We may be overselling our parenting skills but we can't oversell Ava, who is about as complex as it gets. Here's the overview:
- Ava would like to be a mommy when she grows up. When we asked why, she said she would like to be able to cook whatever she wants for dinner. When we told her she didn't need kids to do that, she said she would need kids so she has someone to play with.
- Ava's favorite colors are purple, pink and blue. She's quick to point out, however, that she also loves other colors.
- Ava's loves to draw. All day long.
- With this year's snow storm we learned that Ava LOVES snow. Sadly it will be another five years before she experiences it again, but it was fun while it lasted.
- Ava is a style icon and mixes prints like nothing you've ever seen before. Her trademark look is layering, and she can usually be seen wearing short sleeves over long sleeves, leggings with a skirt, patterned socks and patterned Mary Janes. It's pretty much her uniform.
- As we've mentioned previously, Ava is scared of everything. Last year she ran screaming out of a theater production of the Velveteen Rabbit five minutes in because it seemed like the puppets were upset with each other. However, Ava has no fear whatsoever of bugs and has been known to scoop up spiders so that we can send them outside of the house.
- So far Ava has lived a life fairly free of screen time, though she really does soak in her 10-minute cartoons when she sees them a few times a week. For her birthday Sue and Rod prepared to blow her mind with her first movie, Winnie-The-Pooh. Though not at all scary, she was unable to make it through the film after a swarm of bees made it into the story line. She maintains that she did "pretty good for a little kid."
- If you knew either of us as children, you shouldn't be surprised that Ava has been a picky eater. In the past few months she's been broadening her horizons, however, and now requests salmon and sushi for dinner.
- Ava is very excited about kindergarten and we've found that we can ask her to do (or not do) almost anything if we can make a case for how it better prepares her for school in the fall.
- As we mentioned, Ava loves her cartoons. James and Ava watch 10 minutes of assorted video clips after Quiet Time each day: "Thomas and Friends," "Pocoyo," "The Cat in the Hat Knows a Lot About That," and our least favorite of all, "Clifford."
- Lately Ava has been getting into more elaborate books, so we've been reading chapter books like Winnie-The-Pooh (our current favorite) and an assortment of books where the female characters save the day.
- Ava is a rule follower. She always has been. She's made it her job to tell us to take our shoes off and remind us to bus our plates after dinner, just to name a couple.
- It has taken us 4 1/2 years to drop Ava off at school without her screaming. It's an amazing accomplishment and I'm sure we could probably link it back to some since-forgotten conversation about expected kindergarten behavior.
- Ava has a very strong sense of right and wrong. She has a surprisingly long list of children she is no longer friends with because they offended one of her "best friends." She has no problem sticking up for herself, and her friends when the situation calls for it. When James was the victim of some "abuse" a few weeks ago, Ava stomped herself over and let that kid know that when you mess with James, you mess with his whole family.
- Ava is funny. It's taken us a while to notice that she's not just oh-how-cute kid-funny. She's pretty witty.
- Ava -- no surprise -- loves dessert. Fortunately, she is quite small and has limited experience in the world so we have been able to convince her that pomegranate counts as dessert. If you give Ava pomegranate and don't announce that it's dessert time, she gets a mischievous look about her and whispers, "Don't tell daddy."
- At Ava's preschool they end each day with "ateliers," each focusing on a different discipline: drama, science, art, sensory, movement, food, mechanics, etc. Each week the kids are split up into a different atelier and they explore one large theme (for example The Northwest) through the lens of that subject. Ava's favorite atelier is drama, in which she writes and performs a play for the rest of the preschool with the other seven children in her group. We're told that Ava has a knack for the performing arts (which makes sense since she spends most of her day in an imaginary world) and is often one of the kids to write the plays for her group. We're excited she's exploring a new outlet for all of her natural-born drama!
- After two years of rigorous training (and two years of false starts before that), Ava has finally graduated from Water Safety I. For quite some time, the pool was another one of Ava's fears but now she loves going to the pool.
- Lately Ava has taken to singing to James before he goes to bed. Though not lullabies in the traditional sense, she offers him a tender rendition of the ABCs and Skidamarink.
- Despite our best efforts, Ava is a true girly-girl. She likes fairies and princesses, manicures, and playing house. She hasn't worn pants since May of 2013.
