We had a lot fun dying eggs (although I was sick with a nasty cold and tired) and we collected plastic eggs that we had along with the dyed eggs for the hunt. I hid them and Ava had a blast searching for them. We did that over and over. Then Ava decided she wanted to hide eggs for me to search. I wasn't thinking about the fact that Ava has a spotty memory and she couldn't remember where she put them all. I found most of them except one hardboiled egg. After searching high and low, I was starting to worry about not finding it time before we left for the States and coming home two weeks later to a pungent odor of rotten egg in the apartment. I finally found it, nestled in a mound of Darcy's toys. Whew, close call.
I felt bad for Ava because every time I brought up Easter, she mentioned the beach. She remembered going to the beach last year for Easter and having an egg hunt there with a bunch of kids. Sorry, no beach this year, kiddo.
We arrived in the States and went straight to my dad's. We spent a day or two recovering from jet lag before Ava had her birthday party on Dad's back porch in the sunshine that Saturday before Easter. We blew up pink balloons and put up pink streamers. Ava and Jill made her birthday cake with fudge icing and purple sprinkles. She got a few presents, not too many and not too big so that they can fit in suitcases coming back home.
Ava enjoyed gallivanting around on my dad's property bordering a golf course. It made my heart ache a bit that she was getting so little time in nature living in a city. She saw the resident Canadian geese who have since laid eggs and are raising their goslings. She explored the little creek running along the property. She looked at flowers and picked up rocks and sticks.
Most of all, Ava ate up all the attention she got from her Pepaw and Jill.
I didn't get a picture of Ava in her Easter dress.
On Monday after Easter, we headed to our conference. Towards the end of the conference, my mom and stepdad got to come up and spend some time with her while we were cooped up in meetings. They did some shopping, playing at playgrounds, picnics, and Ava went to her very first movie ever called The Croods. Not only was it her first movie, it was her first 3-D movie. Ava had her own kid-sized 3-D glasses and my stepdad said that she would occasionally reach out to touch things coming out of the screen. I was just tickled thinking of how neat it must have been for her. I didn't get any pictures of Ava with my mom and stepdad. I know she also enjoyed all the one-on-one attention from my mom and stepdad.
My mom got Ava a ballet leotard and tutu. I've shown Russian ballet to Ava on YouTube and she was enthralled. Now that she has a leotard, she's been begging to take ballet classes.
The other day as we were walking home from preschool, she told me she wanted a baby brother. I said, "well, why don't you pray and ask God," thinking that she'd wait until we got home. Her response was immediate. She stopped dead in her tracks on the sidewalk, clasped her hands together, and looked up at the sky earnestly while a couple of pedestrians walked towards us. She said something along the lines of: "Dear God, I would like a baby brother. If you give me a baby brother, I will be so happy. I want a baby brother. Amen." I was surprised at her immediate response and her lack of self-consciousness at praying on the street. I asked her what she would like to name her brother and she said something that sounded like "Fike-ler." Don't ask me...I have no idea where that name came from.
Yesterday, we took Ava to the doctor for her 4-year check up. She is 43 inches tall (108cm), in the 97th percentile for height. She weighs 33 pounds, in the 29th percentile for weight. She also got her eye exam and passed with flying colors. No glasses for this one yet.
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