It’s been over 2 months since I last sat down to write a post. It’s getting harder and harder to step away from the girls for even just a few moments these days. I swear no matter where Ava is playing in the house she can always hear me walk upstairs making me unavailable to her (due to a baby gate a the bottom of the stairs) and immediately she needs me for something. To say that she is going through a mommy phase feels like a colossal understatement. There is never a dull moment in the house and for the most part that makes life tons of fun but occasionally it feels overwhelming as well. When you live with a toddler you quickly get used to never having a moment alone. We do our best to stay busy with new activities but still maintain a routine so that we all have a little downtime. Some days I feel like I’m just “winging” it but I doubt I’m the only Mom that’s ever felt that way. I do the best I can and try my hardest not to judge myself against all the other moms out there who always appear to have things figured out a little bit better than I do. Our girls are healthy and mostly happy so we have the important things covered.
We have been making a point of going out and exploring something new every week. Some of our recent daytime adventures include two different indoor swimming pools, a bilingual play group, toddler story and music time, trampolining, park hoping and more. It’s a good way for us to get out of the house during the day and they are all fun ways for Ava to interact with other kids. At this point Elise is usually just an observer in the activities but it won’t be long before she’s jumping in the mix.
Ava is getting better and better everyday at expressing herself. She continues to add new words to her vocabulary everyday and loves to talk non stop. As we learn to communicate better with each other I can see her meltdowns becoming less frequent. Her current obsession is crayola wonder makers, paints and crayons. We’ll call this her artistic period. The new wonder makers by Crayola are the best. They only write on special paper and do not mark up the house or furniture. I have to give it to crayola they are a great way for toddlers to start drawing. Our biggest battle these days is getting her to put the art supplies away for the night so these are perfect. I literally just put her to bed with a marker in each hand which was a small victory since she usually insists on carrying 6 or 7 around at once.
Elise is doing so great and getting so big. She is already wearing clothes that Ava wore at 12 months. She is still not technically crawling but she can get around pretty well just by wiggling around like a fish out of water. She is about to get her first tooth as well. We’ve had about a weeks worth of rough nights because she is teething, hopefully the tooth is about to poke through so she starts feeling better. She continues to be an extremely happy baby. It is not uncommon for people to comment on her demeanor when we’re out. I’m constantly hearing “she’s such a sweet baby” or something of the sort. She is so easy going and thank goodness for it because I often have to abandon her to run off after Ava.
The two girls are becoming better friends with each day as well. Ava loves to make Elise laugh, (which isn’t hard) the two of them are starting to play together more than ever before and I have even caught Ava trying to teach Elise something new a few times now. It’s a proud moment for me to stand back and watch the two of them together. Life is good.