Sweet Ava

Ava. Oh sweet, sweet Ava. How can two people from the same place be so completely different, I wonder?

Ava is such a hall monitor or rule follower. She’s quite complex at three years old. Basically, her mood depends on the amount of sleep and food she’s operating on. When she starts to get grumpy I usually slip her a pretzel or granola bar. When she’s good she is SO good. She’s so very caring and considerate. She loves to help and to feel useful. Occasionally, she makes small, sweet gestures such as helping me take my shoes off or moving my hair out of my face. She also tells me, “Mama, you’re beautiful.”

Ava has an imagination that would make Walt Disney proud. She plays extremely well by herself. For the past month Ava has been obsessed with her bedroom and she’ll spend hours playing by herself in her room. It’s not uncommon for us to find her adorned from head to toe (literally) in all her jewelry when we check on her in her room. She’s also very curious about other people’s bedrooms. For example, she requested to see her friend Jake’s room during a recent visit to his house.

Ava loves dessert. Chocolate.

Last week we had a Parent-Teacher conference at Ava’s school. The first words out of Ava’s teacher’s mouth were, “Ava is just a delight.” She had some interesting observations but nothing that surprised Chris or myself. Here's what I can remember... Ava could pass as one of the oldest kids in the class; she’s very mature. She gets along well with adults as well as other children. She does not have an “it’s my way or the highway” attitude – she’s always willing to compromise. Her favorite activity is dress-up, although, she’ll dress-up and then play something else in her dress-up clothes. She’s forming friendships. She’s very focused and she has an impressive attention span for a three-year-old. It’s still early to tell but her teacher thinks that Ava is favoring her right hand when it comes to writing, coloring and cutting. She prefers playing with others but she’s content on her own during projects. Her teacher mentioned a few times that Ava is a sponge. We agreed to keep feeding her thirst for knowledge at home and her teacher gave us some neat suggestions for activities to do with Ava at home.

Ava is so excited to go to Myrtle Beach for Thanksgiving. It’s so cool how much she understands now! Also, courtesy of marketing and advertising schemes, Ava is also excited about Christmas. She wants to decorate our house AND our car. The other night Chris and Ava were talking about Christmas and Chris asked Ava what she wants Santa to bring her. This was Ava’s response, “Maybe a little elliptical to put next to Mommy’s big elliptical and we can elliptical together.” Then Chris asked her what she thinks Santa should bring Linc and she said, “A Santa bottle and a ball.” Then he asked Ava about me, “What should Santa bring Mommy?” and Ava said, “Wine. Food. Santa plates and Santa clothes.” Sigh… So, I piped up and asked Ava, “What do you think Santa should bring Daddy?” to which she replied, “Maybe some books because he likes books just like I do?” Really?! This is how she sees her parents?! Wine?! Books?! Ugh…

Here are some cute things Ava has said recently:

“You and Daddy are my little lovie buggies.”

“Let’s rock and roll.” I asked her if she was ready to leave the house.

“I drank all my apple juice! Now I’m nice and hydrated.”

Ava & her BFF, Jake...

I asked her what she learned in school and she said, "I learned about the Powhatans. The Daddy's went into the woods and took the skin off the animals so that the Mommy's could make clothes. Also, the hawks kept coming into the gardens when they were trying to grow corn so they made scarecrows." Here she is sporting her Powhatan school projects...

A little poem we worked on at home. Here is my inspiration (click).

Ava loves Papa's iPhone! He downloaded a bunch of pre-school games for the girls and Ava will sit and play with them by herself until the cows come home...