Inch…Inch
Our friend, Dean, was over the other day. Ava adores ‘Dean-o’ and was playing a little game with him…he would ask her what an animal sounds like and she would answer. He went through every animal…all the usual ones like cow, dog, duck and many obscure animals as well. If she actually knew the noise that any given animal would say, she would tell him. If she didn’t know, she would make something up. When he asked her what sound a worm would make, she said, “A worm sounds like this: Inch, Inch, Inch”
Where does she come up with this stuff?
Filed under Uncategorized | Comment (0)Two things I’ve learned this week…
I love all the little things that my daughter does that make her who she is. Before she was born, I often thought, “What will she look like? What funny things will she say when she’s learning how to talk? What will her favorite flavor of ice cream be? Where will she go on her first date?” You know, the usual questions that every mother has before their child is old enough to communicate and have preferences. This week I learned two things about the little person my daughter is becoming.
First, I learned that Ava likes to have things neat and orderly. She certainly didn’t get this attribute from me, as I’ve been told keeping things tidy didn’t come naturally to me as a child. (Or for an adult, for that matter!) Here’s why I have hope that Ava just might be a neat freak:
Elliot and I have been talking up the Easter Bunny to Ava…sort of presenting the idea of ‘him’ as a spring-time Santa Clause that’s always watching you to make sure you’re being a good kid. We may have played the card a bit too strongly. Yesterday, I could see Ava running around out of the corner of my eye. I couldn’t see exactly what she was doing, but could tell that she was BUSY! When I finally looked over at her, I realized that the floor was completely free of the miscellaneous toys she had pulled out throughout the afternoon. It was at that moment that I heard the tell-tale ‘CRASH’ of another toy being hurled into the toy box. Ava had been running around (are you ready for this??) PICKING UP HER TOYS and PUTTING THEM AWAY!!!!
I asked her, “Sweetheart, what are you doing?”
To which she replied, VERY excitedly, “I’m picking up for the Easter Bunny! He’s gonna bring me lots and lots of toys! He’s gonna come over tonight!”
Whoops. I guess she’s going to be sorely disappointed when all the lousy Easter Bunny leaves her is some candy and a few eggs.
The second thing I learned this week was how Ava prefers to eat an Oreo. I’ve really never seen anything like it, actually. She immediately pulls apart the two halves, and uses her index fingers as little rakes to scrape the frosting from the middle and put in her mouth. She’ll scrape the frosting until every last bit is gone…and then she simply abandons the remaining chocolate cookie parts. She leaves the very best part! Who’s daughter is she anyway??
Filed under Uncategorized | Comment (0)Do you feel okay?
Yesterday was a bright, sunny day and Ava seemed to have cabin fever (just like the rest of us) so we went to the library. She was such a good little girl. She stayed in her stroller just like I asked her to and when we went into the ‘big people’ section of the library to find cookbooks for Daddy she even spoke in a whisper, instead of her usual loud toddler voice.
On the way home she was particularly docile. Her face was a little pale and the dark circles under her eyes gave me a clue that she was exhausted, in spite of her rather long afternoon nap.
As I drove, I asked her, “Ava, do you feel okay?”
I didn’t hear a response, so I glanced into the rear-view mirror. What I saw was enough to almost make me run off the road in hysterical fits of laughter! She had the most quizzical look on her little face…eyes glancing off and up to the side…and she was patting herself down to see if she ‘felt’ the same as usual. It was truly the funniest thing ever! I could tell that I had really stumped her with that question.
Filed under Uncategorized | Comment (0)Ava, my Evil Knievel
Elliot and I are both very safe people. He doesn’t go on roller-coasters, ride a bike, or even swim. I drive carefully, am afraid of the dark and don’t like to take unnecessary risks with my safety. We like to have both feet squarely on the ground at all times. We avoid things that we know will harm us. How is it possible that we created such a little daredevil?!
Ava just mastered her tricycle this past week. She can now pedal AND steer, which means that she’s on the move!! And, she’s not satisfied to merely ride in a circle…she must maneuver around hairpin turns, which often results in the whole trike tipping over! She doesn’t seem to mind. She just gets up, brushes herself off and gets back on to continue with whatever feat she was just attempting.
She is forever trying to do ‘chin-ups’ off of the highest part of our kitchen island. Chin-ups?? Where on earth did she learn THAT? It certainly wasn’t from Elliot or Me. Any who know us, know that fitness is NOT our passion. I promise that she’s never, ever seen either one of us doing anything as disgusting as a ‘chin-up’!
Ava is also very interested in turning anything and everything into ‘roller skates, ice skates, a skateboard, or a surfboard’. You know those lids that come with plastic storage bins? I have to keep them all out of her sight, or they become quite treacherous roller skates! This kid just has to be on the move at all times!
Yesterday I kept hearing a deafening ‘THUD’ coming repeatedly from her room. As I sat in my chair I couldn’t imagine what would produce such a loud noise, without resulting in cries of pain! I jumped up to go investigave and when I got into her room, I realized that Ava had now taken to Base Jumping off of the end of her bed! What’s next? Jumping from the top of the refrigerator? And after that, the roof??
Now today…Ava and I were in Wal-Mart. I made the huge mistake of walking her down the toy aisle. (I am fairly new at being a Mom to a toddler, so cut me a little bit of slack! This is NOT a mistake I will make again.) Ava instantly spotted the Barbie Roller Skates and was ready to base-jump out of the cart to get at them! Against my better judgement, the Barbie skates came home with us. What was I thinking?? As I pulled them from their packaging, I suddenly had a horrendous vision of spending the evening in the emergency room and the resulting inquiries from DCS that would certainly follow. (”You actually bought your TWO year old roller skates?? What kind of an unfit mother are you?”) Thank God that Ava had been given a set of a helmet, knee pads and elbow pads for Christmas!
We loaded her into her safety gear, put the skates on her feet and watched the hilarity that ensued. She floundered for a couple of minutes, fell numerous times on her rear-end and by the end of the half hour was starting to get the hang of it! The kid is actually not too bad! Whew…my fears of DCS intervention and supervision were unwarranted. (Well, until they realize I let her eat an Oreo for breakfast last week…)
Filed under Uncategorized | Comment (0)“Your Turn!”
The span of time that takes me from Ava’s dinner through the moment when she finally falls asleep is the most exhausting of the day for me. It’s all I can to do to keep up with her boundless toddler energy as she runs from one end of the house to the other, creating an F5 tornado in her wake. She literally goes through each room, gets EVERYTHING out, and then moves on.
She is also very into ‘taking turns’…this is undoubtedly a by-product of her time spent in school three times a week? Everything is, “My turn!” Or, if it’s a something that she doesn’t want to do, she’ll say, “Your turn Mom!”
Two evenings ago, after a particularly wild evening, Ava sauntered over to her play area, clad in her favorite yellow Dora pajamas. She looked around, surveyed the damage and said to me with much authority, “Okay, Mom. It’s YOUR turn to come clean up my area!”
Oh, boy.
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