All these changes

Plane rides, weaning from the pacifier, and potty training. Yikes! Ava's had an exciting month to say the least! We've had a potty chair for well over a month now and at first Ava was scared of it. She's now to the point where she tells us when she needs to poop and will sit on the chair but has yet to pee or poop in the chair. She likes the novelty of sitting on it. But, yesterday Ava peed in the potty at daycare!!! We are thrilled and can't believe how fast she's growing up. Now if we can just keep the momentum and really get this child potty trained.

Ava and her Pacifier

Oh Ava and her pacifier. She loves it so. She calls it a "pat" and begs for it whenever she's grouchy, wants to be comforted, and will even tell you she wants to go "night-night" in order to get it. With a new baby on the way we decided that it was probably time to break our dear daughter of her reliance on "pat". So, last Friday night we cut the tip off of one of her pacis and gave it to her to fall asleep with. Of course she cried and fussed. We let her cry for a few minutes and when I went back in to comfort her she threw the broken paci at me and declared, "TRASH". I picked it up and explained that she could hold her blankie and her puppy but this was the only paci she could have. This turned into a full hour of desperate screaming. It was verging on a panic attack. We entered the room every 15 minutes or so to comfort her and the child was so frantic that she begged for everything she could think of and asked for milk, wa-wa, juice, up, you name it she wanted it. Most of all she wanted her beloved "pat". At the end of the hour Michael decided Ava had been through enough psychological damage for the day and gave in. Within 5 minutes the child was sound asleep. And that's the end of trying to wean her off the pacifier, at least for the time being.
Plane rides, weaning from the pacifier, and potty training. Yikes! Ava's had an exciting month to say the least! We've had a potty chair for well over a month now and at first Ava was scared of it. She's now to the point where she tells us when she needs to poop and will sit on the chair but has yet to pee or poop in the chair. She likes the novelty of sitting on it. But, yesterday Ava peed in the potty at daycare!!! We are thrilled and can't believe how fast she's growing up. Now if we can keep the momentum going perhaps we’ll get this child potty trained. Our next parental feat: moving Ava into a big girl's bed.

Ava's First Plane Ride

Michael was fortunate to have the opportunity to visit the Semester at Sea ship in January. They set sail from San Diego to Ensenada, Mexico and returned a few days later. Ava and I set out to meet Michael in San Diego for a long weekend.
Ava and I boarded our first flight in Indianapolis and Ava was an angel. She wanted to go "night-night" and snuggled up in my arms the second we boarded and didn't move until we got off the plane for our layover in Houston. She enjoyed looking out the window at the scenery and didn't fuss a bit. For our second leg we got on board and little Ava was good as could be. She played on the floor for a bit taking magazines in and out of the seat pocket. She said "hi" to everyone boarding and then she finally curled up in my arms and fell right asleep. When we got off the plane in San Diego she was beside herself that we were getting on a bus for the hotel. She repeated "bus" "bus" in her excited, happy little voice. Once we arrived at the hotel and she saw daddy waiting for us she squealed with delight and pointed and screamed "Dada". She was thrilled to see him again.
For the next 2 days of our weekend getaway in what was supposed to be sunny San Diego we were hit with torrential rain and 40-50 mph winds. One entire afternoon and evening was stuck in our hotel. The second day we managed to get a rental car and drove to Balboa Park, Torrey Pines State Park, and Ocean Beach. The weather was cool with a light mist which turned to torrential rainfall for the remainder the afternoon. As luck would have it the sun came out the second we got to the airport for our return to Indiana.
And our fateful return to Indiana....Ava did not repeat the excellent behavior from her first flights. Oh no, instead she could not be satisfied in any manner. She threw her pacifier over my head and hit the gentleman behind us and screamed for at least 25 minutes of our 45 minute flight to Phoenix. I was finally able to get her to sleep by rocking her in my arms and letting her scream it out. It was torturous for everyone on that flight. We were supposed to be able to remain on the aircraft for our return to Indianapolis, but when we arrived in Phoenix we had to change planes. This, of course, resulted in another 20-30 minute screaming fit until Ava finally wore herself out again and fell back asleep. We got to Indianapolis around 1am where Ava was suddenly her happy, delightful little self again.
What is it about plane travel that turned my child into the devil? I'll never know because that's NOT happening again until she's say 20?!!!

Ava Eats Snow