ava's blog

as the new year has dawned, i think it's safe to assume ava has received all her christmas gifts. therefore, it's time to award the "ava's favorite christmas present of 2008" prize. the winner (no contest) is the box of cheddar quackums - a box of crackers, very similar to "goldfish crackers" except in the shape of a duck.

the quackums were a gift from auntie arantxa and earned the honor of inspiring ava's food related meltdown. after she'd eaten about a quarter of the box in one sitting mommy decided that was probably enough preservative chemicals for one night. ava was not pleased with this decision. to calm the demon, arantxa and i offered her pink yogurt served in another one of arantxa's inspired gifts to ava - the miniature martini glasses.

arantxa was also the gifter of the single-item-that-has-caused-the-most-screaming in our household : the ducky barettes. the problem with the ducky barettes is that while adorable, they are slightly dysfunctional. so, if you give in and let ava wear them - one must endure thrice-an-hour fits of panic when they fall out. i swear, i've held those barettes over the garbage can many times - but i can't let go - ava just loves them too much!

today we had what will probably be our last visit with "baby izze". not because we're planning on disowning her as a friend - but because we caught her in those very last few weeks of being a "baby". izze is 13.5 months younger than ava, and i enjoyed observing the similarity between izze now and ava last year. much like ava2007, izze's snowboots seemed to go halfway up her leg, she looked like a big puffy marshmellow in her snowsuit and snow was definitely not her favorite thing. all in all though, i'd say she was better adjusted than ava was last year. see the full thunder bay christmas album.

as john noted the other day, pretty much the only thing ava does NOT say "no!" to is "ava, go kiss the [whatever]". a useful feature for cute pictures. see the full thunder bay christmas album.

we arrived in thunder bay just in time for nightfall on christmas eve. after opening presents on christmas morning, ava made her first venture outside into the land of cold and snow. ava was much more enthused by snow this year. still, on our first venture out into the cold she requested that ducky come along too. she very rarely requests that ducky come on an outing anymore - i guess she was feeling a little apprehensive! of course, ducky had to get dressed properly for the occasion . .. just like ava . . . in hats, mitts and a coat. fortunately, the coat was long enough that it covered his feet, so she forgot to demand that ducky wear boots too!

today we went with paulo and his mom to the discovery museum for their annual gingerbread house workshop. irritatingly, both flavia and i forgot our cameras - so this after-the-fact picture of ava's creation will have to do.

each family is given a gingerbread house "kit" - comprised of the appropriately shaped gingerbread pieces, a big bag of very sticky frosting and (most importantly) a big bag of candy! both ava and paulo's exposure to candy has been pretty limited, so their reactions were pretty funny. they both recognized the mini candy canes as "food" and licked those up in about 3 seconds flat. after that, ava turned her attention to decorating, and paulo moved on to jelly beans (which, presumably, he recognizes from easter.) ava never figured out that the rest of it was edible, but kept licking her fingers - presumably wondering "why is this 'glue' so sweet?"

clearly, ava's outfits don't always make it through a whole day at school. when ava needs a change of clothes, her teachers pack up her dirty clothes in a zip lock back and put it in her cubby. the plastic bag is always labeled with her name, the date, and what exactly is on the clothes. i've never been totally clear what the point of this latter label was supposed to be. a clue to what level of bio-hazard is contained within? (i can imagine this might be important during potty training.) a hint as to what stain removal process you might want to try?

since ava isn't potty training just yet, her bags usually come labeled "water", "juice" or "food". today's was a little different though . . . ava's had a runny nose this week, and she's recently become aware of her nose running, and does not like it at all. and, of course, if she can't immediately find a grown-up with a tissue, she uses whatever comes to hand.

when john was a child, he would write his letter to santa on a piece of airmail letter paper, and then put it in the chimney to get sucked up with the smoke and taken to santa. john thought that this might be a good year to start this tradition with ava. thankfully, we experimented with our available papers beforehand - even with tissue paper the paper burst into flames instead of flying up the chimney. hence -we tweaked the mythology a little - telling ava that the smoke from the burnt letter would travel to santa and then reassemble into a letter when it got there.

when we asked ava what she wanted for christmas she said "presents". okay - good start - we thought. then, there was a short interruption while i went to get the camera. when we reconvened, we asked again and this time she wanted "A's" and "O's".

this is a common theme with ava right now. she almost understands alot of things, and she plays along as if she understands with great skill. for example, at school, they teach the children the days of the week. ava has obligingly memorized these words in the correct order, and likes to chat with you about what day it is. sometimes our chats get a little weird though . . .

cailin: today is monday. what do we do on mondays?
ava: go swimming!
cailin: that's right! today is monday, what day is tomorrow?
ava: Astrid! (a girl in her class)

a week later . . .

cailin: today is monday, what do we do on mondays?
ava: tuesday!

oh - and this one has been going on for months now . . .

anybody: hi ava, how are you doing?
ava: i'm two! two years old!

what's better than decorating cookies with one two year? why - two two year year olds, or three, and throw in a couple of three year olds . . . and hell, sure a four year old too! add some moms, some pretty red cocktails, and you have my latest "tradition" - the cookies and cosmos party!

ava, delilah, and more friends from school did a very nice job of decorating cookies. since i was running about making sure everybody had adequate supplies, ava was left once again to one of her "unsupervised" art projects. can you guess which cookie is ava's? yup - the one with about 1/2 inch high of icing, with several layers of sprinkles, a large glop of green goo and some little pink balls. mmmm . . . yummy?