Swimming And Snow = Wrong

Yesterday, we went to a birthday party for a sweet 6-year-old girl. Her family and our family went through training together and moved to the same city so we became friends. They also have a 3-year-old girl and a 18-month-old girl. Very sweet girls. This party was a pool party, in January with snow falling outside. How cool is that? The family lives in an apartment complex complete with an indoor heated pool. Boy, did the kids have fun swimming! It was just the oddest thing watching Ava swim in a pool and then glancing out the windows at the snowy outdoors. Swimming and snow. Swimming and snow. They don't go together. Ava had so much fun swimming, playing with the girls, eating cupcakes, singing Happy Birthday, and even took a nap there so we were able to hang out with the parents in peace with all the girls napping away. We stayed to eat dinner and finally left to come home. It was a fun-filled day for Ava and for us. We didn't take any pictures but you can just picture the biggest grin on Ava's face as she swam around the pool with her daddy, swimmies on her arms.

Winter usually has yucky weather and on Thursday, it was too wet outdoors to go out and play so we made early Valentine cookies. It was the first time we (including me) had ever made sugar cookies and used cookie cutters. I made gluten-free sugar cookies, rolled them out, and then let Ava cut the cookies out and sprinkle homemade colored sugar on them. With some help, of course. The next day, I sent cookies with Ava to school to share with her classmates. The container was returned to me empty so I guess the cookies were a hit with the kids. The cookies were barely sweet, which I think the nationals here prefer anyway.

Wearing a princess dress and cutting cookies

A big heart

Sprinkling colored sugar

Yay, first batch all ready to bake!

Fresh from the oven

Hugs and kisses for you. One X looks like an X chromosome

Other news...

I started potty training Ava again for the umpteenth time. Amazingly this time, it's working. She was already "trained" as far as knowing how to use the potty and recognizing the cues to go but this time, she was motivated, a big key difference that was missing all along. Her accidents are few and far between. They're typically for understandable reasons like getting so busy playing with other kids that she forgot to take herself to the potty. Who can be bothered with going to the potty when you're having so much fun? Another accident was when we were playing hide 'n' seek and Ava got so worked up with excitement when we caught her hiding that she wet her underwear. Ha! She's progressing quickly, asking to use the big toilet (she used to be afraid of falling in it) and waking up dry in the mornings. She has woken up dry from her naps for a long time already. She has a name for going number one in the potty: "making an O." We absolutely cannot figure out why she calls it that. This morning, she woke up with a dry diaper, went to the potty, urinated a large amount, and said, "That was a big O!" We put her on the potty before we leave the house and she will sometimes just have an empty bladder and say, "I can't make an O." Such a funny girl. I am one relieved mama. I'll enjoy the next 6 diaper-free months before I start diapers all over again with the little one.

Speaking of the little one, we should find out in a week or two if we're having a boy or girl. Fun times!