Casper- Update

Yesterday Steve and I spent almost 2 hours casing the complex looking for Casper. We talked to several residents and posted more signs. We spoke with a resident near the office who said he saw him a couple of days ago under a car. Today Steve went to the office and one of the apartment managers said he has seen him several times hanging around the office and that if he sees him again he’ll catch him and call us. Oh my gosh it is such a relief to hear that he is still around and that we are so close to possibly finding him!

Both said they had seen him last a couple of days ago, so I hope he’s still hanging around there. I went by twice again last night to see if I could find him but no luck.

Missing My Kitty :(

Tuesday night Steve was bringing the dogs in and Casper slipped out the front door. Steve went after him but he ran underneath a car and wouldn't come out. He thought he would just come back in an hour or so like he always does but he never did. That night I cased the entire complex looking for him and have every day and night since he's gone missing. I posted signs and posted his picture with the SPCA and BARC but haven't heard anything yet. I am sooo sooo sad. I just know I'll never see him again. After 15 years of having him with me at every minute and every home, he may be gone forever and I'll never know if he passed away, someone else took him in or what.

I did have a collar on him but he must have gotten out of it somehow because I found it in Biscuit's bed.

Please pray that we find our kitty as we are moving out of here next week :(

Pictures from the last few weeks

Mother's Day :)

My buddy, My buddy, My buddy and me.

Playing at the splash pad

exhausted after a day home with daddy

"fwimming" with her daddy

walking her baby glow worm

Walking the dogs with Daddy

Meeting my newest friend Graham

Learning to sit on the potty!

Marcella and baby Daniel

Ava's World at 21 months, 3 weeks

Okay of course I am a biased mommy but my child does cuter and cuter things every day and I couldn’t be more filled with joy and pride! Each day I thank God for my little miracle and blessing. J Her latest thing is that she calls her daddy “Steve” and me “Mom” from time to time. We are like um excuse me but it’s mommy and daddy to you missy! Usually when Steve doesn’t respond to her calling “dada” she’ll then try yelling “teeve!” to get his attention. She must get this from being at school but she now hugs us big or points us in the chest and says “Eeya Mommy” and “Eeya dada” as if she’s now realizing that we belong to her and she belongs to us. She gets really happy when she does it which just melts my heart. At bedtime when we say her evening prayer and I say “Amen” she closes by saying “Amen Eeya”

We’ve started noticing that she likes things just so and not a tad bit off. If something is out of place she will start yelling “uh oh mommy, uh oh!” I thought oh great I’ve got an OCD child, but read in a toddler update that it’s normal for toddler’s her age. The sheet has to be just right when she’s in our bed or when she’s putting the pets to “night night”. After her bath in the evening, she picks up all of her bath toys and puts them away, then picks up the wash cloth and lays it out to dry and when she’s all done she says “yay eeya!” In the mornings when she gets in bed with me, I have to be laying on my back or she’ll shove me over and say “see side, see side” (this side) and then cuddle up as close as she can get. She will also arrange or stack things in just the right order and perfectly aligned. It’s very funny to watch her.

On the weekends when we bring her in bed with us in the morning she gets so excited when she see’s that Steve is still in the bed and says “Dada night night bed” and after she wakes up she rolls over and makes him wake up. When Steve is home there is no cuddling in bed for a little while, she tells him “up up dada, beeka, Magna wok” So he has to get up and take all the babies for a walk. He loves this time with her and loves how happy she is to see that he is there in the morning when she wakes up.

We have been taking advantage of the apartment pool and taking her swimming, so of course it’s her new favorite thing and every day she begs “Eeya Fwim” or “Eeya Fwing” so if she isn’t begging to go swimming, she’s begging to go swing at the park.

We get a little embarrassed when we walk the dogs and Ava decides to announce to anyone who will listen “Beeka Big doo doo!” We’ve been trying to teach her a less embarrassing term like “poopie” or something and it seems to be catching on. Even still it cracks us up when she says it! haha.

Things Ava loves at 21 months:

Swimming

Swinging

Sliding at the park

Stairs!

Walking the dogs

Blackberries

Bananas- still

Beans

French Toast

Feeding the chickens at Mimi’s

The wagon at Mimi’s

Elmo- still

Barney “Button”

Super Why “B- Why”

Her Belly Button “bupin”

Feeding the dogs

Holding the pets “eeya hold, eeya hold”

Cowboy boots

Wearing mine or Steve’s shoes

Dancing

Being outside at all times

Napping in our bed

All animals

Taking her clothes off

Saying No

The numbers 2 and 4

Baby Dolls

Coloring “Art”

Getting the mail “me mail”

Saying Please “peas”

Real Babies – she’s met Daniel and Graham and now loves babies!

Things Ava doesn’t like at 21 months:

Carrots

Broccoli

Corn tortillas

Spreads or sauces

Napping in her crib

Being told No

Sitting in a high chair

We have found a house!

Finally after months and months of looking for the house we have always wanted...we found it! We dragged our realtor to hell and back and to every pocket and suburb of the city trying to find the one. We put an offer on one and then decided it wasn't for us and a week later we found the one!

There are only a couple of minor things that we will change as we live there, but for the most part it's perfect. Now that we are joining the fabulous world of the burbs we are really going to have to adjust to this commuting business everyone is always complaining about. We have been so spoiled being inside the loop for so long. Mommy and Ava will have to get up much earlier than we are used to...boo! oh and if one more person says "hope you like that commute or that's far" instead of congratulations, or something along those lines I'm going to punch them in the trachea. NEWSFLASH...The commute from any suburb in this city is going to be bad, so you may as well find one that makes it worth it.

One wonderful thing about the house is that it already comes with a play structure for Ava in the backyard! It has a clubhouse, slide, swings, a sandbox and so on. Not to mention it is very close to my cousins Erin and Courtney and their kiddos, as well as a few of my girlfriends with kiddos. Meme is a little sad that we aren't closer to her, but I told her it's just an excuse for her to come have slumber parties with us and have Ava spend the night with her.

She is her mother's daughter!

She may look just like her daddy, but she is totally her mother's daughter. She went in my closet this morning, pulled out these shoes and said "eeya shoes on" then put her little feet into them. She was so proud of herself too! She even walked around the apartment in them and said "cheese" when I pulled out the camera.

20 months & 3 weeks

Ava’s new words that just crack me up:

 

Courtney- CoCo

Color (Crayon)- Coaker  (I broke one of her crayons on accident and now she tells us “mommy bro coaker” or she’ll pick up one Magnum chewed up and say “Magna chee up coaker”)  Let me tell you…this child “coakers” on everything in the house.  Her pottery barn chair that we got her for her birthday is toast.  She got a hold of a ball point pen and went to town on it.  I hope I can get it clean!

Mail Man-  Me Meal

Mickey Mouse- Me Mow

Juice – Joo

Diaper- die die

Tail – tee-ul  (belts are also tails so she picks up Steve’s belt and says “dada tee-ul”)

Necklace- neena

 

The other day she found her swing in the closet and ever since has been telling me that daddy broke her swing.  She is so upset  that she can’t swing in it and tells me about it all the time, she says “dada bro fwing!”  So now anytime something is broken, dada did it, and anytime she gets hurt, Asher did it.  Poor little Asher, he gets blamed for her boo boo’s even if he isn’t around to cause them.    I’m amazed daily at how much she remembers and all of the new words that she can say.  It’s amazing that a month ago she could only say 1 word at a time and now she can put sentences together.  She’s growing up so fast!

 

Ava has been showing signs for a quite a while now that she might be ready to start potty training so I went ahead and ordered her very own potty from Amazon.  Who knew there were so many potty’s on the market to choose from!  It was almost overwhelming!  I also ordered Elmo’s potty time DVD and a book called “Big girls use the potty”  I ask her if she’s ready to learn to go on the potty and she says “no!”

 

As for us the house hunting continues. Our Realtor is probably ready to jump off a bridge, as he is a total inner looper and we have dragged him to every outer corner of the city trying to find a house.  We actually put an offer in last week, but thank goodness they countered because we changed our minds!  We have changed our mind on area’s 3 times and are now back to our original location we had planned on.  Steve put our notice in at the apartment so we have exactly 2 weeks to find a house and get it under contract!  Apartment living has been fun but we are ready to be homeowners again.  I just hope we can find something that we just love and don’t end up settling now that we are under a time crunch to make a decision.

 

We also received GREAT news this morning.  Steve went in for his semi-annual check-up with the dermatologist and they did not find anything that looked suspicious, so he is still melanoma free!  Now we can relax for another 6 months J