delilah

today we took advantage of a glorious break in the winter rains, to take a trip on a row boat around stowe lake with heidi and delilah. it was the first time that ava was interested in trying to row, and also the first time i was "forced" to row, as there were no handy males to put to the task. we had a bumpy and mildly embarassing departure from the dock, but i gradually got the hang of it, and we ended with a reasonable amount of style.

ava and delilah had a great time decorating our door with gel gems today. when it became clear that they weren't going to rest until applying every single one of the hundreds of pieces . . . i eventually started sneaking them away and hiding them when they weren't looking.

both ava and delilah managed to overcome their pig-headed stubborn objections irrational fear of bouncy houses at ethan's birthday party today. once inside, they had just a little bit of fun.

i was starting to wonder how on earth i was ever going to get ava out of the bouncy house when nature intervened. the generator powering the bouncy house ran out of gas, and it deflated and collapsed on the kids. bouncy houses are like gigantic tents - so this was in no way a dangerous situation - just funny. unfortunately, i'd actually filled the memory card on my camera already, so i failed to get a picture!

and round and round and round again . . . until mommy is getting sick just watching you. eventually ava falls over and then says "i'm bizzy momy, i'm bizzy!" delilah seems to be able to go on forever.

today ava went to her first "real" kiddie birthday party. we've been to nice child birthday gatherings, but this was our first third birthday party, and thus our first party where there were games, goodie bags, cupcakes with pink frosting and all sorts of lovely kid stuff.

ava had a lovely time and stayed true to one of the contradictory ava rules of behavior : the more people that are around, and the more potential there is to get into trouble . . . the better behaved ava is. one of my favorite moments was watching ava have a go at the pinata. it illustrated another ava feature : complete lack of aggression. normal children gave the pinata a good whack, like this. ava gave it an absolutely pathetic poke. while the other kids finished off the pinata, ava celebrated her general love of life, and her party dress and party barettes in particular, by dancing, singing and skipping around in circles like this.

martin luther king day marked the conclusion of the longest stretch of beautiful weather in the bay area that i can remember. while the midwest froze solid, we basked in 13 straight days of blue skies, blazing sun and near-perfect surf. by the end john said "you know - there aren't even that many people at the beach anymore. i think they're all tired."

unsurprisingly, the wonderful weather motivated everyone we knew to suggest a park expedition of some sort. ava got to see every little buddy she has - some of them twice. we went for a stroll at the tea garden with delilah, pushed carina on the swings, blew bubbles with paulo, painted with the twins and met half her school at the playground.

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?

with preschool, has come new friends - and with new friends, new traditions and new treats. (like "squeezable yogurt" - who knew! i'm wondering if this may be the sort of thing you miss when you don't have a television.) ava really enjoys hanging out with her new friend delilah, or "wi-wah" as ava puts it. i've even heard ava mutter the following sentence to herself as we were walking to paulo's house one day : "no, not wi-wah . . . just paulo today". i didn't ever think i'd here the word "paulo" combined with the word "just". more wi-wah and ava.

all two year old's have a hard time with the concept of sharing - and really - give her age - ava's not too bad. when other kids come to visit she only goes off the deep end if they touch a) ducky or b) her chair. and when we're out and about it's pretty easy to convince her that another kid needs a turn on the swing or similar.

today was a little different though. we went to visit ava's new friend delilah at delilah's house. ava was being a good guest until we went to check out delilah's room. delilah is a few months older than ava and delilah's parents are very brave - delilah has a real bed! it's small and sweet and had a nice pink blanket and ava was instantly enamored. so enamored that she hopped right in, snuggled in and got comfy. delilah thought this was an okay game and came over to play too. that's when ava started with the "nooo . . . my bed! my bed!" and tried to push delilah out.

of course, i was a little horrified, but it was also hard not to be a little amused! (and, thankfully, delilah just looked a little puzzled and chose to put up with ava's nonsense quite calmly.)