Saturday, September 22, 2012

A field trip.....

All week i had been playing up "field trip day" to Ava. I talked about the museum, the world's largest ipad, an outdoor lunch, and a walk downtown. When "field trip day" finally came, i woke up early....i washed my hair...and i put on makeup. The day was beautiful, and i just knew that my first home school field trip was going to play out like some sort of mommy daughter dream day......truth is, it did end up being a dream day with my daughters...but, if you had told me that half way in, i am afraid i would not have believed you.

I should have been more tuned into Ava. We've had some changes lately, and change, even when good for the big picture, can be hard for the five year old picture.

Ava was unusually melancholy, and would not even turn for a smile......


And as the universe would have it. Today of all days. The world's largest ipad was turned off.....and the girls were more interested in the glass walls of the hallway than the exhibits.....so, we played in the hall.....
 Paloma really loved these walls......

So after our time spent in the hall, we found a seating area and the girls entertained themselves climbing on tables....yes, i let my baby climb on the tables....it's good for her..and no one seemed to care....
 Sweet Paloma still crawling like a hermit crab.........and looking quite perfectly chunky i might add...


I had thought at this point that the day was looking up...but no. Ava made a bad decision and lost the ice cream part of our out door lunch. This was so hard for me to take away from her...i don't know if i made the right decision....i was trying to be consistent...and ugh...i don't know...i was just trying.....and it took every ounce of patience i could muster to get out of that museum and to start digging through my mental bag of parenting tricks.

We started our day over, right there down town....we said, "good morning!" and "Oh look we've magically appeared downtown!" but..... when a game of "punch bug" went sour all i could do was laugh.....Ava of course was not amused........

Nothing was going her way.....

It was at this moment, seeing her there, that it hit me. I had planed our field trip, i had picked where we would eat lunch..i had all of these expectations for the day, and Ava was just along for the ride. Ava hadn't really had any say so, what so ever in our day........and then when she rebelled against not having any power, i took her ice cream away........well, because i couldn't go back on my word and give her ice cream, i gave her something better....i gave her power. I gave her the camera and told her that i would follow her lead. I told her to take me to what ever store that she wanted, and i told her to find things that made her happy, and to just take pictures.........this was not a bag of tricks kind of day....this was an Ava needs her mommy kind of day.

For the first time that day Ava really smiled.....And I didn't tell her what to take pictures of...... And i didn't look at her shots after she had snapped them, i just let myself follow her lead....a lead that led us to one of her favorite stores....a lead that led us to such a wonderful time looking at all of the beautiful trinkets and pretty sparkly things, that i forgot that we were having a rough day......in fact when she handed me back the camera, i didn't even think to look at her pictures....it wasn't until i got home and got both of the girls into bed that i could really look at them...........

Ava's pictures took my breath away.....

Ava knows beauty........
And Ava knows detail....


This one is my personal favorite.....I love that Ava found so much beauty in these glass bottles......

And of course Ava could not leave out her "Palomita" as she calls her...


My beautiful girl...as seen by my other beautiful girl...


Ava...my sweet luminous Ava.....thank you for a dream day with my beautiful daughters...even if we didn't have ice cream or get to play on the world's largest ipad....our "field trip day" was perfect....

2 comments:

  1. Ava's pictures are AMAZING!! She has some talent! Good job figuring out what was going on Momma! And I love Paloma's chubs :)

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