we went to an imax movie today. this was ava's introduction to a movie (and carter's). and it successfully blew her mind, my mind, and carter's mind. it was a movie about the history of cowboys, and traced the evolution of cowboys from morocco to spain to mexico and north into western us and canada and south into argentina and chile. holy moly. it was so neat. i have only been to one imax movie before, and that was the remake of fantasia, and it was a silly thing to put on imax, since the whole point is the film/photography aspect of it. this really drove home the whole point of the medium.

as soon as the movie started, it was an arial view of horses herding cattle, and ava immediately grabbed her seat, leaned over to me and said "MOM! WHY ARE WE MOVING???" i tried to explain it, bu everytime she got that sensation, she asked me again. for his part, carter simply started yelling and waving at the horses. we got some dirty looks, but hey--she sat down in front of a toddler and a baby in a theater full of empty seats, she can go unbunch her knickers.

after that we went to "kiddie acres" which ava kept calling "kitty bakers" and she was so tired when we got there, it took her a few minutes to register that there were rides, and not only that, but ponies too. we went on the carosel once, the train once, the ferris wheel once, the airplanes once, the cars once, the boats once, and the ponies 5 times. she kept asking me for 3 tickets, then marched up to the keepers of the ponies and handed them her tickets and allowed herself to be lifted up and plunked down in a saddle. around and around and around she went. i am starting to think that this horse stuff might actually be genetic.

then we went home, did an art project, had spaghetti, and went to the pool where carter promptly regurgitated pasta into the recently chlorinated water. i got some dirty looks for that too, but what was i supposed to do? he spits up. still. he started to fuss, so we put him in the swings, but then he started falling asleep in them so we returned home. tomorrow, ava and i get to go to a production of rumplestilskin. this will be her first theater experience, other than live music. it is so neat to be able to start doing these sorts of things with her.

at the zoo, she was so interested in learning about the animals. it was such a different experience. she would stand next to me, while i kneeled down and explained the various animals to her, and she really listened--she is old enough now to get so much more about their biology/ecology/social structure and so on. you could see her listening and processing all of the information i was giving her. i mean, one still has to phrase it in very child friendly terms, but she is very interested in learning. for example, we talked about one monkey that was cracking a plastic ball against a rock, trying to get at the interior--and this led us into a discussion about learning, tools, obtaining food, thumbs, play, monkeys vs carter, carter vs monkeys (he generally came out on top), and plastic toys with suspected surprises inside.

and she is learning a lot about other kids, and getting to know them. we have been to a lot of places that have a bunch of kids her age, and this has been very good for her. she has learned how to stand up for herself, as well as to give up her doll for a moment. this was very hard for her. she is more than happy to let a child play with almost any toy, but her baby is a different story. i told her that she had to share if she brought it to the pool, but when the inevitable time came, she was less than thrilled. she did it, but she watched the little girl feeding her baby like a hawk. the little girl had a bottle that she gave the baby, and i thought for one moment that ava was going to tell her that her baby did not take bottles because she nursed, but she did not go there. she has been known to whip up her shirt and 'nurse' her baby, so it was a real possibility. instead she watched and considered, then fed the baby herself with this little girl's bottle, with a look on her face that was very similar to mine when carter decided to take a bottle--sort of along the line of "ahhhh...this is so much easier in so many ways...."