Saturday, June 25, 2016

Gym Monkeys

Miles and Avika each did a session of gymnastics this spring.  Avika especially loves it, and it's been great for her gross motor control.  We'll have fun watching Olympic gymnastics this summer.







They get stamps on their hands after every class if they are good listeners.  Avika calls them her tattoos. She is very proud of them!

Avika at 4


Our baby is four and growing up way too fast!  I actually tried to "interview" her for this 4 year old post, but her vocabulary needs to improve a bit more.  I don't doubt that a year from now she will be able to answer all these questions.  She is still a very expressive little girl, so I have no trouble knowing what she likes and all her favorites.
 Avika Ruby Priya
At four years old Avika loves to play!  Swinging, jumping on the trampoline, and riding her bike or scooter are favorites.  Inside she loves to color with Delia and Miles, read books (Snuggle Puppy is a favorite), sing into her microphone (Happy Birthday is her favorite song.  "Happy you you a you!" is the Avika version), twirl and dance (Bong Family Dance), and play anything the boys let her play with in their room.  She is becoming more picky with her eating, mostly just trying to assert herself whenever possible.  She still eats most things , though, and chocolate is probably her favorite food.  She's very slowly learning colors, yellow is really the only one she can identify consistently, so I'll say yellow is her favorite!  She loves animals, especially our cat, Maeve, but hathis (elephants) are her most favorite.  She can play by herself, but would much rather be playing with her siblings or Pop, they are her favorite playmates by far.  She is slow to warm up to most adults, but she is thrilled to play with friends from school, gymnastics, church, and the neighborhood.  There are always lots of hugs and hi-fi (high fives.)  She adores her grandparents, her teachers, her aunts and uncles, and her therapists.  She loves swimming and gymnastics.

As for her personality, there's a lot of it!  She is very charming, expressive, energetic, sweet, and funny.  She has definitely developed strong feelings about... everything and works hard to communicate them.  When she's in the right mood, she is very hard working.  She can be very determined and persevering.  One of her most common phrases is, "I do it!"  There are a lot of challenging days (mainly for me) when we try to balance out her need to assert herself and how life works in our family, and I'm always trying to figure out if her moods are trauma related?  Just Avika? Just being four? Because she's the youngest?  I'm sure that I am stumbling a LOT on the parenting front, but Avika and I are loving each other and growing up every day.  She is truly delightful and I can't believe I get to be her momma.  It is the best gift.




Avika turns 4!

We celebrated Avika's fourth birthday back in April.
We had a Jungle Book party!  We all went to see the new Jungle Book movie right after her birthday, too.  It was so good.


Indian food for dinner of course.  Chicken Tiki Masala, cinnamon rice, naan, carrot salad.  I was surprised at how well everything turned out. 

Pinata time in the backyard.

 Chai spiced cake with her favorite animal on top- a hathi (elephant)!!