Sarah's fancy headband

One of Mom's friends Stephanie sent a beautiful headband with a big flower on it. Sarah wore it all evening and didn't seem to mind having something on her head. She looked adorable, don't you think?!

Welcome Grandma!

Grandma made it safe and sound on her trip from Connecticut. Ava and Sarah are looking forward to a fun week with Grandma!

Ava's Circus story

(Another original story by Ava. This time she typed the whole thing by herself with Dad spelling the words. She remembered where most of the letters are and when she mistyped she used the backspace key to fix it. Dad told her that later we will work on upper and lower case typing.)


circus
once about a time
there was a beautiful circus
with jokes and
funny stories and
pretty ballerinas

the end
good night

Dad and Ava underwater!

Saturday Sep 25th we went to Bridgette's cabana club. Her Dad had a really cool camera that could take pictures underwater. Look at Dad and Ava!

Ava's Story... The Little Red Hen

Here is a story written by Ava. You might recognize it as the story of the hen that plants the seeds and the other barn animals will not help. Ava wrote her own shortened version of the story. Then she read it to Mom and Sarah. Finally, Ava typed the story in to the computer (below) and Dad fixed a few of the typos...

the little red hen
welcome to show
plant the seed
water the seed
grind the corn
bake the muffin
eat the muffin
the end

Playing with Sarah

Ava is helping to set up some of Sarah's "toys". This is a little play mat that Sarah can lay on and eventually she will be able to reach for the little toys and kick. It has lights and music. Ava helped hang the little animals on the holes. She is a great big sister and is always interested in what Sarah is doing.

Sarah's first bath

Thursday night Sarah's umbilical cord fell off and now she has a belly button! This meant that Mom could give her a bath. On Friday Mom and Ava gave Sarah her first bath. Ava was the official photographer and Mom did the bathing. Sarah cried a little but Mom thinks that she liked it.

Afterward she was so relaxed that she fell asleep for hours.

Sarah's first visitors!

On Saturday Sarah had her first visitors to the house. Mom and Dad's good friends Sara and Evan came to visit with their girls Anya and Lindsay. They brought a beautiful blanket for Sarah and a Princess game for big sister Ava. The girls all played together nicely and Anya and Lindsay even got to hold Baby Sarah for a bit. She was a good little baby.

Sarah goes to Costco

Mom got an "Ergo" baby carrier. Much improved over the models available when Ava was an infant. Sarah went to sleep right away when she was in it and Mom was walking around. Sarah slept through her first trip to Costco!

9/11 flag for Sarah

When Dad and Mom realized that Sarah was going to be born on 9/11 it seemed like a good idea to get a flag. Mom got one on Friday and Dad hung it outside the day that Sarah was born on 9/11 and every day since. Every day Ava helps put the flag out in the morning and also take it down in the evening. The bracket is a little high and the flag is a little heavy for here, but Dad lifts her up and helps her get it in and out of the bracket. She has a running contest with Dad as to who will remember to take the flag in and out each day.

Good night Baby!

The last blog was about "good morning" so seems fitting to have one about "good night". Ava likes having Sarah awake for bed time. She thinks that Sarah should go to bed at 8pm when Ava does. Sometimes Mom holds Sarah while Ava says her night time prayers. Then Ava gives her a kiss on the head. Sarah sleeps most of the night, only gets up a couple of times to feed. Dad is a light sleeper, so he is up to help a little with diapers or getting Sarah in and out of the crib.

Good morning Baby!

Ava comes in to Mom and Dad's room every morning around 7am when she gets up. She is excited to see Baby Sarah. Ava climbs in to bed and gives Sarah kisses on the forehead. It was pretty tough getting to school on time every day of the week. Ava has to be to school at 8:30am and made it every day of the week except Friday when we were a few minutes late.

Dad and his girls

Dad and Ava with Sarah at the hospital on Sunday Sep 12.

From the last blog the top picture is Sarah and the bottom picture is Ava. Both pictures are when the girls were only days old and they are wearing the same outfit. The look so much alike. Auntie Tara knew the correct answer. Mimi and Papa were mistaken and somehow Grandma and Grandpa Sywenkyj "cheated"?!?!?

Sisters... Can you tell them apart?

Here are the two sisters side-by-side, can you tell which one is Ava and which is Sarah? Answer tomorrow. They do look an awful lot alike and for a while today Mom and Dad were convinced that they were actually twins and one just came out 4 1/2 years later. However after closer inspection Mom and Dad can definitely see the difference. Also they each have different facial expressions and mannerisms. Sarah likes to yawn a lot. She also raises her eyebrows and wrinkles up her forehead.

Baby Sarah comes home!

Today Ava's little sister Sarah came home from the hospital. Dad picked Ava up from school and brought Ava home. Ava was so sincerely excited and overjoyed that her sister was home. Ava spent most of the evening with Mom on the couch watching Sarah and helping with changes and blankets. At one point Mom and Sarah were dozing off and Ava was watching one of her programs. Feels good to have the family all together for the first night at home!

Week 2 at School

Here is Ava in her second week of school. The first picture shows her at the snack table. We think that this is where she spends lots of her time. The kid is a "snacker".

The second picture shows Ava and two of her good friends Amelia and Bridgette. They are all doing what Ava calls "paperwork".

Look at that grip!

Here is Ava back in school. One of the things that she has had to work on ever since she started writing is her grip. Now after months and months of Mom working with her and the teachers reminding her... look at that grip. It is textbook perfect! And her writing, drawing, and coloring are lots better too!

Happy Birthday Mom!

Aug 31 was Mom's 35th Birthday. Ava was so excited for a long time about Mom's birthday. Dad and Ava got Mom an espresso maker. Ava also wanted to get Mom a "toy submarine". She thought this was very funny and maybe it was her idea of a joke. But we did get Mom a toy submarine though Ava quickly realized that she could play with this instead of Mom. On Sunday Ava helped Dad make and decorate a cake for Mom. We found gluten free cake mix so it was easy. Ava is a little sweet tooth. She kept sticking her finger into the cake and frosting.

Great America with Dad

On Sunday Aug 29th Mom wasn't feeling so well, she just wanted to sit on the couch. So Ava and Dad headed off to Great America. We spent about 4 hours there. Ava met an older boy named Ben and they rode a bunch of the kid rides together. On the way home Dad and Ava stopped at Dairy Queen and got ice cream cones, we even brought one home to Mom.

What a mess

One night last week some of Ava's toys were taken away because she didn't want to clean up. The next day she got them back and it immediately turned into all out play. Literally, all of the toys were then taken out. Ava was in her glory. She sat amongst the mess and played for a long time. Don't recall how this mess got cleaned up, but it must have since nothing else was taken away that day.

Ava's cap

Ava received some school uniform clothes from a girl that was moving away. Among the uniform clothes was a hat with the school's name on it. Ava calls it her "cap" and she loves it. She wears it to school every morning and is quite proud of it. Sometimes it is a little hard to get it over her pigtails or pony tail, but she manages. It was taken away on one of the first days of school because she was playing with it during circle time. She got it back though. Don't know if the fascination with the cap will last long or if it is just a fad. She seems to be more concerned about hair styles and what headbands or barrettes she is going to wear.

Simon's bath

Simon got out in the yard and was loose for hours before Mom noticed that he was missing. She found him right away and was able to get him back in the house. But during the ordeal he picked up some fleas. This required that the get a bath and then several doses of flea medicine. He did not like the bath much and looked funny all wet. Ava captured the whole incident on camera. We finally think that the fleas are gone and he is NOT allowed outside any more. But that doesn't stop him from trying his best to sneak and escape.

First Day of School

Friday August 20th was the first day of school. A little late in getting this posted, but here is Ava all ready to go. She has some bigger clothes this year since she grew. In this picture she has the same shoes, but since then she has also gotten some new shoes. Mom and Ava have been experimenting with different hairstyles including braids and a ponytail. Ava is one of the big kids this year and we think that she really likes that. Her first week had a few reports of rebellion and also of answering/talking out of turn. But since then we have heard much better reports and she seems to have settled in nicely. We look forward to dinner each night to hear what kind of story she comes up with from school. Details are usually a little sketchy but it is still entertaining. God bless the teachers! Imagine spending a nine months with a bunch of 3 and 4 year olds.

Strawberrys in our yard

Ava was very excited that the neighbor's strawberry bush grew under our fence and produced a couple of strawberrys. Unfortunately they were smallish and spoiled before we found them. But Ava was still excited to take her camera and photograph a strawberry.

Ava and Ashley

For the first half of the summer Ava went to a day care when Mom worked. At first things were fine, then Ava decided that she didn't want to go to the day care anymore. From then on the days were horrible and there was much crying. The crying and worrying would start the night before Mom worked, and sometimes even a day earlier than that. So for August we had a lady come in and watch Ava in the house. A few times she brought her daughter along. Ava liked to play with Ashley. They are very close in age and highly active so they got along great. On the days when Ashley didn't come we think that Ava spent most of the time watching TV.