thoughts on a page: playing outside

Lately Aven has been cracking me/us up. I wanted to record some funny things she says so I don't forget later. Even though she can construct pretty complex sentences she still is figuring out tense.

For example, every night while on vacation before bed she asked me to sing the song that my mom "teachted" to me (Magdalena Hagdalena --as a side note why she wanted this to be sung before bed is beyond me but that is another story). Another funny one is when she was talking with Abe and told him that she "bleeder" on an owie. When Abe gently corrected her saying it was "bled" she said, "No, Daddy, bleeded. Do you know what bleeded means? It means to bleed blood." Also, even though she gets the general concept of time she often uses the references interchangeably and without the correct time period. For example, she'll say "the other day" meaning any time in the past or possibly even the future. She'll use, last year, the other day, yesterday, etc to mean anytime in the past. Last year could mean something yesterday and vice versa.

She is very curious about all of life as she has finally gotten to the why phase. Once you begin to explain something you better be in for the long haul because even if you explain it to her (whatever "it" may be) she may ask you to repeat it over and over. I am sure this is a technique to attempt to understand the concept but it can be very exhausting trying to re-explain something in a new and fresh way. For example, we were driving in the car and the sunset looked to me to be the color that shows when there are wildfires. I then attempted to explain what a wildfire is. And how it starts, and how it makes me feel. I used basic terminology to say that often fires start in nature when something happens like lightening. Then she said: "tell me about nature." Dang, this girl is smart!

She has a mind of her own and knows what she wants in life. This is usually really helpful but can also be a source of frustration (for me). She has a style of her own and is totally gregarious. She will talk to anyone anywhere and has no shyness or fear about it. She loves her dresses and skirts but will play anywhere in them, even the fanciest of dresses.

Things she has been loving this summer:

still her babies, she has many and doesn't seem to have any one favorite although they are all special at one time or another. She has a stroller, a car seat, a baby carrier and blankets galore and at any one time they may all be in use.
still books. I am happy that this girl is still so enamored with reading books. She loves to attempt to read them to herself, constantly asks for books to be read to her and my favorite thing she does is bring books to Elodie and reads to her (so cute)
still being outside. This summer has been beautiful with so many sunny and warm days. This girl uses any attempt she can to be outside (fall and winter will be a shock). She loves playing in her pool and running through the sprinkler. She just experienced her first spray park and she loved it! She loves playing in the rocks of our walkway, with sticks, in the grass and has no problem improvising and using her imagination. She loves going to parks and could spend all day there if you let her. She has named each park by the color of the slides and she has assigned a park to each of us. Franklin park is "her" park; Rock Hill Park is Abe's park and Carl Cozier (Elementary School Playground) is my park.

After a big tumble at school, she needed a lot of band-aids. It cheered her up to have so many colors too. Thank you $1 store.

Elizabeth Park--playtime. One of my favorite parks because of the big beautiful trees.

Aven and Sonja--it is so cute to have friends. She loves hanging with Sonja and 4th of July as they snuggled under the blankets together and watched the fireworks was no exception.

my girl: personality galore

happiness and silliness all in one package

before bed one night, she laid on the floor next to Ethel and said "look mommy, we are doggies"

This girl is growing up. She is almost 3 1/2 and she's in total preschooler mode. She is independent and has a mind of her own and is getting very proficient at so many things in life but she is also a little girl always giving and asking for hugs, playing with her little sister and wanting to help out and be around her family and pets and friends. We love you Aven Lily.

This spring I have been enjoying being outside so much (when it is actually nice) which seems to be an on again off again thing lately. I was doing some weeding and trimming in my yard a month or so ago when I thought I was pulling some spare twigs that had fallen from a nearby tree in my Camellia bush when I discovered a bird nest. Maybe it is the kid inside me but I was so excited. Then I noticed over the next few weeks that a bird would fly back and forth to its little home. Now, I am not a bird watcher nor do I really know my species but it looked like an ordinary robin but a happy one with a house right next to mine. A few weeks later I started to wonder if there were any eggs in the nest and then a few days after that I saw a small blue eggshell broken and laying on the ground. I peeped into the nest and saw a handful of fuzzy little chick heads, so cute! I have loved sitting at my dining room table eating breakfast or dinner or even paying bills and watching the simple comings and goings of this robin mommy (or daddy?) bringing grass and worms and other foods to the nest for the little ones. Yesterday I looked into the nest and no one was home- perhaps they've flown the coop!