Sara Plays House

The folks over at i heart faces are going with a kissing theme this week in honor of Valentine’s Day.  Since one of my favorite photos of the girls just happens to involve Avery kissing her baby sister, I thought I would enter.

If you’ve been reading here for any length of time, you’ve seen this one.  But I think it’s always worth a repeat.  If for nothing else than to remind their mother that they DO love each other. Some days it can be easy to forget.

The day that Avery was born, Jim Bob and Holly (because they are so very cool) gifted her with a copy of They Might Be Giants–Here Come The ABCs.  Remember Birdhouse In Your Soul? If you don’t, then you probably weren’t alive in the Nineties and I’m sorry for that. Beautiful time, it was. Here Come The ABCs has been part of our playlist since the day we got it, but Avery has really, really gotten into it lately. This is not a problem for us. Mostly because we love it too. But also because it’s not Raffi. Or the Wiggles. The child will appreciate good music, and for this, WE WIN.

Did you know Avery likes to sing? Sort of? Here you go. This is her favorite song right this minute.

Avery and her daddy sound JUST LIKE They Might Be Giants. Here’s a comparison for you–

Uncanny.  Or something. Heavy on the something.

Anyway.  John and John, if you ever need a very young back-up singer, do give us a ring.  Avery is ready.  Need an audition?  We’ll see you March 6.  I know one little girl whose head might pop off from all the excitement of seeing “The ABC Men” in person. The other one will probably pitch a fit and have to be escorted out. That’s just how we roll.

Nana and Pop got Avery and Zoe a beautiful all-wood dollhouse for Christmas.

It took Zoe eighteen days before she started “redecorating”.  I think she showed remarkable restraint.

(It still functions perfectly as a house for assorted small cats, livestock, and dinosaurs.  The human dolls go neglected.  Such is life in this house.)

OK.  Here’s the situation.  The girls and I had just left the fish store.  While we were at the fish store, Zoe grabbed some little doo-dad that she wanted to bring home.  Since we were already buying $20 worth of fish; I told her no and carted her out of the store. Clearly, I am very, very mean.

So she cried.  All.  The.  Way.  Home.  Not just a little crying, but the kind of crying that makes little babies huff and puff and cough.  BRUTAL crying.  Guess who doesn’t like crying?  Other than me?  Avery.  So Avery tried to be the good big sister and help Zoe out.  It went a little something like this.

Avery:  Zoe, be more cheery!

Zoe:  WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHH!

Avery:  It’s OK, baby!  We have new fish!

Zoe:  WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHH!

Avery:  Zoe, listen to me.  Blah blah blah unicorns blah lollipops blah stegosaurus blah blah herbivore blah blah Isn’t that cool, Zoe?

Zoe:  (Practically growling) Don’t talk to me EVER!  WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!

Yes, that is really what she said.  I know this because I asked Avery to repeat it.  “Zoe told me to not talk to her ever.  Hmmph!”

I’m quite certain this can be blamed on Mike’s genes.  This kind of attitude personality trait could never have come from my side of the family.

What?  Why are you looking at me like that?  Here.  Look at this instead.

It has nothing to do with anything, but it is a very good reminder of why I haven’t sold Zoe to gypsies on any given day.  Yet.

Avery has been taking swimming lessons at the Y for the last four weeks.  We were planning for her to do dance this Spring, but then I mentioned swimming and she was all, “OMG MOMMY PLEASE I WANT TO SWIM OMGOMGOMG!  Did you know that fish swim?  I want to swim LIKE THAT.”  So we signed her up for swimming.  I’m sorry, Nana.  I really am!  There’s still hope for Zoe.  I’ll work on it.

Let me stop right here and remind you all that my child is not graceful.  She does not have an athletic bone in her body.  Gravity is not her friend.  As a matter of fact, gravity is almost always working against her.  She comes by it honestly though; I am the same way.  (Did you see me just use a semi-colon?  I know.)

I took swimming lessons once.  I was told to do “freestyle swimming”.  So I swam like a frog.  Because that’s what I liked.  And it was FREEstyle swimming, right?  After the instructor showed me how I was supposed to swim (for the record, a Front Crawl), I was totally over it.  Somehow I never had to go back.  My parents are awesome like that.

OK.  Back to Avery.  I wasn’t sure what to expect with swimming.  I thought that maybe, just maybe, being in the water would help her with that whole gravity thing.

I’m going to interject here that I love my daughter very, very much.  I am always there to pick her up after she falls.  Which is often.  Moving on.

She’s doing okay at swim class.  But I don’t believe she’s the next Dara Torres.  Avery has this problem in classes such as this.  The problem is that she gets SO EXCITED about it all that she can’t really listen to the instructor.  So she just kinda does her own thing.  She did this in ballet.  She did this in soccer.  I’m beginning to wonder if she’ll ever outgrow it.  So while all the other kids are laying flat and still to “float” with the teacher?  Avery is kicking as hard as she can.  Because hello?  She’s in the water!  Water is fun!  We show our excitement with lots and lots of movement!  Not lying still!  Lying still is BORING!

Tonight in class, one of their drills was to jump from the side of the pool into the instructor’s arms.  My ever-cautious child was the only one to sit down on the side and THEN thrust her little body into the pool.  When the teacher dunked her a few minutes later?  Avery was the only one who came up screaming.  Do you know why?  She was SO EXCITED about the dunking she had her mouth wide open.  Again, this is how we show our excitement!

But here’s the thing.  The whole time she’s in that pool, she’s smiling.  She’s bobbing up and down, laughing with the other kids, and having the best thirty minutes of her entire day.  She may never win a gold medal in, well, anything, but she does have fun.

As we were leaving the Y, she pointed at a large telephone tower across the street and exclaimed, “Mommy!  It’s the EIFFEL TOWER!  Is this France?”  And I was reminded that no matter what, she will always have that big beautiful brain to fall back on.

Really, she might totally fall on it.  Because the child can fall over just about anything.