Disney Vacation 2010

On Saturday afternoon, February 27th, after dropping off the dogs at Misty Ridge kennel in Lisbon and leaving two kitty litter boxes, a casserole dish full of cat food, and five big bowls of water along with the lid up on the toilet for Blue Cat, we put our suitcases into the Escape and headed for Manchester. Ava stayed awake for the entire drive, and we spent a lot of time playing her new favorite car game – “20 Questions”. (For the record, most of the time the answer is “Teddy”…)

We checked into the Hampton Inn in Bedford, just over the river from the airport, and then went over to Bugaboo Creek for dinner. We sat near the talking bison, which Ava enjoyed! After dinner, back at the hotel, we put our bathing suits on and had a great time in the pool for the rest of the evening. There was even a hot tub and a sauna, and we enjoyed both of those as well. Finally we dragged a reluctant Ava back to the room for a bath and a good night sleep before our 7am flight the next morning.

The alarm woke Patrick and me up at 4, and Ava amazingly woke up on her own at 4:30 – ready to go! So it was easy to get everyone dressed and packed up and we were in the car on the way to the airport by 5:15, boarding the plane right on time at 6:45. As we began to taxi down the runway, the plane came to a stop, and the pilot came on the P/A, saying, “We’ve just heard from the FAA, and because we always do exactly what the FAA instructs us to do, we must make the following announcement: … So-and-So is the worst cribbage player in New Hampshire!” Everyone had a good laugh, and the plane started rolling again.

Ava took a window seat, and had fun looking out the window and playing “aminals” for the entire flight. She got to try out the tiny bathroom, which she thought was pretty interesting. The pilot had announced to us earlier in the flight that we’d be landing a full 50 minutes early!! Instead of 10:30, we arrived at 9:40! Descending into Orlando, Ava began to cry because her ears hurt, but she recovered by the time the wheels touched down, and was cheerful for the walk to the Magical Express terminal.

We hadn’t walked very far from the gate when Ava spotted a display of bananas for sale, and so she munched on a banana while we made our way onto the little train that took us to the main terminal, and from there we walked to the far end of the building to get to the Magical Express area. We had no line to stand in, and were on the bus in minutes.

It was a beautiful sunny day, and we sat in the first rows on the bus for the ride to Ft. Wilderness, stopping first at several other resorts. We had a quick, easy check-in and were delivered to our cabin (2823) by 11:30.
We still had to wait for the groceries (scheduled for 1:30) and luggage to arrive, so Patrick took a Ft. Wilderness bus to the store at the marina to get some refreshments for us while Ava and I explored the cabin and played animals out on the picnic table.



The groceries arrived right on schedule, and the suitcases not long after that, and then we were free to begin our vacation! Epcot was planned for the afternoon, with a dinner reservation at 6pm at the Biergarten in Germany. From our cabin, it was a little bit of a walk to the bus stop – we’d be using the “Outpost Purple” bus for any park except Magic Kingdom. The Outpost Purple bus took us to the Outpost (the area where we had checked in) bus stop, and from there we’d jump on whatever bus was going to the park we wanted to visit. The Outpost bus stop was fun, because it was near the stables and we could visit with the horses and watch people getting ready for trail rides while we waited for our bus. The wait was never longer than 10 or 15minutes.



It’s about a 10-minute bus ride to Epcot from the Ft. Wilderness Outpost, so we were there before 3:00. We had packed a backpack with a rolled-up warm fleece blanket and extra clothes for Ava, her thermos of apple juice, the video camera and the digital camera – Patrick was lugging it around (being the good Sherpa that he is) and had to go through a security check where they went through the bag each time we entered a park.

We got a stroller for Ava first, and then went over to “The Living Seas” – going on the “Finding Nemo” ride, taking a picture with Bruce the Shark, and sitting through “Turtle Talk with Crush” which was too corny for Patrick and me, and way over Ava’s head with the excessive surfer-dude talk. She had sat on the floor with all the other kids, and Patrick and I were in the front row, and toward the end of the show she looked back at us as if to say, “… Are we out of here yet?” so we scooped her up as soon as it was over and got her cozy in the stroller – next thing, she’s sound asleep.



Patrick and I decided to walk over to the World Showcase and get a beverage. Then we saw the boat going over to Morocco, so we jumped on with Ava still sleeping cozily in her stroller, and rested our legs for a little cruise across the Epcot lagoon. We explored Morocco a little bit, and I went into the “Kidcot” station there to get Ava a mask. There’s a Kidcot station in every country, with a representative from that country sitting at a little table – they stamp the mask with the name of the country, and write the kid’s name in the language – then the kid can take the mask to another little table with chairs and color their mask. The Kidcots are sponsored by Sharpie, so there’s a big bowl of fat Sharpie pens of all colors on the table. You can also buy a passport in any of the gift shops, and get those filled out at the Kidcots, too, but we thought Ava was a little young for that this year.

We bought Moroccan beers to go, which really made the already enjoyable strolling around even better! The World Showcase is spectacular and beautiful, and it was such a pleasure to walk slowly, sipping a beverage, and looking around. We went into Japan and walked a quiet path through flowers and trees, and over a bridge that looked down upon a babbling brook ending in a big pool filled with giant koi fish. Approaching Germany, we came across a little village that had been built – tiny evergreens and rosemaries for trees, and a tiny railroad track with a working train – the detail was amazing. A little groom carrying his little bride was coming out of a little church, a miniature castle overlooked the village, farmers worked in their fields – it was magical.

And then we saw Snow White! She was signing autographs and having pictures taken, and we didn’t want Ava to miss it! It was difficult to get the sleepy girl going, but once she realized what was going on she was all over it. Snow White was very sweet to her, and when Ava told her that she was going to ride the teacups the next day, Snow White told her that the teacups are the dwarves’ favorite ride, too. She gave Ava a big hug and gave Teddy a kiss on the forehead, and told her to take good care of him. Ava was thrilled.


By now it was time for our dinner reservation, so we went over to the Biergarten. We had a pretty blond waitress named Daniela who took us to our table. In the World Showcase, all the people working in all the countries really are native to that country, and sign on for a 12-month stay at Epcot. Daniela’s time was almost over – she was going home to Munich on March 10th. She was charmed by Ava and when we took their picture together she gave me her e-mail address so I could forward the picture to her.

We were seated at a long table with another family, overlooking the stage and dance floor below where a live polka band was playing and where a whole bunch of little kids and their parents were dancing – it was so fun! The dinner was a buffet, so we helped ourselves to sausages and sauerkraut and herring salad and all kinds of other German fare, and had some Oktoberfest beer. Patrick and I both spent time dancing with Ava after dinner, and we had a great time.


On the way back through the park, Ava spotted a puppet unicorn that she had to have, and so “Goldy” was added to the family, and spent the rest of the week as Teddy’s sidekick (her puppet strings were cut off by the end of the night!) We stopped at China so Ava could work on her mask, and we went on the “Three Caballeros” ride in Mexico. Ava fell asleep on the bus back to Ft. Wilderness – she had had a very full day.


The next morning, Monday, we headed by bus over to Animal Kingdom.
This turned out to be the nicest day, weather-wise, that we would have. It was warm and sunny and we had fun on the safari ride and walking along the different trails in the park. Ava sat on the left side of the jeep, and had a close encounter with a giraffe! It was eating leaves from a tree right beside her when we stopped, and she told us that he waved his tongue at her! He was so close she could have reached out to pat him. We didn’t do any rides, other than the safari, but just enjoyed being able to walk the beautiful paths and look at all the birds and animals.
Ava noticed some kids that had their faces painted, and asked if she could do that, so we found a little kiosk with some ladies doing face painting and got in line. Ava made friends with another little girl in line with her, and they both had fun comparing what design they were going to get and looking at the other kids getting painted. When it was Ava’s turn, she seemed to really enjoy sitting in the tall chair with her eyes closed, allowing the lady to dab paint on her face. In no time, she was decorated with a sparkly unicorn!


We left the park by one in the afternoon to go back to the cabin for lunch. After some sandwiches and chips, we decided not to go back to Animal Kingdom, but to go to the pool instead. It was about 65 degrees, and Steve had called to say he was coming over for a visit. He was at flight school in Orlando, and had a rental Mustang convertible so he could drive over to Ft. Wilderness to see us. Ava met a few more 4-year-olds at the pool (lots of 4-year-olds at Disney!) and she and Gaffer had great fun swimming and jumping and splashing. Steve had called to say that he was going to Daytona, and we decided to hook up on Tuesday instead. It started cooling off as the sun went down and it was time to get out of the pool, and Ava cried and made a ball of herself on the ground and completely pitched a fit – she would have been happy to swim all night. We had a supper of cereal and toast, and an early bedtime – breakfast with Cinderella was tomorrow morning!

We had an 8:10am reservation on Tuesday for Cinderella’s Royal Table, so we had the alarm set early and woke to pouring rain! Crap! But we got Ava all dressed in her beautiful gown, and she got Teddy into his (matching) beautiful gown, and then she stuffed Goldy into Teddy’s gown also. Patrick and I both felt bad for Teddy, having to share his big day with a new pet, but he was very gracious about it, and I wrapped him and Goldy in a plastic bag so they wouldn’t get wet on the way to the bus stop. We trotted in the rain to the bus stop, where we were lucky enough to find a purple bus waiting. When we boarded and told the driver that we were going to Magic Kingdom for a Cinderella breakfast he got on the radio and asked the dispatcher if he could take us all the way to the park! And he did!


It was 7:30 and by now the rain had let up, but the wind was fierce and cold, and we still had to wait for the park to open. We stood shivering with ten or twenty other people until they opened the gate just before 8. We bee-lined it for the castle and in no time we were inside and Ava was getting her picture taken with Cinderella. From there, we went up red-carpeted stairs to the dining room where we were seated at a table near the windows and, after Ava was given a magic wand, were served a wonderful breakfast of coffee, juice, pastries, fruit, eggs, bacon and sausage. Princesses made the rounds, one at a time,

and stopped at each table to give autographs and get photos taken. Ava had colored a picture for Snow White, and anxiously waited to see her. When she came to our table, Ava gave her the picture and Snow White hugged it and said she had to take it back to show the dwarves – she left the dining room holding the picture to her chest, and a lot of little girls watched her leave wondering why they hadn’t had a chance to see her! But she came right back and continued working the room. It was a wonderful experience – not too crowded and noisy as we had kind of dreaded, but rather surprisingly cozy and relaxed. We all enjoyed it very much.


For the rest of the trip, every time Ava told people about her breakfast with the Princesses, the next question to her was always, "Which Princess is your favorite?" Her answer cracked us up - "...Myself!"

After breakfast, we hopped on the boat back to Ft. Wilderness. It was still very cold and windy, and we wanted to get Ava changed into warm play clothes to go back to Magic Kingdom in. We were the only ones on the boat going back to the campground – all the other traffic was heading in to the park – so we sat in front with the captain and Patrick had fun chatting with him about duck hunting and boating. Or actually, the captain had fun chatting and Patrick did a lot of polite listening. Ava was happy because the captain had given her a couple of fancy plastic rings and some stickers – another person captivated by her charms!

After a quick change we took the bus down to the marina for the bus to Magic Kingdom. We saw the pony barn along the way, and walked over so Ava could have a $5 ride. She was given a smart-looking white pony named Cloud, and I led him along the path while she looked around and completely loved the ride. Cloud was a perky little guy, with a snappy step and alert pointy ears – we liked him.

After another cold boat ride, we were back at Magic Kingdom. From time to time we’d see a little bit of blue sky, but for the most part it was a stormy overcast sky with ferocious winds, and the temps never warmed up beyond the mid-50’s, but we made the best of it – Ava loved the teacups and the carousel, riding them both several times over. The lines weren’t bad, and we never had to Fast Pass anything. After Peter Pan’s Flight, Ava fell asleep in her stroller so Patrick and I took the opportunity to go on the Haunted Mansion and the Pirates of the Caribbean rides with a sleeping Ava slung over our shoulders.

When she woke up, she wanted to do the Pirates (twice) and then we had lunch at a little restaurant across the way – Ava ate a taco and grapes and carrot sticks and chocolate milk… Hungry!! Then we went on the Haunted Mansion, and she loved it – not scared at all. She likes to sit on the outside when the three of us get onto a ride together, so Gaffer and I both had the middle seat at times. Teddy and Goldy also went on all the rides, so there was a certain level of vigilance to make sure that a little brown guy or a little white guy weren’t being left on the seat or on the floor or dropped into the water during the ride!

Steve was coming to the cabin for supper, so after a few more rides we left the park on a bus – due to the wind the boats weren’t running. Steve brought us a couple of frozen pizzas, and we had a fun visit. We were really glad we had the cabin, and were able to relax and stretch out just like at home rather than cramped into a hotel room.

Ava fell asleep after I read her a story, and the next morning I was up early, reading my own book, when I heard her little feet trotting down the hallway – she had woken up before Gaffer, ready to start the day! When we asked her where she wanted to go today, she said “Epcot!” so that’s where we went after breakfast in the cabin. It was still very cold and windy and overcast, so we bundled up in layers. Once in Epcot, we went to “The Land” and watched a little environmental movie starring Simba from the Lion King – Ava liked the movie and we liked the warm theatre. Then we did a boat ride that took us through Epcot’s greenhouses and other displays of vegetation; very cool. Next was Innovations with another fun ride for Ava (“Figment”), and now the sun and swaths of blue sky made occasional appearances, and it turned into a decent day.

Once we had meandered into the World Showcase we found that the International Flower and Garden Festival had begun, and we discovered newly unveiled topiaries and beautiful flower displays that hadn’t been there on Sunday.
One of the things that Ava did the most while we were in Florida was to pick flowers! Flowers were a magnet to her, and she really enjoyed choosing different types and colors to pick and show to us. We also found two new playgrounds where Ava had a blast running around and climbing and swinging – wonderful!! In France, she saw "Marie" from The Aristocats and went in for a hug and a picture. She went into all the Kidcots and finished her mask, which was really fun, and we saved some money by packing the leftover pizza into the park with us, and had a little picnic on a bench in the sun. Ava had another face-painting session, and we went to Mexico to get Katie Lou a souvenir (and had a body-warming shot at the new tequila bar), then we finished with a ride on the Viking-themed boat ride “Maelstrom” in Norway. We decided that we really loved Epcot!

But then we had to leave because we had dinner reservations at the House of Blues in Downtown Disney. We had a challenging time trying to get there from Epcot – a number of buses and transfers – but we finally made it, only to find that the House of Blues was almost the farthest spot inside the park so we still had quite a hike. Fortunately, Ava was a cheerful little trooper, and was still smiling and happy by the time we arrived at the restaurant. After a very disappointing dinner with no ambiance and no music (and during which Ava spent most of the time lying on her blanket against the wall under the table - just getting some rest!), we had to walk all the way back to the buses. We passed an outdoor DJ with a mike and he came up to us and started asking Ava about Teddy which was funny. He was announcing everything she said over the P/A so the whole park could hear – it was the bright spot in the night. We didn’t get back to the cabin until about 10pm, and weren’t completely happy to know that we were going back to Downtown Disney in the morning for our 11am lunch reservation at the T-Rex Café.

Ava wasn’t so easy to wake up on Thursday morning – the week was starting to tire her out, but she stayed happy and ready to enjoy everything and we were able to get her up and about and out the door by 10. We took the bus to Downtown Disney, and were early enough at the T-Rex Café that Ava had time to shop in the gift shop and buy a bag of dinosaurs before we were seated for lunch. The restaurant was spectacular, with animatron dinosaurs all through it, and special lighting in different areas to create a real prehistoric ambiance.
The lunch was good, and Ava had fun visiting with all the dinosaurs, but Patrick and I were happy to leave and made a vow that we wouldn’t go back to Downtown Disney ever again. It’s really just a big shopping center, totally lacking in any kind of charm for us.

We did the “Planes, Trains, and Automobiles” again trying to get back to Magic Kingdom, and finally got there in the early afternoon. Once again, little Ava was the cheerful one, as Patrick and I got a little testy with the dysfunctional Downtown Disney commute, and was able to get us laughing again. She’s wise beyond her years and isn’t afraid to speak up! So we did the teacups, the carousel, the pirates, the haunted mansion, and some others, and said good-bye to Magic Kingdom after a final street parade, and got on the monorail to have a last dinner at the Biergarten in Epcot. We met some people from Maine on the monorail and Ava chatted them up during the ride – once she gets talking, you can’t stop her. She told them all about her cat at home, that she had to get home tomorrow to take care of him, etc etc. People really get a kick out of it, although half the time they have no idea what she’s babbling about!

This had been the coldest day of the week, so we hurried to Germany for dinner and enjoyed the same hospitality, music, dancing, and food that we had experienced on our first day in Florida – it was a great way to finish our vacation. On the way out of the park, Ava found some light-up Mickey ears that she just HAD to have, so with a final souvenir we left our favorite place. We flew home the next morning on an 11:25 flight after a nice long bus ride(stopping at several resorts to take on passengers along the way) with “Al”, a personable young Hispanic driver who announced to everyone on the bus that Ava was making sure he took the right route to the airport!

And then, for the first time in a week - Ava got grumpy. On the ride home, it was "Are we there yet?" "I'm tired..." "I'm uncomfortable..." "This is taking too long..." whine whine whine whine whine... We got home at around 6, and she finally got to see her Blue Cat and the smile came back to her face! Now it's just a matter of waiting until next year to do it all over again - we can't wait!!

Eating and Eating and Eating

Patrick measured Ava this afternoon against the living room door frame - she's grown 1/4" in 22 days! Her appetite is enormous so far in 2010 - two or three breakfasts, a snack, another lunch or two, more snacks, "oh boy, it's suppertime" with two or three servings, and then another snack or two before bed.

We were at Hannaford the other day, in the produce section, and she spotted a container of raspberries that somebody had placed in with the apples - you would have thought she had discovered gold! "Gammer, RASPBERRIES! And it's the LAST BOX!" We got a few smiles from nearby shoppers, and one lady murmered "I wish I got that excited about fruit..." We put the raspberries in our cart, and Ava had them almost gone by the time we checked out.

On another day, again in the produce section, she decided she wanted a couple of green beans, so I let her take two from the display case, and she munched on them as we shopped. We had gotten to the other end of the store when she asked if she could have more, so this time we put 7 or 8 beans in a produce bag, and paid 16 cents for them. She ate them on the ride home, and as we went over the bridge in Lisbon Falls, she started crying because she only had two left. She wanted to go back to Hannaford and get more! In a flash of brilliance I said, "Ava, just break them in half, and then you'll have four beans..." That did the trick, and she was happy as a clam.

She loves to eat good food - organic strawberry yogurt in a squeeze package, berries, vegetables, fruit, etc. A favorite snack is a little bowl of frozen peas. She asks for carrots and apples instead of cookies. Her Halloween candy is still in the bucket - she has no interest in it. Not to say she doesn't have a sweet tooth, because occasionally she does, but she really prefers something made by Mother Nature.

Tonight Patrick cooked a pork tenderloin, with rice pilaf and green beans. That girl ate four servings of meat, all of her green beans, and two big scoops of rice. We looked on in admiration!

For breakfast, she likes to make her own scrambled eggs. This morning she had two eggs, and half of Gaffer's onion bagel and cream cheese. She also likes cereal (Froot Loops is a favorite, and Rice Krispies, and Frosted Flakes) and oatmeal and pancakes and toast.

She went through a "soup phase", where she was eating Chicken Noodle (or Stars) soup two or three times a day, but that seems to be past now - she hasn't asked for soup in a while. She likes peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, and tuna sandwiches, and bologna, and chicken nuggets for lunch.

She's great about trying things - will always agree to taste something, and usually tells us she likes it, even though she may not want any more of whatever it is. Last night we had tacos, and she tried the salsa, the guacamole, and the sour cream! She was helping Gaffer cook the taco meat (ground moose) with her apron on, when Gaffer discovered we had no cheddar for the tacos. When I said I'd run down to the store to get some, Ava wanted to come with me, but didn't want to take off her apron - wanted everyone at DV to know she was cooking!

Aminals

As an "only child" Ava has a lot of toys, but her favorites have always been her "aminals" (as she still pronounces it). She has a collection of little plastic animals that if they were placed end to end in a parade would reach from one end of the house to the other - we know this because we've done it.

She particularly likes the Schleich brand - made in Germany, and extremely life-like, with everything from dinosaurs to puppies. We first found them at Aubuchon Hardware in Lisbon - I believe "Mr. Moose" was the first. After that, we also discovered that Play N Learn in Freeport carries a huge selection of them, and now Ava's very favorite place to go in the whole world is to Play N Learn.

The other night, just before her birthday, she asked me if we could go to Play N Learn the next day. I said, "Ava, you just got a bunch of toys for Christmas, and your birthday is Saturday when you'll get even more toys, so No, we're not going to Play N Learn tomorrow..." She burst into tears (she's not used to being told No!), and commenced to plead and beg. It was very hard to hold my position in the face of her agony, so I finally told her to go talk to Gaffer about it.

So she went into the living room and proceeded to plead her case to Gaffer. It was hilarious to listen to from the other room - when Gaffer tried to reason with her, by telling her that she can't just be buying a toy every day, she said through her tears, "But Gaffer, I'm serious, I only want a toy tomorrow! I won't ask for one every day!" The back and forth between the two of them went on for a good twenty minutes, and he finally arrived at a compromise with her - that we'd take her to Play N Learn on her birthday, so she could choose the animal she wanted, and, exhausted with emotion, she agreed.

So, on her birthday, in a blizzard, we headed out to Play N Learn - Ava had asked to go as soon as she woke up! She takes her animals very seriously! At the store, she studied all her choices and settled on a big woolly mammoth. Then we also let her get a bison, and Gaffer told her she could get a second different bison because her other one at home is missing. She was happy as a clam, and then I picked out a cow and a calf and told her these would be for me. She smiled with delight at the thought of Gammer getting animals for herself, and then said, "Will you let me play with them sometimes?" I put them in her arms and said, "Actually, Ava, these are for you!" She was ecstatic and kept saying, "I can't believe I get to buy so many animals!!"

That's the thing about Ava, she's spoiled, but she's not rotten. She truly appreciates what she is given, and takes the best care of all her things. She loves her things as part of her family, whether the things are her plastic animals, her stuffed animals, her dolls, or her puzzles - they're all so special to her.

But, as I said, the animals are her very favorites, and they are her friends, most of them with their own personalities. Little Foot is really the cornerstone -- I think of them all, he's the one most special to her. He's been with us for a couple of years now, and has gone to Florida and on a moose hunt in Aroostook County (where he was almost lost by the shore of a lake, but Gammer found him - it was a miracle that I spotted that little green guy amongst the flowers and rocks) and camping at Chesuncook. He's a baby "long-neck" dinosaur, and is very brave and adventurous and kind to his friends. His best friend is Sarah, a baby "three-horn" dinosaur. This actually is Sarah #2, because the first Sarah was lost on the plane coming home from Florida in February. Sarah is the bravest of all the animals - even over the grown-ups. She's quite a girl, that Sarah.

Sarah is extremely close to her dad, "Father Three-Horn", and Father Three-Horn always sticks up for Sarah to Mother Three-Horn. If Sarah goes off on an adventure to rescue another animal, without telling Mother where she went, and then Mother is angry, Father always tells her not to be mad at Sarah, that Sarah had to do that job, Mother just needs to understand that.

Mr. Moose is another hero - he comes to the rescue of someone nearly every day because his large antlers can catch somebody when they fall, or carry somebody when they're hurt. Diego the tiger is another upstanding citizen, and one of her favorites. She has a big T-Rex that is called Jackson, and sometimes he's good and eats leaves, and sometimes he's bad and scary. But when he's bad and scary, Sarah always teaches him how to eat leaves, and then he's nice.

Her buck is "King of the Forest" and he's usually called on when there's a decision to be made, like if T-Rex is allowed to come into their land. It's understood that he is at the top of the animal hierarchy, even though he's not the strongest. A lot of times all the "men" have to gather together to fight off the angry T-Rex, while the mothers keep an eye on the babies. But you know who stays with the men to fight, and saves the day - Sarah. Of course.

One of her most precious animals isn't plastic - it's a hand-sewn brontosaurus, created by Emily's uncle Vincent over 20 years ago. Her legs can move, although they've become wobbly with age, and she wears a pearl necklace. She is "Granny Long-Neck" and is Little Foot's favorite relative. All the other animal babies love her, too, and she's often found with little animals sliding down her tail, or cuddling under her legs. She babysits while the parents go to work, and takes excellent care of all the little ones, whether they're dinosaurs or tiger cubs or fawns. She has a place of honor in Ava's mind, you can just see it by the way she handles her.

When we play animals with Ava, she usually has a story-line already in mind, and our job is just to move the animals around and basically say what she wants us to say - sometimes she gives us our lines, other times we must improvise but sticking with the plot. If we go outside this plot, she gets quite upset. As I said before, she takes her animals very seriously! Many times the story-line is about somebody being sick, or lost, or in trouble for some reason. Then somebody (usually Sarah, or the T-Rex) comes to the rescue.

For her birthday, we bought her a big tree-house playset with some jungle animals included. She likes it, but it's funny - she really doesn't need any "props" when she plays. She's not one to position animals in a doll-house or use a vehicle - all she really needs is a floor (or table, when our knees give out!) and the animals - and her imagination goes from there. I think the tree-house playset was more for me - just to kind of liven things up a little bit for my own imagination, and to bring a little variation to the stories...

She uses what's available at the time - when I'm cooking in the kitchen, she'll bring some animals in and stand on the kitchen table and make them do tricks from the ceiling fan - hanging by their feet or jumping off into Mr. Moose's antlers or into Manny the Mammoth's tusks. Book cases are mountains, and under Gaffer's chair is a cave where the poor baby elephant got lost after he wandered off in search of water and lost the herd.

When Ava and Gaffer went to the DeLorme map store in Yarmouth, she spotted a collection of baby dinosaurs in a tube, and of course Gaffer bought them for her. One of these, a little red one with a striking similarity to Little Foot, became "Rhett" - he's a mischievous little fellow, who has a bad reputation for not telling the truth. Many of our games lately have been having Rhett tell the group a wild tale, something completely not believable, like there is a unicorn around the corner. Of course, nobody believes him because of his reputation, but then, sure enough, up walks a unicorn, just like he said, and the word goes out to everyone - "Rhett told the truth!" Rhett has yet to tell an actual lie since he's lived in Durham.

All of the animals love the bathtub. Usually the baby animals have swimming class, taught by one of the older animals. Sarah is always the first one to jump off the high diving board (the faucet), and the heavier animals enjoy doing cannon-balls from the faucet - the walrus makes a heck of a splash when he does his cannon-ball! There is always a lot of rescuing that takes place at bath-time, as animals "accidentally" fall from the edge of the tub into the water, and yell for help.

The big Breyer horses, most of whom are over 35 years old - my treasured playthings as a kid - interact with the other animals at times. Ava's favorite horse is Man O' War , who over the past several years has been dropped so many times that his legs and body have come apart, and he' s now held together by glue and pins (thank you, Gaffer and Grandpa - who both know his anatomy intimately having spent hours repairing him). I commented to her last night, "Ava, I'm surprised you love Man O' War so much - he's all broken and ugly!" She looked at me with surprise and said, "But he's nice, isn't he?" She loves him, and he's the patriarch of the others - the leader, the rescuer, the smartest and, obviously, the fastest. He knows he can't run much these days, though, because of all his prior injuries, so often-times he's the judge at races, determining who is the next-fastest, after him. He doesn't have to prove he's the fastest - it's a given.

So now it's 10am, and Ava is ready to play. What adventure will we have today? Ava just told me that we're going to play "sick paw" - one of the lions was running away from a tiger and stepped on thorn. She said that's what she and Grandma played yesterday, and it was very exciting!

Christmas and Birthday

Ava started the Christmas holiday weekend by staying holed up in her bedroom at Gram and Gramp's!!

We had packed up her new bright red Christmas dress with the velvet, white-fluff trimmed jacket and shiny black shoes, and had brought her down for the family party Howard and Kay always have on Christmas Eve. Ava hadn't been too keen on going, and once we got there she didn't want me to leave. She grabbed me by the collar with both fists and Grandma literally had to pry her fingers from me as Ava screamed that she didn't want to stay! We left her there, assuming she'd be okay once we were gone, and went to my mother's to meet Brenda there and play cards until 6:30 when it would be time to go pick up Ava from the party.

When we walked into Gram and Gramp's house, the party was still in full swing - little kids running around everywhere, and grown-ups from one end of the house to the other. Kay came up to us with a look of exasperation and told us that Ava had not left the bedroom the entire time! Various family members had gone in to try to get her to join the party, but nobody had been successful. I went into the bedroom to find Ava tucked in under the covers, and the party dress and shoes still in the bag...

Once I got her up out of the bed, and carried her through the throng over to the dining table to get her ready to leave, she started warming up. People gathered around as she smiled and opened her presents, while sitting in the security of my lap. On the way home, she asked us why we didn't stay at the party with her, and we tried to explain that even though Gram and Gramp were her family, they weren't our family... We told her that "back in the old days" I had been married to Grandpa David, and that blew her mind. A week or so later, out of the blue, she said to me, "I can't believe you were married to David - aren't you glad you have Gaffer and me now?"

After we picked up Ava from the party, we drove to Brunswick to get Joe. He wanted to spend the night with us, and once we got home she put him right to work, being a veterinary assistant - she had gotten a veterinarian coat, stethoscope, etc., and had fun taking care of all her little plastic animals.

On Christmas morning, she didn't wake up until almost 8:30, and then it took over four hours for her to make her way through all her presents. Bobby and Katie arrived about 9, and then Kerry came in at noon. Ava played with each present as she opened it - she really enjoyed every single gift. Santa had given her an Easy Bake oven, but had forgotten to include a light bulb, so that was the only present of the day that she couldn't try out.

Later in the day, we drove over to Aunt Brenda's house for the family get-together, and Ava had a great time running around with Alivia and opening more presents there. She finally got a chance to wear her pretty red Christmas dress and shiny black shoes, although she wouldn't let the white tights stay on her body for two seconds - as soon as I pulled them up over her bottom she started squealing that they were too tight!! She likes loose things... But she looked beautiful even with her bare legs hanging out!

Today is January 3rd, and Ava turned 4 yesterday. She was funny, trying out all the things she can do now as a 4 year old! She's taking it very seriously, and said to me last night, "I'm not a toddler anymore!!"

She didn't have much a party - Mother Nature provided her with a snowstorm for her birthday that kept everyone home except Aunt Brenda. But we had fun anyway, and Ava hung pink streamers from the fan over the dining room table and used lots of tape to stick little pieces of pink streamer to randem objects - the glass sliding door, my pocketbook, the doorknob, etc. - around the house.

I made her two birthday cakes, both new recipes, and we had to throw the first one away - I never saw a cake come out of the oven looking so awful!!! But the second cake came out great. We used food coloring to make it pink, and she loved it.

For her birthday, we gave her an Animal Planet jungle treehouse playset and a Go Diego Go rescue jeep. She asked if we would take her to Play N Learn so she could choose some new "aminals", so that was fun - we braved the snowstorm to drive to Freeport and she picked out a big new mammoth and two bison, and then I chose a cow and calf and told her they were for me. She gave me a big smile, like "Cool!! Gammer's getting amnials, too!" and then said, "Will you let me play with them?" and then I said, "Actually, Ava - these are really for you!!" She was ecstatic - kept saying, "I can't believe I get to have this many aminals!!" She's spoiled, but she appreciates it!!

Later in the day, we took her for a ride through the woods on the snowmobile. She loved it! Gaffer had told her to look for deer, and she'd give us updates from time to time - "I haven't seen a deer yet!" She sat up in front of Gaffer for a while, but seemed to prefer sitting between us. We got home just in time, though - as I was taking her gear off, she started crying that she was cold. She couldn't wait to jump into my bed and snuggle in. She said her feet had stayed warm and her face was warm, but her body was cold. And this with LL Bean winter coat and snowpants on! Next time we'll do more layers.

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.