Ava Lately

Random tidbits:

1) Ava will eat black olives. Weird.

2) She can cross her eyes.

3) Tonight, she made up a song about swimming in a river of chocolate while we were eating dinner together.

4) Last night, she set the table for dinner without being prompted. Whoa, there.

5) When she tries to feed something to me and I refuse, she says, "Aw, c'mon, Mama!" in a cajoling way.

I went to a parent-teacher conference today. Ooooh, it sounds so important. I mean, seriously, I didn't know preschools have parent-teacher conferences! Maybe it's just this country. The meeting was fun since it was just a report on how Ava was doing and she's doing splendid.

• They said for a 2-year-old to be surrounded by friends and teachers who do not speak her language all day long, Ava is remarkably happy and self-confident. She has a best friend named Ada. Isn't that sweet?
• She likes to look in the mirror and make faces at herself. That's nothing new because she does that at home, too. She will fake cry at herself. 
• She doesn't withdraw into herself if she becomes angry and sad. She articulates her feelings and is wide open. Last Friday, she bit a kid. Whoops. I think that was pretty obvious she was angry. 
• Ava is very active, doesn't sit still for long, and moves on from activities quicker than most. They attribute this to her not understanding the language fully yet because they will give out series of commands and she may not understand half of them. 
• She can feed herself and take off and put on her shoes. I don't know why they wanted to report that to me but she has been feeding herself since forever and can put on/take off her shoes since....forever. She still gets her shoes on the wrong feet sometimes but will switch if I point it out.
• They gave me a list of Turkish words that she understands (while translating them to me verbally in English) which is about 10 words. She says the Turkish word for "run" the same way I say "run" when I am trying to get her to run, "Runrunrunrunrunrun!" really fast. She calls me "anne" which means mother, sometimes. 
• She apparently loves this little plastic house and will gather all the toys, crawl in the house, and hoard them. I might have a hoarder on my hands.
• When it's time to nap, she wants her teacher there and usually goes to sleep with her cat (no surprise) and a book or a small toy (no surprise either). Did you read the last post about her taking stuff to bed with her? 
• Her beloved teacher and I formed a wicked, no-fail conspiracy to get Ava potty-trained in January when all our traveling is over. She won't know what hit her. Muh-hahahaha.

Speaking of potty-training, we tried the whole "big kids wear underwear and babies wear diapers" bit with her over the weekend. It doesn't work. She. doesn't. care. She doesn't mind being the baby and wearing diapers. I did find something that might work - Ava loves being the princess and we tell her that princesses don't wear diapers. That definitely makes her stop in her tracks and consider it a moment. Yes, a secret weapon. I'm gonna get you, Ava.