Celebrating Mom's Birthday

My wonderful sister-in-law Amy out in California mailed Ava--oops, I mean me! a card for my birthday. As soon as I opened it up and Ava heard it, she had to have it (this is what Amy knew when buying it). Thanks for the card and gift, Amy and Paul and company! And Ava thanks you for the card! Here's the video of Ava enjoying the singing telegram from California.

Where's Ava?

The latest game around the Kingma house is: "Where's Ava?" She likes to play this game with a blanket over her head but she's open to anything. In the pictures above it is a purse of mine that she is using, sometimes it's a t-shirt, and it has even been a sock of her dad's once. On Sunday she was playing this game for Grandpa Marv with a blanket over her head, running around giggling as we all asked, "Where's Ava?" She giggles and squeals and squeaks and it is so cute. Sunday she got a little too excited and took off running with the blanket over her head and bam! ran right into the couch, knocking herself backwards onto her bottom. Thankfully she wasn't hurt and she thought it was pretty funny. (It was rather hilarious from our vantage point because one moment she's full speed ahead and the next she's come to a full stop on her butt!)
What did we do to entertain ourselves before we had her???

Our very own Backyardigan

Who's that with the cute antennaes on her head? That's our very own Backyardigan, Ava Reese! She got this headband for her birthday and it came with a cute mirror that tells her she's "stylin" and a comb for her hair. The headband is rather hard for her to get on her head herself but we help her out there. Combing her own hair is no problem, she loves doing that with her Backyardigan comb or her baby brush. She's even willing to help comb mommy's hair! Sweetheart!

Thoughtful Baby

This little girl of ours is learning that she doesn't always want her picture taken. And so sometimes she refuses to ham it up for the camera. Before I had the camera out, she was smiling and giggling. I took the camera out, away went the smirks. I put the camera away, out came the smiles. So here are some pictures I've titled "Thoughtful Baby". :)

A trip to the Butterfly House

My sister Ellen always has great ideas for activities to do and yesterday she called us up and invited us to join her and the boys at the Butterfly house in Sioux Falls. You can visit their website and check out their live Web Cam online at www.sertomabutterflyhouse.org It was so much fun! There are great walkways in the Butterfly house and all this lush vegitation, beautiful flowers--it made me homesick for Hawaii. There was a stream running through with a cute little bridge and waterfall (more about this later). And then there were the Butterflies. Everywhere you looked there was a Butterfly flitting around or resting on a leaf or landing on a person for a rest. It's a beautiful place and so peaceful and nice. I just discovered that they offered a Yoga class there for beginners last month, how much fun would that have been?

So, here's a picture of Ava and the boys, Pete and Will, by the stream. Ava was VERY excited and she kept telling us how excited she was, "Water! Oh my gosh, Water! That looks like fun! Doesn't that look fun? Shouldn't I get it? Maybe I'll just touch it, just dip my fingers in for a bit... I'll just lean over real close and get a better look, just get my fingers wet--woah!!!" and splash! I was able to catch the back of her shirt with one of my fingers, barely saving her from a total soaking. And so it was that just the right side of her body got wet, her right piggy tail, her right sleeve, her right leg. She thought it was great and wanted to just climb right back in, she didn't understand why this wasn't a good idea. We wrung her out and she and the boys happily spent another half hour in the tropical park, oblivious to wet clothes. (I did notice a couple of weird looks from two park attendants when they saw her wet clothes but no one asked. :)

Remember when?

Anyone who has known me in the last 10 years has probably heard me talk about Megan, Chris, and Steve. Steve hired me to be the nanny for Meg and Chris when they were very young, I think Meg was 5 and Chris was 7. Well, now Megan is a Freshman and Chris is a Junior! They're both in High School!! Anyway, A couple of weeks ago Meg and I went shopping for a dress for her Freshman dance. I took the "little" girl whose shoes I used to tie and nose I used to wipe looking for a prom dress! We had a great time but what a glaring sign of how fast time does fly.
Steve snapped this picture of their family plus Ava that same week that Meg and I went shopping. I needed a babysitting for half a day and Steve and Meg were so great to oblige. They even brought Ava with them to Canton where Meg had her hair cut! It was really fun to see Steve and Meg in the "nanny" role that I used to occupy. :) It was a great week as it's always fun to catch up with this fantastic trio.

Watching Jackson's Videos

Ava LOVES to watch the videos of her cousin Jackson. She thinks that he's hilarious! Laughing and squealing and wiggling around she will watch them over and over. I figured that you all needed to see this because it is too cute not to share. The next video I'll have to post is Ava watching herself watching Jackson on video. I guess she thinks she's a pretty good comedian because when she saw herself laughing she laughed louder and harder than in the video.

The Hot Seat?

Who knew that Ava was going to take after her Uncle Jesse? He would live in a freezer if he could, he is always so hot! And here is little Ava Reese at Uncle Jesse's house, sitting in his fridge.

I had the fridge door open while I was getting all of the kids their drinks for lunch and it seems Ava thought she had found the perfect little seat. After discovering it for the first time she had to try and sit there EVERY time the fridge door was opened. Funny girl.

Stubborn pigtails!

Girls are so much fun! Ava's hair is finally long enough for pigtails. There isn't a whole lot of hair to put into the pigtails but we had fun playing with what's there. :) Of course she had to start pulling them out as soon as they were in so we had to distract her with something. It's not always easy to distract this girl, she can be very determined and stubborn. While I type this the girl in question is in a battle with her Daddy. She thinks she should be able to climb onto the step in front of the fireplace and stand up and jump on it. Her parents disagree. So she climbs up, Dad takes her down. She goes right back and climbs up, Dad moves her away. Jeff tried to distract her by putting her on her 4-wheeler and giving her a ride down the hallway. That worked as long as he held her on the 4-wheeler. Right back to the fireplace she went as soon as she could climb off. So he put her in her rocker and gave her a toy. No good, right back to the fireplace. He parked the 4-wheeler in front of the fireplace and blocked it off with other toys. She moved the toys. He has moved her away and told her 'no' about 16 times and I am not exaggerating. Somehow he can keep a straight face through all this but I am hiding behind the computer and my sweatshirt hood, laughing myself silly. I told him its all his fault. We're getting paybacks from the way he always was growing up. It can't possibly be from me, I have always been an angel.

A Big Girl Chair.... Or Big Boy Chair?

It's not exactly a unisex style this new, pink butterfly chair of Ava's but she and Austin both loved it! :) Ava and Austin are about ten months apart in age, he's going to be turning two in a couple of weeks! We were over to their house and Austin wanted to show Ava everything, he was so cute. He really wanted to show Ava his bed which was a mattress on the floor while he was transitioning from his crib to his toddler bed (the new bed was being painted). He'd climb onto the mattress, lay down and pat the bed beside him for Ava to lay next to him. So sweet! "Aba, bed!"