December 19, 2009

Tracy brought little Justin over to us this morning. Before he got here, Ava and I speculated on how much he's grown and whether or not he's walking everywhere without falling down. Sure enough, he arrived with a big smile on his face, and busy little feet and hands that were up and down the house in no time!

Last weekend, she had picked out a big blue swordfish Christmas ornament at the Hallmark card shop, and as it was $10 I told her that she had to be very careful with it - that it was breakable, and that it wasn't to play with - that she'd have this ornament for the rest of her life if she took good care of it. So as soon as she was up and about this morning, one of the first things she did was put the ornament higher on the tree so Justin couldn't reach it. I hadn't mentioned anything about it to her, she just took it upon herself.

As much as she loves him, she's not used to a baby following her around and trying to grab her, so she spent a good two hours when he first got there up on the kitchen table, playing "Survivor" with her animals out of his reach. She cut a rubber band so it was a single string, then made yo-yo's out of her baby dinosaurs, first Sarah and then Little Foot. They were competing in Survivor and she made them do all kinds of tricks on the yo-yo. She had me bring in their "parents" to watch them, so I had a whole row of dinosaurs on the kitchen counter, watching across the room as their children did yo-yo tricks up on the table with Ava.

I used the time to make a pork/moose meat pie, and it was a cozy time in the kitchen - Ava standing on the table, Justin opening all the drawers and cupboards and strewing pots and pans and spatulas across the room.

Ava got down off the table, and on to a chair, to feed Justin a pudding snack - she held the spoon out and he toddled over, took a bite, and then toddled off until she called him back for another bite. She kept saying, "Justin, open your mouth, a choo-choo train is coming..."

Later, when Gaffer got home from duck hunting, she "helped" Justin open his Christmas presents - "helped" meaning that she did it for him, but he didn't mind. And then she didn't play with his toys, she just "checked them out". We gave him a little John Deere ATV to ride around on, and when Gaffer saw her riding it he said, "Isn't that a little small for you, Ava?" and she got a little embarrassed, and said, "Oh, I'm just making sure it's working right..."

He was obviously dying to take a bath - every time we went into the bathroom for any reason he bellied up to the tub, patting it with his hands and raising up and down on his feet, babbling with excitement. One time he actually got a leg over and slid right in - *thunk* So we made a bath for him after supper, and he had a blast splashing and bouncing around in the water. Ava and I sat together on her little stool by the sink, watching him. At one point, with her head on my shoulder, she sighed and said, "Oh, they grow so fast, don't they?"

She's been watching the latest "Ice Age" movie, Dawn of the Dinosaurs, where Sid the sloth finds three T-Rex eggs hatching in a cave, and then the T-Rex mother shows up to claim the babies. Ava obviously had been pondering this, and asked me, "How did those eggs get into the cave anyway? The mother can't fit in there..." I've watched that movie about 600 times now, and it never occured to me to question how those eggs got into the cave. Her little brain is always working!!

December 12, 2009

This morning Ava said, "Gaffer thinks he's old!" and I said, "Well, he isn't - he's younger than me! I was 4 years old like you before he was even born!" And she said, "But then who fixed things before Gaffer was born?"

She's smart!

We were driving to Gram and Gramp's yesterday morning, both of us feeling sad that we would be saying good-bye for a whole week. I even accidentally made her cry by telling her that I make sure to brush her hair before we go to Gram's, so that Gram knows that I take good care of her. She said, "What happens if my hair is messy?" and I was JOKING and said, "Well, she might just keep you, if she thinks I don't take good care of you!" She burst into tears and hid her face under her blanket!! I felt terrible! I reassured her that of course Gram knows I take good care of her, and Gram knows that Ava always gets to come home, no matter what, even if she has messy hair...

So then we started talking about how other kids have to go to Day Care - that Ava is lucky because sometimes I work at home, and even when I go away she gets to go to Gram and Gramp's and not Day Care. I told her that some kids have to go to Day Care every day so that their parents could go to work and get money. She thought about it for a minute, then said, "Why do the parents go to work every day, because then they never have a day off to spend their money?" Her point was, why go to work at all to get money, if you never have a chance to spend it? She's just as sharp as a tack!!!

We had Bear with us, to drop off at Nannie's house, and I asked her if she wanted to be dropped off at Gram and Gramp's first, or if she wanted to go with me to drop off Bear first. She said, "I want to drop off Bear so I can spend extra time with you..." I love that kid.

December 6, 2009

We got snow last night!! Woke up to blue skies and about 4" of fresh snow over everything. Ava couldn't wait to get outside with her polar bear and unicorn (because the unicorn is white, too).

After the t-shirt, underwear, long-sleeve shirt, long stockings (they go all the way up to her butt - pretty funny! She folds them in half under her knees...), play pants, snow pants, winter coat, scarf, hat, boots and mittens were on, she trekked out into the snow with a big smile on her face. I let her play in the snow on the back porch with the polar bear and unicorn while Gaffer was putting his boots on and ready to go out with her.

He took her out on the snowmobile for a few circles around the back yard - she loved it!! With her pink helmet on, she looked like a little martian sitting on the machine in front of Patrick. She had a blast, and wanted him to go fast! After the ride, she and Gaffer shoveled off the trampoline, and then she was ready to come in.

Just now, we're sitting together on the couch, watching the Patriots/Dolphins game (she's torn on who to root for - likes dolphins!!! But is loyal to the Patriots...), and eating chips and dip. Bear is lying on the couch right beside her, and she just looked down at him and said, "Oh God, I love your little black nose!"

Last night, she was sleeping with us (as usual) and about 4am I heard Patrick say, "Ava, you have to let me have some of the blanket - I'm freezing!" And then a few moments later I heard him say, "Thank you, Ava, you're so sweet!" This morning he told me that she had taken a postage stamp size piece of the blanket and pulled it over his shoulder, then patted him on the cheek, like "there, there, honey..."

Back to the football game and playing with animals on the floor.