Ava loves California...and it loves her back

Well, Ava went to California for the third time at the end of February. We were visiting some very important people - actually some of our favorites. We spent just over a week in California - five days with Danie and her gang (not sure if they're bloods or crips - it is southern LA county ) and three days with the McBride family (Trey, Melanie, Kira and Klaus, the cat).

Here you see Ava with the Henry family. She was delighted, interested and puzzled by them the whole visit. She got to do a ton of cool new things with the Henry's - only a few of which gave her mother a heart attack! Two of Ava's new favorite toys are Israel and Judah. While we were there, Ava's favorite word was 'Hi'. She would look over at one of the gang, say 'hi', and all of them would holler 'hi' back to her in a different language. Then they would all laugh. She definitely didn't understand what part of it was funny, but usually she laughed back at them. Also she had her first visit to a farmer's market and her first pickle. We went to Canter's deli - this famous L.A. deli - one Friday night. I ordered egg salad and Ava really liked it. Then she sneezed HUGE! I mean snot everywhere! So Judah starts to gag. Then, after we get that cleaned up, Ava starts to make a little bit of a mess with the egg salad. So, Judah's meal was completely ruined. Just a colorful moment in the lives of Ava and the Henry family.

This is Ava's friend Kira. She happens to be the daughter of mama's great friend Melanie. Kira is six months older than Ava. She is so beautiful and smiley. She is much taller than Ava and knows more about stuff than Ava. Everything went pretty well at the beginning of our visit. Ava thought Kira was pretty cool and really loved playing with her toys. Then, at some point, Ava began to not like Kira. She would pretend to get knocked down when Kira walked by. She would cry if Kira walked into the room. If Kira talked to mama or, oh heavens, sat on her lap to read a book, Ava would cry inconsolably. I am pretty sure that Ava was just practicing her drama queen routine because the Sunday we came home was the day of the Academy Awards. Also, though, on the last day of our visit, we did discover that they call Kira 'chief' at her daycare.

Then we flew home, safe and sound. Ava wasn't much into the whole 'sit in your carseat on the plane because your dada bought that seat for you and your slightly pregnant mother hauled that carseat across the country and through airport security' thing. She really preferred to stand in her carseat and look at the wonderful man behind us who patiently talked to her for 25 minutes! Thank you, Lord, for travelling men with wives and children at home. They understand what moms travelling with children need!