The Grit in Action

One way that Ava shows frustration (aside from screaming, spitting, licking, hitting, etc...) is this thing that she calls a "Grit." When she gets very angry, she will put her hands up into fists and make the most awful looking face. She knows how bad we hate it, so it is a way for her to press our buttons. Sometimes she will just come up to me and say, "Mommy, can I give you a grit hug." That is a hug in which she does a grit at the same time. She knows that you want a hug, but wants to see if she can push buttons and get by with it. What a little devil! I hope she grows out of this stage soon!

(And this photo doesn't even do "The Grit" justice!

Visit from Grammy and Gramps - Part 2

These pictures are from some of the little crafts and activities we did during Grammy, Gramps, and Trayton's visit last weekend. Ava is all about crafts, so any suggestion of making something and she is totally on board. Trayton on the other hand was more interested in playing kitchen.

They made monkey masks, which Ava colored both of because Trayton was too busy. She was very particular about which was hers and which was Trayton's. Trayton's had more yellow. But once they were made, Trayton and Ava had a blast playing with them.

We made bats out of handprints and a head drawn by Bradley.

And then Trayton and Ava just played side by side on the couch. He played with Mr. Potato Head and Ava read him "stories" from a Barbie picture book. She really just made little things up, but it was so incredibly cute!

It was a great visit and I am so glad that my mom and dad got to come visit once more before the new baby, and that Ava got a chance to play with Trayton.

A Visit from Grammy, Gramps, and Trayton - Part 1

Ava was over the moon to find out last week that Grammy and Gramps were coming to spend the day Saturday with us. She talked about it all week and then on Friday we found out that Trayton was getting to come too and Ava was beside herself with glee. She kept asking all morning if they were here and when they finally did arrive, she was so excited! This was the first visit since August at Ava's birthday, so she was over the moon to get to see them all.

We enjoyed a nice lunch at Neil's BBQ and then bought Baby Boy a few things at a consignment shop in town. I was excited to get to take the kids to the Pumpkin Patch here in town (really just a church yard full of pumpkins). Needless to say, the two wreaked havoc there with Ava the ringleader. Between Ava throwing fits and touching every pumpkin, and Trayton pulling the stems off of a pumpkin, I was dying laughing even though they were awful. (Well, I say 'they' but it was really just Ava.)

After the pumpkin patch we played outside for a few minutes, but Trayton was more interested in going inside to play with Ava's kitchen. He loves that thing! Ava and I worked on some crafts and Trayton joined in a little bit. I will post those in the next post.

Here are some pictures from the pumpkin patch. I was disappointed that I didn't get a really good one of the two of them together.

When I took this picture, Ava said, "Will this make me crazy?" What?????