car trouble

ever since arriving in thunder bay, ava has been on a miraculous good behavior streak. there have only been two exceptions to her default angelic behavior

1. she's been quite the screamer at bedtime.
2. she's become a control freak in the car

ava has always been a fan of (ridiculously lame kids) music in the car. it didn't take long after her first word for her to start piping up "music! music!" from the back seat. in the last few days though, she's crossed another milestone - now she demands specific songs. this is fine - as long as i know what's she's talking about. i've figured out what she means by "baby music" and "tick tock! tick tock!" - but a few other requests have left me sorely baffled ("ducky music!" "girl music!"). and if i can't come up with the right track in 15 seconds or less, there is a terrible meltdown in the back seat.

having figured out that she can (remotely) control the cd player, ava is now attempting to control the rest of the vehicular operation too. she has developed opinions on

1. whether or not the sun visor is up or down
2. at what speed the windshield wipers are wiping
3. who gets to hold the keys

this last item is particularly difficult to negotiate. i swear we had the following conversation today

• ava : my keys! my keys!
• cailin : i need the keys to drive the car. if i give you the keys we can't go anywhere.
• ava : i'll give them back!
• cailin : i can't give you the keys because the car will stop
• ava : stop! . . . a minute . . . stop!