The Ghost of Christmas Present

Don't you just love this guy?

In case you're not the Christmas nut that I am, this is the Ghost of Christmas Present from A Christmas Carol. On a recent trip to The Lobby of Hobbies, Josh and Ava decided to try on wreaths and my mind mind instantly went to him.

I love this guy too, and yes you read that right. They decided to try on wreaths.

We never did this when Josh was a 1L.

Garland fu manchu

Berry cute

Downright dapper

On Friday we found a surprise on our front porch.

Ava went out to investigate.

Halloween packages from Mimi!

Of course we plopped right down and tore into them.

Can you tell that Halloween is Mimi's favorite holiday? She sent Ava a present to open for every day in October. Per Mimi's instruction, Ava began by putting the presents in order. Since the package arrived on October 8th, Ava unwrapped eight presents at once. Thank you Mimi!

When not playing Stair Soccer, Daddy and Ava can often be found playing dollhouse. He does all the best voices and scenarios.

Ava eats it up.

On Saturday morning Ava opened package number 9 and found a bunch of colorful bugs and bubbles in a ghost container.

She spent breakfast time creating a community for the bugs.

In this picture I had accidentally moved one of the bug 'houses' and she was fixing it.

On Saturday night HLS and I went out on a date. We saw The Social Network (fantastic, by the way) and ate a late dinner. It was so perfect. After a desperate Facebook plea for a babysitter I received many responses, calls, and texts. The winning sitters were Stacy and Rich.

Stacy brought Ava a Sonic drink, groceries to make pizza and M&M cookies, and specially written recipe cards just so Ava could read them. They discussed fractions and learned to read the words 'teaspoon' and 'tablespoon'.

I'm wondering if maybe Stacy's last name is Poppins.

According to Stacy, this is Ava making my 'cooking gameface'. Stacy and I cook dinner for our church one Wednesday night a month so I guess she would know.

Yummy

Food is so much more fun to eat when you help cook.

Ava and her Rich
(Rich is the youth minister at OWC - see sidebar for Bloggy decoding)

Delicious dessert

They wrapped up the evening with a game of hide-and-seek. Ava was incredibly sad to see us return from our date. She stomped and refused to come downstairs. It's so nice to know that she had as much fun as we did, maybe more. No guilt necessary.

***Random, I know***
Do you ever feel like you have Mom Crazies? They're kind of like Holly Golightly's Mean Reds. I still check on Ava at night to see if she's breathing. I check her fan and humidifier cord for frays nightly, can't be too careful with fire safety. I kiss her at least 78 times a day. Today I asked Josh how much time he thought we'd shave off of our 'get ready' time if I didn't have to kiss Ava the entire time she was sitting in my lap putting on shoes. And we have our own little Marco Polo where I shout, "Ava, I love you" if I can't find her and she absolutely has to reply if she is within earshot, which she almost always is. It's not an OCD kind of life-interrupting necessity. She seems to be accustomed to it. Recently I stumbled across this poem on a website and I was floored. Maybe you've read it before, but if not please read. If you've ever read a post on my blog and thought, "She is crazy. I can't believe she _______________," chances are this poem will explain my very sincere motives for every mothering choice I make.

Sometimes I may hug you a little too tight,
I may even check on you ten times a night,

Sometimes I may kiss you a little too much,
Cling to you, sing to you, tickle and such,

As you grow up you may notice me kissing your nose,
Touching your hair, feeling your toes,

I may cry when you walk, laugh when you talk,
Scream when you're late, coming home from your date,

I may very often pull you near
Because I don't want you to see my tears,
I never will want you to have my fears,
Because I need you to know I hold you so dear,

Cause you see, I'm not just your mother
A long time ago, I lost another.

Later this month will mark five years since we lost our first sweet baby. That loss isn't something I think about a lot, thankfully. There was a time I wasn't sure I'd ever be able to say that. Josh and I were in our first year of marriage and going through hell at church. Those of you who are on staff at a church know that it is actually possible to 'go through hell at church'. It was one of the lowest points of our marriage. I dreaded the baby's due date as it loomed on the calendar. A day sure to be filled with the heaviness of our empty arms. God had other plans for Memorial Day 2006. Early that Monday morning Ms. Ava James entered our life in the form of two blue lines on a stick. The. Very. Day. What could have been a day of grief turned out to be a fluttering of hope. And that is exactly what Ava continues to be in our lives. A light. A bright warmth. An absolute joy. I hope she'll forgive me my Mom Crazies as I continue to love her the only way I know how.

I can't end on such a sappy note. I have to share my booty from the Just Between Friends consignment sale. My dear friend, Abby, let me use her special pass to enter the sale this afternoon. The rest of the world has to wait until tomorrow.

Top Row
Gymboree sweater dress, Hannah Anderson baby cord dress, Gymboree sweater dress
Middle Row
Old Navy turtle neck, Lilly Pulitzer button sweater, Sprockets vest
Bottom Row
Children's Place skirt, Janie & Jack and Baby Gap outfits for Nolan, Baby Bjorn for Uncle B

How much did all of that cost me?
$68!!!

None of the clothes look like they've even been worn. My prize find is the Lilly Pulitzer button sweater - $6. A similar sweater on their website right now is marked $58.
Thank you thank you thank you Abby!

Sparkle!

I started a new blog. I know, I know I have a million of them. They're free and I like to write. If you'd like to read along from the very beginning click here: Do I Make You Sparkle?

Want to peek?

I've taken some video of various school activities I do with Ava. Some of you have emailed and asked specifics, some of you are grandparents who will love every second, and many of you will just want to skip this post altogether. Yes, Ava is in pajamas in every video. If the camera panned to Mommy you'd see that I am too...one of the many benefits of teaching your own kiddo at home.

How can you make Math fun?
Keep it in a puzzle box in the game cabinet and add colorful frog counters.

We've been working on some of these words for a few weeks. Others were introduced as recently as last Friday. She can read many other words, but we were up to 10 minutes already. The fun part is that when we use the foam letters she is able to spell all of these words too.

Part 1

Part 2

***Story time ***
When we're grocery shopping Ava wants to read the name tag of the person checking us out. (I always make a point to address the checker by name at some point during our transaction, it's just kind.) Today the checker's name was Fay. Ava read her name on the tag, along with the word Target written below her name. I asked Ava if she could think of a word that rhymes with Fay. She told me that 'day' rhymes with Fay. I asked her how to spell 'day' (not a word family we've worked on at all). She thought for a second and said, "D-A-Y". We went through and spelled: say, pay, way, and hay. I was blown away. She's really got it!

Here she is reading a few sentences:

I like Dad.

Mom is on the mat.

A goat is at the apple tree.

More than anything Ava loves to write. The curriculum wants us to focus on one letter at a time, ha! You try telling Ms. Overachiever to stick to one page at a time. We're breezing through the letters with Handwriting Without Tears. Her goal is to write a story "all by myselth" very soon. I don't know about you, but I can't wait to read it.

Defying Gravity

On Tuesday Ms. Ava James started reading!
She's been sounding out words for a while, but on Tuesday I watched the lightbulb over her head illuminate, it's orange with pink glitter by the way, for those of you who were wondering what it looks like. She read every word I put in front of her, and was especially thrilled when we were able to string them into sentences. For the record, the first sentence she ever read was: Dad is on the mat. To celebrate her happy, gravity defying, accomplishment we treated her to dinner anywhere she wanted.

McDonalds? Chick Fil A? Chucky Cheeze? Not this girl. Sushi.
When we explained our celebratory dinner to the waitress she returned with special butterfly-shaped rolls. Darling.

For Halloween this year Ava chose to be Elphaba from Wicked.

I needed a new costume shot for my new blog header (cute, huh?) so we braved her snarfly cold and went outside to take pictures. You'll have to excuse the snotty crust, puffy face, watery eyes if you click to enlarge any of the photos.

I just adore this little costume. I'm going to get her a long sleeved leotard to wear for trick-or-treating. Also, notice her silver slippers. In the original Oz book and in the show Wicked the coveted slippers aren't ruby, but silver. I love the Wicked Witch of the West in The Wizard of Oz, always have. As a little girl I knew there had to be some motive behind her tough exterior. When I saw the play, Wicked, I fell even more in love with her character. It all made sense. (Aside, I am not a fan of the book Wicked. At all. No good, in my humble opinion.) Anyway, when Ava decided to be Elphaba I instantly knew the shoes she had to wear. I explained to Josh that, with silver slippers to complete the costume, Ava wouldn't just be Elphaba. She'd be Dream Come True Elphaba. She'd have the shoes she'd always wanted. The circle would be complete. Josh mumbled something about no one 'getting it'. But I do. And someday Ava will too. What's the point of having kids if you can't make them as delusional as you are? Plus, the shoes were $10 at Target.

Preparing to jump

Toil and trouble?

Attempting to defy gravity

We bought cousin Nolan a Halloween outfit and Ava begged to try it on Sunkipper. Since we found out Aunt Sarah's due date (October 31) we've explained to Ava that Nolan will come out around Halloween. Every time the holiday is mentioned she says, "And baby Nolan will be here!" Doesn't she look like a girl who needs a cousin?

In culinary news, have you seen this? If you like dark chocolate and salt you need to run, not walk, and buy some of this decadent dessert. One square will satisfy your sweet, chocolate needs for not many calories at all. Simply divine.

'Glee'fully welcoming autumn

One of our favorite shows returned with a new season on Tuesday night.
Can you guess what it is?

Glee!
Sweet friend, Stacy, came over to watch with us. Our resident closet Glee fan snapped this photo for us. Said closet fan also purchases almost every song from iTunes each week, just saying.

On Friday Ava and headed to the Oklahoma Wildlife Expo at the Lazy E Arena in Guthrie.

Thanks to Mary, Benny and E for the invite.

Trying to decide if she wants to get her hands dirty experimenting with animal tracks in the sand.

The girls loved the rubber animal track stamp station.

Pressing the stamp

to create an opossum footprint.

We're not sure what kind of little animal scurried across Ms. E's face.

Learning about the Oklahoma birds

A local fish hatchery brought fish, turtles, lizards, and some mysterious eggs - the girls' favorite.

Watching the snakes
On the way home Ava expressed concern that the snakes might slither over and eat the eggs. I assured her that the tanks would keep the eggs safe.

Writing in the dirt with sticks

Ava is determined to have a pet squirrel. We have an arrangement: if she can catch one then she can keep it. So far we have no squirrel at home, but that doesn't stop Ava from collecting acorns for the future pet. She's been picking up acorns for years now, remember this story?

Mary's brother is a game warden so the girls enjoyed some VIP fishing lessons.

Reeling one in

This is as close as she cared to get to her catch.
Silly girl, although you'll notice that this mommy hid behind the camera for all worm and fish related activities.

We started our Saturday at Jump Zone celebrating G's 4th birthday.

Ava, N, and G, three of the sweetest Law Orphans you'll ever meet.

She stuck most every landing this way

Having a blast

This one's just for you Cam, how's her form?

Later on Saturday we picked up Baba and Rayeanne from the airport. Of course we headed straight to Sara Sara Cupcake.

Pictures in front of the famous cupcake wall

The Ava Cupcake Diet
If you get half of the icing on your face then the cupcake is actually low-fat.

It was lovely to catch up with Rayeanne and Baba.
Please come back soon and bring Katy with you.

On Sunday morning we woke up to the first real cool front of the season. Blogging and playing outside in jeans and long sleeves, wassail percolating, bison chili steaming - autumn weather, you are more than welcome here.

What are your favorite fall traditions?
Please comment and share how you and your family welcome cooler weather.