season

Posted by Rebecca in Ava.

I’ve had a hard time getting into the Christmas spirit this year. I’ve tried decorating, putting up the tree, listening to Christmas music and subsisting on a steady diet of baked goods and White Russians. Still, the stress of work and traveling and shopping has gotten the best of me.

There are a few things that are helping, though–the first is snow we’ve had this week. I was probably the only one on our street happy to see shoveled walks covered again in a matter of minutes this morning. Maybe it’s the six years we spent in Wisconsin talking, but I think it should be cold and snowy come December.

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In continuing a long-standing family tradition, we bought our tree from a retail store parking lot. It was rather dark that night, so we didn’t realize it had been spray painted a lovely shade of aqua until we got it home.

Bryan anchored the tree to the wall in two places, but we decided there was a still a good chance someone would pull it over so we didn’t use the glass ornaments or the tree topper this year. It’s rather sparsely decorated thanks to some busy elves. I wonder if we’ll ever locate all of the ornaments missing from the lower half.

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And speaking of the elves, the highlight of the month has been Ava bopping around in a Santa hat. Though she’s still not posing for photos much these days, I did manage to snap one quick shot.

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I am getting there.

13 Dec

Ava Fix

Posted by Rebecca in Ava.

Ava’s making good use of the 47 catalogs we receive in the mail each day.

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She’s cutting out photos and pasting them on new sheets. Basically, it’s assisted reproduction, and the mail is multiplying.

9 Dec

Overheard: Thanksgiving edition

Posted by Rebecca in Ava, Overheard.

I nearly forgot about this exchange Ava and I had about her homework project a couple of weeks ago. I shared it with many of you over Thanksgiving, but here’s a quick recap:

Every week, Ava is sent home with a brown paper sack to be filled with something that either starts with a specific letter or is a specific color, etc. At first, we helped her with this pretty extensively; now she wants to do it by herself most weeks.

As I was checking through her assignment for the week of the 24th–a collection of things for which she was thankful–this is what I found.

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Me: Ava, what is all of this?

Ava: It’s my homework.

Me: It’s a bag of random stuff. Let’s find some other things.

Ava: NO! This is what I want to take.

Me: Ava, these are silly things. We should find some photos of Olivia or your family or things like that. Things that you are thankful for.

Ava: I am thankful for all of these things, Mom.

Me: You’re thankful for this orange sack? Why? It’s just a sack!

Ava: I got it at J.J.’s birthday party, and I’m thankful that he’s my friend.

Me: Oh. Wow. Okay. But, what about this ball?

Ava: I’m thankful that I get to play ball with Olivia.

Me: …I see. But why the phone? This is actually Olivia’s toy. It’s not even yours.

Ava: But I am thankful for phones because I can call and talk to my family.

Me: Okay, good point, but the puzzle pieces–

Ava: I am thankful for Nebraska, Iowa and Kansas. And Minnesota.

Me: Explain Maine, then.

Ava: There’s a lobster on that one. I am thankful for lobsters.

Me: Well, who isn’t. The pager and block?

Ava: I am thankful for playing doctor and for building.

Me: And the duck there?

Ava: It reminds me of swimming, and I’m thankful for swimming with Olivia in the summertime.

Me: Wow. Okay. But seriously, the chip? Why is there a chip in there?

Ava: I just like chips.

8 Dec

Old-Fashioned Christmas Parade

Posted by Rebecca in Ava, Olivia.

We went downtown Saturday morning for the annual old-fashioned Christmas parade. Entries are restricted to horses and horse-drawn carriages–some of which were antiques from the late 1800s.

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Ava watched most of the parade from a perch high above the crowd.

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Many of the participants were dressed in period costume. I especially liked these dresses and coats.

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Ava managed to eat this entire ball of cotton candy–at least what didn’t end up in my hair.

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Olivia would clap and say, “Yeah!” every time a new entry went by.

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I thought these little kids–all bundled up and sitting on a blanket–were exceptionally cute.

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You all remember Bryan’s unnatural hatred for tiny ponies, right? This year he said it wasn’t so much the pony but the little carts that really irked him.

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Liv thought they were pretty funny.

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The big finale–Santa.

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2 Dec

Thanksgiving!

Posted by Rebecca in Ava, Family, Olivia.

We started Thanksgiving at Gramma’s house–my mom and Dave came down the night before, and Katie arrived from Boston just before dinner. Ava waited very impatiently, asking when she’d arrive about every 90 seconds. My mom was only slightly less excited.

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There she is, tucked behind the now very grown up Tooley kids the newly expanded holiday table.

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It occurred to me as we sat down that this was Olivia’s first Thanksgiving. She was a huge fan of stuffing (comes by that pretty naturally).

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While we all enjoyed turkey, Gramma served Grampa crow (actually, a Cornish game hen). This stemmed from Grampa’s months-long assertion that he would not enjoy the trip they took to Alaska late this summer. In fact, he did very much. If only he could say the same thing about the crow…

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The kids had to check out the lively looking bird.

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Later that afternoon, we joined the Smiths for their dinner. If I could think of the ideal way to spend a day, it would be bouncing back and fourth between family gatherings–appetizers here, dinner there, dessert at both. Perfect.

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