I stayed home with Ava this morning, as she’s presently under quarantine from her daycare for having had a fever yesterday.
We had a really nice time. The wonderfully paradoxical thing about this 24-hour-fever-free rule at the daycare is that infants rarely have fevers that last for more than a couple hours (if treated promptly with Tylenol or Motrin), so most of the time we end up spending with Ava on these vacations is fever free and lots of fun.
I was particularly eager to be home with Ava today, because it’s the day she got her new Richard Scarry book from Amazon. It really was like Christmas in July. We opened the box together, and she immediately sat down on the floor with it in her lap and started flipping pages. There is a lot of stuff to look at in these Scarry books! The one we got is particularly good, because it places names to just about every item under the sun (including the sun). There are numbers and colors and tools and machines and professions and kitchen items…it seems like it never ends.
Also in this package was a book I got for myself, since I was using a $25 gift certificate. It’s John Hodgman’s The Areas of My Expertise (see also). I sat next to Ava and started reading. Not halfway through the first page I was already laughing out loud. Ava looked up from her fancy new book and said, “What laughing at?” I explained that daddy had a new book, too, and that it was funny. That was all Ava needed to hear. She snatched the book out of my hands, sat back down on the floor, and opened the book on her lap. “Mines,” she said, patting the pages.
I love it that Ava enjoys laughing. She’s an amazing, vivacious little girl. Why, just yesterday, the pediatrician described her as “verbally precocious.” I could say the same about Leah. :) At least we know where Ava gets it.