Oh-Bla-Di

It seems to me that Ava’s whole life (all three years of it) has been building to this day…the day when she began her formal dance education.  It’s undeniable to the people who know her well, that Whoozers was meant to dance and to perform.  She’s got great rhythm, always has, and loves to dance.  So, when we signed her up and got her all the gear for Christmas, we were fairly certain this first day would go well.  And it did.  She LOVED it.

Ready to go with her dance shoes!

Waiting anxiously for class to start.

The class Ava is signed up for is an hour long – half hour of ballet and a half hour of tap.  Ballet starts with stretching and a quick run through of the five ballet positions.

Then it was time to move across the floor in pairs, working on pirouettes and skipping.

After ballet, it’s time for a quick change of shoes and back in for tap.  During the shoe change, Ava said, “Mommy, this is so fun! (petting my face) It’s just so fun.”

Noah came along for class, too, and really enjoyed it.

We figure that he might as well get used to this, as he’s got lots of dance classes and recitals in his future.  Matt’ll be able to coach him through it, though, as a seasoned big brother of a dancer.

Once tap started, we laughed out loud every time the teacher put her finger to her lips to ask the girls to be quiet during tap.  Eight little girls in tap shoes and quiet?  Never going to happen.  But, we weren’t allowed in the studio, so were saved from the sound by the window between us.  I’d imagine that her ears were fairly ringing by the end of it.

The last ten minutes of class were for the girls just to dance however they felt like it.  They played Freeze Dancing…freezing when the music stopped.  It was pretty crazy in there….they obviously needed to just let all their wiggles out!

At the end of class, Ava came out to take off her shoes and get ready to go home.  She said, “Mommy, that was wonderful.”  I’m pretty sure we’ll be going back next week.

So proud of our girl and so excited for her new adventure!

I think if Noah had words, that’s what he would say.  Our little dude is obsessed with his toes lately.  Every day, when I pick him up from school, his socks or sleeper feet are just soaked because he’s been sucking on them all day.  Sure does make diaper changes interesting…easy to wipe, not so easy to diaper.

Ava didn’t get to her toes until she was about six months old, so this is a bit early, I think.  I’m chalking it up to all the time he’s spent in disposable diapers since it’s much easier to bend at the waist in those.  Ava had to be pretty strong to haul her toes to her nose, so rolled over instead.  I suppose Noah figures, with entertainment like one’s toes, why would one ever learn to roll over?  Can’t reach your toes on your tummy!

I have a ton of pictures to share of Christmas Day around here.  So, rather than typing thousands of words to describe them, I’ll mostly let them speak for themselves.  Suffice it to say, though, that we had a lovely day.  Ava was thrilled to find that Santa had brought her the purple present that she asked him for, and Noah discovered that he could blow raspberries on his very first Christmas.  Thanks to the magic of Skype, we even got to open presents with both sets of grandparents.  Highlights for me were watching Ava try out her new dance stuff (girl’s got some moves!) and watching Ava & Matt play with the new RC boats in the pool.

Here’s the photo recap of a really great day:

Noah woke up super early, so we got some good cuddle time in before Ava woke up.

Whoozers slept in on Christmas Day.  7am!  Clearly she doesn’t quite get it all yet.  

Thrilled to find her purple present,with a bow, that turned into candy!

Opening her stocking.  She eventually opened all of them for us.  Such a good helper.

Twizzlers for breakfast.  Whoozers is truly her mother’s daughter.

All mornings should start with mimosas, I think.  LaCroix is a great champagne substitute for Ava’s drink.

Happy baby boy on his first Christmas!

Noah’s first bear from Mommy & Daddy.  His is named Jack.  Ava’s first bear was called Jill.  

Trying on her new ballet shoes

Dr. Who T-shirts for everyone this Christmas!

Both kids received a bunch of books this Christmas.  Every time we opened one, it had to be read immediately!

Opening presents is tiring!

New tap shoes!

Pretty ballerina

We spent the bulk of the afternoon enjoying our new toys and just hanging out.  Matt and I never got out of our pajamas!  We played several rounds of Ava’s new Memory game and spent some time putting together a new Playmobil set.  (Special shout out to Cousin Laura, who sent this great Christmas set all the way from Germany!)

When we were all played out, we settled in with some popcorn to enjoy one of Ava’s favorite gifts…Beauty & the Beast!  Thanks to several viewings of the movie in the last couple of days, her “Belle” skirt from Grammie is now getting lots of use.

Settling in to watch Beauty and the Beast.  The perfect end to a wonderful day!

Merry Christmas!

We finally got around to meeting Santa this year.  Ava chatted his ear off and Noah sort of just looked at him like he wasn’t sure what was going on.

This Santa was really awesome, so the kiddos got to spend as much time as they wanted talking to him.

Ava asked Santa for a purple present (full of candy) with a bow, this year.  Noah was a bit less specific in his first meeting with the big guy.

By the way, how’s this for a flashback?  Here’s Ava meeting Santa for the first time wearing the same onesie.

But, now, the orders are in, the elves are hard at work, the cookies are ready…

…and it’s time for Christmas finally to arrive!

Out of the blue last week, Ava said she wanted to go ice skating.  Seemed like the perfect time, so we found a place to go.  Surprisingly, for this being a desert, we had several choices!

We showed up at the rink just in time for an open skate, rented our skates, and got ready to go.

The rink was pretty crowded, but we were able to use some of their toddler walkers to help Ava get a good start.

Eventually, though, the walker ended up being more trouble than it was worth, so we moved on to just holding hands and working along the boards.  By the fourth or fifth time around the week, she was really starting to get the hang of it.  Whoozers was even starting to let go of everything and just scoot on around.

Ava had a great time skating and was a huge fan of “going fast” when we would push her around the rink.  She was totally wiped out afterward, but woke up the next morning asking if we were going again.  I think it was a hit!