Do you miss us, Dan?

So it's day day 5 of 13 and more power to all you Mama's who make do without a husband frequently. But I stink at being alone.

This week Ava took crayon to wall and further cemented the fact in my mind that the structure and entertainment of preschool is just what she needs.



We have settled into a nice little evening routine, which is good as that's usually when Dan comes home and we need to fill the void. After dinner the kids have been happy to play outside for a good bit of time, then hit the bathtub, play a little more and then off to bed.



We went to "Meet your teacher" on Tuesday morning. My parents were nice enough to stay an extra hour and keep Luke so I could go with Ava unaccompanied.

Her teacher, Ms. Tamara, is super nice. Anyone who knows Ava knows she takes her time to warm up, but I think they'll get along just fine.

Here she is showing off her cute new backpack, which she loves. Unfortunately she has some sort of complex about looking at the camera and smiling.


I asked her again, "Please, Honey, smile and look!"




I tried a different tact with, "Ava, show me your eyes!" to which she obligingly did this,





Here she is in front of the school. The school/church is in the old part of town, with great big trees and an old-school playground. I like it a lot.



We went into her classroom and she was greeted warmly by her teacher who listed off all the fun things they would do that morning and Ava literally jumped up and down asking, "right now?"


After a hug and kiss, and "I love you" I was on my way. A very sweet and sour moment.

From all accounts, she had a really good day. In fact, the teacher told me as she put her in the car, that she wasn't really ready to come home yet.

That makes me pretty happy, because hopefully she'll just continue to look forward to coming back. I'm really proud of her and amazed at the growing up she's done over the past few months.

And also exciting are the miles I walked with my gal pal Val, after we dropped off our kids. Here's to our Tues/Thurs and hopefully Sat morning, exercise regime!

And for the memory-Ava has started referring to things she doesn't like as "sigusty" (disgusting)