Sisters and Best Friends

I love to watch Rose and Ava together.  They play dress-up together, ride bikes together, jump on the beds together, make messes together...even go potty together (gross...I know).  Their very favorite thing to play though, is 'Mommy and Baby.'  Usually Rose is the Mommy, but occasionally Ava gets to play the role.  The Mommy always tells the baby what to do, which sometimes includes going in 'timeout.'  It is definitely a reality check for me because they imitate the things I do!  But even in 'real life' senarios, they really are very caring with each other.  If one of them gets hurt, the other is often first to tend to them (unless they are the one who did the hurting:).  Even little Madeline, who can get upset when Paul or I leave the room, can be easily comforted by the smile of one of her big sisters.  I am so thankful that they have each other to play with and that they enjoy playing with each other. 

Rose is a wonderful big sister!  She shares well with Ava, teaches her new things, and always includes her when playing with friends.  The other day, Rose was invited to the neighbor's house to play while Ava was taking a nap.  When Ava woke up, the first thing she said was, "Where's Rose?"  I told her she was at Ally's house and of course Ava wanted to join them.  When it was finally time for Rose to come home, we went outside to wait for her.  As soon as Ava caught sight of her, she yelled, "Rose!" and ran towards her with her arms outstretched.  Rose did the same and when they met, they gave each other a big hug and Ava said, "I Love You, Rose!"  It was like Rose had been gone for days!  Ava is not going to know what to do with herself when Rose goes to preschool.  By then Madeline will be a year old, so I hope the two of them can develop a close relationship like Rose and Ava have.

I truly believe that siblings are one of the best gifts you can give your kids!  They will be the ones who are always there for you and love you no matter what...and in my case (and hopefully in my kids' case) they are the ones who help me get to Heaven.  I have been very blessed with so many best friends in my life...10 to be exact!  Thanks Mom and Dad for giving me so many 'gifts!'

Hugs!

Ava's Style

Although Ava likes to do a lot of the same things Rose does, she is definitely her own person.  In the last 6 months or so, so has developed her own sense of style...the way things have to be in order for her to think she looks good.  One of the things she LOVES to have on her clothes are pockets.  Everytime I get her dressed (even in pajamas), she will say, "I have pockets, Mom?"  Luckily she doesn't throw a fit if it doesn't have pockets, but if it does, she will continually walk around with her hands in her pockets.  She will even try to stuff things in them sometimes too, just because she can (like the baby bottle in the picture below...oh, and she picked out the boots to go with her dress).

Luckily all of our girls are pretty good about wearing hats...either to keep their hair or the sun out of their face.  But ever since Ava started wearing baseball caps, she insists on wearing them backwards.  We encourage her to wear them forward to keep the sun off her face, but she always turns them around.  One time when I put it on her the 'right' way, she started crying saying, "I not wook pwetty, Mom!"  I turned it backwards and she was happy as can be.

Ava's girliest fashion trend is that she loves purses!  She will find any bag with a handle on it and make it her purse.  She usually tries to stuff her blankie in the 'purse' and if that doesn't work, she will put anything she can find in it...sometimes she'll just start grabbing toys from the toy basket and stuff them in there.  Or she will stuff a baby doll or stuffed animal in there...luckily she hasn't tried stuffing Madeline in one of them yet :)

And the last fashion must for Ava is her 'sundasses.'  If the sun is shinning through the window in the van, she will start crying and saying, "The sun in my eyes!"  Then she will tell me she needs her 'sundasses.'  Unfortunately, she has managed to break or lose about every pair she's had, but that's why we get the $1 pairs at Target :)

Ava can definitely have her moments, but she sure can give us a good laugh.  Sweet middle child!

Hugs!