the stories ava makes up. incredible. complete montage from all inputs in her life.

she has a "sister" -- all of her stories happen to her sister. she also has a varying # of baby deer that she rescued from a river where they were drowning b/c there was a hurricane and their mother died (she has not seen bambi) and she was driving a boat and found them--all 42 of them. she had to accept that we just did not have 42 containers to feed them.

she took elements of the "grandpa and the panther" story from Little House in the Big Woods, mixed it with a bit of Oz, plus a little of this and a little of that, and pretty soon there was a story about a panther that wanted to eat her sister but then her sister in her infinite cleverness made friends with the panther and redirected its ire towards the wicked witch of the west who was so bad and the panther caught her and took a big bite out of the witch and suddenly spat it out and said "blech! she is made of salt! (remember--the witch melted, i told ava it was as if she were made of salt) I wanted meat!!"

all this from the back seat.

today, ava had a good day at school. when i got there, she dragged samantha over to me and said "this is samantha--she is my best friend. we hold hands"

then on the way to ballet sign up, she asked if samantha was going to sign up too, and i said that i did not know, and then lo and behold--samantha arrived. i was very pleased with the forces of the universe for that one.

carter has an OPINION. all day, every day. when denied, he gets mad. and today he responded with true fury at me when i told him he could not get down at the ballet place--he whiped around in my arms, grabed a fistful of hair (mine) and pulled it hard to the left, then the right, then the left again. fortunately i have some reserves, because that fistful came out in large measure. i was completely shocked. he is definitely 2.

today, ava had two moments with carter--he did something not so nice each time, though also not so deliberate. the first time, she responded by whacking him over the head with her hand. she was removed proptly from the playground, much to her dismay. the second time, she responded by walking away from him. i told her she got a gold star for that and gave her a big hug, lots of praise, lots of positive reinforcement, etc.

then: "mommy, what kind of a gold star?"

then: "actually, can i have gold money instead?"