We’re driving up to Decorah this afternoon for a little getaway at Leah’s parents’ house. Rachel and Kevin will also be in town, as Rachel is throwing a big birthday bash for a good friend. Ava’s already looking forward to swimming, the coffee shop, making cookies with G.G., and looking at all the animals down at the county fair.
Leah and I often think that Ava has a good memory, because out of the blue she’ll come up with very clear recollections of things that happened over a year ago. As I think about it now, it’s not such a great trick. If you think of the process of recalling a memory as being like running back through a forest to retrieve a dropped watch, well, Ava’s forest is neither particularly deep nor well-populated. I would have a much more difficult time running back through my 37 years of woods to grab a memory of my one-year-old self (I doubt I could do it at all, actually). We’ll see how much Ava remembers when she’s, say, 5.
And speaking of five, Ava can now reliably count to five, in order, in Spanish. She has a little trouble sometimes with cuatro, but she actually does a pretty admirable job of reeling off the numbers. We’re looking forward to showing Aunt Rachel.
Oh, back to the memory thing. So last year (it couldn’t have been two years ago?) at the fair in Decorah, Ava was frightened by a particularly loud sheep. Apparently it bleated right in her face. She remembers that, and I have no doubt that episode will be on her mind as we stroll the livestock barns this weekend. Here’s hoping the sheep are quieter this year, at least while Ava’s there.