All About Avie J.

My plan for this afternoon was to go get Ava's friend so they could occupy each other while I cleaned house. Five hours later, right before bedtime, we finally pulled back into the driveway. I just meant to stay long enough to visit for a few minutes, but a few minutes turned into an hour, then two hours and so on. Part of my original plan was to stop by the grocery store on our way home so I could get what I needed for dinner, but that didn't happen either. What did happen left me bloated and having galbladder pains! We ordered pizza and....... I ate it. Cheat day is normally Sunday, but this week I guess it turned into Friday! The good news is, I have no desire to eat pizza again anytime soon. I feel like junk!!! 

Moving on..

Today at school Ava made an "All About Me" book. I struggled not to laugh when I got to the page of her family. First of all, Blake wasn't included. When I asked why she said, "because I really don't like drawing and that was one extra person to draw. It doesn't MEAN he's not part of my family. I was just too tired to draw him." Alrighty then! The part that made me laugh most was how umm... alien-ish we all looked. Poor girl definitely got my artistic abilities... which are nonexistent!

She was soo proud of her book though. She absolutely loves school! The first week she wasn't sure about it and we had a bit of a struggle trying to get her there each day, but now she asks all morning long, "Is it time for school yet?" She loves her teachers, she talks about them a lot. One of her teachers has a deaf niece who will be visiting their school soon so all of the kids have been learning sign language. That totally warms my heart! 

I love Ava's heart. She has such a sweet and caring heart. She talks about God and Jesus multiple times throughout each and every day. She talks about how much she loves them and how great they are. Today she said, "I'm going to invite God and Jesus and all of the good angels to my birthday party. Even if we can't see them, they'll still be there!" She has two favorite angels that she talks about almost daily. One of them is her cousin Jared. She never met Jared because he went to heaven long before she was even born, but she talks about him like she knew him and he was one of her best friends. Sometimes she even cries and says she misses Jared. On Jared's birthday this year, she woke up and the first words out of her mouth were about him. I didn't realize it was his birthday until later in the day when my sister said something about it. Pretty cool that she was thinking about him on his birthday without even knowing it was his birthday. I wonder if God laid that on her heart.

The second angel that she talks a lot about is Brent's friend Bryan who was killed in Afghanistan this past March. I really don't think Ava ever meets someone new without telling them about Bryan and how he saved her daddy's life. It's incredible that a four (almost five) year old is so aware and thankful. The story usually goes something like this, starting out in an excited tone and ending in a sad one. "My daddy has a friend, Bryan, who is an ANGEL! He lives with Jesus and God and I love him! When the monsters were trying to kill my daddy in Afghanistan BRYAN SAVED HIS LIFE! Then after my daddy came home, the monsters killed Bryan. I think they killed him because my daddy already came home and he wasn't there to save him, but it's okay because Bryan is an angel now and he's happy!" 

She's such a good little person and she's not even five yet! She's so aware of things. She calls people out on their bad choices pretty often, but she also praises people when they do good things. If she thinks something is bad, like a song for example, she insists on us turning it off because "why would you want to listen to something that's so bad for kids?" By "so bad for kids" she refers to lyrics like, "I hate that stupid old pick up truck you never let me drive." Hate and stupid are both bad words so that songs a big no no around this kid! She's so funny! 

Blake absolutely adores her. You couldn't convince him that she didn't hang the moon even if you tried. First thing in the morning he always goes into Ava's room and starts loudly saying "SIIIIIISTER! SIIIIIISTER!" No matter how hard we try to get him to say Ava, he'll only call her sister. He watches her constantly and she knows it. She told me the other day that she wants Blake to grow up to be a really good person so she tries to only teach him really good people things. Sometimes I'll hear them in the play room and she'll be teaching him how to say a new word or how to put two new words together. The other day he got a beach towel, took it to her and said, "beach towel." Ava start SCREAMING her excited scream (she has a different scream for every emotion) so I went to see what was going on and she said, "Mommy, Blake said beach towel and I didn't even teach him! He just knew on his own! He's so smart!" I love watching them grow up together!

Now don't get me wrong, of course Ava can have the biggest attitude in the entire universe and there are most definitely days when I wish her grandparents lived closer so I could have a break from her for a day or two, but more times than not, she's such a fascinating kid. Since she was really little she's always been my little best friend. I don't think I would've made it through a lot of things if it wasn't for that cute little brown eyed girl!