Ten, April 2014

 Dear Ava,

In May 2013, I wrote a post about how I'd rather you play Minecraft and watch YT videos of others playing Minecraft, than watch the horrid tween sitcoms on allegedly major kid-friendly networks.  I ended up working for the platform where I published the post, and I remember I intended to move this blog over to that platform, and write there. 

But what happened instead was that I wrote a few times, and slowly the writing petered off.  Also I started writing novels. 

Recently you told me in an offhand pretending to be casual way that you like reading this, and seemed sentimental I didn't keep it up.

So here's my attempt to play catch up, aided by photos taken the year before you turned ten, a whole freaking decade old.

July 2013: you love water, you love your cousins, but you aren't particularly crazy about the central valley heat. 

Toes are more fun when they aren't all the same color.

Also in July, we took the train from the SF Bay Area to Los Angeles.

Little Rabbit and Fluffy Bun Bun came too.

We went to my dear friend's wedding, where mom and dad wore sombreros

and you wore a lovely dress and a big grin.

This may have been the age you got the task of matching your socks in the laundry, 

and instead you put the whole pile in your drawer and picked out socks at random.

I didn't care, as long as you were wearing socks.

Someone left a Scooby-Do sized mystery on our front porch.

We later found out it was our neighbor around the corner.

These are some kind of Minecraft portal thingy. 

When you read this you can let me know what they're actually called

and I might even correct it.

I wasn't kidding about the socks. It became your thing.

This was the year our sweet cat Magi got sick, and left her cat suit behind.

You loved purple, and didn't like pink, 

and tolerated just the edge of pink on these fancy new sneakers.

Somehow a rainbow ended up on your nose.  I think it washed off later.

Your best friend was "K"... who is still your good friend seven years later.

You won a couple goldfish at our friend's school carnival.

Their housing got upgraded pretty quickly, and I learned equally quickly

that goldfish muck up their water faster than other fish.

After that, we were done with fish.  Two cats and one dog were enough.

We made marshmallow Minecraft things. Creepers? Creeper snowmen? 

 ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

We went on a whale watching trip with your papa and cousins.

In October, we went to our family cabin in Tahoe and ice skated with "K".

It was fall, and the salmon were swimming upstream.

You did a science fair exhibit on blowing balloons from household chemicals 

mixed in a water bottle created gas. 

And played cards with some of the rabbits.

I think they let you win.

Inspired by Dinovember, I convinced some of your stuffies to steal your Halloween candy.

There was some play where you were a mouse, 

and I made a half-decent mouse costume.

We went sailing on the San Francisco Bay with some people Daddy knew.

We loved making cutout cookies, and then "painting" them with icing.

Your friend and you, hula hooping at Ocean Beach.

And always, skiing. 

I wrote about how you learned to play the recorder, and I tried to learn how to play soccer.

Then you turned 10. Happy birthday, my fantastic, precocious, lovable kid.

love, 

Mommy <3